Chapter forty five

Cassandra's pov
September 8th 2021

"You gotta take this long in the bathroom?!" Henry bangs on the door hard as fuck when I don't answer. "Cassie!"

"Use the bathroom in the basement! I'm not done yet!" I yell at him and I hear him huff loudly.

"It's scary as hell down there!"

"I don't know what to tell you." I shrug, and resume applying my lipgloss carefully in the mirror.

Today the first day of my senior year and I always make sure to pop out for the first day. I'm wearing my natural hair but I still ended up braiding it, the braids going down to my shoulder. It used to be longer but Julia had a 'fun' idea to cut it. Honestly it was pretty fun. I wasn't mad. It's just hair.

Anyway, it's been almost a week since I've left Cailfornia and almost a week since I've seen my girlfriend. I smile at the thought of Hailey being my girlfriend. Even though I just seen her last Sunday, I really miss her.
We talked all night last but I ended up hanging up cause I had school in the morning. Hailey sent me a playlist she made on Spotify of all her favorite songs and told me to play it whenever. The playlist was currently being blasted on Henry's lil speaker he let me borrow, while I get dressed in the bathroom.

I move my lips together, letting the gloss work it's magic, and look myself over in the mirror for a little while.

But then it's a huge ass bang on the door and I let out a mixture of a groan and a scream of irritation. "What the fuck, Henry?!" I ask, when I whip open the door and he's standing on the other side with a small smirk.

"I have to pee." He replies calmly.

"The bathroom downstairs..."

"...Is scary." He finishes and I roll my eyes.

"What you even wearing?" He looks over, with his nose all scrunched up.

"I look good." I say, walking past him and going into my room to look at myself in my full body mirror. When I see myself I smile.

Yeah, I most definitely snapped.

"Just because you a senior now doesn't mean you all grown." Henry says, snapping me out of trance of self admiration and I sigh fixing my belt.

"I didn't say I was."

"Then why you wearing that outfit?" He asks.

"It's not that serious."

"I guess..." He shrugs, with an uneasy look.

He doesn't say it but I can tell he very unsettled with how fast I'm growing up.

Every since we was little, and Mama and Dad would be fighting he would always take care of me, and make sure I was okay. He still had his moments but he was real good older brother. And he still is. But I'm growing up and that's just something he need to get through his peanut ass head.

"When you get into this music?" He ask as some song by Wu Tang Clan goes off and 'I'm Down' by Aaliyah comes on.

I do like R&B but I'm more into that delusional, toxic relationship side of R&B.

"This Hailey playlist... you don't like it?" I ask.

"I ain't deem her for an Aaliyah listener. She got a lotta 90's R&B in there. I mess with it." He nods and I mumble something in agreement. He ends up leaving to go to the bathroom and I finish getting ready, cleaning my room in the process. The music playing on the speaker being the only sound around me. Usually it would be of my Mama and Dad arguing but neither of them here.

I haven't seen my Mama since I got back from California and My Dad been doing overtime at work. When he is here (for the little time he is) he doesn't say anything to me.

I'm fine with that.

My friends and Henry were real happy to me though, and that's all that really mattered.

My phone dinged and it was a message notification from O'Sean telling me he was outside. I texted back I was on my way down and got my purse, lipgloss, perfume, charger, backpack, and any other stuff I needed for the day.

I quickly kissed the framed picture of me and Hailey and left my room. "I'm leaving!" I called out to Henry, rushing downstairs.

"Have a good day." He called back.

"Hopefully," I replied, quickly snatching the warm piece of toast he had smeared butter onto, and sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar on it for flavor. My favorite.

"Don't take my damn toast, Cassie!" He yelled, from upstairs as if he knew what I was doing.

I obviously still took a bite out of it and left the house with it, smiling to myself. "Can't hear you!"

O'Sean black 2016 nissan pathfinder was parked right in front of my house. When I reached the passenger door opened the doors unlocked and I got in. "Wassup?" He grumbled sleepily, wiping his eyes.

