Getting Played Read online

  “No, we’re not. Whatever’s between them is between them.”

  “Nah, I’m not with that. It affects everyone in the house.”

  “I’m not in the house. I’m sure Courtney told you that.”

  “Okay, I get that you and Court have issues…”

  “Issues,” I repeat indignantly. “Is that what she said?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, you need to tell her to clarify that for you.”

  He looks puzzled for a second, then recovers enough to get back to his point. “What I’m saying is you two have problems. That’s understandable. I know it must not be easy having your mom die and seeing your dad with somebody else.”

  I start laughing. “Don’t be trying to psychoanalyze me. I don’t have a problem. Your sister has the problem. She wants to control what she can’t and she wants what she can’t have. She needs to get over it and move on. Everything else is moot. As I said, it doesn’t involve me. I’m not there enough.”

  “Squash that. You’re there enough to know what I’m talking about. James needs to step up. Court has three kids, his kids.”

  “Again, all that’s between them.”

  “So you’re not gonna do anything?”

  “About what? Talk to my dad about what— Courtney?”

  “He needs to step up and put a ring on her finger.”

  I laugh again. This shit is so comical. “Why should he? Did my mom have one?”

  “A’ight, a’ight, I get the fact that you’re all pissed off about what went down between your mom and Court. But that’s in the past. You need to step to your dad about that. Court had nothing to do with it.”

  “She put herself in the middle of their relationship. So what if someone else is doing the exact same thing to her? What goes around comes around.” He can see the firm set of my determination. I’m not budging.

  “It’s like that, huh?” He looks at me, nodding.

  I nod, too. “Yeah, it’s like that.” The whole conversation is ridiculous. Why should I help Courtney? She hates my guts. And as soon as she finds out my dad is gonna sell the house, she’s gonna be even more pissed. It is hard to not smile about that. She loves the house and couldn’t wait to move her skinny ass in. It’s almost worth losing it.

  Cash walks away and meets up with the guys he was with before. I know Diamond and Jalisa are gonna be curious. They ask about him as soon as I walk back over and sit down. “His name is Cash. He’s Courtney’s brother.”

  “He’s cute,” she says, then pauses and looks at me. “Wait, you mean Courtney’s brother, like in your dad’s friend, Courtney?” Diamond asks. I nod.

  “OMG, for real,” Jalisa says. I nod again.

  “What did he want?” Diamond asks.

  “I don’t even know. He was talking about me getting my dad to marry Courtney.”

  “What?” both Jalisa and Diamond say.

  “Yeah, I know, like that’s gonna happen in this lifetime. He’s got to be crazy to even think that. Can you see me partying at their wedding reception?”

  “OMG, we forgot to tell you about the party,” Jalisa says.

  Diamond opens her mouth and nods. “That’s right. The party’s next Friday.”

  I smile. I know exactly what party they are talking about. Every year since almost the beginning of elementary school, LaVon has thrown a party just after school starts. It’s always private and by invitation only. Of course I’ve always attended, but this year somehow I doubt I’ll be invited.

  “Think I should crash it?”

  We look at each other and laugh, then Diamond looks away and stops cold. “OMG,” she says, her eyes widen and her jaw drops. She looks at us and shakes her head slowly. “It’s show-and-tell time, kids.”

  “Show-and-tell time, excellent,” I say. Jalisa smiles.

  “Wait for it,” Diamond says.

  Okay, we do this all the time. One of us will see something or someone that’s a must-see for the other two. Then we’ll wait for the perfect time to do show-and-tell. Jalisa and I are sitting facing Diamond, and whatever she’s seeing is behind us. I start smiling and Jalisa is ready to jump out of her skin. “Come on, what is it?” Jalisa asks impatiently.

  “Wait, not yet. They’re still walking in this direction.”

  “Come on, come on, hurry up,” I mutter anxiously.

  “Okay, quick, turn to your left,” Diamond says.

  We do. Jalisa’s jaw drops just like Diamond’s did. “Oh. My. God,” she says.

