Atlanta Georgia
20th February 1981

JAE

Owing to Mr. Valencia's flawed time management skills, Jae would not be able to meet Rowan and Sam for lunch as planned, and yet she'd been dying to tell them the latest piping hot tea; Andy Fisher, douche extraordinaire, the guy that had bullied Sam the most since her admission into school, had been suspended indefinitely, which was as good as punishments went. Shadowside Prep didn't hand out expulsions. They just suspended you indefinitely and that was that. You never heard from them again. Except for a few people, Jae inclusive, no one had ever come back from an indefinite suspension.

It was safe to say that Andy would no longer be a problem.

It was also safe to say that Jae would not get the pleasure of giving the tea to Sam. Sam would just have to hear it from someone else, someone who would fail to sensationalize the Andy story enough to make it riveting, while Jae fidgeted away in Mr. Valencia's very bachelor-like office, waiting and waiting and waiting while he hurriedly graded Literature essays because he tended to forget that besides drama, he taught Classical Literature.

It will be brief, he'd said. I won't take up much of your time, he'd said. Five minutes only, he'd added when Jae had tried to object.  If the grandfather clock in the corner of Mr. Valencia's office was to be believed, it was already 1:13 p.m. Eight minutes after the five-minute mark. Jae had slowly but painfully accepted that people like Mr. Valencia did not know how to not take up too much of your time.

Sigh.

At exactly 1:23, Mr. Valencia replaced the cap on his red pen, put it in his mouth, pushed aside the essays, stood up and took up that stance of his where he clasped his hands together to one side, raised his chin, and threw his hip to the side so that he looked like he was posing for a magazine cover.

Mr. Valencia was a thin man. He was so thin that to call him thin would be an overstatement. Thread-like seemed to be a more apropos adjective. He was the kind of person you could blow away with a single breath. Lying down, he could pass for a house snake. After all, he was solitary enough to be a house snake.

Jae made sure her vexation was evident on her face before sitting on one of the chairs in his office. It was as hard and uncomfortable as it looked. She arranged the skirt of the red halterneck dress that she'd cut to skim her thighs to remove a fold. Jae always redesigned her clothes to fit her fashion needs. It helped that she'd learned her tailoring skills from her grandmother. Her parents had long stopped buying her clothes because she mutilated them. She cut perfectly good shirts into crop tops, made perfectly good dresses unholy by adding long slits in them, cut perfectly good jeans into shorts. You get the drift.

"How is the family?" Mr. Valencia asked,  sitting on the dusty window sill of his office without cleaning it first.

Of course, he would begin with the one topic she was uncomfortable discussing. She only talked about her family with Sam and Rowan. And she did so only to belittle them, to ridicule them. Today, however, she could humour Mr. Valencia a little bit. With a curt answer. Hopefully, he would get the message.

"They are okay." said Jae

"Your mother, father, Rose, Lily? They are all fine?" Mr. Valencia almost sounded surprised by the notion that her family was okay.

Jae curved her lips into the world's most counterfeit smile. "I appreciate your concern, but I am pretty sure you didn't call me here so that my family can be the crux of our conversation."

"Right," Mr. Valencia said, turning his watch around so that he could check the time. "Actually, someone else is supposed to be here, but I guess he is running late."

Jae sat upright, something she rarely did. "He?"

"Yes, he, but I'll get to that later. I decided that the two leading roles in the movie are not going to be auditioned for. I want you —only you— to be my female protagonist, my leading lady."

"I know I'm good, but why? At least give me some competition."

"Don't get cocky on me, Jae. See, the movie is a teen romance movie. It's about a black boy and a white girl falling in love despite the qualms and objections of society. It's going to be called Taijitu. You know what that means, right?"

"That coexistence thing of darkness and light. Yin and Yang, right?"

Mr. Valencia seemed delighted by Jae's answer. "Yes!"

"Isn't that going to offend both races because symbolically, you are representing the blacks as darkness and the whites as light? That's not all. You might get away with a romantic affair between a white guy and a black woman because such things do happen in society. White men take up black women as concubines. But this?  Don't you think this is a little too controversial?"

"Art is meant to be controversial, Jae. It is only impactful that way. What is really bothering you?"

Her parents, that's what was bothering her. Her parents were not only racist but also intolerant of anything black. And that was just one of the many of her parent's flaws. Interactions between races were an obscenity to her parents to the extent that they had been one of many white parents that had vociferously opposed Sam's admission to the school. Until today, Jae had kept her friendship with Sam a secret. Now, she was supposed to act in a romance movie with a black guy?  With all the kissing scenes and hand-holding and caressing? Yep, her parents were going to go ballistic. They would not let her act this movie. Just like her friendship with Sam, this movie was going to have to remain a secret.

"Nothing sir. Nothing is bothering me. "

"Are you sure, Jasmine? I don't want to cause more familial problems. I know your parents are not the most accepting people."

That was the understatement of the year. "Oh, I'm sure. But Mr. Valencia, there are no black boys in this school. It's hard enough to get boys into drama. So who are we going to use?"

