avenge
(This is so rough and unedited so I apologize in advance)

I stood outside my doorstep, with my bags in hand and Liam by my side. It felt so odd being here since it was only a month prior that I was here for thanksgiving.

Knocking on the door, I stepped back and leaned against the railing. I didn't want to be here, not at all. I just wanted to be back on the road with Liam, cracking jokes, fighting over the aux cord, and singing off tune to the radio.

I wasn't emotionally ready to confront my mom, and the tear that fell from my eyes indicated that.

"Cash, we don't have to be here if you—" Liam was cut off by the door opening, and Dreya looked at me before her eyes widened.

"You are so dead," she said, opening the double doors completely to let us both in. "The school just called mom and told her you dropped out."

"I didn't drop out," I said, but I heard my mother screaming in Amharic from where I stood.

Oh god, I thought as Liam helped carry my bags into the foyer. Why is it that every time I come home, my mom is always upset?

"Āmilakē, lemini yihini ḥit͟s'ani gari tewikenyi?" My mom was in the kitchen, her head in her hands. She had a notebook in front of her and a cup of tea.

"Mom?" I called out, which caused her head to snap up.

"What the blasted hell is going on with you, Cashmere?" She asked, standing up from the kitchen table. "Why have you dropped out—"

"I didn't drop out," I explained, dropping into a seat by her. "I'm transferring."

My mother's eyebrows raised. "You're switching schools? To where? Community college?"

"Mom, can you please—" I had to take a deep breath of air before I could continue. I was going to lose my mind if she kept jumping to conclusions. "I'm not going to a CUNY. I'm transferring to Fordham, and Aunt Jela helped me with everything."

"But why?" She had the nerve to ask, and I finally blew up.

"Do you really need to ask why?!" I yelled, running my hands through my hair. I was tired of never explaining myself or over explaining myself to the point where no one even could understand what I'm meant. "After everything that happened on campus, did you really expect me to just come back the next semester and everything would be all happy and a-oh-fucking-kay?"

"Cashmere, remember who you're talking to," my mother said sternly, her piercing gaze searing into my eyes. But I was tired, so so tired of never saying anything.

"I'm talking to the same woman who convinced me to stay on a campus with boys who sexually assaulted, recorded me, and spread it around." I shook my head. "You made me suffer through eight months just so you could save face and tell everyone that we're still doing okay, despite the fact that you have a fucked up husband that you can't stand, your only son starts fights he sometimes can't win, and your eldest daughter was drugged up and blowing guys on camera."

I anticipated a slap before I saw it coming so I had a little bit of time to psych myself up for it before it came. However, what I didn't know what that today of all days, she decided to wear her wedding band.

Her hand slapped me and I felt the silver slice the skin on my cheek.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," she said, shaking your head. "Look at what you turned out to be. All this talk, talk, talk with your mouth open but you never listen. Sometimes I wonder why the making of that video didn't humble you."

In all my nineteen years, I never wanted to fight my mom. Even when she stopped me from going out to parties, yelled in my face, slapped me for being disrespectful in the past, no.

But this? This made me ball my fists up, and square my shoulders.

"Cash." Dreya grabbed my shoulder, but I jerked her off of me, unbothered. This was long overdue between her and I.

"Cashmere." It was now Liam who grabbed my shoulder and yanked me away from my mother. "You need to calm down before you do something you'll regret."

I have to admit, he was right. I wasn't levelheaded at all. Now that I was back home, I needed to learn to control my anger. It wasn't worth destroying myself over.

Snatching my duffel off the floor, I strode towards the front door, not caring to close it because I knew Liam was hot on my heels.

"Where are we going?" He asked, and I knew he was probably very confused because he expected to drop me off and be on his merry way home. Oh well.

"A friend's." my answer was vague, but necessary. "I'll give you directions."

Within seven minutes, we pulled up to Kayla's apartment building. I slid my bag into my shoulder and nervously rubbed my bare arms trying to warm them up in the cold weather. Since I rushed out so quickly, I forgot to pick up my coat that was resting in the foyer. Liam slid his jacket off his shoulders and wordlessly offered it to me, which I gladly accepted.

We were in front of Kayla's door, and I hesitated before softly knocking. I mean, last time we spoke wasn't on the best of terms so I'm not sure what was going to go down.

The door swung open and she flung herself into my arms, and I stumbled back in surprise.

"Jesus Christ!" She cried out, hugging me tightly. "I messed up so bad!"

"What happened?" I asked, concern in my eyes. "Did you drop out?"

"No, but worse," she said, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm pregnant."

My heart dropped, and my eyes widened. "W-what?"

She was shaking in my arms, and I knew she wasn't kidding. But I couldn't grasp it. How was the top student from high school who got a full scholarship to Columbia knocked up in her second year? Who was she possibly having sex with to—

"Oh my god, don't tell me," I said, taking a step back to grasp her by the shoulders. "Whose baby is it?"

She sighed shakily before whispering, "Adonis."

--

"Why didn't you say anything before he left?" I asked, setting a cup of tea in front of her on the coffee table. Liam was sitting on the fire escape smoking a loaned blunt from Kay to give us a bit of space to talk. And boy, did we need to.

"I didn't want to ruin his dream," Kayla said, sniffling and blowing on the tea before taking a sip. "Ball means everything to him, and I'm not some hood bitch trying to trap him because his career is taking off."

My mind drifted to Jasmine's stunt, and the unopened text Zayn sent this afternoon. "Trust me, you don't have to be a hood bitch to do that shit."

She sighed before putting a smile on her face and perking up. "So, enough about me. Who is that jawn sitting on the fire escape?"

I chuckled before leaning back into the couch. "That's Liam. He's a friend."

"So Zayn is no more? That was fast." She said, her eyebrows raising. Kay must've seen the way my face changed because she leaned closer to me with concern. "What happened?"

I told her the story of everything starting with Justice and Louis and ending with Diego and Jasmine. When I was finished, she silently stood up and walked towards the door.

"Whoa, where are you going?" I asked flabbergasted. I tell her a story and she leaves?

"I'm going to NAU so I can shoot Diego in his dick and fuck Zayn gently with a chainsaw," she said calmly.

I knew my friend, so I was frightened by her words. This is the same girl who stabbed my ex with a pencil "by accident" in the hallway, and risked her education just for me.

"Kay, relax," I muttered with a resounding exhale. "Liam already took care of all that."

"The cutie out there? And you made him sit out on the fire escape?" Her disbelief was clear, but I didn't know why until she spoke. "He's basically one of us."

She walked over to the fire escape and poked her head out. It was only then that I realized she was wearing Adonis' basketball sweatshirt from high school and practically swimming in it. I smiled slightly before taking a sip of the tea I made for myself. If I had to choose anyone for Adonis to be with, it would be Kayla.

A few minutes later, Liam and Kay walked back in, and she had the biggest smirk on her face.

"If you don't want me to retaliate violently, then fine," she told me, shrugging her shoulders. "But if you won't do this the easy way, you're going to have to get your revenge the hardest way for a black women in America."

"Oh shit," I said, before putting my head in my hands. "Don't tell me we're going by the law."

"Yup." She adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "We're going to sue the shit out of North Atlantic University, and teach them that you can't silence us anymore with non disclosure agreements and fake pregnancies. We coming right for them."