Slammed(25)

"I'll tell you what. We'll make a deal. If I do one of my pieces, everyone has to agree to go to at least one slam this semester at Club N9NE."

No one objects. I'd like to object, but that would require raising my hand and speaking. So, I don't object.

"No objections? Alright, then. I'll do a short one I wrote. Remember, slam poetry is about the poetry and the performance."

Will stands in the front of the room and faces the students. He shakes his arms out and stretches his neck left and right in an attempt to relax himself. When he clears his throat, it's not the kind of throat clearing people do when they're nervous; it's the kind they do right before they yell.



Expectations, evaluations, internal evasions



Fly out of me like puddles of blood from a wound



A fetus from the womb of a corpse in a tomb



Withered and strewn like red sheets on the bed

Of an immaculate room.



I can't breathe,

I can't win,

From this indelible position I'm in

It controls the only piece of my unfortunate soul



Left to fend for itself in this hollowed out hole



That I dug from within, like a prisoner in

An unlocked cell sitting in the deepest pits of hell



Unencumbered he's not in his sweltering spot

He could open the door 'cause he don't need a damn key



But then again,

Why would he?

Circumlocution is his revolution.



The silence in the room is deafening. No one speaks, no one moves, no one claps. We are in awe. I am in awe. How does he expect me to transition if he keeps doing things like this?

"There you go," he says matter-of-factly as he walks back to his seat. The rest of the class period is spent talking about slam poetry. I try hard to follow along as he goes into further explanation, but the entire time I’m simply focused on the fact that he hasn’t made eye contact with me. Not even once.

***

I claim my seat next to Eddie at lunch as we set our trays down. I notice a guy that sits a couple of rows behind me in Will’s class walking toward us. He is balancing two trays with his left arm, and his back pack and a bag of chips in the right. He positions himself in the seat across from me and proceeds to combine the food onto one tray. When that task is complete, he pulls a two-liter of coke out of his backpack and places it in front of him, unscrewing the lid and drinking directly from it. As he is chugging the soda, he looks at me and places it back down on the table, wiping his mouth.

“You gonna drink that chocolate milk, New Girl?”



I nod. “That’s why I got it."

“What about that roll? You gonna eat that roll?”



“Got the roll for a reason, too.”



He shrugs and reaches across to Gavin’s tray and takes his roll just as Gavin turns around and swipes at his hand, a moment too late.

“Dude, Nick! There’s no way you’re gaining ten pounds by Friday. Give it up!” Gavin yells.

“Nine,” Nick corrects him with a mouthful of bread.

Eddie takes her roll and throws it across the table. Nick catches it midair and gives her a wink. “Your girl has faith in me,” Nick says to Gavin.

“He lifts weights,” Eddie is directing her comment to me. “He’s got to be nine pounds heavier by Friday to compete in his weight class, and it’s not looking good.”



With that, I grab my roll and toss it on Nick’s tray. He winks at me as he dips it in a mound of butter.

I’m thankful to Eddie for accepting me into her group of friends so easily. Not that I had a decision, it was done pretty forcibly. In Texas there were twenty-one people in my entire senior class. I had friends, but with such a limited pool to choose from I never really considered any of them to be my best friend. I mostly hung out with my friend Kerris, but I haven’t even spoken to her since the move. From what I’ve seen of Eddie so far, she’s intriguing enough that I can’t help but hope we become closer.

“So, how long have you and Gavin been dating?” I ask her.

“Sophomore Year. I hit him with my car.” She looks at him and smiles. “It was love at first swipe.”



“What about you?” she asks. “You got a boyfriend?”