Читать книгу Who You Wit'? - Paula Chase - Страница 8

“Sumthing is gon’ get done.”

—Chris Brown, “Poppin’”

Mina looked at her cell phone, then stared out the sliding glass door of the sunroom for the hundredth time.

She and Brian were supposed to meet the clique at Rio’s Ria at seven. She’d been waiting for him to swing by and pick her up for twenty minutes. He hadn’t answered her text or calls, and she was decidedly annoyed. With a quick holler, “Ma, Daddy, I’m gone,” she began the ten-minute walk from her house to his, hurrying to beat sundown. She hated walking down Dogwood at night—too many trees and not enough street lights.

She reached his house right before the last slice of sunshine fell permanently beyond the thick tree line of the cul-de-sac. Before she could knock, Brian’s mom, a light golden-complexioned woman as tall as her son, a model in her teen years, opened the door.

“Hey, Mina. Come on in.” Mrs. James yelled up the spiral stairway. “Brian, Mina’s here. Timmy, come on before we miss this flight.”

Brian’s father thundered down the stairs, carrying a travel case ridiculously small and feminine for his tall stature. A former NBA baller himself, he was the older, darker chocolate version of Brian. He saw Mina eyeing the bag and laughed. “See, now you’re hollering for me, and I was just trying to get your bag,” he said.

Mina and Mrs. James laughed, sharing an unspoken joke as he handed the bag off as if it were a ticking bomb.

“Hi, Mr. James. Hope you guys have a good trip,” Mina said.

Mr. James rolled his eyes. “I can think of a million other things I’d rather do. Weddings,” he said like the word tasted bad in his mouth.

Brian came down the stairs two at a time, got last minute instructions from his parents, kissed his mom on the cheek, and saw them out the door. When they were gone, he turned to Mina, his eyes twinkling. “You hot ’cause I took so long?”

His lips brushed hers in a quick, affectionate peck.

Mina rolled her eyes. “I thought you had left me behind.”

“My father didn’t want to go. So he was dragging, and that gave my mother the chance to give me a few extra To-Do’s.” He shook his head, mildly disgusted. “Alright, hold up. I need to check on the pool. We’re pumping it out.” He sighed, scowling. “I don’t know why my father decided to do it before he left instead of when he came back.”

Mina laughed. “He probably thought it would give him a reason to stay home.”

Brian agreed as he made his way to the back of the house. He walked outside through a set of French doors into the growing darkness and disappeared around the side of the large house.

Mina followed him as far as the kitchen, then sat at the counter where Brian’s laptop was open to the Internet. She started to shut it down for him when a message popped on the screen.

Gldngirl: so whus up B, do u want an early graduation gift or what? ?

Mina’s breath caught in her throat.

Her emotions churned into a tornado, going from an EF0 to an EF5 in seconds.

Who was Golden Girl?

And exactly what kind of graduation gift did she have in mind? As if Mina had to ask.

Her hands shook. She glanced in the direction Brian had gone, didn’t see him, and scrolled up to see the earlier portions of the IM discussion. Her fingers trembled so badly as she tapped the laptop’s mouse pad, that only every other tap registered.

Her heart was in her mouth as she head checked outside to see where Brian was. Finally, she realized if she kept her finger on the button and rolled her finger over the magic mouse area, the cursor would zip to the top of the screen.

Duh!

She read the entire IM conversation, the spit drying in her mouth as she leapt into the middle of the conversation, the fly on the wall.

Gldngirl: what up B?

BJBBoy: ay girl nuttin

Gldngirl: u haven’t been around da way in a while. 2 good for ur old set?

BJBBoy: Busy. Graduation, ballin, gettin ready 4 school

Mina’s jaw clenched. Hello, busy with a girlfriend, too. How come he didn’t mention that?!

Gldngirl: oh word, I heard u got into Duke. Go boy!

BJBBoy: yup. Full scholarship

Gldngirl: daddy’s connections still hot like fiya

BJBBoy: go head w/dat u know ur boyz skillz fiya on their own!!! Believe dat

Gldngirl: LOL I hear dat. U know I know. Speaking of skillz…b4 u roll to Duke u gon’ bless a chick w/those other mad skills u got?

Mina’s heart did a karate kick. Her eyes scanned the screen so fast trying to read Brian’s reply, she had to read each sentence three times to process the words.

BJBBoy: there u go tryin get a dude in trouble. I ain’t messin w/u and dat crazy azz Dre

Gldngirl: Me and Dre so over. Damn B it’s been a minute since we talked. Me and Dre been over 4ever

BJBBoy: word?

Gldngirl: if ur azz came back to DC more than evry blue moon u might know dat. Ur boys ain’t tell u?

