Our Little Secret

Kid's Tyme

My ma cussing my dad out in Swahili is the first thing I hear when I wake up. My dad says something back to her but it's too low for me to hear. Way to start my Monday.

I drag myself outta bed and start getting ready. I barely step outta my bathroom when Sarinna pokes he these into my room.

"I'm taking you to school today so hurry up." She closes the door behind her.

It's awkward and quiet in the car as Sarinna drives. I'm aboutta turn the radio on when she stops me. "You know... Ma and Dad have been fighting a lot lately."

I scoff and look out the window at the rain. "Kinda hard NOT to tell." She format say anything so I ask the question I've been thinking about. "You think they'll divorce?"

She pulls up next to the entrance of the school. "I know they will." Oh.

"Bye," I mumble. I let myself outta her car and she drives off.

I find Aiden eating a sandwich at his locker. I sit next to him on the floor and rest my head on his shoulder. He offers me his sandwich. "You look like you could use some Nutella in your system."

I take it, gratefully. "Thank you." I take a bite and let the sweetness fill my mouth.

"Wanna talk about it?" He puts and arm around my shoulders. I shake my head. "That's coo."

Xavier comes walking down the hall with Michael and Marissa and goes straight to his locker. He gets out his book and bangs his locker closed. Aiden and I get off the floor.

"Hey Xavier," I say, tryna get his attention.

"Hi." He doesn't even look at me. "I'mma go to class."

"Want me to walk you?" I ask, hoping he'll understand what I REALLY mean.

"I'm straight." He stalks off to class.

Aiden and I turn to Mike and Rissa for an explanation. They shrug at us. "He was acting all spacey and weird on the way here," Marissa goes. I look in the direction Xavier just walked off in.

"Did y'all ask what was wrong?" Aiden questions.

"Yeah," Mike answers. "He said he was fine. And I'm not tryna push it so..." he trails off. We all stand there wondering what's wrong with Xav when the bell rings for the start of school and we have to go to our own classes.

+++++++

When I get to the lunch table, only Xavier is there. I guess the others haven't arrived yet. I sit next to him where Mike usually sits and stare at him until he looks up from his phone. "Wassup?" he nods at me and fakes a smile.

"You won't believe what happened." I say in hopes of distracting him from whatever's bothering him.

"What?" He asks. So I launch into telling him about my day. I notice he's not really listen and is just nodding every few seconds so I change the story up.

"So I took pregnancy test and I'm having Cyrus' baby."

"That's awesome." He keeps messing around on his phone.

"You're not even listening to me. " I take the phone outta his hand, forcing him to look at me. "Talk to me."

"About what?" He frowns at me.

"Something's wrong. Tell me what's wrong."

He takes the phone back. "Nothing is wrong."