The bell rang and the hallway is packed with teens. “Hey, Jamal! What are you going to do tonight?” Derik asked me. “ Well, Corina wants me to go over to her place and hang out for a while. After that then I’ll probably be able to hang with you and Jay” I replied. “Oh, alright, cool. Just give me a ring before you come over, we’ll be waiting,” Derik says as he walks away.

Corina was sitting by her car waiting for me. I don’t like when I keep her waiting because her short temper can get a little off hand. I walked over to her and she didn’t look happy. “What took you so long, Jamal?” she asked deliberately, “I was talking to D, He wants me to do something tonight, but I told him that we are going to hang out.” I say, knowing that she will smile at me because I mentioned her in the conversation between D and I.

We got into her car and ride for a while without saying anything, and she popped one of the questions that I hate most. “So how are you and your mom holding up? Have you talked to her at all this week?” “You know I don’t like talking about it Corina,” I said, trying my hardest to keep my temper down. “Well, you should talk about it with someone. You can’t keep hiding everything from people. Talk to me about it, just for your own sake.” She quickly replied. “I’ve talked to her last night, alright? Jeez, why you always into my business?” I lost my temper. “Jamal, calm down. It’s only because I care about you. The last thing I want is for you to get a disorder from being so depressed and faking your happiness.” “I’m sorry Cor. Okay, I talked to her last night and she said she talked to my dad about me. I asked her what he said but she was struggling to tell me. She said that it might change my life a little, but I told her to tell me. He said that the reason why he abused me because he didn’t want me and that I was a mistake.” A tear rolled down my cheek. She was too sad to say anything more. It was quiet the whole way over to her place.

We got to her house and went into to her room to talk more about what was going on between my mom, my dad and I. I told her everything. “Well, it all started when I was five years old. He would always hit me if I did something wrong, even without me knowing I did something wrong. If my mom tried to protect me from his fists, he would hit her also. He wasn’t an alcoholic though. He just didn’t like me for some reason. I thought he was just giving me discipline for doing something wrong, but I soon found out that he did it just to hurt me. Every day I’d go to school and kids would ask me why I had so many bruises on my face, arms and legs, but I would just tell them that I fell off the swing, or tripped down the stairs.” I paused for a second thinking Corina didn’t want to hear the rest. She said, “Keep going.” “After I got home from school, he would let me tell him what the kids asked me about the bruises. He said that if I ever told anyone about hProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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hitting me then I would pay the price. So I kept quiet, until one day the police came to my school because the teacher called and asked them to bring me in and question me about them. I had to tell the truth, because they were police. I couldn’t lie to them. That’s how my dad went to jail.” I ended it with a river of tears. Corina gave me a big hug and said that everything will fit right in place and that I’ll truly be happy one day.

I made it home in a cab. Grandma was on her rocking chair knitting a quilt. “Hey Baby, there’s stroganoff on the stove if you’re hungry. How was your visit with Corina?” “Thanks Ma. I got really close with her today, I feel so much more comfortable with her, and I trust her with a lot, I can tell you that.” “Oh really darling, just be safe, that’s all I can tell ya.” She winked at me. “Oh no ma. Not that way, I could talk to her about my personal things, that’s what I meant by that.” I say walking into the kitchen. The phone rang right when I was going to take my first bite of dinner. I ran to pick it up, forgetting that I had to call D right when I got back from Corina’s. I picked it up, “Man D, I’m sorry I forgot to call you.” “Hey Baby, this is your mom.” I take a deep breath. “Oh hey. What’s going on?” “Nothing, I just wanted to talk to you. How was your day?” “Mom, I know you only call me to talk to me about dad. Now just say it.” “Nope, not this time. I just wanted to talk.” She said calmly. I replied,” my day was fine. I finally got to actually talk to Corina about how I feel. Now that it is not all bottled up in me I don’t have to be so depressed, I can just talk it out with her and everything will be all right.” “Oh well that’s good. Say, sometime next week you want to come over here and spend some time with me?” “Sure! I’d love that. I need a break from this place anyways,” I quickly said. “Great, I’ll make reservations. I’ll see you soon then. Love you!” and she hung up.

The week came. Mom is standing by the window with so much excitement in her eyes. I run in side, “Hi Son! Oh, I am so happy you came. I missed you so much. How was your flight?” she says as she hugs me. “My flight was alright. Slept through most of it.” I say. “Great, Son, not to be all nosey and everything, but I was wondering who this Corina girl is. She sounds too good to be true,” she says in a weird way. “She’s my girlfriend. She helps me go through a lot and makes me feel like I have faith in myself. She’s great.” I said to her. “Oh yeah? Well, I don’t want you to be telling her about all your personal things. It’s not right. She doesn’t have to know every single thing about you. You need your space.” She says, as if she doesn’t want Cori to know about my past. “What’s wrong with her knowing? Maybe, Just maybe I want her to know. Maybe I just want to talk about my past with someone so I don’t have to keep being so depressed about it. You sound like you don’t like her.” I say in an irritated way. “Well, she seems nice. It’s just that you should talk to a counselor instead of your girlfriend. She might not know how to handle all your problems,” She said, trying to make me fall for it. “I am so lucky to have her, you don’t even know how much care about her. I don’t see why you can’t just be happy for me. I’m starting to have hope for my future now that she is in my life. Before she came into my life. I was a totally different person; always negative, depressed, lazy, eating like crazy. She changed me. I want everything to be fine with the both of you, why can’t I have that?” I felt ball in my throat. She hugged me and held me tight for a long time. I could tell that she was trying so hard to keep from crying her eyes out, “I haven’t realized how much love you feel for her. I will have to learn to accept the fact that you have moved on in life, and I have to agree that she has made you a better person. I am so sorry.” She was actually crying this time. I can tell that she felt guilty by the way she was talking. Thank God she’s going to accept her. I don’t know what I would do without Corina.