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
Chapter 22: Christopher“…and the day after that. And the one after that, and the one after that. You kept coming back and mom kept believing in you. Believing you could change. Believing you had changed. Kept on giving you more than enough attention. Everything you wanted, she got you. Just so you could feel like you again. Feel loved. Feel complete. But nothing was ever enough for you, was it Ryan?” he said, undaunted in his glare at his older brother. The day you left, I lost a brother, and I was completely fine with that. Not like I hadn’t been pulling my weight around pretty well anyway. But the day you came back, I lost my mother. And that hurt like hell. And then you kept leaving and coming back and leaving and coming back. And I kept losing over and over and over. Until I just grew numb to that shit. It didn’t surprise me anymore. Don’t think I have any fucks left to give” he paused for a second then continued. “The only reason I’m here… is ‘cause I don’t want my last words wi
Chapter 40: A Killer Story“Ayy. Man of the moment. How was the—” She watched as he walked up the stairs without saying anything to anybody. Not the best looks he had plastered on his face either. Guess the event didn’t exactly go according to plan. “You should go talk to him. He was just starting to feel and act a lot—” she looked at her other son balanced on the couch, stuffing his face with ice cream and focused only on the television. He probably didn’t even know that Marcus just walked in. “Hello? Ryan? Ryan!” she smacked the bowl of ice cream out of his hand and It plummeted straight to the ground. Luckily, it’d almost finished.“Hey. Mom, I had a couple of scoops left.”“Did you even hear anything I said?”“What? Umm. No?”“Uggghhh” she plopped down beside him on the couch, grabbing the remote from his hands and changing the station. “You should go talk to your brother. And I mean a real ass talk. Not some ‘hey’, ‘hi’, ‘bye’ type of stuff.”“What? But why?”“Did you see him w
Chapter 39: Past Tense“So you’re not going to say anything?” He said, one eye on the road and the other on a stubborn and quiet Alicia. “Alicia? Hello. I’m not talking to myself here. Hmm. Alright” he smirked, now fully focused on the road, and caring little to nothing about why Alicia was pissed.“Why didn’t Ryan come?”“Oh, so now you want to talk?”“Just answer the question.”“When you didn’t answer mine? That doesn’t seem fair.”“You know what’s not fair Marcus? Want to know what’s not fair? What’s not fair is…leaving…me to… make a fool of myself…at the fucking event” she said, smacking him in-between words while he was driving.“Hey. Hey. Calm down. Calm the fuck down” he tried dodging the smacks but just concluded that it was better he took the worst of it than to crash the car. “You’re acting like you couldn’t just walk into the wardrobe and do nothing.”“Oh yeah sure. Of course I could do that. Because that’s what you did with Deborah right?”“Is that what this is all about?”
Chapter 38: I’m Getting Jealous"And then she dragged me by my collar and kissed me" he said, completely out of breath."Are you sure that's what happened or you just wanted to happ–""That's exactly what happened Alicia" he rubbed his short hair trying to calm himself and get rid of the adrenaline. "God her lips were so… so–""Please, spare me the details Devon. I don't need to hear that.""But you need to understand Alicia, I can’t just keep a moment like that to myself. It's just…it's just– Aah Marcus is out, I'll tell him instead."As always, Marcus looked in no hurry whatsoever to walk. One foot calmly in front of the other. You’d almost think he was stalling, waiting for someone to catch up. Alicia couldn't help but look back and stare. But she didn't have lust in her eyes. She had anger. Like she knew something she wasn't supposed to know. And Marcus would be on the receiving end of it. "Yo bro how was … wait. Are you good?" He looked at Marcus a little strangely, like somethi
Chapter 37: Marcus, More"Are you sure there's not something wrong with the–""Jesus Christ. Y’all just don’t quit, do you? Alright, let me see your cards…again" the coordinator wearily said. After seeing and judging the cards of both, she looked back up at them and said, "there's nothing wrong with the cards now come on, other people want to get in there, and I want to leave already. So let’s go" she held both of them by the wrists and led them up to the wardrobe. "Alright now. Five minutes" she watched as Marcus got in and Deborah brought up every single excuse she could think of. All to no avail. "Click"As soon as the door closed behind them, and they were engulfed in the wardrobe’s darkness, Deborah said in her usual annoying voice, "now don't think I'm going to do any of that nasty shit for or with you. We'll just wait until the five minutes are up and then we'll act like none of this ever happened. However, Marcus had other plans and the darkness, at this point in time was hi
Chapter 36: Not That Type of Girl?"Wait what?" Alicia said, completely dumfounded."Come on now, time is ticking Alicia. It is your turn.""Are you sure the cards are correct?""God, you guys are going to start with this again?”“Just please, check if they’re correct.”“Okay, fine. Let me see yours. Mitch, bring yours too." The coordinator saw both cards side by side and said, "there's nothing wrong with the cards Alicia. They're identical. Solid match. Now quit stalling and get in already.” She didn't know what to do, she looked at Marcus hoping he would say something, or do something, at least look jealous or uncomfortable. But his emotion didn't change in the slightest. He wasn't even looking at her, or how uncomfortable she felt when her dress ran up her laps a little as she tried to get up. So, she walked into the wardrobe, Mitch following close behind her, and the coordinator behind both. As soon as they got in, the coordinator closed it and stood just a couple feet behind.
