Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 19:16:41 -0500
From: Daniel H <esp-ada@hotmail.com>
Subject: Up the Block, Chapter 1

Chapter 1


"Ugh. Just five more minutes. Damn."


I covered my head with the heavy winter blanket I'd pulled out of storage
just last night, attempting to block out the alarm blaring from my cell
phone on the nightstand beside my bed. Unfortunately, it just got louder
and louder the more I ignored it. BZZZT!


"Goddammit," I said, reaching a hand out from underneath the blanket to
grope for my phone.


I pressed the power button to silence it and exhaled a sigh of relief once
tranquility reestablished its presence in my room. The peace and quiet
didn't last long before my mom came pounding on the door to wake me up for
school ("Mijo, despierta! Wake up or you'll be late for school!"). Sighing
once again, I threw my super comfortable heavy winter blanket, off myself
in one swift motion, and jumped out of bed.


"Ya! I'm awake. Dejame en paz, por dios." I replied to my mom. She would
not stop knocking until she received a response. One of her more annoying
motherly habits.


"Breakfast is already served on the table. Just get ready quickly and come
down. It's almost 6:30, Miguel."


"Okay cool. Be right there." I said.


Not being particularly in the mood to rummage through all my clothes for a
fly outfit to wear, I grabbed a shirt and pair of jeans almost at random
and headed to the bathroom to get ready. I took a quick shower, and
examined myself in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. It was crazy how
almost overnight I'd gone from the
scrawny-little-messy-haired-chap-lipped-bespectacled middle school kid, to
the naturally slim, and slightly taller, decent looking high school
freshman staring back at me from the mirror. My curly hair was now shorter
and neater, my "Tom Hardy lips", as my friend Emmy liked to call them,
moisturized. I'd even gotten a fly new pair of Ray Ban glasses that made me
look less nerdy. Cool, even. Thank god for puberty. Sure, I was still only
fourteen years old, and while not as short as before, still not exactly
towering at a measly 5'7", but you could actually see muscles under my
light brown skin now. (If I flexed!) Not just bone. I had a little v-cut
going and everything. My mom had even noticed, and said I took after my
dad.


"People always thought he was a swimmer," she would say, "with that body of
his."


My father died when I was only four years old. Guilty only of trying to
diffuse an altercation at the bodega in town, and being stabbed five times
as a result. I'm told he got in the middle of a man publicly berating and
abusing his wife in front of their own kid. The man was arrested and sent
to prison for life as a result of the situation. The wife divorced him, and
moved with her son to live with her family back in Brooklyn. All in all,
his sacrifice was not in vain. His memory was cherished and kept alive by
pictures around the house, and stories told by my mom and older brother,
who had actual memories of him.


Once downstairs I looked at the stove clock and realized I was running
late. Dammit, I thought. I grabbed my coat and wolfed down the cheese
omelet and toast my mom had left on the table before kissing her goodbye
and running out the door.


"Ya me tengo que ir! Or I'll miss the bus!"


Outside it was typical late November weather. Not quite Winter, but not
quite Fall anymore either. I stuck my hands inside my pockets and half ran
to the bus stop on the corner where the yellow bus was just pulling up.
"Dammit! Wait" I said as I picked up the pace. My mom would be pissed if I
missed the bus for the third time this week. "Wait!" I yelled, this time so
the bus driver could actually hear me. Just as the doors were sliding
closed two hands shot out and caught them. The doors reopened and standing
on the first step of the bus entrance was Winston, my older brothers best
friend, who lives just up the block.


"Running late again huh," he said smirking, "no worries I got you."


He stood aside so I could pass before him.


"Alright alright hurry it up young man we're running a little late already
as it is!" said the bus driver gesticulating a hurry-it-up motion with his
free arm.


"Thanks," I said sheepishly. To both of them.


I went to sit down in one of the always empty front seats, but Winston
grabbed my shoulders from behind and pushed me along to the back of the bus
which was unofficially known to be his reserved seating.


"Sit with me today little maaan," he said. Dragging the word "man" like he
always did.


