Who You Wit'?

by Paula Chase

  “See y’all tomorrow,” she called out extra loud without looking back.

  The clique mumbled back good-bye.

  “Hold up, girl,” Raheem hollered. He dapped up Brian and JZ before jogging to catch up.

  Jacinta kept walking until she was safely in Raheem’s car. He got in, grinning, and leaned over for a kiss. Jacinta’s hand flew up before his lips reached hers.

  Raheem pulled her hand down, leaning closer. “You don’t have a kiss for you boy?”

  “Let’s just go.” Jacinta pulled back further.

  For a second, they eyed one another. Raheem’s smile slowly turned down. His eyebrows furrowed, and he shook his head.

  “What? What are you hot about?” He started the car and backed it down Brian’s long, flat driveway. “I came over like you asked.”

  “Nearly two hours late,” Jacinta spat. “I figured you weren’t coming. I wouldn’t have bothered to get in the Jacuzzi if I thought you were coming.”

  Calm down. Calm down, she told herself and was almost there when Raheem said, “I ain’t know there was a time limit on showing up. I had to get my hair braided.” He glanced over, his eyes narrowing. “Oh, so you had me penned in for three, and your boy JZ for four?”

  Jacinta clamped her mouth shut against the rant rising in her throat, nearly biting her tongue.

  Raheem snorted. “I must be right.”

  “Or so wrong…” And stupid, Jacinta thought, “…that I’m not gonna bother to answer.”

  “Then what difference it make what time I showed up?” He pressed. “You told me to come over. I did.”

  He lifted a hand off the steering wheel in a “what?”

  Jacinta waited. She wasn’t going to let this turn into them fussing over small stuff. Or in Raheem’s case, nonexistent stuff.

  Raheem rolled the car smoothly down Dogwood, stopped at the Stop sign, made a right, and headed to Jacinta’s house. When he’d gone past Michael’s cul-de-sac, then Mina’s, Jacinta felt ready to talk.

  “Raheem, what did I tell you was my only rule since I moved over here to The Woods?”

  “What rule?” He scowled.

  A slow, silent sigh seeped through Jacinta’s clenched teeth before she replied. “I told you that I never spread my business with the clique.” Her eyes locked on him, waiting. When he finally glanced over warily, she finished, “How you gonna bust up over Brian’s and put my business out there like that?”

  She closed her eyes for a second to hold back the tears of frustration. When she opened them again, Raheem was pulling into her drive. He turned the car off and cocked his head, looking at her.

  “My bad. I thought you told your girls everything.”

  Jacinta didn’t detect any sarcasm in his words. But she knew Raheem wasn’t that dense. Even if he thought she’d told the girls, that had nothing to do with Brian and JZ. He’d told on purpose. She was sure of it. But proving it would only take the conversation into crazy circles.

  “Well, I hadn’t told anybody.”

  “Not even Mina?” Raheem asked, obviously not believing her.

  “Not even Mina,” Jacinta lied.

  He chuckled under his breath. “My bad.” He rubbed her arm with the back of his hand. “So, we gonna talk about the baby or what?”

  Jacinta scowled. “I just said my period was late. Why are you talking like—”

  “You’re pregnant?” He said it like maybe Jacinta wasn’t very bright. “I thought that’s what missing your period meant. Or does it mean something new now?”

  Jacinta shrugged. “It could. I mean…look, I’m not all into having no baby.”

  “If you pregnant, you’re pregnant.” Raheem shrugged. “What did the test say?”

  Jacinta’s eyes rolled. “I didn’t take one.”

  “Then take one.” Raheem’s eyes questioned, but when Jacinta didn’t respond, he asked aloud, “What you waiting for?”

  For it to come on, Jacinta screamed in her head. She didn’t want to take a test. She’d been having cramps off and on for a week. Maybe something was blocking it off. It had to be coming. It felt like it wanted to.

  Raheem stared at her, waiting for an answer.

  The usual gruffness in his voice disappeared. “Alright, that’s on you. But I’m saying, if you are, then I’m gonna take care of mine. Ya heard?”

  “If I am—” Jacinta shook her head. “I’m only sixteen. I don’t want a baby.”