  I don’t say anything. I am too stunned. It is LaVon, my ex-boyfriend. He is there with Chili, my ex-best friend. We watch them stop at a store window, then he says something to her and she laughs. He grabs her butt and leans down and kisses her. But he doesn’t just kiss her. He must have had his tongue halfway down her throat, kissing her. I can’t believe it. I turn back around. Diamond is looking at me. I look over at Jalisa. She is looking at me, too. “What?” I say.

  “Kenisha, are you okay?” Diamond asks.

  “Girls, please, yeah, of course I’m okay. It’s not like I didn’t know they were together. She’s having his baby, right. So, she can have him. Believe me, they deserve each other.”

  “Yeah, we know that, but…”

  “What?” I ask, ’cause they are both still staring at me.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “What? Am I supposed to care about them? Well, I don’t. So let it drop. Whatever, tell me about school, what’s going on with Regan and her new hair weave?” Diamond and Jalisa start laughing. They reminisce about my fight with Regan and how I tore out her weave. I laugh, too.

  We are still joking around when Chili stops at our table. She looks down at me and smiles. “Hey, what up, long time no see, Kenisha,” Chili says.

  We all look up at her. I seriously want to burst out laughing, but I don’t. She is just standing there with her tummy in my face. LaVon and his stupid ass is looking around like he doesn’t know anybody. He’s such a jerk. But I don’t care anyway, whatever.

  Jalisa finally says something. “Hey, Chili, LaVon, ya’ll out buying baby clothes?”

  Chili looks at Jalisa, her eyes narrow. Diamond starts giggling. I seriously don’t want to say anything, but I just have to. “Hey, LaVon, how’ve you been?” I ask as nice as I can. I smile like nothing is wrong. He looks at me and smiles back.

  “I’m fine, how are you?” he says, obviously really shocked to see me acting so nice to him after all that stuff between us happened.

  “I’m doing okay. School’s good. You gotta stop by and see my new baby sister. She’s so pretty.”

  “I bet. How’s your dad?” he asks.

  “He’s fine. Business is slow, but he’s doing okay,” I add. Jalisa and Diamond watch us as we talk. I can see by their faces that they can’t believe how nice I’m being to LaVon.

  “My mom asks about you all the time,” he adds.

  “Do me a favor and tell her I said hi,” I say sweetly.

  He nods and smiles again. “A’ight, she’ll like that.”

  After that, we start talking about his family and reminiscing about old times when we all went to school together. Diamond and Jalisa join in. We are all laughing and joking and having a good time, except for Chili.

  Now the whole time we’re having this nice polite conversation, Chili is standing there staring at us like she can’t believe it. We’re talking and completely ignoring her. Her eyes start to haze over and glare wildly.

  “So you know I’m doing the party thing next week.”

  “Oh, really,” I say, acting mildly surprised.

  “It’s Friday night at the house. You should come,” he adds. Chili’s jaw drops. It’s like she can’t believe what she’s just heard. I can tell she is getting pissed off. That was the whole idea. It was always so easy to push her buttons. She hits LaVon’s arm and he stumbles to the side and looks at her.

  “Hey, what up with you?” he says.

  “Hello, excuse m
e. Do you not see me standing here? What the hell you smiling and acting all nice to her for,” she yells. “You with me now, remember that. This is your baby.”

  “That’s debatable and you know it,” he snaps back.

  “I hate you,” she rages.

  “Hey, it was your idea to come over here. I’m just talking.”

  “That ain’t talking. It’s you trying to get with her right in front of me. I can’t believe your stupid ass.”

  “Ah, girl, shut up and be quiet. Ain’t nobody doing anything in front of you.”

  “Don’t be telling me to shut up. I don’t have to be quiet. You don’t own me. I can say and do whatever I want.”

  “Damn, Chili, hormonal much?” Diamond mutters quietly, but everybody hears her. We all burst out laughing. LaVon laughs, too.

  Chili really starts to freak out. She is furious. “I hate your ass,” she yells real loud. Just about everybody in the immediate area turns around and looks at her.

