Hope, Charity & Faith Ch. 07

"Fuck that noise Ricky; we went to her place near downtown to watch her favorite fucking movie. That's where Charity jumped my bones, man!! She blew me and we were fucking grinding for like three hours and shit. And yeah, her big, motherfucking tits, were spectacular, nigga!!" Ricky wasn't buying any of it, snickering into his balled up fist as we tooled along the boulevard.

"Oh yeah, you got pics, or something? Got proof?"

"Ah, she wouldn't let me take a pic; but she got a naked pic of me instead. That was stupid, it felt weird afterwards. Then she ghosted me saying "It's beyond my control" before hooking up with that motherfucking Jay Stello." Ricky started laughing his ass of at my supposed made up story as we turned into the student parking lot.

"Damn Jaleel; what is up with you and these snooty booty chicks?"

"Déjà vu to the hundredth power; that's what your sister said, too." Ricky's fist collided with my bicep leaving a stinger behind.

"What you say, man?" He was still smiling, light face flushed from the unintended humor of what he believed was an improbable tale of urban debauchery.

"Ah, nothing."

"That's what I thought; keep my sister's name out your mouth. I love you like a brother Jaleel, but gotta step up for the family honor when duty calls."

"Right." I agreed, face flushed with knowing guilt.

It seemed a better option to play along after getting an inadvertent glimpse of Ricky Arias probable reaction should it ever become known that I'd had sex with his sister. As it stood, there was no way he was believing anything said about Charity Gilbert and by proxy, his twenty year old sister, Hope Arias. He was laughing, cheeks still flushed instinctively glancing over his shoulder, suddenly alarmed.

"JALEEL!"

"WHAT?!!" I half turned expecting to be struck in some manner, Ricky reacting in kind.

Charmaine, Treena, a few cheerleaders and some jocks in letterman jackets were standing there right behind us. She was close enough to hear us talking and I was glad we hadn't continued the conversation as I tensed up expecting us to resume hostilities. Instead, she stopped short, uncharacteristically smiling.

"Good morning fellas."

"HUH?!!" Treena was still snickering like some impish jackal making me remember why I hated her with a passion even though we'd interacted minimally.

Charmaine continued the shock drawing me in for a deep hug as I did a double take still looking at her best friend's face. She was hugging me with conviction as some of the other girls stared reflecting my reaction in their faces. I glanced over at Ricky finding a similar facial reaction, almost bearhugged.

"You have yourself a nice little day, baby." Charmaine broke contact handling my shoulders, still smiling. I didn't know what to make of things as she went through the double doors into the school.

"Hey dawg, what's up?" Before I could say anything, one of the jocks was giving me a pat on the back. A cheerleader was grinning in my direction, her arm interlocked with his. I didn't know her from Cain.

"Uh, yeah." I stumbled over my greeting half mumbling something out. They continued into school followed by an entourage of their clique members, some giving me similar looks.

"Fuck was that shit about?" Ricky asked as I removed some books from my locker.

"Man, I don't even wanna think about it."

"Yeah, see you at lunch; we'll talk about it." He left me to my own devices as I wondered what the fuck was going on this morning.

I was apprehensive walking to my first class of the day apprehensive about what I'd find when I got there. Charmaine and Treena had been going hard in the paint since my initial flare up with Kimberly Bivens. That bitch set the dogs on me after I refused her egregious sexual offer meant to make herself feel better in part after being discovered with that motherfucking Jay Stello. I considered asking Mr. Harvey to allow me to change my seating, but knew he was meticulous, obsessive compulsive with insectoid attention to detail. Still, it was worth a try anyway, but I resolved to speak with him after class.

The atmosphere was different as I walked into class noticing the dual smiling faces of Charmaine and Treena again, looking barely able to control their joint euphoria. Kimberly was the only one sharing my energy as I noticed her sitting there staring with shades hiding her eyes. She was wearing this form fitting denim jacket, white floral tank, and form fitting Capri pants over some innocuous Chuck Taylors. There was no doubt she was burning a hole in me with her eyes and I knew the reason why. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end. Her eyes followed me to my seat as I remembered Hope's advice to deny everything.

Later in the day right before lunch, I was walking towards my locker when an underclassmen approached me somewhat apprehensively. The corridor around my locker was crammed full of people, so I didn't notice the sophomore until she was standing right in front of me.

