Jevon turned on the radio. “Two minutes from being an Amber Alert. And that’s the truth. That’s Mom calling again now.” Jevon answered his phone. I closed my eyes and thanked God for bringing Nikki home. Something worse than a missing bike could have happened. I just hoped that this was a sign that Peaches would come home next.
When Jevon pulled up in front of Tammy’s house, Tammy came running to the gate. She opened it for us, and we got our bikes. “Oooooh, where were you?”
“Tell you about it tomorrow,” Nikki said.
“Nik, you don’t think you’re leaving the house tomorrow, do you? If you even think about it, you better think again. And you too, Georgie,” Jevon said. “Let’s get home.”
“Just glad you didn’t get snatched,” Crystal said. She hugged Nikki, then Jevon.
“Psst. You ain’t the only one,” Jevon said.
He opened the back of the van and put the bike I was riding inside. “Put yours in here, Kevin, and we’ll drop you off,” he said.
“Nah. I got it.”
Jevon held out his hand to Kevin. “Good looking out, man.”
“No problem,” Kevin said as he shook Jevon’s hand.
While Jevon chatted with Kevin, I eased over to Nikki. “Think he’s gonna tell my mama about this?” I asked.
“Uggh, if he’s not telling our mama and daddy, why would he tell yours? Think it through!”
“Don’t tell me to think it through. Not like you think things through all the time either.”
“See you guys later,” Kevin said.
“Bye,” Nikki spat.
“See you later,” I said. “Thanks for helping me,” I shouted, right before he rode off.
“No problem.” He waved and pedaled faster.
As soon as he was far enough away, Jevon said, “Ain’t that the boy with the drunk mom?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
“He lives across the way on Culberson, right?” Jevon asked.
“I don’t know.”
Nikki stepped up, bumping shoulders with me, but I hoped she didn’t say anything mean about Kevin or his mama. I watched Kevin’s reflectors glow in the night and wanted to believe that his mama missed him when he went away.
Once we loaded up back in the van, it took a minute for Jevon to drop us off in front of Nikki’s.
“Mom said that she and Dad were heading out for a while,” Jevon told us as he parked in front.
“Can we hang out on the porch?” Nikki asked.
“You got jokes, Nik!” Jevon said. “It’s a bite to eat and bed. Period. Peanut butter and jelly or turkey sandwiches, knock yourself out. And, Georgie, you might wanna check in with your folks.”
“Okay,” I said, and followed Nikki inside. Jevon and Crystal stayed on the porch.
Nikki smacked her lips. “I know why he wants to be alone with her.” She tossed her fur ball purse on the stairs, and I waited to let her lead the way to the kitchen. “You think Tangie kisses boys?” she asked.
“Who knows?” I tried to sound casual. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for me to tell her about Tangie and Marshall, but I just couldn’t risk it. Plus, I’d made a promise to Tangie and didn’t want to be a snoop tattler for real. Nikki turned on the faucet, and we both barely let the water wet our fingers.
“When do you think your parents will come home?” I said.
“Who knows?”
I sat at the kitchen table and put my head in my hands.
“What’s wrong with you?” As soon as I sat down everything that was going on with Peaches dunked me into a deep pool. If I uttered a word, I’d drown. “Peaches?”
I nodded. Now that Nikki was safe all I could think about was Peaches asking for me. “She must think I’m the worst big sister ever.”
“Oh please. Peaches loves you more than ice-cream cake and pizza.”
“Think so?”
“Know so! She’ll be home soon, I bet.”
Nikki stood on a stool and scoured inside a cabinet for a few seconds, grabbed the peanut butter, then hopped down and stood in front of the fridge. A pineapple magnet held a picture of her posing on her bike. We’d snapped a bunch on Memorial Day, and her mom had them printed at Walmart. Nikki stared at it so long I thought she’d start bawling, or snatch it down and stomp on it.
“We…we can post pictures of your bike around the mall. Even around here. Who knows. Anyone could have seen it. I can help with money for the reward. I got almost twenty dollars in my piggy bank.”
