by Paula Chase
Todd was joking, as usual.
Jacinta was saucy, as usual.
JZ was sarcastic, as usual.
Mina was playing hostess, giving Rob’s resume to everyone as if she was the one who’d known him for years—taking over, as usual.
Rob, sandwiched between Todd and Jacinta, chatted easily, fielding the clique’s questions about attending the Carter and his tight schedule.
A breeze stirred and the circle tightened as everyone fought to ignore the chill swirling around them.
Mention of Rob’s neighborhood, the only other low-income housing in Del Rio Bay besides the Cove, arose again, and Jacinta, glad to have someone in the circle from the side of Del Rio Bay she hailed from, blessed everyone about their boogee ways. “Don’t mind them, Rob,” she said. “Until they met me none of them had ever even been to our side of the DRB.”
“Man, please,” JZ said, sucking his teeth. “Me and Mike used to ball on the Cove’s courts all the time.”
As much as Jacinta deserved the chance to no longer be the sole hood rep, Michael couldn’t resist calling her out. “Okay, Cinny, don’t even pull the ‘I’m so hood thing’ on us.” He folded his arms. “You definitely a burb chick, now. The point of no return was your A.M. swims with JZ this summer.”
A loud chorus of “oohs” broke out. Michael’s grin was wide in his dark chocolate face. He laughed aloud when Jacinta had no comeback.
JZ reached across the tight circle and gave him a pound. “Son, you got her good on that one.”
“Whose side are you on, JZ?” Jacinta said, hands on her hips.
“My boy’s side.” JZ folded his arms tight across his chest, towering over her, a smile on his handsome face. “You know you as boogee as Mina and them now. Don’t even try it. I’m waiting for you to start wearing your hair in a ponytail.”
“Man, whatever,” Jacinta said, waving him and Michael off. She absently ran her hands through her straight chestnut hair. It had been a processed blond, short, curly style when she’d first moved to the Woods. Now it was cut in layers and nearly to her shoulders. She wore it pulled off her face, flipped at the ends, the upturned curls defying gravity.
Michael liked her hair long. It softened her honey-complexioned face.
“Hey, what’s wrong with a ponytail?” Mina said from beside him. She hugged up against Brian as she fussed at JZ. “Shoot, you try having to do your hair every morning. It gets played out.”
Todd interrupted as the other girls joined Mina’s mock outrage, ganging up on JZ. “Seriously, I think the guard’s ready to call the po-po on us.” He waved mechanically at the guard, emerging from the small hut. “Kelly, hurry, flash your credentials.”
“Not the credentials, though,” Brian said.
“See, I knew it,” Rob said. He wedged himself deeper within the safety of the clique, settling in shoulder to shoulder with Jacinta. “Do I need my passport?”
“Hell to the yes,” Jacinta said, making them all laugh again. “Or at least have your hood pass ready, so they’ll let you back into Del Rio’s Crossing. When you hang on this side too long they turn you into one of them.”
“And you love every second of it,” JZ said, draping an arm over Jacinta’s shoulder.
She shrugged him off playfully.
Kelly left the group and met the guard halfway. He smiled when he saw her face and saluted the clique, politely.
Todd put his arms up, as if holding off questions from a mob. “Okay, people, everything’s cool. RoboCop gave us the go-ahead.” He peered into the darkness toward the road. “Hey, who’s that?”
Everyone turned and stared at a car pulling up next to them at the curb. The passenger window came down as Kelly returned to the circle.
“Ay, Cinny, come here,” Raheem said, his face a shadow in the early evening dusk. His voice greeted the clique. “What’s up, y’all?”
There were muttered hellos as Jacinta broke the circle and approached the car. She leaned over, resting on the window’s ledge, her head inside the car.
“Is one of those dudes her boyfriend?” Rob whispered, when they’d closed the circle.
“Yeah, the one who called her,” Michael said.
“Do you know them?” Mina said.
“I thought you were from Del Rio’s Crossing, not the Cove,” Lizzie said.
“I know the dude driving, though,” Rob said. “Hustler named Angel. I heard he already supplying half the campus with drugs up at TU.”
