Persona Book I (BWWM)

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Afia P.O.V.

I have never been to a football game so you could imagine my nervous stature when Ben was telling me yesterday when he called me. I hate football- people getting concussions and breaking bones does not sound appealing to me. But Ben insisted that this was a necessity and if I didn't wear his jersey people would be suspicious. So, he laid it out to me last night that he was going to drive me to school tomorrow and that I had to wear his jersey. The next morning I decided to not leave my hair in a ponytail like it usually was and decided to leave it down and I combed through it so three broken combs left it was finally looked presentable.

I put on the jersey and the damn thing came a little past my thighs, giving up trying to tie it in a knot I left it and threw on my shoes and raced downstairs. My mother was sitting down a plate in front of my father when she saw that I was wearing Ben's jersey. She smiled and nudged my father and he looked up at her with irritation on his features and she nodded towards me and he saw the jersey and gave me a satisfied smile. "I see everything is going well between the two of you." My father said looking back down at the newspaper.

"Yeah his first game is today." I said picking up a granola bar.

"Ah, see Asha this is a football player I approve of even though he is not our skin color he will give us a more then comfortable lifestyle."

I didn't want to make the jab he threw at Angelo so I just continued eating my granola bar when the doorbell rang. I frowned, we were not expecting anyone and before I could go get the door my mother beat me to it.

It was quiet for a moment before we heard footsteps come into the room and I froze my chewing as I saw the familiar figure that was supposed to just pick me up not meet my parents.

"Aba, look who came in to meet us before he picked our daughter up to go to school." My mother said gleaming.

My father turned to Ben and he gave him a wide smile and stood and gave him a firm handshake. Still frozen in my spot I finally caught his gaze and mouthed 'what are you doing?' He didn't respond he just began talking to my parents.

"I am Benjamin Waters." He said smiling.

"Oh, we have heard so much of you not just from our daughter but everywhere ever since we moved here." My father said putting his hands behind his back.

"I am sorry I could not have the pleasure of meeting-"

"It is fine, Afia has told us that your practice ran over and we completely understand." My mother said patting his arm.

"We see that you have a good head on your shoulders and we are glad that you are dating our daughter." My father said still smiling.

As I watched the interaction I was panicking hoping that Ben would not say the wrong thing like how he was still in love with his ex or that this whole relationship was a fraud.

My father looked down at his watch and stared at me and Ben and said, "You two must be on your way we don't want to hold the two of you up now do we Asha?"

My mother nodded in agreement and I let out a sigh of relief and walked towards Ben and grabbed his hand and we walked out of the house.

When we got in his car I looked him with a crazed look on my face and said, "What the hell were you thinking?"

"It was a spur of a moment type of thing don't you think it went good?" He said grinning.

I rolled my eyes, "Yes it did go good because you were already in their good graces, Ben to them you are the American dream, you have money, you play football, and you have a powerful last name even though you are not black you are rich and that's all they care about."

"Wow, your family-"

"Is a piece of work I know." I said finishing his sentence.

"Well I am just glad I am in their good graces." He said pulling on to the road.

I nodded in agreement and we drove in small talk going over the plan,

"You are going to stay after school and sit on the bleacher with the other girlfriends." He explained.

"I don't even think they like me." I said playing with the ends of my hair.

He frowned and stared at me and said, "What do you mean?"

"I mean it is not that hard to see, after we came back from the field I could feel their stares from a mile away and the head of the bitch tribe, Kailey, hers was the hardest one." I shrugged looking at him.

He clenched his jaw and he frowned, "Do you think it is because you are black?"

"Of course, it is what else would it be, I am the first black girl to sit at that damn table." I said stating facts.

He stopped at the red light and looked at me and he took his free hand and grabbed intertwining our fingers.

"I am so sorry Afia." He said squeezing my hand.

"Ben, it is not your fault I mean I am kind of used to it when I first moved to America and I use to have an accent, I got the same looks after a while I learned to ignore the looks and the vulgar words they said." I said staring down at our hands and comparing the different tones.

He was quiet for a moment before saying, "You have me now."

I looked at him and saw that he was a few inches from my face he stared at me before staring down at my lips, the sound of a car honking interrupted the intense situation and Ben quickly pressed on the gas and sent us on our way to school leaving the moment to our memories.

----

When we arrived at school it went exactly as Ben told me, people were staring and whispering. He walked me to my locker and carried my things. We stopped at my homeroom and he handed me my things and gave me a kiss on the cheek and told me that he would meet me after my class. That's how it went all day and at lunch I got glares from the girlfriends and I did exactly what I told Ben I usually do, ignored it. When Ryan arrived at the table Ben did exactly what I told him to do, be cordial.

As it was getting to the end of lunch Ryan finally decided to say something after ignoring us the whole time, "So I see you guys worked it out so tell me how does it feel being second best."

I remembered my sister telling me when I was younger that if you feel like you are being picked on, don't let anyone see how it is effecting you instead you pick back.

"The hell is your problem?" Ben said his eyes narrowing.

I held his clenched fist before looking up at Ben and saying, "Hey I am a big girl I could stick up for myself, but I do have to agree with you what the hell is your problem." I looked at him mimicking his smirk.

"I just wanted to know how you took the news." He said placing his fork back on the tray.

"If you must know, I already knew because he told me before we started dating but you see my mother always told me that if a guy keeps on picking on you then he must have a crush on you, is there something you need to tell me Ryan." I said cocking my head to the side a little. When I said this I earned a laugh from the football team and silence from Ryan. They talked for a minute before the bell rung and we went our separate ways.

While we were walking, Ben said, "That was cool what you did back there."

I smiled at him and simply said, "Well I had to stop the soon to be confrontation somehow."

"I tried Afia but he knows how to get under my skin." He said stopping at my class.

"And how is that?" I said running a hand through my tangled curls, and looked into my halfway full class.

He simply said, "You."