"Uhm, you are eh, Jaleel, right?" I was just about to text my friend Ricky to see if he wanted to go outside to the food trucks that routinely lined up behind our building for the three lunch periods at our high school.

"Yeah so, what do you want kid?"

"There's a girl in that class over there, wants to talk to you." I noticed she wasn't alone as more of these undersized moppets popped up beside her, giggling.

"Who wants to talk to me?"

The now trio of girls giggled, a visual PSA of the dangers of overdosing on sugar. I glanced in the direction pointed watching a large number of students filtering out of the classroom figuring it wasn't a trap of some sort. I walked away from the underclassmen without another word managing the exiting students for a glimpse inside. A bunch of students were gathered around the teacher's desk obscuring somebody handing out paperwork. I got this weird feeling quickly making good my retreat.

"HEY WAIT!!" Somebody called after me, but I hit the stairs quickly running down to the second floor losing myself in the crowd.

There was no way I was sharing any kind of space with Charity Gilbert. I figured she wanted to gloat or stick it to me in some fashion and I was having none of that nonsense. I was determined to refashion things in my life back to the familiar starting with maintaining my joint status with Ricky Arias as borderline nerds on the far side of the mediocre to the rest of our collective student body. It was a little odd that Charity would call out to me in such a manner as I worked to intermingle in the roiling crowds of students jostling about between classes. I was looking backward as I hurried down the corridor when I crashed into somebody.

"Oh fuck." I was looking at the big, expansive backside of my perennial nemesis up until today, Charmaine.

There was no mistaking her big, shelf like derriere and the neon blue club jacket she sometimes wore signifying the clique she belonged to along with Treena and my pseudo ex-girlfriend. Ironically, Kim never really wore her jacket at the insistence of parents who taught against her becoming a human lemming following the crowd.

"WHAT-THE FUCK?!!" Charmaine raised her arms slowly turning around as nearby students cleared space expecting her to start swinging. She was known for fighting like a man, fighting dirty and a devastating roundhouse right I'd managed to avoid in our earlier hallway confrontation.

"Uhm, sorry." I tensed up already expecting a blow along with half the second floor.

"It's cool Jaleel, stay up playa."

She gave me a light rub on the bicep turning back to her friends as hell officially froze over. My mouth was agape for a few seconds before I took the opportunity to continue on my way to a nearby stairwell leading down to the rear entrance to the cafeteria.

"Jaleel, stop for a minute." Someone else snagged my arm just as I was reaching the stairwell; it turned out to be Kimberly Bivens, shades, and all. She withdrew her arm carefully staring at my furrowed brow.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to leave me alone."

"Okay." I went to leave but she grabbed my arm a little more roughly, stopping me again.

"I want you to tell that person to stop blowing up my phone; I want you to tell your whore to stop sending me videos of her flabby ass twerking, and Jaleel, I want you to get over it! I want this shit to cool off, and uhm, I'm sorry."

There was an intensity in her voice I'd never heard before that was alarming. Kimberly was still watching her surroundings having made sure we were in the stairwell obscured by the open double doors.

"I don't know nothing about no videos but thank you for the sorry." There was a nugget of an idea in my head that she might try to record my response for evidence, later.

"Look you don't have to be like this with me; everything's cool now, alright."

"Okay, I'm going."

"Wait, I can't have a minute of your time?" Kimberly Bivens was off her game, her usually smug features completely wiped away replaced with raw emotion barely hidden behind those same designer sunglasses.

"Hey, you said what you wanted; in fact, every time we've talked, you've said what you wanted to say with no interruption. Kimberly, what's left to say?" Her arms were folded across her chest, her posture signifying a distressed woman as we caught errant glances from other student pedestrians.

"I said I was sorry; in hindsight, I should've handled things, differently. I apologize for the mishandling of your affections for me, I have some regret about you finding me with Jayson, that afternoon." Every word that emerged from her mouth stabbed into me bringing old feelings and hurt to the fore.

"What is this, huh?"

"Uhm, I just want us to patch up our differences, that's all Jaleel." She was sniffling more and more appearing on the verge of breaking down. I was caught up, at a loss unused to seeing Kimberly behaving in this manner.

"It's cool okay." I didn't mean it, but I also wanted to get out of the bad energy in this stairwell.

"Uhm, well I..." Now she was stammering a bit which definitely threw me off.

"Yeah?"

"If uhm, you wanna talk later; I can call you. I mean-I would like us to kind of, open a dialog. Find our friendship if you want because I'm so sorry about treating you the way I did, Jaleel. We can talk, right?"

