Tyrell
Coe Booth
SCHOLASTIC INC.
NEW YORK TORONTO LONDON AUCKLAND SYDNEY
MEXICO CITY NEW DELHI HONG KONG BUENOS AIRES
for daddy
When I pick Novisha up from school, she actin' all weird and shit. I mean, she the one that called my cell this morning and told me she needed to talk. Then all the way to her place it's like she wanna say something but don't know how to tell me. So we just walk without saying a whole lot, which is alright âcause I got a lot on my mind anyway.
Novisha live in the Bronxwood Houses. I don't mind walking her all this way âcause this place is still like my home even though we moved from here a couple years ago. Back in the day, these eight buildings was my whole world. I used to do some stupid shit âround here with my boys. But I don't hardly get to hang with them no more. Not like I used to.
Matter of fact, I don't even get to see Novisha everyday no more. Our buildings used to be right âcross the parking lot from each other. Now I gotta take two trains just to see her.
When we get to her building, I don't really wanna go upstairs âcause I know her moms don't work on Fridays, and she gonna be
there making sure me and Novisha don't do nothing. I mean, her moms is cool and everything. She always cooking stuff for me and sending me home with all kinds of food for my family, but I know she only doing it âcause she feel sorry for us.
When we get upstairs, not only is her moms there, but her pops is there too. He sitting at the kitchen table eating pork chops and rice like he live there. Like he ain't walk out on them a couple years ago. Novisha moms is cleaning up the kitchen and watching some shopping show on TV. “Hi, Tyrell,” she say. “How's everything? Your family hanging in there?”
“Yeah, Ms. Jenkins,” I say. “We doing okay. Hi, Mr. Jenkins.”
He kinda wave at me, mouth full of food. Asshole. A couple weeks ago I walked Novisha home and we heard him and her moms going at it in the bedroom all loud and shit. Then when he was done he just up and left like that was all he wanted. That and some good food.
“You hungry?” Ms. Jenkins ask me. But before I can even answer, she putting a ton of rice on a plate for me.
“Eat,” Novisha tell me. “I wanna change my clothes.” She go to this Catholic school and gotta wear this blue uniform with this short plaid skirt. It's so goddamn sexy, but she hate it and can never wait to change outta it.
I'm so hungry I just sit there and eat the pork chop in like two bites, then wolf the rice down like I ain't never ate nothing before. Meanwhile, Ms. Jenkins is just talking on and on âbout how me and my family need to stay close and keep our faith in God strong while we going through hard times. I nod every couple minutes so she think I'm really listening, but to be honest,
I'm really tired of everyone saying that. Like they know what we going through.
Novisha come outta her bedroom in sweatpants and a T-shirt. No matter what she wear, she still look cute as hell. She got a real pretty face, and even though she only five foot, she got a bangin' little body. And she only fourteen years old.
Novisha tell her moms âbout some weekend trip she wanna take with her school in March to go look at some Black colleges down south. “Slow down, girl,” Ms. Jenkins tell her, pouring the pork chop oil from the frying pan into a old Maxwell House can. “You're only a freshman. You don't have to think about college for a couple of years.”
Novisha roll her eyes.
Mr. Jenkins sit back in his chair like he all full and satisfied. “Bonelle,” he say to Ms. Jenkins, looking at his watch, “you still want me to fix that VCR in your bedroom? I got a little time before my shift starts.”
Me and Novisha look at each other like this guy think he slick.
Ms. Jenkins tell him okay, then they go into the bedroom and close the door.
“Your pops is a real playa,” I tell Novisha.
“I don't wanna talk about it,” she say. “It's disgusting.” We go in her room and lock the door. Another thing I like âbout Novisha is that she still like a little girl. Her room is all decorated with posters of them little pretty-boy singers, and she still got stuffed animals and shit. Two seconds later she pulling her T-shirt over her head and I'm kissing her and feeling her up. Then she go over to this little tiny statue of St. Mary she got on the shelf over
her bed and turn it âround so it face the wall. She do this every time she âbout to do some nasty shit, so St. Mary can't see her. I can't help but smile âcause I never expect nothing on a Friday, so it's a good thing her pops is there to keep her moms busy.
Novisha is still a virgin and she ain't giving it up âtil she married. She don't even let me put my hand in her panties or nothing. But she do like blowing me. I'm the only guy she ever did it to, but she real good at it. She know how to take care of me.
When we done we go back out to the living room so her moms don't know what we just did. They still in the bedroom, but we can't hear nothing this time. So we just chillin', sitting on the couch watching TV, leaning against each other. She got her hands in my hair, rubbing my head. “Your hair's long enough for me to braid now,” she say.
“Yeah?”
“C'mon, let me do it now.”
“I ain't got time today. Next time, okay?”
“Alright.” She go back to rubbing my head, which feel real good.