  Raheem’s lips puckered in disapproval. “Well, I’m not down with no abortions. The baby half mine, too.”

  “Okay. Well, are you gonna take your half to Georgetown?” Jacinta’s eyebrows arched in defiance.

  “You know my mother would help out,” he said as if that were a grand plan.

  “I don’t want a baby,” Jacinta repeated.

  “Well, it ain’t about you.”

  The matter-of-factness in Raheem’s voice grated on Jacinta. She shifted in her seat, aware that her bottom was wetting the car’s seats. She’d hear about that later. Raheem loved that car like it was a…baby.

  A soft shudder rippled through her.

  Raheem was gruff. He hated complications and was one of the most impatient people she knew. But he was one thing more than any of those. He was loyal. When he loved something, he loved it, period, end of story.

  The car.

  Her.

  Even Angel in a “that’s my boy, my homey” kind of way.

  He also had two nieces and a nephew that he spoiled bad, ages five, three, and two. They were so hardheaded Jacinta couldn’t stand being around them. They didn’t listen to Raheem’s mother or his sister (their mother), but they listened to Uncle Heem without fail. And he loved their little bad butts back for that.

  No doubt, he’d love his own child, their child.

  Jacinta winced. The phrase made her stomach drop. She opened the car door slowly, as if it weighed a ton. “Alright. I let you know what’s up after I take the…” She muttered the last word. “…. test.”

  With one leg out of the car, Raheem’s words stopped her.

  “It’s gonna be cool. Don’t worry, alright?”

  She nearly broke her neck whipping around to look at him. “Are you serious? My father is gonna trip, for sure.” Her eyes locked with Raheem’s. She tried once more to make him understand. “It’s not gonna be alright.”

  “Your father know how things go, Cinny.” A tiny smile crossed Raheem’s face. “I’m not saying he ain’t gonna trip. But it’s probably not gonna be as bad as you thinking it will.” His face grew thoughtful. “When Shay got pregnant with Deonte, my moms went off.” He shook his head at the memory. “My father wanted to straight kill Tank. Things was mad tense for a few weeks. But…” He shrugged. “It got better. And you know my moms spoil Deonte to death. Shoot, she spoil all of Shay’s kids.”

  “Well, I don’t wanna be like Shay.” Jacinta spoke the thought aloud before she could stop herself.

  Raheem’s lids lowered. It looked like his eyes were closed. But they weren’t. He did that when he was mad—let his eyes fall so you couldn’t read them. The brewing argument between them was inevitable now, so Jacinta spoke her mind.

  “My father sent me to live with Aunt Jacqi over here so I wouldn’t end up a statistic.”

  “Oh, so Shay a statistic?” His voice was low, working to stay calm.

  “I didn’t mean it like that.” Jacinta kept her voice level. “But Shay was seventeen when she had Deonte, and—”

  “And she got a job and takes care of her kids. How is that being a statistic?”

  Jacinta took a silent gulp of air, swallowing her real answer—three kids, two before she was twenty, by two different dudes. Hello, statistic.

  She let her breath out slow, quiet, then answered. “I’m just saying I don’t want kids, and—”

  “Nobody saying we gonna have three,” Raheem interrupted.

  Jacinta let her anger subside before replying. “So, you’re at school, and I’m…wha
t? Working? Living with your mom with Shay and her kids? Doing what?”

  Raheem frowned as if Jacinta was being ludicrous. “By the time you graduate, I be ready to hit the NBA.”

  Jacinta’s eyes popped. The last few months, he’d gotten more serious, talking about how he’d stay at Georgetown for two years, then enter the NBA draft. But Jacinta had never let herself believe it could happen. Even if it did, two years—her last two of high school—felt like a long time to play single teen mom.

  It sounded like a bad reality TV show.

  Single teen mom or not, there was also the matter of Raheem planning out her two years with this “we” and “us” talk. He was ready to go to school. She’d never said it to him, but the “we” that they were would be…well, out of sight and out of mind. She would never admit it out loud, but she was looking forward to having a break from Raheem. The thought of a baby tying them even closer made her head ache.

  “You and the baby be set for life,” he said. “You won’t even have to work after you graduate.”