Not having any friends of my own on my side of town, I usually sat
somewhere in the middle rows, with one of the nerdy kids who didn't mind.
Either that or the always empty front rows, the "loser seats," which
luckily never brought me too much shit, since I was protected by the
lasting influence of my cool older brother. If only he'd been left back
too, I thought, like Winston. Then he could have been my bus buddy, and his
direct cool-ness would have made me cool and popular by proxy. But although
he did have his gangster drug pushing phase early on, almost inevitable in
Corona Park, he matured in time to graduate AND get accepted into a
four-year college. Winston on the other hand, though not selling dime bags
anymore, never quite outgrew his rebellious hard-headed nature. According
to my brother, school assignments and teachers constantly telling him what
to do were just not for him. Ironically enough he was almost never
absent. He would later tell me it was because he hated being at home, his
overbearing Jamaican mother being his only other immediate family, it was a
pretty depressing and boring place to be.


"So how you been, Migos?" he asked once we were seated.

Two years ago, at my brother's 16th birthday party, Winston played the song
Versace by Migos, and my twelve year old ass went around saying "Versace!
Versace!" the rest of the night. It's been his nickname for me ever
since. It being similar to my actual name, Miguel, pure coincidence.


"I been aight man," I said, "still getting used to this new school."


"Yeah I feel you. It's mad different. I remember when I first came
here. Transition was a bitch!"


He laughed his deep baritone laugh. I remember my brother once saying that
almost as soon as Winston turned thirteen, his voice went from Alvin and
the Chipmunks high, to Vin Diesel deep. Minus the funny pronunciation. Now
at nineteen, his voice was probably even deeper than it had been then. One
of many reasons why upon entering Corona High I wasn't in the least bit
surprised to find that he was pretty popular with the ladies.


"You been doing aight though my man," he continued, "I been watching
you. Your bro would be proud."


"I guess." I'd be doing a lot better if he were still around, I
thought. "I'll never be as cool as him though."


"What? Nah fuck that man. Ricardo was just street cool. You like book
smarts cool. Y'all just different."  He put an arm around me and gave me a
playful side hug as he spoke. I caught the strong scent of Axe, and what
can only be described as straight up masculinity, when he pulled me towards
him. I was suddenly aware of how muscular and strong Winston's arm felt
around me.


"Plus, everybody knows not to fuck with you," he continued," Ricky aint
been on the streets like that in a minute, but his boys from back in the
day still got his back. I still got your back. He told us to watch out for
you and your fam before he left."


"For real? I didn't know that."


"Yeah," he replied, "my bad for being kinda distant and shit since you came
though. It just ain't been the same without Rick around you know?"


"Yeah, tell me about it" I said, looking out the window.


"Not to mention my ass got left back."


I punched his shoulder. "Like half of Corona gets left back. You good man."


"Ha! Motherfucker! You right." He laughed his deep laugh again. "Nah but
forreal though. I got you. You my boy too. Known you since you were a
little Puerto Rican midget."


We both laughed, and he ruffled my hair like my brother would do when we
were younger, to make me feel like a kid, which used to always rile me
up. The rest of the ride we just cracked jokes and talked about my brother
some more.


Once we got to Corona Park High School, Winston walked me to my first
period class and gave me dap before heading to his. It might have been just
me but I swear he held me and my hand a second longer than your typical dap
lasts. I caught his manly Axe scent again, just as he let go. Again, I was
struck suddenly by how attractive a guy he actually was. His high
cheekbones, dark brown skin, dimpled smile, all seemed new to me. It was as
if I was seeing them for the first time.


He gave a final wave before turning around. "I'll see you in Gym, Migos."


"Oka- wait what?" I replied. But he had already turned the corner into the
other hallway. Did he say he'd see me in Gym?


________________




Almost three months into a new school year, at a new school, and I was
still rolling with the same two friends I'd had since middle school. Juan
and Emmy. I had yet to make any new friends. Sure, people respected me
because of my older brother, and the school dickheads steered clear of
making me one of their bullying victims, but not many really went out of
their way to engage with me outside of a simple "Sup" here and
there. Perhaps it was my blatant lack of swag in an inner-city-esque High
School, or maybe it was that I just didn't live up to the towering figures
that were my brother and father. The cool kid and the hero. Both well known
to almost everyone in the town. I, on the other hand, was just the smart
skinny kid-brother with glasses. But, to be honest, it hardly phased me. I
had two ride-or-die's, and for me that was more than enough.


"Hey Miguelito" said Juan as I sat at my self-assigned seat between him and
Emmy.


"Miguel please tell that slacker that the History homework is due today and
NOT on Monday," grumbled Emmy without a greeting.


