by Amir Abrams
“Let’s, um, let’s go somewhere else,” I say, tugging on his arm. “I don’t want Italian.”
“Nah, I do,” he says as we cross the street. “We can stop in one of the other spots to get you what you want after I place my order, a’ight?”
I nod, holding my breath. “Okay.”
As soon as we walk into the pizzeria, there she is. Standing at the counter with her back to us, wearing a pair of skinny jeans and wedge heels. She glances over her shoulder, and I know right then . . . it’s about to be a problem.
“Heeey, sexy man,” she sings out, grinning. She turns to face us. I take her all in as she acts as if I’m not standing here. She has on a cute vintage denim jacket. I can’t hate on the chick; from what I can see, she has a nice body. But I don’t like her. Her smile is dripping with hot, steamy nastiness. And I’m convinced she wants my man. Or she’s already had him. Either way, I’m not feeling it one bit. And I’m about to check this ho real quick if Sincere doesn’t.
Be still. First wait to see what pops off.
Sincere laughs it off. “Oh, hey, Lana. Wassup?”
Hold on, girl. Don’t say anything yet.
“You,” she says, all flirty-like. She cuts her eyes over at me, twisting her lips up. “How you been?”
“Good,” he says, acting like he’s forgotten that I’m here with him. And obviously forgetting he has a girl—me!
I clear my throat. Fold my arms across my chest.
“Oh, damn. My bad. Lana, this is Kamiyah. Kamiyah, Lana.”
Mmmph . . . he didn’t even introduce me as his girl. What’s up with that?
“Hey,” I say, eyeing this messy heifer. But I’m still keeping my cool.
“Mmmhmm,” she says, barely looking at me. She turns back to Sincere. “So, annnyway, why haven’t I heard from you? I miss you. We really need to stay in touch. And not just on Facebook, boo. We need to kick it, like old times.”
Okay. This skank is straight up disrespecting me. And Sincere is standing here and hasn’t opened his mouth to say one damn thing to check her. I already warned him about this kinda crap.
“Ummm, listen up, boo. You better back the hell up. You’ve been standing here disrespecting me from the minute we walked through the door. And I’m not the one. I let you get that off for a minute, but be clear, trick. My man won’t be kicking a damn thing with you. But if you keep disrespecting me, I’ll be kicking your azz.”
She laughs. “Yeah, right. Picture that. Umm, Sincere, you better tell her.”
“He better tell me what?”
“C’mon, y’all, chill,” Sincere says, shifting his eyes around the restaurant. He spots a few heads from his school. They speak as they walk by, slowing down to catch the happenings. He gives them head nods. “Lana, why you gotta always play? Damn.”
She smirks. “Oh, I’m playing? Sincere, you already know what it is.”
“Well, I don’t, ho,” I snap, placing my hand up on my hip. “So why don’t you let me in on it.”
“Sincere, you better tell this—”
Attack when they least expect it. Every muscle in my body tenses. And I don’t wait for her to finish saying whatever she was gonna say. And I don’t wait for Sincere to open his mouth to say anything that he shoulda already said. I lunge at her, wrapping her hair around my hands real tight, then swing her around the restaurant. Yes, I catch her off guard and I air her scalp out. She’s screaming and trying to fight me off of her.
“Get your hands off my hair and fight me!” she yells, swinging her arms wildly.
She keeps trying to fight me off . But I got a strong grip on her hair and I’m swinging her around like a merry-go-round. I can tell I’m starting to make her dizzy. “You want my man, trick?! You think you can disrespect me to my face? Well, guess what? I’m not the one.”
“Aaaah . . . get off of me. If he’s your man, I can’t tell.. . . aaaaah . . . ohmygod . . . Sinceeeeere, get this crazy ho off of me. . .”
I’m not sure when Sincere jumped in. But he is trying to pry my hands out of her hair. He is yelling at me to let go. But I am holding on with all my strength. When I finish ripping hair out of this ho’s scalp, they’ll be calling her Patches. I swing her into tables, knocking things over. Swing her into a wall. Customers are scattering out of the way. She tries to grab for my hair, but it is pulled back in a tight bun. I’m so glad I didn’t wear my hair out like this tramp. Her nails dig into my hands, then my face. But I don’t care.