“He’s still dealing at school?” Mina said. “I figured he’d stop.”
“I’m surprised, ’cause college kids never do drugs,” Brian said, openly mocking Mina. He pinned her arms down in a hug so she couldn’t retaliate. “Just kidding, Toughie.”
“Shoot, he probably have more customers now than before,” Rob said.
“Dude, how do you know all this?” Todd said. His hands skittered through his locks restlessly before settling around Lizzie’s waist.
Rob shrugged. “Everybody know Angel and his uncle. They’re Colombian dealers.”
“He’s Puerto Rican,” Kelly blurted. Her eyes fluttered as everyone looked her way. “I mean ... maybe they get their drugs from Colombia”—she shrugged—“but he’s Puerto Rican.”
“How do you know where they get their drugs?” Greg said, scowling.
Kelly tucked her hair behind her ear and shifted from her right foot to her left. “I don’t.”
“G, you know your girl just reppin’ for her people,” JZ said. He beamed at Kelly as he called out, party-style, “Puerto Rico. Ho-oh.”
Kelly smiled gratefully and stepped so she and Greg were hip to hip. Her face fell when he shifted his weight away, his eyes intent on Rob as if he didn’t feel the tiny bump from Kelly.
“Whatever they are, they pushing mad weight from what I hear,” Rob said. “I just thought maybe y’all girl was messing with Angel and didn’t know. But she messes with the other dude, so ...” His shoulders hunched quickly, dismissing the rest.
“Well, I guess that was the hood four-one-one,” Michael said, hoping to break the wave of anxiety he felt pulsing from Kelly. There was some teetering, but the cloud that accompanied the arrival of Angel’s car showered the group in tension.
Greg’s usually smiling face was tight. Not that Michael blamed him. Dude couldn’t seem to emerge from Angel’s shadow, even though he and Kelly had now been dating longer than she and Angel ever officially had. He also felt bad for Kelly. Even though she’d made sure not to even look Angel’s way, the old vibes from her ex had soured the moment anyway.
He started to throw in the towel, ask Rob to walk home with him and call it a night. It wasn’t Rob’s fault he didn’t know that Angel was a sore subject, but he’d opened a can of worms for sure. The light banter they’d all been exchanging seconds ago fell as silent as the night.
Kelly, standing next to Michael, shifted uncomfortably, then cleared her throat. “Are we ready?”
“Aren’t we going to wait for Cinny?” Lizzie said. She stood on her toes, looking over the top of the circle at Jacinta’s backside wiggling in the gloom.
“Man, for what?” JZ said. He raised his voice, turning his head in the direction of Jacinta’s back. “She need come on or get her ass left.”
“I know I wouldn’t walk through here alone. It’s mad quiet,” Rob said. He shrugged his jacket closer to his ears and snugged his hands in his pockets as he looked around the dark street. “I know the burbs supposed to be safer. But seriously, it’s crazy quiet here.”
“Told you,” Jacinta said, as she stepped back into the circle.
As if Jacinta’s voice were a starting gun for a race, Kelly quick-stepped to the gate and the others followed.
“Oh, so you still hanging?” JZ said. He sauntered a step ahead of Jacinta. “I figured you was gon’ dash with your boy.”
“And if I did, you’d just be texting me all night.” Jacinta grinned up at him. “So I figured I might as well stay here.”
The raucous laughter of the clique echoed in the silent night, quickly breaking up the somber mood.
JZ vs. JZ
“Shorty made me smile when ain’t a damn thing funny.”
—Lloyd ft. Lil Wayne, “Girls Around the World”
JZ joked along, taking Jacinta’s ribbing in stride.
He lobbed his retorts through barely clenched teeth, even throwing in a few about Brian being whipped and Todd’s case of blue balls so it wouldn’t look like he was singling Jacinta out in his “friendly” wrath. He flopped his hood onto his head, sunk his hands into the pockets, and sauntered in the middle of the pack’s fast pace.
“Are we there yet?” Michael said, whining good-naturedly.
“Told you we should have drove,” Brian said. He stopped, stooped down, and hefted Mina onto his back, trotting to catch up with the others. “Y’all know when we go to walk back home later, it’s gonna be freezing like a mug.”
