F•R•I•E•N•D•S

Chapter 23:

Ziggy
March 30
1:15 pm

The sound of my phone ringing caused me to wake up from my sleep. I sat up on the chair long enough to grab my phone off of the ground then laid back down while answering it

"Hello" I muttered, still half asleep

"It's Tuesday and you still ain came to school yet"

"And?"

Geo sucked his teeth "zig, I ain seen you since Friday"

"And I miss you too but I just didn't feel like coming to school"

"Why not? You cool with sittin in that house witcho uncle"

"I'm not at home"

"The hell you at then?"

"My grandma's house. I been here since Sunday"

"Why?"

I sighed "I just wanted to get away from that house"

"And you could've called me"

"You already do enough for me Geo.. you and your momma"

"And?"

"AND I'm fine. I promise"

Geo stayed quiet for a minute before talking again

"You coming to school tomorrow?"

"Mhmm. I'm going home later today.. unfortunately"

"Well I would've appreciated it if you told me all this before instead of having me worrying bout yo ass"

"Well I'm fine"

"I ain knew that"

"Geo.."

"I'm just saying. How we supposed to be working on a relationship if you ain communicating"

"I'm sorry. I know I need to do better"

"Yeah, you do.. but I ain gone press you about it.. I'll just talk to you later cause one of us gotta get back to class"

"Shut up" I sucked my teeth before sitting up "I love you"

"I love you too zakia" he replied before I hung up and sat my phone on my lap, sighing again as my grandma walked into the living room

"You up now?"

"Yeah. Thank you for letting me stay here grandma"

"No problem.. but you sure it's okay you missed 2 days of school?"

I nodded "I rarely miss school" I lied

"Okay then... hopefully you and your uncle can get along eventually"

"I doubt that" I told her as I moved my phone and started to fold the blanket I slept under. I didn't tell my grandma about us fighting but I just told her I hated him

"You know, sometimes in life we have to deal with certain things we don't wanna deal with. All we can do is embrace it and learn from it"

"All he make me do is learn to hate men"

"Come on zakia" she walked over to the chair and sat beside me as I finished folding the blanket "listen babygirl, I'm not too fond of your uncle either, but that's all we got right now. No, your situation isn't as fortunate as everybody else's but you should have a reason to chase after success because this.. this is not what you wanna be stuck in for the rest of your life"

"I just wish circumstances could've been different"

"Don't we all? But we gotta live with what we got. You'll be okay"