Broken

//3.The Distraction//

“So, why did you move here?” KJ asks and I stop walking and tense.

Because I need a change of environment, I needed to get away from the toxic environment, the one that reminded me so much of Her. The place that made feel guilty. That’s what my therapists told my parents.

“Wrong question?” he asks and I nod my head.

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes.

I shrug my shoulders, “Its fine,” I say quietly.

He opens the door and I walk into the class.

“Thanks,” I mutter.

I decide to sit where I sat yesterday and KJ does the same.

Zeus comes in a few seconds later and takes a seat beside me.

“Hey,” he greets me.

“Hi,” I mumble.

“You okay?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I say with a tight smile and he nods unconvinced.

I think back to when KJ asked to show me around Maine. I really would be busy on Saturday. I would be going for a session with a new therapist. My life sucks.

Mr. Dalton comes in a few minutes later and the class begins.

∞

Its lunch time and I’m sitting in the cafeteria with Nevaeh.

“Have you gotten your uniform yet?” she asks.

Apparently, the school has uniforms but they just allow us wear whatever we like throughout the first week of school. The school is a private school, and it’s one of the best around the area, so it makes sense that there’s a uniform policy.

“Nope, I’m getting them today, maybe after we finish eating. You wanna come?”

“Sure,”

We finish eating after a while and start walking to the main office to get my uniform.

I try on my uniform and they are a perfect fit. The principal comes out of her office and looks at me.

“Ah, just the girl I wanted to see,” she says.

“Me?”

“Yes, step into my office.”

I look at Nevaeh and she says she’ll wait.

I walk into Mrs. Watson’s office and she shuts the door behind her.

“Please, take a seat,” she gestures toward an empty chair.

I take a seat and wait for her to do the same. Being here in her office makes me feel uncomfortable, because I don’t know what she’s going to say. All I know is that, whatever she says, I’m sure I’m not going to like it.

“Firstly, I would like to welcome you to Whittler High, Isis.”

I mumble a ‘thanks’ and she goes on.

“So, your parents called and briefed me on your history.” She doesn’t have to elaborate more on my ‘history’, because I clearly understand what she means.

“And we’ve decided to make sure you see your guidance counsellor at least twice a week.”

Of course they did. I’m already dealing with my therapist and now they are making it mandatory for me to see my counsellor. I can’t get mad at my parents for doing this, because I owe it to them not to, after taking away something they loved so much.

“Do I have to do this?” I ask.

“Yes,”

This is what I get for being underage; others get to make choices for you.

“You have some free periods on your schedule, so maybe you can use those to meet up with her,” she says and I nod my head, even though this arrangement is fraying.

“That aside, considering your performance in your academics in your last school and the number of AP classes you have, I would expect nothing less this semester.”

“Okay,”

“You can also join clubs. I’ve heard from your parents that you like cameras and photography. So maybe you can join the Photography club,” she says. “We also have a Mathlete club and I think you should consider joining.”

“I will consider,” I lie.

“Any questions?” Mrs. Watson asks.

“No,” I say and rise from the chair.

“Isis?” she says as I’m about to open the door.

“Yes?”

“You’re going through a tough time and I am deeply and sincerely sorry about that. But I just want you to know that there are people around you, that are here for you,” she says with a smile.

I don’t say anything to her, I open the door and leave.

“Any problem?” Nevaeh gets up from her seat.

“No, she was just welcoming me and stuff,” I lie. It isn’t exactly a lie, because she did welcome me.

∞

The end of school comes quickly as the bell goes.

I take out some of my books from the locker and text Zion to meet me at the parking lot. I start walking to the parking lot and Zion joins me later in the car.

We get home and I go up to my room. I take a shower and change into a sweat pant and sweat shirt.

I’m doing some homework when my phone dings.

I unlock it and find an unknown number sitting in my messages.

Unknown number: what’s up?

Me: who’s this?

Unknown number: take a guess

Me: tell me who you are, or imma block yo ass

Unknown number: chill out. It’s KJ

Me: how did you get my digits?

