No Place to Fall by Jaye Robin Brown Page B

idiot? You know Mama and Daddywould help you with diapers. You don’t need to make money this way!”
    Whitney’s hands grip the steering wheel. “Lay off, Amber. There’s more to it than that.”
    â€œThen what ? Explain it to me. We weren’t raised this way, Whitney.”
    She doesn’t talk, just drives. Her lips are set and her fingers drum on the steering wheel. After she picks up what she needs at the store, she pulls in to Eddie’s Pawn. “Are you coming?” she asks.
    â€œI’m coming.” I pull Coby out of his seat and carry him with us inside.
    A guy I’m guessing must be Eddie slides off the stool behind the counter. The display at the front of the store is an assortment of DVDs, jewelry, power equipment—and musical instruments. I can’t believe I’ve never been in here before. My hands brush over a beautiful black mandolin, inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
    â€œThat’s a nice one,” he says.
    I flip over the tag. Nine hundred dollars. I put my hands in my pockets.
    Whitney hands him a ticket. “I need to get this out.”
    He gives her a hard look. “You were about out of time.”
    â€œI’ve got the money,” she snaps. “We took out a loan, didn’t pawn it to you.”
    Eddie disappears behind a mirrored wall. I’m guessing he can see us from the other side. As Whitney pulls bills out of her bra, I jostle Coby on my hip and look at all the guitars on the wall. I’ll have to tell Sean about this place.
    Eddie comes back and I recognize Sammy’s Strat.
    â€œThat’s what the money’s for?” I ask.
    Whitney nods and I see her, seventeen, beaming from the front of the stage at a younger, guitar-playing Sammy. I feel a pang of guilt. Maybe he is going to try and clean up his act.
    Coby starts crying and Whitney takes him. I grab Sammy’s guitar and start to follow her, but I turn around.
    Eddie’s stuffing Whitney’s drug money into one of those zip bags from the bank.
    â€œExcuse me?” I say.
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œIs one of those guitars a Gibson? Les Paul?”
    When Sean and I had eaten lunch together that first day, he’d told me what kind of guitar he’d played. Before I knew his mom had sold it.
    Eddie looks up and stares at me. When I don’t lose eye contact, he grunts and points toward a reddish orange guitar hanging above his head. “Got a Studio. Six hundred fifty dollars. Cash.”
    â€œThanks,” I say and walk out to the car.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    Friday afternoon, C.A. and I leave school together to initiate Operation Convince Mama Vaughn. Devon’s on his way home to get ready for the party. It’s not really going to be much of a party—just Kush, Sean, me, Devon, Will, Amber-o-zia, and C.A.—but it’s more exciting than our usual Friday night.
    I follow C.A. out to the parking lot to her battered old Subaru. The first time I saw her car, I was surprised. C.A. carries herself like one of the county’s have-a-lots, but even though we’d gone to school together since kindergarten, I didn’t know much about her life off campus.
    â€œDon’t diss the Sue-Bee,” she says, like she can hear my thoughts. “My mother pays for my insurance so I had tohave liability-only, which meant a beater car.” She throws herself across the hood and hugs the dull gray metal. “My darling Sue-Bee cost me five hundred dollars’ worth of baby-sitting money.”
    â€œAt least you have a car.”
    She breaks into a grin and flips over, looking at the sky. “I know. Freedom. I love it.”
    â€œSo what do your parents do?” I ask.
    â€œMom’s a dental hygienist.” C.A. flashes her pearly white teeth. “My dad left us when I was nine.”
    I remember a different C.A., one who would sit next to Mrs. Rafferty at every recess and cry if anyone picked on her, in fourth grade. At