My cell phone beeps. I have a text message. Thinking its Jalisa, I still check the caller ID. It’s Jade. Hey, I text.
You’re up? she texts, obviously surprised.
Yeah, I’ve been on the computer trying to figure Mom’s hospital bills out. I can’t find anything. Did you find anything else?
No.
I asked Jalisa to ask Natalie to help us out. I don’t know if she can do anything. I hope so. I’m meeting Jalisa at the mall. Can you pick me up there?
Yeah, what time?
I don’t know yet. I’ll text you. So what happened to you last night?
What do you mean?
The frat party, I thought you were going.
Long story, we’ll talk about that later, she says cryptically. I gotta go, text me with a time.
Okay, later.
So now I text my grandmother to check in to see what’s up with her. She’s not exactly good at texting, but she’s getting better. Before, it used to take her twenty minutes to reply with tons of typos, now it takes her about ten minutes to reply. It’s good to see she’s still trying. When I get her message back I smile. She’s doing fine and glad she went to visit her sister.
I grab a quick shower, throw on some clothes and chill out the rest of the morning, then I meet Jalisa and Diamond at the mall. We basically talk about school stuff. We don’t really feel like shopping, but still we get a few things. I find something that’s perfect for Jade, so I pick it up. I do that a lot now. She’s always getting stuff for me and now I get stuff for her, too. Sisters, right. Afterward we just hang in the food court checking out the sights.
Twelve
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall—WTF
kenishi_wa K Lewis
When you don’t see craziness coming, you don’t get a chance to get out of the way. So is this craziness?
29 Apr * Like * Comment * Share
“seriously, y’all, compared to the guys at the party last night, these high school boys are pathetic. Look at them running around throwing food at one another like its kindergarten recess,” Diamond says, shaking her head.
“You know what they say, boys will be boys.” Jalisa sighs while yawning.
“So when do they grow up?” Diamond adds.
“Never,” I say.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that.”
“My dad grounded me with a curfew last night,” I say.
“He did? Why? You didn’t get in that late.”
“I think Courtney got him to do it. She figured out the enemy of my enemy is my friend. If she keeps my dad pissed at me, she can get whatever she wants from him. Its psychology 101 and he’s falling for it.”
“Like you say, they never grow up.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
“Wait, oh, my God, I can’t believe we’ve been together all afternoon and didn’t talk about Taj. Can you believe her last night?” Diamond says excitedly, totally changing the subject. She’s right, nobody brought her up earlier. We just start laughing.
“I looked her up on Wikipedia when I got home last night,” Jalisa says. “For real, I can’t believe she’s our age.”
“She dropped out of high school in ninth grade,” I say.
“That is so stupid,” Diamond says.
“I know, right,” Jalisa adds, “and she looks so old with all that makeup. And what the hell was she wearing even after the miniconcert when she was in the game room?”
“A black fishnet bodysuit with a fluorescent thong and pasties covering only her nipples,” Diamond says, shaking her head. “She really needs a stylist…”
“And how about a couple of Prozac to calm her ass down. Did you see how she was on Terrence last night?”
“Damn, I know. But I like how he kept shutting her down.” Diamond laughs. “What did you do with her phone number?”
I shake my head. “I forgot all about it. I think I just stuffed it in my pocket. It’s probably still there.”
“Crank calls!” both Jalisa and Diamond say together. We start laughing all over again.
“No, but seriously, she is on Terrence hard. She’s so obvious. I can’t believe the skank just, like, gave him her cell number right in front of me after he introduced me as his girl.”
“You’re right, she’s a skank,” Diamond adds.
“And she’s a cheap knockoff of about twenty other shock stars. She can’t even sing. I heard all her concerts are lip-sync.”
“And, oh, my God, she can’t even dance.” We laugh again.
“I know, right. Did you see her trying to keep up with us?”
“She was pathetic and everybody was seeing that.”
“Yep, that’s why she stopped and pulled on Terrence.”
“All she does is that grinding pole-dancing shit.”
“For real,” I say as my cell rings. I check caller ID, then answer. “Hey, Jade.”
“Hey, I’m outside the mall. Are you ready?”
“Yeah, I’ll be right out. What entrance?”
“I’m almost at the food court,” she says.
“Okay, I’ll be right outside. See ya.” I close my cell and look at my girls. While I was talking to Jade they were still making fun of Taj. “Jade’s outside, I gotta go.” I stand up and grab my stuff. Jalisa and Diamond do the same.
“Yeah, we gotta go, too. I still have SAT studying to do.”
“Me, too,” Jalisa says.
“Yeah, me, too,” I say.
