Chapter 4

"Israel Immanuel Taylor, where have you been?!" Ma screams at me and I swear she's coming to slap me but dad holds her back.

"I— I—" I hardly ever lie and even when I do it's with much practice. I forgot to practice!

"Talk to me boy!" Ma screams and I flinch, biting on my lip so hard I taste blood.

"Liz, calm down." Dad says, being the calm and collected intermediary as always.

"Calm down?" Ma asks him, doing the exact opposite as she glares at me, pointing a finger. "I've been worried sick about you. I thought something terrible has happened to you and your phone was switched off. I was so close to calling the police and I've driven to your school to check up on you and now you waltz in here and your daddy is telling me to be calm?" She laughs humorless for a sec and then glares back. "Israel, if you don't tell me where you've been, I'mma—" she pauses, then continues. "I'm going to beat you up, blue black!"

"Ma, I'm sorry," I breakdown, unable to hold in the tears any longer. I don't want to get beat up, I can't tell the truth and I don't know a lie to tell.

"Are you injured? Anything happened?" Dad asks repeating the questions ma threw at me when I walked in. I shook my head, wiping at my cheeks.

Nessa comes out the kitchen, backing my parents and raises a book up to me. I have to apply subtlety as I squint my eyes to read what she wrote on bold letters.

Say you slept off... in the parking lot...

"I— I slept off in the parking lot," I blurt out, my heart hammering in chest for the second time today for a completely different reason.

"Slept off?" Dad asked.

I nod, "y-yeah I was waiting for more cars to leave before I do." That wasn't a lie.

"How come I didn't see you when I came to your school?" Ma asks.

Um... I look back at Nessa and she was mouthing something I couldn't quite get. Then she started moving her legs and hands backwards as if pulling something invisible. I frowned at her and mum looked back to see what was happening. Nessa immediately lifted the mug to her lips, if not for the situation I was in, the whole thing would have been comical. When ma's eyes returned to me, Nessa got to spelling whatever she was mouthing.

T... O... W...

"Tow," I say out loud, happy I got it.

"What?" Ma and dad asked and I got what Nessa has been trying to tell me.

"They towed the car." I blurt out.

"With you inside?" Dad asks worried.

I nod, "but they didn't go far because I woke up and pleaded with them."

"Israel, I don't fully understand you right now." Ma says probably picking on the lie.

"Ma why don't we just let Israel rest," Nessa jumps in to save me. "He has clearly had a long day."

Ma doesn't say anything and Dad sighs waving us away. Nessa and I thank them and we start going up the stairs. When we reach my room, I pause looking down at my feet and waiting for Nessa to ask me what truly happened.

"I don't want to know Is, just keep your mess together." She waves before bounding into her own room and shutting the door behind her.

I sigh in relief and enter into the room, turning on the lights and almost screaming when I see Pounce there. "What are you doing here little guy?"

He looks at me and meows before jumping up on my bed. I ignore him and start changing out of my clothes. "You won't believe what happened today, Pounce." I started a silly smile on my face as recalled seeing Sky for the second time in years today at the parking lot. His smile and smirk. His frown and laugh, then alas his sleepy face.

The big guy at the mechanic took longer than twenty minutes and I wasn't counting, not with my eyes closed lying beside Sky on his truck. When we were finally called, it was close to an hour spent there. He apologized to us but I didn't even feel angry about it, I was just worried about going home seeing as the sun had set. Sky however had to leave his car there to come pick it tomorrow so I volunteered to give him a ride.

The ride was silent as he had his head against the window sleeping soundly. I kept glancing at him every second and regrettably woke him up when I reached the junction he asked me to drop him off on. I watched him rub his eyes open and leave the car, promising to see me tomorrow before walking off, hands deep in his pockets.

I pick Pounce off my bed and do a little twirl like we're dancing. "He has a name," I sing out, running my fingers through his fur. "Sky."

I fall back on my bed and Pounce meows and jumps off, running out my room the way he came. The name Sky kept going off in my head and no matter how much I tried to distract myself, anytime I closed my eyes, I saw his smile.

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"Nigga, you ain't gonna believe what happened to me," Jamal says in lieu of a hello as he walks up to me, slapping a hand against my shoulder and relaxing his side on the locker next to mine.

I look away from Lou and turn to him. "See that's why you shouldn't go visit your mama all the time, you get way in all over your head with them hood talks." I don't sound like myself saying that, I am trying to sound like the nigga he just called me and it sounds so sour coming from me. Jamal and I hold our gazes before he bursts out laughing and I join him.

"Nope, never do that again." He says shaking his head, back to speaking normal.

"Only if you promise not to do it too. Is it something your Mom feeds you over there or what?" I ask shutting my locker and looking at him. He's been gone one week and he didn't change much. Still an inch shorter with his craved hair and ragged (but clean) jacket.

"Nah," he waved it off, then pulled me into a hug. "I've missed you Issy."

"You too Mal," I hug him back, giving a few pat before we split.

Jamal Cole has been my friend since freshman year. As usual, everyone was new to this highschool stuff and we were trying to find our way around. There were all this clubs and everyone was trying to fit in somewhere. I didn't know what exactly I wanted so when someone brought some mathlets flyer to my face, I just went for it. Jamal was in the club to and he was the smartest one there. He kept answering questions after questions and I was completely drawn. At first I thought it was the confusing feelings stuff but it wasn't it, I just wanted to be friends with such a smart person.

I asked him a question once and after that we just hit it up from there, maths connecting us and slowly we found other things we had in common except mathlets and being brown. I dropped out of the mathlets club a year after, it wasn't really my thing but Jamal remained of course. For about a month our friendship wavered and I thought I'd lost a good friend but one day he just shows up at my locker and the next day too and the next. We've been a duo ever since.

"I've so many things to tell you Issy," he says as we start walking away from my locker.

"Me too." I tell him and he looks at me surprised. Then he does an exaggerated gasp, placing a hand over his chest.

"You had a life after I was gone?"

I hit him a little with shoulder, "shut up and of course."

"Tell me it doesn't involve your new car or Pounce the cat."

"Um—" he gives me a seriously look and I shut him up. "It does involve my car a little and kinda a cat... But not Pounce."

"Mmhm."

"Really."

"Then, Jesus Christ?"

"Shut up Mal."

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And we now meet Jamal. I love that name, inspired by the movie series Empire.

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