The Violin Pt. 03

Keith blinked at the force of her attack. He'd never had a bad interaction with Kendra's mom. He'd always thought she was the nice one. Talk about not judging a bitch by its cover! He pressed his lips tight.

"Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, ma'am. Kendra's phone died and we lost track of time. It won't happen again. Sorry to bother you folks," he said quickly, turning and striding briskly from the house.

At school, Keith thought he saw a snippet of fizzy hair at the end of the hallway, but it was nowhere near the doors they usually came in. He hung around till after the late bell and cruised by her first period class.

Bingo! There she was. But she kept her eyes glued to the teacher. She wore a black sweatshirt, hood up, which usually signaled things were bad.

He caught her at lunchtime walking with Brian, the only other black kid in their school. From what Keith had heard, most of the girls thought Brian was "cute." He was on the football team and in Kendra's psychology class. Keith knew he was being stupid, but a pang of jealousy stabbed through him.

"Hey Kendra, what's up?"

"Oh, hey Keith." She wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Missed you this morning."

"I overslept."

"That so? Cause I came by your house and you weren't there."

Kendra sighed hard and looked away.

"I'm sorry about last night. I thought your parents would be asleep."

"What happened last night?" Brian interjected.

"Shut up," Keith snapped, pulling Kendra to the far side of the hallway.

"Hey man, don't snatch on her!" Brian bristled.

Keith welcomed the chance to hit something. It had been a while since his last suspension. He took three long strides toward the shorter boy, ready to smash his face in.

Kendra was just as quick to hop between them. "It's okay Brian, he's just being his asshole self," she said, never looking away from Keith.

Brian backed down the hall, talking trash. "That's right, hide behind your gir. Kendra, I don't know why you even waste time on this punk."

Keith spit in his direction, then turned on Kendra. "Who the fuck is that guy? Why're you walking with him?"

Kendra gave a look like he was crazy. "You know Brian! And I can walk with whomever I want! You don't own me!"

"I don't understand what's going on. You didn't call me back this morning. You didn't answer my text. You haven't spoken to me all day. What's going on?"

She looked around anxiously and lowered her voice. "I made a mistake last night. You wouldn't understand."

"Try me. Explain why you couldn't even let me know not to come get you this morning. I felt like an asshole, when your mom said you'd rather take the bus than ride with me. And then I get here and you're ducking me?"

"It's just...hard. We're too different."

A little smile played around his lips, but Keith felt like he'd been punched in the gut. His stomach churned like he would vomit. He squeezed out a question in someone else's voice.

"You're ashamed to be with me?"

Her eyes spun off to the left. She was a terrible liar, one of the things he'd always liked about her.

"No! I'm not ashamed of you."

Keith slammed his lanky frame backwards against a locker, looking up at the ceiling.

"This doesn't make sense. Yesterday-yesterday was perfect."

"I'm sorry, Keith!" Then, softer, "I'm sorry. It's just... I've got a lot on my mind right now. My parents were mad as hell when I got home last night, and my dad laid this heavy talk on me about my responsibilities—"

"What? What responsibilities are there that you don't already fill? You get straight A's, about to graduate with honors, you're in like 327 clubs..."

"And it's all for a purpose! My whole life, it's been drilled in, the kind of person I'm expected to be. I have Important Things to do! I'm the standard bearer! You don't get it, Keith. I'm on track to be the goddamn president!"

Any other time, they would have cracked up.

"I could've gotten pregnant last night, Keith! They knew, they knew we had been doing things. They said they could smell you on me." Kendra looked like she would be sick.

"Maria got one of her buddies to call in a prescription and Dad made me take the morning after pill in front of him, like I couldn't be trusted to do it myself."

Kendra started to cry, at first a trickle, then harder when Keith just stood there. He'd never just stood by while she wept.

"One of the reasons Dad fell in love with my mom was because she's dark, and he wanted to clean up his bloodline because his ancestors were raped by white men during slavery, and he wants dark children and grandchildren, and a black woman that lets a white man touch her is a whore, and I don't know! All this stuff. I'm fucked up in the head," she cried.

Keith was floored. "What about Martin Luther King and equality and all that? Slavery was more than a hundred years ago, things are different now! We have a black president! Things are better!" His rebuttal sounded weak, even to his own ears.

"Come on, Keith! You and I both know better. We both live in this fucking town. If my house caught on fire tomorrow, fifty bucks says the fire department would let it burn to the ground, and us along with it. You all don't give a fuck about us!"

"You all? Not me, not Keith." He spun in a slow circle.

"Okay. Your black supremacist father has finally convinced you not to play with trash. I get it. But remember this," he pulled her close. "You came all over this white devil cock last night, and you loved it."

"Fuck you, Keith!"

"No, fuck you! I don't care about some shit that happened way back a hundred years ago, or you being President Sojourner Winfrey or whoever the fuck your dad wants you to be. I don't give a shit about any of it. Don't you get it? I love you. And I see the way you look at me."

His voice dropped almost to a whisper. "How you cry when I'm hurt; how you shook and moaned when I wasn't even inside of you. You can't lie to me, Kendra. You love me, too. Don't you?"

She tried to walk away, but he grabbed her wrist. "Don't you," he shouted. Kendra's eyes were bright with tears, but she refused to look him in the face. Disgusted, he threw her hand down and kicked the nearest locker with his steel-toed boot, leaving a vicious dent and bringing a teacher into the hallway.

"Keith Everett, go straight to the office right now, before I call the police. I'm reporting you for damaging school property," Ms. Pinkerton said.

Keith gave the locker another angry boot as he backed away from Kendra. "Your dad's right, you know. You are better than me," he called out to her. "I can't believe it took you so long to figure it out. You must not be as smart as I thought."

He pushed open the Exit doors and left school for good.

Two days later, Keith's picture was all over the newspapers. He had bashed his sleeping father with a steel bat.