Mr. Valencia smiled, a dimple making an entrance on his left cheek. He had such an androgynous face that if he grew his golden hair just a little, he could pass for a woman. A very beautiful albeit thin one.

"You know that public school? The one near the bus stop?" When Jae nodded, Mr. Valencia continued.  "Surprisingly, I managed to find a guy there who was willing to act. He was supposed to be here, but I guess he is a no-show."

Mr. Valencia had hardly said the word "no-show" when the door opened. A tall, burly black boy who looked older than eighteen bent to get through the door. The black worn leather jacket that he wore over a pristine white shirt, jeans and military boots gave him a rakish look. Jae allowed herself to take him all in —her co-star. Her eyes roamed his muscular arms, his broad chest, the thin gold chain he wore around his neck, his cute doe eyes, his aquiline nose, his very red, very plump, very kissable lips, and his high-top fade. Even the red bandana on his forehead didn't escape her eye. God, this boy was. . .wow.

Mr. Valencia took over the introductions. "Jae, meet Tyler. Tyler, meet Jae. If all goes according to plan, the two of you will be my protagonists."

Tyler smiled, revealing a perfect set of even milk-white teeth except for his incisors, which were longer, much like a vampire's. His whole face seemed to light up with the gesture, and a bulb deep in Jae's heart lit up as well. "Jae is a beautiful name."

And you are a beautiful man, Jae wanted to say. But she shut up.  She was suddenly afraid of what her mouth would do. It could be treacherous at times.

"Alright, I'm going to get some food from the cafeteria. Y'all do some mingling."  Mr Valencia left, strutting his nonexistent hips like a model in bloom. Jae could swear on a stack of Bibles that she'd seen him wink at her before he left. Mr. Valencia was the devil incarnate. He'd left her alone with a man she felt an unhealthy attraction to.

Tyler sat right next to her, crossing his legs so that their thighs were touching. Jae felt the touch rippling in her toes. She surreptitiously moved her thigh away. This —whatever she was feeling— was dangerous. Dangerous for both her and Tyler.

Taking out a pack of Marlboros and a gold-plated lighter from his pocket, Tyler asked. "You want one?"

Jae had intended to say no, had even planned her excuse in her mind, but her treacherous mouth seemed to have a mind of its own. "Yes."

Sharing a cigarette with Tyler turned out to be exhilarating. They talked and laughed and ridiculed private school kids and made fun of Jae's family. That is how you knew Jae was a goner. She'd told him things about her family that she'd not even told Sam and Rowan; She'd told him that she was a little jealous of the love and attention that Rose's baby was getting, about how Rose had always been her parents' favourite, about her never-ending feud with her other sister, Lily, and how once during a very intense argument with her father, he'd let slip the fact that she was a mistake. Tyler had been a good listener, making all the appropriate noises, never judging her for feeling the way she did and hugging her to provide comfort.

By the time they stubbed out the cigarettes, discarding the ash on  Mr. Valencia's dirty window sill, and opening the windows to let out the smell, Jae had concluded that she liked Tyler more than was healthy. They were right for each other. Jae could even dare to say they were soulmates. That, more than anything else, brought her back to the harsh reality of life; A black man and a white woman could not fall in love. Never. Neither her parents nor society would accept it.

Suddenly, Jae had to leave. She couldn't run the risk of Tyler misinterpreting their camaraderie as something more than friendship. Besides, a romantic relationship between them had no future. Her parents would murder her before they let her hang out with a black guy. And if by some miracle, she managed to survive her parents, society would sink its claws into them like a pack of hungry jackals. Stopping this —whatever this was— before it even started was the only solution.

"I'm sorry I have to go." Jae picked up her backpack, standing up so quickly that a wave of dizziness threatened to bring her back down.

Tyler grabbed her hand. His hand was rough and calloused. What would those hands do if she allowed them to roam her body? How would they feel? "Can I see you again? Like outside drama? I really enjoyed—"

"No!" Jae extricated her hands from his and began to walk towards the door.  "I need to leave. I'm sorry."

Jae's hand found the doorknob, turned it, ignoring the kicked-puppy look on Tyler's face, and slammed the door with enough force to break it.

Calm down, Jae. Act like you've not been in a teacher's office smoking with a black boy.

You know that thing in movies where one character does something wrong and tries to act natural but ends up acting more unnatural than ever? Yeah,  that's exactly what happened with Jae. On the way to the cafeteria, Jae kept bumping into people, scratching imaginary itches on her body, and tripping over her laces. She was guilt personified.

In the cafeteria, she found Rowan and Sam clearing their trays, getting ready to go to their respective classes. Jae allowed herself to get engrossed in the minutiae of their lives; homework, agonising school topics, Sam's never-ending troubles with men, Sams's encounters with racist bullies, Rowan's pushy mother, etcetera, etcetera. On any other day, these topics would have excited her. Today, however, Jae's mind was elsewhere.

It was back in Mr. Valencia's office laughing with Tyler

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The author, who likes to refer to himself in third person, wishes to apologize for the delay. His Wattpad has been glitching. Fucking Wattpad! And he was having trouble writing this scene in a way that was perfect enough to publish.