Fifteen

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April
My brother had taken us all by surprise. I hadn't been expecting him to be the one to apologize, but I guess it made sense. He wasn't nearly as stubborn as Jamal and I so therefore better at admitting to his mistakes.

"So we good?" Keith asked. "I won't mess with you anymore unless you give me a reason to." He says his eyes flicking over to me. He still thought Aden was going to hurt my felling or something.

"I guess so?" Aden said. He still seemed a bit confused by the whole situation.

"Good, then I'ma bounce. I never did like Mr. McCat's. This room brings up a lot of bad memories." Keith said looking around the room. He pauses when his eyes land on me. He smiles.

"Later April." Keith says before leaving the room.

I wait a few seconds before chasing after him. I spot him by the staircase.

"Keith." I call.

My brother turns to look back at me. I run up to him and wrap my arms around him tight. I nearly knock us both down.

"Thanks." I say pulling back.

At the end of the day Keith is more than just my brother; he's my best friend. I always hate it when we fight. This one, although short, had been the worst fight we'd had in a long time.

Keith smiles. "Hey, don't go thinking I did that for you. I did it for me. I though about what you said and I don't want to be that guy. I'm sorry I made you cry April."

I push his shoulder. "I wasn't crying."

"Oh sure you weren't. Because April Robinson never cries." He said rolling his eyes.

"Shut up." I say with a laugh. He knows better than anyone what a big crybaby I can be, but he doesn't tell anyone.

"So are we good?" Keith ask looking down at me.

I nod my head. "Yeah we're good."

"Awesome, because there's a game to night and I need someone to watch it with. Erick's dumb a$$ is routing for state, so he's no fun."

I shake my head. "I should have known you had an ulterior motive."

Keith puts his hands in his pockets and shrugs. "I mean it wasn't the only reason, but what can I say. I miss my best bud." He says ruffling my hair. I smile at him. This is why I love Keith. He's simple and he knows how to make the people around him feel good. Every now and then he needs people to call him on his sh!t but underneath it all his a good dude.

I walk back into class. Aden is sitting in the corner. He looks up at me and smiles. I smile back and walk over towards him.

"That came as a surprise." Aden says as I sit down.

"Yeah it did, didn't it" I say with a smile.

"Do you think he's serious. It's kind of hard to believe the guy would change so suddenly."

I think about what Aden said. My brother was the type of guy who went with the flow of life. If he said he learned his lesson then I wanted to believe it.

"I hope so." I answer.

"Then I guess that only leaves Jamal for me to worry about."

"You don't have to worry about him. If any of them try anything I'll beat them to a pulp."

"April I told you I don't need you to fight my battles."

"Oh Aden that's what friends are for." I say resting my hand on his arm.

I second guess my words when I see the tense look that crosses his face. I pull my hand back feeling self conscious.

"Unless you don't want to be friends?" I say.

"No, no, friends is good. Friends is...great. We can be friends. Totally down for friendship." Aden says with a tight smile.

I smile back but there is a awkward tension in the air. I can't help but feel I said something wrong. Maybe I jumped the gun on this whole friends thing. What if he only said yes because he felt pressured.

Class starts and I take out my notebook. Several times during the lecture I glance over at Aden. His eyes are either focused on the teach or his paper. I smile. He's so studious. I bet he's the type to color code his notes. He actually looks kind of adorable when his like that.

I look back over at my own notes. Half of it is notes the other half is doodles. There's a picture of a horned monster with razor sharp teeth and the word 'feed me' coming out of it's mouth. Next to it I have the words written 'hunger demon'. It's no wonder why I barely pass any of my classes.

For the rest of my class I try to ignore Aden and focus on taking notes. It works for a time but Mr. McCat's smooth voice is almost like a lullaby. I feel myself start to drift off when something pokes me in the side.

I look over at Aden. He is still looking forward but the slightest smile plays across his lips . I narrow my eyes at him but can't keep the smile off my face.

The bell rings and we all stand up. I gather my stuff and turn back toward Aden.

"So I guess I'll see you in bio." I say.

"Yeah, should be interesting to see what Ms. Carter has planned for the next part of the project."

"Ugh I almost forgot we didn't finish the first one. We were suppose to submit it today."

I really don't need another zero bringing my grade down. Ms. Carter hates me and probably won't let me turn it in late.

"Don't worry we can work on it before class and combine our list together" Aden says.

I nod my head. It sounds like a good plan. I could work on it during my math class. It wasn't like I was going to use anything I learned in that class anyway. When was I ever going to use Pythagoreans theory?

"What do you think she meant by be ready to defend our answers?" I ask.

"Not sure. Guess we'll just have to wait and see."

I groan. Knowing Ms. Carter she'd find some weird way to make it uncomfortable for everyone involved.

I wave to Aden before heading off to my next class. It feels so good to have made up with Keith. It puts a pep in my step and a smile on my face. That smile turns to a frown when Jamal steps in front of me.

"April we need to talk." Jamal says staring down at me.

I can see the bruising around the area I punched him at. I fight off the sympathy I feel tugging at my heart. He deserved that hit. I won't feel bad for defending myself.

"Unless you're ready to apologize for what you did we have nothing to talk about." I say.

"I'm not about to apologize to his punk a$$ just because he got you feeling all bad for him."

"Then I guess we have nothing to talk about." I say through gritted teeth.

I move to walk around him but he reaches out and grabs my arm. I try to pull away but his grip is too tight.

"Let me go Jamal." I say giving my arm another pull.

Jamal doesn't listen. He starts walking down the hall dragging me along with him. I try to pull away but even with my added weight my brother's a strong guy.

Jamal opens the door  and pulls me into empty classroom. He closes the door behind us. Finally I'm able to snatch my arm away from him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing." I yell rubbing my wrist. It soar now.

Jamal glares back at me. "You're coming home with me today April."

"The hell I am."

I don't know what's gotten into my brother but he's acting like a dick. Wherever this over controlling attitude is coming from it needs to stop.

"Yes you are. I'm not going to have so random ass guy driving you around." Jamal say stepping closer to me.

"Why does it matter who drives me home?"

"Because it does."

"Why?"

This didn't make since. This was going over board even from a protective brother stand point. Half the people Jamal knew where ten times as dangerous and he had no problem with me hanging out with them.

"Because..." Jamal says his hand reaches up to touch my face but at then pulls back. His eyes lock on mine. There is the pained look of him holding himself back from saying whatever he was going to say.

Jamal drops his hand and takes a step back.

"It does April. It just does." Jamal says.

I stare at him. My head is conflicted between being angry and concern over whatever is bothering him. Jamal always bottles up whatever he's feeling. In the end he always ends up hurting himself. 

I almost step forward but then Aden's face pops into my head and anger wins out.

"Well, that not good enough." I say before turning to leave the room.  I force myself to not look back. I can't be the understanding sister who patiently waits for him to work out his feelings, not this time.

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Authors note:  looks like some stuff is going on in this chapter. Seems someone's got some feeling they're not saying 😏. April's choosing Aden over her brother. Keith possible not being as big of a jerk face as  we thought. Aden and April officially reaching "friendship"status.

Comment and tell me what you think. Your comments give me life and motivation to continue.

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