It's nice just being like this, here in this room. I been coming to this apartment forever, and this living room ain't never changed. That's what I like âbout it. Ms. Jenkins still got that same big ol' console TV that ain't never worked and the little 19-inch TV on top of it. She got the same couch and chair with the same plastic slipcovers on them, and the same Jesus and Mary paintings covering the water stains on the wall. And everything is real clean like it always is. That's another thing I like âbout Ms. Jenkins apartment. When I'm here, I could forget I'm in the projects.
Even though me and Novisha is relaxing together, I can tell she still got something on her mind. “What's up with you?” I
ask her. “You acting all quiet today. What you wanna talk to me âbout?”
She shake her head. “Nothing. I just, you know, wanted to see you. And be with you.” We kiss. Novisha the first girl I really like kissing. She wear this cherry lip gloss, and her lips always taste all sweet and juicy.
But even while we kissing, I feel like she ain't really into it, so I stop and look at her. She look away.
“C'mon, Novisha,” I say. “You the one that always, like, we need to talk and all that. You keeping secrets? âCause I got too much on my mind these days and I don't need my girl keeping things from me.”
“I'm not keeping anything from you.” She take a deep breath. “It's just, well, there's this new guy at school and he'sâ” She shake her head again. “I don't know why I'm telling you this, but he's always bothering me.”
Now I'm mad. “Bothering you how? I don't wanna hafta kick some nigga ass today, but I will.”
She sigh. “That's why I didn't wanna tell you. I don't want you acting like some thug who's gonnaâ”
“What he doing to you?”
“Nothing.” She look at me, and she know I don't believe a word she saying. “Okay. He asked me out a few times. But I told him I have a man.”
I like it when she call me her man. That kinda calm me down for a second.
“Then last week, I was standing at the candy machine and he comes up and puts his arm around my waist and tells me he's gonna buy me anything I want.”
I can feel my blood pumping through my body fast again.
“I told him to get his nasty hands off me, and he did. Then after that I keep finding these notes in my locker, saying he wants to, you know, get with me and stuff. I know it's him. Then yesterday, I'm walking down the hall and I feel someone grab my butt. I turn around and see him just smiling at me like a dog.”
I can see that she getting tears in her eyes, and I don't like to see that. I'ma hafta do something to this guy. I can't have some dude thinking he can touch my girl whenever he want.
“You got them letters?” I ask her.
She get up and go to her room, then come back with two letters all folded up. She give them to me. One of them say, “I fantasize about you every night.” The other one say, “When are you going to get with me? Let a brother know.” My blood feel like it's on fire now.
“There were more, but I threw them away.”
“You know where he live at?” She shake her head, but I can tell she lying. “What, you trying to protect this guy?”
“No. I'm trying to protect
you.
” She grab my hand. “I don't want you to end up likeâ” She stop talking and look away. Then she whisper, “I'm sorry, Ty.”
I push her away from me and stand up. “I gotta go.” I'm outta there before she can say anything else to piss me off. I fly down the hallway and keep punching the down button for the elevator âtil it come. In the elevator, I punch the lobby button over and over âtil my hand hurt.
When I get outside I walk âround the projects trying to cool myself down. Even though it's real cold, it's still a nice sunny day for the end of January. But the weather ain't helping me
none. I wish I knew who this guy is and where he live at. I swear.
I walk âround some more, buy a loose cigarette from the bodega on the corner, smoke it and feel myself calming down a little. Novisha right. I know she just looking out for me. She don't want me ending up like my pops. In jail. Again.
I get back to the EAU a little after 6:00. There ain't ever enough room inside for everyone, so as usual there's more people standing out in front of the place than inside. Mothers and children. That's all I see. Moms and they kids. No fathers nowhere.
My seven-year-old brother, Troy, is playing with my basketball out in front of the building, throwing it up against the wall and catching it, acting like it's summer out here. My moms is outside too, leaning against a van, smoking with some other woman. All our stuff is packed up in one tore up black suitcase and two garbage bags on the ground by my moms. I wanna ask her if they found us a place, but I just glare at her and walk by without saying a word. I don't got nothing to say to her no more.
Troy throw the ball against the wall and it fly over his head into the street. He âbout to go chase after it without even looking to see if cars is coming, and my moms ain't even paying him no mind.
I call Troy and he stop right before he get to the street. Then
I go get the ball myself. He hold up his hands like I'ma throw it to him. “Ain't you too old to be running in the street for a ball?” I ask him.
“I wasn't gonna run in the street,” he say with his hands still in the air. “Come on, Ty, gimme the ball!”
“First tell me you ain't gonna run in the street no more.”
“I said I wasn't, right?”
I fake a move like I'ma throw him the ball and watch him jump to catch it. Then I laugh and dribble the ball, just to mess with him a little. “Now tell me you ain't gonna take my stuff no more âless you ask first.”
“Okay, okay.”
