See In Him

16

Two days later, Aja confronted Kennith about writing an apology letter to Lucia. The boy had refused to attend school in fear of meeting Lucia again.

The argument was short; Aja was careful not to encroach too far on the subject. When Kennith raised his voice, she left, and was rather proud of herself for being able to back down.

Eventually, Kennith found himself grudgingly writing a letter to the girl. The boy was guilty. He didn't want to confront himself in a letter. He didn't want to confront what he did. Once he was finished with the letter, which was a simple apology with little explanation of why he said the things he said, Jesse sealed it for him. Still, Kennith dreaded the next day when he would have to deliver it. All he could do was pray that she wasn't at school and let the guilt eat at him.

The teachers were impressed by his sudden return to class. They had been informed of his situation and expected to not hear from him for a while since previous incidents usually had him out for at least two months. He also seemed eager to catch up on work.

Jesse dropped Kennith off at school around noon on September twelfth. It was muggy out. It put him in a bad mood, but there was air conditioning in the school, thankfully.

There were three students in the room he normally used, all working quietly. Kennith could faintly hear music coming from a pair of headphones. With a glance around the room, he decided that Lucia's big, poofy head of black hair wasn't there. Why wasn't she there? Who the fuck was he supposed to give his apology to?

"Hey, Kennith," one of the students mumbled. He didn't have friends, but some students who used the room knew him because they spent so much time sitting silently together. "Mm," he replied, finding his chair at the back and collapsing in it with his cane in his lap. It was collapsed in a second.

"Kennith! You're back!" Gresson greeted. She was marking papers at a desk in the corner beside his chair. "Great," he deadpanned, "So nice to be back." He rolled his eyes. Her papers rustled and her pen clicked. "You want me to find a list of the things you missed or just get you started on it?" the woman asked. "Is Lucia here?" was his reply.

The woman didn't pause. "Yeah, I think I saw her this morning. She was downstairs skipping last time I saw her."

"Is she gonna stop skipping? I need to see her."

"You.. need to see her?"

"Kennith? Hey, you're back!" Lucia's heavy footsteps and voice approached them with excitement. He didn't expect her to ignore him, but how could she seem so unbothered?

"Lucia?" he asked.

"I thought you would never come back! Jeez, where have you been?"

"Lucia," he repeated, standing with the note in both his hands. He really didn't want to beat around the bush and worried that if he didn't apologize then, he would lose courage and walk out the door. So, he ducked his head and held the note to her with shaky arms, worried that he would hit her by accidentally standing too close. He didn't. "Lucia, I'm sorry!" The classroom was silent for a moment. The note wasn't taken from his hands. Kennith began to sweat.

"What are you apologizing for?!" she exclaimed finally, snatching the paper from him. He straightened and took a step back, stumbling back into his chair. "Thank you for the letter, though. It means a lot, but you don't need to apologize for getting mad. I've been called things a lot worse than retarded before, y'know."

"That doesn't make it okay," he frowned.

"I mean, it was obvious that you had other shit going on. I get it. As long as you're better now, that's all that matters, right? A lot of people don't have the testicles to apologize like you did."