“Yo, Miyah, let her go,” Sincere says, grabbing me from behind. “C’mon. Stop it.” He grabs my wrists. Someone comes behind her and tries to pull us apart. But she isn’t going anywhere until I decide to let go of her hair. I yank until she is screaming at the top of her lungs for them to get me off of her. I show her no mercy. Throwing herself at my man—I don’t think so!
Sincere’s trying to peel my fingers back, but he isn’t able to. I have her long hair twirled around my hand like a jump rope. There is so much commotion going on in here that it hypes me up even more. I keep swinging and yanking and pulling her head and hair. She keeps screaming and swinging her fists. But she can’t get a good hit in. I knee her in the stomach. Finally it takes six people to break us up.
“This ain’t over,” she yells as two guys drag her out of the restaurant. Her lip is bloody. “I promise you, I got something for you!” They get her outside and she’s still popping off. “She snuck me. Can you believe it? She snuck me. Ohmygod, and pulled my hair out!”
“Whatever, trick! Bring it!” I yell back. “That trick don’t want it with me.” Sincere and three other guys are still holding me back. I have a clump of dark, thick hair in my hands. “And come get your hair, ho. Better yet, I’ll save it for the next whooping!”
I throw it toward the door.
“C’mon, Miyah, calm down,” Sincere says. He’s trying to catch his breath. “Why’d you attack her like that? She was—”
“Disrespecting me,” I snap, cutting him off. “That’s what she was. And you thought that was cute.”
“I wasn’t thinking about that girl,” he tries to explain. But I’m not tryna hear it. I’m pissed.
“You stood there and let that ho disrespect me! I wouldn’t have had to go off if you woulda opened your mouth and checked her from the jump! But, noooo. You let her come at me all sideways.”
He looks at me. “Miyah, will you stop? You got all these people out here looking at us.” I see a mixture of embarrassment and hurt and disgust in his eyes when he says this. But I don’t care.
“No, you have these people looking at us. All you had to do was check her and it woulda been all good. But since you wanted to let her play me, I handled her.”
The manager tells us we gotta get out of his restaurant. Tells us we’re not allowed to ever set foot inside his establishment again. Like I give a damn! I can tell Sincere wants to blink his eyes and disappear. That he wants to leave, but is afraid what might happen when we walk out this door. He sees that ho still outside. She’s on her cell, yelling and screaming and walking in circles.
I hear sirens. One, two, three . . . three police cars are now out front.
I see kids holding up cell phones and red lights blinking and people whispering. Then it hits me. This whole mess has been videoed.
17
“Have you lost your damn mind, Kamiyah? What in the hell is wrong with you, girl? Out here fighting like some wild hood rat,” my mom screams the minute she slams her car door shut and is out of earshot of the police. My parents have just picked me up from the police station, and she is beyond pissed. She shifts her body around to look at me. “You have two seconds to tell me what the hell is going on with you, or I’m going to be swinging you around next. And where the hell is your car?”
“It’s at Sincere’s house.”
“And where is he?” she wants to know.
“His mom came and picked him up.”
“Great. So you were out there fighting some girl over a boy?
Is that what you’re telling me?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“No? Then what the hell were you fighting for?”
Daddy is quiet. But I wish he would say something. . . anything. He glances at me every so often through the rearview mirror as he drives toward Sincere’s house to get my car.
“She disrespected me,” I say softly, shifting my eyes from the look of disappointment I see in his stare.
My mother huffs. “What? Speak up!”
“I said she disrespected me.”
“She disrespected you? How, Kamiyah? What did that girl do for you to attack her like that? You know your father and I didn’t raise you to be out here in the streets, fighting like some gutter trash.” She shoots a look over at Daddy. “Erik, aren’t you going to say something to her?”
“I will, as soon as we get home. I’m just as upset about this as you are. Yelling and screaming at her now isn’t going to solve what already happened.”
