Can't Stop the Shine (11 page)

“Oh, please. You can't be serious.”

“K, you know that Dewayne has liked you since forever, and you've never given him the time of day.”

“Well, if he ever got out of that damned fantasy world—”

“You wouldn't pay him any attention then, either.”

“I don't know what to do about Dewayne,” said Kalia.

“I know what you're about to do.”

“What?”

“Break his heart.”

Mari was sick of being on punishment. It had been almost two weeks since her father dropped the hammer on the sisters—no telephone, no television, no going out with friends, no nothing. He'd all but nixed letting her drive anywhere with him.

I'll never get enough hours to drive by myself now,
she thought, lying in her bed. Thank God for cross-country, or else she'd never get out of the house except for school. She stared at the clock as she had for the past few nights. Once again it was only a little after midnight, and she couldn't get back to sleep. She'd been going to bed at 9:30 every night because after she ate and finished her homework, there was nothing left for her to do but chores, and she'd finished those up early in the week. Sitting up on the edge of the bed, Mari surveyed her room. It was clean as a whistle. Not one item of clothing was on the floor. She'd gotten so bored that she'd even cleaned up. This was ridiculous, she thought, but then she remembered how much fun she'd had homecoming weekend and decided two weeks of severe restriction was worth it.

Not going back to sleep, she walked out of her room to go downstairs for a midnight snack. She passed by her sister's room and heard the radio playing softly, but she thought she heard some stirring as she walked by the guest room. Standing in the doorway, Mari was surprised to find her father sleeping soundly. Something drew her into the room. On the dresser lay his keys, his brush, his cologne and his wedding ring. Some of his underwear and T-shirts peeked out of an open drawer. Turning to look in the closet, she saw several of her father's suits, shirts, pants and ties. Four pairs of shoes were lined across the closet floor. He even had a couple belts hanging behind the door.

Her father turned over, and Mari froze like a cat burglar. As soon as he stopped moving, she tiptoed out of the room and padded downstairs to the kitchen. What the hell was going on? she wondered, staring into the refrigerator. Why did it look like her father had moved into the guest room? She decided on cookies and milk. Not even dipping Oreos into ice-cold milk helped stave off the fear that something was very, very wrong in the Jefferson household.

 

The next day Mari spotted Colby and Shauntae rolling up to East Moreland as she was walking from her last class to the gym for cross-country practice.

“What's happening?” said Shauntae, slamming the car door.

“What are y'all doing up here?” Mari said to Colby. She was still a bit sore at Shauntae for her homecoming shenanigans.
Everybody knows the rules,
she thought.
You leave the club with the same people you came with.

“We hadn't seen your butt in so long,” said Colby, “we had to come up here to make sure you were still alive.”

Mari noticed something different about Colby. She was glowing or something.

“Well, what's up with you, Miss Thang? You're looking all happy.”

“Not too much,” said Colby. “Just Sean. Girl, he's great. I love me some Sean.”

“Oh, Lord, young love,” Mari teased. “I'm so happy for you, Colby. You deserve it.”

Shauntae rolled her eyes, sucked her teeth and sat down on the steps.

“What is your problem?” Mari asked Shauntae as she and Colby joined their salty friend on the steps.

“Nobody wants to hear about that corny love shit,” said Shauntae. She turned to Colby. “Has that fool given you anything yet? Some gear? Some jewelry? Have you met anybody famous at Fire?”

“He doesn't have to do any of that stuff,” said Colby. “We just spend time with each other and have great conversations.”

“I bet that's not all y'all have. He's around all those video girls at Fire. I know if you ain't givin' him some, he's getting it from somewhere,” said Shauntae.

“It's none of your business what Colby and Sean are doing,” said Mari, jumping in.

“Was I talking to you?” Shauntae threw at Mari.

“You don't have to for me to answer,” Mari shot right back.

“Shut up.”

“You shut up.”

“Both of you shut up,” said Colby, turning to Mari. “We're supposed to be cool. We came up here to see how you were doing.”

“I'm surprised you even care,” said Mari directly to Shauntae. “The last time I saw you, King Kong was putting you in his truck, and you weren't giving me one thought. You just left me alone at the club.”

“I knew your sister was there. You were fine, right? I see you made it home all right.”

“The question is, did you make it home at all?” Mari smirked. “I hope you and Rafael had a good ole time.”

“How did you know his name?” Shauntae demanded.

“Don't you worry about it. I heard a lot about Mr. King. Could you handle it?”

“I'm grown,” assured Shauntae. “I can handle anything, and let me tell you, Rafael was not disappointed.”

“I'm sure,” said Mari. “Have you seen him again?”

“Yeah. I've been to his dorm room a couple of times. You don't know nuthin' about this college thing. It's all that.”

“You don't know anything either, except what a dorm bed feels like,” said Mari.

“What are you trying to say?” said Shauntae, glaring at Mari.

“All right, ladies,” Colby broke in. “We didn't come here to discuss our sex lives. Like I said, Mari, we came here to see what was up with you. We haven't seen you in a minute. When do you get off punishment?”

“Just a few more days.”

“They were serious this time, huh?” said Colby. “No time off for good behavior?”

“I'll be lucky if they don't extend it. I haven't seen my daddy that mad in a minute.”

“I just don't understand this punishment deal,” said Shauntae. “How can they keep you from going anywhere?”

“What are you talking about?” asked Mari.

“You can drive. You're sharing a car with your sister. If you wanted to, you could get in the car right now and roll out with us.”

“But Mari wouldn't do that,” said Colby.

“You're right about that,” added Mari. “I can't imagine what they would do to me if I like just broke out while I was on punishment. I probably wouldn't see daylight until I graduated.”

