go out on Friday, then. I’ma come over and say hi to your moms, and take you to see whatever movie you wanna see and then we gonna go for something to eat. How that sound?”
“Good,” she say. Then she kinda wiggle herself outta my arms, just trying to be extra sexy. “I have to go now, Ty.”
“You sure you can’t come back to my place for a little while? I got some new music we can listen—”
“Remember what I said before,” she say. “I like to be chased.”
Damn. “A’ight. I get it. I’ma let you go home and sit in that apartment all bored outta your mind. That’s cool. But let me get your digits so I can call you.”
Adonna pull her cell outta her pocket and I tell her my number and she call it. After I save her number I walk her to her building but don’t go upstairs with her this time. I’ma be patient. Ain’t no rush. Friday gonna be here in five days and I know I’ma get her. I can tell. That girl is so into me it ain’t even funny no more.
On the way back to my building, I’m thinking that I just told Adonna, of all the females I know, that I was gonna show her a good time. A
real
good time. Why I say that shit to her? She probably thinking I’ma spend crazy money on her when I ain’t even got it like that. It’s true what they say, girls can really get a brotha in some deep trouble.
It ain’t ’til I’m upstairs that I’m like, shit, I forgot to get my pops chain back from her.
MONDAY, AUGUST 4
THIRTEEN
My pops get me up mad early again and make me meet him downstairs. It’s crazy the time he be waking me up since he been back. He probably still on prison time or something.
Me and him still don’t say a word to each other in the van. Nothin’. This time, though, I’m the one that put the radio on.
Two of my pops friends is waiting for us at the storage place. I don’t know where my moms is at, if she gonna do anything to help out with the move, but she don’t never do nothing, so why she gonna start now?
The four of us get to work, loading as much of our furniture and shit in the van that can fit at one time. There ain’t no room for all four of us in there too, so I’m the one my pops make stay behind and wait, like them other guys is stronger than me or something. I’m bored out my mind standing there, but least I don’t gotta spend more time with my pops.
Since I gotta be here anyway, I start looking through a lot of the stuff we got in here. It take me a while, but finally I find the stuff that used to be in my room. Not only my clothes but my TV, laundry basket, alarm clock, DVDs, and fan. And I find a box of stuff I used to have on top of my dresser, shit I forgot ’bout. A bullet I found behind my building when I was, like, ten. My ashtray, a folded-up two-dollar bill, my incense. Then I see this strip of photos me and Novisha took last summer at Rye Playland. After we got on practically all the rides a couple times, we was walking ’round for a while and found one of them old-skool photo booths. We went in there and kissed and acted stupid and had fun wasting money. The pictures came out real funny. She took some and I took some. That was a year ago, back when my family still had a apartment and we was all still together. But everything is different now.
The day we was evicted from that apartment, man, I ain’t never gonna forget that feeling I got when I came home from school and seen my moms and Troy standing in the hall outside our apartment. Troy was crying and my moms was cursing and going off on how they threw us out our place. That’s when I seen it, that big, giant padlock on our front door, and the sign that was stuck on the door by the marshals, telling us we was evicted and all our property was in storage.
First person I called was Novisha. And even though she never been through nothing like that herself, she was alwaysby my side through the whole thing, making sure I was okay and not getting too depressed while we was going through the
“Good,” she say. Then she kinda wiggle herself outta my arms, just trying to be extra sexy. “I have to go now, Ty.”
“You sure you can’t come back to my place for a little while? I got some new music we can listen—”
“Remember what I said before,” she say. “I like to be chased.”
Damn. “A’ight. I get it. I’ma let you go home and sit in that apartment all bored outta your mind. That’s cool. But let me get your digits so I can call you.”
Adonna pull her cell outta her pocket and I tell her my number and she call it. After I save her number I walk her to her building but don’t go upstairs with her this time. I’ma be patient. Ain’t no rush. Friday gonna be here in five days and I know I’ma get her. I can tell. That girl is so into me it ain’t even funny no more.
On the way back to my building, I’m thinking that I just told Adonna, of all the females I know, that I was gonna show her a good time. A
real
good time. Why I say that shit to her? She probably thinking I’ma spend crazy money on her when I ain’t even got it like that. It’s true what they say, girls can really get a brotha in some deep trouble.
It ain’t ’til I’m upstairs that I’m like, shit, I forgot to get my pops chain back from her.
MONDAY, AUGUST 4
THIRTEEN
My pops get me up mad early again and make me meet him downstairs. It’s crazy the time he be waking me up since he been back. He probably still on prison time or something.
Me and him still don’t say a word to each other in the van. Nothin’. This time, though, I’m the one that put the radio on.
Two of my pops friends is waiting for us at the storage place. I don’t know where my moms is at, if she gonna do anything to help out with the move, but she don’t never do nothing, so why she gonna start now?
The four of us get to work, loading as much of our furniture and shit in the van that can fit at one time. There ain’t no room for all four of us in there too, so I’m the one my pops make stay behind and wait, like them other guys is stronger than me or something. I’m bored out my mind standing there, but least I don’t gotta spend more time with my pops.
Since I gotta be here anyway, I start looking through a lot of the stuff we got in here. It take me a while, but finally I find the stuff that used to be in my room. Not only my clothes but my TV, laundry basket, alarm clock, DVDs, and fan. And I find a box of stuff I used to have on top of my dresser, shit I forgot ’bout. A bullet I found behind my building when I was, like, ten. My ashtray, a folded-up two-dollar bill, my incense. Then I see this strip of photos me and Novisha took last summer at Rye Playland. After we got on practically all the rides a couple times, we was walking ’round for a while and found one of them old-skool photo booths. We went in there and kissed and acted stupid and had fun wasting money. The pictures came out real funny. She took some and I took some. That was a year ago, back when my family still had a apartment and we was all still together. But everything is different now.
The day we was evicted from that apartment, man, I ain’t never gonna forget that feeling I got when I came home from school and seen my moms and Troy standing in the hall outside our apartment. Troy was crying and my moms was cursing and going off on how they threw us out our place. That’s when I seen it, that big, giant padlock on our front door, and the sign that was stuck on the door by the marshals, telling us we was evicted and all our property was in storage.
First person I called was Novisha. And even though she never been through nothing like that herself, she was alwaysby my side through the whole thing, making sure I was okay and not getting too depressed while we was going through the
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