Chapter 35: Take a 5“Thanks” she looked at him. His eyes seemed to look so caring, and though a pitch-black iris was intensely common around these parts, everything about him just felt so different. And they’d known each other almost all their lives. Hand in hand, they walked into the school premises like two reborn souls. Everybody was looking at them. This wasn’t the Marcus and Alicia they were used to seeing…at all. If this was prom, they’d probably won couple of the night just by showing up. Marcus in his well-fitted vest and t-shirt. How’d he get so buff overnight? And Alicia wasn’t wearing her glasses today. Damn, she was hot. The event had begun approximately two and a half hours ago but it was like everyone had been waiting for this single moment. Now everyone had to act like Marcus and Alicia weren’t stealing the show. They definitely we—“Marcus? Alicia? There y’all are. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you guys?”Alicia instantly removed her hand from Marcus’s,
Chapter 34: Simplicity is Underrated SATURDAY 4:20 PM. AN HOUR AND 20 MINUTES PAST D-DAYToday was a big day, and he was definitely dressed for the occasion. No tuxedo or anything serious, it was a ‘party’. He already had a bad reputation when it came to fashion, but today, the plan was to make a statement. He had on a pair of Customized Nike Air Max’s. Pretty good start… till somebody steps on your shoes while dancing. But oh well, you get as much as you give. The dark jean and partially over-sized t-shirt look, definitely wasn’t the best one to go with, but he was looking a little buff today. Kinda feeling it too, maybe it was worth a try. A new, formal-looking watch made it look a little more decent, and the face cap was an okay accessory. You know what? Forget that ‘dressed for the occasion’ thing I said earlier, it was mid. But hopefully, what he lacked in looks, he’d replace with sureness, because he felt like a million bucks today. “You sure you don’t want to go Ryan? Might h
Chapter 33: Such is LifePeace. Now this quote might have been said by some other important, renowned mind, but this is my way of putting it. Peace, Inner peace, is sometimes pretty hard to find. Not because chaos is most times inevitable, but really harnessing all possible emotions that could tip the scale, not being anxious, not being scared, not feeling guilty, not feeling alone, all at the same time is a very difficult task. Even for the strongest minds. Like his. He was right when he said he didn't know where he was going. He really didn't. Wasn't sure of what do with life at this point. Nothing made sense, nothing. And as he walked on the pavement while cars zoomed past, he fell deeper into the hands of his biggest predators. His mind. His thoughts, himself. "Everything was so supposed to be perfect you know?" He said, subject to his own soliloquy. "The perfect girl. Met her the perfect way. Had an almost perfect relationship. It should've ended better. Way better" he said. "
Chapter 32: The Birds Pt. 1He didn't look like himself anymore. Almost looked like was sad and sulking. His hypnotizing red eyes looked like they had lost their effect. He was drained. Physically, mentally and emotionally. The ladies were in truth, never ever his strong point. And the fact that he couldn’t anything about that was…was probably what made him sad. He had everything. Right? The eyes, the brains, the body, the voice, everything was there. So, it just didn't make sense why he found it hard actually talking, conversating and generally having a good time when it was just him and a girl, nobody else. Maybe he just wasn't ready for another phase of 'love' or some shit like that yet. After all, he did put a lot work into making him and Vanessa work out, and look at how that turned out. Yeah. Maybe that was it. He just… wasn't ready to take the next step forward. Maybe he just… wasn't over her yet. Can't blame him though "Yo Ryan you good?" Marcus asked, walking into the kitch