could y'all please vote and comment on this book, damn i need to feed my man and kids.
SEASON ONE, EPISODE FOURTEEN:
SIGN OF THE TIMES
MEKHI
School had started back today. It was the new year, and honestly I wanted to be at home more than anything. I hadn't talked to Saida since we broke up the day after the party. When we did break up, she made sure to make it known that she hated me.
I didn't try texting her after that. She would probably lash out since she claimed to hate me so much.
It was around the time Mrs. Frisch's class had started—the one class I had with Saida. The one class that was once my favorite part of the day. Holding my book in my hand, I walked into the familiar classroom, seeing Saida and Mrs. Frisch taking down the holiday decorations and replacing them with Valentine's day decor.
It was around five minutes before class started, but since we had seven minutes to wander around before class, I came in here just to sit alone in my thoughts. I wasn't going to be able to do that now.
Saida hadn't noticed my presence, so I began to think that maybe I could turn around and just walk around to nearby classrooms while I waited for people to start piling into their classes.
However, I couldn't do that since Mrs. Frisch turned to look my way. "Oh my! Hi, Mekhi!"
I could see Saida slightly freeze when she heard that, but she kept her focus on switching out the snowman and holiday decorations for hearts and Cupid instead.
Not even a glimpse? Sheesh.
Maybe she did hate me, after all.
"Saida, your boyfriend is here!" Mrs. Frisch emphasizes 'boyfriend'—she wanted me and Saida to be together more than anything.
Once she found out about the breakup she would probably be more hurt than either one of us.
"Not my boyfriend," Saida mutters, slamming the stapler into the wall before letting out a insanely painful scream. "What the—shit!"
The stapler falls to the ground as she hops down from the chair she was standing on, sucking on her finger that had blood dripping from it.
Eyes widening, I walk over to her and grab her hand from her mouth. "You need to go to the nurse."
"Clearly." She shoves me off of her, using her other hand to grab her book-bag and swing it over her shoulder. "I can handle it myself."
"I never said you couldn't."
"Jesus! Mekhi, go with her. Class is about to start and I need to clean up this blood before they start to think I did something to one of you!" Mrs. Frisch announces. She was a very squeamish person, which is something I've learned about her over time.
•••
"I said I could handle it myself." Saida rants as the nurse finished wrapping up her finger. We had been in the nurses office about ten minutes, and I wasn't leaving Saida until I knew she was fine.
I didn't understand why she was so upset. What did I do? I mean, she cheated on me. I should be mad.
"I never said that you couldn't."
"You're acting like it." She retorts as the nurse reaches for the phone.
"Do you want me to call your mother or your father to inform them about the injury?" Nurse Bailey asks, glancing at the paper in front of her, then the phone, then Saida.
"Neither. I don't live with them currently, I live with Zion Baker and her family..if you want to inform anyone, could you inform her mother?"
"I sure can, I just need to go talk to the front desk and Zion and then I can do that for ya. I'll be right back, sit tight." She smiles, getting up to leave out of the small office.
That just leaves me and Saida.
Alone.
Gathering the right things to say, I take a seat in the nurse's spinning chair and look at Saida. "I just—I can't understand for the life of me why you're the one upset at this whole thing. You're acting like I did something to you, you cheated on me, in case you forgot,"
"I didn't forget. I can't forget. Every time I see you or Cameron I am constantly reminded of it. Why do you think I don't want to be around you, Mekhi? It's because I don't want to be reminded of a mistake I made every time we lock eyes."
"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty or like a bad person but at the end of the day we aren't together because you couldn't control what you did. I guess the attention from me wasn't enough so you had to get it from somebody else, right?"
I didn't even think about the words that were coming out of my mouth. I just let them go. It was like my mouth was a never-ending faucet and the words were running water.
"Now I'm an attention seeker?"
"It's either that or a slut, so I don't know. Pick your poison, you've already been called both by your parents at least now we both know it's true."
It was in that moment that I realized what I said.
It was then that I realized maybe I should've been monitoring my words more. I should've thought more about what I was saying before I let the words leave my mouth.
The look on her face showed it all, the complete shock, the way her eyes suddenly looked full of sadness. I knew right there that I messed up.
