Chapter 11 - Rye POV

"Do you think my left boob is smaller than my right boob?" I scream so that Brian wouldn't miss a word.
"What? You realize I'm not gay?" He yells back. I'm sure he is in the kitchen trying to make his bowl of cereal. The guy is obsessed with cereal.
I make my way to the kitchen, still adjusting my bra caps.
"I think the left one is slightly smaller. I can feel the cap tight on my right." I look up and he is late to turn away from staring. Mostly wondering what a psycho his mom brought home I'm sure.
"Don't stare! Pervert." I say and he snaps out of it and tries to pretend to busy himself.
"How am I supposed to know if I don't look?" He exaggerates the looking away then dips his spoon in the bowl of cereal.
"I don't need to be in your room to know that you snore." I open the fridge and dig for a burger I threw in this morning.
"I saw him drop you. You wanna tell me why you suddenly skipping school with him? He is bad news Rye." Brian scoops his spoon full of milk filled cornflakes.
"Aaw, daaad,.." I tease. "Is this burger any better?" I look at him sympathetically and lick my sauce covered fingers.
"I'm serious Rye." He says between laughs. "He never commits."
"Is that what you think I'm doing? I just needed a friend. Dont be so wack." I move to the sitting room and forcefully sit on the couch then fold my legs on it and turn on the tv.
"Incoming!" I hear Brian yell and I know exactly what he is doing, so I jump off the couch before he jumps over it, spilling some of the content in the popcorn bowl as he does. Now it's over, I sit back on the couch full of strewn popcorn.
"I don't get why y'all have to eat popcorn watching movies. Nlikuwa nmezoea watu wanawatch dj Afro na miwa (I was used to people watching Dj Afro movies eating sugarcane) and us trying to sit quietly kuwatch (watching) 'Me Before You'. We were the cool ones that got English." I laugh at the memory.
"Yea? How cool is this?" He throws popcorn at me.
"Aah! No you didn't!" I throw a fair amount at him and before we know it, we had started a popcorn fight.
Turns out popcorn runs out too. We laugh as we drift back to the couch.
"I get it now." I say breathlessly.
The single was almost halfway and I place my head on Brian's shoulder, drifting off to the day's events. I know Logan is bad news, he cannot even control his anger, but... He is sweet, especially when he is trying to learn a child's game. He was relaxed and happy. It felt really nice to see him that way.
"You wanna talk about it?" Brian startles me.
"Talk about what?" I open my eyes and shift my posture abit to pretend I was watching tv.
"I can feel you smile all the way from here." He shifts a little so I have to lift my head from his shoulder.
I scoff.
"What?" I don't want to discuss Logan with anyone. The guy cannot even get my name right.
"So we are going to pretend now?" Brian grins.
"Nothing is going on Brian. This movie is quite interesting. I like this lady. She has class." I say in an attempt to change the topic.
"Okay. If you ever wanna talk, I'll be here but just a quick reminder, you have that other guy... Mason? The one you never kiss." He laughs slightly then realizing it's getting awkward gets up. "More popcorn." He walks away to the kitchen.
I'm left looking at my phone every time.. I guess I am expecting him to text, did you get home safe? Who am I kidding though. Of course he brought me to my door step to make sure there is no more conversation. I had made it clear that Mason and I were in love. What an idiot.
Nope. I'm not being this girl that is pathetic for a guy she shouldn't even have been involved with in the first place.
"You are not waiting for CEO to call right."
"Hell no."
"Good... Because that would be..."
"Weird, I know. Ptff, very weird."
"I was gonna say interesting.. Buut... "
I bite my cheek and curse at myself. I am weird. I mean it has been a habit of mine to jump at every opportunity to turn away a guy that showed interest in me. I am 16 and never had a 1st boyfriend, or first love. I'm too scared I'm gonna have kids of my own then get them ripped off my arms because I went crazy when a guy does something terrible to me. Boys are known to fuck up all the time and I cannot get myself to love one then watch them turn my life upside down.
Brian is still looking down at me when I come back from the little trans I was having. I force a smile and wrestle him to the ground spilling the popcorn again.
"Oh, I wasn't done with you." I say over him.
Normal school is for whites or atleast that is something we grew to believe, from how we were colonised to how we believe the white man brought around school to torture us. My previous school still had kids believing that whites have no right smiling at us. Weird where I study now is owned by whites and I was actually into one. Okay that last part needs abit of an acceptance debate in my head.
"Rye! You can't miss this. It's gonna be so lit. Ruger anakuja Kenya!" Everyone in the school is going nuts and that's all they are talking about. Ruger is coming to Kenya. The posters on Ruger in Meru county going around in all social media groups and some of my classmates and older kids have gone to the extent of printing them out and mounting them on walls or locker doors. The buzz for 8th October had just started. Kids are not so different after all. My previous school also had heat rising over local cheaper mini concerts, mainly for reggae and riddim djs who mostly just insult people but, as long as we are happy right? I simply stare at the fliers. There was no way I would ever afford this and I'm not asking for Brian to pay for a concert leave alone the fare to Meru.
"You buzzed about this?" A voice says behind me, more calm than the previous ones I have heard. This causes me to turn.
"Not really. I don't like him anyway." I say just to conceal the fact that I cannot afford it. And Jonny Walker being the label sponsoring the whole thing? That means I get a real chance at expensive booze. Damn, I feel like that rabbit that couldn't reach a banana and had to convince itself that it was rotten anyway.
"You sure? Your face tells a different story." Logan is pesturing me with this whole thing.
"Are you?" In an attempt to save my ass, I throw the question right back at him.
"If you are, why not. It's a chance to skip school again. That was fun with you. I'd not mind doing it again. Unless you wanna be a total buzzkill." He doesn't even wait for my reaction. The dumb boy just winks and walks past me. I want to laugh at his lame attitude and attempt to be cute. I mean it was working, don't get me wrong. The guy didn't even have to try, he is hot and I'm sure everyone could see that.