Getting Played

by Celeste O. Norfleet

  “Nah, I’m gonna finish the year at The Penn.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. I went to Penn Hall high school years ago. Of course it’s way different now than it was when I was there. How’s your grandmother and Jade? I haven’t seen either of them in a while.”

  “Everybody’s fine.”

  “Good.” She hands me the keys to the studio. “Lock up when you’re done and drop the keys on my desk if I’m in class.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Ms. Jay.”

  I go up to one of the private studios on the top floor and dance awhile. But mostly I just look out the window and write in my recipe book. I would never have believed I like writing so much. Dr. Tubbs said it’s a good idea to write this stuff down. It’s like a journal, but not really. I write thoughts, ideas, feelings and dreams all mixed up with recipes my grandmother gives me to try out. I just wrote about being back in The Penn. Now I’m just sitting and looking out.

  I like being up high and looking down. I get a different perspective from my bedroom on the third floor at my grandmother’s house and here on the fourth floor at the studio. It makes me feel like I’m above all the drama down there on the street below. But I also know the reality. I have to eventually climb back down and deal with all that crap.

  An hour later, I still don’t feel like going home, so I stop at the Pizza Place to get a soda and write some more. Ursula is just getting to work. She is early, so she sits and talks with me. “Hey, girl, I haven’t seen you all weekend,” she says, while sliding into the seat across from me. “How was it?”

  “It was all right, I was just hanging out in Virginia. What about you?”

  “I was busy like crazy. One of the girls here just quit. We’re shorthanded again. So now I have more hours. You sure you don’t want to get a job here? The money’s not bad and the tips are usually nice.”

  “Why’d she quit?”

  “Her mom made her. There was another break-in down the street over the weekend and she was scared this place might be next.”

  “What do you mean another break-in over the weekend?”

  “Girl, didn’t you hear? There’s been all these break-ins in the neighborhood lately. It’s been going on for the past two weeks. I heard it’s like a crew of four or five guys doing it. Everybody’s talking about it at school. The police think it’s all drug related, but they say that about everything that happens in the hood. Can’t it just be some stupid break-ins?” she asks rhetorically, getting all militant.

  “Maybe it is drugs,” I say.

  “Nah, it doesn’t sound like it to me. It’s all too random and scattered, like a last-minute afterthought. It sounds like whosever’s doing it are just playing games. They break in after hours but don’t steal anything, not even money. They just drink soda and beer and eat stuff. But whatever, all I know is that they were talking to some of the guys at school.”

  “What, at school?”

  She nods. “Yep, they think it might be guys from The Penn.”

  “Why do they think somebody there is part of this crew?” I ask, now more interested. Ursula shrugs. “Who did they talk to?”

  “I don’t know. That’s just what I heard. I’m just glad D’s still locked up or they’d be talking to his dumb-ass. I know they’d probably be looking at him, too. You know the cops came to our house when it first started, asking questions. It was like they were checking out all the usual suspects. I hate it when the cops come to my house.”

  That reminds me… “I heard he’s getting out,” I say.

  She shrugs again. “I can’t stand it. His dad is all pissed off that he’s there. The night it happened, the cops came in our house and found drugs in his room. I wasn’t surprised, although my mom was shocked. They were stuffed in his stupid trophies. When you broke one over his arm and dropped it, some of the little packages came out and they were just lying there on the floor. The police knew all about D. They were just waiting to pull him in. That fight with Terrence made it happen. You know he’s still pissed.”

  “Drugs in the trophies, I didn’t see any of that.”

  “Yeah, girl, the cops were threatening to seize the house.”

  “Oh, shit. Can they do that?”

  “Oh, yeah, but they didn’t do anything. Anyway, later I overheard my mom talking to my aunt about D. She said the assistant D.A. was talking about making a deal. But I don’t know if he’s gonna do it.”

  “What kind of deal?” I ask. The first thing I thought was he’d try to pin all this on Terrence, but I was sure he wasn’t that insane.