First period was Algebra for the three of us and my sitting in between my
two friends was intentional so as to reduce distractions. Juan always knew
how to push Emmy's buttons. Though she was like the mother hen of our
little group, she could be a little intense. But she was always looking out
for us and making sure we did our homework, and studied, and ate healthy,
she was even already talking about college, when we had just started High
School. Knowing her though, it wouldn't surprise me if she whipped us into
shape, and get us into Harvard or some shit.

"She's right dude," I said laughing, "those current event summaries are due
later today."


I was lucky enough to have either Juan, or Emmy, or both, in every one of
my class periods that semester, besides Gym. I wasn't exactly the most
social person on the planet, and making new friends, as previously
mentioned, wasn't exactly going great. So the thought of being stranded
alone in a class without one, or both, of them, would have been a
nightmare. We all met in our seventh-grade French class, where due to
proximity, we were assigned to work as a group on a conversation exercise,
and became inseparable. I'd had plenty of "friends" before, in elementary
school and from around the neighborhood, but those are what I would call my
first true best friends. They knew me, and I knew them.


Juan grinned and leaned back on his seat. "Well thank god I got study hall
next period."


"Yeah, and thank goddess I bought a newspaper on the way to school just in
case you forgot," Emmy threw the Daily News on my desk, "pass that on will
you?"  ________________




It was the last day before Thanksgiving break. Though less of a break, and
more of a four-day weekend. Still, everyone was anxious for the day to end
already, as was I. My first five periods came and went normally, aside from
the Thanksgiving excitement in the air, and as I was heading for Gym class,
I again remembered what Winston had said that morning. I'll see you later
in Gym, Migos.


Why would he say that, I wondered. Though, not for long. After entering the
locker room, and making my way towards my locker in the far corner, sure
enough, there he was. Bent over. Shirtless. His locker apparently in the
same nook of lockers as mine. He was built like a slightly leaner football
player. Every wiry muscle seemingly visible under his umber, dark-brown
skin. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was staring before
snapping out of the spell his bare upper body had cast on me. He finished
tying his shoes and straightened up just as I resumed approaching my
locker, as casually as I could, which was just a few over to the right of
his.


He beamed his big smile as soon as he saw it was me.


We dapped. "Sup little man!"


When he pulled me in for the one arm hug thing, I noticed, for the first
time, how soft yet strong his bare back felt.


"I told you I was gon' see you in Gym," he put on a fitted white tank top,
which left little to the imagination, "I just switched in. I couldn't stand
my morning gym class."


 As he was putting his tank top over his head I had gotten a full frontal
view of his defined chest, and abs, which had stirred something in my
pants. I gulped.


"Man, how you know I had gym sixth period though?" I put my coat and
backpack on the bench and noticed I was trembling slightly.


Winston crossed his vascular arms over his chest and shrugged.


"I know a guy," he said smiling, "and I told you I been keeping an eye on
you like your bro asked me too, lil man."


I laughed as I opened my locker. Trying to act as normal as possible,
despite a racing heart, and shortness of breath. What was going on with me?
I've been around Winston shirtless countless times growing up. At the pool,
when he's slept over, playing basketball with him and my bro, or just from
playing in the yard during the summer, being boys. He was my brothers best
friend, after all. But ever since that morning something changed. Maybe it
was the side hug on the bus, or the dap and gaze that lingered
afterwards. I don't know. Whatever it was, he'd been on my mind all
day. I'd always seen him as sort of another older brother, since he lived
just up the block from us, and was always at our house growing up. But now,
for the first time, I saw him as something else. A very sexually attractive
something else.


Truth be told, I'd noticed him watching me from a distance ever since
school started. I figured he was looking out for me, as my brother would
have if he was still around. It made me feel good. Like I was more
important to him now or something. I'd secretly hoped we'd become better
friends, and possibly be as tight as he and my brother had been. But after
one week, and then two, and then three, had passed without him really
reaching out beyond greetings and small talk, I'd figured that's all it
would ever be.


"Man, I don't need no bodyguard" I said smiling back at him, "but thanks. I
appreciate it"


I took out my gym clothes, and started undressing when some of the other
guys in my class started to pour in and the whole locker room exploded into
pandemonium. It might have been my imagination, but amidst the clamor of
half naked bodies getting changed, I swore I caught a glimpse of Winston
staring at me. Not only that, but it looked like he was checking me out. It
made me shudder, and not in disgust. I quickly pulled on my white tee, gym
shorts, and sneakers, and made to head back upstairs to the gym.