  Jacinta let a few seconds pass, let the silence in the car wash over her before she shrugged. “I see you got the whole plan on lock so…” She swung her legs out, pushed herself out the front seat, and closed the car door.

  “Ay,” Raheem called out the open window.

  Jacinta leaned in. “What?”

  “Most chicks would be glad their man gonna handle his business.”

  Then go knock them up, she thought, forcing a thin smile on her face.

  “And I’m not even gonna make you sign a prenup.” Raheem winked and burst out laughing.

  “Lucky me,” Jacinta said. “I holler at you later.”

  She walked off and into the house, not bothering to watch Raheem pull away.

  Outing Secrets

  “I was blown away. What could I say?”

  —Daughtry, “It’s Not Over”

  The hot air of the blow-dryer sucked greedily at the moisture on Lizzie’s skin, scorching her. She dipped her head to her waist, giving her tight face a break, and let the arid heat do its job on her damp locks.

  The scent of chlorine that had clung to her nostrils was finally gone, and the wetness that had chilled her bones from sitting in the Jacuzzi on a warm, but not quite hot enough day had worn off. The only thing still lingering from their midweek romp in the hot tub was the aftershock of the bombshell that Jacinta was (might be?) pregnant.

  Lizzie cut off the dryer. She fluffed her hair, feeling dampness in the roots but not caring. It was dry enough. The whine of the dryer echoed in her ear a few minutes more. In the airy silence, the thing bothering her leapt out of her mind as if someone had booted it to the forefront.

  When Raheem had outted Jacinta’s…condition, everyone had been floored. You could have popped an olive in Kelly’s mouth, she was so shocked. And Lizzie was positive she’d seen JZ take a literal scoot away from Cinny, like he might catch something. Then again, maybe that was him distancing himself so Raheem wouldn’t think anything was up between them. Though, it was the word baby that had made JZ slide over, Lizzie was certain. Everyone had been stunned.

  Well, not everybody, she thought as she brushed her hair. She used soft, long strokes, coaxing the reality out of herself. Everyone had shown some sort of surprise or discomfort, except Mina.

  First, Lizzie thought she’d imagined it. But she and Mina had been sitting right across from each other. Lizzie had a clear, wide-open view of Mina’s reaction. And when Raheem dropped the bomb, Mina had looked concerned. Her eyes hadn’t popped like, “What?!” They’d narrowed in an “Oh, crap.”

  Lizzie wanted to be wrong. She’d stared across at Mina, trying to get that BFF ESP going, but Mina’s eyes had flitted away from her gaze and back at Jacinta, worried.

  Worried.

  You can’t worry about something you just found out. Could you? Lizzie wondered.

  She parted her hair, forcing herself to take her time. She wanted to rush to her laptop and log on. She knew Mina would be on, and she’d promised Todd she’d ping him, tonight. But she needed to calm down first. Rid herself of the prickly jealousy that kept lodging itself in her mind.

  How could Mina choose this—pregnancy drama—over the peace of mind the pact could give her?

  Her fingers slid through her hair, some of the blow-dryer’s warmth still present, and easily divided it into three segments. The braid formed almost instantly as her fingers danced, soothing her. By the second braid, Lizzie didn’t feel quite so jealous. Even if she hadn’t imagined the knowing she saw on Mina’s face, it was swazy. Clique secrets were becoming the norm, it seemed. She and JZ had shared one last year, and she and Mina always had a secret or two stored in their friend vault. Usually, when the time was right, the secrets always came out and became general clique knowledge.

  Sometimes, it was just easier to tell it to one person first, Lizzie justified.

  She smirked. It sounded reasonable enough. Yet it still made her sad. The line between secrets and lies was blurring. She didn’t have to talk to Mina to confirm it. She just knew. Felt it like she sometimes knew with absolute certainty that she’d nailed or failed an audition.

  She wrapped the end of each braid with a rubber band, patted her hair, then smiled quizzically at her image in the mirror before heading to her bedroom. She rushed through the formality of getting the laptop booted up and herself signed on. Within minutes, Todd IMed her.

  BasketballT: What up l-boogie?

  Grinning, Lizzie pushed the laptop to the head of her bed and stretched out toward it.

  Liz-e-O: nothing how wuz da family ob?

  BasketballT: fam+out of town cuzzins+skating= l-l-lame!

