The Kings of Hawk Academy

Chapter 6

"You wanna watch something?" Teresa asked after I ended up at her door like a lost dog. That's exactly what I felt like as I ignored Aunt Rose's phone calls, which I thought would stop the moment I sent her a text saying that I was okay and just wanted some time alone. That seemed to give her the idea that she needed to call me so much that I got pissed and turned my phone off.

I'd gone from a Mom who ignored me when she hooked up with her boyfriend that soon turned into her hus-band which then turned into her being my best friend when we went away as her mom died, to her dying when we came back.

"Wanna go out?" Teresa prompted, totally uncertain of what to do for me, but feeling obligated that she had to do something to help me.

She was my friend, of course she would want to make me feel better. That just made me feel even worse because all I wanted to do was sit here and stew in anger.

"No," I finally answered her. That was one thing that I knew that I didn't want to do. I definitely did not want to go out again, I'd been walking for over an hour when I ended up here, the only thing that I wanted to do was rest and stew.

"Eat?" she offered and then shrugged as if she was run-ning out of ideas. As the word left her mouth, I realized that it'd been a while since I ate, and I wanted something to eat.

Anything.

"Sure."

She jumped up with joy as if I'd given her some hope of doing something rather than us both just sitting in her room and facing each other.

"What do you want?"

I smiled. "Your famous ham sandwich."

She made a mean sandwich with pickles, ham and just enough mayonnaise and mustard to always make me want more.

I followed her like a stray to the kitchen and with both of her parents at work, we could do as we pleased. Her parents were both nurses who did crazy shifts or so it felt like it most of the time. They were hardly home, and she would either be home alone or with her brother who seemed to be part of every social activity under the sun. They were only a year apart, but her brother was the smart one in the family and he loved every-one knowing that, including Teresa.

"Coming right up!"

I sat as I watched her hover between the refrigerator and the table. She put so much effort and care into it, that I knew that it was going to taste good. I wanted to say some-thing, anything just so that the atmosphere wasn't so damn thick when the one person that annoyed me more than anyone in the world walked in.

"Hey Vicki."

I turned to look at him. Normally, he would say some-thing that was funny in his eyes and mean in ours. This time, nothing, no hi Vicki what you girls up to? Nothing.

It would be something stupid, but right now my mind turned a complete blank as I tried to think of something he would say.

"Hey," I said, because it seemed like I should say some-thing. Even if he was an asshole.

"So, how you holding up?" he asked as he adjusted his glasses and drew closer to me.

I noticed that his hair was clean shaven unlike the usual square Afro that he usually had his hair in. We used to laugh and tell him that the 90s were over. His dad made a mistake and showed him the movie, House Party. Henry thought that he could be Kid's younger brother. They did look alike. Hen-ry's a lot lighter in complexion than Teresa, but the 90s were well and truly over. His dad regretted the day that he let him watch the movie.

Maybe he got over his phase.

"So, what happened to your hair?"

He laughed. "It's gone, just like the 90s."

"Ha! Dad told you that the moment you said that you would grow it like that, but you made it even worse when you did."

We all laughed. "Remember when it got to the full length and then you went to school."

"Oh, the good old days," Henry said.

And between eating my sandwich and talking about Henry's hair, I soon forgot, for just a moment, about the last couple of days. I was happy that I came over and even more so about eating Teresa's sandwich. For some reason it tasted better than I'd ever remembered as if she'd made it that extra special, just for me and I felt at home. Even if I didn't really have one.