by Dexx Peay
I totally skipped the lesson in that and went onto the next issue.
“Then my dad is half-crazy. He and I have a strange relationship. A great father to be honest, but sucks as a dad. Just wish I could be close to him. He was so hard on me growing up. He taught me a lot but there was something missing. A connection of sorts. Hard to explain it. My parents just divorced and now he has some new girlfriend, who’s just weird and crazy. I don’t know what he sees in her but...I dunno, I guess you’re tired of hearing me talk.”
“No man it seems like you needed to vent. It is not good to keep stuff like that bottled in for too long. I have been told I am an excellent listener. So anytime you need someone to talk to, about anything, I got you. Ready to get up out of here?”
“Yeah I think so. Thanks again for listening to my high school issues.”
“No man, real issues and like I said, I have no problem.”
“We should link up again sometime soon.”
“Sure, that would be cool.”
We shook on it, and parted ways as I headed back towards campus.
Malcolm was cool and actually a pretty good listener. Seemed like his life was headed in a good direction. Maybe he was right, maybe Marcus and I needed a break from one another to help our sinking friendship. Although hanging with Malcolm should be pretty interesting, in the end I need my brother.
I need Marcus.
Weeks had gone by.
Marcus hadn’t really said anything to me.
We’re like two ships passing in the night, docked at the same pier.
I only talk to Hudson, Hachi and Sam when it has something to do with my powers and training. Gunner and I hung out a few times. There was a slight shift in my circle. Ended up spending most of my time with Noel and Malcolm. What bonded Malcolm and I more is that he liked to play basketball. It felt amazing to be back on the court and to have someone who appreciated the game just as much as me.
It was hell week for the circle. I know they’re going to have us do all kinds of crazy mess. We had gotten pretty tight for the most part. I was happy to have a new set of friends that I could soon call my brothers.
Big Brother Timothy decided to pair us off into buddies during the last week, so we could have someone right by our side to help us through the stress we were about to endure. At the last meeting before hell week, he had us pick our partners. I chose Noel. In true hell week fashion, our partners were changed.
Great.
Big Brother Timothy ended up pairing us off, and of course I was paired with Airez.
Outstanding.
I did a good job at keeping this pledge thing a secret. I was sure Marcus would have picked up on it in the beginning. I told Malcolm about it, just to get it off my chest. Felt good to talk to someone about everything who wasn’t going through it with me. He didn’t know anybody so I didn’t have to worry about him saying anything. Ran into Mayson and she asked about that rain check, I just played the busy card. Needed to get through this final process.
“Get up Dylan,” Airez slowly said.
I was already awake. I would just lay there with my eyes closed until he got up. I faked a yawn and got up. We were forced to be around each other 24/7, which meant sleeping in the same room.
He got out of his bed.
“Owww! Hey! Watch it man, dang,” I said as he stepped on me.
I had to sleep on the floor next to his bed. It was uncomfortable.
So uncomfortable.
“Forgot you were down there loser.”
He walked into the bathroom. It was going to be a long week for the both of us if we couldn’t work past our issues.
We both got dressed and went to class. In between every class, each member of the circle had to bring a snack to whichever member of Xi Beta Kappa wanted one. Airez and I had to remain in constant communication throughout the day. Whenever we weren’t around each other, we were texting. It was weird and I laughed out loud a lot because all we ever did was insult each other. Guess that sort of does seem like two brothers at each other’s throats.
21st Century brotherhood.
My last class of the day was over and right when I was about to race across campus to drop off an oatmeal cream pie to Big Brother Airin, Imani was waiting for me.
“Hi Dylan.”
Her voice sounded familiar this time, like the Imani I once knew. She was dressed in jeans and a tank. Immediately I panicked, grabbed her and dragged her out of sight.
“Imani are you crazy? You know better than to walk around with your markings out. It’s freezing out here, people are going to wonder why you are dressed like it’s freakin’ springtime. We don’t know who on this campus is Qihar.”
She didn’t say anything, just gave me this weird look then buried her face in my chest, crying uncontrollably. She wrapped her arms around me. I was taken aback. I didn’t understand what was happening. At first I just put my hands in the air, then they slowly dropped.
I held her.
It didn’t feel right.
“I’m sorry Dylan.” She kept repeating. Her tone was frantic. “I need help. I need your help.”
I got nervous.
Her repeated apologies refocused my attention. I grabbed her at the shoulders and pushed her off of me.
“What’s wrong Imani? Is somebody after you? Talk to me.” I shouted.
I took my hands off her. She just stood there crying with her head down, messy hair covering her face. Her cries slowly became a mixture of laughs and cries. I was confused. I was almost convinced she was borderline psychotic.
Was this a manic episode?
“I—mani…”
I felt uneasy.
Something wasn’t right.
I took a step back.