"Ready for school." I nodded, putting on my seatbelt with the toast between my teeth. "...Thanks for the ride."

"It's cool," He mumbled. He pulled the car off and we started moving forward.

"When you start school?" I ask ridding the comfortable silence we've been riding in.

"A couple weeks." He replies and I nod.

O'Sean ended up getting into the Medical College of Wisconsin. He opened the letter when I got back so everyone was all there to see he got accepted, and everybody was real proud of him.

In order to be a midwife he going to get his mastery degree in nursing science, with his specialties being midwifery and family medicine. He said it was going to take a semester longer but it's gonna make him eligible to sit for certified nurse midwife, and family nurse practitioner exams. It was a whole bunch of other stuff he had to do that, but that was all I could remember.

The thought of O'Sean helping mama's through the labor and delivery part of birth just something to think about. With how serious O'Sean be, it actually sounds cute.

"Something funny?" He asked, noticing my face.

"I can't believe you gonna be a midwife."

"Well... hopefully I get through all those exams and stuff." He shrugs.

"You can most definitely do it." I nod. Not just because he's really smart but because he's a hard worker too.

"That's nice of you to say, kid." He smirked, slowing down at a red light.

When he stopped he started using his hand to ruffle my hair and such. I swatted him away, with a groan. "Boy, you literally just moved on to college. Don't start." I scoff, rolling my eyes playfully, referring to him calling me a 'kid'.

"I just like addressing that I'm older than you." He gives my hair one more hard ruffle and I hit him upside his head.

"This took time!"

"You can fix it again."

"I think not." I mumble, fixing the little portion of my hair he messed up in the overhead console mirror.

"You can just have yo girlfriend get it fixed. She still rich, right? Julia said she used to be a child actor." He says, as the light turns green and he presses the gas pedal, driving off.

"Yeah she is.." I laugh a little bit. "She don't really talk about the child acting stuff a lot though."

"She probably had some bad experiences with it. I heard a lot of them lil famous kids be having messed up stuff go down on those sets." He told me and I started to think about it. "..Or she could have just decided it wasn't for her." He added.

"Yeah, maybe." I shrugged. "Her being rich don't excuse you for trying to fuck up my hair though."

"It'll be ight.." He mumbled, reaching over to mess with my braids but I avoided his hand.

"Stop it, O'Sean!" I told him loudly and he laughed.

It take us a few more minutes to pull up to the school and when I get out he says bye. It's a whole bunch of kids staring at me when I get out the car, whispering amongst themselves. I don't know even some of them. 'Not them being weird and strange and whatnot,' I think to myself. I know damn well my outfit don't look that good, c'mon now. I just walk past them and walk into the school, getting through crowds.

I make my way to my first period a few minutes after the bell ring, my first period being pre calc. I walk into the room and take a empty seat in the middle row.

"What's your name?" The teacher asks, checking the attendance chart.

"Cassandra Ambers." I reply, pulling my backpack of my shoulder and sitting it down.

"I'm Mr. Allen, I'll be your pre calculus teacher for the year." He gives me a smile and I return it.

"Nice to meet you."

"You as well," He replies before walking back to his desk.

The next fifteen minutes in everyone talks amongst themselves but I just stay on my phone. I feel a tap on my shoulder and a girl with a low styled haircut hands me a sheet of folded paper. I raise an eyebrow, looking between her and the paper. She rolls her eyes and hands it to me again with a little more force.

I take it and turn back around, opening the paper, reading the neat written message.

Like, seriously her handwriting is really good...

'HAVEN'T I SEEN YOU BEFORE?' Is written on the paper and I frown looking back at her.

"You couldn't ask me that with actual talking?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"Answer the question."

"I-I don't know..." I tell her and she looks me over. "What's your name?" She questions.

"Cassie,"

"I thought you told the teacher your name was Cassandra?"

"I prefer Cassie." I squint at her. "If you knew my name why'd you ask?"

"My name's Reign." She introduces herself, ignoring my question before offering her hand for a shake. I shake her hand.

