Sydney looked at the clock again; this time it read 11 A.M. There was no way she was going to be able to go to this post-party brunch if she didn’t speak to Marcus and get this mess cleared up. She took a deep breath and stood up. Sydney padded over to her desk, where she had thrown her clutch when she finally came in earlier that morning. She fished her iPhone out of the bag and tried to turn it on. No juice. Sydney put it in the charger and waited a few seconds before turning it on. She immediately pulled up Marcus’s number and pressed the dial icon.
“Come on, come on,” Sydney muttered under her breath as she twirled a strand of hair around her right pointer finger and waited for the call to connect. The phone rang once and went directly to voice mail. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she cursed, ending the call without leaving a message.
Of course his selfish butt is still sleeping, she thought bitterly, he ain’t the one about to be expelled from Brookhaven! Sydney slammed down the phone with a thud. She started to pace the length of the room. Feeling absolutely frantic, she realized that she had no choice but to go to Marcus’s house. Sure, Jason was going to have a fit when she canceled their plans, but there was no way Sydney Duke was about to wind up flipping Krystal burgers for a living because of somebody else’s bullcrap.
She rushed into the closet and hurriedly pulled on her favorite pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans, a white Gap tank top, and a tangerine-colored Ralph Lauren cashmere sweater. She untied her head scarf and shook out her head full of two-strand twists. Then she grabbed her silver hoops and rushed into the bathroom. After washing her face, brushing her teeth, and applying some Dove deodorant, she was ready to roll. Grabbing her chocolate-colored Tod’s tote from the handle of her bedroom door, she tossed in her wallet, phone, and a small makeup kit. She quickly glanced around the room and bounced.
“Where you going?” Lauren asked, coming out of the kitchen holding a huge cup of hot cocoa and still wearing her outfit from the night before.
Sydney stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of her sister. “What happened to you?” she asked, momentarily distracted by Lauren’s disheveled appearance. “I didn’t see you at all after you rushed out of my room last night…”
Lauren sighed and looked at the floor. “It’s a long story…Dara had…She called me last night when we were on our way to the party. She lost the baby,” Lauren admitted quietly as she cradled the mug.
Sydney’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, my God, I’m so sorry,” she said in shock. “I don’t even know what to say. Is she okay? Where was her mom?”
A million emotions rushed through Sydney’s mind as she processed her sister’s horrific words—shock, sorrow, pity, and as much as she hated to admit it, relief. While she could only imagine the devastation of losing a child, a small part of her knew neither Dara nor Marcus was ready to be an underage parent.
“There’s nothing really to say,” Lauren said with a shrug. “As usual, her mom was away. I think she’s at the SET Magazine ski weekend event in Tahoe. I think calling me was really Dara’s last option. But I do know that I’m just glad I didn’t ignore her messages, and I’m even happier that you left Marcus. ’Cause trust me when I say, that boy ain’t about nothing. Ya dig? As of this morning he still hasn’t called her back. What a loser.” Lauren struggled to stifle a yawn. She felt as if she’d aged at least ten years in one night.
Hearing the boy’s name snapped Sydney back to reality. “Yeah, well, something tells me that what you know is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Lauren responded wearily. “Anyway, I’m going to get me some sleep. I told Dara I’d head back to the hospital later on this afternoon when I woke up.” Sydney looked at her sister with raised eyebrows. “Try not to judge so quickly, Syd,” Lauren said softly. “Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt. And not for nothing, she’s really alone right now.”
“I hear ya,” Sydney replied as she walked out the front door. She just hoped that Principal Trumbull would be as merciful to her come Monday morning if she didn’t straighten this mess out.
“Morning, babe.” Jason answered Sydney’s call hoarsely. Sydney could hear him clear his throat several times.
“Morning, sunshine,” Sydney replied as she switched lanes on Georgia 400. “How did you sleep?”
“Um, okay. How about you? You seem wide-awake considering I just dropped you off at three o’clock in the morning,” Jason replied.
“So-so,” Sydney admitted. “I had a really weird dream that woke me up.”