  “Just shut up,” he says. “You’re just mad because she got you. I told you to leave it alone, but no, you had to come over here and be starting something. You just should have left it alone,” he says.

  After that she really goes off on him. We can barely understand a word she is saying. ’Cause when she’s pissed she talks really fast and it come out half English and half Spanish. LaVon just gives up on trying to calm her down. He walks away. She follows, still screaming and yelling at the top of her lungs. “I hate you.”

  We watch them leave. “Daaamn, girl, I cannot believe you just did that,” Jalisa says to me, smiling like crazy.

  “Did what?” I say, acting all innocent.

  “Don’t even act like you don’t know,” Diamond adds. “You smacked Chili down. I can’t believe you did that. That was so cool.”

  They laugh. Okay, I laugh, too. I knew exactly what I was doing. My grandmother always says if you want to get back at someone, pray for them. Well, I’m not about to do all that. So, I decided to do the next best thing and just be nice. Who would have guessed it would work so well? We can still hear Chili yelling her head off.

  “You know this is gonna be all over school tomorrow. She came over here to get in your face and start something and walked away looking like a fool. And LaVon…”

  “I know. He went along with it. How’d you know he would?”

  “Because LaVon is LaVon,” I say simply. But for real, he probably still doesn’t have a clue what he did that made Chili so mad. “He’s clueless.” We look at each other and crack up laughing. After all this time it’s still so easy to get to Chili. I don’t know why she even bothers trying to step to me. I always put her butt back down. Jalisa and Diamond start talking about Chili and her crazy-ass in school. I just listen as I start thinking about Chili and LaVon. I was okay with it, really. I knew all about them, but I guess it’s one thing to know about them and another to actually see them together.

  Truth is, I am kinda hurt. Not that I want LaVon back. I don’t. It just reminds me of being with my lawn mower guy. I miss him. I miss us and I still don’t know what I did wrong.

  After that, I’m not much in the mood to talk anymore. They understand. So Diamond and Jalisa drop me off at my dad’s house. I don’t mention anything about my dad selling it. I guess I’m still hoping it won’t happen. I sleep in my dad’s office. He doesn’t come home that night anyway. No surprise there.

  Sunday comes and goes and so do I. I let go of the week end fast. There wasn’t much point in hanging on to it anyway.

  CHAPTER 8

  A Fast Start to Nowhere

  “I look up and see that I’m right back where I started. No matter what I do or how far I think I’ve gone, I’m still back to the beginning. Two steps forward and five back, it’s the starting line all over again.”

  —Facebook.com

  I’m at The Penn on Monday morning. Who would have guessed? I guess I should have, but whatever. I keep a low profile and just drift through the day trying not to be here. I accept the fact that I’m not going to Hazelhurst, so I guess I might as well make the best of what I have here. I am in first period when a note arrives for me. Ms. Grayson wants to see me. Shit. I forgot all about her. I go to her classroom and see her sitting at her desk waiting. She looks up when I enter. I don’t say anything. “Have a seat, Kenisha.” I sit down. “I asked the counselor to sit in with us this morning. He should be here in a few minutes, but let’s get started. How was your weekend?”

  “Fine,” I lie.

  “Good. Any problems?” she asks.

  “Look, Ms. Grayson, I know you have to do the whole ‘Good Samaritan’ teacher thing, but for real, I’m fine,” I state, and then turn seeing this white guy walk in. He is tall and tanned with wavy blond hair and looks a lot like that guy from the movies. He says good morning and walks over, taking a seat on the other side of me. “Kenisha, this is Mr. Martin. He’s one of the school counselors here. I spoke to him earlier and asked him to sit in with us. I hope that’s okay.”

  I shrug. “Whatever. As I was about to say, I’m fine.”

  “It’s okay to talk to someone, Kenisha,” Mr. Martin says. “We’re here to help you. We know adolescence is a difficult time. We just want to make things easier for you. You’ve gone through a lot in a short period of time, more than some adults have in a lifetime. As a school counselor, I’m here to…”

  I tuned out as soon as he opened his mouth. Obviously no one is getting the point here. He keeps talking about how he can help me. Blah, blah, blah. Cut. Okay, I’m starting to get a little annoyed now. This is way too many people up in my business. I look down at my jeans and decide to ignore them. Mr. Martin keeps talking about being a teenager and how hard it is now compared to when he was growing up. News flash—who cares?