"I like your bag," I say, pointing to the messenger art bag sitting nicely on the seat next to her.

"Thanks."

The teacher calls for everyone's attention and he starts going over the syllabus for the next thirty minutes. He has this girl named, Raven, hand the syllabus out and then class ends so everyone leaves. I go to my other three periods which are Political Science, American literature, and Spanish. After those pass by very quickly, it's my lunch period and I go to the lunchroom to meet up with Julia, Asia, Alaska, and Christiana since we all got the same lunch period.

This school big as hell and because of that, I haven't seen them all day with they classes being all the way on the other side of the building.

It's honestly a travesty.

"Ouu, you look good!" Asia squeals loudly, giving me a hug and pulling away to look at my outfit. "It's really giving. You snapped."

"Girl, what about you?" I laugh, tugging at her jacket. "Where you get that purse?"

"They was having a sale at that new store in the mall."

"The one by the foot locker?" I ask.

"No, I think it's by the Forever 21. But it might be by the Victoria's Secret."

"You know she don't remember shit." Alaska says, walking up with Christiana and Julia.

"Aww, you look so good!" Julia hugs me and I laugh as we all say our hey's and hi's.

"Oop, what is this?" Asia chokes out a laugh, pulling up my sleeve showing my watch.

"Awn, your wearing the watch." Christiana smiles.

"Not you wearing the watch.." Alaska groans. "Y'know these niggas at school ain't shit. They be tryna rob people and stuff."

"Girl, bye. I wish a motherfucker would." I scoff.

"You gonna be callin bae?" Julia makes a face and I roll my eyes playfully.

"Whatever.."

We all start talking about classes and Christiana start on how good looking her French teacher is, but then my phone ringing. I check and see it's a unknown Los Angeles area code. Hailey number saved in my phone, and it's too early for her to be calling anyway. When she got the opportunity to, she'll sleep till like one in the afternoon.

"Who is that?" Christiana asks and I shrug, answering the phone.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Cassie." A familiar voice greets tiredly.

"Oh, good morning, Eric." I smile. "What's going on?"

"Yo irritating ass girlfriend had trouble sleeping last night so she left the house late as hell and, like, don't wanna come home." And I can practically hear the irritation in his voice.

"What?" I ask, a lil surprised.

"Damn, I didn't mean to freak you out or anything." He says calmly. "She do this a lot. It's like her stupid ass thing. She stupid like that."

"Right.."

"So, if you end up getting in contact with her just tell her to come and that it's too early for this shit." He tells me and I nod.

"I got you."

"Thanks, kid. Talk to you later then.." He mumbles and I say bye, then disconnect the call.

"Who was that?" Julia asks.

"Hailey brother." I shrug, not really getting into it.

"Oh.. y'all wanna go to that cafe around the corner?" Alaska asks and we all agree to that since we got off campus lunch anyway.

We get to the cafe and I order a sandwich and a iced coffee, everybody order they stuff and we take a seat in the booth and starting talking and eating.

"I'm telling you guys, Mr. Thomas is hot as hell. He looks so young for his age, it's ridiculous." Christiana tells us for the millionth time.

"I've seen him and he's mid. You just have a thing for older guys." Julia scoffs.

"That isn't true!"

"I think it is though." I say, taking a sip of my coffee.

"Right, Chris said you was talking to that library assistance and he was like twenty five." Asia adds.

"It's not like he worked at the school library." She tries to defend the situation. "It didn't even go beyond kissing."

"Girl, go to hell. You a victim." Alaska says.

"Not funny, Asks." Christiana mumbles.

"It wasn't supposed to be.."

"Anyway! If you aren't gonna to eat it that.." Julia says quickly, grabbing the lil fry cookie they gave me with my sandwich.

"Jules, you really gonna get enough of talking my food." I poke her and she scoots away in discomfort.

"It isn't like you were gonna eat it." She bites into the cookie and I glare at her.

She's right though. I wasn't gonna eat it.

But still.

We continue to talk until Alaska notices it's time to go back and we start walking back to the school. I use this time to call Hailey and she pick up on the second to last ring.

