A little bit longer this time around, enjoy :)

I grit my teeth as I approached Cairo. After my talk with Jazmine three days ago, I knew she wasn't going to listen to what I had to say. I needed to let him know that I wasn't playing any games and that I wanted him to keep his distance from Jazmine. He was standing outside the bathroom talking to two other guys and I walked up, nodding my head at him. "Can we talk?"

He narrowed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, "Aight, I'll catch you guys later. Peace." He said, dapping them up before turning his attention back to me. "What do you want, Huey?" I shoved my hands into my jean pockets and thought about it for a moment.

"Don't fuck around with Jazmine or we'll have a problem." I spat angrily.

"What exactly would I do to Jazmine? Me and her are cool… And last time I checked she wasn't your girl, so what's it matter to you?"

"You know good and damn well why it matters to me."

"Okay… But it still has nothing to do with you." Cairo said smoothly, acting as if he didn't care. But I knew that it bothered him. I knew that I had struck a chord within him. "Stop trying to start shit Huey, cause if you want a fight I'll give it to you."

"All I'm saying is, is don't mess with Jazmine. I'm surprised she doesn't know yet, actually. And don't think I won't tell her what happened freshman year with that girl."

"Fuck off!" Cairo shouted, shoving me back roughly. That caused a few people to look towards us, already anticipating a fight. I grit my teeth even harder and shoved him back against the wall before throwing a punch. "You don't wanna do this Cairo."

"Yeah, I do." Cairo bounced off the wall and came back at me, throwing two punches at me and landing one on my side. I winced but compared to all the fights I had with Riley when we were younger, it was nothing. I stood up straight and threw another punch at his face but he leaned back in just enough time.

"You just can't let anything go, can you?! I didn't touch that girl!" Cairo yelled. He lunged at me but I dodged him by moving over to the side. He turned back around and caught me off guard, punching me right in the mouth.

"Yeah, you keep saying that, Cairo." I mumbled as I felt my lip bust and the blood slowly trickle out. I licked it up and wiped off what I could. Got damn did that hurt.

"Oooooh shit!" Someone shouted in the background and that was all it took for everyone to be surrounded around us and chanting for us to keep fighting. Cairo shook his head, looking up at me angrily before he threw a punch at my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I wrapped my arm around his neck and brought him down to the ground roughly. We went back and forth trading punches as we rolled around on the floor for who knows how long. I just kept fighting until I felt someone pull me up and away from him. Whoever it was, was buff as hell and there was no way I was going to try to escape from him. I was halfway down the hall when I put my hands up in surrender. "I'm fine. You can let me go now."

"You sure? If you two start up again you only gonna get in more trouble." I turned around the face the teacher, it was Coach Blue, the basketball coach. I nodded my head. "I'm fine."

"...Alright, but I still need to walk you down to the dean."

I just shrugged my shoulders as I followed him. He was talking about how us young kids were so quick to fight, and how I should be a bigger man and walk away when stuff like that happens, how he knew that my grandfather was going to be disappointed. I sighed and rolled my eyes. How us 'young kids' were always ready for a fight? Last time I checked it was the older people who would always play dirty, not us. If anything, that was a fair fight, just one on one.

I kept wiping at blood that was trickling down my lip and chin. I wanted to laugh at what Cairo had said. He really believes that he didn't touch that girl? Just because the case was thrown away, he was completely innocent. That wasn't the case at all. I needed Jazmine to know that he wasn't all Mr. Nice Guy. We were almost to the dean's office when I ran into Riley.

"Yo, what the fuck happened?" He said once he caught a look at my face.

Coach Blue chimed in, "Get to wherever you need to be Freeman."

"Nah, Coach. Forreal, what happened? I swear if someone pulled some pussy shit on you, I'll beat they damn ass."

"It doesn't concern you right now Riley. So unless you want to be benched for the rest of the season, get going." Coach Blue said firmly. Riley stood there for a moment before shaking his head and walking away. "I'll text you Huey. Let me know if I needa come home early."

"Alright." I mumbled.

We finally made it to the main office and I sat down in the chair while he went to go talk to her. I figured that they had put Cairo somewhere else, so that we wouldn't run into each other again and fight some more. Honestly, I hadn't intended for it to be a fight, but once he had put his hands on me it was sealed. I sat there in the office, while people came in and out for various reasons, for 15 minutes before I was called into the dean's office where Coach Blue was standing in front of her desk.

