Secret Saturdays by Torrey Maldonado Page B

it,” Kyle said. “Didn’t you?”
    Kyle was on the floor playing Hunt or Be Hunted again. I was so busy picturing Sean busting Vanessa, I had missed Kyle zapping the biggest alien at the highest level. When I looked at the TV screen, a pile of ashes with two eyeballs blinked back at me. Kentucky Fried Alien.
    â€œYou think Vanessa is at Sean’s?” I said.
    â€œMost definitely,” Kyle said. “She hasn’t called. That means they together. Relax.” Kyle pulled out a 50 Cent album from my stack of CDs and pointed at 50’s pissed face. “This how you look. Calm down.”
    I rolled my eyes at him and restarted the video game. When I reached Level 2, my cell rang my favorite Black Bald song. It was Vanessa calling from her house phone.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œYou guys were right,” Vanessa said. “Sean and his mom been breaking out.”
    â€œKyle’s here,” I said. “I’m putting you on speakerphone.” I was amped. Seven hours ago, Sean had gotten suspended. Since then, Vanessa had found out something. Crazy fast.
    â€œGo ahead.”
    â€œWhen I went to Sean’s apartment, his mom was happy I came because I brought Sean’s schoolwork for our break. His mother said his teachers didn’t make a homework packet for him.”
    â€œGood move with the homework idea,” Kyle said.
    â€œThanks. Jackie pointed me to Sean’s room. I knocked and he rushed me in, slamming his door hard like him and his mom were beefing. I said why I came. When he sat at his computer, I saw these CDs on his desk. Underneath them an envelope stuck halfway out. ‘I LOVE YOU, SEAN’ was written everywhere on it in different colored pens. Red. Green. Blue. Letters so big I saw them from where I stood. Whoever wrote that really wanted Sean knowing they loved him. Anyway, Sean’s mom all of sudden yelled for him. He flung his door open and said all mean, ‘What?’ Jackie shouted back, ‘Keep talking back to me and watch you get nothing for Christmas.’
    â€œSean went into the living room and slammed the door behind him. Maybe he did that so I couldn’t hear them arguing. But I heard them shouting through the door. She’s pissed at how he’s behaved in school lately. Anyway, I rushed and looked under that stack of CDs. The envelope had a Polaroid stuck to it.”
    â€œWas it a picture of Sean’s dad with his gay boyfriend?” I asked.
    â€œNo!” Vanessa said, disgusted with me. “Sean’s father definitely was in the picture, though. The Polaroid had writing in blue ink at the bottom saying, ‘Thanks, Sean, for the visits. When I’m home, I’ll show you the type of dad I can be.’ And Sean’s father didn’t seem gay. He looked thug. His face was harder than Principal Negron’s. He had a baldie cut and rocked a wifebeater with green pants. Around him were diesel dudes just as gangster as him. They wore green pants too. I couldn’t read where the envelope came from because the address was torn off when it was opened. Only two words were left. Clinton Co. That’s it.”
    I heard Vanessa’s mom say, “End that call. It’s almost time for you to go to bed.”
    â€œI need to go,” Vanessa said, then paused. “Another thing. I . . . I . . . I think I did something stupid.”
    â€œWhat?” me and Kyle said at the same time.
    I felt my heart thump hard in my chest.
    â€œSean’s rhymebooks were under a stack of textbooks. From how it was under all that, I thought he hadn’t written in it in a while. So . . .” Vanessa stopped speaking and was quiet for two seconds like she thought about not finishing her sentence.
    â€œSo what?” Kyle asked.
    â€œI grabbed one of his rhymebooks and stuffed it in my bookbag,” she said fast and nervous. “I have it right now. That was dumb, right? You think he’ll