My heart started to gain speed and my thoughts went wild. The uncontrollable cries turned into laughter. Her head slowly rose and she looked at me with fire in her eyes.
“Imani your eyes!”
She swiftly took a step towards me and grabbed me at the neck with one hand. She didn’t hesitate with tightening her grip. She whipped her head back, and her grip got stronger. I started to drop until I was equal height with her.
“You’re weak, I don’t know what I ever saw in you,” she whispered in my ear.
I grunted and tried to fight her off of me, but she was strong. My throat started to get hot and I fell to my knees.
“I should kill you now, but I need you.” She looked down at me with fire still in her eyes.
“Need...me...for what,” I struggled.
“One day, we will be together Dylan,” she said. She leaned down to me and kissed me on my lips. “But until then.”
She released me and I fell to the ground, instantly coughing and gasping for air. Then she turned around and walked off.
I got up.
People were walking by and starring.
It was embarrassing.
I simply tried to act like I was fine. I rubbed my throat to ice it down. My mind was everywhere. I could hardly remember what I was supposed to do. I quickly ran across campus and got the oatmeal pie to Big Brother Airin just in time.
Later that evening, I called Malcolm on my way to link up with Airez.
“Hey Dylan how is everything going,” he greeted.
“Crazy day bro.”
The night was windy. I could barely make out what he was saying at times. If I didn’t walk fast enough, the wind would have knocked me over.
“Shoot.”
“I ran into my ex-girlfriend. You remember how I told you she was acting all weird and crazy. She showed up outside my class earlier today, her aura was off. Out of the blue she started crying, telling me how she needed my help. I dunno it was just all so weird.”
“Really? Did she say what she needed help with?”
“No. Things got really crazy after that. She went Basic Instinct on me and walked off. Not sure what to think about it, but it was just too much for me.”
“Sounds like you need
to watch your back with that one. Chicks are crazy bro.”
“Who you tellin’? You wouldn’t believe my luck when it comes to chicks.”
He laughed. “Aye, I don’t want to rush you off the phone but I got some STDs that need tending to.”
“STDs…?”
I was so confused by that.
Was this the theme of my day?
“Yeah shit to do,” Malcolm laughed.
“Oh!” He was clever. “I gotta use that one day. Cool, no problem. Handle your business. I just wanted to hit you up. Got some fraternity stuff to do tonight anyway.”
“We still on for this weekend?”
“Yeah yeah.”
“Cool I will swing by your room Saturday.”
“Sounds good.”
I walked up to Airez’s room and rapped on the door.
“Hold on,” he yelled.
I could hear a slight break in his voice. I waited. Few minutes passed and he came to the door. His eyes were red and puffy. Allergies I thought, but it didn’t make sense. It was cold as hell out. As he walked towards me, he ran the back of his hand across his eyes and sniffed his nose. He had been crying?
This day can’t get anymore weird.
“You ready?” he asked.
I looked in silence. “You alright?”
“Yeah man let’s get to the house before we’re late,” he softly said.
As much as he got on my nerves I was concerned. Hadn’t really seen him like this since freshman year. I started slowly piecing things together. Something was off...he was off.
We walked in the house last. The circle was in a circle of chairs in the living room, just like the first night.
“Why are you guys late!” Big Brother Timothy yelled.
He seemed a tad bit angry. What was worse is that we didn’t have an answer. I was scared. It was always Big Brother Airin and the others who yelled at us.
“What are you guys deaf?” He continued.
Airez jumped and blinked his eyes tight.
He was scared too.
The circle was too frightened to even look up at us.
“Since you guys can’t talk, get upstairs.”
He came behind us and started pushing us up the stairs. We tripped and fumbled trying to hurry up the stairs as he continued to push us from behind. I didn’t know where we were going or why he was so mad. He screamed and cursed the whole time. We got halfway down the hall and he stopped us. He looked at a door that lacked any width and pointed to it.
“Open it,” he said.
I didn’t ask questions. I opened the door. It was a coat closet about the size of a dollhouse.
“Get in!”
We both looked at each other and looked at the closet. There wasn’t even enough room for a large coat let alone two grown men.
“Get. The. Hell. In!”
We hesitated, then started to walk slowly towards the inside. He got so pissed that he pushed us and we fell in. There was barely any room to even fall in. He closed the door and locked it.
“Since you two can’t talk, you can sit in here and get to know one another. Heard you two been having problems anyway.”
Soon as he closed the door, the air went with it.
There were coats and junk on the floor.
Big Brother Timothy turned off the lights in the hall.
There we were, face-to-face in the closet.
Minutes passed and neither one of us spoke until Airez broke the silence.
“It’s hot in here,” he said.
I cooled the room down just a little bit. I didn’t want to draw attention to the temperature.
“This sucks,” I said. “Wonder what has him all ate up today?”
“It is hell week. It is suppose to be hell, remember?”