“I can give you guys a ride, if you want,” Kelly said.
“And who’s riding on the roof?” JZ said. “Only a few of us can fit in that M-class.”
A minor debate broke out about the return trip to their separate communities as Kelly’s brick-front colonial house came into view.
Jacinta tugged the arm of JZ’s hoodie. “Jay, let me get on your back, please.”
He frowned at her, barely resisting the impulse to snatch away. “Nope,” he said, lengthening his stride and leaving her back a few steps.
“Wannabe player,” she called after him playfully.
His chest heaved. He fought the urge to call her a trick. Even in his anger, he knew it would cross the line. They play-fought all the time, not quite as often as he and Mina, but a lot. Still, trick would be hurtful and way outside the flirting of their light jokes and dissing.
Raheem’s random appearance tonight had thrown him. It was as if dude could read his mind. As soon as JZ was comfortable, tripping with Jacinta, certain he had her to himself for the night, Raheem either called or showed up, a subtle reminder that no matter how much time JZ might spend with Cinny, she wasn’t his.
His nostrils flared and he quickened his step, nearly outpacing Kelly when they reached the house.
The clique bunched up in the spacious foyer, quieting their chatter respectfully until Kelly reminded them her grandmother had taken Kevin, Kelly’s twelve-year-old brother, to a skate party. The talk then rose among the girls, who had been coming to Kelly’s regularly for years. Soon it was bouncing off the high ceilings.
JZ kept his eyes straight, ignoring Jacinta as she whisked by him, elbowing him playfully in the back. He quietly observed, waiting for Kelly to lead them to the theatre, as the rest of the guys spoke in lower tones, taking in the spiral staircase, elevator, and general luxe vastness of the house.
In JZ’s opinion, Kelly’s soft-spoken demeanor didn’t match the house’s grand vibe. When he first met Kelly he’d been instantly attracted to her caramel complexion, tiny build, and long, thick hair, which always fell in soft waves around her face.
It had only been a momentary crush.
He’d squashed the feelings, partly because Mina was squeamish about him dating “her” friends, and mostly because Kelly started dating Angel. Through her and Angel’s short but rocky time together, Kelly proved to JZ that she was soft-spoken, but not to be trifled with. She cut Angel to the quick after he made her hide his drugs during a routine traffic stop in O.C., winning major respect points in JZ’s mind.
He’d never say it to Mina, because she’d take it wrong, but Kelly was a serious down-ass chick, handling her business even when it wasn’t the popular thing to do. Mina was his girl, but she cared what people thought and that got her in trouble.
As Kelly led them away from the brightly lit foyer, JZ followed automatically, trailing last in line. The noise level increased as talk of which movies to watch circulated. JZ kept mum, happy with the general consensus—no chick or dick flicks. It was quickly decided they’d watch two horror films, a strange compromise between the two. As they entered the theatre, a windowless, dark-chocolate room with fifteen rows of plump reclining leather seats leading to a tiny projection room in the back, the debate on which slasher flicks raged on.
“Help yourself to the popcorn, soda, and candy,” Kelly said, over the hub-bub. She gestured to a mini version of a cinema’s concession area before walking the fifteen stairs and disappearing into the projection room.
JZ stood at the bottom of the stairway, taking inventory of the seating while his friends stockpiled snacks. He pretended to check messages, waiting for each of them to sit before deciding where to go.
Mina and Brian chose two aisle seats in the third row; Lizzie and Todd sat in the seats across the aisle from them; Greg sat two rows above them in the middle.
Michael took an aisle seat in the fifth row.
His friend Rob sat in the seat directly below it, so JZ took the seat behind Michael, in the sixth row. He leaned back in the comfortable seat, stretching his left leg in the aisle, resting it on the step.
Michael turned in his seat, toward JZ. He chewed away at popcorn, talking with his mouth full. “Ay, you know who has a theatre room like this?”
“Who dat?” JZ said. He sunk in the seat another inch.
“Jimmy B.”
“That’s right. I haven’t seen him in a minute,” JZ said, glad for the distraction of the conversation.
