Deal With It (14 page)

Indigo

In
the security office at Macy’s, I waited for Daddy to come and rescue me. I was angry as I peered across the room at Jade. Her chest moved up and down as she breathed heavily. She was waiting for Uncle Ernest to come and rescue her. It was hard to believe that Jade and I had come to this point when we’d once been like sisters. Our families had lived next door to each other for years. I’d eaten at her house a thousand times, and she at mine twice as many times. I couldn’t remember how many sleepovers we’d had, or how many times we’d come to this very mall—together. We’d created a million dance routines and gone trick-or-treating more times than I could remember. We’d borrowed each other’s clothes, CDs and jewelry and never returned any of them.

Daddy had that usual frown on his face, a wrinkle in between his eyes. I knew that frown all too well. It was the one that he usually got when I’d really messed things up. It was a look of disappointment.

“Indi, what’s going on?” He looked at me and then at Jade, a puzzled expression on his face. “Jade?”

“Hi, Uncle Harold,” Jade said softly.

“Hello, sir.” The fat security guard stood, reached for my father’s hand. “I’m Officer Jones.”

“Harold Summer.” Daddy shook his hand.

“Which one is yours?” Officer Jones asked.

“That one.” Daddy pointed my way. “What has she done?”

“She was involved in a physical altercation with this young lady,” said Officer Jones. He pointed at Jade.

“You mean a fight?” Daddy was shocked and confused all at the same time. He looked to me for an answer, but I really didn’t know what to say. I just shrugged to let him know that what the officer had said was true.

“They didn’t cause any damage to the store, and the store management has decided not to press charges, considering they are minors,” Officer Jones said. “However, I did have to call the local police, and they are on their way over. They’re gonna want to question the girls, and I’m not sure if they’ll want to charge the girls with disturbing the peace or—”

“Let me get this straight,” Daddy said. “You mean to tell me that these two young ladies—this one and this one—were fighting each other?”

“That is correct, sir,” Officer Jones stated. “Right in the middle of the store.”

“Whoa.” Daddy exhaled, lifted his baseball cap and scratched his head. “What’s this about, Indi?”

I just shrugged.

“Jade?” Daddy said. He looked her way for an answer. “What do you two have to say for yourselves?”

“Sorry?” It was more of a question than a response that Jade offered.

Uncle Ernest walked in, still wearing his work clothes—gray slacks, a starched white shirt and a colorful tie. Jade’s little sister, Mattie, held on tightly to his hand. She wore
white tights underneath her green, white and blue plaid school uniform.

“Jade, what’s up?” Uncle Ernest asked immediately, and then his eyes scanned the room. “Harold, what’s going on?”

“Well, apparently the girls got into a fight at Macy’s,” Daddy began. “Neither one of ’em seems to have anything to say. So I don’t really know what to make of it.”

“Hello, sir. I’m Officer Jones.” The security guard reached for Uncle Ernest’s hand. “I’m holding the girls here until the local police arrive. They were involved in an altercation….”

“With each other?” Uncle Ernest was just as shocked as my dad had been.

“Yes, with each other,” Officer Jones said. “They didn’t do any damage in the store, and store management has decided not to press any charges, but the local police will need to take a report. They’ll probably just release the girls to your custody.”

I was embarrassed. What had seemed like a good reason to knock fire from Jade an hour ago seemed silly now. Especially with both of our fathers looking at us as if we’d just got done murdering somebody.

“I’m disappointed,” Uncle Ernest said, “in both of you.”

“That makes two of us,” Daddy chimed in.

Jade sat in a chair across the room. Her shirt was ripped, and she held it together with her hand. Her hair was all over her head, and there were scratch marks all over her arm. I held a wet paper towel against my busted lip. I felt my ears for my hoop earrings; the left one was gone.

When the Morrow police officer showed up, pen and pad in hand, I just knew we’d be arrested. He questioned me about the incident, and then he questioned Jade. Then he introduced himself to our fathers. He told them that we were free to go, but that we would have to appear in juvenile court. All of this because Miss Martin had picked the wrong person
as dance-team captain. If she’d just picked me, all of this could’ve been avoided.

The ride home was quiet and uncomfortable. Daddy didn’t bother to say anything to me, except to ask if I was cold. When I nodded a yes, he pumped up the heat and warmed the car.

After we arrived home, I tried to tiptoe up the stairs to my room, but my father’s voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Wait a minute, young lady,” he said. “We need to talk.”

I knew it was coming—a lecture. Especially when he’d been completely quiet the whole ride home, except for when he’d run down all the details for my mother on his cell phone. Outside of that, he hadn’t mumbled one single word. He’d probably spent that time thinking of how he was going to punish me.