She yanked the refrigerator door open. “No thanks,” she said in a short, sharp tone and took out two jars of jelly.
“Well, we have to do something. You can’t keep it from your folks forever. Jevon already knows.”
“Just forget about it.” I stared at her to see if she was tearing up—nothing. Just them sneaky, catlike eyes of hers.
Something didn’t seem right.
“Grape or strawberry?” she asked.
“Don’t matter,” I said, waiting for her to say anything about her bike.
“I’m gonna mix ’em.” She dropped the bread on the white countertop, then jabbed the knife into the peanut butter. “I bet Tangie kisses boys. Just like you and your boyfriend.”
“What does that have to do with your bike?”
“Nothing. How many times I gotta tell you to forget about that.”
“Whatever. But don’t say stuff about Kevin and me. We never kissed. And he’s not my boyfriend,” I said, then remembered Jevon’s telling me to call home. I’m glad I thought to call at that moment. Anything would be better than arguing with Nikki.
My phone was really dead, so I used the house phone to call. Nikki just went about clanging plates on the counter. Sometimes it was like she had a Nice-or-Mean switch, and I never knew how I triggered either.
After two rings, Tangie answered.
“Hey, may I speak to my mom?” I was nervous because I didn’t know if the niceness Tangie had shown me at the hospital had ended.
“Hey there. How are you?” Her voice was soft like I was the one sick.
“I’m okay.”
“Good. Your mom said you’d probably call soon. She’s back at the hospital.”
“How’s Peaches doing?”
“She was sleeping during most of my visit. Are you coming home tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so. My mama wants me to stay here longer.”
“That’s cool if you want. But if you’re ready to come home, I could use some help taking out my braids. Finally ready to do it. After that we can do our nails.”
“Together?”
“Of course together. Only if you wanna come home tomorrow. If not, we’ll do it another time.”
“You’ve never wanted to do anything like that before.”
“Well, just need some help and you offered, remember? If you’ve changed your mind, that’s okay, too.”
“Oh, I wanna do it.” We said good-bye and hung up. It was almost as good of a feeling as when she hugged me at the hospital. “Tangie wants me to help with her hair,” I told Nikki, twirling my own at the thought of it.
“So?” Nikki said. She loaded her bread with peanut butter and clumps of strawberry and grape jelly, then cut it straight down the middle. “Big whoop.”
Jevon stepped in the kitchen. “Did you check in?”
“Yeah,” I said, knowing that was all he wanted to hear.
“Good. I’ll be out on the porch. After you two eat, it’s upstairs and get ready for bed, nothing else.”
“Okay,” we said.
The front door opened and closed.
“See how he just wants to get rid of me? That’s how Tangie’s gonna be, too,” Nikki said.
While I was making my sandwich, Nikki grabbed a bag of potato chips and plopped a handful on top of her sandwich, then poured us glasses of milk and started upstairs to her room. Eating in her room was one thing I liked about Nikki’s. It was against the law at our house.
I took my sandwich and milk and followed her upstairs.
Nikki was being extra snappy. Something wasn’t adding up. But with her, sometimes the best way to find out stuff is to act like you don’t want to know.
In her room, Nikki had half a wall dedicated to Chance the Rapper and Drake and the other to Future and Kendrick Lamar. She had one poster of Beyoncé and Jay-Z performing together. There was a picture of Nicki Minaj wearing a pink gown with two pink toy poodles on either side of her, and another picture of Rihanna wearing purple, orange, and green feathers that fanned out like a peacock’s tail. Nikki had a canopy bed and pink everything. Though we didn’t play it as often as we used to, there was an Xbox in the corner. On her dresser were several miniature elephants. Ever since we’ve been friends, she and her mama liked collecting them.
She closed her door, tossed that Lucinda Hightower–imitation purse on her dresser, and sat on her bed. I grabbed a seat at her desk.
