The next day Collin saw me talking to a fairly young professor outside on a park bench about what I needed to do to bring my grade up. I knew that Collin was there, watching us, but I tried to ignore him and focus in on what the professor was saying. I had missed yet another test the previous week and needed to make it up to keep the bottom of my GPA from dropping all the way out. The only reason that we were even sitting out there in the first place was because I saw the professor walking across campus and, having not been able to catch him in his office, decided to chase him down and see if he would discuss the missed test with me right there. However, as soon as we sat down, I saw Collin watching us from a distance and immediately knew what he was thinking.

The professor was young, handsome and, well, from all the way over on the other side of the yard, why wouldn't Collin think his girl was just out there in the open kickin' it with some other dude in the middle of campus? Before he walked away, the professor squeezed my arm, gave me a warm smile and told me not to stress so much.

Easy for you to say, I thought quietly to myself and stole a glance over to where I knew Collin was still sitting. Then I gave the professor a grateful smile and watched him walk away. When I looked back at Collin, I saw him shake his head and say something to one of his boys, then nod his head my way. The guy looked over at me, then shook his head and walked off. I stared after his friend, and suddenly wondered when I had lost the guts to stand up to Collin. I decided it was probably somewhere around the time that he started dealing weapons out of his apartment.

Collin glanced around quickly to see if anyone was looking, then ran up on me and jerked me roughly to him by the arm.

"Ouch Collin," I said coolly, trying to pull away and play it off for anyone who may have been watching at the same time.

"Oh, you think that hurts?" he laughed and moved his hand down to my wrist, bending it backwards and squeezing as hard as he could.

Out of nowhere, I started to cry. Just as the tears started to fall, we both heard a loud pop and looked at each other in surprise. Then Collin let go and pierced my eyes with his own.

"Remember that," was the only thing he said before storming off.

Again, I wondered why I wasn't smart enough to leave that fool and ducked into the cafeteria to avoid Drama, who I saw walking across campus in the distance. He didn't see me, though, and I thought I had gotten away scot-free until I bumped right smack into Kenney.

"Wassup gul?" he asked casually and looked at me for way too long. "You alright?"

I just nodded and ducked back through the door before he could say anything else. Of course he followed me out.

"Aye, I heard you saw my aunt last night."

This made my feet screech to a halt and the rest of my body jerked to a stop after them. When I slowly turned around, I looked at Kenney and braced myself, getting ready for him to go off on me, too.

But he didn't. "She...she told me I should look after you."

"Oh yeah?" I turned and started walking.

"Yeah." He smiled at me and tugged on my hand. I inwardly screamed in pain, but didn't let him see it. "Yeah," he repeated again." Drama told me the same thing...and that I was a sucker for not speaking up sooner about...how I feel about you." Then trying to play it off, he added quickly, "You know, I mean back in the day...when I was too busy hatin' on your boy." He looked around like he was watching his words float out into the atmosphere, and then suddenly shook his head, as if clearing it. "But that was a long time ago. Aunt Jasmine's ...suggestion...was more recent."

He looked over at me and laughed awkwardly, but stopped when I didn't smile back.

"So..." he looked around again, like he was trying to make up something to talk about. "Wanna see the picture I had blown up? I'm 'bout to pick it up right now." I nodded silently and followed him out to the car. I didn't even care if Collin saw me go. At that point, as far as I was concerned, Collin Brice Stewart could go straight to hell.

On the way, Kenney looked over and asked me again if I was alright.

"Yeah, why?"

"You're just quiet today." He looked at me questioningly, until I shrugged and got out of the car. He followed me into Kinko's.

When the Kinko's guy unrolled the poster and held it up for us to see, I gasped. It was beautiful. It was one of the photographs that Kenney had taken of the two little girls on the waterfront. They looked so cute, standing there, grinning into the camera, like they didn't have a care in the world. Unexpectedly, I burst into tears.

Kenney looked at me, startled, and the Kinko's guy looked away uncomfortably as he moved on to the next customer.

