Kenya

Most of my weekend was spent with my mom. She took me grocery shopping and then we saw some corny romance/comedy movie that she'd wanted to see for a while.

It was kind of nice just to hang out with her because back home she never seemed happy. My dad was always criticizing her, which is I guess where I got my bad qualities from. He always told her that she didn't try hard enough, or she did things wrong.

On Sunday night, I hunkered down to do some homework and study for a history quiz the next day. My mom knocked on my door and then let herself in.

"Your dad wants to know what you want for your birthday."

"Nothing."

"That's not like you, but I'll pass the message on."

"Actually, I wouldn't mind a bit of cash or something."

"And he's back," my mom said, joking around with me. It was a completely different side of her that I hadn't seen in so long.

She sat down on my bed. "Is something wrong Ash?"

"Naw, everything's fine."

"I heard about you and Shannon."

"From who?"

"I'm a mom. I know everything."

I rolled my eyes.

"If you need to talk or something, come find me, okay Ash? Even if you're almost a legal adult, you're still my baby."

"Okay mom."

"Sleep good."

I really liked having my mom around and happy. She was the better half of my parents. Clearly. My dad just tried to win me over by money all the time, which wasn't actually a bad thing always.

---

Each morning that week I was woken up by a simple "Good morning:)" text from Perry. She was so sweet that I felt a little bit bad that she was just occupying my time until I could get out of there.

On the bus I saw Kenya. He only glanced in my direction, but ignored me otherwise. He always had headphones shoved in his ears and a ratty black hoodie with the hood over his hair. When he walked past I could vaguely smell cigarettes and cheap cologne.

I passed him in the hall a few times, but he didn't even look my way. It was hard to see how he could be so obsessed with me one moment and then completely ignore me or care less about me the next.

Kurt gave me a little bit of hell, but it didn't bother me too much. His girlfriend kept him in line for the most part. Perry said that she probably had a thing for me, which didn't surprise me much.

Art class was by far my favorite though. Ms. Beck was really nice to me and a few other guys who actually took her class seriously. The rest of the guys she sent out of her classroom when it was called for. She turned out to be a lot less wishy-washy than we'd all thought.

Friday afternoon Kurt was having a special case of asshole syndrome and decided to knock me into a locker so I ended up punching him in the ear. He completely football tackled me into the floor so that my cheek was pressed against the tile.

"Don't ever hit me again lady-boy, or you won't live to see another day."

"Whatever Kurt."

He hit me again just for good measure, and I swear to god he was going for a third hit even though I was trying to kick and get him off of me, but Kenya came out of nowhere and socked him hard enough that Kurt started bleeding on my shirt.

He stood up and faced Kenya. The two didn’t exchange any blows, they just stood there and stared at each other. "Didn't think your boyfriend could take care of himself?"

"I'm not even gay," I interjected.

Kurt stepped towards me, but was grabbed by some faculty member. Kenya's arm was grabbed too, but he used the other to flip Kurt the bird. I was helped up off of the ground and walked to the principal's office with the two other boys.

All three of us sat in front of the principal. He was a big black man with a mustache. He scared the actual shit out of me because he looked more like a WWE star than a principal. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually was a pro wrestler.

Kenya looked bored. He picked at his nails. Kurt looked a little bit on edge because I'm sure this wouldn't look very good for college. I probably looked like I was scared out of my mind.

"Fighting is against school rules."

None of us said anything.

"I could expel you."

Kenya still looked uninterested. I was sweating by now, and Kurt was turning red in the face.

"And you Ashley, you've not even been here two full weeks."

"I can't help it this dickwad has it out for me."

Kurt gripped the chair's armrests. The principal, Mr. Stone, a rather fitting name, gave me a disapproving look.

"I've decided that all three of you will have ISS for the first two days of next week. You will work with our janitor, Mr. Michelson, and you will do whatever he says. If I catch any of you with one toe out of line, that will be the last we see of you at this school. Comprende?"

The Spanish at the end was the icing on the cake for Kenya. He smirked. "In school suspension isn't even that big of a deal."

"Well, Mr. Rayner, perhaps you'd like an extra day?"

"If it gets me out of physics."

"We're done here. Stay out of trouble."

Kenya and I walked the same way to wait for the late bus. Kurt went to the student parking lot, presumably to drive home and plot my demise. Or maybe I was too self-centered and he was actually going to go home and convince his parents that he did nothing wrong.

"Thanks for saving my ass." It was hard to thank Kenya, but he deserved it. If he hadn't cut in, I'd be arranging appointments with plastic surgeons to right my face.

"Whatever man."

"No I didn't deserve you stepping in. I was a dick the other day. I'm sorry."

"No you aren't. You're just feeling guilty. It'll pass, don't worry about it."

"Fine then."

"Listen. We don't have to be friends. We don't have to ever talk again. I'm sorry I hit on you and made things weird, but I'm over it. So just get over this. I hate Kurt too, it was nothing personal."

I stopped talking to him. If he was just going to be an ass I wanted nothing to do with him.

We waited in silence for hours. Or at least it seemed that way. Kenya put his headphones in and completely ignored my existence. I just sat on the bench and stared at things in front of me.

I watched the electronic marquis cycle between announcements about one hundred times. I watched people drive and walk past the school. I watched the clouds move across the sky. And finally, I watched the late buses pull into the school. Kenya and I were basically the only two riding the bus, so we sat on almost opposite ends.

He got off at his stop and I got off at mine. When I opened the door to Aunt Trisha's condo, my mom was glaring at me from the kitchen.

"You're getting too old for this Ashley."

"Mom, I didn't start it. Some dick shoved me into a locker. Do you want me just to pussy out and take it?"

My mom just shook her head. "I hope you don't have weekend plans because you're not leaving this house."

"Whatever."

"Don't sass me Ashley Thomas."

I rolled my eyes and went to my room.