When The Sun Rises | ✔

33 | Are You Ready

Chapter 33 | Are You Ready

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        The next morning, I'm woken up by the sound of my door being thrown open, the knob connecting with the wall behind it. Sitting up on my forearms, I see an out of focus Donovan marching over to my bed.

        "What the hell," I croak, wiping the sleep from my eyes. My head throbs from the broken sleep and my eyes burn from the strain of crying on and off through the night. I went from staring at the ceiling – tears rolling back into my ears – to being balled up in the fetal position trying to hold in the sobs, and right back to staring.

        "Get up and get dressed," he says plainly, dropping hangered clothes at the foot of my bed.

        "What are you talking about, Donovan? Get dressed for what? Ain't you supposed to be in class?"

        Picking up my phone to check the time, and seeing that it's a quarter past noon I slouch back into my pillow and drape an arm over my eyes.

        "Get out," I grumble.

        He kisses his teeth and tugs at the end of the cover. "Man, get up and get dressed. We gotta go."

        "Go where nigga? As you can see I didn't even go to school today so what makes you think I'm about to go anywhere else?"

        When my alarm had gone off for school at 6am – only an hour after I'd managed to fall asleep – I immediately hit snooze and sent Ms. Corrine a text letting her know I was staying home. Any other day, she would have responded by coming to my room to get me up.

        She would have drilled me until going to school was the easier option – asking if I was having problems with a classmate or a teacher, and putting her cold knuckles on my forehead to see if I had a temperature. But, after yesterday I knew she wasn't going to give me a hard time for needing a day.

        Whether it was out of guilt or something else, I didn't care. As long as I got to stay my ass at home.

        Going to a predominantly black high school I already knew the verdict was going to be a hot topic. Between the students discussing it in the halls and the teachers addressing it at the beginning of every class with that drained look in their eyes, there's no way I would've made it through the day without a repeat of last night.

        The air would have been too heavy with pent up anger and unshed tears. As usual, the news would be enough to shake things up for like a week. We would talk about the importance of voting and using our voices; then, we would fall back into curriculum and McGraw Hill textbooks that can't tell the villains from the heroes, ducking our heads and waiting for the cycle to be kicked off with a new hashtag.

        The same thing that had happened with Daddy. People would be outraged for a little while until another officer fucked up and their attention shifted, or they simply burned out and forgot about it. But, the families can never forget no matter how much time passes.

        Donovan flips the cover back and cold air rushes up my legs. I cut my eyes over at him.

        If I had known that he was staying home today too, I would've put my headphones in my back pocket, gone to school, and powered through the bullshit.