BJBBoy: naw. I be in DC next weekend

Gldngirl: real talk u tryin roll thru? get u a early grad gift. Don’t sleep on MY skillz

BJBBoy: LOL don’t play. U gonna fug around and get ur ass tapped

Gldngirl: um-huh thas the whole point!!!

BJBBoy: BRB

Gldngirl: aight

Gldngirl: B where u at? U leave me hanging?

Gldngirl: so whus up B, do u want an early graduation gift or what? ?

Mina looked up from the screen. Outside, Brian wrestled with a long white vacuum tube in the darkness. Anger blurred her vision. She blinked hard for twenty seconds before it cleared. Fear coursed quickly through her veins. She felt like a fish at the end of a hook, struggling for air.

An early graduation gift?

Going to DC next weekend?

Brian was going to DC next weekend to hook up with this girl.

The whole conversation swirled in Mina’s head. She imagined Brian’s face as he typed back—smiling, maybe licking his lips in anticipation of doing some ass tapping?

Her stomach clenched, and before she realized it, she was walking out to the patio, her short legs carrying her across the kitchen in seconds.

“Who is Golden Girl?” she blurted, sounding every bit as pouty as she felt. She folded her arms tight against her chest as if to hold back some of the emotion leaking out of every orifice. It took every ounce of willpower in her body not to throw herself on the patio, kicking and screaming, demanding to know why he was flirting with some girl who obviously already knew all about his “skills” off the hardwood.

Brian scowled. He wrestled with the tangled tube, cursing when the long white, Slinky-like contraption slipped from his hands and splashed water all over his sneakers. “What?” he asked, distracted.

Mina took a deep breath, told herself to calm down, but her voice rose another octave as she pronounced every word distinctly. “Who is Golden Girl?” She closed the distance between them and stood right next to him beside the pool. “Golden Girl, the person you were IMing before I got here. The one you’re going to see next weekend so she can try out your skills for old time’s sake.”

By the time she got to the last sentence, her voice was muddled by tears.

Brian calmly fed the vacuum into the pool. He squatted to set it right before answering her. “She’s just a chick I used to…”

“I know what y’all used to do, Brian. That’s pretty obvious from the IM.”

Tears dripped down Mina’s face and neck. She kept her arms folded.

Brian’s face was hard to read in the dark. The light from the patio only reached the edge of the pool, not touching the pool’s far side. But his voice came out of the darkness, irritated.

“Mina, don’t start tripping. Yeah, she’s my ex,” Brian said. He stood up, stared down at the pump once more as if expecting it to worm out of the pool and wrestle with him again, then finally faced Mina. “Why are you reading my IMs?”

“Oh, my God, Brian, don’t do that,” Mina exploded. “Do not go all ‘why you all up in my business’ on me. I was turning the PC off for you when the IM came in. Yeah, I read the whole thing. So?”

His sigh was thinly masked by the sudden churning of the pump. He let the grinding fill the air for a few minutes before walking away, back toward the house.

“Me and her was just flirting, that’s all,” he said over his shoulder.

Mina stood on the patio alone, stunned, as if Brian had smacked her instead of answering her question. Her legs moved automatically when he appeared back in the doorway, asking her, “You coming?”

When she got to the kitchen, he was shutting the PC down. Mina wondered if he’d bothered to say bye to Golden Girl or if he’d just IM her later, apologizing ’cause his psycho girlfriend busted his groove.

“That’s it? That’s all you’re gonna say?” Mina asked. Her tears were dry, burned off by the anger that was once again spreading from her toes to her head. “I’m supposed to be cool with you going to see her next weekend?”

“So that’s what I said to her?” He cocked his right eyebrow. “That I was coming to DC to see her?”

“You may as well have said it, Brian.” Mina wanted to stay angry, but the fear returned, making her feel cold. She walked toward the warmth of the family room, and Brian caught her by the elbow.

“Did I tell her in the IM that I was coming to see her?”

He held her elbow gently, his gaze intent, not letting go. It forced her to look back.

“No,” she answered meekly.

“You knew I was going to DC next weekend. My aunt asked me to help her paint her house. And JZ and Todd are going with me. Remember?” Brian said. He sat atop one of the stools at the counter and pulled Mina toward him. “So what part of the IM are you so hot about?”

Mina blinked, and the tears rolled again. If this was what it was going to be like when he went off to college, she might as well check herself into the nearest mental facility. She was already a basket case.

She forced the IM from her mind. All she wanted was for Brian to hold her until August fifteenth, the dreaded day he’d hit the road to Durham.

The words to answer him wouldn’t come.

Instead, she wept quietly and let herself be pulled into his embrace.

He kissed her ear, then whispered, “You were ready head to DC and drop them bows on her, weren’t you, toughie?”

Mina chuckled through the tears, sniffling as she nodded.

She lifted her face to Brian’s, and they kissed…and kissed, and this time when it went beyond the kissing, she didn’t stop.