Boy vs. Girl by Na'ima B. Robert

Author:Na'ima B. Robert
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781907666186
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2010-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

First crack

Faraz was jittery when he got into school that morning. He hadn’t slept well and had woken up too late to eat well at sehri time. He considered missing the fast that day, then swept the thought aside. That would be the first step down a slippery slope – that was what had happened last year. And, of course, he dreaded seeing Maj again. To make matters worse, Dad was sure to call the Head about his missing phone and he knew that was going to cause some trouble.

He certainly wasn’t going to risk a fight with Maj and a possible detention or worse for the sake of a stupid phone. Besides, if he didn’t get his phone back, it would be easier to avoid Skrooz.

As it was, the day passed without incident. Maj was nowhere to be seen, there was no message from the Head asking him to come to the office and Faraz breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps it would all be OK after all.

But at the end of the school day, as he walked out of the gates, he caught sight of Skrooz’s car parked, waiting. It was hard to miss it. Skrooz and about four other lads were sitting on the black BMW, smoking, while music blasted out from the car’s powerful speakers.

Skrooz spotted him and waved him over. Faraz could feel the other kids’ eyes on him as he walked over to the sleek black car.

They envy me, the idiots, he thought.

“Hey, bro, good to see you – long time, eh?” Faraz found himself folded in Skrooz’s embrace, inhaling smoke, cologne and sweat. He seemed even bigger than the last time he saw him.

Faraz greeted the other lads in turn. They all acknowledged him warily, the new favourite. He could see that they weren’t that impressed with him.

What did Skrooz see in him, anyway? Was it his size? The fact that he looked like he could handle himself? Or did he sense a weakness in him, a desire to please, to be part of something?

Faraz dared not think about it as he got into the car. What are you doing, man? But he was too afraid not to do what he knew they expected of him.

Everyone else piled in, Skrooz revved the engine several times, turned up the music and they were gone.

A crazy ride later, they parked up near an estate on the other side of town. He looked around at the others in the car through the smoke that hung, thick and cloying, in the close air of the car. Everyone was smoking something, everyone except him. He had never tried weed before. Being in the car, in that enclosed space, breathing in the slightly sweet smoky air was enough to make him feel light-headed.

His mind began to drift away from the guys’ conversation about girls, guns and cars, stuff he wasn’t really into anyway.

What are you doing here, Faraz? Is this what you want?

He knew that it wasn’t, not now.

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