  Liz-e-O: LOL ur crazy

  BasketballT: like a fox. did u guys hang out?

  Lizzie’s eyes rolled. “Boy did we,” she muttered as she typed.

  Liz-e-O: Yup ttly missed sme juice

  BasketballT: dish l-boog

  Liz-e-O: ok did u jst ask me 2 dish?!

  BasketballT: so sick of b/n w/fam im actn like a ol’ beyotch LOL

  Liz-e-O: u said it not me

  BasketballT: so what up? Iz dat more manly?

  Liz-e-O: a little. Cinny is preg

  BasketballT: WTF?! Serious?

  Liz-e-O: tttly

  BasketballT: dayum wat did JZ say?

  Lizzie chuckled.

  Liz-e-O: nothing. surprised I guess

  BasketballT: tht sux

  Liz-e-O: 4 who? Cinny or JZ

  BasketballT: LOL both. Dude, jay likes her

  Liz-e-O: he tol u tht?

  BasketballT: no so dnt go tellin ur girls. jus sayin I thnk he does

  Liz-e-O: me 2

  Just then, the sound of wind blowing announced Mina was on. Lizzie’s heart skipped excitedly. She waited a few seconds, willing Mina to IM her first. She forced herself to keep talking to Todd, rather than ping Mina first.

  BasketballT: mayb crazy ques—is Cinny kirkin out abt being preg?

  Liz-e-O: she wuz defntly po’ed Raheem outted her but same ol

  Cinny, cool as a cuc

  BasketballT: man, Raheem makin babies n I can’t evn mke it 2

  2nd base

  Liz-e-O: o ha ha w/e T

  BasketballT: j/k…kind of

  Usually Todd’s humor was cute, adorable even. But he’d hit too close with that crack. She gladly switched conversations when a message from Mina finally blew through.

  BubbliMi: hey Liz. Crzy dy huh?

  Liz-e-O: mos’ def. hey did u alrdy knw Cin ws preg?

  BubbliMi: Mon she tol me her pd wuz late. She’s still not 100% sure she is

  Lize-e-O: I’d b freakin!

  BubbliMi: u n me both!!:-0

  A buzz of pleasure widened Lizzie’s smile. She’d half expected Mina to be nonchalant about the whole thing. She was glad to hear a very Mina reaction. The ringing of messages from Todd forced her to click back over to him.

  BasketballT: r u iggin me?

  Liz-e
-O: no

  BasketballT: o u didn’t ansr me

  Lizzie scrolled back up to see what she’d missed. She squirmed as she read his previous messages.

  BasketballT: now I guess we’ll never do it?

  BasketballT: gtta rmbr 2 thnk Raheem 4 this. Thx bro

  Lizzie decided to play dumb.

  Liz-e-O: so wuts da ques

  BasketballT: LOL gotta luv a grl who plys hrd 2 get

  Liz-e-O: gotta luv a guy who lvs da chase;-)

  BasketballT: LOL hw lng u gnna run? A dude’s legs r gttn tired

  Liz-e-O: well…me n Kelly took an abst pact

  There she’d told him. Now maybe everyone would get off her case. When Todd didn’t answer immediately, she went back to Mina.

  Liz-e-O: ur pinky ring is so cool

  BubbliMi: OMG Liz he tttly cght me off grd

  Liz-e-O: I bet. Hey, so it’s cool and all…but how come u don’t wanna do da pact?

  BubbliMi: cn I b honest?

  Lizzie’s stomach clenched, but her message back was casual.

  Liz-e-O: of crse Mi! we’re girls fo’ life rmbr ?

  BubbliMi: taking it feels like I’m choosin b/w u n Brian

  Liz-e-O: not tryna mk u choose…jus wtchg out 4 my grl

  BubbliMi: I knw <3

  Liz-e-O: no big. me n Kel will go it alone

  Lizzie blanched at the lie. It did matter. But she wanted Mina to want to take the pact because she wanted to, not just to please Lizzie.

  She laughed at the lie.

  They’d been doing stuff like this—having each other’s back, agreeing with stuff that they didn’t necessarily want to go along with—for an ice age. Heck, yeah, she wanted Mina to go along just because.