She smiled at me, although I could tell it wasn't a friendly smile. "Mr. Freeman. I see we've had a few issues today?" I nodded my head once and looked at her. She cleared her throat. "Mr. Blue tells me you got into a fight with Cairo Lewis? Can you explain to me why."

"We had personal issues." I deadpanned. What did it matter why we were fighting? I would be suspended for the same amount of days either way. She kept asking me questions. Who started it, how it happened, have we ever had any issues, the list goes on and on. I gave her the shortest possible answers that I could. Five minutes of back and forth and she finally decided to stop asking me questions. "You do know that fighting calls for a week of out of school suspension and two days in school suspension, correct?"

"Mhm." I nodded.

"Alright then. Your suspension starts now. I will call your parents to come pick you up. You will have OSS until next Wednesday. Thursday you will come back to school and stay in the ISS room until Friday. You are not allowed on campus while you are suspended and if you are caught on campus, you will receive further punishment. Do you understand me, Huey?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Go wait out in one of the chairs." I stood up but before leaving I turned around. "Can you not call my granddad? He's recovering from a heart attack and heart surgery and he won't be able to get here on his own."

"Do you have any other family member that can come pick you up?"

I shook my head slowly. Of course I didn't it was just me, Granddad, and Riley. "I don't need one. Do I? I'm 18." She looked at me as if I was telling a lie and I told her she could check the files if she needed to. "I guess you're right. But I will be giving your grandfather a call to confirm all of this." All I did was sigh and walk out. I didn't care. I wasn't intending to miss anymore school, but I guess I was just going to have to deal with it.

It took another 20 minutes before I was dismissed and able to go home. They even did the most and had an SO escort me out the building and off campus. He told me to take it easy and I waved back as I started making my way home. At least it wasn't winter anymore so I didn't have to be walking in freezing weather.

By the time I got home, Granddad was sitting in his seat, the belt in his hand. He looked at me, "Boy, don't think I'm too old to beat that ass and don't think you too old to get that ass beat." He laughed and I rolled my eyes, kicking off my shoes and sitting down on the couch. "So, you fought with Cairo?"

"Yeah. He and Jazmine are friends, I was just warning him."

"Well I guess he got a few good licks in, from the looks of your lip. Make sure you ice it." He sighed heavily. "Let me tell you something Huey… I don't think Cairo did that. He's a good boy, he wouldn't do nothin' like that."

"How can you even say that Granddad? He raped that girl. Just because it was four years ago and everyone forgot about it doesn't mean it never happened." Granddad got that stern look in his eye as he looked at me. "Boy, now you listen up, I'm an old ass man and I know people. Cairo ain't that type of person. He wouldn't do that to no damn body. I understand why you stopped talking to him at first but he was found innocent. Don't hold no ill will."

"He did that. It's sick that Jazmine doesn't even know about it."

"It has nothing to do with you. You so damn worried about that girl, you think I don't know you're creeping around with Kiara? I hope you're being safe cause that little girl ain't what she seems. She too damn slick. Last thing I need is for her to pull something slick on you!"

I groaned and grit my teeth. "It's not even like that!"

"I know what it's like to be young and in love. I know you don't wanna hear a damn thing I got to say but you need to let go of Kiara, Huey. She's no good for you. You're a smart, talented young man and that hoe will just bring you down to her level. Get as mad as you want, but it's the truth."

"Alright." I said, nodding my head once and standing up and heading towards me room.

"And matter of fact, don't bring her up in my house anymore unless you want a problem."

"You got it, Granddad." I sighed. Great, he knew I was having sex. Any other circumstance and I would've been pretty embarrassed.

Jazmine's POV

"Wait, what happened?" I stuttered as Mariah stood in front of me, angry as hell.

"Cairo and Huey fought! Cairo saying it's because Huey started some shit! And that's all your fault Jazmine because that nigga hasn't talked to Cairo since they were freshman so what the hell?!" Mariah shouted.

"No, no. I didn't do anything Mariah! Why would I do that, I don't even talk to Huey. You know that! Besides, you and Cairo are really good friends. So why would I do something to even start a fight!? I didn't even know about it until just now, when you told me." I countered. I didn't want a fight or an argument. This was all just a misunderstanding. It had to be. But why would Huey even do all of that? Start a fight for absolutely no good reason.