"All set little homie?" he asked once he saw that I was ready.


"Yessir leggo," I replied.


He flashed that perfect, eyes practically closing, cheeks dimpling, pearly
white smile. Again, it was as if I was seeing him for the first time. I
felt butterflies in my stomach.


It turned out to be a free basketball day, as days before holidays usually
are at Corona High. The gym teachers already in break mode along with the
students. The rolling rack of basketballs was brought out and the boys
given half the gym to play ball, while the girls played soccer in the other
half. Winston grabbed a ball and smirked at me mischievously as he
approached. He dribbled and feigned crossing me while laughing like a fool.


"Just like old times huh youngin?" He feigned again but this time I swiftly
caught the ball from his hand mid dribble. "Oh word!?"


"Yeah, son." I said laughing too now. "You game?!"


"Ha! Yo!" He puffed out his chest. "Yeah I'm game!"


It really was like old times. Winston, my brother, and I, all used to play
ball in our backyard, since we used to have a hoop back there..


We started playing a little one-on-one, and were joined eventually by some
of the other guys, since we were kinda hogging a whole basket all to
ourselves. I noticed Winston paid special attention to me, even though he
seemed to know most of the other guys we were playing with as well. Again,
it might also just have been my imagination, but when he was guarding me
during the game, it felt like he was pressing up on me a lot more than when
we played in the past. It even felt like he was staring at me sometimes.


It was a good game though, neck and neck till the very end, when one of the
gym teachers whistled just as I scored a layup. My team bugged out and
hounded me screaming as if it was an actual championship game we'd just won
or something. I'd never been particularly athletic or good at sports, but I
loved playing ball with my bro, and some of the kids on the block,
including Winston, growing up. More because it was time spent hanging out
with my older brother, who I looked up to, and loved dearly, but also
because it provided my antisocial ass an opportunity to interact with other
kids, which otherwise wouldn't happen often, if left to my own devices.


Winston clapped me on the back while we walked back into the locker
room. "Well go on then, Migos! I didn't know you could ball like that!"


I laughed, stopping to drink some water from the water fountain. "Man, I
learned that shit from you and Rick, whatchu mean?"


When I looked back up he had taken his sweat soaked tank top off, and was
drying his face with it. Trickles of sweat ran down his lean chest and
stomach, disappearing into his basketball shorts.


"You right" he said laughing, "Ima get a drink man. I'll be right down, you
go on."


He motioned for me to go on ahead to the locker room, which I did.


I had study hall next period, so I wasn't in a rush to get changed like all
the other guys were. I was in my boxers pulling my regular clothes out of
my locker when Winston came back down. Again, I caught him in the corner of
my eye, stop briefly and look me up and down, before coming to his own
locker and taking his things out.


"Whew, that was some good shit." He exclaimed nervously, sitting on the
bench. Or at least that's what it sounded like to me.


I chuckled in agreement as I pulled my shirt on. "Yeah, it was. We should
make me kicking your ass in ball a regular thing."


"Ha! Yeah oookay," he said, "we'll see about that."


"Yeah ooookay we'll see about that" I repeated in a dumb sounding voice.


He burst out laughing.


"Yoo!" He lunged for me, and we started play wrestling, just like we used
to with my bro. "You got jokes!"


Laughing all the way to the floor, he quickly pinned me down easily. Arms
above my head. His face inches above mine. Sweat dripping from his half
naked body down onto mine. Again I noticed just how ruggedly beautiful he
was. Fade on point, beard slightly grown out, soft looking pink lips, eyes
the deepest shade of brown. Everything suddenly became eerily quiet. The
room had emptied minutes before, so there wasn't a soul in the locker room
but us, looking into each other's eyes.


I don't remember if it was him or me that made the first move. All I know
is one second I was there, arms pinned above my head on the locker room
floor, with Winston straddled on top of me in his drawers staring intently
down at me, and the next we were kissing passionately, tongue and all. He
ripped the shirt I'd just put on back over my head and threw it aside. Our
sweaty naked bodies slid against each other. We groped, kissed, and licked,
every part of the others body we could get our hands on. We rolled around
the dirty locker room floor without noticing or caring, being too absorbed
in the feel and taste of the other's sweat soaked body to even think about
stopping. Eventually he hooked his hands under my armpits and picked me up,
only to slam me into the lockers and kiss me even more passionately than
before. I stuck my tongue completely inside his mouth, and he sucked it
hungrily. He stuck his hands in my drawers, and tugged them down and off in
one swift motion. He then grabbed my both my ass cheeks in each hand and
squeezed them, groaning as he did so into my neck.