"Hey, bae" She smiles, scrunching her face up. "Not you calling me early and shit."

I hold up my wrist and glance at it. The time reading, 9:10. "It's only nine o'clock there."

"Oou, look at you using the watch for it's intended purposes." She rolls her eyes and I give her a look. "Watch it.." I warn and she looks at the camera for a little while.

"Where you at?" I ask, seeing all the wood like trees in the background, hearing some voices too.

"Uhh.." She trails off and then I hear nothing as she looks in the distance of whatever she at. Then the noise comes back. "...Why you wanna know?"

"Girl, just tell me where you at-"

"I miss you baby," She chuckles, cutting me of and making eye contact with me through the phone.

"...I miss you too" I admit, feeling my cheeks heat up.

"I deadass been thinking bout you all night."

"Really?" I ask and she nods quickly.

"Mhm, all fuckin' night." She confirms, and I watch as her eyes focus on my lips.

Shit, she's fine. I don't even remember why I called her. But I do remember why I'm finna stay on the phone, if you get what I'm tryna say- Julia hits me and my side and I immediately check myself.

Oh, yeah.

"Stop trying to change the subject. Eric said you left and didn't come home." I tell her and I watch as a bored expression rests on face.

"Yeah..." She sighs.

"Please go home. You look exhausted." I tell her and she goes silent for awhile.

"Hailey, say sum when my good sis talkin' to you." Asia calls to her loudly.

"Okay," She breathes out.

"Send me your location when you get home?" I ask, as we walk up to the school.

"I guess."

"Alright, talk to when I get outta school."

"Bet." She nods, tugging on the earring in her ear.

"Kisses?" I say hopefully and she sighs giving me a small smile. "Kisses." It's our lil way of saying goodbye.

"That's cute." Christiana smiles when the call ends.

"Something like that.." Alaska shrugs.

"Mm, I have to go to P.E" I say and we all go our separate ways. I get to the gym and I see Reign standing alongside the way.

"Hey," She waves.

"Hey," I wave back.

The gym teacher, Coach Steinberg, has a group of us run laps while a group of put in our sizes for our gym uniforms.

"Why would you ever want to own a pet snake?" I ask, shocked.

"Snakes are interesting." Reign tells me and I completely disagree.

If I'm being honest it does fit her aesthetic though. She has this spiritual, woke, down to earth vibe going on. It's interesting, something that I feel the snakes are not. Reign a different type of black people. She the type of black folk that has been awoken and eats plant based meals and stuff. She kinda reminds me of Kelsey Lu or probably Willow Smith. Or some character that could be introduced in the second season of Euphoria. Dang, how long that season even gonna take anyway?

Eventually gym is over and eventually the whole school day. Asia and Alaska went to go sign up for some cheerleading team, Julia had to attend to tend to some business, and Christiana had to meet up with her counselor, so ended up walking home by myself. By the time I got home the sun was setting and my stomach was growling, so I immediately headed for the kitchen, where my Dad sat at the kitchen table going through some paper work, and Henry stood at the stove frying a burger.

"Make me one." I grab one of those smucker's uncrustables.

"Take one out and I got you." He responds and I take a frozen burger patty from the freezer.

"Thanks." I place it on the counter next to him.

I take a seat at the kitchen a few minutes later I hear the front door open, and Mama come in the kitchen holding the hand of a man that isn't Dad.

What the fuck?

Mama clears her throat and Dad looks up from his papers.

"Where the hell have you been?" He asks, glancing up at the two of them through his glasses.

She looks like she's been on one of her drinking binges... but a little better?

"I have something to say.." She announces, and the only sound in the kitchen is the sizzling of the burger in the frying pan.

"Anne, get this man out of my house and take a damn nap. You're drunk." Dad grumbles, looking back to his papers.

"No, you get out of my house. I want a divorce and I'm leaving you for Tom."

Huh???

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A/N: I hope you like this chapter, I don't but oh well. ‼️five comments and five likes for the next chapter‼️