Читать книгу If I Was Your Girl - Ni-Ni Simone - Страница 14
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Оглавление“Okay,” Tay said as she drove us to work. “How big, how long, and don’t spare any details.”
“What,” I paused and looked at her, “are you talking about?”
“You know—Harlem’s Tarzan, his Johnson, the pipe!”
“You are soooo nasty.” I laughed. “I don’t believe you. I know you don’t think he was getting more than a free feel in the pool? I am not a ho.”
“And you ain’t a virgin either, so spill it.”
“It was nothing. We just kicked it.”
“So you feelin’ him?”
I blushed. “Yeah, he’s cute.”
“It’s obvious that he’s cute. I said, are you feelin’ him?”
“I don’t know him.”
“Okay,” she turned the corner, “let me say it like this. Are you over Quamir?”
“Girl, please. Ain’t nobody thinking about Quamir,” I lied Although each day I thought about him less and less, I still thought about him. “Life goes on without Quamir.”
“Does he call about the baby?”
“No.”
“Typical.”
“Exactly.”
“Oh,” she said a little too excited as we pulled into the IHOP parking lot. “I knew I had something to tell you.”
“What?”
“Remember Ronnique from my home room last year?”
“There were two Ronniques. Which one?” My silver bangles jingled down my right arm as I opened the door and got out.
“I said my homeroom,” she stressed as we walked toward the building and walked in.
“Oh, yeah. I remember.”
“Okay, well Quiera, who lives in my building, told me that Ronnique is best friends with Deeyah.”
“So,” I sucked my teeth long and hard, sounding just like my West Indian grandmother. “And?”
“You’ll never guess who Deeyah’s god-sister is.”
“Who?”
“Shanice.”
“Who?”
“The broad you beat up, the one Quamir was messing with.”
“For real?”
“Fa sho’, and guess what else?” She popped her eyes wide.
“What?”
“She a ho.”
The biggest smile in the world ran across my face. Finally, Tay had good news. “How you know?”
“’Cause Ronnique told me. Apparently, Shanice was asking Deeyah did she know you and it went from there. You know how chicks talk. Anywho, according to their li’l crew, Shanice doesn’t know whose baby that really is and she just put him on Quamir because she thought he was some stand-up cat or something like that. But booyah, she found out he wasn’t crap just like them other tricks.”
“Excuse you?”
“You know what I mean.” She winked her eye. “So maybe that ain’t Quamir’s seed after all.”
We looked at the restaurant’s employee board and made mental notes of our stations.
“It doesn’t even matter,” I grabbed a pen and order pad. “Quamir can roll over and die for all I care. We are through.”
Tay rolled her eyes toward the ceiling, “Toi, it’s me. Tay. You don’t have to lie to me.”
“I’m serious.”
Tay shook her head. “I just can’t believe you haven’t heard from him.”
“I’ve given up. I don’t even care anymore.”
“Why?” Tay teased. “’Cause you sweatin’ Harlem?”
“You are such a hater.” I laughed.
“I don’t hate…I state—”
“Anyway,” I cut her off. “You know I got the dances from Beyoncé’s “Get Me Bodied,” down pat. I puts ’em all to sleep.”
“Yeah, right.” Tay snickered. “You should’ve seen me, Seven, and Shae the other night at The Arena. It was teen night and we were off the hook!”
“The Arena?” I was taken aback. “Y’all went to The Arena and didn’t invite me?”
“Every time we ask, you can never go.”
I had an attitude. “I don’t believe this.”
“Don’t be mad. We didn’t want you to feel bad, so we didn’t say anything. Don’t be mad.”
I fostered a smile and did my best to push my hurt feelings to the side. “I’m good. For real, it’s cool.”
“So, can you show me the dance? I been trying to learn it forever.”
“We need to get to the floor. You know the manager gon’ bug in a minute.”
“No, he’s not.” Tay insisted. “We have a few minutes.”
“Okay, you show me first what you were doing the other night. And if we have time, I’ll show you what I can do.”
“Bet.” She started breaking it down and as I watched her, I wondered if I could ever recapture the way she must feel: carefree, not bogged down with adult responsibilities, able to do what she wanted with her money and not have to worry about milk and Pampers. I wanted to feel like that again. Like a regular teenager on top of the world, like nothing else mattered but what I wanted to do. And just as I was beginning to feel like I was almost there and could touch it, our manager walked in the back and yelled, “Ladies, you have customers waiting!” and I was forced to come back to reality.
