Teaching Mr. Graham

Chapter Forty-Five

    "Tati! Can you slow down? Tati!"

    Tatiana slowed her steps and turned to face her friend. She angrily pushed hair out of her face, vibrating with anger.

    Kenya stopped running and gave herself a moment to catch her breath. "Not that I'm not as proud as fuck of you right now, but...where did that come from?"

    "I don't know," Tatiana mumbled, wrapping her arms around herself and staring towards the restaurant she'd just burst out of. "Whenever I'm around them, I just...I feel so smothered. I put up with so much from them, and was pretty much a shut-in throughout all of high school. The fact that they expect me not to have any life at all...the fact that they expect school to be my life...the reality of that just hit me, and I was just tired of it. All of it. Tired of them."

    Kenya glanced over her shoulder. "Well...you aren't just going to leave them in there, are you?"

    "Do you really think I should go back in there after what I just said to them?" Tatiana's bravery was already beginning to slip away from her.

    "If you were going to unload about dating Drake, you really should've thrown in that you're taking a writing class," Kenya said.

    Tatiana turned and started walking again, this time more slowly so her friend could keep up. "You're right. I should've. I wasn't even thinking clearly, I just...I wanted to shock them. Leave them speechless for once."

    "Wow. Here I was feeling bad for slipping and calling them 'Marcus' and 'Rasheeda.' If only I'd known you were about to come unloading some facts and truth on them. I wouldn't have felt bad at all."

    While walking, Tatiana only half-listened to Kenya. She worried about what her parents would do now that they knew she was dating Aubrey. If only she could be a fly on the wall of the restaurant she'd just stormed out of. On the other hand, she wondered what Aubrey was thinking right about now. Was he regretting getting involved with her now that he'd met her overbearing parents? She stared down at the ground and kicked a few rocks that were in her path.

    Kenya lapsed into silence, unable to come up with any soothing words. What soothing words existed to console a girl who'd come close to cursing out her own parents?

    "They're going to kill me," Tatiana said miserably. "They're going to pull me out of college and lock me in the basement and that's where I'll have to stay until I die."

    "That's a bit melodramatic," Kenya muttered. "And dark. They're not that bad." She seemed to think about it and amended, "Well maybe they are close to that bad. But your schooling is everything to them. I doubt they'll pull you out of school. Damn. If only Drake had waited until tomorrow or something, to bring you your phone."

    "No...the conversation I had with them needed to be had, whether he'd shown up or not." She dug into her pocket and pulled out the slip of paper that contained Aubrey's cell phone number.

    Kenya stopped walking. "So are we really going to be taking a cab, or..."

    "I have a better idea," Tatiana said, pulling out her phone. She frowned when she realized that the battery was dead. Holding out her hand, she told Kenya, "Let me see your phone."

     "What is he?" Kenya asked, handing over her phone. "A chauffeur service?"

     "Do you want to overpay for a cab?" Tatiana demanded.

     Kenya rolled her eyes and paced back and forth.

     Tatiana took a deep breath and dialed Aubrey's number into Kenya's phone, which was also close to dying.