"I'm a slut because I let a boy kiss me? Do you understand how idiotic you sound?" She asks, tears very visible in her eyes.
Shrugging my shoulders, I choose not to respond. What was there to say?
"When I said I hated you that clearly wasn't enough. You're dead to me." She spoke harshly. "You know how bad it hurt me when my mother would slut-shame me because of what I wore or because I hung out with you. Despite all of that, you decide to call me that even while knowing how bad it hurt me?"
No response.
"And then you're just sitting here stuck on stupid. You can leave. I don't want you sitting in my face pretending like you care about me when you don't, and you clearly never have." I watch as she wipes her eyes, mascara staining her cheek.
I nod my head and stand up, leaving out of the nurses office, seeing Nurse Bailey walking back. "Are you leaving? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
She smiles and goes into her office. I pretend to walk off but stand near the door, hearing the faint cries coming from Saida. "Can you get in contact with the Baker's? I need to go home.."
"Of course! Everything alright?"
"I just want to be alone.."
Frowning, I begin to actually walk back to class. I admit, I shouldn't have said what I said to her.
•••
VENUS
So far, my first day back at school was going pretty smooth. I wasn't talking to much of anybody. I talked to Marquise and RJ here and there, Salome couldn't stand to look at me. Hadiya looked like she wanted to slap me whenever we would pass each other.
I'm that girl, though. I understand why she's upset!
I was on academic probation until next school year and if they caught me doing any and I mean anything that they thought was with a negative intention, I would be permanently expelled.
It was lunch now. My lunch seemed like it would end up pretty boring. When you get temporarily expelled for sending around what would be considered as child-porn of your best friend, you tend to lose friends.
I used to sit with Salome only, and we would make the most of it. Every single day. It was hard getting used to sitting alone.
I looked around the cafeteria for her. I knew she came today, I had seen her so many times today. She looked so pretty. She had six straight backs that were put into a bun in the back of her head with a heart design on the side. Her outfit today also made her look good. She had on a pink Essentials hoodie, black leggings, and pink UGG neumel boots.
It was simple, but the simplest stuff on her looked like it was straight out of a magazine.
I began to walk over to a table in the corner that wasn't occupied, but I stopped when I noticed Marquise waving me over to them.
At their table, it was him, RJ, Hadiya, Salome, and Trey, one of their friends. I hesitated walking over there, but anything would be better than eating alone.
I also caught a glimpse of another table which seated Aniyah, Myra, Joie, and Taliah. I had once considered them to be my friends.
Clearing my throat, I made my way over to the table with RJ and the rest of them, sitting down in an empty space between him and Trey. "Hey!"
Hadiya looked up at me before looking back down at her notebook that she was writing in. "Y'all, I'm doing this thing for my psychology class. How many lost brain cells does it take for someone to want to willingly be a side bitch?"
"Hadiya." Salome placed her sandwich back on her tray. "Come on."
"No, no. I want to know. Because clearly there's no self respect that can be found, right? I mean, knowing someone is in a relationship and still butting in and trying to get involved?"
"You're annoying as shit, that's why she cheated on you in the first place. You're constantly worried about another person, worry about not getting cheated on. Like, I don't know." I shrug.
Pushing her notebook to the side, Hadiya stood to her feet. "So what? You wanna fight?"
"On the dead niggas, she gone get you real good in the face." RJ mocked from the side of me, holding his pinky in the air. This made Marquise and Trey start to laugh.
Down the way girls, you will always be famous.
"Shut up." I look at him before looking back at Hadiya. "I'm not fighting you."
"Because you're scared, exactly."
I'm pussy??
"I will literally get expelled. We can fight later though, wanna go to a park? As long as I'm not near the school I'm fine." I shrug.
"We can fight outside Zelma George."
"Parks ain't no good anymore?" I squint. Last place I wanted to fight was a roller rink, she wasn't about to get me with a skate!
"Where you wanna fight at?"
"I'on know," I shrugged. "I don't fight a lot. Whatever park you wanna go to is cool, I'll be there regardless."
To be honest, this is all funny to me. She wants to fight, we will, and win, lose or draw...I'm still going to mess with Salome.
