Chapter 14: I’ve Created A Monster“Y’all better stop playing” she said with a beaming smile. The chants gradually began to die down, but the smiles, the whispers and the looks from classmates who were so jealous but just couldn’t take their eyes off her, were too vivid to ignore. Making her way to her seat as the whispers kept lingering… “Hey” she dapped Devon, “What’s up Lee” She smiled at her Alicia, and Alicia smiled back. Pretty decent relationship they were having right about now. Marcus didn’t seem to be enjoying one bit of it. “Hey Marcus.” She said, taking her seat. “That’s it?” Devon echoed. “Shut up Devon” she smiled, taking her books out of her bag.“Come on. After what happened yesterday that can’t be it right?” He kept pestering.“I said, shut up.” Still with a smile, though this time sounding way more serious about it. “Marcus tell him to shut up.” And then there was dead silence. “Marcus?” she turned to look him in the eyes and he returned the look with one complete
Chapter 15: Fuck the Talent ShowA Low-cut afro. A pair of piercing and scrutinizing blue eyes. A facial expression that made up for his lack of words, and a stance that demanded nothing but respect. Mr. Benedict wasn’t your average drama teacher. Most students wish he’d been the one cut off in order to afford the auditorium instead of the astronomy teacher, when in fact, he was the mastermind behind his sacking. And this auditorium/hall/making out hideaway for the senior students, was his torture chamber. More often than not, he walked and worked with someone who shared the same mindset as him. Basically someone who did the talking for him. This time around, it was…“Good day students. Now you all know me, Vice president of the drama club, Arthur Orion. And of course, the ever-talented Mr. Benedict beside me. Hope we all know why we’re here. The school’s annual talent show is just a couple days away, and if we want to be perfect before that time, then we’ve got to start practicing. N
Chapter 16: I Feel Good You Know“Nice going Barrison.”“Yeah, that was actually a pretty dope idea.”“Pretty sure you’ll want in too… at some point.” Nigga went from ground zero, to the top of the world then back to the bottom and rose to the top…again. Couldn’t help but feel like he had some ulterior motive behind this ‘plan’ thing though. But who knows, maybe I’m wrong. P.S. I’m never wrong.“That was a pretty ballsy move” Devon complimented as they made their way back to their class.“Yeah well necessity is the mother of invention Dev. Can’t be wallowing doing the same thing over and over and expect us not to get tired of it. That’s madness.”“Mhmn. I don’t buy that explanation M” Devon replied rather skeptically. “I feel like you’re just using any and every opportunity to be able to hang out with Vane—”“Vanessa and I are not a thing Dev.” He stopped in his tracks, really looking into Devon’s eyes to make sure he understood the message. “It was just… you know, one of those thin
Chapter 17: The Front Seat“Yo, could you move a little faster man? I’ve got places to be” Ryan said, bellowing from the car. The horn supporting his tired voice.“Yeah sure” Marcus muttered under his breath, gradually increasing his ‘trotting’ towards the car until he accidentally bumped into someone. “Oh sorry. Didn’t see you there” he said as politely as he could.“Is that so?” the character turned back to face Marcus. “Well I’m gonna make sure that you never—Oh it’s you” the familiar voice shrieked all of a sudden.“Mitch.”“Marcus.” They both knew the consequences of getting out of line. Better to call it a truce and live to fight another day. Marcus steadily breezed past him (wouldn’t have ended the same way just a couple days ago) and got into the car. “Need to appeal to mom this time” he changed gears. “I’m tired of this—” as soon as he put his foot on the accelerator, a figure just walked past the front of the car, completely unaware of the situation. Although he didn’t bum
Chapter 18: Screw It“I am never driving you home again.” He said, walking into the house. “Mom, I’m never driving him home again.”“Hi mom. Bye mom” he continued his usual routine of spending limited time with his mother once he came back from school.“God, I do not get enough rest time to handle you two” Mrs. Boaz said, sitting up on the couch as soon as her sons got in. “What’d he do this time?” she asked, slowly massaging her head.“Marcus is so burdensome mom. And to be honest, I know we all already know that. But I knew for sure today when I picked…guess. Just guess.”“Guess what?”“Guess who I picked up?”“Baby I don’t know, and I’m having the worst headache right now, so if you could just—”“Alicia. I picked up Alicia today.”“What? She’s still at Phoenix High?” she raised her head up a little and her weary eyes met Ryan’s enthusiastic ones. That was how it appeared at first glance. A second look at it wouldn’t have seen Mrs. Boaz’s eyes as weary ones. She looked sick, burden
Chapter 19: 911Ryan Rolland Boaz. A number of years in and out of therapy definitely did a lot to soften up the 6’3. When he was younger, he was a fucking hothead. He still is to be honest, he just finds his way around it. Just walk out of the room, keep quiet and just don’t engage, the sun’s getting real low big guy. You know, that type of shit. He wasn’t always that way though. You see, no one’s ever born with a mental or an emotional problem. No disrespect to anyone. I’m not a doctor or anything, I’m just saying more often than not, certain mental and emotional issues are products of the environment you grow up in, not the genes you were born with. What made Ryan really need therapy, wasn’t all accrued to the pain he felt with the whole Vanessa situation. What really hurt him, what he kept bottled up all this time, the one memory that actually made this maniac tick, happened sixteen years ago. About four days from today would be the anniversary. The day dad left. Never came back
Chapter 20: Cold Enough to Chill My BonesMrs. Boaz never really envisioned her life like this. And no, not being rushed into the hospital seconds from death. Nobody envisioned their life like that. I mean, she just never really saw herself going to college, falling in love, having kids. Handsome boys at that too, at least that was the way she saw them. Looked way better than her when she was their age as far as she was concerned. You know how high schools have the ‘most likely to succeed’, ‘class clown’, all that shit. Hers, though nobody actually cared enough to literally give her an actual alias, was ‘screw up’. Most likely to be a screw up. No literally. That was it. Freckles, pimples, basically all the ‘les’, and that includes Les. Back then though, wasn’t as easy to outrightly say it like it is now. So… she suppressed it and suppressed it and suppressed it, till she just became this quiet, quirky, nerdy ‘loser’. Yeah that was the only Alias people who gave enough fucks called h
Chapter 21: Acrimony“Come on. Don’t keep quiet now, answer” he said, pestering Marcus. “Come on—”“Don’t push me man…okay? You know how that ended last time” he said, not in the mood. “I don’t hate you.”Ryan stopped pushing, but still had the same pestering mindset. “Stop lying” he looked away from Marcus but didn’t look towards anything in particular. “If you got a problem with me, at least say it, don’t start lying to my face” he said.Uncomfortable silence once again wrapped its arms around the brothers, till Ryan piped up. “It was the first day I left, wasn’t it?”“Huh?”“The first time? First time I left home in the series of visits to Rehab, right?”“Why would you think it was that?”“Because I remember that day” he looked back at his brother. “Very vividly.”THREE YEARS AND THREE MONTHS AGO“Get the fuck up off me mom. Don’t act like you weren’t the one who sent me there. Like ‘why don’t you tell me how you’re feeling Ryan’” He mocked, shouting as soon as he came out of the c