"What..." Kenney stepped closer to me and put his hand over mine. The light pressure against my wrist sent a piercing pain up my arm and the tears came down even harder. "Tashi..." he didn't know what to say.

I felt so stupid with everyone in the store watching us, that I immediately forced myself to shut my mind down and sucked it up. Then I smiled brightly at Kenney and told him how much I loved the picture.

"This is the one that I did for you..." he began, for lack of anything better to say. Then he rolled it back up and placed it in my hurt hand while he went to the register to pay.

I quickly let go of it as soon as he walked away, the weight of the cardboard tube making my wrist feel more shattered by the second. When Kenney came back over to me, he looked from me to the poster expectantly. When I didn't explain why I had just dropped his gift on the floor and left it there, he raised an eyebrow.

"I...uh, Kenney?" I looked deep into his eyes, trying to decide if I could tell him the truth about what had just happened.

"Yeah?" He took a step closer to me. I wanted to tell him that I thought my wrist was broken.

"Um," I looked down at the cardboard tube, then back up at him. "The, uh, poster's too heavy. Could you..." I gave him my best 'just a girl' smile and batted my lashes, "...carry it for me?"

He grinned and shook his head. "Women." When we got back to the car, he handed me the poster again. Without thinking, I reached out with my left hand, the now swollen one, and my wrist buckled under the weight. Kenney watched my struggle thoughtfully, then took the poster from me and tossed it into the backseat. After driving in silence for a while, in the opposite direction of campus I noticed, he pulled into a parking lot and turned off the ignition.

"So, do you want to tell me something?"

My heart jumped and I looked over at him guiltily. "What?"

"What's wrong with your hand?" he asked quickly, before I had a chance to get the word all the way out.

"Nothing..." I began, but he cut me off again.

"Why were you crying back there?"

Suddenly, I found my long lost front and made a disbelieving face at him. "What? Bud..." Denial of the obvious truth with a dead straight face. "I don't even cry in public..." I turned and looked out of the window wondering if there was any place that I could go without all of this stress. I couldn't go home to Maryland because, apparently, Collin once again lived right across the street. On top of that, my parents loved Collin. So I couldn't just move back home and tell them that he was the reason why I couldn't stay at Hampton. And I couldn't move back home and not tell them why I was back,either.

So for now, I was just...stuck.

Kenney pulled my face back towards him and asked again. "What's wrong with your hand?"

"Nothing..."

He poked at it to prove that I was lying. When I snatched it away and gasped in pain, he gave me a look that let me know I better tell him what was up, and quick. But I didn't. I just looked out of the window and kept my mouth shut.

"Tashi..." he brushed his fingers gently against the side of my neck. "I can't help you unless you tell me what you need me to do."

I looked over at him and wanted to tell him more than anything that I needed him to take me to the hospital, but I knew exactly what he would think if I did.

"I need..." I cleared my throat and looked away. "I need, I need you to...take me home." I looked at him solemnly. "Please." It was so hard to look at Kenney right then, but I had no choice. His gaze was unwavering and I couldn't look away.

"No."

"What?" I snapped in disbelief. "Yes!"

"No," he said again, more firmly this time and kept my gaze.

"Fine." I reached for the door handle with my right hand, but Kenney reflexively grabbed my left hand and gently tried to pull me back to him. As hard as I tried to hold it in, I cried out in pain. "Oh Jesus! God, please! Kenney. Please stop..."

Silently, I wondered, Why am I crying out to God? What's He gonna do about it?

Shocked, Kenney snatched his hand away and recoiled back into his seat. Then he gave me this look, like he had just seen a ghost or something, and swallowed hard. I buried my face in my hands and pleaded with him one more time. "Kenney please," I mumbled through my tear drenched fingers. "Please just take me home. I just...I just need to go to bed."

He swallowed again, like he was trying to swallow down a bubble of rage and said thickly, "Ok." Then he started the car. "Close the door." I did and he put the car into gear. "Did Collin do that to you?" I didn't answer. "Did Collin do that to you?" he asked again in the same even tone.

"I fell..." I fought the urge to look over at him.