Mama wiped her hands on a kitchen towel and followed me into the family room. I sat on the edge of the sofa, Daddy sat in his recliner near the window and Mama just stood.

“I need to know what on earth would make you and your best friend since grade school get into a fistfight,” Daddy started. “In the middle of Macy’s department store, for chrissake!”

When he yelled, I jumped.

“I, um, it all started with Miss Martin,” I said.

“Miss Martin?” Mama asked. “The dance-team coach? What does she have to do with this?”

“Um…she chose Jade as team captain a few weeks ago. And it wasn’t a fair choice. I’m a much better dancer than Jade, and she knows it.”

“And?” Daddy was being impatient.

“And Jade’s been acting all funny lately. And she came up in Macy’s, talking junk, like she’s all cocky and stuff! She’s changed since Miss Martin made her the team captain. She’s not even the same Jade anymore.” I embellished, but just a little. “She said my butt looked flat, and that’s when I lost it.”

“She said your butt looked flat?” Mama asked. “That’s what this is about?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.

“Indi, that is ridiculous!” Daddy yelled.

“I don’t really know what to make of all this, Indigo Summer. But Barbara and Ernest are having this same conversation with Jade right now. I imagine that Jade’s details are probably just a little different from yours,” Mama said, “but we’ll get to the bottom of this somehow.”

“In the meantime, though, of course, you know you’re grounded, right?” Daddy asked.

“Yes, sir.” I’d already kind of figured that out.

“That means no cell phone, no sleepovers, no extracurricular activities,” Warden Daddy said. “You will go to school and come straight home. You will do your chores, complete your homework and then go to bed…in that order.”

“For how long?” I asked cautiously, ready to duck in case somebody wanted to swing.

“Until further notice,” Daddy said.

“Do you have homework right now?” Mama asked.

“I have math homework, which I need Marcus to help me with,” I said.

“Well, that won’t happen.” Daddy stood. “You won’t be seeing Marcus except at school.”

“Can I still ride to and from school with him?” I asked.

“You will ride the bus to school in the morning. And your mother or I will pick you up from practice at night.” Daddy added, “That understood?”

“Yes, sir,” I mumbled.

“You can go on and get started on that homework, then,” Mama chimed in.

“I need help with it,” I pleaded, hoping they would understand the importance of my talking to Marcus—at least one more time.

“I’ll come up and help you myself,” Daddy volunteered. “I’m not a math whiz like Marcus, but I can solve a problem or two.”

Daddy helping me with math? This was going to be the worst punishment ever. Life as I knew it was over.

Tameka

With
my pjs on, I sat on the side of the bathtub in the small bathroom. After checking to see if my visitor had decided to show up and discovering that it was still late, I flipped open my phone and checked the calendar again. It was now eight days past due, and the clock was steadily ticking. I shut my phone and then splashed cool water on my face. The loud banging on the door startled me.

“I gotta use it!” Nate yelled.

There was never a moment’s peace at Grandpa Drew’s house, especially when Nick and Nate were there. I swung the door open, and Nate was on the other side, dancing around in his SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas. He shot right past me and commenced to pull down his bottoms.

“Well, good morning to you, too,” I said, leaving the bathroom and shutting the door behind me.

The smell of pork sausage and bacon filled the house. Blueberry muffins were definitely in the oven, and knowing Aunt Helen, there were homemade biscuits, cheesy eggs and fresh fruit on the table, too.

“Meka, can you help me take my pajama shirt off?” The other twin, Nick, had met me in the hallway in his briefs, with his pajama shirt halfway over his head.

I pulled it off for him. “There you go, squirt,” I said.

“Thank you!” he yelled and then took off down the hallway in his underwear.

In the pink room, Roni was still curled up in the bottom bunk, light snores creeping from her mouth. In the top bunk, Alyssa sent a text message to someone, probably her much-older boyfriend, T. J.

“Good morning,” I said to her.

“Morning,” Alyssa said, never looking up from her phone. “Aunt Helen wants us to come down for breakfast. I tried to wake Roni up, but she’s not budging.”

“Roni!” I shook her.

Roni rose up in bed and looked around in a daze. “What? What?”

“It’s time for breakfast,” I said.

“Oh,” she growled and then plopped her head back down, smashed a pillow into her face. “Tell the barracuda lady I’m not hungry.”

“Come on. Get up!” I insisted. “Let’s eat and then get dressed. I want to go over to the mall today. Maybe my dad or Uncle Rich can drop us off.”

“Too late for that,” Alyssa said. “Uncle Paul and Daddy went to play golf this morning. They’re not back yet.”

“Well, whose car did they take?” I asked.

Alyssa peered out the window. “Your dad’s car is in the driveway.”

“Cool. Then my mom can take us to the mall,” I said.