She huffs. “Well, obviously she needs to be yelled and screamed at, since she wants to be all out in the streets making a scene. Now explain to me how she disrespected you.”
Right at this minute, I know I am in soooo much trouble when I get home. I wish I could crawl into my own hole and become invisible, become nonexistent, like the dude in that Ralph Ellison book I read in my AP English class. I think, try to make up a story that will lessen whatever punishment I have coming to me. But I know there is nothing that I can say—even though that tramp instigated the whole thing. And Sincere did nothing to prevent it.
“She was acting all stank, flirting with Sincere and playing me like I wasn’t even there. I tried—”
“She was acting all stank? What in the hell does acting all stank look like?”
“She was—”
“You know what? Don’t open your mouth to say another word. I don’t even want to hear it. You will apologize to Sincere’s parents and you will not be allowed to go over there again. Do you understand?”
I feel like she’s just snatched the air from my lungs. She’s trying to cut my lifeline. And now I am scrambling to find the right words to save myself. “Why? Sincere had nothing to do with this. Why are you trying to hurt me like this?”
“Well, too bad. I’m not trying to hurt you, Kamiyah. You’re doing a good job of that all by yourself. I’m trying to keep your butt from making some very serious mistakes.”
I start crying. “You can’t do this to me. Mom, pleeeease . . . Daddy, talk to her, please. You know how much Sincere means to me.”
“Then maybe that’s part of the problem,” she says, narrowing her eyes at me. Her brown eyes have turned dark, almost black. “He means a little too much to you. Sincere really seems like a nice young man, but . . .”
“He is a nice guy. You can’t stop me from being with him. He had nothing to do with what happened. It’s my fault. I know. And if you have to punish me, then fine. But don’t try and stop me from seeing Sincere, please. Besides Daddy, he’s the only one who really cares about me.”
“Girl, nonsense. I’m your mother. I care about you.”
Whatever, Witch! “No, you don’t. You hate me. And you know it!”
“C’mon, you two, let’s talk about this when we get home.” Daddy finally speaks up. Why can’t he ever speak up when I need him to? Why does he always have to sit back and let her run everything? I’m so sick of him being so passive with her. “Kamiyah, your mother and I both care about you. We love you. And we don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Then stop trying to ruin my life! Worry about your own relationship and stay the hell out of mine! I blink my thoughts away. I am already in enough trouble. And I am smart enough to know to keep my true feelings to myself—for now.
“Oh, we can talk about it all right,” the Witch says, cutting her eyes over at Daddy. As always, she disregards him. “She is not allowed over at his house.” She turns back to me. “Do you understand me?”
I stare her down. I am crumbling inside at the thought. I sit on my hands to fight the urge to wrap my hands in her hair, too.
“I said. Do. You. Understand?”
I swallow back my attitude. Swallow back my hate toward her. Take a deep breath. “Yes,” I say through clenched teeth.
Daddy pulls around Sincere’s parents’ circular driveway and stops the car in back of mine. “C’mon, let’s go,” he says, not looking at me. I open the door and get out. My mother waits for me to get away from the car before she gets out. And I can tell she wants to go off, but she won’t because we’re out in public.
Daddy walks up to the door and rings the bell. I am shaking. And I am ready to pass out when Sincere answers the door. I can tell he’s pissed, too. But I can handle that. It’s the punishment, the not being able to see him, that is going to kill me.
“Hello, Sincere,” Daddy says, sticking his hand out. “Are your parents home?”
Sincere shakes his hand. “Hi, Mister Nichols. My dad’s outta town. But my mom’s here. Come in.” He steps back and lets us in. And just when I think my day can’t get any worse, my mother comes walking up the steps. I could drop dead on the spot. And she is determined to put the nails into my coffin. Sincere opens the door for her. They exchange hellos.
Sincere calls out to his mother; tells her that my parents and I are here. A few minutes later, Mrs. Lewis walks into the room, smiling. “Hello,” she says, shaking their hands. “Please sit.” This is the first time they have been inside Sincere’s parents’ home.
