by A. J. Byrd
“Whoa. Whoa. Let’s just get me through the ninth grade,” I joke.
“Fine. Fine.” She tosses up her hands. “Do you think you have time to take a little of this casserole over to your friend Kierra’s before you leave?”
I remove the brush from my eyelid and frown back at her through the refection in the mirror.
“I know we ain’t got much to share ourselves, but every little bit helps, I reckon,” she says, turning away from the bathroom.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, turning and following her to the kitchen. “Why would Kierra and them need a casserole from us? Is there something going on that I don’t know about?”
Granny glances back at me with a surprised look. “You mean you don’t know?”
Suddenly, my heart starts pounding in double time. “Know what?”
She just blinks at me as if I’d asked her to explain the birds and the bees to me again.
“Well, honey, if Kierra hasn’t told you, then I don’t think that it’s my place.”
Kierra not tell me something? The actual thought of that causes my heart to squeeze so hard that I literarily gasp aloud. “Granny, what are you talking about?”
She goes over to the oven and pulls out a casserole dish wrapped in aluminum foil. “Here, baby. Take this on over and ask her yourself. I don’t think it’s my place to tell you if she hasn’t.”
“Tell me what?” I feel myself getting agitated.
Instead of answering, Granny hands over the dish, oven mitts and all. “Ask her.”
I stare at my grandmother for another full ten seconds, halfway hoping that she will just break down and confess to whatever the heck she’s hinting at. No dice. In the end, I take the casserole dish and rush over to Kierra’s place. My mind is scrambling in half a million directions trying figure out this great mystery. By the time I knock on the door, my stomach is tied up in knots. Why, after everything we’ve been through, hasn’t she told me about whatever is going on with her? Have I been ignoring her? Have I been so wrapped up in my own world that I haven’t been paying attention to her?
Finally, I hear footsteps approach the door. I take a deep breath and tell myself to remain calm and not just start interrogating Kierra when she opens the door.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me,” I tell her, rolling my eyes and tapping my foot. Why doesn’t the girl ever use her peephole on the door?
“Anje?” She slides the chain lock off and then twists the bolt lock before opening the door. “What are you doing here?” she asks. “Aren’t you supposed to be on your date? Is something wrong?”
Kierra’s instant concern about me quickly wipes away every question I had coming over here. I don’t know why, but suddenly small pieces of the puzzle Granny gave me start clicking in place. Pieces I hadn’t paid attention to until now. When was the last time I saw Deborah’s car parked in the parking lot? There being so little food in the refrigerator last night and her cavalier attitude toward letting me borrow clothes from her sister’s closet. Why does it seem as if Kierra is exhausted all the time?
“Anje?” Kierra opens the door a little farther, as if to step outside the apartment, and I catch sight of some guy in the living room with a big duffel bag on the table. I think I’ve seen him around school, but I’m not sure.
“Oh, I didn’t know that you had someone coming,” I say. “I can come back another time.” I turn and belatedly realize that I still had Granny’s casserole in my hand. “Oh. Granny wanted me to bring you this.”
Kierra glances down. “What’s that?”
“A casserole.” I shrug my shoulders up and down. “I guess she, um, made a little too much this evening.”
Kierra’s brows dip together at my odd answer, but heck, I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Well, thanks,” she says, fluttering a smile. “I’m sure we’ll enjoy it since your granny can throw down in the kitchen.” She reaches for the dish, but I step back. “Ah, it’s hot. I can just take it to the kitchen.” Mainly, I want to see if she’ll invite me into the apartment or pull another Tyler and leave me standing out here in the hallway.
Kierra does hesitate for a moment, but then finally steps back with that same nervous smile. “Sure, come on in.”
Relief pours over me as I take a huge step across the threshold. The dude sitting on the sofa hops up and quickly flips the top of his duffel bag down as if he doesn’t want me to see what’s inside.
“Oh, hey, Anjenai. How’s it hanging?”
Surprised that he knows my name, I take a harder look at his face and try to place a name to it.
“Drake,” he answers the unspoken question. “Drake Brown. I go to Jackson High with you and Kierra.”
A boyfriend? My smile stretches as I turn an accusatory glance toward my best friend. Her face is bright red with embarrassment.
“C’mon. You can put the casserole on the stove. We’ll have some for dinner tonight,” she tells me as she turns and marches into the kitchen.
I follow close behind her. “You know you’re wrong for this, don’t you?” I hiss at her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing some dude at school? How long have you two been seeing each other?”
She blinks at me. “Um, we, um, are just friends,” she says unconvincingly—mainly because her entire face is blotchy red.
“Uh-huh. You ain’t got to front. It’s me, remember?” I lean out the kitchen door and take another look at the dude. “He’s a little short—but then again, so are you.” I wiggle my brows at her. “Where’s McKenya?”
“Spending the night at her friend Regina’s place. I walked her a few minutes ago.”
“Ah. So it’s just you and this dude in the house,” I say. “You better not let Deborah find out.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. In my defense, all I can say is that I wasn’t thinking. Also in that one second, Kierra’s red face collapses and a rush of tears starts pouring down her face.
