Brown Girl

Under The Bridge.

"You asked for me, Principal Rimkus?" Alisha knocked and entered the office.

She looked up from her papers. "Yes, Alisha. Please sit down."

Not sure what this was about, Alisha took a seat across from her.

"Alisha," Rimkus began, removing her pointed spectacles. "Why haven't you been attending school for the past week?"

Alisha shifted in her chair. "I just....after the incident, I needed a bit of space."

Rimkus nodded. "I understand. I just called you in to make sure that you're okay. Alex seems to be in perfect shape but from what I hear, you were really close to Colin and I'm sorry you had to go through all that."

Alisha nodded, looking down at her lap, fidgeting with her bracelet. "We all are sorry. But, may I ask what's going to happen to Colin?"

"Seeing Colin's condition, he mostly will be sent to a psych ward and then given community service, maybe." Rimkus sighed. "I always thought he was a good kid."

Alisha was welling up. "Yeah."

"Anyway, seeing how the whole school is shaken up by the incident, we have decided to go out for Christmas vacation a bit early this time." Rimkus informed.

Alisha didn't know what to say, so she nodded.

"Your vacation will start next week but I would appreciate it if you would not announce it to your friends as of yet." Rimkus requested.

"Yeah, okay." She said.

"Hang in there, kid." Rimkus gave Alisha a smile, surprising her. "You may go now."

A bit shocked at an expression on Rimkus' face, Alisha got up and walked out of the office.

~

The whole day, people gave Alisha strange, sympathy-filled stares. Some felt sorry for her, while others blamed her. She felt suffocated with all the attention. Even the teachers asked her to stay back after every class to make sure she was okay. She didn't need all of that right now.

A bit annoyed at the whole staring and pointing, she dumped her lunch tray on the table in the lawn outside the cafeteria, where Mira and Joey were already sitting. None of them felt like sitting inside the cafeteria anymore.

"Everything okay with you?" Joey asked.

"I'm fine." She snapped.

"Geez, just asking." He muttered.

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Joe. I just...I'm having a bad day."

"The pointing and staring, huh?" Mira guessed.

"Yeah! What's up with that!? I get it that I screwed up, okay? I get it that people blame me for the incident but they can at least have the decency to wait for me to be out of earshot before gossiping about me." Alisha fumed.

"Hey, Al, relax." Joey rubbed her arm soothingly.

"No one blames you, Alisha. It's not your fault. Yeah, there are few stupid bitches that do, but haters gonna hate. You have to learn how to ignore the hate." Mira explained.

Alisha's and Joey's eyes widened.

"Did you just cuss?" Joey was stumped.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay, I did."

"This day has finally arrived!" Alisha exclaimed dramatically.

"Shut up." She shoved Alisha.

Alisha and Joey shared a good laugh at Mira's attempt to curse.

Just then, their laughter was interrupted.

"Look who it is." Ben snickered as he and his gang came up to their table.

"It's you." Alisha grimaced.

"Why you sitting here, love?" He smirked, leaning on the table. "Scared to sit inside that cafeteria, are we?"

"Listen, punk-" Joey began to get up but Alisha stopped him.

"That's none of your business, punk." She growled.

"Oh, I think it is." He nodded cockily. "What happened, p***y cat? A tad bit scared of the memory of a p***y holding a gun at your head in there?"

Now Alisha got up. "You talk about him one more time like that and I will castrate you."

He let out a bark of laughter, followed by his gang, who did the same. "You still defending that pathetic loser?"

"I'm giving you a last chance to shut the f**k up." She sneered.

He smirked. He was enjoying this throughly. "You know, I always suspected that that kid was bit off his rocker. Always crying, begging us to stop. Poor crazy basta-"

The punch that landed on his eye sure shut him up. Alisha retracted her fist as he stumbled back, holding his eye.

"Al, calm down." Joey whispered as he stood up and pulled her away from the table, Mira doing the same.

Alisha was engulfed in rage. "You mention Colin ever again and I will snap your pathetic little neck."

Now a crowd had gathered around to see what was happening. Alex pushed through the crowd as he heard Alisha's voice.

"Oh, you little b***h!" Ben spit out as he charged towards her but before Alisha could get ready to take him, Alex came between them and landed a swift punch to his jaw, making him stupor sideways.

"Talk to her like that again and I will not hesitate to beat your ass." He fumed at a groaning Ben. His football mates had gathered around Ben and pulled him away from the scene.

"What!?" Mira screamed at the gossiping crowd. They all scrambled away at that, realising that the scene was over.

"You okay?" Alex turned to Alisha.

"I swear if one more person asks me that today, I am going to shoot someone. Then I will kick their ass and then I will have a drink and then I will-" She huffed.

"We get it!" Joey cut her off. "You'll do a lot of things."

Alex gave a slight smile. "Let's get you out of here."

~

"Can I ask you something?" Alisha spoke as she and Alex sat on the hood of her car, parked at a cliff overlooking the town. Alex had made Alisha ditch school after the scene at lunch and she definitely had no problem in doing so.

"It's not like if I say no, you won't." He shrugged.

"If you say no, I will convince you to let me ask and believe me, I am really persuasive." She winked.

"By persuasive if you mean seductive, then I agree." He smirked slyly making Alisha mock gasp. "Ask your question, now."

"Do you resent Colin...after what he did?" She bit it out.