"Damn..Winston-" I gasped suddenly, feeling one of his fingers around my
hole.


"Mmmm. Fuck lil boy you tight as hell," he said biting my neck, "if I had
some lube on me I'd fuck the shit outta you right here and now."


He put a finger in his mouth to wet with spit, and this time stuck it
inside my virgin asshole. I jumped, and he groaned in pleasure, feeling how
tight it was. He kept fingering me, and kissed and sucked his way down from
my mouth, to my neck, and chest, then attacked my brown nipples with a
hunger and aggression I'd never seen in him before. I couldn't help but
moan and mumble nonsensical shit the whole time.


"Aghh! Fuck! Damn..feels good!"


His fingers inside me hurt at first, but as he licked and explored my young
body, I gradually relaxed, and started to notice how good it felt.


I eventually pulled him up, and slammed him into the lockers this time. I
attacked his lips again, getting drunk off the taste and feel of his thick
pink lips against mine. I sucked and bit his bottom lip softly, while
exploring his defined chest with my hands. My lips and tongue left a slick
trail down to his perfect dark black nipples, just as he had done to me,
and he grabbed the back of my head and moaned so loud I thought for sure
someone had heard us. I kept licking down, tasting each ab, and just as he
had done, I pulled down his boxer briefs, but instead of grabbing his ass,
took his precum soaked dick straight in my mouth. I had seen porn before,
so I wasn't completely out of the loop when it came to sex, and oral. I had
seen plenty of clips of women sucking dick and licking balls and shit. I
could taste each drop of precum as it oozed out of Winston's thick
chocolate dick. I sucked and slobbered all over that tasty 8" dick till it
was dripping a mixture of both precum and saliva. He could barely get out a
coherent word the whole time either.


"Damn son! Suck that shit! FUCK, Migos, that feels GOOD!"


He slapped my face, which normally would have pissed me, or anybody off,
but in the moment was so hot I nearly nutted.


"Yeah you like that black dick don't you? I bet you always wanted this
dick!" he said in that sexy ass deep voice, which made me suck his dick
harder.


"Open your mouth!" he demanded, and slapped me again.


He spit in my mouth and tongue kissed me, before ramming his dick back down
my throat. He face fucked me until my eyes teared up and I was gagging
uncontrollably.


I was so turned on by the whole situation that I'd started leaking
myself. I started jacking my dick as Winston face fucked me, until he
noticed and pulled his dick out of my mouth. "I'm gonna make you bust
first," he said, "watch." He picked me up by the armpits again like last
time, but this time sat me down on the bench. He kneeled between my legs
and proceeded to give me my first, and most intense, blowjob to date. I
didn't know at the time, but I was pretty big for my age at 6". Not that it
bothered him, as he gagged on and jerked and licked my dick so hard I was
squirming underneath him and nutted almost immediately. He sucked the cum
right outta me when I did. I moaned like a bitch as he swallowed it all
without flinching, all the while jerking his own dick too. He smiled, and
then forced open my mouth and stuck his cum tasting tongue inside, and I
tasted myself for the first of many times to come with Winston.


"You taste good as hell baby boy," he whispered into my ear, giving it a
lick that sent a shiver of pleasure down my whole body, "fuck I'm about to
bust now too!"


He grabbed the back of my head and stuck his rock hard dick inside my mouth
and pumped and pumped until he was shooting one of the biggest loads I've
ever experienced to date, down my throat, and all over my chest.


"SHIT! FUUUCK!" he roared as the last few shots of cum covered my face.


He sat leaning against the lockers on the bench across from me to catch his
breath.


"Damn baby you look so good with my nut all over you," he said, looking me
up and down.


He came over and licked up some of the cum that had landed on my chest,
before also cleaning up my face with his tongue, which was also covered in
his cum. He once again let me taste some more, by letting some of the cum
he licked up drip from his tongue onto mine. He had already shot like half
his load down my throat, but it felt so freaky, and hot, tasting his cum
from his own tongue. It tasted so good, like mine, creamy and thick, but
even better, probably because it came from Winston.


"Goddamn that shit was fire," he said panting, "damn."


He laughed and sat down on the bench next to me, putting his arm around me,
and leaning me against his chest.