“Oh, yeah? You think it was all the fried food we were eating at Tim’s after party?” Jason asked with concern. Sydney could hear his sheets rustling as he changed positions in his bed.
“Maybe,” Sydney responded as she hit a stretch of bumper-to-bumper traffic. She sighed out of frustration.
“Where are you?” Jason questioned curiously. “Why do you sound like you’re in the car?”
“Um, yeah,” Sydney said hesitantly. “That’s actually what I was calling you about…” Jason remained silent. “I had to, ah, run out this morning. And I’m not sure that I’m going to make the brunch.”
“What you mean?” Jason said sharply. “Where you running to on only a few hours’ sleep?”
“There were some issues with the Sadie Hawkins account, and I need to take care of them before Monday,” Sydney offered, bracing herself for the inevitable backlash.
“So you’re on your way to the bank? To school? I’m confused, Sydney,” Jason responded.
“No, not exactly. I’m on my way to Marcus’s—”
“You’re kidding, right? This is some type of joke. Because I know you’re not canceling our plans with my friends to go hang out with your ex-boyfriend.” Jason’s voice started to rise.
“Jason, I am so sorry but there’s nothing I can do,” Sydney pleaded as she saw the exit sign for Marcus’s house ahead. “Trust me, please.”
“Trust you? Are you for real? How could I ever trust you? You’re a liar! You’re not over your ex, you’re just playing me out so that he’ll take you back!”
“Jason, I swear to God that’s not true! The last thing I want is to cancel our plans but I have to take care of this,” she insisted.
“Take care of what? You still haven’t told me what is so important that you need to go see Marcus, at his house, on the first Saturday morning we’ve had planned to spend together since we started dating!”
“I can’t discuss it.” Sydney struggled to keep her voice steady. She knew Jason was going to be upset but hadn’t expected this. She turned off the exit and made a right-hand turn. “If I could, I would, but I just can’t.” For a moment, the only sound coming from Jason was his breathing.
“I’m not doing this with you anymore, Sydney,” he said finally. “It’s either him or me. You can’t have it both ways.”
“But it’s not—” Sydney tried to cut in, to no avail.
“Stop lying, Sydney,” Jason insisted loudly. “I’m sick of you making excuses. You think I’m a fool or something? Well, I’m not. If you want to be with Marcus, then so be it. I’m done.” And then Jason hung up the phone.
“Why, Sydney, what a surprise,” Ms. Green exclaimed as she opened the front door. She opened her arms for a hug. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sydney stepped right into them. “I am so happy to see you! Come in, come in,” the attractive older woman said as she pulled Sydney into the foyer and closed the door.
“Hey, Ms. Green,” Sydney said shyly, suddenly remembering everything that had happened the last time she showed up at her ex-boyfriend’s house unannounced. “I’m good. How are you?”
“I’m making it,” Ms. Greene replied as she pushed her reading glasses onto the top of her head. “I’m just going over some budgetary bills that I intend to introduce at the top of next year.”
Sydney nodded and smiled. As one of the more powerful City Council members in Atlanta, Ms. Green was always championing a new cause. “Wait, where are
the babies?” Sydney asked curiously about the councilwoman’s two teacup Yorkies, Pork and Chop.
“Ha! Belinda took them to the groomers for their monthly bath,” Ms. Green said with a smile. “Lord knows I can’t deal with bad, stinky dogs. Bad dogs perhaps…but definitely not bad, stinky dogs.”
Sydney chuckled because she knew how much Marcus’s mom loved those two little terrors. “I hear ya,” she said with a smile.
“So is everything okay?” Councilwoman Green asked curiously. “Like I said, I haven’t seen you in a while. Every time I ask about you, Marcus makes up some lame excuse. I know the affairs of the heart can be a little tricky, but I certainly hope that it’s nothing you two kids can’t fix,” she continued sweetly.
Sydney struggled to keep a straight face as she realized that Marcus had yet to tell his mother that the two of them had broken up, or worse, that Dara had been knocked up. “Yeah, uh, I guess we’ll have to see,” she finally croaked in response.
