SIX

‘You would betray me like this like, he killed the girl that I loved’, TB said, he was standing awkwardly at the door.

‘Have you noticed that you do the same thing to me every time you talk to anyone at school. They all make fun of me and they are your friends doesn’t that mean the same thing?’, I asked him.

‘It’s different, he killed Maggie!’

‘No, he didn’t!’, I said. ‘He didn’t kill her’. My voice was calm now.

‘But you’re vision said..’, I cut him short very quickly.

‘My vision showed me the hoodie of the killer not the face of the killer, it could be anyone that day who was wearing that hoodie’, I said.

‘He is lying to you, he said that to gain your trust, to deceive you’, I said.

‘You are just refusing to see the truth’, I said laughing. ‘You just don’t wanna see the truth because you are blinded by a lie’. I said.

His face formed into a grimace; he was disappointed he wanted me to support him even when he was wrong. I hoped he was wrong though and Beck wasn’t lying to me. I watched him leave my room and banged my door.

I couldn’t sleep, I was out for many about an hour and then since my body was biffing with sleep, I decided to go on with cornrowing my hair. I sat in front of my mirror and literally started cornrowing my hair in zigzags in mazes and finally there was a burst of wonderful patterns on my head and I still had a bunch of afro hair behind that I made in a low ponytail.

By 7 am I was already dressed for school, I was just going through my Instagram and I swiped it was a picture someone posted, it was a picture of Beck and his friends on the night of our first high school dance. I was staring hard at Beck I had to admit but then something in the background caught my eyes, it was someone wearing a hoodie, the wrestling hoodie. I zoomed into the face of the guy and he was on the phone call with a frown on his face I had never seen him before and he hadn’t planned on entering into the picture, I tapped on the screen and luckily he had been tagged. I clicked on his tag and found his page easily. David Anderson. He lived in Waterdown and went to Waterdown High. He took a lot of shirtless pictures and minus the torso tattoos, he looked very innocent. I zoomed into the tattoo on his chest and it said; I didn’t make myself like this you did. 

I was scrolling down more pictures on him and he didn’t have any incriminating picture on his Instagram, he did dress up like the demonions though. So, he must be part of the gang.

I was still so engrossed in this Anderson guy when my phone started ringing and it was Beck.

‘hey’, I said when I picked the call.

‘I am outside your house, right now’. I sat up on my bed.

‘OB, are you there?’, he asked.

‘yeah sure, so why are you at my house in broad daylight?’, I asked getting up from my bed and walking to my window to lock it.

‘I came to pick you up; I am not letting you drive alone after what happened with the guy with a camera and all that’. I smiled to myself then I mentally slapped myself for giving myself the privilege of smiling.

‘I am cornrowing my hair right now, so you better go on without me or else you will run late’.

‘wait, you cornrow your hair?’, he asked and I replied in the affirmative.

‘I am still gonna wait outside you know that right?, he said and I giggled. Oh my God, I just giggled. What was wrong with me, I am not a giggler, I never giggle. I made a mental note to never giggle again.

‘you might run into TB and that’s gonna get nasty’, I said.

‘I wanted to talk to him too’, Beck said ‘he’s here now’. The call ended.

I hurriedly got my stuff and left my room with an inhumane speed. It was scary, they might be killing themselves but the moment I got out to the front street, they had were talking like not killing each other. I ran towards them.

‘umm… why are you guys not killing each other?’, I asked and they laughed. I looked as confused as a female snowman.

‘we good now, Beck has good taste in sports’, TB said.

‘okay?’, I drawled, I was a little confused.

This was good, I guess. TB started walking away. ‘oh and guys have fun later today’, he said with a smile on his face. Both of them gave themselves a knowing look and then TB drove off in his car.

‘We still have an hour to school’, Beck said. ‘do you want to get breakfast?’, he asked. I looked at him with a worried look.

‘Beck, what was all that about’, I asked.

‘I just told him that I didn’t kill Maggie, I swear but I am sorry that she’s dead, then we started talking about soccer and then we were getting into music when you interrupted’.

I was surprised, guys were so easy.

‘I know who killed Maggie though’, I said.

