by Ni-Ni Simone
11
Where my girls at ...
—702, “WHERE MY GIRLS AT”
“Okay, Shae, how about this,” I said as I stood in her bedroom doorway. “You just gon’ have to call the cops to move me, ’cause I ain’t leaving.” It was seven o’clock in the morning and I got up extra early to come over here and make up with my best friend. I absolutely couldn’t take not speaking to her anymore, and more than anything I needed her to forgive me.
She ignored me and instead of responding she searched through her closet for something to wear. She pulled out a cream hoodie with tiny hot pink skulls all over it, a pair of jeans, and a pair of denim Converse. “You know that’s my hoodie,” I said.
“Well, I’m wearing it,” she snapped as she slipped it on. “And what?”
“Ooops, and nothing. Because actually this yellow hoodie I have on is yours, but the jeans are mine.”
“I know.” She slipped on her clothes and pulled out her jewelry box.
“I was wondering where my silver bracelets were.”
“On my arm.” She slid them on.
“Excuse me.” I laughed. I looked her up and down and said, “You look cute.”
“I know this.” She looked at me. “You okay, but you need to take off those gold earrings and put these on.” She tossed me a pair of yellow hoops. I slid them on and looked at her. “Now,” she said with an attitude, “you look kinda fly.”
“Thank you.”
“Well, I’m headed to school, I gotta catch the bus.” She rolled her eyes at me. “You comin’?”
“Only if you’ll accept my apology and we become best friends again.” We walked out her room and out the front door.
“I accepted it last week, when I was watching you and Josiah act like Reverend Run and his wife.”
“Ha—ha—ha,” I said sarcastically.
“Besides, we never stopped being best friends. I just wasn’t talking to you.”
“Really?” We started walking to the bus stop.
“Yes, really.”
“Well, what happened last week that caused you to forgive me?”
“Ki-Ki. She felt bad and ended up telling me the truth.” Shae waved her hand so the bus knew to stop and we hopped on.
“Oh, get outta here. But I’m still not speaking to her.”
“Me either,” Shae said, “but all I cared about was that I had my sister back.”
I looked at Shae and hugged her. “Ai’ight, girl I can’t breathe.”
I couldn’t stop smiling. “I love you Boo-Boo,” I whined.
“Yeah,” she said as we stepped off the bus. “Hurry and tell me what’s up with Josiah so I can tell you about Melvin.”
“What’s up with Big Country?”
“My daddy loves him.”
“For real?” I couldn’t stop smiling.
“Yeah, so wassup with my brother-in-law? Is it official yet?”
“I’m not sure. He hasn’t asked me to be his girlfriend, but he treats me like wifey and he introduced me to his mother.”
“Oh, if you met Mom, dukes you in there. Maybe he’s kinda shy to ask. Actions speak louder than words anyway.”
“True ... so ... let me ask you something.”
“What?”
I twisted my lips. “You ever think about sex?”
“With who? Bow Wow? I give him some every night.”
“Be for real, Shae.” I laughed.
“Oh, you mean the real deal?”
“Yes.”
“Well, yeah, I have and I made up my mind I’m not doing that, not yet anyway. I’ma tryna stay focused. I see enough chicks our age pregnant, so I’m good and if Melvin can’t stay calm with a lil’ kiss and maybe an extra feel then he gotta do what he gotta do and I’ll just have to deal with it.”
“That’s a way to look at it.”
“Don’t tell me”—she squinted her eyes—“you gave it up to Josiah?! Dang, Seven, you just started going with him. I can’t believe you did that!”
“Can you calm down? The only thing I gave Josiah was a kiss, nothing else.”
“You sure?” Shea said as we got off the bus.
“What you mean am I sure? Why would I lie to you of all people?”
“Oh, true.”
“I just been thinking about it.”
“Is he pressuring you?”
“Sorta, but he didn’t ask right out.”
“Just tell him,” she said as we walked in the side entrance of the school, “that you’re not ready yet and he needs to wait.”