We walk outside and I see Jade’s car stopped at the traffic light across the street. “A’ight, I gotta go. I’ll see you guys later.” We hug, say goodbye again just as Jade pulls up. They say hi and bye and I climb into the car and wave to them.
“Did you eat?” Jade asks me as soon as she pulls off.
“No, not yet, did you?”
“No. Let’s grab some takeout in D.C., then go home. I have an exam to study for and about ten chapters to read.”
“Sounds good, I need to study for my SATs.”
We talk about me taking the SATs and what to study as we wait in the take-out line. We order cheese steaks and fries, get our food and then go home. We turn off and reset the alarm system and then head straight to the kitchen and start eating. “Mmm, this smells so good.”
“I know it does, and I’m starved.”
“Me, too,” I say, and then we dig in. After about three bites of my sandwich and a dozen French fries, I take a sip of my orange soda and start laughing. Jade looks over at me like I just lost my mind and I start smiling. “I forgot to tell you, I got a text message from Grandmom this morning. She’s doing good,” I say.
“Good,” she says, then chuckles, shaking her head. “You know, I still can’t believe you’re getting her technology-savvy. Every time I get a text message from her it cracks me up.”
“I told her she had to come into the twenty-first century. She just laughs, saying she has no choice with me living in the house. But I’m just glad she’s actually doing it, and you know what? She’s getting pretty good, too.”
“I know, right. Who’d have thought?”
We laugh. Then a few moments of silence pass between us as I take another bite and chew slowly. “Um,” I begin slowly, “Jalisa talked to Natalie about looking into Mom’s hospital records. She said she can’t get into the records room.”
“I didn’t think so,” Jade says.
I just nod silently. “I gotta tell you something,” I say.
“What?” she asks, looking at me.
“I’ve been having all these strange dreams about Mom lately. I don’t know why—they come almost every night.”
“Kenisha, you gotta let it go.”
“I know.”
“What kind of dreams are they?”
“They’re not scary or anything. In most of them I’m on the Metro with Mom. She’s telling me that she’s okay and everything’s fine. But she’s not really talking, but I understand what she means. I also tell her what’s been going on with me and you and everybody. Then the train stops at this station. I get off and Mom stays on. She just smiles and waves goodbye. In last night’s dream I saw all the furniture from storage on the train with her like she was taking it someplace.”
“That’s funny. I was just thinking about the furniture the other day. What would you think if we sold some of it to raise money to help pay off some of the hospital bill?”
“Uh-uh, no way, that’s Mom’s furniture. It’s all we have left of her. No.”
“Kenisha, think. We need the money to pay the hospital bill. Grandmom doesn’t have it and I’m not gonna have her risk this house. We have to do something. This is it.”
I stop eating and think a moment. At first I’m still a little upset. Then I start thinking about it and also about my dream. Maybe my mom is telling me it’s time to let go of things. I never really considered what to do with the furniture before. After we cleared out the house it was always just there in the background of drama. Right now it’s in a huge storage bin that costs a fortune each month. Jade’s right, we could definitely use the money now. “Okay, but maybe we can keep a few pieces for ourselves.”
“Sure, of course,” Jade says.
“You know, Mom had really good taste and the antique furniture is probably worth a lot of money. It’s a good idea to sell some of it. Plus, we won’t have that huge storage bill. We can store whatever we want to keep in something smaller.”
“I’ll call around and check out some consignment shops tomorrow and see what they say.”
“Is selling the furniture gonna be enough?”
Jade shakes her head. “No, probably not. We’re gonna need a lot more money and we just don’t have it. Our college fund is legally untouchable and the trust funds Mom left us won’t mature until we’re either twenty-five or graduate from college.”
“I don’t think the hospital will wait that long to get paid. They’ve already sent a couple of past-due invoices. We need big money now,” I say.
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.”
“How can I not worry about it? What if they come after Grandmom and try to take the house? You know how much she loves this place. It would kill her. We can’t let that happen.”
“It won’t come to that, trust me.”
“Are you gonna ask Tyrece for the money?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Jade doesn’t answer, so I don’t push it. I know she’s as upset as I am. I also know that neither one of us can really do anything right now.
“Something will come up. It always does.”
“Yeah, okay,” I halfheartedly agree, then start eating again. I don’t buy the whole wishful thinking. I gotta do something. I can’t just wait and hope.
“So, tell me about the party last night. How was it?”
“It was nice, then it got crazy. Why didn’t you come?”
She shook her head. “Taj and I don’t exactly do well in the same room.”
“I can definitely see that. For real, she is sick. She went all buck wild last night—talk about a hot mess.”