I finally throw him the ball, then I walk back over to my moms. Just as I'm âbout to ask her for money, she say, “If you hungry, you better get on in there and get yourself something to eat.”
“I ain't eating no more of that nasty EAU food,” I tell her.
“What you gonna eat then? I ain't got no money for McDonald's, so don't even ask.”
“I ate at Novisha house. Real food.”
“What, Ms. Jenkins didn't send us nothing this time?”
“Nah. She was busy when I left.”
My moms suck her teeth. “Well, tell her I said thanks.”
I hate when my moms get that way, always thinking everybody owe her something. “You look for a job?” I ask her.
“You know I went to see your father today.”
I just shake my head âcause I know she ain't never gonna change, no matter what that man do. We ain't never gonna get a apartment of our own âcause she gotta go to Rikers Island when she need to be looking for a job. Not that she know how to do anything anyway.
“You get the mail?” my moms ask me, even though she know I always do.
I go in my backpack and get the mail for her. “I had to pay for the box. And there's a bill from the storage place that we gotta pay by the first of the month.”
My moms flip through the mail. “I don't know how they expect me to pay all these bills when I don't got no job. They just wasting stamps.”
She go on and on, talking junk, and I stop listening. âCross the street I see a woman and a teenage girl coming down the block. I can tell they coming to the EAU by the size of the duffel bags they carrying, like they got everything they own in there. They look as lost as my family looked two weeks ago when we got here, like they don't got nowhere else to go. Just like us.
The woman go inside while the girl drop her bag on the ground and light up a cigarette outside. She wipe some tears off her face real slick, like she trying to hide the fact that she crying. I go up to her âcause I feel kinda sorry for her. And âcause she got a real nice body in tight, tight,
tight
jeans.
“This place ain't all that bad,” I tell her.
She shake her head. “You just saying that to make me feel better.” She look up at the building, then roll her eyes when she see the big sign over the door: NEW YORK CITYâEMERGENCY ASSISTANCE UNIT. “We actually have to sleep here?” She make a face.
“Nah. The city don't let them keep us here at night. If they don't find us a place, they send us to some cheap-ass motels to sleep. This is Friday, so if they ain't found nothing for us yet, they ain't gonna look again âtil Monday. We gonna be stuck wherever they send us.”
She offer me some of her cigarette. I tell her no âcause she look like she really need the whole thing herself. “How long do I have to go through this?” she ask.
“A few days, pro'ly. Then they gonna put y'all in a Tier II shelter. It's kinda like a apartment. I mean, you and your moms can stay there for a while.”
“That's my big sister, Reyna. She's my guardian, if you can call her that.” She wipe more tears away with her free hand. “You been through this before?”
“Yeah. A couple years ago.”
“What's your name?”
“Tyrell.”
“I'm Jasmine.”
“That's a real nice name,” I say âcause I can't think of nothing really cool to say. She smile a little. She look good. Puerto Rican, I think, âcause she got that light skin and long dark hair. Her face got some acne and shit, but her body make up for it. I mean, she kinda big, but she got it all in the right places. Straight up, she got them jeans working.
My moms call me over again, interrupting my flow. “Ty, go to the store for me,” she say when I get over there. “Get you and your brother some chips or something. And get me a Pepsi and a pack of Juicy Fruit.”
“You think you can watch Troy this time?” I ask her. “I mean, he only like ten feet away from you, and you not even watching him. He almost just ran out in the street after a ball.”
“He wasn't gonna run out in no street. He ain't stupid.”
“Then why you got him in special ed?”
She ignore me. “And get me some of them chocolate donuts with the sprinkles on them.” She hand me a five-dollar bill.
“Thought you ain't have no money.” I walk away before she can tell me another lie.
“If you going to the store, I'll go with you,” Jasmine say when I get back over to where she standing. “I need another pack of cigarettes.”
“You shouldn't smoke so much. It ain't good for you.”
“You don't smoke?” She look like she shocked or something.
“Yeah, I do, but I only buy loose. That don't count.”
She laugh and even I gotta laugh at myself. We walk down the block together and, by the time we get to the store, I can tell she like me. She keep talking and talking and laughing at everything I say, even when I say shit that ain't funny. On the way back from the store, she say she hope we get sent to the same motel.
I'm all smooth when I say, “Yeah?”
She smile, and for the first time I see that she got braces on her teeth. Damn. Now I gotta let go of some of them nasty thoughts I was thinking. Shit. Braces can really mess a brotha up!
“Yeah,” she say, looking me straight in the eyes. “My sister's going out tonight. We could hang out together.”
I look down the block and see that the buses is there already. “Oh, shit.”
Jasmine laugh, then she start running down the block like she wanna race or something.
“Slow down,” I say, running after her. I'm not in the mood to chase nobody, but I don't got no choice. The girl got a hot body, she nice, and she like me. What the hell else I'm s'posed to do?
