Page 13 of Steel
“No. I’m tired of this. You and your staff are responsible for Nayelli when she’s here. She’s supposed to be safe, and she’s not. My daughter doesn’t bother a soul. It’s crazy to me that she’s on the receiving end of this constant bullshit, all over a little boy that she isn’t remotely interested in. What are y’all doing? Where are the teachers when this is going on? Let me tell you this. If there is one more incident, I’m waiting outside the school for the parents, and somebody is getting their ass beat!”
He sighed. “Ms. Malone, I understand your frustration. Really, I do. We’re trying our best to regulate this.”
“If this is your best, you’re doing a piss poor job. I said what I said.”
Without another word, I left the office with him trying to speak to my back. Leaving the school, I headed back to my car. As I was backing out of the parking space, I damn near crashed into an SUV pulling out of the drop-off line.
“Son of a bitch! You saw me backing out!”
They came to a screeching halt, and the door flew open. Usually, I tried to avoid confrontation, but I had time today. Unhooking my seat belt, I opened my door and got out of my car.Just as I rounded the back, the other driver got out, stopping me in my tracks.
No, . . . it couldn’t be him. It just couldn’t be.
Staring at me was the man I’d fallen head over heels with in my college years, . . . Kerrion Dillinger. He still looked the same. Those same handsome features that attracted me to him all those years ago were still present. He stood at six feet, two inches. His caramel-colored skin was blemish free aside from the multitude of tattoos covering it.
Those broad shoulders and muscular arms used to hold me so tightly while I stared into those familiar brown eyes. They were the same eyes staring back at me as if he’d seen a ghost. I remembered the first day I met him.
It was freshman orientation.
I nervously looked around the auditorium at the multitude of faces of fresh eighteen-year-olds. The room was buzzing with excitement. This was most of our first time away from our parents for an extended period. We didn’t know anybody, and college was about to be a whole new experience. A whole new life.
“You just gonna stand here blocking the walkway?” a deep voice asked me.
That was when I turned around and came face-to-face with the most handsome guy I’d ever seen. He smelled wonderful, and his smile was beautiful. At eighteen, he carried himself with the maturity of someone several years his senior.
“Sorry,” I said, stepping aside.
“You lost or you belong here?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t belong here.”
He chuckled. “Okay, smarty pants. You taking a seat or what?”
I didn’t answer him, just claimed an empty seat in the row I was next to. Much to my surprise, he took the seat next to me. I looked over at him with a frown.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“I can’t sit next to you?”
“Why is everything out of your mouth a question?”
“Why do you have so much attitude?”
“I don’t have an attitude at all.”
“Could have fooled me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just sit there and don’t say anything to me.”
He chuckled but kept quiet. That was until the program started. Every so often, he would lean over and whisper a comment about something. It was hard to keep a straight face because it was usually something funny. By the time the program was over, I was laughing right along with him.
We stayed back as people filed out of the auditorium, not wanting to get lost in the swarm. He slouched down in his seat and peered over at me.
“I can’t sit next to you again,” he said, grinning. “You will get me in some shit.”
I scoffed. “How? You were the one cracking joke after joke.”
“Yeah, but you have that loud ass laugh. You almost got us put out. You saw the way that lady looked back at us. Reminded me of my mama. I almost had a flashback of my childhood.”