"Kerruish?"
"How you get Kerruish from Zelma George when they're nowhere near each other?"
"It's like fifteen minutes, we gone fight or what?"
Nodding, I bit into my mozzarella stick. "Yup."
"This is all unnecessary." Salome spoke.
"That's your bitter ass girlfriend. I don't care."
•••
"I'ma beat her ass so fucking good! On the dead niggas I'ma kick her face in real good!"
"Mind you," I looked up at my cousins who were in the front seat driving. "She's not even from down the way. She grew up in Alabama and she stays in Brecksville with her cousin."
"Get off of that girl live. Matter fact," My cousin Anissa turned around. "Where is she? She look like she at home?"
"If she stay in Brecksville she need to be at the park already, the fuck." Milo scrunched his face up in the drivers seat, I could see through the mirror.
"She's in a car, I don't know where they're at though. She got fifteen minutes, that's how long I'm waiting."
"Let her know." Anissa turns back in her seat. "Because if she don't come by then she need to send us some gas money because this is crazy."
ovo.venus You gone need to be on time or we gone need that gas money bookie!
treyfromutww ^ da gas money is crazy 😹
moretomorgannn_ Can u PLEASE beat Venus ass? She deserves it after what she did to Salome
ovo.venus ^ Morgan your boyfriend literally said he wanted to eat my ass on your birthday and was telling me how all your guests looked better than you did at your own dinner so now what?
Eating the girls up faithfully, as I should!
"You think fucking with peoples relationships is cute when it's not. You need to get it together." Hadiya spoke as she tightened her scarf around her head, pulling her hoodie over and tightening it.
I was barely paying attention to what she was saying, I was focused on her. She didn't tie the scarf very tight, plus it was silk so it would be easy to come off. I just needed to find a way to get the hoodie off of her head first, then the scarf, then rip those tracks out of her head.
I analyzed a lot, especially when it came to rare moments like these.
"You're still on her live?" Milo peeked through the mirror. "You seem bothered."
"I'm literally about to fight this girl, if I want to analyze her moves then let me. Is it bothering y'all?" I shoot back with an attitude.
"You about to be let out of the car because I'm hating this shitty ass attitude."
Ignoring her, I went back to doing what I did best. Trolling on the internet.
ovo.venus I know you mad cus they smoked your man, left him on the curb!! #QuanPackkk
That was a reference to her cousin that she announced died during the break. You see what happens when you speak on me?
The gods don't play about Venus!
"Ohhh, bitch. I'ma beat the fuck outta you for real now!"
ovo.venus That wasn't the plan already? Damn baby get it together 😂😂 but hey? Do it 4 Quan!!
•••
Checking Milo's phone, I sighed. We had been out here at the park for the longest and I was getting cold. There was no snow, but it was getting late so it was starting to feel a lot colder.
Plus, it was supposed to snow later tonight, so she needed to hurry because the weather people be lying sometimes and it starts earlier.
"Bro, in a minute we leaving." I announced. It was closing in on ten minutes that we had been waiting.
Like it was on cue, a white Camaro had pulled up to the park, blasting PGF Nuk's song Waddup. This honestly had to be some of the most loser activity ever, because who are you scaring by playing a mediocre ass song?
Once the car shut off and the music followed, the door opened and Hadiya hopped out looking like Damian in that one Mean Girls scene.
I hopped off of the front of the car and stood there, waiting on her to run up on me. I wasn't pressed, so I knew she was going to do it.
I was correct.
She took off and began running up on me, and when she got close enough to hit me I ducked before tackling her to the ground.
Hovering above her, I started swinging. I caught her in the face for the most part, cocking my fist back to hit her in the eye before she covered her face.
Both my father and Malcolm taught me how to fight, and they both taught me something valuable. When they block their face, go straight for their head and body.
Common sense? Maybe. Some people would still try to go for their face, though.
I started knocking her upside the head as hard as I could, a part of me wanted her to have a seizure. Her head was hard as hell, though.
I stood up and began backing up. I watched as she removed her arms from her face before I kicked her directly in her face. She had a nose ring, so I made sure to kick that also.
"You done?" Anissa asks, and I quickly shake my head.