Unknown number: I have my ways

Me: why you texting me?

Unknown number: I wanted to know if you’ve thought about Sunday

I have thought about Sunday, but I don’t know if I want to go. If I tell him no, he’ll probably never give up on trying. And I need the distraction.

Me: I have

Unknown number: and?

I type; I’ll go and hit send before I change my mind.

Unknown number: sweet

I save his number as ‘KJ’.

∞

I step into the building at eleven in the morning. A few people are waiting in chairs, not making a single sound.

I haven’t been here for long and look at me, already at the therapist.

“Hi, how can I help you?” the lady behind the counter asks.

My dad answers all the questions while I look around and try to remain calm.

The lady hands me a clipboard with few papers attached to it. The things in the paper are the questions that I’m tired of answering.

Are you constantly worrying?

Do you get upset easily?

Do you feel detached from others?

Are you happy?

I answer the questions on the clipboard and soon I hear my name called.

“Isis King?” a woman with braids and glasses asks.

I stand up and start to walk towards her. My dad gives me smile and a thumb up before I leave his side.

“Hello Isis, I’m Jayla, your therapist,” she says and extends her hand out for me to shake it, and I do, then hand her the clipboard.

“Come with me,” she says and leads me into a room.

The room is like every therapy room I’ve been in. there are pictures of animals, quotes on the walls, a table and a chair at the far back.

We seat on two plush chairs that are facing each other at a distance.

“I’m going to be starting off with some questions, is that okay?”

“Yeah,” I mutter.

“How are you?” she asks like every other therapist would start off.

“Okay, I guess,”

“Have you had any panic attacks recently?”

“No, not recently,”

“Any nightmares?”

“None, since I’ve moved here,”

“Okay, that’s good,” she says with a smile.

The session goes on with Jayla asking me different questions and writing things down in her notebook. The session finally ends after an hour.

“If you feel like you need to come see me during the week before our next session, feel free to come over,” she smiles.

“Okay,” I say and step out of the room and walk into the waiting room where I see my dad seated. He smiles when he sees me.

“How did it go?”

“It was okay,” I shrug.

“Want to go for coffee at Starbucks?”

“No, I just want to go home.” I tell him.

“Okay,” he says and we walk outside.

I’m emotionally drained and physically too, although I blame it on pulling an all-nighter, so I could binge watch my favourite show.

What I need right now is sleep.

∞

Sunday comes by and I get ready for my outing with KJ. I put on my tie-dye cropped sweatshirt and white shorts and slip my feet into my black Jordans. I braid my hair into a Dutch braid.  I don’t do makeup because I’m really not in the mood for it, but I gloss my lips to my satisfaction and put on my aviator glasses.

I take my camera too. KJ and I agreed that he’ll come pick me up at four in the morning, because we are going to another town and he wants us to catch the sunrise. I check my phone and it reads 3:56am.

 I go downstairs and get a granola bar and munch on them as I wait for KJ.

“Where you going?” Tyrell’s voice asks as he walks into the kitchen

“Out,”

“With who? It’s almost four in the morning,”

“A friend,”

“You are going out at four in the morning with a friend?” Ty asks again.

“What’s with all these questions?” I growl.

“I’ve just asked two questions, and I’m allowed to ask these questions when my sister is going out at four in the morning,”

“Well, you were just asking me the third one five seconds ago, and just let me be,”

“And you didn’t answer me,” he raises his voice.

“I don’t have to answer you, Ty,” I yell back.

Tyrell sighs and rubs his face.

“Just answer me, Isis,” he says softly.

My phone dings and I check it, it’s a message from KJ.

KJ: I’m outside

Me: I’ll be there in a sec

“Gotta go,” I say and start walking towards the door.

“Isis,” he calls out softly.

“What?” I say without turning around.

“Be careful,”

“Whatever, tell mom and dad I’ll be back soon,” I say and walk out the door.

They still didn’t trust me after everything that happened two years ago. I don’t blame them though, I always make rash decisions.

