Hear Your God Speaking

| Chapter: 3 |

I stop off at my locker to get my textbook for my next class and on the way there, I see Lauretta and Heath with Jacqueline. Heath hasn't noticed me yet, and that's because he's about to lean in to kiss Jacqueline, they make out until the warning bell rings, and they both rush to class like they've lost track of time. I try not to glare, because with all the face sucking they do, I'm afraid one of them will fall in the others mouth and be swallowed whole. 

"Hey, before you turn in the homework assignment for Genetics can I see it? I didn't have time to finish it after Dance practice," says Lauretta almost pleadingly. I had not looked her way yet, as I was putting the lock back on my locker to close it when I say, "You didn't have time or your plates too full with all the extra curriculaor activities do?" 

"I can't quit Dance or any of the other stuff I do at school—" I give her the side eye and she bites her tongue.

"I guess I can try to cut back on the other stuff, but without you none of it would be possible, you are what holds me together." She says batting her eyelashes.

"Oh shut up already with your sap story." I say looking away from the ridiculous face that she's making. She laughs and follows beside me as we head to class and I give her my work. Lauretta goes on to talk about her Dance team and how she's proud of how far they came throughout the years. She's admired by her peers for her choreographing skills, she performs at school events like pep rallies, Dance competitions, and this year her team is auditioning for Nationals. People don't find what they really want to do career wise until later in their life, but Lauretta is fortunate to find something she sees herself doing for the rest of her life. But like every person who rises to the top, has a few haters. Lauretta has had some conflict with the school's cheerleader captain, Nora. The beef they have with one another is petty, Nora sees Lauretta as her competition, because some of her cheer leading members left to join the Dance team, and while other girls balance their schedules to join both. Lauretta sees cheerleading as a set routine with no free creativity or enough variety; it would have pained Nora to hear those words come out her mouth, because as they all know she begs to differ. 

They walk into the classroom and they notice that today for class a guest speaker will be talking to their class. Lauretta finds a seat  with one of her dance team member's and when Alex searches around the room she sees that she is left to sit with the boy that came in her calculus  late. She may have recognized who he was, because he did look familiar to her, someone she's seen around campus before probably. She takes the seat anyway and tries not to think deep into it, she didn't know him and she wasn't trying to get to. He glances at her once when she sits down and he looks at her again for longer when he realizes she was in his last period. 

"Hey." He says enthusiastically. Alex turns around and sheepishly smiles at him and turns away. " ... I didn't get to say thank you when you walked away, so ... thanks for the notes." He says sincerely. 

"Yeah ...." She says awkwardly and tugs on her black sweater sleeves to pull them up just above the palm of her hands, and learns on the table. She crosses her legs and slides slightly over to edge of the table, and he hears her chair moving to the other side. He fails to act like he doesn't notice when he synthetically laughs at her response to her being around him. 

"I get it, you're anti-social it must be painful when you get into these types of interactions with people."  Alex gives him a hard glare when he makes that remark, she could say a lot of things to him in that moment, but she rolls her eyes. They're waiting for class to start as the guest speaker is setting up some pan-flits and their teachers leaves the room to make more copies of worksheets he'll hand out. 

"What's your name?" He ask.

"What?" She responds confusingly and narrowing her eyes. 

"Sorry, I'm just trying to figure you out." He says appearing more honest rather than harsh like  he was before. 

"Why? You don't know me."

"Exactly."

"I could be a murderer." 

"You got to be kidding me right?" He snickers.

"What if I'm not." She says looking away but in all seriousness. Alex happens to make eye contact with Laruetta, and she raises an eyebrow and smirks when she looks at the boy sitting next to Alex and back at her. Alex frowns, rolls her eyes and looks down at her table. 

"Is that your sister?" He ask, and Alex has a feeling he noticed their little eye conversation. 

"What's it to you?" 

"Are you always on defense mode?" He said back to his harsh tone again. Just in time their teacher comes back to pass out the worksheets. The papers are passed out and she begins to write her name on hers and shields her paper with her arms from him seeing. He sighs glumly, and before he can make another one of his remarks she says, "It's Alex." He nods his head acceptingly and replies, "It's Augustus." 

They found out that today the guest speaking has come to talk about AIDS and HIV. She is average size lady, fairly skinny, and thinning hair thats pulled back. Her skin is pale against her floral dress and she has a small smile on her face. Her hands are held together as she waits for the class to get situated, and our teacher gives her the floor. 

"Hello, how is everyone doing this morning?" She ask in general, and a few students respond say good, well, or great. We can tell she is displeased by our feedback, and we can see her taking a breath as her chest rises. "What about tired?" and almost everyone agrees, or chuckle. She shakes her head and she has the same small smile on her face again. 

"I want to give you a little background history about myself before I start this lesson today. I've been living with HIV for 10 years now, I became a statistic back in 2005. I wish I could tell you that I got this disease, because I was in love with my partner and I had made a risky decision in not using protection. I wasn't in love, no I got this disease when I had been kidnapped and sold into human trafficking. The men involved in these traffickings don't care about sexual transmitted diseases that can be given to them or these victims. A long with physical there are psychological effects that faced and with coming years have overcome. I will discuss more of that tomorrow when you all come again, but today we will just be talking about AIDS and HIV. It is not a disease transmitted through friendly gestures like kissing, hugs, handshakes, or sharing food, that is one of the few misconceptions. 

Lauretta turns behind her to see how Alex is holding up. She's worried about her when she sees her legs are shaking and her hands hovered over her face. She's afraid that she might throw one of her tantrums in the room in front of everyone. It comes to her mind that she can't control her fear on her own so she gets up from her seat and crouches down beside Alex. Up close she can see tears streaming down her eyes and her lips curled inside her mouth. She takes her hand in hers and helps her get to her feet, and they exit the room. Their teacher sees them on their way out, and assumed it was an emergency. The lesson continues, and later when class is near ending he goes out to see where they have gone.