  “He could get less time if he talked. Apparently the cops want whoever he’s working for. It’s some guy in Montgomery County. I don’t know him, but I used to hear D talking on his cell with this guy named Dantee all the time. I think it’s him.”

  Shit. I know that name. Darien took me to his town house before everything happened. Dantee gave me the creeps. Seriously, he actually made my skin crawl. The two hoochies with him were acting all pathetic like they were scared to death of him. But for real, he was scary. He reminded me of some kind of modern-day slave trader or something. He was looking at me like I was a piece of meat. I guess I was supposed to act like I wasn’t hearing anything, but I heard what they were talking about. Ursula was right, he was Darien’s boss.

  “So, is he getting out or what?”

  “I don’t know. I hope not. If you ask me, he’s right where he belongs. I know that sounds harsh. I know he’s my half brother and family loyalty and all, but I really hate his guts.”

  “I know what you mean,” I commiserate.

  “So I heard you got pulled out of first period.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Li’l T,” she says.

  “How did he know?” I ask.

  “Girl, you know how Li’l T be playing like that. He knows everybody’s business. I swear the FBI and CIA need to hire him.”

  I nod. It’s so true. “It was nothing. Ms. Grayson, my U.S. History teacher, wanted to talk to me. That’s all. Apparently, she doesn’t like my attitude in her class.”

  “I didn’t know you had Grayson. I had her freshman year for World Geography. She’s nice. I like her.”

  “She’s okay, I guess. She’s just all up in my business.”

  Ursula nods and smiles knowingly. “I know that’s right. But she means well. She likes helping students. It’s her thing. Whenever you have a problem, go to her, seriously. Her grandfather is some big shot senator or something. And for real, she talked me down from trying to poison Darien’s butt most of my freshman year.”

  I laugh. Knowing how Ursula hates Darien, I can just see Grayson trying to calm her down. “I guess it worked.”

  “Barely,” she says. “But seriously, why don’t you get a job here? I think you’d like it.”

  I think about saying no again, but I figure, why not? I was already back in The Penn, so working in the neighborhood wouldn’t be that bad. And if money was going to start being tight with my dad, I needed to get a job now. “I don’t know, maybe. Where do I get an application?”

  “I’ll get one for you.” Ursula quickly grabs an application and I fill it out right then. There isn’t much to it since this would be my first real job. I list working in the office at my dad’s company as work experience and use my grandmother as a reference. I give the application back to Ursula, and she takes it to the owner. I am leaving when Ursula calls me back. The owner wants to meet me.

  I go back to a tiny little office next to the kitchen and talk to the owner. I’ve been coming here forever, and I swear I had no idea this guy was the owner. We always spoke ’cause me and my girls were in here after dance so much. I thought he was just some guy who hung around working and getting free food. He was always cool with us, and he knew I was okay. All this is to say that I got the job. I still can’t believe it happened that fast. They give me a large pepperoni pizza and I hurry home to tell my grandmother, but she isn’t there. I go to the kitchen and put the pizza o
n the table. I get a slice and sit down to eat. I see my grandmother’s bill folder on the table again.

  Curiously, I open it and pull out the bills I saw earlier from the hospital. There are four of them and they total some insane amount of money. It was crazy that my grandmother owed that much money. I wonder about her health care insurance. She is old, she has to have something. Then I start wondering if she has some kind of major health issue. My grandmom looks completely healthy. Maybe she was sick before and she just never said anything to me. I wouldn’t even know if she was.

  So I start reading the dates and the diagnosis to find out what is actually wrong with her. As much as I can figure, the dates are all wrong. Whatever was going on happened before my mom and I moved here. Then I see that the bills aren’t addressed to my grandmother, but to my mom. This is weird. My mom wasn’t in the hospital. But she must have been paying my grandmother’s bills. Now that she’s dead, I guess my grandmother has to pay them herself. But then the bills are all addressed to my mom.