"No. I'm just giving her time to stand up so that I can beat her ass for real."
Seconds later Hadiya stood up to her feet and threw up her guard. I swung to hit her in her throat before immediately throwing a punch and catching her in the face.
One thing I hated was pulling hair, but I couldn't stand Hadiya so I was going to excuse it.
She was swinging back, but they weren't enough to throw me off. I grabbed ahold of her hoodie and yanked it back, successfully pulling it off.
I let go and caught her two more times in the face before snatching off the silk scarf and pushing her back, making her stumble.
"Thought you was gone beat my ass, bitch, what happened?" I stepped up to her. "What happened?!" I threw the scarf directly at her face.
"Get out of my face."
"Or what? Nobody's here to defend you baby, that cousin is dead—" She swung on me but I leaned to the side. "Too slow, keep up!"
I swung on her again before grabbing her hair and yanking it forward. My hair was in the back so I could feel the wig cap, and I was feeling evil. I yanked the cap up harshly and used all of my strength to fling her to the ground.
I started to yank out her tracks before someone quickly pushed me off of her, sending me to the ground. I noticed it was one of the people she was with. I don't know who they are though, because it wasn't Marquise.
I held up the track in the air, waving it around. "Na-na-na-boo-boo, ya tracks smell like doo-doo!"
"This bitch is so unserious." Anissa laughed. "Milo, start the car bro."
Anissa walked over to me and pulled me up as Milo started the car. "Put that hair down, that shit smells putrid."
I tossed it to Hadiya before following behind them to the car, getting into the backseat. I immediately pulled out my phone and went to my camera, checking my face for marks and to nobody's surprise—there wasn't a single one.
Honestly, I could care less about the fight. As long as she didn't say anything at school and there was no video, I was in the clear.
And unless Hadiya wanted to endure another ass whooping, she would shut her mouth!
•••
SAIDA
We don't talk enough
We should open up
Before it's all too much
I sigh and slouch on my bed, I had been sad all day. Nonstop tears since I came home from school. I came home and looked up sad white people songs on Google before settling on this one. It was between Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles being the artist whose song I would replay on a loop all day.
I used to love One Direction, so this was the obvious choice. The song also did a good job at making me sad.
Will we ever learn?
We've been here before
It's just what we know
"Harry Styles?" Zion bursted into my room, tossing her book-bag on the floor. That made me realize what time it was. "Be serious for a minute."
School had been out for a while, but Zion had therapy right after school and usually didn't get back until late. I didn't know I had been crying this long though.
Pausing the music from my phone, I looked at her. "The song is good. Was it loud or something?"
"Blasting." She says down in the chair at my desk. I loved my room decorations here, it felt like me. I was grateful Zion's mom gave me the freedom to decorate it.
"I didn't know."
"It's fine. Why'd you leave so early?"
"Mekhi." I shrug. There was no reason to sugarcoat it. "I mean, I stapled my finger, too. Mekhi was the main reason I went home, though."
"What'd he do?"
"Called me an attention seeking slut because of the Cam thing. He just kept saying in case I forgot, I couldn't be mad at him because I cheated on him so he should be the one mad and I told him that I couldn't forget because I was constantly reminded by him."
"You want me to go beat his sister ass?" She asked. "I'll beat his too but his sister gone get hers one of these days."
"Girl," I laughed. "What did his sister do?"
During the break, I went with Zion to get her abortion after she found out one of the four boys that were involved in her rape had got her pregnant. She seemed to be a little more like herself now. Of course, she had her moments, the school still didn't really do anything to the boys, so that still irked her.
"She dates Xavier so you know people use that as another reason to not believe me. 'Oh, well if he raped her why would another person date him?', because the bitch brain is made of pebbles and FashionNova, I don't know." She sits criss-cross in the seat as I resume the music.
"She's an idiot."
"Her brother is too, brains the sizes of pebbles." She held her fingers close together. "That's the sizes of their brains, and that's being generous."
"You're not okay." I laugh.
"Stop your crying, it's a sign of the times!" Leila ran into the room, singing into a remote. "We gotta get away! We gotta get away!"