“Oh, God, Kierra. I’m sorry.” I sweep open my arms and quickly wrap them around her small shoulders. Next thing I know she’s drenching my shirt with warm tears. “It’s going to be all right,” I tell her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want anyone to know,” she admits. “What if someone told Child and Family Services and breaks up McKenya and me? What if we have to go to foster care or something?” She starts shaking her head. “I wouldn’t be able to stand it. We might not be able to be friends anymore.”
“C’mon. That will never happen. We will always be friends no matter what happens.”
She continues to shake her head. “We don’t know that. I mean, look what’s happening between us and Tyler. We’re already separating and we’ve only been in high school a couple of months. I can’t imagine what we’ll be like after four years.”
That thought had also crossed my mind. “Look. We’re not going to let that happen,” I tell her despite my own doubts. “We’re going to do our best not to let that happen. As far as Tyler is concerned, we’re going to start writing and sending her care packages every chance we get. Agreed?”
Kierra cries just a little harder.
“If life is going to get harder, then we’re just going to fight harder to stay together. Agreed?” I insist.
“Okay,” she croaks. “Agreed.”
“Good.” I walk over to a thinning roll of paper towels. “Now wipe your face. Now, since McKenya is spending the night out, what do you say about going to Club Zero with Kwan and me?”
“What? No…I can’t.”
“Why not? We can double date.” I turn toward the kitchen door. “Wait…no, Anje—”
“Drake,” I call out to the living room, ignoring her. “How do you feel about going out to Club Zero with us tonight?”
“Club Zero?” His face lights up. “Count me in!”
I turn toward Kierra. “There, it’s all settled. All we have to do now is tell my date.”
thirty-five
I’m so nervous that you would’ve thought it was my first date. I don’t know how many times I changed clothes before I settled on some basic black jeans and a classic white Sean John T-shirt. I want to be fly without looking like I’m trying too hard. I’m comfortable rolling through the hood because what so few people know down here is that I grew up in the Bronx. My family hustled a dollar out of fifteen cents to get where we are today, and none of us will ever forget where we came from.
Cruising into the Oak Hill Apartments and leaning to the side behind my white-on-silver Escalade, I toss a few deuces to a couple of brothers hugged up on the corner and quickly find a parking space outside Anjenai’s apartment building. After shutting off the engine, I flip down the visor and check my mug shot to make sure everything is everything before sliding out from behind the wheel and strutting my way up to Anjenai’s place. I may be cool on the outside, but trust me, on the inside my heart is racing and I can hardly get my thoughts together. Maybe if I just stick with short sentences, I’ll do all right.
Outside Anjenai’s door, I cough a few times to clear my throat and stop myself from knocking at least twice because I need a few extra minutes to get myself together.
“Are you Anje’s date?” a little voice echoes through the empty hallway.
I look around and finally see two little boys sitting on the staircase with a basketball between them.
“Oh, hello,” I greet them, smiling. “I didn’t see you there.”
The two boys gaze at me. Neither looks too impressed. I instantly like them.
“Where are you taking our sister?” the elder of the two asks.
I clear my throat again. “To this place called Club Zero. You probably never heard of it.”
“I’ve heard of Club Zero,” the elder one says, crossing his arms.
“Yeah. Me, too,” his mini-me co-signs.
“We may be kids, but we know a few things.”
“Ah. Is that right?” I ask, walking over to the staircase and then leaning against the rail. “If that’s the case, then maybe you can help me out?”
The younger instantly grows suspicious. “Help you out how?”
“Well, clearly, I like your sister, and I’m sure that she’s had plenty of boyfriends—”
“Yeah, right!” the boys spit in unison and then crack themselves up laughing.
“What are you two named?”
The younger opens his mouth only to have his brother slap a hand over it. “That depends on who wants to know.”
“Fair enough.” I bob my head. “My name is Kwan.” I stretch out a hand. “I go to school with your sister.”
The elder one looks at my hand and then peers up at me for a long time before he finally slides his small hand into mine. “Hosea,” he says. “And this here is Edafe. He’s the baby.”
Edafe pushes Hosea’s hand off his mouth. “I’m not a baby!”
“Are, too.” Hosea rolls his eyes.
“Nuh-uh. I’m six years old. I’m a big boy. Even Granny says so!”
Now these two have cracked me up, but before we can continue this conversation, their apartment door jerks open and Anjenai pokes her head out into the hallway. “Hosea and Edafe, Granny wants—OH! Hey!” Her eyes completely light up when they land on me.
“Hey, yourself,” I respond, feeling my own face split into a double-decker smile.
She eases out into the hall a little bit. “I hope those two aren’t giving you a hard time,” she says and then gives them a look that clearly states that they better not be.
“No. No. We were just getting to know one another.” I glance down at them. “Ain’t that right, boys?”
Two sets of shoulders shrug before popping up from the staircase and then running toward the apartment.
“Well, so much for that,” I say, feeling jilted. “I thought we were bonding.”
“Please don’t take it personally,” she says. “They’re weird like that.”
I bob my head again and then allow a comfortable silence to float between us while I stroll over to the door. I catch a whiff of something flowery clinging to her skin. “You smell nice.”