“His sister is in Bay Dra-da,” Michael said. “She had a wrap party at her house, in the spring, and we watched a tape of the production in their theatre.”
“Word?” JZ said halfheartedly, tuning out the second Michael mentioned Bay Dra-da. He slouched another inch, his leg overhanging the step, and pulled at the hoodie so his head disappeared in it. He leaned his head back on the seat’s head-rest and closed his eyes.
He heard Michael talking with Rob and tried not to feel so replaceable. If Rob wanted to talk that theatre junk, cool. But it was the one thing he didn’t even pretend to care about when it came to him and Michael’s friendship. It wasn’t anything he’d ever told Michael, it was just unspoken, guy-style.
Jacinta’s voice made him peep an eye open.
“ ’Scuse me,” she said, standing on the step next to Michael’s seat, hands on her hips.
Her jeans lovingly hugged her curves, forcing JZ’s eye to the way her small waist exploded into phat thighs and strong calves. He’d spent a lot of time correcting her form, during their summer swim lessons, so he knew every inch of her curves, well. Before he could stop them, visions of Cinny in her two-piece danced across his mind.
He closed his eye again, ignoring her and forcing the image away, only to peep at her again when she cleared her throat.
She frowned and he scowled back. “What?” he said, closing his eye and resting his clasped hands on his stomach.
She rolled her eyes. “Move, so I can get in.”
JZ sucked his teeth, but pulled himself upright. Jacinta squeezed by, her butt in JZ’s face torturing him for a fleeting second before she plopped in the seat beside him.
“You all right?” Jacinta said.
Heart pumping as if he’d already had a good scare, no horror flick necessary, he snorted coolly. “Yeah. Why?”
“ ’Cause you ain’t get no popcorn or nothing.” She chuckled. “I’ve never seen you not hungry.”
He shrugged. “I’ll get some later.”
Like always, his anger melted the more Jacinta talked. He had to give her props. Even when he was acting total fool on her, she went on as if it was all swazy. It was one of the reasons he dug Cinny. One of the reasons she had him wondering how things would be if they made it exclusive.
He jerked the hoodie tighter and slouched in the seat, mad at himself for thinking like a sucker. Here it was Friday night and he was sitting next to a chick who had a boyfriend.
Wack.
There were a dozen, probably mo
re, shorties within walking distance of Kelly’s he could be with who could sweeten up his night, properly. To prove it, he took his cell phone out and texted Erica, a sophomore chick who’d made it more than obvious all he had to do was call and she’d be down for whatever.
“Uh-uh, don’t be texting no chicken heads all night,” Jacinta said, reaching for his phone. “I don’t feel like seeing your phone flashing a million times.”
“Man, whatever.” JZ raised it out of her reach. A flood of warmth in his chest betrayed him. He was secretly pleased that Jacinta cared about him calling another girl. Still he kept his guard up. “I might dip instead of chilling with y’all all night long.”
“You’re foul, Jay.” Jacinta folded her arms against her chest. “You can do your little creep-creep later. Everybody know Erica all on your tip.”
JZ grinned. “You’re all in my business.” He stuck the cell in his hoodie pocket, as it vibrated, ignoring Erica’s reply.
Jacinta’s eyes rolled. She held her hand up to JZ’s face. “Only ’cause me and her have gym together and she always asking about you, making it my business.”
“And what you tell her?” JZ imitated a girl’s voice. “Jason is the man, girl. Everybody want him, so stand in line.”
“Umm-hmm, something like that,” Jacinta said. She scowled, as if concentrating, then her eyes lit up suddenly. “Only I said ... Jay is a mo, girl, a male ho, so don’t even let him put his mack down.”
JZ sucked his teeth. “Man, go head with that. I can’t help it if the girls love them some JZ.”
Jacinta shooed him. “Whatever, Mo, do you.” She hollered toward the projection room, “Today, Kelly.”
“For real,” Mina echoed from the lower row.
“We want a movie. We want it now,” Todd chanted.
Lizzie and Mina joined in.
Greg stood up, swinging an invisible sword at the chanters to fend off an attack. “I got your back, Kelly,” he said. “If it gets nasty, lock yourself in the room. I’ll hold ’em off till your grandmother comes home.”