Shortie Like Mine (11 page)

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Authors: Ni-Ni Simone

BOOK: Shortie Like Mine
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“I wanna see it.” I gave him the magical face.
He stared at me for a moment. “Ai'ight, Seven.” He took the movie from my hand. “We can watch it this one time. But don't tell nobody. Got me up in here, watching
Love Jones,
” he mumbled as he slid the DVD in.
He sat behind me on his bed, locked his fingers around my waist, and for the next hour and a half we watched the movie.
After a while it was time for me to go. “Before we go”—Josiah pointed to his dresser—“look in my topdrawer and take out a white tee.”
I did what he asked and then I held his shirt in my hand. “What you want me to do with this?”
“I want you to keep it. Then I'll feel like I'm always with you.”
“Awwl,” I whined. “Josiah ...” My heart was fluttering in my chest.
“I know”—he blushed—“give it to me.” He puckered his lips and patted his cheek. “Right there.”
“Now you want me to kiss you on the cheek?” I had to laugh. “The cheek? I said let's slow down and I ain't say let's drop dead.” I walked up to him and gave him a peck on the lips. “I can't stand that I like you.”
He threw his arm around the back of my neck and placed me in a pretend headlock. “What you mean like? You love me, girl.”
 
I walked in the house and went in my room. My sister was laying in her bed, watching TV. “What you watching?” I asked.
“
Run's House.
Where you been?”
“Josiah's.” I started undressing.
“Mommy know that?”
“Mommy hasn't been here to know much of anything. Ever since I saw her kiss Daddy when he left she's been doing crazy overtime.”
“And I saw him sneaking out of her room,” Toi added. “But that's their business. We have to deal with our own broken hearts.”
“True.” I slipped on Josiah's tee and I loved that I could smell him.
“So what's up with Josiah?”
I blushed. “Nothing.”
“Yes, it is.” She smiled. “I see you rockin' his white tee.”
“Anyway”—I blushed—“before we talk about Josiah, I wanna know what you did all day.” I looked at her stomach and noticed she was getting a little pouch. For the first time, I realized I was going to be an auntie and wondered if I would have a niece or a nephew.
“My lawyer's office, the doctor's”—she paused—“and to see Qua.”
I rolled my eyes in my head. “What did the doctor say?”
“He said I was four months.”
“Wow, four months and you're just finding out?”
“That's what the doctor said.”
“So, what did your lawyer say?”
“He said ... I'll probably get community service since I'm a minor and this is my first offense.”
“Did you tell your boyfriend?”
“I did.”
“And ...” Not that I really wanted to hear what he said, but I could tell she wanted to tell me.
I couldn't believe it but tears filled her eyes. “He told me ... he hated me.”
“What?! Why?”
“Because I wouldn't take the charges. He said I was nothing but a stupid little girl that he shoulda never been caught up with, that he shoulda stayed with his oldest son's mother.”
“So what you gon' do? You gon' stay with him?”
“No.” She sniffed. “I don't think I could even if I wanted to ...”
I was speechless and all I could do was sit on the edge of my sister's bed as she held her pillow tight to her face and cried her heart out.
11
Where my girls at ...
 
—702, “WHERE MY GIRLS AT”
 
 
 
“
O
kay, 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”
 
 
 
J
osiah 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.”

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