Deal With It

by Monica McKayhan

  When I first heard the doorbell, I thought I was hearing things and continued to munch on my apple and sip my V8 Splash. But when I heard the doorbell a second time, I knew it was for real. I set the glass of juice on the kitchen table and went to the front window, peeked through the blinds. It was dark and I wasn’t able to get a good visual of the car that was parked in front of the house, and I suddenly became nervous. Couldn’t think of one single person who would be ringing our doorbell at this hour.

  “Tameka,” a voice called. “It’s me. Vance. Open up.”

  “Vance Armstrong?” I asked.

  “How many Vances do you know?”

  It was really him. The sound of his voice caused my heart to flutter. But what was he doing here? Did he have another ultimatum for me? Had his father sent him to tie me up, kidnap me and drag me by my hair to the abortion clinic? I still had a few weeks to spare.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered to myself. “I look a mess.”

  I took off running to the guest bathroom, my tube socks making a squishing noise in the carpet. Standing before the mirror, I snatched the scarf from my head and brushed my fingers through my hair. Tried to do something with it, but there was little hope. I was long overdue for a relaxer. There was no time to change clothes, and I wished I had time to put on some eyeliner and maybe a little lip gloss, but there was no chance of that happening. Instead, I rushed back to the front door, gave my hair one last brush with my fingertips, swung the door open. Vance stood on the other side, looking like a dream—which was what I needed since my life had suddenly become somebody’s worst nightmare. He was dressed in a black tuxedo with a pink bow tie, a matching cummerbund and pink-and-white Air Force Ones. His hair was perfectly trimmed, and his mustache was lined. He smelled like the bottle of Kenneth Cole cologne that I’d given him for Christmas. What a sight he was.

  “Hey.” He smiled.

  “Hey,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

  “Can I come in?”

  The last time he’d shown up on my doorstep when my parents weren’t home, it had changed our lives. That was how we’d ended up in the boat that we were currently in, swimming downstream without a paddle.

  “I can’t really have company while my parents aren’t home,” I admitted. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice in one lifetime.

  “I’ve already talked to your mother, Mel,” he said and chuckled. “She told me to call her Mel. Said that Mrs. Brown made her sound like an old lady…”

  That sounded like her, all right. She always told my friends to call her Mel. She always told them that Mrs. Brown was my daddy’s mama, and she had passed away years ago.

  “I asked her for permission to come over here,” he continued. “She said it was okay.”

  I gave him a skeptical look. “My mother gave you permission to come over here?” I asked. “That just sounds like a lie.”

  “Nah, it’s the truth. She’s at the movie theater right now. With your cousin, right?” He knew too much information not to have talked to Mommy. “She thought it would be a good idea. Said that you could use the company.”

  I couldn’t help wondering what was going on. I pulled the door open wider, let Vance inside. He pulled a clear plastic carton from behind his back. Inside was a pink-and-white wrist corsage from Publix grocery store. He handed it to me.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “It’s a corsage.” He smiled. “For my prom date.”

  “I thought you were taking Darla Union to the prom,” I replied. “Shouldn’t you be picking her up at her house right about now?”

  “What made you think I was taking her to the prom?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “I just figured that since I’m fat, pregnant and not on your list of favorite people…”

  Vance grabbed the carton, took the corsage out. He placed the corsage on my wrist. “Will you be my date for the senior prom, Tameka Brown?” he asked.

  “Looking like this?” I stood back so that he could get a good look at my ensemble. “I don’t think so.”

  “You look fine just the way you are,” he said.

  When Usher’s voice rang through the room, it startled me. Someone had turned on the stereo, and the last time I checked, I was the only one at home.

  “What is going on?” I asked.

  When someone dimmed the lights, I knew that something wasn’t right. I was relieved when Mommy popped her head into the room, smiled, gave Vance a wink and then disappeared.

  “Can I have this dance?” Vance asked, and before I could respond, he wrapped his arms around my waist and swept me into a slow dance in the middle of my living room.

  My eyes staring into his, I hoped he couldn’t tell how out of shape I had become. My body was different now. There were bumps and lumps in places where there shouldn’t have been bumps and lumps.

  “I’m sorry for treating you the way that I did before,” Vance said. “I’m really scared about the baby, Tameka. I’m not gonna try and pretend that I’m not. But I know that you’re probably more scared than me.”

  “I am scared,” I whispered.