I see KJ standing next to his car after squinting a little because it’s so early and I walk up to him.

“Damn girl, you looking fire,” he comments licking his lips.

“Thanks, but can’t say the same for you,” I smirk.

“You know that ain’t true. I’m looking dapper,”

“Sure,”

We get into the car and he turns on the car and starts driving.

“So, we are going to the beach, Cadillac mountain and a few other places in Bar harbour,” he says.

“Bar harbour?”

“Yes, it’s the other town I told you ‘bout, the one we going to,”

Oh okay, how long’s the drive to Bar Harbour?”

“‘Bout three hours,”

“So I’m stuck with you for three hours and probably the rest of the day?”

“Yes,” he says with a cheeky grin.

“Hopefully all this s**t is worth the drive,” I mumble to myself.

KJ turns on the radio and immediately the car is filled with an R&B Miguel tune.

“So, what does KJ mean?” I ask him.

“Kamari Joaquin,”

“Hmmm, Joaquin,” I muse out loud.

“What?”

“You Latin?” I c**k an eyebrow.

“Partly, my mom’s Latin,”

“That’s cool. I think imma start calling you Joaquin,”

“That’s okay by me,”

“I wasn’t asking you if it was,” I smirk.

“Anyways, we have three hours before we get to Bar Harbour, how should we spend it?”

“I don’t know, you were the one who wanted to show me around,”

“You aren’t very nice, you know,”

“So I’ve been told,”

“You are different,”

Tell me about it.

“Good different or bad different?”

“I don’t know, only time will tell,”

“Whatever,” I say and bring out my novel from my bag and start to read.

“Really?”

“What?”

“You’re reading a book,” he snatches the book from my grip.

“So?”

“We have three hours and you’re wasting them on reading a book,”

“How do you suggest we spend them then?” I fold my arms across my chest.

“We could do anything actually, something that involves the both of us,”

“Okay, just give my book back,” I hold my hand out and he drops the book in my hand.

“How ‘bout we ask random questions?”

“Whatever, this gonna be one long ass car ride,” I mutter under my breath.

“I heard that,”

Joaquin and I start asking each other random questions just as he suggested. We laugh as we talk for a really long time and I realise that he ain’t so bad as I thought.

“Hey, do you have something I can eat?” I ask.

“You hungry?” he looks at me like I’ve suddenly grown two heads.

“Yeah,”

“You just ate two granola bars in the last hour, and you’re hungry?” he asks with an amused expression on his face.

I had actually eaten two granola bars in the last hour, but that didn’t stop me from being hungry.

I open his dash in search of something to eat, but I see a black Nikon camera sitting in there looking at me. I get a hold of it and turn it on and scroll through the pictures on it and I’m in awe of the pictures on it.

“This yours?” I ask and he looks at me for a second before returning his focus on the road.

“Yeah, why?”

“You took these pictures?”

“Yes,”

“They’re real nice,” I tell him as I keep on clicking through the gallery of pictures.

“Thanks,”

“You don’t really look like the kind of person who takes pictures, though. Are you studying photography in college?”

“Nah, I like the aesthetics behind photography and being able to freeze a moment and keep it and all that, but I don’t see myself studying it,”

“So, what you gonna do in college?”

“I’m going into basketball,”

“Basketball?” I quirk my brows.

“Yeah,”

“I’m sure you can’t play basketball like that, you should just stick to photography.”

“What do you mean? You haven’t seen me in the court,”

“I’m pretty sure I can play basketball better than your lazy ass,”

“You think?” he says with a light laugh.

“I know,”

“Okay then, come watch me play on Friday next week, imma show you how we do this shit.”

“I’ll be there. To watch you lead your team into failure,” I say with a smirk.

“We’ll see,”

Joaquin continues to drive and I continue to hum the tunes playing from his playlist.

After about two and a half hours, we finally get to Bar Harbour.

“Welcome to Bar Harbour,” he says with a smile and I roll my eyes at him.

“You are gonna love the sunrise. It’s really beautiful,”

After driving three miles we get to the entrance of Cadillac Mountain. He heads south on the Park Loop Road and drives all the way to the top of the mountain.