My stomach started doing flip flops, butterflies, and everything as she behaved uncharacteristically demure. It appeared Hope and company had nuked the smug attitude right out of her.

"I'm gonna go now."

Images of her half naked body bouncing wildly atop that motherfucking Jay Stello filled the theatre of my mind. Unfortunately, Kimberly and her stud's casual disdain for me also included no need to cover their nudity upon that mentioned discovery. They hadn't cared that my best friend Ricky, also got an eyeful. What was standing before me, was a defrocked peacock, smaller than I initially though she was all the years we'd known one another.

"JALEEL!" She called after me as I took a step downward on the stairwell.

"Yeah?"

"You wanna fuck me? I'll fuck you right now if you come with me to my house. You wanna get some, right?!!" Two underclassmen caught the tail end of her offer passing by, but Kimberly didn't seem to care, almost frantic taking a step towards me favoring her phone.

"Look, I'm going to lunch Kim; take care."

It wasn't a direct denial, but the expression on her face said otherwise as if some ethereal lance penetrated the formerly entitled cheerleader to her core. I was shook in no uncertain terms as one of her clique Treena appeared wearing her perpetual joker-like grin.

"OH, WHAT'RE YOU GUYS DOING HERE, HUH?!!" More of her friends were approaching leaving this as my out to put distance between us. I didn't know if Hope would've been proud, but it was a step I the right direction in my opinion.

I caught a quick glance back finding a visibly distraught Kimberly swarmed by her social circle. Treena was still perpetually snickering, but I ducked down further as Charmaine looked over the railing in my direction. This was the old Charmaine, eyes full of fire and brimstone. The bell rang before I could even hit the bottom step signaling the end of my lunch period.

I was starting to get that weird feeling again trying to make light of things as I snagged a quick prepackaged hotdog and soda from the open cafeteria counter. Something was up because there was no way Charity would give a damn about me followed by Kimberly Bivens. I hurried off to the double doors that led to the gymnasium.

The weirdness continued as I approached the gym finding a large crowd milling about the entrance. Something big was or had occurred while I was talking with Kimberly Bivens. I fished out my phone dialing up Ricky, but it went to voicemail leaving a sinking pit in my stomach. I hit those double doors running towards the boy's locker room noticing guys intermittently scattered about the corridor leading there as my heart thumped.

"HEY JALEEL, THE LOCKER ROOM IS CLOSED RIGHT NOW!!" Mr. Day appeared placing a hand in the center of my sternum. I glanced around finding some guys giving me the side eye, ramping up my anxiety tenfold.

"WHY, WHAT HAPPENED IN THERE?!!"

"Settle down Jaleel." Mr. Day was full of shit which was signified in the similar mixed expressions on my various peers lingering about. I recognize a fellow geek a few feet away opting to get info from him instead of the useless gym teacher.

"Tell me what happened."

"Fuck man, I ain't no snitch but that shit was wrong as fuck. We thought they were just gonna throw him in the shower, but them niggas...Fucking Rob McKenzie." The rail thin guy was shaking his head somberly as he spoke.

"WHAT?!!"

"He was trying to fuck, Jaleel!" The witness looked away as my heart leapt into my throat. I backed away staring between him and Mr. Day who also had the same weird expression on his face.

"Fuck that nonsense!"

"HEY BOY!!" I shoved him, bolting into the boy's locker room already hating myself for getting distracted by Kimberly Bivens and friends. I wondered if this were part of their shitty plan. I wondered if Ricky was the target all along because of what Hope had been doing to her.

"I AIN'T DO NOTHING, MAN; LET ME UP OUTTA HERE POPS!!" Rob McKenzie handcuffed wearing nothing but his boxer briefs facing the wall was the first sight that greeted me. I barely noticed the safety officer restraining him with the assistance of three other gym teachers. One female gym teacher was present as well for some reason. She stood off to the side talking in hushed tones with a fourth male coach.

"Come on Jaleel; this ain't none of your business." Mr. Day tried to put a hand on my shoulder, but I slapped it away noticing some other adults standing at the entrance to the boy's showers.

A few jocks were lingering there as well with eyes as big as saucers. I had a lump in my throat as I walked over looking inside. Ricky was sitting there staring off into space with blood running down the right side of his temple. He was sporting a black eyes and flattened nose with a cut lip. His chest was partially visible through tears in his gym shirt.