"You wanna egg his car? Whoever's fucking rental that is," Zion ignored Leila, making her look in her direction quickly.
"Whose car?"
"Mekhi." I answer. "I don't want to egg it. What if he thinks I'm doing too much? I don't want him to think I'm pressed. I also don't want to get in trouble with the school if he tells somebody."
"Venus is on academic probation and just fought Hadiya. Hadiya is on live cleaning up her bloody face and trying to fix her nose ring that ripped her nose. That school got way more shit to worry about, and I doubt Mekhi would say anything."
"He's not even smart enough to put the pieces together, he might think it's somebody out to get Aniyah or something."
"I say we go." Leila shrugs and looks over at Zion. "What you think, twin?"
"Let's go."
•••
"Here." I tossed the spray paint bottle to Leila. Mekhi was the least familiar with her handwriting, so she was going to spray paint his car.
I began to cover the car with syrup as Zion finished coating the car with flour. We hadn't been here long and we were trying to make this happen fast. Which we were doing good with.
Zion sat the flour down in the big trash bag we had brung the supplies in as I finished pouring syrup on the car. Zion pulled out a bag of fake feathers and threw them along the car also as Leila finished spray painting.
"Looks good?" Leila stepped back, tilting her head to get a good look.
We both walked over to where she was and looked at the spray painted words that were on the car, BITCH NIGGA.
"That's a little harsh, you think?" I frown, looking over the words. I looked over the entire car and a feeling of guilt hit me like a truck.
He doesn't deserve this.
"He called you an attention-seeking slut. This is very tame if you ask me." Leila shrugs her shoulders. "We need to leave before someone catches us, though."
Nodding, Zion picked up the trash bag as Leila started to jog down the street. Zion and I followed behind her shortly after. "Y'all, Rally's open right?"
"Yeah, but they only have a drive-thru and we have no car." Leila looks back. "We can Doordash it."
"I'm not that hungry."
Zion was so anti-Doordash it was admirable. She refused to pay anything over fifteen dollars for a ten dollar meal.
"I wanna go rinse it off." I tell Zion as Leila looked at our surroundings, trying to see if anything was open this time of night.
Living with the Baker's has somewhat helped my eating habits. Not much, though. There were days that I would eat and keep it down, days I wouldn't be able to finish a meal and would immediately make myself throw it up, and days I just refused to eat.
Back at home I didn't eat at all, so the change was good for me.
Since Mekhi and I broke up, I hadn't kept a meal down. I wouldn't tell Zion though, because I didn't want her to blame Mekhi. He didn't realize how fragile I was when we first met, he didn't know that anything he did could break me.
I didn't blame him, so I didn't want anyone else to.
"Why?"
"Because I don't want him to stop caring about me because we did that to the car..I really like him, Z."
"I know you do. He won't be mad at you."
"What if he hates me? I told him that I hated me, so what if he hates me back? I don't want him hating me, Zion, I swear I didn't mean it when I told him that I hated him." I frown, emotions taking over my voice.
"I'm sure he knows that."
"I told him he was dead to me, but I was just angry! He would be angry, too!"
"You looooveee him." She teased, making me slap her shoulder.
"I don't! I just care about him a lot. He's the first boy that treated me good. He didn't judge me or anything. I felt safe with him. Like if anything were to happen, I would be okay because I had him."
"You'll be just as okay without him. Trust me."
a/n:
fix that. this book contains my longest chapters ever. most chapters are 3000+ and i know for a fact that none of them are less than 2900 words. that being said, i put a lot of thought and effort into these chapters so no feedback makes me think it's shitty.
if y'all think that, y'all can say so, lmao. i won't get mad.
this chapter was supposed to be a christmas chapter originally but i changed my mind bc i love drama more than peace. saida and mekhi also will stress y'all tf out, ok? these kids gone be STRESSED!
answer the question below!!
q: how did u enjoy the chapter? leave ur thoughts HERE! i love feedback.
also, lately i've been trying to work on my writing style. i've been writing since i was in middle school and i'm going into my senior year in a few weeks, so i feel like it's about time my writing grows with me, especially since i'm not going to write past my senior year (i don't think), so why not end my writing career w/ a bang??
— grandmas baby.