“Yeah.” I nodded my head as we prepared to go our separate ways. “Maybe ... maybe that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
12
Bettah ... Bettah ... ask about me ...
—CASSIDY, “I’M A HUSTLA”
Josiah and I and Shae and Melvin had been a couple for four months and we were celebrating our four month anniversary at Arizona’s together. Arizona’s was nothing fancy and it looked to be the type of place that was virtually unchanged since before I was born. Actually my mother said this was where she met my father for the first time and from the sounds of it, nothing in here has changed except the people who hung out here and the music.
There were about five square tables covered with plastic floral tablecloths, red leather kitchen chairs with silver duct tape on the back to hold some of the torn leather together, a worn wooden bar with two pitchers of Uptown on it, and a cuss box, where you were charged a quarter for any curse word you said. And if you mixed the word God in with a curse there was no quarter to be paid, you just had to leave. And there were five pool tables, all lined up in a row.
“Cornbread,” Melvin said to Shae as he tried to show her how to position her pool stick, “this a grown man’s game and I need you to learn how to play quick.”
“You know how to hold your stick?” Josiah looked at me with concern. “’Cause all that Big Country doing, I wit’ that. He may as well play the game for her.”
“Ah un rudeness,” I said, sipping my soda. “No, you didn’t?! Not in front of company.”
“Look”—I could hear Melvin, as he tried his best to whisper to Shae—“how we ’spose to beat them if you shakin’ like a leaf. You know the stakes, loser pays for the movies later and let me tell ya somethin’, Moms been comin’ up short on the allowance. Don’t play with me.”
“Big Country,” Shae whined, “I’m tryin’.”
All I could do was smile. This was gon’ be a cinch. “I tell you what,” I said, “why don’t we switch partners—”
“Awwl nawl, Shawtie,” Melvin said. “This ain’t Wife Swap. I’m not one of them dudes.”
Oh I hate him! I rolled my eyes. “That’s not what I mean.”
“Oh,” Melvin said, “then say what you mean, Shawtie.”
“I mean let’s switch teams. Me and Shae verses you and Josiah.”
Smiles ran across Josiah and Melvin’s faces. They just knew they had this in the bag. I looked at Shae and winked my eye. Little did Josiah and Melvin know but we had somethin’ for ’em. “I tell you what,” I said to Melvin and Josiah as Melvin racked the balls, “the loser has to pay the winner twenty dollars and pay for the movies.”
“It’s cool,” Josiah said. “We’ll take the challenge.”
He nudged Melvin and they looked at Shae who was holding the pool stick backwards, pretending to take a shot. “Ladies first,” Josiah said as laughter eased out the side of his mouth.
“Want me to hold the stick for you, Cornbread,” Melvin snickered.
“You would do that for me, Pooh.” Shae smiled at him. “Why don’t you and Josiah go first so I can watch y’all.”
“Yeah,” I whined while pretending to agree. “Y’all go first.”
“Ai’ight.” Melvin broke the balls and knocked a solid one in the pocket.
“Oh,” Shae said, “is that where that goes?”
Josiah passed me so he could take a shot. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I’ll take
my twenty dollars in installments.”
Josiah’s ball didn’t go in the pocket so now it was our turn. “Shae, you can go first.”
Shae positioned herself and then she looked at the table. “Hmph,” she said, “here goes.” She took a shot and knocked two of our balls in at one time. Then it was my turn and I knocked two more balls in.
“Whew,” I said, watching Melvin and Josiah’s mouths fly open. “Now what am I gon’ do with my twenty dollars?”
As I walked past Josiah to the other side of the table I lifted up his bottom lip. “Close your mouth.”
Shae winked at me, took a shot, and knocked her ball in the socket. “I’ma hustlah, I’ma—I’ma hustlah, baby ... better ask about me.”
The game was over in ten minutes. Shae and I stood side by side and held our palms out. “Pass off our money.”
13
Everybody knows that almost doesn’t count ...