"Ricky?" His extra large gym shorts were down around his right calve, equally tattered. He didn't answer, visibly breathing hard nostrils flaring. A few feet away the remnants of his shattered cell phone were strewn about the tiled floor of the shower.

"Just leave him alone; we called his mother already." I didn't give a shit about that at the moment glancing back towards the handcuffed Rob McKenzie.

"DON'T DO IT!!" Mr. Day and another adult cut me off as Rob jostled enough that three men had a bit of difficulty with him. I was shaking uncontrollably with mounting rage.

"My name... is Richard Arias, uhm no; My name is Richard L. Bounds. Arias is my stepdad's name, but he adopted me and my sister." My attention was drawn away from the teen criminal back to my friend.

"Ricky I'm here man; It's Jaleel."

"Oh yeah, my best friend in the world; you know them fuckers keep calling me titty- THAT AIN'T MY FUCKING NAME!!" He broke down sobbing into his hands as the female gym teacher hovered nearby.

"I ain't going nowhere Ricky!"

"Nah, you do you Jaleel; you-DO-YOU HOMIE!!"

"Come on man."

"FUCK OFF JALEEL!!" Humiliation, despair, and utter degradation had taken a toll on him.

I felt like I'd failed him with little more to do other than fish out my phone intending to call Hope. It went straight to voicemail completing an imploding circle of friendship set in motion by either my discovery of Kimberly Biven's infidelity or my tryst with Hope Arias.

She'd checked out on me when I'd called her out about her issues with a professor at her college in the beginning hours of this horrific day. Two beat cops showed up taking Rob McKenzie to the cage where he belonged from the moment he was born. Paramedics followed finding it difficult to get Ricky into the gurney without words of encouragement from the female gym teacher. Apparently, she was also trained as a crisis counselor. Ricky was transported sitting upright out the front door of the school with a sheet over his head. The social damage was already done as rumors were running the corridors like the Flash.

I lingered I the hallways eventually finding my way towards a seventh period class happening across Treena and some cohorts loitering near the door of Mrs. Odenkirk's class. I could see her big shovel mouth flapping in the wind well before I got there.

"HEY JALEEL, WHUS GOOD?!!" She yelled as her friends snickered.

I didn't say anything as I approached glancing down at the weird way her legs appeared under the miniskirt she wore. Treena was medium built with enough tits and ass to pass muster as a cheerleader but was severely bowlegged.

"Not today." Other students were filtering into class as I continued approaching.

"Hey man, it cool but the girls just wanna know if Ricky's booty soft." I noticed that more than a few of the girls she was holding court with were underclassmen. Her boss, Charmaine was nowhere in sight leaving her flying solo in this attempted verbal drive by.

"I'm warning you; don't go there."

"Ain't nobody scared of you; shouldn't you be up in the hospital with your girlfriend, titty?"

"SHUT-THE-FUCK-UP, YOU LOUSY STANK HOE!! PLUG THAT NASTY HOLE UP AND STICK A TAMPON IN YO' FUCKING MOUTH, BITCH!! AIN'T NO BODY CHECKING FOR YOU!! YOU GOT HAIRY FUCKING LEGS AND YOUR KNEES RUSTY FROM USING THE CAT BOX, YOU SHOVEL MOUTH THOT!!" I screamed point blank range in Treena's face making her raise a defensive fist repeatedly flinching.

"Fuck you, motherfucker."

Treena wilted under the unexpected verbal barrage bounding off clumsily down the opposite end of the corridor wailing like a banshee. There was an echo and some applause from a few onlookers as Mrs. Oderkirk appeared.

"Report to study hall Jaleel; and uh, thank you for that off the record." She pulled the door up leaving me in the corridor. I turned walking back the way I'd come when I heard a commotion emanating from the other end of the corridor.

"Shit."

Treena reappeared with Charmaine and two jocks in tow. Spineless lackey and reprobate that she was, Treena's ego wouldn't allow her to suffer a defeat at the hands of someone deemed beneath her.

"HEY WHAT'S UP?!! COME HERE NIGGA!!" The clueless jocks were looking to avenge some misreported slight by bouncing my head off the pavement and I wasn't having that shit.

I took several quick steps knowing they were about to run until I saw the edge of the stairwell, suddenly bolting down it. I nearly toppled down the stairwell but managed to catch myself trying a few doors adjacent until one opened allowing me refuge.