After her first bite of her sandwich she asked, “So you don’t think it’s strange that Tangie wants you around now?”
“Guess she’s trying to be nice since Peaches has been sick.”
“Her wanting to do girly stuff with you sounds fishy. Big sisters are just like big brothers: hug your neck one second and send you to bed without TV the next.”
“Yeah, or she could really like me.”
“Georgie, you’ve been my friend for, like, forever, forever, and I know you’re worried about Peaches, but sometimes you can be such a big baby.”
“A baby? You’re the one who got lost and your bike stolen,” I blurted out.
“Least Kept Back Kevin Jenkins with the drunk mama ain’t my booooyfriend.”
“Stop calling him that! Especially after all he did to help us. And you don’t know if his mama is a drunk.”
“I do.”
“How?”
“Security had to throw her out of the Walmart on Old National. My brother and I were there.”
“Could have been a mistake. Anyway, he’s not my boyfriend.”
“Is so!”
“Is not!”
“I don’t care either way. What’d you think ’bout these?”
She flipped back one ponytail that covered her ear to show me her earring. It was a sparkling silver hoop with a heart dangling from it.
“Those aren’t the same earrings you had on today,” I said.
“Duh and double duh. And these, too?” She got that fuzzy thing off the dresser, opened it, and pulled out three other pairs.
“Where did you get them?”
She fluttered her eyelids and put her hand on her hip. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
“You stole ’em!”
“No shirt, Sherlock,” she said, and handed one pair to me.
She started saying that—“no shirt”—after she got a note home for cursing at recess.
I backed away. “I’m telling your brother right now!”
“Please. Do that, and I’ll spill how you and Kevin left me alone so you two could kiss.”
“That’s not what we were doing!”
“Don’t matter. Bet that will stop you from blabbing.”
I hated it, but she was right. When Peaches was better, Mama was bound to ask me about the boy she saw me with at the hospital. My science teacher says elephants have the best memory. Elephants and Mamas.
“You better not say a word,” I finally said.
“I shouted that I would leave if you took too long. You ignored me.”
I immediately knew what she meant and wished I’d gone back to check like Kevin said. “I didn’t hear you.”
“Well, too bad. If all three of us would have gone in, I wouldn’t have gotten so bored and—”
“And what?”
“And none of your business. F.Y.I., I know where my bike is.”
“Oooh. You made that whole thing up?”
She took a big bite from her sandwich.
“Where is it?” I demanded.
Just then, I heard Jevon coming up the stairs. He stopped halfway. “Is everything cool up there?” he called to us.
“Yes!” we both yelled. Nikki stuffed her mouth with potato chips and sat there munching like a big squirrel.
“I want both of you in bed ASAP,” Jevon said.
“Okay,” I called, just to get back to Nikki’s story.
As soon as Jevon jogged back downstairs, I lowered my voice but made it deeper. “Where is your bike?”
“My friend borrowed it.”
“What friend?”
“Lucinda to you. Lu Lu to me.”
“Are you serious?” I yanked my pajamas out of the emergency sleepover drawer and tossed them on Nikki’s other bed. “How did she get her wormy fingers on it?”
“And what do you care? You’re so ready to go back home to Tangie.”
“That doesn’t have nothing to do with nothing. Lucinda’s not your friend. She’s a bully.”
“You are so third grade. I ain’t never heard of Lucinda taking anybody’s lunch money, or beating up nobody.”
“So what? Those aren’t the only kind of bullies. What about that time when Sherry didn’t want to write her essay for her and Lucinda started telling everybody that Sherry peed on herself?”
“Big whoop. She probably did. You’re just jealous that Lucinda likes me now and not you.”
“She stole your bike!”
“I told you, she borrowed it.” Her voice was insistent, but her eyes landed on every single thing except me. “She was supposed to drop it off at Tammy’s, but maybe it got too late.” Nikki bit her sandwich again, but not before I saw her flick away a tear. “I’m sure she’ll probably do it tomorrow.” She looked up at me the way Peaches would sometimes when she wanted me to tell her that Daddy would keep his word.