  Then I start thinking about it. There were a lot of things I didn’t know before. I grab my cell and call the customer service number on the bill. It’s a recording. I hang up. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say if someone picked up anyway. I put the bills back in the folder and leave. I call Jade. She still isn’t picking up. I call my dad, thinking he might know something. He doesn’t pick up, either.

  The thing is, I usually have no intention of dealing in other people’s drama. But I guess I don’t have a choice. My grandmother, Jade, my dad, even my girls, Jalisa and Diamond, were having it bad. I know I need to step up.

  I go up to my room and sit down on the bed to start doing my homework, and then I hear the first two steps on the first floor creaking. They always do that. I can always tell when somebody’s coming upstairs. I call out to my grandmother to let her know I’m home. When I hear the door slam closed I go downstairs to check. Nobody is there. It’s strange. I am just about to go back upstairs when my grandmother walks in the front door. “Hi, Grandmom. Was that just you?” I ask.

  “Hi, sweetie, here take this bag. Was that just me where?”

  I grab the shopping bag and follow her into the kitchen. I sit it on the counter and look at her confused. “Didn’t you just come in a few minutes ago?”

  She walks over and starts pulling stuff out of the bag. “No. Why?”

  “Nothing, I just thought I heard you come in a few minutes ago. The steps creaked like when someone’s going upstairs.”

  “This old house has a lot of creaks. How was school?”

  “Not too bad.”

  “Are you okay with staying there for a while?”

  I nod. I wasn’t really, but at this point there wasn’t anything I could do to change the situation, so why stress out about it? “I stopped at Freeman afterward and then went to the Pizza Place and guess what? I got a job there.”

  “A job, what are you going to do with a job?”

  “Work like everybody else,” I say. “I’m usually sitting around doing nothing most of the time, so I thought I might as well get paid for it. I’m working at Giorgio’s Pizza Place.”

  “That was fast.”

  “I know. It just kind of happened. He hired me right on the spot. I start tomorrow, although I work mostly on the weekends. Is that okay with you?”

  “Sure, as long as you keep up with your studies and your chores around the house. What about going to see your father on the weekends?”

  “It’ll be fine. I’m going back to do my homework.” The phone rings just as I leave the kitchen. It’s one of my grandmother’s friends. I hear her laughing and know she’ll be on the phone for another two hours. I go back up to my bedroom and sit down to start my homework again. That’s when I get sleepy. I am just about to lie down when my cell rings. I check the caller ID, then answer immediately. “Hey,” I say, happy and excited for the first time all day.

  “Hey,” Terrence replies. There is a slight pause. “How are you doing?”

  “Fine, how are you?”

  “I’m all right. So you want to talk or what?” he asks.

  “Yeah, I do. What’s up with you?” I ask, trying not to sound like I’m accusing him of anything.

  “I got a lot of stuff on my mind, that’s all. Things I gotta figure out.”

  “Like what? Maybe I can help.”

  “Nah, I doubt it.”

  “Is it about school?” I ask.

  “Yeah, it’s school, too.”

  I know Terrence isn’t going to out-and-out lie to me. I know his character better than that. He’ll avoid the answer, but not lie. “I thought you were doing great in school. You’re magna cum laude, right? Doesn’t that mean you’re doing great?”

  “Yeah, it’s not the grades. It’s just other stuff.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like stuff.”

  “Is it ’cause Gia’s at Howard, too?” I ask. He doesn’t answer for a few seconds. I guess maybe he doesn’t know I know. Seriously, how could I not know? I just didn’t know everything.

  “It’s not about Gia.”

  “Then is it about me?” I ask, hoping he says no real fast.

  “Look, it’s just stuff going on, that’s all, and this has nothing to do with her.”

  Yeah, I’ve heard this disclaimer before, but choose to tune it down for a minute. “It seems like it does. I’m not jealous or anything, but every time I turn around I hear her name. So, what’s the deal with you two?”

  “There’s no deal. We used to be tight and hang out,” he says simply.