“Girl, my mama tried that punishment mess on me a couple of years ago, and I just walked out of the house,” said Shauntae.

Mari and Colby looked at her like she was crazy.

Shauntae continued, “They can't really do anything to you. They love you, so they're not going to keep food from you or kick you out the house, and if they try to, you can just call social services on 'em. They have to take care of you until you're like eighteen. That's the law.”

Mari and Colby were still looking at Shauntae as if she was someone they didn't know.

“What?” she said, looking back at them. “Y'all better get with the program. Old heads always think they know what's better for you. They don't know shit. They just wish they were young like you. They're really jealous that you can go out, party and kick it like they used to. They have to go to work and are always complaining about bills and stupid stuff like that. I ain't got time for their sad asses. I'm young. I got my life to live, and my mama gotta take care of me until I graduate.”

“Well, what are you gonna do when you graduate?” asked Mari.

“Shoot, I don't know,” Shauntae said, leaning back, looking at the sky, then she sat straight up and grinned, an idea hitting her like a lightning bolt. “By that time I'm gonna have me a college all-star, like Carmelo Anthony, who's gonna go pro early.”

“Well, what's gonna happen if some other chick has the same groupie plan as you and gets your man?” asked Colby.

“Girl, my man is only gonna have eyes for me. How can he have all this,” she asked, smiling and rubbing her hands across her breasts, “and want anything else?”

“You better get another plan, in case those things start drooping.” Mari laughed. “You know gravity is gonna take control of those babies soon, and those of us with perky small ones are gonna rule the world.”

Colby giggled and Shauntae frowned, looking down at her chest like the thought had never occurred to her.

“I think I wanna be a nurse or go to medical school when I graduate,” said Colby quietly, playing with a piece of grass.

“You wanna wipe people's butts and put Band-Aids on their boo-boos?” asked Shauntae. “I don't know how you could want to be around sick people all the time.”

“Well, I don't know,” said Colby. “I just know that I want to help people.”

“I think that's great, Colby,” said Mari. “What made you want to be a nurse?”

“Well, you know my grandparents are kinda old, and they're always complaining about some aches and pains and stuff. So I started going on the Internet in the school library and looking up some of the stuff they were complaining about and kinda helping them to see what kind of conditions they could be suffering from.”

“For real?” said Shauntae. “I've never seen you at no library.”

“You probably don't even know where it is. We may go to the same school, but we ain't together all the time,” said Colby.

“Whatever,” said Shauntae, scraping one long nail back and forth against the cement.

“So were you able to help your grandparents?” asked Mari.

“I sorta helped my grandmother. One time we went to the clinic after she had a bad reaction to the new blood pressure pills she was taking, so I was able to describe to the nurse better what the symptoms of her reactions were, and it turned out they had been giving her the wrong type of medication.”

“That is so cool,” said Mari.

“Yeah, and when she got on the right medication, she was feeling so much better. She was able to get around better without feeling sick and dizzy and everything,” said Colby. “I felt great, like I had really helped somebody, made their life a little better.”

“Sounds like you've found your calling, Dr. Gresham.”

“So what? You think you and Sean are gonna have that bourgeois life?” asked Shauntae. “He's gonna be like P. Diddy in the Hamptons and you're gonna be some big-time doctor on
Oprah
or something? Plueeeeeze.”

“Well, why can't she be a doctor?” asked Mari.

“Yeah, why can't I? At least I won't be dependent on someone else to take care of me. I can do it for myself,” said Colby.

“Whatever. Go on, be a big-time doctor. Cure AIDS or cancer or something. I don't give a damn,” said Shauntae, standing up and dusting off the back of her black stretch pants and walking toward the car.

“I think it's great you have a plan, Colby,” said Mari. “I still don't know what I wanna do. I've been looking at college Web sites since last year, and with Kalia going off next year, there's been a lot of college talk in the house.”

“Don't worry. Something will come to you,” said Colby.

“I know, I know. I'm good at public speaking, and I like writing. I was really thinking of joining the debate team or the school newspaper or something to help me figure out my real interests.”

“See, you're on your way already,” said Colby, getting up and slowly following Shauntae. “I guess we're outta here. We'll check you later.”

Mari watched Colby jog toward the car. Shauntae cranked up the crunk and moved the car forward every time Colby put her hand on the handle of the passenger door. She did it so many times that Colby just stood still with her arms folded across her chest waiting for Shauntae to stop playing. She was finally able to get in the car, and they sped off, leaving a trail of exhaust from Shauntae's hooptie.

Mari headed toward the gym, thinking about the differences between herself, Colby and Shauntae. In the past couple of months, she'd really begun feeling closer to Colby. She liked where her head was, especially in terms of the future. Shauntae didn't seem to have a clue, plus, she had the worst attitude, and she was prone to making really stupid and dangerous choices.
One of those bad decisions could affect me one day,
Mari thought.
What if I'm with her somewhere, and she decides to just leave me, or she's smoking and we get pulled over by the police?
At that moment, Mari decided it was time to put some distance between Shauntae and herself. She wasn't sure for how long, but she knew it was the right decision—one she felt so good about that she went to cross-country practice and beat Asha by a full two minutes on the horse trails.

 

Kalia couldn't believe she was going to go out on a date with a college guy. Shuffling through the four half-completed applications on her desk, she thought about how she'd been agonizing for weeks over where she was going to college, and that night she had a date with someone who'd made that decision. If the opportunity arose, she was definitely going to ask him how he decided to go to Morris Brown College. Having made it into the top twenty finalists in the Fire contest, Kalia was really feeling like she wanted to pursue her music career. She picked up the application for Juilliard, the most prestigious performing arts learning institution in the nation. Just holding the application made her nervous, but now she was sure she wanted to go.