Forbidden Love

Chapter 3 - Getting Ready

The next morning I woke up tangled with Liam and Vera on the couch. Meanwhile, my other siblings

were asleep on the floor. It was clear that none of them had woken up yet, since they were all snoring.

I got up from the couch and stared at them, debating on whether I should scare them awake or be

mature and make them up normally. Eventually the childish side of me took over like it always does

when it comes to my siblings.

“Eeeeek!” I shrieked, waiting for chaos to unfold.

Everyone woke up with a start, and even Jada sat straight up with her hands out as if she was trying to

shoo off the devil. I cackled at their confused expressions, not being able to hold my laughter in.

“Good morning, everyone! I hope you guys all had a good night’s sleep,” I said innocently.

“Are you trying to get beat up? Cause it really seems like that right now. I got a whole ass headache

and you think you can just keep playing around like that?” Sara began saying as she picked herself up

from the floor.

“Oh, hell no. Not in my house. You all can go ahead and leave so I can do the things I need to do

before mom’s dinner,” Lin said. She got herself off of the ground and was stretching.

“You’re not even gonna call me a taxi? Damn, I wonder where the manners mom taught you went…”

my voice trailed off.

Lin looked at me with her head tilted, probably contemplating to help Sara beat my ass. Before they

could beat me up, Vera spoke up and offered to drive me home.

I had to go grocery shopping, do laundry, and clean my apartment before 7 PM so I could go over to

my mom’s house and have dinner with my whole family. It was a routine where we would have dinner

at our mom’s house every month, so we could spend quality time with each other.

Some of my siblings moved hours away from the town we live in, so aren’t really able to see that often

but, of course, we still facetime every now and then. The point of the dinner was so everyone could get

together and spend time with each other.

I got into the car with Vera and thankfully, she let me have the aux. I played a soft R&B playlist so I

wouldn’t annoy her or make her headache worse. We had a light conversation until she pulled up to my

complex, where she practically kicked me out of the car saying that she would pick me up at 6:30.

Once I got inside the apartment, I stretched then began writing down my thoughts in my journal. I only

wrote a sentence or two before I closed the journal and moved on with my day. I ended up making a

small to-do list so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with everything I had to do.

Laundry was the first thing on the list since I just had to put my clothes in the washer. If my mom saw

me putting the light clothes with the dark ones, she probably would’ve killed me right then and there but

a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Next, I decided to tackle my kitchen since it was the dirtiest. I threw out all the bad food from the fridge,

then cleaned the stove of all residue and organized my cabinets. Once I finished cleaning the kitchen, I

moved on to the bathroom.

I made sure to be careful with the bleach since I didn’t want to get it all over my clothes or even die

from it. It took me a bit longer to finish cleaning the bathroom because I changed all the curtains and

cleaned inside the tub.

After I finished cleaning the bathroom, I went to put my clothes from the washing machine to the drier,

then proceeded to clean the rest of the apartment which only took me around an hour since I always

cleaned my apartment every week.

When I finished cleaning the entire apartment, I felt really accomplished and so I decided to take an

hour long break since it was just 2 PM. I sat on the couch and ended up watching random YouTube

videos to pass time. Once the alarm I set for myself went off, I got my ass out of the couch.

I grabbed my keys and wallet then went to my car where I began driving to the store. I made sure to

bring a list of all the things I needed to buy, since whenever I didn’t bring one, I just bought whatever

looked cool or seemed interesting.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t an unhealthy eater, but that was just because the vegetables were cheap when

you buy them in multi-packs and I hated wasting food.

I parked my car in the Walmart parking lot then took out my list and looked at everything I needed.

Absentmindedly, I scratched my hair under the bonnet I threw on before leaving the house and realized

that I also needed to buy some hair products since I was running out.

About an hour later, I stepped out of Walmart with an annoyed look on my face. I bought very little

things but somehow, the total was over 100 dollars. How? I don’t even know.

When I arrived home, I put all the groceries away. I decided that since I did everything I needed to do, I

would just spend the rest of the time online looking for activities that my students would like to do.

Eventually, I got lost in the sea of websites and ended up creating four new lessons that I could teach Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

after the parent-teacher conferences.

I groaned as I remember the parent-teacher conferences. I still needed to practice my professional

voice since I couldn’t afford to lose my job over cussing out a student’s parents. Hopefully they won’t

even come though. Lord knows they don’t ever make time for their kids and therefore have no reason

or right to come up into my classroom and act like they are just oh-so involved in their kids’ lives.

Except Elijah, maybe. I mean, he did come in to personally pick up Jasmine. And from what Jasmine

said, and how she acted around him, it seemed like he cares a lot for her and she loved him. But what

about her mom…?

That comment Jasmine said her mom made was concerning to say the least; about her being fat.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any evidence that her mom’s a bad influence so for now, I was just gonna

have to make sure that Jasmine ate food and took care of herself.

I really need to stop treating these kids as if they were my own, I thought, chuckling a bit as I stepped

out of the shower.

I got dressed into a light colored top and black jeans with my new knee-high boots that I got from an

Etsy shop. I put on some silver jewelry then put my hair up into a high puff. Just as I finished dressing

up, I heard a car beep its horn outside.

I rolled my eyes, immediately knowing that it was Vera. She never calls or texts me when she arrives at

my place, she always just honks the horn.

I turned off all the lights in the apartment, then grabbed my keys and a small sweater that I put on over

my clothes. I walked outside and into Vera’s car. Vera was wearing slightly oversized blue pants with a

black oversized shirt. Her hair was in a bun with two strips of her hair in front of her face.

“Don’t you look pretty,” I complimented her. She really knew how to make ugly clothes look pretty.

“Shut up and put on your seat belt,” she sassily replied, rolling her eyes.

“Remind me to never compliment you again,” I sighed out, putting on my seatbelt.

“You look nice yourself,” she quickly told me, chuckling. I rolled my eyes at her compliment.

We didn’t talk throughout the whole ride. I couldn’t help but feel like something was off. Vera was

usually really happy and talkative but now she seemed really distant. Maybe it was because of her

boyfriend?

I mean, he seemed like a really sweet person but I don’t know what else could be bothering her.

“How are you and your boyfriend, Dan?” I asked cautiously.

Vera shrugged as she kept driving. “We broke up,” she finally whispered out.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

“Why? What happened? Are you okay?” I immediately asked.

“I just found something out…I don’t want to talk about it. But, I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine, so don’t bother lying and saying you’re fine. Does anyone else know?” I asked.

“I’m fine, really. I’m just trying to get over it. You’re the only person who knows though. Don’t tell

anyone. This dinner is gonna be about family and about family only. I’ll let them all know when I’m

ready,” she told me as she parked outside our parents’ house.

I took off my seatbelt then turned to her. I grabbed her hand in mine. “I’m here for you, okay? If you

ever need something, let me know. We’re all here for you, no matter how long it takes for you to be

ready,” I said sincerely.

She hugged me tightly but didn’t say anything else.

I could already tell that it was gonna be a really long night.