"Are you sure? Because I swear to fucking GOD, Jazmine, I will drop you so damn quick."

"Of course I'm sure? What the hell." I sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of my nose. What and world was even going on? Mariah sucked her teeth, still upset and shook her head. "Alright girl, look, I gotta go to Cairo's place. I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, alright…" I mumbled as she walked away. Cairo lived downtown so I assumed she was just going to take the bus down. Me on the other hand, my mom had asked me to go to the grocery store and pick up a few things so she could make dinner when she got home tonight. I sighed and started to walk in the direction towards the grocery store. The twenty minute walk was good because it let me think about what was going on and what I wanted to do. Whatever reason Huey and Cairo didn't think each other was big, and Huey was obviously worried about me. How that caused a fight, I had no idea but I'm sure it was connected.

The first thing I did when I got home was put everything away, then make my way across the street to Huey's place. I knocked on the door, since the doorbell had broken sometime last month and waited patiently. I heard the TV mute then footsteps shuffle towards the door. Robert opened the door with a frown, then smiled as he realized it was me. "Well, hello there sweetie pie, how are you? Come in. Riley isn't home yet though."

"Hi Mr. Freeman," I shook my head, "I'm not here for Riley though, just Huey. And I'm good, how are you?"

"Just fine, just fine. That boy is in his room, holed up. Talk some sense into that boy, will you?" Robert sucked his teeth and stepped back to let me in. I slipped off my shoes, said thank you and headed towards Huey's room, knocking on the slightly open door. His deep voice sounded exhausted. "Come in. I saw you walking across the street from the window. What're you doing here?"

"Heard about the fight… just checking up on you." That was partially the truth. Despite everything, I still cared for Huey. I didn't want him to get hurt or anything like that. So even though I wanted to know why he and Cairo got into a fight, it wasn't a priority right now. I walked in and cracked the door behind me before making my way to the desk in the corner of his room. I gasped when I caught a good look at him. His lip was busted, his eye was already starting to bruise. "Oh my gosh… Huey." I gasped, rushing over to him. I stood at the side of his bed, turning his face towards me as I looked at the damage. "You need ice, your eye is swelling up. And your lip…" I rubbed his lower lip with my thumb.

He pushed me away, "I'm fine, Jazmine."

"No, you want this to heal. Let me get some tylenol.. And ice. I'll be right back." Huey just sighed and nodded his head, telling me where the tylenol was. I walked to the kitchen, grabbing a few ice cubes and tossing them in a sandwich bag before wrapping a paper napkin around it. On the way back to his room I swiped the bottle of tylenol for him. I sat down on the edge of his bed and handed him everything. "Here."

"Thanks." He said quietly, downing the pills with some water and then putting the icepack on his eye. I nodded, not sure what to really say. Then I remembered that he probably had sex with Kiara right here, on his bed. I squeaked, sat up and walked back over to the desk. "Why'd you really come?"

"Because… I was worried. I get outta class and I hear all this stuff about a fight, then I hear it was you and Cairo? I was freaking out. I mean… what the heck was the point of fighting? What even happened between you two?"

Huey sighed and clenched his jaw. "He allegedly raped a girl freshman year. He was found innocent, but… I didn't believe him. That's our problem. That's why I told you to watch out around him. I was just watching out for you."

"What?" I probably looked like a gaping fish with how far my jaw dropped. "He doesn't even seem like that type of person? He's so nice… he'd never do that."

"You never know." Huey shrugged.

"But he was proven innocent." I countered back. I hadn't known Cairo for long but he definitely was not that type of person. "So he's innocent."

"You know how many guilty people are innocent and how many innocent people are guilty?" Huey snapped back angrily. I shrunk back, not expecting the anger from him. I didn't believe him, Cairo was a good guy. Just like Huey was a good guy; just in different ways. I shook my head and stood up.

"No, there's no way. Cairo's one of the nicest people I've ever met. He's not creepy, or mean, or anything like that. No way. I'm leaving now, feel better." I said, waving my goodbye. I said goodbye to Mr. Freeman, put my shoes back on and went back home. I would have to talk to Cairo about it, and maybe even Mariah, just to hear their sides of the story.