  “Um…I’m still planning to go away to college in the fall, but if you let me, I still want to be a part of your life.”

  I rested my head on his chest, hid my face. I didn’t want him to see my tears.

  “What about the abortion? What about your parents?” I asked. “Do they still hate me?”

  “My parents don’t hate you, Tameka. They were just worried about my future. They were shocked finding out about the baby like that. And they were scared, too,” he explained. “And as for the abortion thing, I read on the Internet about some of the risks of abortion, and about girls who end up with complications. Some of them have even died. I don’t want you to do anything that’s going to mess you up like that.”

  “What about when the baby is born?” I asked.

  “We’ll decide together,” he said. “We have time. If we decide to put the baby up for adoption, that’s fine. Or if we decide to keep it, that’s fine, too.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. I had a lot of time to think about things. And I know what I have to do. Your father was right. I do need to step up to the plate and be a man. I want to be there for you, if you’ll let me.”

  Vance lifted my chin, wiped the tears from my eyes with his fingertips. His lips found mine, and I pretended that just for a moment I was wearing a soft pink dress to match his bow tie and cummerbund. I pretended that we were in the middle of the dance floor at Atlanta’s Marriott Marquis, the place where this year’s prom was being held. Usher’s voice was bouncing from the walls of the ballroom, and my knight in shining armor was rescuing me from my nightmare.

  “So you actually missed your senior prom to come over here and hang out with me?” I asked. “That’s sweet.”

  “I’m not missing anything. I’m right where I want to be,” he said. “This is not going to be an easy road, Tameka. In fact, it’s going to be hard. I’ll be going away to college, and you’ll still be here, by yourself. You’ll have to face the world alone, your friends, Miss Martin and the dance team. Everyone will know.”

  “That’s all I’ve been thinking about. I haven’t even told Indigo, Jade, Tymia or Asia.”

  I was still going to dance-team practice every day, as if nothing had changed, but I knew that it wouldn’t last long. Miss Martin spotted weight gain like a cop spotted a criminal. It wouldn’t be long before she busted me out in front of everybody. The bright side was, there were only a few weeks left of school, and summer was just around the corner. I already had plans of hibernating through the summer. I knew I would probably gain plenty of extra pounds during the summer, but as long as I stayed in the house, no one would ever know. The fall would be an awkward time. When school started again in August, everything would come to a head.

  I still had a few months before I had to face the music. I wasn’t looking forward to the next school year.

  �
�Life will get really tricky from here on in,” he said. “But I got your back.”

  “I got yours, too,” I told him.

  As we danced to an Usher tune, I knew that life as we knew it would never be the same. The road we had chosen was unpaved, uncharted territory, and far from perfect, but I believed that together we could make the journey worthwhile.

  Discussion Questions

  In the novel Deal With It Tameka deals with several life-changing events, one event being the death of her grandpa Drew. Have you ever lost someone close to you (a grand-parent, aunt, uncle or parent)? If so, how did you deal with it? What did you do to get past the pain of losing someone close to you?

  Do you think that Tameka should’ve revealed her cousin Roni’s secret of being raped to her mother, or should she have kept it to herself?

  The conversation between Tameka’s mom and Roni’s mom was never revealed. What do you think Tameka’s mom said to Roni’s mother that made her let Roni go to Atlanta to live?

  Do you think that Roni’s mother was sorry about her husband raping Roni, or do you think she didn’t care at all? What do you think she should’ve done about it?

  What do you think Tameka should’ve done about the pregnancy? Do you think she made the right choice in keeping the baby or should she have chosen abortion?

  Were you happy when Vance showed up in his tuxedo and told Tameka that everything would be okay? What do you think happened in their lives after that night?

  Was Indigo being selfish when she didn’t congratulate Jade for making team captain?

  Have you ever been in competition with someone close to you (a friend or cousin) for something that you really wanted? Did you win, or did they win?

  Should Jade have covered for Indigo when she had a detention, or did she do the right thing by telling Miss Martin the truth? Have you ever been in the position of having to tell on your friend? How did you handle it?

  Which character in this book would you include in the next Indigo Summer book? Why?

  DEAL WITH IT

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3405-9

  © 2009 by Monica McKayhan

  All rights reserved. The reproduction, transmission or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without written permission. For permission please contact Kimani Press, Editorial Office, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U. S. A.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ® and TM are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and/or other countries.

  www.KimaniTRU.com