“Here we are,” he says and we get out of the car.

He didn’t lie when he said the sunrise would be beautiful. Waking up this early and coming out for this sunrise was totally worth it.

“It’s really picturesque, I would have taken the picture but I wouldn’t capture the true beauty of this place. You should take it.” I say and he does.

He’s really good at this and I suddenly feel stupid for bringing my camera. I’m not half as good as he is.

He goes back into the car and brings out his camera and starts taking different shots and they turn out really good.

I take in all of this, the height of the mountain, the beautiful colours in the clouds, the sunrise, and the cool breeze. She would have loved this, if she were here.

“I think this is what my parents had in mind when they were naming me?”

“What do you mean?”

“My Jamaican name is Aaylah, it means top of the mountain. They probably liked the whole view of a mountain because I do too,” I say and he doesn’t say a word.

We just stay in silence and enjoy everything around us.

He shoves his hand into his pocket and pulls out a blunt and lights it. I look at him as he takes a long drag and blows the smoke into the wind. He doesn’t look like the type of guy to smoke, but what can I say, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

He stretches out his hand with the blunt and tips his head as if asking me if I want it. I take it from him and also take a drag and puff out the smoke into the air.

I haven’t had a blunt in a while and I’ve missed the feeling of it. It gets me really relaxed and chilled and most times distracted.

We keep on passing the blunt back and forth until it’s finished.

“This is really worth the drive.” I say out loud.

“Yeah, it is. I usually come here anytime I needed to clear my head and just clam down and breathe. Enjoy the view and just think,”

He is right, the view is so nice, everywhere is calm and you can just stay here and not feel the pressure and the weight of the world around you.

It’s now 7:30 and the sun has finally set fully.

“You still hungry?” he asks me.

“Yeah,”

“Let’s go have breakfast then. There’s this really nice café I usually come go to anytime I come here, we could go,”

“Yeah sure, I’m down for breakfast,”

“A’ight then, let’s go,”

We walk back to the car and silently say our goodbyes to Cadillac Mountain. I would like to come back sometime, maybe not with him.

Twenty minutes pass and we are parked outside a café called Café This Way. The café looks really cosy and homey.

We go in and find an empty table. The café isn’t so crowded which is okay. A few seconds after we are settled in our seats, a waiter comes around us with two menus ready to take our order.

I glance through the menu trying to find something that interested me.

“The Country Breakfast is really good and it has this really nice blueberry pancake in it,” Joaquin tells me.

I look back at the menu and decide to try out the Country Breakfast.

“I’ll have the Country Breakfast, and orange juice.” I tell the waiter and he smiles.

“I’ll have the same with apple juice, ” Joaquin tells him.

“Okay, your order will be ready in a few,” he says and walks away with the menus.

“So, tell me about yourself,”

“This isn’t a date Joaquin,” I laugh.

“I didn’t say it was though,” he says.

He looks at me weirdly and I stare right back at him, taking him in. He’s wearing a blue top with black track pants, his hair is falling right on his face and he brushes it aside. He also has a piercing on his ear, not like I cared about it; I also have a few piercings in my ear.

“What?” I question.

“What do you mean ‘what’?”

“You looking at me some type of way,”

“I like what I see,” he says casually as he leans in his seat.

“You can’t handle this,”

He’s about to say something but the male waiter comes back with our food and he keeps quiet. The waiter places our food on the table.

“If you need any other thing,” he says looking right at me. “just call for me.” He finishes and flashes a smile.

The boy looks a bit older than me, like college old. He does look fine but I ain’t interested in him, he looks way too desperate. I don’t do desperate.

“We will,” Joaquin tells him and he walks away.

There’s eggs, blueberry pancakes, home fries, toast, bacon, English muffins, everything that makes up a breakfast. Everything on the table reminds me of London.

I pick up my home fries and chew on them while scrolling through i********:, liking different pictures. I bite into my toast and remember Macy, she loves cinnamon toasts and my toasts are also cinnamon.