Those adorable dimples wink at me again. “Thanks.” We smile at each other for a while before she finally says, “I, uh, hope you don’t mind but I kinda, sorta invited Kierra and Drake to come with us.”
Stunned, I blink at her.
“I know I should’ve asked you first, but I just found out that she was going through some really tough, personal things and I wanted her to get out so she can relax some. Please. Please say that you don’t mind.”
She grabs my hand and gives me such an adorable puppy-dog expression that whatever disappointment I was feeling just melts away. “I don’t mind,” I tell her, squeezing her hand back. My reward is another breathtaking smile. So far the date is off to a good start.
Anjenai invites me into the apartment and introduces me to her grandmother. I’m really good with grandmothers since I’m really close to my own. I am a little surprised when two more brothers, twins, come out from the back room and are forced to introduce themselves by their smiling grandmother. I keep the discussion light, tell her just the basics about myself before promising to have Anjenai home by eleven o’clock on a school night. Next, we walk over to her girl Kierra’s pad and pick her up. I realize I have seen Kierra around school and wonder if she’s the same girl Chris has been bragging about. Of course I don’t ask in front of her date—a dude I really don’t care for. Despite my short time at Jackson High, I know exactly who Drake Brown is and what he does around the school.
“Yo, y’all ready to go?” I ask after all the introductions have been made. Everyone glances at each other, bobbing their heads. We head out the door and all pile into my ride. I was expecting an awkward situation once we’re all situated, but that doesn’t turn out to be the case. Anjenai and Kierra fall into simple chitchat, and then Drake and I join in.
Turns out that it’s a good thing that Drake came along because I get completely turned around, trying to get over to the club on my own. When I checked the place out last time, I rode with Chris. Then the parking lot was, like, half-full. Tonight, the place is jam-packed. “I wonder what’s going on tonight,” I say as I pull into a parking space.
“Are you kidding me?” Kierra says. “It was all over the school that Shadiq plans to battle you onstage tonight.”
Drake bobs his head. “True dat. I got fifty riding on Shadiq myself.” He cuts a look toward me. “Sorry, my man. I hardly know you, you understand.”
“Sure. Sure. No problem.” I roll my eyes. Just great. I thought this place was perfect for me to try to get my feet wet—work on perfecting my flow. It’s one thing to spit out some rhythms trying to impress Anjenai—it’s quite another going head to head with some dude I barely know, thinking that I’m threatening his rep or something.
“Is everything all right?” Anjenai whispers over to me.
“Yeah. Yeah,” I lie, shutting off the engine. “I guess it is what it is.”
She gives me a look that tells me that she sees straight through my lie, but she’s cool enough to let it go in front of her friends. However, when we climb out of the car and head toward the low-key club kitty-corner in an old strip mall, she leans over to my side and whispers, “You know, you don’t have to do this. We can go somewhere else if you like.”
I’d like that very much, but we’re here now and I definitely don’t want anyone saying that I punked out. The only thing left to do is to grin and bear it. I glance down into Anjenai’s upturned face and feel those familiar muscles start to tug at my heart. “It’s cool,” I say and then swing my arm around her shoulders without thinking about it. It really could be an embarrassing moment, if she chooses to shrug it off. However, to my amazement, she instead tucks herself neatly under my arm and marches in lockstep next to me. I’ve got a feeling that this is going to be a pretty good date.
No sooner does that though
t cross my mind than I look up to open the club door and standing right there in front of us are Romeo and Phoenix. If looks could kill, Anjenai and I would be a couple of chalk outlines right now. The funny part is, this dude is staring a hole in my head while his girl is standing right next to him. Talk about issues.
“Hey, what’s up?” I ask just to mess with him. In my arm, I feel Anjenai tense up a bit, but when I glance down at her, she’s smiling up at me—dismissing this fool like yesterday’s trash. Romeo just turns straight purple, but I look him dead in his face and dare him to say something. “Excuse us,” I say, brushing past him since he seems all tongue-tied and what have you.
Inside the club, the bumping bass immediately gets my heart pounding in the same hypnotic rhythm. Music has always had that effect on me. It’s hard to explain, but all I know is that I need it as much as I need air to breathe. We quickly search around the room, looking for a good table, and finally find one sort of in the middle of everything.
“Is this all right?” I ask Anjenai.
She nods, but then she and Kierra go back to looking around the place like two kids at Disney World for the very first time.
“Y’all want something to drink?”
“Drink?” Anjenai asks, surprised. “They let us drink in here?”
I can’t help laughing. “Nah. They don’t serve those kinds of drinks. Non-alcoholic drinks.”
“Oh.” She looks a little disappointed. “Then I guess I’ll get a Sprite.”
“One Sprite coming up.” I leave the table, but have a hard time making it over to the concessions for all the people stopping me and wishing me well. By the time I make it back, I see our party has expanded by one more person.
“Kwan, do you know my friend Nicole?”
I nod my head even though I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced before. I just know that this little evening for two has now expanded to five. One thing for sure is that no matter where I move I can still feel Romeo’s stare burning a hole in the back of my head.