Wounded: Our Journey Home

Wounded- Chapter Thirty Seven

        She nodded at me and pulled a couple of boxes and crates towards her.

       "I just need a minute alone right now, to think. You go ahead and write."

       "You sure?"

       "I'll be fine," She smiled in reassurance, but I could see that it was fake. "I'll be...fine."

       With hesitating steps, I left the room.

-*-

Jafar:

          It was just before practice as I marched down the halls, my anger rising. The place that I'm headed to keeps replaying in my mind as I think of all the reasons wrong with my brother.

          Detention.

         He's in detention for fighting, being disrespectful, not to mention late to class six times this week. And he owes this light punishment the principal, Mrs. Meyers, gave him a thank you. He could've been expelled if she hadn't understood his reasons for lashing out. That, and I vouched for him. But that's an outsiders point of view. Me of all people know what it feels like to be in Wasim's position, he just chooses to handle it differently. I'm not upset with him for being upset. I just don't like the way he's lashing out.

         At least he's keeping his grades up, I thought. If all else fails, I know how much he wants to leave this town.

        Once I finally made it to the right door, I opened it to reveal over a dozen students in here. Some were sleep, others were talking, and another handful just sat there quietly. None of them have tattoos or planning to smoke pot like some would think. They are just teenagers who got detention. Period.

         "Hey, coach," The detention monitor, Lyle, nodded up at me from where he sat on his phone. "What brings you to this neck of the woods?"

        "I need to speak to one of the inmates," I stated, eyeing Wasim who wouldn't even look up at me. "It's urgent."

       "By all means," He agreed, finally looking up from his phone to motion around the kids with his hand. "Take your pick."

      "Wasim," I called, and everybody stopped talking to stare at us. "Come here."

      "Why?"

     "Get up," I snapped and he rolled his eyes before standing up to follow me, a groan leaving his mouth.

       "Hey, coach," I turned back around to see the center of attention for talking waving at me, a smirk on his face. "I won't be able to make practice today."

      I sighed and turned back to Lyle. "I'll be back in a second."

     
      "Tell me why you pulled me out of the best class I've had all year."

      I shook my head in frustration and leaned up against the wall. "What's gotten into you, Wasim? Why are you acting like this?"

       "Oh, so now you care. It's a little late for that."

      I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean?"