I take a picture of my food and send it to her. Few minutes later, she replies,

Macy: is that toast?

Me: yeah and its cinnamon

“Who you talking to?”

“Last time I checked Joaquin you weren’t my father and you still aren’t,”

“I’m just asking.”

“I’m talking to my friend if you must know,”

My phone dings and I unlock it.

Macy: you having cinnamon toast alone without me

Me: I’m actually not alone

Macy: who you with? The fam?

Me: remember that guy I was telling you about? The one I dumped my lunch on?

Macy: yeah

Me: well, I’m with him

Macy: oh my God, I thought you didn’t like him

Me: I don’t like him

Macy: so what you doing with him? Are you guys on a date?

Me: Macy you know I don’t do dates. He wanted to show me around

Macy: send me a picture

I open my camera app and take a picture of Joaquin.

“Did you just take my picture?”

“Yeah, my friend wants me to send a picture of you to her,” I say.

“You telling your friend about me already?” he says smugly.

“Boy please, it’s not like that,” I say as I send Macy Joaquin’s picture.

“She just wanted to see who I was hanging out with,” I finish.

“Okay,” he says and we finish off our breakfast.

“So, what’s next on the list?” I ask as we walk out of the café.

“Ocean trail and Acadia National Park,” he replies as we get into his car.

My phone dings in my pocket and I pull it out.

Macy: oh my God, he buff, init?

I’m not a person who wouldn’t admit to something that was obviously true, so I tell her yes.

Me: he is, but he’s cocky

Macy: can I Face time you now?

Me: nah, I’m still with him

Macy: please, I need to hear him talk. Judging from his picture, his voice gonna turn me on

Me: you sound very thirsty right now

Macy: forget that s**t, I’m calling right now

Before I can reply her text and tell her not to, a call comes through from her. And I have no choice but to answer it, if not my phone’s gonna be blaring nonstop.

“Hey girl, you look cute,” she yells through the speakers.

“Hey Mae, thanks,” I say and Joaquin turns his head to look at me for a quick second before returning his gaze to the road.

“Let me see that nigga,” she says not so quietly and he smiles.

Macy has always been an upfront girl from jump just like me, she won’t try and beat around the bush, when she wanted something, and she made sure to make it clear to everyone.

“Macy wants to talk to you,” I tell him.

“Your friend?”

“What do you think?”

“Okay,” he says and I turn the phone to face him.

“Damn,” Macy says, breaking the word into two syllables. “Hey you,”

“Hi,” he says still looking at the road as he drives.

“Isis, he’s cuter up close and his voice, don’t get me started,” Macy says like he’s not here.

Joaquin laughs.

“What’s your name?” she asks him.

“KJ,”

“Hmmm, KJ,” she rolls his name out of her tongue. “You cute,”

“Thanks,” he says, looking at the screen for a while. “You fine too,”

“Thanks, I’ll leave you to your driving now, just wanted to see you up close. Maybe I’ll get to meet you some day in person,”

“Maybe,” he says and I turn the phone back to myself.

“You happy?”

“Yeah,” she says and  I hear her shuffling going on in the background and a door opening.

“Hey, come here, I’m on the phone with Isis,” I hear her say to someone, I can’t tell who because the phone’s not facing him.

“b***h!!” someone says and I immediately know who it is.

“You so loud Tristan,” I say and I finally see my friend’s face.

“Isis, how you been? Sorry I haven’t called in a while, soccer’s been taken all my time,”

He says and I kiss my teeth.

“Sure, I’ve been good though. How’ve you been?”

“Apart from soccer taking my time and me being constantly tired, I’m okay,”

“Isis is with someone right now,” she wiggles her eyes suggestively. “So we should let her go T,”

“Okay, I see you,” he winks.

“Shut up. I’ll talk to you lots later,”

“Alright,” Tristan says.

“Bye KJ,” she yells really loud and Joaquin replies with a ‘bye’.

We end our call after agreeing to talk later.

“Your friend is something,” Joaquin laughs.

∞