Since Arion and Kevin had caught James harassing her, Khadijah had the two boys following her everywhere she went. They practically dubbed themselves her protectors, walking her to classes, and they'd even begun walking her home too, much to her dismay. She appreciated their concern, but she knew they probably did it out of obligation since their mothers were friends, but Khadijah didn't really need babysitting. James spotted her with them a few times before quickly making himself scarce.
It only really became a problem when her mother caught sight of the two boys walking her home one day. Immediately, pulling her inside, slamming the door, and beginning to question her.
"Khadijah Mari, what did I tell you about those boys?" Her mother began to scold her immediately, and Khadijah bit back her groan that threatened to erupt from her throat. The lecturing had already begun, and Khadijah didn't want to make it worst.
"Yes, hooyo (mother), I know. I'm not friends with them, I swear." Khadijah tried to reassure her mother, but the older Somali woman was having none of it.
"Jacaylkayga (my love), you cannot possibly get roped into their bad habits, do you drink? Do you smoke? Do you sin?" Her mother pressed her and Khadijah quickly shook her head.
"I don't, I swear that to you, hooyo (mother)," Khadijah repeated once more as her mother shook her head, "I promise you! I'm not friends with them."
"Then don't allow yourself to be seen with them, jacaylkayga (my love)," her mother sighed, grabbing her daughter's hands, "those boys—" Timera hesitated. "They are mixed up into very, very, very bad things. I do not want you to get hurt. I know you all have known each other from childhood, but it'd be best to distance yourself now."
✧
The next day, as Khadijah walked to the subway, she groaned when she spotted Arion and Kevin waiting for her by the entrance. She made a face when she noticed they were smoking marijuana, the smell permeating her noise.
"What's good, Jah?" Arion nodded at her, taking a hit of the blunt before passing it to Kevin.
"Jah? My name is Khadijah," she mumbled, walking past them quickly, but they just fell into step with her easily. They took a few more hits before Kevin squashed the blunt beneath his foot as they waited for the train that was scheduled to arrive in two minutes.
"Khadijah is too long," Kevin stated, eyes lazily scanning the area around them, "everybody 'round here got a nickname anyways. Now, yours is Jah."
"People just be changing their names to anything, huh?" Khadijah wondered aloud. "Like, what do people even call you? As far as I'm concerned, your names are Arion and Kevin." She shrugged, holding the strap of her backpack tightly.
Kevin kissed his teeth.
"Chill with our govs," Arion chuckled, "call me Dougie."
"I'm Kay." Kevin said plainly, as if he couldn't really care less about the whole conversation.
"Well, Dougie and Kay, I would appreciate it if you kept yourselves away from me, my mama is freaking out at home—she said you're bad news—hoodlums now." Khadijah retorted. The sound of the train rolling in prevented them from responding to her. It took a minute for the doors to open and all the people on the platform flooded the cars. Khadijah squeezed in amongst the people, standing in the middle, pressed up against everyone on all sides. A board chest rested against her back, and she glanced back at the person to find Arion standing directly behind her, looking over her head at something in the distance.
"Seriously, Arion... " Khadijah mumbled as she reached up to hold the subway handle, trying but failing to grab it. She froze when she felt Arion bend down behind her slightly, pressing his mouth against her ear.
"Can I hold you? Or else, you gon' fall like a tumbleweed and I'on wanna deal with that right now," he whispered to her and Khadijah rolled her eyes before sighing, giving him a curt nod. She prayed no one around recognized her as Arion's arm slid around her waist, holding her against his body as the train began to move. She only had to survive a ten-minute subway ride before they disembarked, with their school being a two-minute walk away. They were silent, leaning against each other for support as Arion held one hand over his hand, grabbing the safety handle that Khadijah failed to reach. She could see Kevin sitting down three seats away from them, wired earbuds in his ears as he leaned his head back against the window.
The ride was silent and eventually, people filtered out of the car, leaving for school or work Khadijah presumed, but the subway car just filled back up just as quick with more students; more people she recognized from their school making her groan lowly in her throat.
More people like James and his dumbass friend group.
Her body tensed automatically, bowing her head, twisting, so she faced sideways—shoulder brushing Arion's chest, watching James and his group approach them before sitting to the left side of the car, parallel to Kevin who eyed them openly before continuing to stare straight ahead blankly.
"You scared of him?" Arion asked her, chin damn near touching her head as he whispered to her.
"No," she murmured, eyes shifting back and forth to the rambunctious group of so-called gangbangers and the window of the subway, "I'm not scared. I just hate feeling powerless. It's like seven of them and one of me—I can't win against them, and he knows it."
"He ain't nobody forreal, you don't ever have to feel powerless against him," above her, Arion shook his head, "where 'yo friends at anyway? They just leave you to deal with him?"
"I don't have friends, like I said, it's just me," Khadijah sighed, head lolling to the side, "bitches are weird."
They were two stops away from their stop, and Khadijah just prayed that James wouldn't see her at all—alone or with Arion and Kevin. Once the train came to a stop, Khadijah scurried away eagerly, Arion and Kevin lazily following behind her—she expertly dipped, weaving in and out throughout the crowds with ease.
Once in her school building, Khadijah hurried to her locker, aiming to get to her Families Studies class as quickly as possible. She practically tossed her things into her locker, slamming it shut abruptly before speed walking to her class. She only had four periods—she could do this.
✧
As it turned out, Khadijah could in fact: not do this. After a long and tedious class of taking notes, Khadijah wondered why on earth she had even bothered taking the social sciences course. They were so incredibly boring. Still, she tried her best to pay attention and scribble down manyuch notes as possible because Mr. Callahan always tried to make his tests as difficult as possible. She huffed to herself in irritation. Walking up the stairs to the third floor, Khadijah turned a corner, making her way into Mrs. Hu's mathematics class, freezing in the doorway when she spots Arion sitting behind her usual seat. She doesn't even realize how long she's frozen there standing until Mrs. Hu speaks up from her corner behind her desk.