He looked worried and his eyes dilated. ‘I unintentionally found out okay, it’s not like I went into search or hi but I found the hottie’. I took out my phone and handed it over to him. He looked at my screen and returned it to me.

‘he’s really cute, I mean you could hardly see the killer’, we were in the car now.

‘and the tattoo on his chest. It says some kind of weird quote.’

‘ I didn’t make myself like this, you did’, Beck said with some kind of deepness in his voice like he was talking to someone that wasn’t here’.

I looked at him for a while then looked back to the road. ‘is that something?’, I asked.

‘it’s the quote of the demonions’, he said.

‘oh and do you have it on you’, I asked. He nodded. ‘no? why?’, I asked.

‘you only get that when you are part of the gang, I am just affiliated to the gang.’

‘that was what you were going to do that night you came to my house’, I said.

He nodded. A pause.

‘So where are we going for breakfast?’, I asked.

He smiled. ‘to the best breakfast joint in Alberta. The Macs breakfast’, he said.

‘I have never heard of it’, I said to disappoint him.

‘I know that’, he said. He made a swift turn at a bend and we were in front of a shack. It was a shabby looking shack. And my face fell.

‘don’t give it that stuck up look’, he said noticing my face. ‘it’s really good’. He said coming down from the car and so did I.

We walked up to the entrance and when Beck pushed the door, a bell chimed at the top of the door.  The man at the counter looked up at us with a smile. The place was empty but it was obvious there had been a rush earlier because of the heaps of plates in the back.

‘Beck Jameson’, the middle age guy bellowed. ‘I was beginning to think you were a no show’. He continued as we walked up to the counter.

‘I can’t miss it for the world’, he said with a smile on his face.

I was standing awkwardly beside, almost behind Beck. ‘these are the two plates you asked for’, he said and handed Beck two plates of food.

‘she’s a pretty one’, the man suddenly said. ‘Patricia! Beck brought a girl’, he said and a woman almost his age came from behind the door that said kitchen.

‘aw, she’s so pretty’, Patricia said.

‘Thank you’, I said in almost in a whisper.

‘she’s the shy type’, the man who’s name was Harold said. ‘they are the best, eh?’, he said and winked at Beck.

The men chuckled as Patricia hit Harold’s broad shoulders, we walked away to have a seat.

  We got to school just in time, the quad was crowdy and I had just started thinking about, how the whole school would see me coming out of the Beck’s car and how that would ruin the whole be on the low till the rest of my life in high school will be jeopardized. I caught sight of his friends coming and I moved down in the seat.

‘what are you doing?’, he asked.

‘well, I am not comfortable with your friends coming up to meet me’, I whispered.

‘it’s cool, I will do the intros now please get out from under the dashboard’. I wasn’t under the dashboard but I was almost pretty down there. I sat up and then we alighted the car and his friends quickly surrounded him and then suddenly their eyes fell on me. I was dressed in a tee-shirt that said BlaCK and a jean ripped on both knees and two little rips on the back thighs and that was all.

I was pretty dressed up but I was so fire! He moved over to my side and sunk his hand into mine.

‘oof’, one of his friends said. ‘she’s a sweet one, dude is she yours? Or can?’, the guy was really fine, obviously mixed; he was dark-skinned with beautiful grey eyes reminds me of Beck.

‘hands-off, Jer’, he said and laughed.  ‘this is OB’, he said and smiled at me. I looked up at him and smiled shyly. ‘now move away you fools you are crowding”, he said with finality and they moved away so we could pass.

“Thanks for that”, I said when we were out of earshot.

‘it’s nothing although they are just being boys, you know?’, he said with a smile and we stopped at the main entrance.

He moved close and stretched out his hand to my face, my breath hitched, he moved a bit of my oily hair away from my face. I saved that to think of for later and released the breath I was holding.

“you look good, like actually beautiful”, he said.

I smiled, if I was white my cheeks would be pink or red whatever them white drops do. But being black doesn’t give you any give out female feelings by a cheek coloring.

He winked at me and smiled. “see you around then”.

I was frozen still, he walked away and vanished at the bend. I finally snapped out of it and pushed the door open but my eyes caught something at the other side of the street, it was Sierra and a very angry looking Bullet, he had a sneer on his face and I felt my heart skip ten beats.