  “Kenisha,” Ms. Grayson interjects, breaking Martin’s “this is my life” mini-drama-down-memory-lane tirade, “you’re an excellent student. I checked your school records here and at Hazelhurst Academy.” I look up suddenly and glare at her. What right does she have to go snooping through my records at Hazelhurst? She stops talking like she heard me thinking or something. She nods. “You’re upset,” she says. Martin looks at both of us like he missed something. Duh, he did. She knew when I looked up I was pissed.

  “Yeah, why did you go through my Hazelhurst records? That has nothing to do with me being here.”

  “You know it does. As a matter of fact, it has everything to do with it. This isn’t your school of choice, I understand that. But the fact remains, you’re here. So as I see it, you have two choices. Deal with it and make the best choices you can or don’t and fail.”

  We eye each other. I understand her completely. She wasn’t talking about just failing her class or school. She was talking about failing at everything. Mr. Martin looks at her. He seems like he is in shock or something. “Actually, Kenisha, we have numerous programs we can offer that will allow you to…”

  Ignoring him obviously isn’t working. So, like a tiresome gnat, I need to swat his ass away from me. I turn to him. “Mr. Martin, I already have a psychotherapist. His name is Dr. Tubbs. He’s in Virginia and I see him once a week. My counselor at Hazelhurst arranged it. So I really don’t need another counselor trying to poke around in my head.”

  I see Ms. Grayson smiling out of the corner of my eye. She was trying not to laugh.

  He smiles and nods. “Okay, then. I guess I should let you two ladies handle your business.” He stands to leave having finally gotten my point. “But, Kenisha, know that my door is always open to you. If you need to see me, just leave class and I’ll have a note sent to your teacher to excuse you.” I nod. He glances at Ms. Grayson, then leaves. Now the way he looked at her made me wonder. Did they cook this good cop, bad cop thing up or what?

  “Kenisha, have you ever heard of a congressional page?”

  “No,” I say.

  “It’s a very prestigious position and a very unique opportunity. Being a page can open all kinds of doors
for your future. Every year a huge number of students apply to be pages or assistants on Capitol Hill. Only a few are selected. I’d like to submit your name for consideration, but I can’t if you’re going to persist with your attitude.”

  Okay, I have to admit, she got me curious with this page thing. “Don’t you have to be related to somebody to do that?”

  “No. As a matter of fact, relatives of seated members of Congress are specifically excluded from applying. You do, however, have to be sponsored by a member of Congress.”

  “And you know a member of Congress?”

  She just smiles. Okay, I have no idea what that means. But all of a sudden I feel like I am being bribed. She doesn’t answer my question, and after that Ms. Grayson keeps at me to talk and open up. I don’t know what her drama is. It’s obvious it’s not gonna happen. Now I swear to God, I just feel like screaming. A few weeks ago everything was great. Terrence and I were hanging out, Jade and Tyrece were engaged, I was on my way back to Hazelhurst Academy and life was just about good. Now this. Now everything. The bell rings. I’m out of here.

  The rest of the school day is more of the same. Students walking around mindless and teachers thinking they know everything. At the end of the day I see Troy in the hall. He mean mugs me. I just brush him off and keep walking. Thankfully, we don’t have any classes together. As soon as the last bell rings I hurry to my locker and leave. I am probably the first person out of the building. I call my grandmother and tell her I am gonna stop at Freeman after school. The truth is, I really don’t feel like being home right now.

  I take a shortcut to Freeman and get there just as Ms. Jay is opening the doors for after-school classes. I walk in with her, and we talk a little bit as she goes to the office to give me a key to one of the private studios on the top floor.

  “You’re here early. Everything okay at school?”

  “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

  “Penn Hall, right?” she asks. I nod. “A junior?” I nod again. “And you’re not going back to Hazelhurst this year.”