CHAPTER FOUR

Shocker (Octavia’s Beginning)

“You!” Shawn screamed as he dashed out of the courthouse and caught up to Olive. He had his finger pointed in her face. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face held such intense anger. “Look what you’ve done to our brother. I could...”

Octavia was trying to hold him back. She wasn’t succeeding. She knew he was going to blow up, but she didn’t think it was going to be this bad between him and Olive. She had to keep trying to get through to him.

“Just settle down,” Octavia said, trying to rationalize with Shawn.

Olive yelled, “Nah, Octavia, step out of his way! He’s got something to say to me, let him say it!”

“You darn right I got something to say to you! What? You don’t think any of this is your fault?” Shawn looked at Olive with hate. He paused and then said, “But you know what? Maybe that’s right, because ALL of this is your fault!”

Olive didn’t flinch. “You can’t make me feel no worse than I already do. What? What else you wanna say, Shawn? What you wanna do to me? How am I going to live with myself, knowing Charles has gotta move out of our house? If I wasn’t fooling with Tiger in the first place, none of this would have ever happened. I know! I’m the reason why Charles is leaving now. If I could move out instead of him, I would.”

Shawn snarled, “But you can’t, so don’t go givin’ me no sob stories.”

“Okay, Shawn,” Octavia said, trying to pull him back. “Just calm down. You see she feels bad.”

“Why don’t you get outta my way!” he said as he pushed Octavia really hard.

Octavia was thrown up against the wall of the courthouse building, and she was hurt. Not only physically, but emotionally. Shawn was her boo, but now he was discarding her.

“Oh heck naw! I know you ain’t gon’ just throw my girl against the daggone building!” Willow yelled at Shawn.

Shawn quickly rushed over to Octavia apologetically. It certainly wasn’t like Octavia didn’t understand that he was really stressed out. She did, but her head really hurt, and she didn’t think it was right for Shawn to push her, no matter what he was going through.

Upset, Shawn voiced, “Dang, I was trying to say I’m sorry. You know I ain’t mean to do that.”

“You just need to take your hot head on somewhere,” Willow said.

Shawn looked at Octavia and replied, “Oh, it’s like that, Octavia? You gon’ let your friends come in between us like this? Well, whatever.”

“No!” Octavia finally said, but Shawn put up his hands and stormed out of the courthouse.

“Let him go,” Willow told her, holding her back so that she couldn’t follow after him.

Octavia felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. She’d never had friends before. Unlike the other girls, who had no clue who put them on the swoop list, she knew exactly who put her there, and it wasn’t like she could be mad at that person. Why? Because it was herself. She’d had the ingenious idea that the way to get popular was to have people talking about her. She’d thought that even if people were talking about her in a negative way, it was a good thing—until she was actually in that situation. She had quickly realized the harsh accusations, mean words, and disturbing looks were much more than she’d bargained for. But it did put her in a new group of girls who were in similar situations. They were all ostracized at school. They now had that in common and thus formed a unique sisterhood, and now they were at her side.

Not only did Octavia gain good girlfriends, she also connected with a guy who was falling for her—Shawn. Nonetheless, she hated that he was mad at Olive. Octavia was torn between following the guy or following her friend. Living in the group home together, Olive and Shawn were supposed to be like brother and sister. And although Olive was black and Shawn was white, like Octavia, color didn’t matter, except the red blood of hatred.

Willow whispered, “I’m telling you, Octavia. I know you like him, but he just pushed you up against a wall. And right now, he’s mad at our girl. So he needs to calm his little self down and apologize to both of you guys. Don’t run up after him. And I’m just telling you what I know. You said you were new to the whole love thing. Let me school you. Don’t let a jerk know you’ll take anything.”

Olive ran over to Octavia and said, “I’m so sorry. Are you okay? He’s mad at me. He shouldn’t have pushed you.”

“Well, I don’t want him to hit you either,” Octavia admitted.

“He better be happy he just got out of the hospital a couple of weeks ago,” Willow said, “or I would have punched him in the gut for pushing you like that.”

Charles came out of the courthouse with his social worker. Olive, Sanaa, and Willow walked up to him. That gave Octavia a chance to run to try and find Shawn.

She caught up with him when she spotted him around the corner. “There you are.”

“Leave me alone, Octavia. Go on with your girls.”

“How can I leave you alone? We’re building something special here, right?”

“You ask me that today when I’m too broken to build anything. I just found out my brother can’t even live with us no more, and I can’t even imagine how that feels. I see what you’re thinking. He’s not my blood, so why should I care, right?”

“That’s not what I’m thinking at all.”

“Yes it is. People don’t know Charles and I have been in and out of different group homes since we were in the second grade. For ten years, he’s had my back. I wasn’t always so tough. When people used to pick on me, he was right there, telling them they’d have to go through him to get to me. And when we’d get home, he’d beat me up. I didn’t know what was going on, but he told me it was for my own good. One day I got tired of him hitting me, and I hit him back, and he said that’s what he’d been waiting on. For me to get tough. Half the times he’s been in and out of juvie is because he’s covering my behind.”

“Really?” Octavia said, stunned at the depth of their relationship.

“He’d always say, ‘They wanna believe that the white boy’s good. Let me take the rap.’ And even when I fought him on it, a lot of the times he was right. People thought I was lying to cover for him and only locked him up. Crazy.”

“But you know Olive cares about him.”

“Please. Two months ago she was screwing half of Tiger’s gang. I know you said you’ve been a loner and you’re overwhelmed by all these people that all of a sudden care about you. Well, I’ma make it easier on you before we get too serious. Let’s just be through.”

Shawn walked away, leaving Octavia devastated. His news was a shocker.