Lovers & Haters by Calvin Slater Page B

of line.”
    Dex sat to Xavier’s right. “Give that racial bull a rest.”
    Eve popped her neck and angrily batted her eyes at Dex, snapping, “Boy, go and get liposuction somewhere and get out of my face, fat bastard.”
    Lamont “Jughead” Peterson sat next to Cheese. “Girl, you better cut the corner with all that talk. You know how jealous Danny can get. You’re all about the hype, so beat it and quit causing trouble.”
    Jughead was a seventeen-year-old senior, an All-American middle linebacker on the Coleman High football team. He was a lightning fast freak of nature and a force to be reckoned with.
    Eve only rolled her neck at Jughead.
    â€œChill out, homey. I got this. Soft shell tacos—you got jokes, that’s cool.” Cheese picked up a half-eaten fish patty with a fork from his lunch tray, held it close to his nose and sniffed. “Everybody knows that Danny is going to U of M, and from there, homeboy’s a lock to go high in the NBA draft. We know why you’re with him—because of the loot he’ll be making. Besides, word around Coleman is that the guys you’ve been with state that they don’t know which fish”—he smiled devilishly at Eve and took another sniff—“smells the fishiest.”
    Eve immediately dropped her knockoff Gucci handbag and reached over to push Cheese’s head back with an index finger to his forehead. The dude was still smiling when he stood from his chair.
    â€œWhat you gonna do about it?” she asked Cheese as her eyes widened with fear. Eve already knew what time it was when it came to Cheese. The boy was no punk.
    â€œCheese,” Xavier said. “Bro, sit back down and chill out.”
    Since Eve was in the market for embarrassing people, Xavier wanted her to experience the bitter taste of humiliation. He took a bottle of spring water and poured some inside his hand. He took a couple napkins from his tray and started vigorously wiping away her phone number from his palm.
    The lunchroom crowd burst into laughter when they caught on to what Xavier was doing. Eve wanted to say something to him but bit her lip.
    As word got around the cafeteria about how Xavier had dissed Eve, the entire lunchroom began laughing at her. But before she could shrink from embarrassment, Cheese seized her right index finger and bent the joint backwards. Her instant shriek was loud enough to bring Doug and a few of his guards running into the cafeteria.
    They quickly separated the two, with Eve dropping nasty four-letter words like she had a patent on profanity. Only those who spoke Spanish understood the madness coming out of Cheese’s mouth.
    As two big, beefy guards wrestled Eve and Cheese out of the lunchroom, Doug asked, “Anybody see what happened?”
    Nobody said anything. Snitches got stitches. Everybody resumed what they were doing before the action had jumped off.
    â€œXavier,” Doug asked, “did you see anything?”
    â€œNo, sir—no, Lawd. I thought I was blind till I saw you roll up in this piece.”
    â€œForever the jokester,” Doug said to Xavier. He turned and addressed the entire lunchroom. “If anything else jumps off in this cafeteria, I’ll personally see to it that you are escorted to Principal Skinner’s office.”
    Jughead waited until Doug was out of sight. “You think Danny is gonna go after Cheese?”
    â€œI don’t know,” said Dex. He tore open the plastic on his honey bun. “Buckets is not all there. Remember he smashed one of those dudes from Rolling Deep?” Dex took a bite of the honey bun.
    â€œWhatever happened to that beef anyway?” Xavier asked. “Those boys had put it on their mamas that they would get back at Danny on the revenge tip.”
    â€œCoach Black smashed it,” Jughead informed. “He had a sit-down inside his office with his star basketball player and Rolling