"Ms. Karim, is there a problem? Why are you blocking my classroom door?" Mrs. Hu rose an eyebrow.
"No, I'm sorry," Khadijah mumbled, finally shuffling into the class. She took her usual seat in front of Arion, steadfastly avoiding eye contact as she sat down.
The class starts fifteen minutes later and for some reason, Khadijah can't focus because she can feel the heat of Arion's stare on the back of her head. She tries her best to ignore it, but it proved to be futile when the lesson is finally over and Mrs. Hu assigns homework questions and gives them the rest of the period to work through them. Khadijah let out a shaky exhale, flipping open her textbook and turning to page three-hundred forty-eight. Mrs. Hu had assigned the entire page for homework, so Khadijah tries to get a head start on it now when someone pokes her in the back.
She turned around slowly, facing Arion who looks at her with a slight smile on his face.
"I'on have a textbook." Arion admitted to her sheepishly. "Can we share?"
Khadijah stared at him for a moment silently before nodding her head slowly.
"As long as you let me work," she told him, watching as Arion dragged his desk around to push it next to hers—causing a loud screech to echo in the classroom. She flushed in embarrassment, but Arion paid the other students no mind as they turned around and gawked at them.
Thankfully, none of her mom's friends' kids were in this class, so she didn't have to worry about them tattling on her like kindergarteners.
She pushed the textbook between their two connected desks, grabbing her lead pencil, leaning over to look at the page, starting on the first question.
1. Which expression is equivalent to 9x2 – 16y2?
a. (3x – 4y) (3x – 4y)
b. (3x + 4y) (3x + 4y)
c. (3x + 4y) (3x – 4y)
d. (3x – 4y)2
Biding her time, Khadijah wrote the question in her notebook, repeating it to herself quietly. She was never a person that was good at math, but she tried her best, getting eighties in the subject at least. Finally working through the question, Khadijah smiled to herself only to have Arion shake his head next to her, looking at her paper.
"What?" She mugged him.
"That's not that answer," Arion told her, pointing at the question in the textbook, "you gotta factor, ma."
"Isn't that what I just did?" Khadijah asked him, scrunching up her face as she looked at her paper again.
"Nah, you got yo' numbers wrong," Arion smiled, "look, follow what I do, aight?" Khadijah bit her lip, nodding, leaning over Arion's shoulder as he worked through the math problem with ease. It took him less than five minutes as he explained his process, showing her how to properly factor. She was a little embarrassed at having done the question wrong, but she was more impressed by the way Arion worked through the numbers; answering the question with ease.
"How are you so good at this?" Khadijah mumbled as she attempted the second question.
"I'on know to be honest," Arion shrugged, twirling his pencil between his fingers, "I like numbers—math always been my favorite subject."
"I hate math," she grumbled to Arion making him laugh, "and I didn't even know we had this class together, you're never here."
"I got more important shit to do." He said.
"More important shit than being in school?"
"Something like that."
They lapsed into silence again, Khadijah focusing on her work while Arion went on his phone. Occasionally, Arion would lean over—check her work and help her if it was wrong but otherwise, they both did their own thing until the bell rang and everyone lept out of their seats to get out of the classroom. Khadijah took her time, packing up her things—flinching in surprise when their hands brushed as he picked up the textbook for her.
"My fault," Arion frowned at her, noticing her reaction.
"You good," Khadijah shook her head, accepting the textbook, juggling all the things in her hand. They were the last ones to leave the classroom and Khadijah made a beeline for the staircase, making her way to her locker; Arion hot on her heels. "Why are you following me?" She asked, glancing at him over her shoulder.
"Shit, Kay gone—out skipping and I ain't got nothing else to do," Arion said, shoving his hands in his pockets, "what you tryna do though?"
"Honestly... " Khadijah paused. "Nothing? I don't really go to the cafeteria anymore." She said quietly, turning right into the hallway that led to her locker.
"Nigga, what? What do you do on your lunch then?"
"Do my homework—work on assignments, stuff like that," she stated, coming to a halt in front of her locker. She fiddled with her lock, hearing a satisfying click when it finally unlocked.
"Jah, respectfully, you boring as hell," Arion told her, furrowing his eyebrows.
"I like being boring." Khadijah countered. "I go in the caf, James is there with his dumbass friends just waiting for an opportunity plus, I don't have anyone to sit with anyways. Caf food nasty anyways so why waste my time?" She reasoned aloud, putting back her mathematics textbook.
"FIne, what else you do around here then?" Arion kissed his teeth.
"I just told you—study and do my homework," she rolled her eyes, "I play volleyball too but the season hasn't started up yet so I'm just waiting."
"You play sports?"
"Yeah? Why? Is that hard to believe?" She looked up at him curiously. "I know I don't got friends like that but I can work in a team setting. I've been playing since the fourth grade and I play to win." She smirked a little causing Arion to blink down at her in surprise, letting a grin take over his face.
"So, you gonna try out for the team then?"
"Yeah, I will," she nodded, "my parents always be telling me to get involved—says it makes me look good for college applications."
"That's what up—yo, I actually wanna see you play now," Arion laughed, leaning against the locker beside hers, "you any good? Or you trash? Be honest too."
"I play libero." Khadijah said in amusement.
"I'ma be real, ma, I don't know what that is."
"Fuck around and find out."
✧
i'm curious: which couple do you like more? khadijah and dougie? or kay and niraiya?