His eyebrows furrowed. "At first, I did feel like beating him up because he tried to shoot you but then I got to know what actually brought that episode on and now that I think about it...I don't even blame him. Yes, I think he should've talked to someone about it and continued with his medication but I can't know what he went through...it must've been a hell lot harder than it seems. But no, I don' t resent him."

Alisha gave him a soft look. How the hell did she find a guy like him?

"But what brought on that question?" He asked.

She sighed. "Just something that Ben said."

Alex groaned. "Don't listen to that son of a b***h, brown girl."

"Yeah, I know. Half his mind is down in his crotch and half in beefing up." She agreed. "It's just that I can relate to Colin on some level. When I went through that phase...I had no one to turn to and when someone tried to help, it took me so much time to get the courage to even talk about my problems. It's not easy admitting to yourself, let alone anybody that you're damaged."

He stared at her as she relived the memories. "We're all, in some or the other way, are damaged. As we grow up, as we accept reality, we learn how to hide it. Hide it from others, pretend that we're fine the way we are. But deep down, we know that there will always be a part of us that is damaged. Somehow, it's not about how we hide the damage but about how we cope up to it and learn to accept it."

"Is this the part where I tell you to get back to porn again?" Alisha smiled, biting her lip.

"Yeah, that sounds about correct." He agreed, laughing.

They looked at the view ahead in silence, after their laughter died down. Alisha was thinking about what Alex said and she realised that he was right. It is about accepting the damage and moving on. Life has a lot of wonderful things that she could never see before, but he made her see them, feel them.

"Can I ask you a question?" Alex spoke after a while.

"Instead of trying to let you seduce me, I'm gonna let you go ahead and ask." She sighed.

He hesitated. "Who was the someone that tried to help you?"

She gave a knowing smile. "I was waiting for that."

"So?" He prodded.

"It was Karan." She said.

"Karan as in your ex-lover boy Karan?" Alex asked, a bit dumbfounded. Alisha had to control her smile on the way Alex pronounced Karan's name.

"Who told you that Karan was my ex-lover boy?" She was amused.

"Christina?" It came out as a question.

"When?" Alisha had an idea about when it must've happened.

"At the beach party yesterday?"

"So a drunk Christina?" Alisha asked.

"Hey, if there's one thing in life that I have learnt is that always believe a drunk Christina." Alex defended himself.

"Eh, you're right." She shrugged.

He asked after a couple of moments, "So, is he?"

"In a way? I mean, we were never in a relationship, if that's what you're thinking. We never committed to each other. We just got extremely close and yeah, I was attracted to him for a bit." She admitted.

"So nothing ever happened?" He inquired.

"It's not like nothing happened. We did kiss a few times but before it could even begin, we ended it. It wasn't practical, you know? I was shifting and he was going to be in another country and all." She shrugged.

"Do you still have feelings for him?" He dreaded the answer to that.

She turned to look him in the eye. "No. He's one of my best friends and always will be but you're my guy and I kind of like that. At least for now."

Okay, so he didn't dread it anymore. "I like that too. For now."

He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

"You know, I really think we'd have amazing s*x together." She murmured with a mischievous smile against his lips. He gave her an amused look as he burst out into laughter.

"I would like to see how that goes." He admitted.

"I bet you would." She rolled her eyes sarcastically.

~

"Ex-lover boy? Really? You couldn't have used a better term?" Alisha asked Christina over the phone as she, Christina and Mira were on conference.

"I was drunk!" She protested.

"You are a complete i***t!" Alisha smiled. "You know how guys get easily jealous."

"She's right, you know?" Mira piped in. "Colt still gets angry if my crush of eighth grade comes and talks to me."

"You and your ex-crush are friends?" Alisha was intrigued.

"Well, not really. In eighth, I liked him and now, he likes me." Mira laughed.

"Wait, is it Ryan?" Christina asked.

"Yeah, it is." Mira laughed.

"See? Colt gets angry if they talk." Alisha argued.

"That's Colt's problem." Christina snorted. "Josh doesn't care if I talk to any of my ex-girlfriends."

"Because that turns him on!" Alisha groaned making Mira burst out in laughter.

"I'm with Alisha." Mira said.

"C'mon! You guys don't think that Alex is still thinking about Alisha and Karan?" Christina snorted.

Alisha and Mira said it at the same time, "Yeah, he is!"

~

"Are you crazy, Alex!? Al would never choose Karan guy over you!" Joey exclaimed, still not able to pronounce the name in the correct way.

"But he's her best friend, literally!" Alex protested. He, Joey and Colt were at Colt's place.

"Best friend, shmoo friend." Joey waved it off making Alex give him a groan.

"Dude, you also have ex-girlfriends but that doesn't mean that Alisha will think that you'll pick them over her." Colt laughed.

"Obviously not, but he's special to her, I can see it." He admitted, sighing. "You guys think I'm overreacting a bit?"

"A bit?" Joey and Colt said in sync.

"You're right." Alex nodded.

"Dude, don't let anyone come between you both." Colt advised. "I speak with experience."

"Yeah, listen to whipped ass over here!" Joey agreed.

"Whipped ass?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, have you looked at him lately?" Joey snorted. "The guy's whipped. Doesn't have control over his own ass anymore."

"I'm right here!" Colt exclaimed.

"Dude, we already know that." Joey looked at him as if he were dumb, giving a knowing look to Alex. Colt groaned in frustration.

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