“She has serious impulse-control issues and she refuses to leave her character onstage.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“If you’re gonna take on a persona for fans, you need to keep something real in your life, something or someone normal that’s not affected by all the hype. That person grounds you. Then you can leave that ‘star’ character onstage and be yourself. She’s confused because she’s ‘that’ character all the time.”
I get what she’s saying. “Is that what happened before with you and Tyrece—he started believing the hype?”
“Yeah, and I wasn’t about to go there with him.”
“You’re his normal.”
She nods. “Yeah, something like that.”
“Are you two gonna get back together?”
“Check you out,” she says, smiling, “all up in my personal business.”
“Yeah, so, we’re sisters. I’m supposed to be. So tell me. What’s the deal? Are y’all getting back together?”
“He wants to, and I’m thinking about it. He still loves me.”
“Do you love him?”
She nods slowly. “But there’s a lot more to it.”
“Taj.”
“Yes, plus other things. I need to trust him. I’m not sure we’re at that point anymore. Before I could listen to all the crap out there and it wouldn’t phase me. But now, I don’t know.”
“I like Tyrece. I hope you guys get back together.”
She shrugs. I shake my head. “You know, I couldn’t believe Taj. She was all up in Terrence’s face. She even gave him her cell phone number right in front of me.”
Jade shakes her head, then glances over at me. “What did he do with it?”
I start laughing. “He gave it to me right in front of her. I don’t think she was happy.” We start laughing again.
“I always liked T,” Jade says.
My cell phone beeps. I check my caller ID. Since I don’t recognize the number or the area code, I just close my phone and don’t answer. So we start talking about Taj and all the drama Jade put up with when she was engaged to Tyrece and when he was producing Taj’s CD. “Do you think there was ever really anything between Taj and Tyrece?”
Jade takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. “I know there was. But if you’re asking whether or not they had sex, he says they didn’t, but I don’t know. His career and his life are two different things, I know that, but sometimes it’s hard.”
“I can’t believe Taj—she’s my age and she acts like a total slut onstage and off.”
“She thinks that’s gonna make her famous, but it’s not—it makes her stupid,” Jade says.
I nod, agreeing, and think about my frenemy, Chili. It was the same thing. We were friends once. Now she sleeps with anybody to get what she wants. She even slept with my ex-boyfriend, LaVon, thinking he was gonna marry her and she’d be a NBA basketball wife. She was wrong. “Mom always said that your reputation is the one thing you can never lose.”
“I know. She was right.”
We finish eating and start cleaning up the kitchen. Afterward we get the trash together and take it to the curb. Then we sit outside a minute, laughing and talking about the people in the neighborhood and things we remember growing up. When we go back inside I hear my cell phone beeping. I have messages. I have a text from Terrence and Jalisa and a voice message from the same phone number I didn’t recognize before. I listen.
“Kenisha, this is Taj from the party last night. Listen, I just saw your dance video on Facebook. You’re good, not professional or anything like that, but you have something going on. So, I was wondering if you’d be interested in doing something with me in my upcoming video. It’s gonna be released as an internet download only. Rehearsals start Monday at five and we shoot video in a couple of weeks right here in the city. There’s seriously good money to be made. Oh, and the offer goes to your girlfriends, too. Y’all have to audition first, though. Let me know if you’re interested as soon as you can. Hit me up, we’ll talk.”
“Oh. My. God!” I say excitedly.
“What?” Jade says, looking at me.
I start laughing giddily. “Oh, my God, for real, you are never gonna believe who just left me a voice message.”
“Who?”
/> “Taj!”
“What?”
“Taj—listen, listen,” I say, replaying the message for her.
She takes my cell phone and listens to the message. Her expression changes instantly. My excitement over Taj’s voice message is seriously short-lived as soon as Jade hears the message. The first thing she says is, “Oh, hell, no,” then she really starts going off.
“What do you mean?”
“Taj is a user, Kenisha. Don’t trust her. No.”
“Did you not hear the part about seriously good money to be made?”
“For her, yeah, that’s what she does. She uses people to get what she wants and to benefit her. She’s not looking to help you or anyone else.”
“Jade, look, I know she’s got serious skank issues and she went after Ty and Terrence, but if I can get some money from her just by dancing I don’t see why not do it.”
“Because it’s never that simple with Taj. You think you know her, but you don’t.”
I didn’t respond or say anything more. I know Jade isn’t going to change her mind about this. She has the same look in her eye that Mom did when I told her I wanted to get my belly button pierced and a tattoo. Talking to her about it isn’t gonna get me anywhere so I drop it.
As soon as I get upstairs I video-call Jalisa and Diamond. I’m gonna do this and I want them with me. Their images come up instantly. “Hey, ladies, I’ve got some crazy insane news.”
“What?” Jalisa and Diamond say.
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