"Fell." The word thumped out of his mouth like a ten-ton brick.

"Yes. I...I fell." Then I wiped away my tears and looked around. "Kenney?"

"Yes?"

"We...this isn't the way to my place."

"I know."

"So...where are you taking me?" I finally looked over at him. His face was stone, and his jaw was clenching and unclenching so tightly that I thought he would shatter his own teeth if he didn't stop. "K...Kenney..."

"What?" He clenched his teeth together again.

"Are you taking me to the hospital?"

"Yes." He looked over at me.

"Oh..." I looked down, then back up at him and whispered "Thank you."

He only nodded shortly and continued to glare out of the windshield. Again, he clenched his jaw and I heard his teeth grind together. Then he rolled down his window and actually spit out blood.

"Kenney," I whispered. "Stop the car for a minute, ok?"

He did, the first chance he got, and held tightly onto the steering wheel until I spoke. Cautiously, I inched my sore hand toward him and repeated his name. Wordlessly, he looked over at me.

"I need you to calm down, alright?" He continued to look at me in silence. "Kenney, I tripped over one of those tree roots on the way back from talking to my professor." I was trying my hardest to lighten the mood. "You know how much I hate those damn things..."

He had seen me trip over Hampton's yard full of tree roots on more than one occasion, but this time he wasn't buying it. He clenched his jaw again and physically bit down on his tongue to keep from saying what he wanted to say.

"Stop it, Bud. You're scaring me." At the sound of my attempted playful tone, Kenney's face softened a little and the fire in his eyes slowly began to subside. I maintained the calm, even voice that I usually only reserved for Collin when he was in one of his rage fests and continued. "You can ask him, Professor Donnelly. I was outside talking to him about a test that I missed and as I was walking away from him...trying to be cute..." I shrugged and let out a soft chuckle. "I tripped and fell." It was disturbing how easy it was for me to lie for Collin, but somehow it came so naturally that I couldn't stop myself. "Everyone saw it." I cast an embarrassed eye toward Kenney.

He almost smiled at me. "Ok."

"Ok?" I repeated.

"Yes." He nodded. "I said ok."

"Good," I sat back and sighed in relief. "Now, take me to the hospital, Bud. Enough with all this stopping. I'm dying over here!"

This time he really did smile, then gently rubbed my wrist and placed it softly to his lips. "Poor baby," he mumbled, and kissed it one more time to make it better. Once again, I contemplated what a fool I was for ending up with Collin instead of Kenney. But you know what they say. Everybody plays it sometimes...

By the time we got to the hospital, Kenney's mood had lightened significantly and he gladly took the paperwork from the nurse when I told them that I was left handed and couldn't fill it out.

"I didn't know you were a lefty!" Kenney teased as he filled in my name and address. "How weird that I never noticed. I've never met a lefty before."

I looked away from him and smiled. "Shut up, Bud."

"So..." Kenney began going through the list of fifty-leven questions that they made you answer before a doctor would even see you, starting with family medical history. As the questions became more personal, Kenney's face grew redder and redder. "Um... when was," his voice faltered, then he cleared his throat and started again. "When was the last time you had sex?"

I couldn't help but look over at him with an embarrassed grin. "What?"

"You heard me." He grinned back and held up page nine hundred and fifty-seven of the form. "That's what it says."

"Um...never." I looked away, even more embarrassed.

His grin widened and, even though he was turning redder by the minute, he didn't skip over the perfect opportunity to tease me again. "Ah! A virgin and a lefty?" Then he patted my cheek softly. "What a find..."

"Please tell me this interrogation is almost over," I mumbled, too embarrassed to look him in the eye.

Kenney, sensing that I needed a break from the spotlight, put the form down. "So...how did you get into Jasmine's last night?"

"What?" Where did that come from?

"I mean, you know you're not old enough to get in..." he smiled devilishly. He hadn't let me live down the fact that I was several months younger than everyone else since that bouncer called me out at Shipwreck.

