Serenity

Seventeen

A couple days had passed and both Alaina and Malik had been acting weird.

Malik hadn't been talking to me at all. I guess he was still upset over our conversation. I tried to speak to him in class and when passing by him in the hallway, but the most I would get is a head nod.

I thought about Alaina and what she'd said about him going through things. I started to feel bad.

Maybe all he needed was a friend, and I had turned him down without even giving it a second thought.

I don't know what had Alaina acting weird, but she was avoiding me too. I wondered if Malik had said something to her. Maybe she was mad at me about something.

On my way to lunch, I spotted Malik sitting alone in the outside eating area. I decided this was the time to get answers.

"Hey," I said sitting down next to him.

"Hey," he said dryly.

I knew he was mad because he didn't say, "Wassup witchu shorty?" like how he normally greeted me.

"Can we talk?" I asked.

"Ain't nothing to talk about," he said without even looking at me.

"Well I think there is. What's the problem?"

"Ain't no problem. Alaina wanted me to stay away from you so bad, so that's what I'm doing."

"I'm a big girl. If I wanted you to stay away from me, I could make that decision on my own."

"Well looked like the decision was already made when you started to judge me based off whatever Alaina told you."

"You're right, Malik. But I'm here to apologize for that."

"You can save yo apology. If that's how you wanna move, then go ahead. I ain't gon' stop you."

"Don't be like that," I pleaded with him. "How about we just start over from the beginning."

I turned so that my whole body was facing him.

"Hi, I'm Diamanté," I said sticking my hand out for him to shake.

"Hi, Diamanté. You're in my seat."

I looked up to see the girl who I had discovered was Courtney.

"Is there a problem here?" she asked.

"Nah. Diamanté was just leaving," Malik said sternly.

***

"Alaina!" I yelled as I rushed across the parking lot to her car.

The final bell for school had rang and I was more than ready to go home. It seemed like this day just lasted forever.

"Hey," she said, once I approached her car almost out of breath.

"Hey," I said. "I haven't talked to you that much these last couple days. Is everything okay?"

"Yea. Everything is fine. Why?"

"Well you and Malik have been acting kind of weird with me. Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened," she quickly said. "Why would you think that?" She looked at me with her eyes squinted and used her hand as a visor trying to block out the bright sun.

"Because y'all have been acting weird like I said. He completely dissed me in front of that Courtney girl at lunch. A few days ago, he was saying that he wanted to be my boyfriend, and today he acted like he didn't even know me."

Alaina gave me a look like 'I told you so.'

"I know, I should've listened to you You don't even have to say it," I sighed.

"I wasn't going to say it," Alaina replied.

"I decided that I won't be making any more comments to you about Malik. I'm allowing you to make your own opinion about him without my influence."

"Well it's too late for that, because you were right. It's just.. I felt so bad for him at first, and now it's like really dude? I don't even feel bad anymore. I'm always trying to give people the benefit of the doubt, but they always show me why I shouldn't have."

"That's just a part of life's lessons. I can tell you're the type of person who leads with the heart and not the mind. Often times that leads to disappointments."

She was right about that.

"I know, I know. I just don't know how to not lead with my emotions. I feel literally everything. When you told me Malik had some rough things going on, I instantly wanted to be a friend to him. I wanted to help him."

"Generally speaking, you can't try to heal everyone. Not all people will accept or appreciate that. It could end up leaving you drained in the end."

Alaina was speaking some real facts, and I'd heard this numerous times from many people, but it was just so hard to accept.

I had a healing aura and spirit and I always attracted people who were damaged and hurt. I realized that's maybe why Malik had been so drawn to me. It just sucked not knowing if I'd be able to help him.