“Well, like I always say, where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Ms. Green said matter-of-factly. Sydney swallowed the huge lump in her throat and smiled weakly. “Well, I won’t keep you any longer. Marcus is in his room,” she offered. “When you guys finish, please feel free to come down and have some breakfast. I don’t think my son has left that room since he got home from the dance last night.”
“Uh, okay, thanks,” Sydney said, staring at a small scratch mark on the wooden floor. Ms. Green quickly hugged Sydney before heading back to her study. Sydney took a deep breath, made the sign of the cross, and headed upstairs.
As soon as Sydney reached the top of the stairs she could hear Marcus’s muffled voice from behind his closed bedroom door at the end of the hall. Even though she couldn’t make out the exact words, it sounded like he was involved in a heated discussion. Sydney tiptoed closer to get a better listen.
“I told you, I’m good for it,” Marcus insisted passionately. Sydney could hear his footsteps as he paced the room. “Listen, didn’t I get you the first half of the money, just like I said I would? I just need a little bit of an extension, that’s all. I wasn’t able to get the rest out in time,” he replied to the unknown caller. Sydney glued her ear to the door and held her breath. “Listen, Sergio, I promise, you will have the other fifteen thousand. Please just leave my mother out of this. She had nothing to do with it,” he pleaded. There was a brief pause. “Okay, okay, I understand. Thirty percent interest on the remaining fifteen for the extension; that’s fine, I’ll take it. Just give me until the end of the week, I’ll figure it out. You have my word.” Sydney’s jaw dropped open. “Thank you, bye,” Marcus said before slamming the cordless phone down on his desk.
Unable to wait a second longer, Sydney burst in the door. “It was you! You stole the fifteen thousand dollars from the account!!”
“Syd, Sydney, what are you doing here?” Marcus asked, his eyes as wide as saucers. He was now standing by his desk with the laptop open.
“Answer me, Marcus, goddamn it! Who the hell is Sergio? And why did you give him fifteen thousand dollars?” Sydney fumed as her eyes fell upon what looked like an online card game. She felt her adrenaline rush through every inch of her body at the thought of Marcus playing a damn video game while her future was going up in flames.
“Calm down, Sydney, just give me a second to explain.” Marcus slammed the laptop closed and then rushed to close the door behind Sydney before her voice carried all the way down the hall.
“Well, you better hurry the hell up, because I’m going to go get your mother in about two seconds, Marcus Green!” Sydney retorted, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.
“I—I,” Marcus stuttered as he hung his head in shame. “I messed up,” he admitted quietly.
“What do you mean, you messed up?” Sydney spat back vehemently.
“I don’t know. It started out as a game,” he mumbled. “It just got out of control. I didn’t mean for things to go this far, but I just couldn’t stop.”
“Marcus,” Sydney said very slowly as she struggled to understand. “What are you talking about? What did you do?”
Marcus sighed heavily, headed over to his bed, and sat down. “Gambling. I’ve been gambling online. I started about three weeks ago and I was winning and then, and then I lost. I lost big,” he said sorrowfully.
“How damn big?” Sydney pushed, needing to hear the whole truth.
“Twenty-five thousand before the interest,” Marcus admitted meekly. Sydney’s mouth dropped open. “So I didn’t have a choice. I had to take the money.”
Sydney felt the room start to spin around her. She grasped for the desk chair by her side. Marcus jumped up to help her down into it before her legs gave out. “Sydney, please,” Marcus pleaded with tears in his eyes.
Regaining her bearings, Sydney immediately shooed him away. “When?” she asked. “How?”
“The very first time you sent me to do the deposit; I forged a copy of your signature on a withdrawal slip. I’ve been making small withdrawals all along just to keep me afloat. Which were the ones you didn’t recognize on the statements. Then after you gave your final quote to Principal Trumbull, I went and took out the fifteen,” he answered quietly.
“Oh, my God, who are you?” Sydney said, struggling to believe her own ears. “You set me up to be expelled?”