I sat down next to her. “Nikki, she steals stuff, she doesn’t borrow it. She’s not dropping it off nowhere. She’s going about her business on it like it was hers. Your daddy had that painted for you. We gotta figure out a way to get it back.”
“I shouldn’t have told you a thing. I can get it back whenever I want. How many times I gotta tell you that she’s my friend now.”
“And how many times I gotta tell you—no, she’s not!”
“Jealous Georgie. That should be your new name.”
I stood up and stomped back to my bed. “I’m not jealous. I’m your best friend. Who else would have known where to find you in the mall…? Oooh, you knew that, didn’t you?”
“Figured you’d find me to save your own behind. You’re the one who talked me into going with you, then you left me. Hope I worried you a ton. Serves you right for thinking I wasn’t as good as you ’cause I got asthma. Lucinda didn’t care about that. Said we could be best friends, too.”
“First, I didn’t want you even coming along. And second, I don’t care about your asthma, either.”
“‘You should stay here with the bikes.’ Who said that, huh? You were treating me like a sickie, and I’m not. Point-blank. Period.” She bit into her sandwich.
I’d lost my appetite, so I sat down and picked at my sandwich before I spoke. “I didn’t want you to be in the hospital, too. You needed to catch your breath.”
“If you don’t want me treating you like a baby, then don’t treat me like a sickie. A sickie couldn’t do what I did. Lucinda said so, too.” She stood up and slid the earrings into the back of her drawer.
“You better not steal anything again, or I’m telling. I really will. Threatening me about Kevin won’t work. I’m your best friend. Lucinda is only friends with people who do what she says. That’s it. I’m not gonna let her get away with stealing your bike.”
“Stop acting like you care so much. Matter of fact, stop saying you’re my best friend. You don’t even want to stay the night. You hardly ever want to talk on the phone anymore. The only best friend you want is Tangie. Remember, I was trying
to help get her to like you when she was treating you like a mosquito.”
“Well, maybe she’s sorry for that now.”
“She’s not sorry. I bet she’s only pretending she can stomach you while Peaches is sick.”
“You don’t know that! Maybe she just wants to be a good stepsister.”
Nikki laughed. “You are so lame. All you want to do is talk about Lucinda and how she uses people. But what about Tangie? I bet she’s getting something out of the deal. Probably more allowance. Who knows. She wouldn’t give you the time of day last week, now all of a sudden she wants to do a mani-pedi like y’all the Kardashians.”
“You think you know everything all the time, and you don’t.”
“More than you. Don’t let Tangie fool you like you’re five. You’re eleven. Almost twelve, next is thirteen.”
“I know how to count.”
“Don’t seem like it. Lucinda says I can’t act like a baby and hang with her and her crew. Neither should you.” She took another bite of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and put two chips in her mouth.
“That’s gross!” I said.
“What’s it to you?” She slapped on her Beats and put her head under the cover.
I yanked at it a few times. “Now who’s acting like a baby?” I said.
I stood over her, bending down until my lips were as close to her ear as possible. I whispered, “Don’t come crying to me when you need help getting your bike. Girls like Lucinda Hightower don’t change overnight.”
Then, in grand Nikki fashion, she flipped the cover back, yanked off her Beats, and said, “You should be thanking Lucinda and me instead of talking junk.”
“Seriously? Why?” I snapped. She just got quiet and rolled her eyes. I folded my arms and leaned forward. “Really, Nicole Denise Shepard, you tell me why right this minute, or I swear you’ll regret it.”
Nikki gave a deep sigh like a teacher had just asked her to read aloud.
“There’s a step team at the Boys and Girls Club that’s starting in September. And Lucinda’s the captain.” As soon as Nikki said “step team,” Lucinda’s words about how I got cut from everything punched me in the stomach.
“Big whoop. You can make that with your eyes closed,” I said.
Love Like Sky Page 11
