Chapter Twenty-six
Kapri
School at State was everything Kapri imagined it would be. For the first time in her life, she was on her own. She and she alone determined when she would go to sleep and wake up. And when and what she would eat. No longer was her mother there to be her overseer. Never one to be considered a wild child who was known to run the streets, Kapri loved reading books and teaching herself about things the average female in the hood would never consider learning. Her ability to pick up on this and that assisted her in reading different, impromptu situations whenever they would occur.
Ray Bradford was a graduate student. He was a few years Kapri’s senior. Fresh out of high school, Kapri had been assigned to be a part of the school’s Academic Study Achievement Program. The program was geared to assist incoming students with following proper study habits. Naïve to Ray’s lustful glances, Kapri was focused on maintaining a decent grade point average. Nothing more, nothing less. At what would seem odd to most, Ray would find reasons to call or text Kapri late at night or in the wee hours of the morning. Cloaked in the reasoning of needing some reference notes or if he may have left a folder or two while they were at study group together, Ray was conniving. It was as if he were obsessed with the barely of age female. The older man wanted to make sure she was going to bed alone and waking up that way. Other people in their group would notice the extra attention their so-called leader would bestow upon Kapri but tried to ignore it. The other girls were just glad the mustache-shaven-off, gold-wired-frames-wearing creep was not focused on them.
* * *
It was midweek, and Kapri had completed most of her assignments with ease. She had not been attending the study groups lately. Not only was she growing bored with all of the strict rules Ray was putting in place, but she was also starting to notice him singling her out. Far from crazy, the clever teen started testing him and his intentions. Kapri would show him a paper that her professor had already signed off on as being above average. Ray was none the wiser and would break down all the ways that the assignment was inferior. He urged Kapri to meet with him for extra study sessions even when she insisted she had other plans. As of late, she’d been complaining to Nolan about the older dude and how she felt she was being pressed. Nolan promised her one day he would have so much money saved up she could get her own private, handpicked tutor. That promise made Kapri happy and look toward the future.
Just coming back from having lunch, Kapri stopped in the common area of the dorm to speak to a few friends. No more than five minutes had gone by when Ray seemingly appeared from nowhere. It wasn’t like Kapri was dodging the man, she just simply didn’t want to be bothered. “Oh, hello, Ray. How you been?”
“Wow, so Kapri James in the flesh. Dang, girl, you just done gave up on getting good grades, huh?” Ray spoke as if he were her father attempting to scold her.
“What you mean?” Kapri snapped back quickly, immediately getting an attitude. She was at her wit’s end with Ray, who was always popping up out of nowhere. And lately, he had amped up his weirdness by hovering as if he were her keeper. Kapri sat there thinking if she wanted to be mothered, she would have stayed home with her own mom.
“I mean, I haven’t seen you in the group, so—”
“So, and? You acting like that study group is a job or something,” she huffed. “I thought it was for if you need extra help. I swear I don’t get it. You be doing the most.”
“It is but . . .” Ray replied, pushing his glasses back up on the arc of his nose.
The people Kapri were speaking to were starting to feel uncomfortable and left Kapri and Ray alone to hash out their apparent differences in thinking. Their leaving only made Kapri madder. Something inside of her snapped. She was trying to keep her cool, but she was done. The Detroit hood girl from around the way was ready to make her appearance. Ray had pushed every wrong button wired to Kapri’s emotions. Before Ray or anyone else in ear range could prepare themselves, Kapri got to going. By the time she was done, Ray was standing in the middle of the room, looking like a fool as Kapri stormed up the stairs. But strangely enough, Ray was not discouraged. Delusional in his thought process, he reasoned with himself that the young girl truly did want him deep down inside. She was just confused and high strung. He’d give Kapri some time to calm down and would approach her again once he returned from his trip up North to visit his aging and sick grandmother.
Once up in her dorm room, it took Kapri damn near twenty minutes to calm down from her very much warranted public rant. Pacing from side to side in the small room, she had to breathe in and out slowly to regain her composure. She wanted to call her mother and tell her about the creep, but she knew her mother. She’d drop everything she was doing and be on her way, probably with another hammer in her purse or even her gun ready to use on Ray. Phone in hand, Kapri considered calling for all of five minutes, but she didn’t want her mother to think she was weak. She didn’t want her to think she couldn’t handle life as an adult living on her own. And telling Nolan was out of the question just because he would nut up as well. So, instead, Kapri reached out to her cousin, Marie.
After telling what had just jumped off, Marie got Kapri off a hundred. Finally, back in her right mind, Kapri got caught up with family business on her father’s side. Needless to say, that conversation was full of revelations that would come in handy later down the line.