“You have a lovely home,” my mother says, smiling wide and bright as if she wasn’t just going off in the car.
“Oh, thank you.” Mrs. Lewis looks over at me. “Kamiyah, I’m glad to see you’re all right. Sincere told me what happened. I don’t know what in the world is wrong with these young girls today. They’re so wild and reckless.”
I shift my eyes. Ohmygod, what did he tell her? That I jumped on that ho and ripped her hair out? He probably has her thinking that I’m some wild, out-of-control girl.
“Thank you,” I say, glancing over at Sincere. He shifts his eyes from mine.
My mother arches her brow. “Speaking of which, this whole incident is shocking to her father and me. And we’re here because Kamiyah has something she wants to say.”
Everyone’s eyes are now on me.
I nod, looking into Mrs. Lewis’s eyes. “I apologize for you having to go down to the police station to pick up Sincere. I didn’t mean for him to get dragged into it.”
She waves me on. “Oh, please. No need to apologize for that. I would have been more upset if he would have let you go down there by yourself. I know how much my son cares about you. Mister and Missus Nichols, you have a lovely daughter.”
I glance over at Sincere, but he’s too busy giving his mother a look to tell her to shut up to notice.
“Thank you,” they both say.
“And please,” my mother says, “call me Kayla. And this is Erik.”
“And I’m Linda. It’s nice to finally meet the both of you.”
“Likewise,” they both say.
The Witch continues, “I wanted to let you know that we don’t condone what happened today. We didn’t raise Kamiyah to be out in the streets fighting and getting arrested.”
“Oh, I can tell she comes from a good home. Kamiyah is always well-mannered when she’s here. My husband and I really like her.”
My mother cuts her eye at me, then turns back to Mrs. Lewis, smiling. “And we feel the same about Sincere.”
Mrs. Lewis looks over at Sincere. I can tell she hears the ‘but’ in my mother’s tone. “Sincere, why don’t you and Kamiyah go downstairs in the family room so we can talk for a minute?”
There’s a part of me that wants to hang around to hear what they have to say that needs to be said without me and Sincere in the room. The other part of me is relieved to be away from their prying eyes. And out of earshot, so that I can speak to Sincere alone.
“Okay,” he says, glan
cing at me. His face is expressionless.
“Don’t get too comfortable, Kamiyah,” the evil Witch says. “We’ll only be a minute.”
I don’t answer. I follow Sincere down the stairs, back to where we started off earlier. Smiling, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company. Oh, how I wish I could turn back the time and start this day over.
I don’t wait for him to say anything. I start apologizing. Although I don’t think, or feel, I should have to. I still believe if he woulda checked that ho, I wouldn’t be in this mess. I feel like slapping his face. He stares at me, long and hard, then reaches out and takes my hand, walking me over to the sofa. We sit.
“You were right,” he says softly. “I should have checked her.”
Yeah, you really shoulda!
“But still . . . you didn’t have to jump on her like that.”
“She was asking for it,” I state. “And I warned you from the beginning to not ever let another chick disrespect me.”
“Kamiyah, you have to let some things go over your head. She wanted to get to you, and you let her.”
“Well, you made it easy for her to do that. Why didn’t you introduce me to her as your girlfriend? You made it seem like I was just some random chick you were with. Then you stood there and let her practically throw herself at you. You acted like it was cool.”
“It wasn’t cool. And I was dead wrong for that. I promise, it won’t happen again. I’m not gonna let anyone else ever disrespect you like that. But you have to know that if we’re gonna be together, then you can’t be getting all jealous and acting all crazy like that. You have to trust me. I’m not doing anything with anyone else.”
Sincere might be different. Maybe you can trust him. You still need to keep your eye on him. “Well, did you do anything with her?”
He shifts his eyes to the floor, then back at me. “We talked for a few weeks over the summer.”
“Did you and her do it?” He tells me yes. Tells me she let him hit it a few times. “So why’d y’all break up?”
“We were never together. She was a chick I chilled with. It wasn’t anything serious.”