“No, no, it’s not like that at all,” Marcus rushed to reassure Sydney. “I figured that Principal Trumbull would just think you had done the addition incorrectly. I didn’t expect him to look into it so carefully,” Marcus insisted as he grabbed her hand. “And by the time you found out about it, I figured I would’ve won the money back again…” he trailed off miserably.
Sydney pulled back her hand and struggled to her feet. “Do you even hear yourself right now? You would’ve won the money back? What are you, some card shark?” she exclaimed. “Do you even understand what you’ve done?”
“Sydney, please, I’m so sorry,” he pleaded.
“I’ll bet you are…real sorry you got caught,” Sydney said disdainfully. “But I’ll tell you what; I’m not going down for this, Marcus. You better figure something out, because come Monday morning, it’s a wrap!”
“Sydney, wait! You can’t tell anyone, not Principal Trumbull, not my mom, not anyone. Please, you don’t understand,” Marcus begged as his voice cracked with desperation. “I turned off my cell phone yesterday to try and buy some time, and now they’re calling on the landline. I don’t care what happens to me, but they’re threatening my mother, Syd. I don’t want this to hurt my mom.”
Sydney paused. She loved Ms. Green more than her own mother at times. The last thing she wanted to do was put her in harm’s way. She felt completely torn. “Marcus, I can’t be responsible for this. You’ve got to figure this out, ’cause, for real, the cheating thing sucked, but this, this is bad,” Sydney said simply as she turned and walked back out the door. She paused. Behind her she could hear the sound of Marcus crying. “And not for nothing, I think you should pull yourself together and call Dara. She really needs you right now.”
Sydney had barely pulled out of the Greens’ driveway when her stomach staged a revolt. Quickly pulling over, she opened the car door and started dry heaving. When the spell finally passed, she sat back in her seat and closed her eyes.
“I cannot believe this,” she murmured as the sound of cars rushing by filled her ears. Sydney had no idea what to do. If she didn’t say something, she was going down for the count. The idea of being expelled and possibly prosecuted made her stomach twist in a huge knot. On the other hand, if she ratted Marcus out, it wasn’t just him who would get hurt. It was clear that Ms. Green would suffer as well. And from the sound of it, these people weren’t just talking about emotional pain. There was no way she could live with herself if something happened to Ms. Green.
Suddenly, her cell started ringing. She grabbed it out of her bag and looked at the caller ID. It was Jason. With a sigh, she sent the call to voice mail.
She couldn’t deal with more of his drama on top of everything else going on right now. Sydney tossed the phone back in the bag and started her car. There was only one person she could trust enough to talk to about this—her father. Even though Altimus and Keisha had issued strict orders for her to stay out of the West End, Sydney had no choice. She needed her dad. Now.
Sydney pulled out into traffic and stepped on the gas. Driving along, she thought about how surreal her life had become. Just hours ago she’d partied the night away with her boyfriend and two best friends, and now she’d been kicked to the curb over her gambling-addicted ex and was headed to the shadiest side of Atlanta in search of her father. Sydney shook her head as she jumped on I-85; she wondered if she’d ever have her old life back again. And if not, what was going to become of her?
Dipping in and out of traffic, Sydney reached her Aunt Lorraine’s dilapidated house within fifteen minutes. As she pulled up into the driveway, she said a small prayer. Dear God, please don’t let my Aunt Lorraine be home today, she thought to herself as she stepped out of the Saab and locked the doors behind her. She jumped over the decapitated head of a Barbie doll on her way to the front door, rang the bell twice, and stepped back to wait.
“Sydney? What are you doing here?” Dice questioned with concern from behind the screen when he finally opened the door. Sydney could see him looking past her into the street to see who was outside.
“I need to talk to you, Dad,” Sydney pleaded as her father unlocked and opened the screen door. When Sydney stepped inside she could see the uncomfortable-looking electronic monitoring bracelet attached to his ankle. “Is Aunt Lorraine here?” she questioned apprehensively, even though the pungent odor of Newports was missing.
“Naw, she and her girlfriend Sylvia flew up to Atlantic City for the weekend,” Dice said with sarcasm in his voice. “I guess getting back on your mother’s good side has its benefits, huh?”
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