I shrugged. "The guy wasn't checking IDs." Then I tapped my finger on the questionnaire. "Let's get this over with, Bud. What's next?"

Kenney smiled at me for a minute longer. Then he looked back down at the clipboard and his face turned beat red.

"What?" I asked and tried to lean over and read the question for myself.

"When was...when was the..." He was concentrating so hard on the paper, I was beginning to wonder if he really did know how to read. "When was your last period?"

We both looked at each other quickly, then away and finished the rest of the medical history with lightning speed. Afterwards, we waited another hour or so for one of the ER doctors to see me. It turned out that my wrist wasn't broken, but fractured. The doctor slapped a removable cast around my hand and sent us on our way.

Collin called me later on that night and told me to be ready when he came over to pick me up. For some reason, he never came into our apartment. He would always just tell me to be waiting outside by the time he got there. He probably knew that there was always a possibility that he might run into Drama if he came in.

Of course I was ready by the time he pulled up, and I climbed wearily into the car when it came to a stop. I already knew what was coming when his eyes widened in anger at the sight of my cast.

"Who took you to the hospital?" he demanded, before I could even close the door all the way.

"What?"

"Who?" Collin shrieked and dug his fingers into my arm, pulling me inches from his face. "Who?" he repeated again, shaking me. When I still didn't answer, he let go of me and looked back toward the apartment. "Who's in there?"

"What are you talking about?"

He gave me a warning look. "Inside! Who's inside your apartment?" he yelled.

"No one." I shook my head and backed away from him.

"Good." He hopped out of the car and came around to my side. It briefly crossed my mind to lock him out, but I knew that it would only piss him off more if I did. He snatched open the door and yanked me out of the car. Then he pulled me by my cast up to the front door and barked, "Open it!" When I fumbled with the keys and dropped them on the ground, he snatched them up and opened it for me. Then he pushed the back of my head and shoved me inside.

"Collin..." I began and turned around to face him. Before I could say anything else, he pushed me onto the floor and raised his fist to hit me. I ducked out of the way and tried to run toward the bedroom. He grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall.

"Who took you to the hospital?" he demanded, and I knew that I had to answer him...immediately.

"Kenney," I gasped and tried to look away. He held tightly onto my face and I repeated, "Kenney. Kenney took me. I...my wrist. He thought it was broken. But...it's not..."

"He thought it was broken?" Collin repeated incredulously. "He thought it was broken? Unbe-freakin'-lievable!" He looked up into the ceiling like he was talking to someone who was hovering above us. "What did you say to make him think that?" He wrapped his fingers back around my arms and tightened his grip. "Didn't I tell you what happens between us stays between us?" Slamming me into the wall, he asked again. "What did you say to him?"

"Nothing! It was swelling up. He saw it for himself! I told him..." I looked at Collin with pleading eyes, somehow hoping that he would be grateful to me for lying for him. "I told him that I fell...on my way back from talking to Professor Donnelly."

"Professor Donnelly..." He looked at me in confusion, and then suddenly raised his eyebrows. "You mean that guy...earlier?"

"Yes."

"That was your professor?"

"Yes."

"Oh..." For a brief second, he actually looked apologetic for what he had done. But only for a second. "You can see why it makes me so mad," he started to reason and loosened his grip on my arm, "when every time something happens between us you run right back to him. What kind of hold does he have on you to make you keep running back to him?" I shook my head in response. "I thought you were with me now! I thought you were my girl. I'm looking to have something real with you, but if all you're ever going to do is run back to him..." he looked up into the ceiling, then back into my eyes. Slowly, he released me from his grip. "Well, go then."

"What?"

"Go! Get the hell on! Since you want to be with him so bad, then go." Collin looked genuinely hurt and started to walk back out the door.

Like I said, I was the fool, and I didn't like Collin walking away from me angry. "No Collin," I began quietly.

"No, what?" he stopped and turned to look at me.

"I...I don't want him. I want you."

"Why the hell do you keep going back to him, then?"

I started to cry and leaned up against the wall, covering my face with my hands. "I don't know!" I answered tearfully. "I don't know."