When You're Ready by Britni Danielle

okay,” I said, pushing wet curls out of her face.
    “It’s not okay, Scout! She said if I wanted to pass I needed to write a 20-page paper and hand it in by our next class. That’s in less than a week!”
    Damn . This woman was clearly unreasonable. “You’re brilliant, Nola, I know you can do it.”
    She turned to glare at me. “You’re kidding, right? I have to work every night between now and then, plus I have my other classes to deal with. I’m going to fail, Scout.”
    “Baby, you’re not gonna fail. I won’t let that happen, okay?”
    Nola put her head in her lap and started crying again. I felt like someone had sucker punched me in the chest and I couldn’t fight back. She needed to pass this class in order to keep her scholarship, but I wanted to give her the money instead, removing the unnecessary stress her professor had caused.
    Seeing Nola in anguish over her stupid professor pissed me off. Not because school wasn’t important, but because I’d been around assholes like that my entire life. That woman knew what she was doing to Nola was wrong and she didn’t care; that bothered me.
    “There’s nothing you can do, Scout,” she said, then wiped her eyes, rolled down the window and let the wind dry her face. Nola didn’t know how wrong she was. I could do a lot. I just wasn’t sure she would let me.
    “Why don’t you take the weekend off and work on your paper? I haven’t been in school in a while, so I can’t help you write, but I can bring you coffee and energy drinks and food.”
    She gave me a weak smile and my chest tightened. “That’s really sweet, Scout. God, you must think I’m pathetic.”
    “Not at all, why would you say that?”
    “Because I’ve cried both times I’ve seen you,” she chuckled. “I’m just…going through some things, I guess. Sorry to be such a downer.”
    “I don’t mind. I’m happy I can be here for you.”
    “I owe you big,” she said. “I mean, you just sat through my ugly cry and you didn’t even laugh at me.”
    Nothing about Nola was ugly, not her creamy skin, her giant mop of hair, or her curvy body that made me hard just thinking about how it would feel beneath me. I would’ve gladly sat through all of her tears if I meant I could be around her a little bit longer, but I didn’t like seeing her so stressed out either.
    “Never. I’ll never laugh at you, Nola, okay?”
    She nodded and leaned her head against the window, closing her eyes.
    We drove the rest of the way in silence. I hoped she was getting some much-needed rest and putting her professor’s bullshit behind her, but I knew better. At first glance, Nola seemed naive and reserved, but I could tell there was more to her than that. Like me, she probably kept all of her problems bottled up and out of sight, but that didn’t mean they weren’t eating her alive.
    I knew it was selfish, but I wanted Nola to need me. I wanted her to let me into the darkest parts of her heart where all of the hurt and bad memories resided. Maybe then she could help me let go of my own baggage and I could finally sleep through the night without waking up in a cold sweat, scared I was back in my parents’ drug-infested house in Pacoima.
    Only my friends knew how I’d really grown up. The media glossed over my story, choosing to focus on how I taught myself to code and create apps on a second-hand laptop, but my boys knew the true story of Scout Claybourne. We grew up together, and while their parents weren’t druggies like mine, they weren’t that much better off either.
    We all struggled back then. I was one of the few White kids in the area, and my neighbors looked out for me. Being different meant I had to learn how to fight, and thankfully my best friends Jason and Fernando always had my back. Back then, we’d all watch wrestling and then hit the makeshift weight room in Jason’s garage.  Soon, we were all strong and crazy enough to take on all comers, especially those who wanted to see if