  He doesn’t have to elaborate. I know what that means. They were boyfriend and girlfriend. “And now?” I ask softly, ’cause I still don’t know exactly why he called me all of a sudden. Now I’m thinking it’s to make this ending official. Damn.

  “Now nothing. We go to the same school, that’s all.”

  I’m no fool. I know he didn’t answer my question. There is no way I’m letting it go like that. “When did you break up?”

  “Right before you moved here to your grandmother’s house,” he says.

  Suddenly I feel like fresh meat. I know about Terrence’s past when it comes to Darien and his little brother. I also know he wasn’t exactly the good guy next door. He had his issues. But I never thought about who he was seeing before I moved here. Now it’s obvious. It was Gia. “Okay,” is all I can think to say. Then the other question comes out before I think to stop while I’m ahead. “Did you two actually break up?” Shit, I can’t believe I just asked that, ’cause for real, I’m not sure I want to hear the answer.

  “It was understood,” he says. Okay, a dozen more questions pop into my head. But he stops me before I can get the first one out. “I gotta go. I don’t want to be late for work.”

  “What do you mean work? I didn’t know you had a job. Where do you work?”

  “Here on campus. I gotta go, I’ll talk to you later,” he says. And just like that he’s gone.

  So then I am just sitting there holding my cell phone in my hand and wondering what just happened? My mouth is wide open and I am just shaking my head. I slowly run the conversation over again in my head. What the hell does, it was understood, mean? What was understood? Maybe it wasn’t understood. Shit. Was I just ‘understood’? Did I just get played?

  CHAPTER 9

  Next Line Please

  “I changed. I’m different. But now I see that nothing is ever really what it appears on the surface. That sucks. I always expect to see one thing and then something else comes up.”

  —MySpace.com

  It was understood. The words haunted me all night long. By the next morning I was through. I knew I needed to drop all this drama and the best way was to run. I usually run in the mornings on weekends and then after school during the week. But I start my new job today, so I decide to get up extra early and run before school starts. I get dressed, put on my sneaks, hurry downstairs and step outside. I look around the neighborhood, then up at the
sky. It doesn’t look like the sun is going to make an appearance today. It is still mostly dark, but I can see the heavy clouds still hanging above the city. It’s early and the weather is chilly and dismal. I zip up my jacket and walk farther down the front steps, looking both ways as I go.

  The street is empty, but then it always is early in the morning. I know because sometimes when I can’t sleep, I get up early and come sit out on the front porch. I like the peace and quiet. But right now I walk farther down the front path. From this vantage I can easily see at least eight blocks in both directions. The houses, mostly row with few exceptions, one being my grandmother’s, seem to stretch out endlessly. As I start running and turn onto the main street, I can see that the streets are more crowded than I thought. There are people going to work, cars and busses everywhere, so I feel safe enough, even though it’s still just before dawn.

  For real, this is the best part of my day. My mind frees up and I start thinking about all kinds of stuff going on, but mostly stuff that’s happening right now.

  I run past the local library where my grandmother used to work and then volunteer. It burned down three months ago. They said some crazy homeless fool thought it would be a good idea to cook dinner there. I don’t know what some people are thinking when they do stupid stuff like that. What did he think—he was gonna get his grub on and nobody would notice an open fire in the back of the kids’ section? The really dumb part is that he died trying to put it out with his jacket, which was covered with alcohol. So he basically lit up like a torch.

  All that makes me think about the hospital bills on the kitchen table. None of that makes any sense. Why would my grandmother’s bill go to my house in Virginia? After our conversation, I knew my grandmother wasn’t gonna tell me anything, so I decide to ask Jade. If anybody knows what’s going on, she will.

  It is starting to get late and I know I still have a full day of classes ahead of me, so I cross the street and turn back to the house. Then, while I am running in place waiting on the traffic light to change, I look down a side street and see this guy. He looks just like Brian, Jalisa’s brother. I slow down, then stop running to see if I can get a better look at him.