—BRANDY, “ALMOST DOESN’T COUNT”
The teachers had an in-service day, which meant one thing: Newark Tech got out at noon and we were home chillin’. I purposely didn’t tell my mother that I had a half day because I didn’t want her sweatin’ me about what to do around the house since I was home early, what to take out the refrigerator, and so forth. The best thing that could’ve happened to me was that no one was here but me and Shae. My mother was working double shift, Man-Man was in school, and Cousin Shake was chillin’ with his fifty-year-old tender.
In between eating Chinese crabsticks and French fries, Shae and I danced over and over again to Brandy’s remix of “I Wanna Be Down.” This jam mighta been old but it was poppin’ and the CD player in my living room was working Lyte and Latifah’s part all the way out. I felt like we were at a throwback party. We were doing every move you could think of from the Chicken Noodle Soup to the Wu-tang to the revitalized Electric Slide. Both of us felt like we were partying on cloud nine. After all, we were on a high. We both had boos and not just any ole boos, but boos that chilled together and were friends. The only way to describe this feeling was to call it fiyah!
For the last few weeks I was doing my best to ignore Josiah’s not so subtle hints about wantin’ some. Heck, in my mind I had a wedding to plan, even if it couldn’t happen for at least another ten years.
When Brandy sang “I could be wrong but I feel like something could be going on,” Shae lost her mind and started doing dances that I had never seen before. I stopped dancing, stood back, and looked at her like she was crazy. “Has Big Country ran away with your mind?”
She laughed. “Girl, you just don’t know. There ain’t no other for me!” She started doing the snake and then she broke it down and started break dancing on the floor.
I couldn’t stop laughing at Shae’s dancing and just as she broke out into a spin, the phone rang. “Hello?”
“Wassup, ma?”
It was Josiah and immediately all the butterflies in my stomach started groovin’. “You, that’s wassup.”
“Your mother home?”
“No.” Now I know I’m not supposed to have no company when nobody’s home, but dang that would sound so corny.
“Your mom’s gon’ bug if me and my boy Big Country come chill over there? I know Shae is there.”
I turned around and looked at Shae who was break dancing on the floor. “Yeah, she here. And please”—I lied—“my moms is cool.”
“Straight, then we gon’ come through.”
“Ai’ight, do that.”
“Give me a kiss.”
I gave him a kiss through the phone. “That’s what I’m talking about,” he said as he hung up.
I turned the music down. “Get off the floor. We need to fix our hair and retouch our makeup. We got some future baby daddies comin’ over.”
Before we could bum-rush the bathroom, the doorbell rang. Toi must’ve lost her keys again. My mother is gon’ get sick of changing these locks. I opened the door and oh ... my ... God, it wasn’t Toi, it was Dollah. I looked at him like he was crazy. What the heck was he doing at my door?!
“Somethin’ we need to talk about?” I asked Dollah as he stood in my doorway. I was blocking his path like I lived in Ft. Knox or something because there was no way he was coming up in here.
“Yo, what’s good?” he asked, smiling at me.
“It ain’t you.” I frowned. “Now what is it?”
“Fall back, Seven, dag. I came by for two reasons—”
“Well, one of them need to be to apologize,” Shae said. “Ain’t nobody forgot about you, Clyde.”
“It’s Dollah,” he snapped. “Anyway, Seven, let’s just try and get over what happened between us. My fault for not treating you the way I should’ve.”
“Whatever.”
“Ai’ight, Seven, whatever.”
“I just came by to get my ring,” he said.
“Just wait a minute.” I went in my room, grabbed his ring from my jewelry box, came back out, and handed it to him.
“Thank you, ma.” He stepped in a little too close to me.
“Let me see your hand.” Before I could say no, he lifted my right hand and slid his ring on my married finger. “That’s lookin’ real fly, ma. Now how you gon’ take that off?”
“I don’t see where it would be that hard,” Josiah said as he stepped into my living room. I could’ve peed on myself. My heart was thundering like it was about to be World War III up in my mother’s living room and Lawd knows I could’nt have no bombs go off, especially since I’m not supposed to have nobody over here.