Roni pulled herself up from her bed. “What is with you people? It is too early in the morning for idle conversation.” Roni was definitely not a morning person. There were days that
she could actually sleep until noon if someone let her. I liked sleeping in on the weekends, but after a while your head started feeling funny. Too much sleep was never good.

I started straightening my bed and fluffing my pillow. I threw my overnight bag onto the bed, unzipped it and searched for something to wear. I decided on my Ecko Red jeans and a matching top. I selected my hoop earrings and a new bra and panty set that I’d picked up at Victoria’s Secret.

Mommy appeared in the doorway. “Don’t worry about getting dressed, girls. Aunt Helen wants you downstairs at the breakfast table right now. Just wash your faces and brush your teeth. You can come down in your pjs.”

“Wouldn’t wanna keep Mother waiting,” Roni said sarcastically. She slipped a pair of house shoes on her feet and headed out of the room.

Alyssa hopped down from the top bunk.

“Mommy, can you take us to the mall after breakfast?” I asked.

“That should be fine,” Mommy said and slipped one arm around my neck and the other arm around Alyssa’s neck. “We don’t really have any plans for the day, and I’m sure you girls are bored to death.”

Aunt Helen stood facing the kitchen sink. Her new husband, Grant, held on to her waist from behind, nibbled on her ear. I hadn’t seen him since we arrived yesterday. I had never heard him come in the night before, and Roni, Alyssa and I had been up pretty late—talking about everything under the sun—at least until three o’clock in the morning. By the time my eyes had begun to flutter, Grant still hadn’t been home. Maybe he worked nights, I thought as I took a seat at the kitchen table, between Jason and Alyssa. Or maybe he just didn’t want to stay at Grandpa Drew’s house with the rest of us.

Mommy and Aunt Annette began making plates for the little ones, Nick and Nate. Jason was already scoffing down a plate
of bacon, eggs and muffins. He barely even looked up. Just as Aunt Annette placed a plate in front of me, Roni walked into the kitchen, rubbed sleep from her eyes. She frowned at the sight of her mother and Grant at the kitchen sink together.

“Mom, have you seen my pink polo?” she asked Aunt Helen.

Aunt Helen turned to face the rest of us. She was actually blushing. “Uh, no, I haven’t seen your pink polo, Roni. Have you looked in the laundry room?”

“It should’ve been washed with my other polos. They were all together,” Roni insisted. It seemed that her goal was to get her mother’s attention off Grant and on her at any cost.

“Well, I’m sorry. I haven’t seen it,” Aunt Helen said, “but I’ll help you find it after we eat breakfast. Now have a seat.”

Roni plopped down in the chair across from me. She sighed from frustration.

“I hate it when I can’t find my things.” Roni folded her arms across her chest. “They’re never where they’re supposed to be.”

“You can wear my pink polo,” I offered. “At least until you find yours.”

“No thanks. I have my own,” Roni said and then poured herself a glass of orange juice. “Can’t wait until I’m grown and out of this house.”

“Your mom doesn’t need the attitude, Roni,” Grant said, stuffing a piece of bacon into his mouth and heading for the front door.

“How would you know what my mom needs when you’re never here?” Roni mumbled under her breath.

“Roni! You will mind your manners,” Aunt Helen said and then headed for the front door to say goodbye to Grant.

“I can’t stand him,” Roni said after she was gone. “And I can’t stand the way she puts him on a pedestal, like he’s really something.”

There was silence at the table for a moment.

“Well, baby, that’s your mama’s husband,” Mommy replied, stepping in. “And you have to respect him, because he’s also an adult.”

“But, Aunt Mel, you don’t understand. He doesn’t even love her. He treats her so bad, yet she always puts him before me and Jason,” Roni insisted. “Doesn’t she, Jason?”

Everyone looked at Jason, waited for his response. He shrugged. “I don’t really care, Roni,” he finally said, “and you should stop trippin’ about it, too.”

Aunt Annette placed a plate of food in front of Roni. Roni began to eat in silence at first. And then she mumbled, “Nobody really understands.”

“We can try and understand, sweetie,” Mommy said. “You want to talk about it?”

“No. It doesn’t really matter, Aunt Mel,” Roni replied, then stuffed eggs into her mouth and shrugged. “It won’t change anything.”

We strolled through the mall, Roni, Alyssa and I, all three of us wearing Ecko Red jeans and similar tops. The moment Mommy’s SUV had pulled up in front of Belk department store, Jason had made a beeline for the door. He wanted to be as far away from us as he possibly could. He wasn’t interested in spending the day with three giggling girls, and we didn’t really want to spend the day with him, either. It was better that way.

“I’ll be back at two,” Mommy had said. “Meet me right here in front of Belk.”