He shoved a coat and it fell on top of him.
Foul language filled the crowded space.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
He started to whimper then banged on the wall.
“No, I just want to go home.”
He broke down.
I wasn’t expecting him to start crying.
It felt kind of awkward.
Uhh was the only word going through my head at the moment. My eyes got big,
I couldn’t move. I didn’t know what to say to him. I just decided to let everything about our past slide and talk to him. Clearly he needed someone to talk to.
“I know that we haven’t been the best of friends, or friends at all. I’m sure that’s why we were picked to be buddies for the week. We might as well put it to some good use, we’re about to become brothers this weekend.”
He backed up and did a wall slide. His legs ran into me as he hit the floor. Tried to move out his way as much as possible. Stepped to the side and got on the floor across from him. Our legs folded and tangled together. It was so tight in there, we barely avoided brushing up against each other’s lips.
Not really how I was trying to spend my evening.
“I’m sorry,” he said under the cries. “Sorry for everything I said and did.”
“No man, we can just put that behind us.”
It was strange seeing him like this. This day was strange and full of emotions — hell, the past couple of months have been full of emotion and I couldn’t seem to make sense of it. Between my parents, Marcus, Imani and now Airez, I had to find a way to solve at least one of these problems. So Airez was about to be my saving grace.
“No, I had no reason for it. We didn’t have a reason. Maybe if I treated people better, we could have…” He stopped talking and the tears just kept coming. “He warned us, it’s all he wanted for us?”
“You can tell me whatever you want. No pressure, I’m just here to listen.”
“My dad,” he exhaled and tried to stop crying. “Earlier this year my dad found out he had cancer. His health quickly started to deteriorate. I just don’t know what to do without my dad,” he started to cry again.
Finally.
It made sense.
“I can’t imagine what you and your family must be going through. If I was to lose one of my parents I know I would lose my mind. Crying is good for you bro, it helps to vent but you don’t have to sneak around and act like everything is fine. You have ten brothers who are here for you. You can talk to us now.”
He chuckled. “You know what my dad told me?”
“What he says?”
“I visited him at the hospital one day, and he told me that I had to stop being so angry. That Airin and I needed to learn to be humble if we ever wanted to make it in the world. I’ve never been the nice guy. I was the guy in school who was after fame and pushed whoever got in my way. My dad said he didn’t want me to go on in life with so much anger... He said life is beautiful to people who are beautiful. I use to always think that he meant good looks — cause we both know I have them — now I know he meant the beauty within. He just wants me to be the best man I can be. I just wish he would be there to help me.”
“You have a loving and supportive family and extended family, who are going to be at your side when you need us.”
“Airin is blind,” he blurted. I’ve been trying my hardest to change for my father and Airin can’t seem to grasp what is going on or what Dad has been trying to tell us.”
“Help him Airez.”
My eyes started to water. I couldn’t believe it. I was empathizing with Airez. I never saw that coming.
“Help him see, be his eyes when he needs them. You guys are going to need each other soon. Make him realize that this is not a dream.”
Airez started to cry more. Soon enough a steady stream of tears flowed down my face. His tears then became muffled, His face buried in his hands or one of the coats. It got silent. He continued to cry.
He needed to.
We were in silence for about half an hour before the door opened. The light came on and we both tried to clean our faces up. Big Brother Timothy looked down at us, then bent down.
“You
guys alright?” he asked.
I nodded.
Airez had his arms on his knees with his forehead rested on his arms.
“We’re cool Big Brother,” I said.
“How about you Airez?”
He nodded without lifting his head.
Big Brother Timothy leaned in and patted Airez on the back.
“It’s going to be okay brother. You two needed this. That is why I picked you both to be partners. I know all about your past. Airez, you’ve got to learn to be friendly and open up. You should’ve been told the circle what you were going through, why you were going home...everything. When I asked those guys down there who their least favorite person was in the circle, all nine said you. They said they don’t know you and you don’t want to get to know them. That has got to change Airez.”
“I’m ready,” he sighed. “I’m ready to tell them.”
“I sent everyone else out. It will just be you guys and myself here for a few hours. Let’s go talk,” Big Brother Timothy asserted.
He reached his hand out and I grabbed it. He helped me up and I did the same for Airez. We walked in front of him as we made our way to the stairs. Airez had his head down the whole time. We made it down the stairs and it could easily be seen that we both had been crying.
“Fellas! This is what Xi Beta Kappa is all about. This is true brotherhood right here before your eyes,” Big Brother Timothy shouted. “Go ahead and take a seat boys.”
We took our seat at the two empty seats next to each other. Airez started to shed tears.
“It’s your show Airez,” Big Brother Timothy started.
Airez stood up and walked to center of the circle. He lifted his head, dried his eyes and cleared his throat. I doubt any of us were ready for what came next.