"Thank god Mr. Rivera's class is swimming this month, otherwise we woulda
been caught," I said.


I could hear his heartbeat.  "Oh, word they got their own locker room for
the pool," he replied, "damn, that's lucky as shit, cuz I don't think I
woulda been able to stop even if somebody woulda walked in on us!"


"Haaa. You nasty son."


Though I probably wouldn't have been able to stop either, I thought.


We stayed that way for a few more minutes before getting up. Drying
ourselves off, and horsing around a bit more in the process, I wondered how
the hell I was going to get through the rest of the day after some shit
like this.


We both got dressed and ready pretty quickly, afraid our luck at not having
been caught would run out any second, only to realize it had only been
thirty-five minutes since we came down downstairs. It had seemed like hours
considering all the shit that we just did, I thought. Only missed one class
though, I realized, thank goodness.


Once we were dressed and ready to go, Winston pulled me in for one last
hug. His tall and solid frame were the perfect complement to my slim and
shorter one. His strong arms wrapped around me completely. I'd never felt
so safe and protected in my life. A quick wave of panic had briefly passed
over me once we finished doing what we just did, worried that things would
be weird between us from now on, but being enveloped in his arms like that,
with such tender affection, dispelled those negative thoughts almost as
quickly as they had arisen.


"Thank you," I whispered.


"Like I said before, I got you baby boy, always." He squeezed me a bit
tighter and whispered, "your sexy ass mine now, I hope you know."


We both laughed, just as the end of class bell rang.


"Damn right. And you mine." I replied.


He smiled. "All yours lil man. We gon' keep this between me and you for now
though, aight? Don't want it to get weird with your bro and fam just yet,
you feel me?"


"Yeah I know. I was thinking the same thing," I said.


After all, I was just then coming to terms with the fact that I might be
gay. Anything else seemed way too much to handle at that moment. He kissed
my forehead, and we climbed back upstairs to the gym.


"Aight Migos," he said smiling at me, "time to go back to the real world
before people think we cut class for the rest of the day or some shit."


I decided we should walk out of the gym one after the other so as not to
look suspicious. We dapped goodbye and I went on ahead first. Next period
was History, I realized climbing the stairs to the second floor, I hope
Juan did his homework during Study Hall.  I stopped by the bathroom before
going inside the classroom, just to get my bearings and make sure I didn't
look too busted. Besides being flushed, and still slightly sweaty, which
was expected after (an extra long) gym class, I didn't look too bad. There
wasn't "I just got face fucked by my older brothers best friend in my high
school locker room" written all over my face like I thought there would
be. Just then I heard the bell ring again, so I quickly washed my face with
water and reapplied deodorant to make sure I was extra fresh, before
heading for History. I walked in a minute late, just as my teacher was
seemingly introducing someone to the class.


"So we'd like to give a warm welc-" Mrs. Baxter stopped, slightly startled
mid-sentence, as I entered, "-Oh, Mr. Martinez! Perfect timing," she said,
"We were just welcoming Jamal here to the class, he's a new student from
Brooklyn, and we just found out you and him have some history."


I barely caught what she said. Having just been face-fucked in my high
school's locker room and all.  "Excuse me?"


"Jamal here is the son of the woman your father saved," she said, turning
to Jamal for confirmation "isn't that right?"


Jamal looked older than me, but only by like a year or two. He was slightly
taller too, probably around 5'9", and was the darkest shade of ebony I'd
ever seen. Despite it being November, he was in a Brooklyn Nets tank top,
which gave away his athletic build and seemingly blemish free black
skin. All which made what perhaps was his most striking feature of all, his
silver septum ring, stand out all the more prominently.


He nodded. "Yup."


I could feel myself turning redder than I already was.


"O-Oh okay, wow" I stammered out.


I was momentarily overwhelmed. There was way too much going on today than I
could handle, I thought. I could feel Juan's worried eyes on me as I walked
towards my seat. He knew how delicate of a topic my father was to me. I
suddenly felt extremely lightheaded, so I tried to just focus on Juan, and
sitting down beside him, but to no avail. I think I heard Mrs. Baxter ask
if I was feeling okay. But I'm not entirely sure. The last thing I clearly
remember before fainting though, was Jamal's stone cold glare following me
as I tried to walk past him to get to my seat, almond shaped eyes so dark
and intense, you'd think he had laser vision, drilling into my skull.




To be continued...



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