I’d checked my watch and nodded a yes as she pulled out of the parking lot. It was nice to see so much eye candy on a Saturday afternoon. Lots of boys strolled through the hallways of the mall, either chatting on their cell phones or hanging out with their friends. Not that I was looking, but it was definitely a nice view.

We popped into Charlotte Russe and checked out their
clearance rack. Forever 21 was also having a sale, and I picked up a couple of new tops with the allowance that I’d earned just before we left Atlanta.

“I gotta go to the bathroom,” I announced to my cousins as we approached Macy’s.

“Yeah, I need to go, too,” Alyssa said.

“Well, why don’t we just make a group visit?” Roni said.

In the restroom’s handicapped stall, I checked for my visitor again. No sign of it. It was at that point that I started to panic. My heart was pounding out of control; I wondered if my cousins could hear my heartbeat through the walls. I could hear it loud and clear. It seemed that it echoed through the restroom, bouncing off the walls, and every customer in the mall could hear it. Could it really be that I was pregnant? A missed menstrual cycle was usually the first sign. Pregnant at sixteen, just like my mother? No way! It could never happen to me. I was too smart, and besides, Vance and I had taken precautions.

I was in a daze as I sat there on the toilet. I stared at the salmon-colored door, where my leather jacket, my Forever 21 bag and my purse hung. I looked down at my sneakers and went through all the what-ifs. What if I was pregnant? How soon would I begin to show it? How would I tell my parents—especially my mother, who preached abstinence to me on a regular basis? What if they put me out on the street? Where would I go? How would I support myself? How would I tell Vance when he was on a fast track to play ball in college? What if he dumped me? And then there was Aunt Helen, who already thought that I was the fastest thing on the face of the earth. Would she ban me from the family once and for all? How would I support a child, with no job and no money?

“I’m trippin’,” I whispered; at least I thought I was whispering.

Roni’s voice rang out from the other side of the door. “Yes, you are trippin’! Can we go already?”

I stepped out of the stall, and Roni and Alyssa were waiting
patiently. I couldn’t even remember how long I’d been inside. I stepped up to the mirror, looked at my face. Looked at my stomach and the rest of my body, searching for a sign—anything.

“What is your problem, girl?” Roni asked.

“Are you okay, Tameka? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Alyssa acknowledged.

Something was wrong, and I needed to handle it.

“I’m late,” I said, turning on the faucet and holding my hands underneath the water.

“Late for what?” Roni asked. “You are acting way too strange for me.”

“No, my cycle is late,” I explained.

They both stared at me blankly.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Alyssa said. “My cycle changes all the time. Sometimes it comes the first week of the month, sometimes two weeks later. We’re athletes. That’s not unusual.”

“You don’t understand,” I told them. “Mine comes every month at the same time, like clockwork. Ever since I was twelve years old. It never changes.”

When a white-haired older lady walked in, she smiled at us, and we lowered our voices to whispers.

“Well, how late are you?” Roni whispered.

“Today makes eight days,” I said.

“Wow, and you’re never late?” Alyssa asked.

“Never.” I dried my hands on a paper towel, put my leather jacket on.

“You have to find out for sure,” Roni said.

“How?” I asked.

“Follow me,” Roni said.

Alyssa and I followed Roni out of the restroom, up the escalator at Macy’s and outside. The wind was brisk, and I zipped my leather jacket all the way up.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Across the street,” Roni responded.

We jaywalked across the busy street, right into the middle of mall traffic. A man driving a huge truck blew his horn as he’d just missed hitting us.

“Well, this is one way to handle the situation…. Why don’t I just get myself killed?” I asked sarcastically and continued to follow Roni to the other side of the street and through the automatic doors at Walgreens.

We walked briskly past a clerk who was placing things on a shelf.

“Can I help you ladies find something?” she asked.

“No, thank you,” I responded nervously.

I assumed that Roni knew exactly what she was looking for, as she led us straight for the aisle where the boxes of pregnancy tests were stacked on the shelves. She stood in front of them, scanned them one by one with her eyes.

“Here it is,” she said and handed me a bright pink box with First Response across the front of it. “This is the best one.”

“And how would you know that?” I asked, my hands on my hips and my eyebrows raised.

“Yeah.” Alyssa wanted to know, too. “How do you know that?”

“I just know,” Roni said.

“You been holding out on us,” I said. “You been having sex!”

She didn’t admit or deny it. She simply said, “It costs eighteen ninety-nine.”

“I don’t have that kind of cash! I just spent all I had at Forever 21,” I said.

“Don’t look at me,” Alyssa said. “I’m flat broke.”

“Fine,” Roni said and snatched the pregnancy test from me. After checking the ceiling for cameras and mirrors, she opened the box, took out its contents and stuck them inside her jacket. She placed the empty box behind the other boxes on the shelf and said, “Let’s go.”