Fair-Weather Friends by Reshonda Tate Billingsley Page A

stepped closer to Christina.
    â€œWhat did you just say?”
    Christina just kept laughing.
    â€œShe said something about a negra,” said Alisha.
    â€œAre you calling me names?” Tori said, balling up her fists. I didn’t take her for the fighting type, but I knew she wouldn’t let Christina punk her.
    Raquelle commented, “She said that Camille needed tobe talking to, and I quote, that black wench about her jacked-up weave.” She cocked her head and stared at Christina. “You’re not the only one who can speak Spanish.”
    The smile left Christina’s face. “
And?
I don’t care if she knows what I said.”
    I knew I needed to do something or things were about to get straight-up ugly in here. “Y’all, chill. This is between me and Angel.” I looked at Angel, who had been silent this whole time. “Can we please go somewhere and talk?”
    Angel looked at Christina, then at Tori, before turning her attention back to me. “You know, Camille, Christina is right. There’s really nothing for us to talk about. You guys have made it clear where I stand, so I don’t think we have anything to say to each other.”
    I stared at her in disbelief. I couldn’t believe that we’d come to this. “Angel, this is crazy. We’re best friends.”
    Christina glared at me. “You
were
best friends. But I guess becoming a Theta made your true colors show. Angel can now see you for the racist that you are.”
    â€œI’m not racist,” I protested. “Angel, you know that.”
    Christina rolled her eyes as she pointed toward Tori and the other Thetas. “Birds of a feather.” She turned and walked away with Angel right behind her.
    â€œOh, and Miss Thang,” Christina said, stopping and turning back toward Tori, “this ain’t over. Believe that.”
    She laughed as she walked off and I couldn’t help but get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

21

Camille
    J asmine stared at me like I was stuck on stupid or something. “Come on, Camille, can you really blame Angel for hanging out with Christina and her friends? I mean, what your little stuck-up sorority sisters did was low down. Even you have to admit that.”
    I sighed. I was still trippin’ over Angel’s funky attitude. I tried to tell myself she was just mad right now as I stuffed another mozzarella stick into my mouth. We were hanging out at T.G.I. Fridays, along with a ton of other young people.
    Me, Jasmine, and Alexis were sitting in a booth sipping on virgin strawberry daiquiris and eating appetizers. It felt good for us all to be hanging out again. The only thing that would’ve made this just like old times was if Angel had been there.
    But that wasn’t happening. And it looked more and more like it wouldn’t happen ever again.
    â€œI wish you would quit saying that. The Thetas are not stuck up.” That’s all I could seem to come up with. I didn’t have a defense to their reasons behind rejecting Angel. I cut my eyes at Jasmine. “And you forget, we’re Thetas now,” I said, pointing to Alexis. “So if you talk about them, then you talk about us.”
    â€œThen I’m talking about you,” Jasmine pointedly said. She was really about to make me mad. Her not liking Tori was one thing but this bashing the Thetas was getting real old. I was just about to tell her that when Alexis pulled my arm.
    â€œLook, there are some AKAs and Deltas,” she said, pointing to a large group of women being seated at a long table across from us. They all wore pink-and-green or red-and-white T-shirts.
    â€œOooh, wow,” Jasmine sarcastically said. “I guess that’s your next goal in life, to become college sorority girls. Way to strive for what really matters.”
    â€œI wonder what they’re doing hanging out together. I thought AKAs and Deltas didn’t like each