“Here,” I said to Dollah, practically pulling my finger off and shoving the ring into his hand. “Now, bye.”
“Ai’ight, ma.” He gave Josiah a smirk. “It’s always a pleasure.”
The veins on the side of Josiah’s neck jumped as he clenched his jaw tightly. He watched Dollah walk out the door and then he turned to me. “Let me hollah at you for a minute, Shortie.”
“Shortie?” I joked. “You been hanging around Melvin too long.” I guess it wasn’t funny because no one laughed but me ... and even that wasn’t genuine.
I followed Josiah to my room where I closed the door and then looked out my window. “Was it cold outside?”
“Peep this, and peep it real quick. You got two seconds to tell me the deal with ole dude or I’ma step off.”
“What?” Was he about to break up with me over Dollah? “What do you mean you gon’ step off?” I gave him the magical look. “You breaking up with me?”
“The look ain’t gon’ work.”
“So what you sayin’?”
“I’ma sayin’, I’ma bounce—me and you—about to be through. Now I’ma ask you again, wassup with you and this dude?”
“Remember”—I sighed—“I told you about my boyfriend last year ...”
“Yeah.”
“It was”—I stalled a little—“Dollah.”
“Dollah? Dollah was your boyfriend? The one that lied on you?”
“Yeah.”
“So you still feeling this dude?”
“No! Heck, no! He was over here to get his ring. I didn’t invite him over here, he just showed up.”
“I can’t believe this, you and Dollah? You know I can’t stand that dude and this is what you do? You play me for him? So what, you wanna bounce and be with him, ’cause I’m not about to battle Dollah for no chick!”
My feelings were hurt but I knew I had to come back. “Battle for me?” I couldn’t believe he said that. “You ain’t gotta battle for me. As a matter-fact, we ain’t even gotta be together.” I swear I hope he didn’t call my bluff. “ ’Cause right about now you actin’ real ridiculous. I swear to you I’m not even checkin’ for that dude.”
“Then why you lie to me, when I asked you were you checking for him?”
“Because I didn’t wanna take the chance of you not wanting to be with me, but I was going to tell you. I almost did.”
“Yeah, and my brother almost didn’t get in that car.”
>
“What?”
“Seven, ma, look, I’m out.”
“I’m not with him! I’m with you.”
He stared at me for a moment. “You wifey?”
“Yeah,” I said, doing my best to suppress a smile. “You know that.”
“Well, let me tell you the first rule to staying wifey—don’t lie to me. Now, I’ll hollah,” Josiah said as he walked out of my room.
“Josiah,” I called behind him but he ignored me.
“Yo, Big Country,” Josiah said. “I’m ’bout to bounce. You comin’?”
“Yeah, I need to help my moms with something anyway.” He gave Shae a peck on her forehead. “Stay pretty.”
Shae couldn’t stop cheesing long enough to notice the tears in my eyes.
Once Melvin and Josiah left, I broke down and cried. “What happened?” Shae said in a panic.
“He said”—I shivered and my chest heaved—“ ‘I’ll hollah’.”
“What does that mean?” Shae asked.
“I don’t know,” I cried. “I really don’t know.”
For the first time ever on a school morning I didn’t need my alarm clock to wake up, because I’d been up all night crying. My eyes were puffy and I had a headache. And since I was depressed I wanted to dress the opposite of how I felt, so I threw on a fitted cream thermal, a brown corduroy miniskirt, multicolored tights decorated with flowers and stripes, and a pair of brown suede boots. My hair was hanging down, flat-ironed straight, with a cream silk scarf tied around the front like a headband.
I decided not to eat breakfast but instead take the early bus to school. I figured Shae would get the hint when she didn’t see me. So I grabbed my off-white goose down coat and pulled the drawstrings tight to my waist, picked up my backpack and was on my way.
“Dang, retardo,” Man-Man said on my way out the door. “What, the special ed kids testing early today?”
I felt so sad I didn’t even respond.