Caught Up in the Drama

by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

  “Thanks, Dee, but I’m supposed to be meeting Jasmine and Angel,” I lied. Every time I’d even tried to talk to my friends over the past two days, someone from Sisco’s camp would call and interrupt us. I knew they would start tripping about how busy I was, so the last thing I wanted to be doing was sitting up and faking the funk with Dee and her friends, especially because I knew the only reason they wanted me over there was because of everything that was going on with Sisco. Thanks, but no thanks.

  “Whatever,” I heard this girl named Veronica mumble when I walked off. “She thinks she’s all that just ’cause she’s in a stupid video.”

  I smiled to myself. Let the hate begin.

  I glanced around the cafeteria, trying to find my girls. They usually sat in the back, so that’s where I headed. I stopped in my tracks when I spotted them. Jasmine, Alexis, Angel, Xavier and two of his friends were sitting at the table laughing with some girl I’d never seen. My problem was the way Xavier was leaning over the new girl, looking at her like she was a tasty pork chop.

  I eased closer to the table. “Hey,” I said meekly.

  The laughing stopped as everyone looked at me. Alexis was the first to speak. “Hey, Camille. Where you been?”

  “Where you think?” Jasmine snapped. “With her A-list friends. Alexis, didn’t you get the memo? You’re C-list. You can only hang out with Camille on the third Sunday of the month.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, Jasmine.”

  She must’ve noticed the strange look on my face, because she stopped laughing. “Girl, I’m just playing.”

  I didn’t respond. “Hey, Xavier.”

  He pushed off from the table. “And on that note, Gerald, Smitty, let’s roll,” he said to his friends.

  I set my tray down next to Angel. I couldn’t believe he was being such a jerk. I mean, I know we broke up, but he didn’t have to act so stank.

  “Jaz, don’t forget I need to copy your calculus homework,” Xavier said as his friends stood up. He turned to the new girl. “Tyeesha, it was nice to meet you. I sure hope to see you around.”

  Tyeesha laughed. “I’ll be here. And it was nice to meet you, too.”

  I wanted to cringe as Xavier squeezed her shoulder. He walked past me without uttering a word. Gerald and Smitty tried to fight back laughs as they followed behind him.

  My emotions were all mixed up. On the one hand, I wanted to cry. On the other, I was ready to go off. I took a deep breath. The last thing I needed to be getting into was some drama, so I just let it slide. If Xavier wanted to be a prick, then fine.

  I looked over at Jasmine, Alexis and Angel, who had suddenly grown interested in their lunch trays. I was about to say something when it dawned on me that the new girl was still sitting there. “Ummm, do you mind?”

  She popped the last of her pizza in her mouth and shrugged. “Not at all.” She took a long swig of her soda.

  I tapped my tray impatiently. “No, I mean, that’s my seat.”

  Tyeesha (don’t even get me started on her name) looked confused. Then she stood up, looked at the seat, under the seat and on the table. “I’m sorry, somebody must’ve taken your name plate off of here. You might want to take that up with your publicist.” She smiled, then sat back down.

  Jasmine busted out laughing. “Okay, see, this is why I like this girl.”

  Me, on the other hand, I didn’t see anything funny. “Look, Tyequanna, Myesha, whatever your name is, I really need to talk to my girls.”

  “Okay, so talk,” she said.

  “Alone.”

  “We’re all family now, so you might as well get to talking.” Tyeesha flashed a tight smile.

  “What?” I wasn’t in the mood to deal with this girl. “Who are you and what are you talking about?”

  “I’m Tyeesha McCray,” she said, all friendly-like. “And I’m good, girl.”

  It was my turn to look confused. “What do you mean, you’re good?”

  “Ummm,” Angel said hesitantly, “just what she said.”

  Jasmine finally stopped snickering. “Oh, good grief. Camille, meet Tyeesha, our newest Good Girl.”

  I’m surprised that I didn’t faint right then and there. “Excuse me?”

  Jasmine spun around on her stool. “If you had time to come to a Good Girlz meeting, you’d know she was a new member.”

  “Since when did we start getting new members? And more importantly, why didn’t you guys tell her Xavier is my boyfriend?”

  “Dang, X-man is your boyfriend?” Tyeesha asked, wide-eyed.

  “Technically, X-man is her ex,” Jasmine snickered.

  Angel shoved her in the side. I knew Jasmine was just messing with me, but I wasn’t in the mood. “Who the heck is X-man?” I snapped.

  That made Angel and Jasmine giggle even more. At least Alexis had the decency not to be laughing at my misery.

  “Chill out, Camille,” Alexis said. “We were going to tell her Xavier is off limits, but he’d just sat down before you got here.”

  “Yeah, chill, Camille,” Tyeesha said. “We’re BFFs now. I wouldn’t dare talk to your man . . . no matter how much he tried,” she added with a smirk.

  I glared at her. Good Girl or not, she would never be my friend. And right about now, I was beginning to question the ones I did call my friends. “Whatever,” I said, stomping off.

  I ignored my friends as they called my name. I had suddenly lost my appetite.

  13

  Alexis

  I normally had to be the voice of reason among my friends. Angel never caused any drama, but she was quiet and tried to stay neutral, so the peacemaker role fell to me. I could tell I was definitely going to have to play it today.

  Camille had walked into the Good Girlz meeting without speaking to anyone. After everything that had gone down at school today, I honestly was surprised to even see Camille here. But judging from her sequined tank top, low-cut skinny jeans and high-heeled boots, I coudn’t help but wonder if she was going to an awards show when she left the meeting.

  “Well, hello, Camille,” Rachel said. “So nice of you to join us.”

  “Hey,” was all she said.

  Rachel eyed her funny, then looked at us. I kinda shrugged. Tyeesha had a nervous smile.

  “Okay, does someone want to tell me what’s going on?” Rachel said. When no one responded, she continued, “Camille?”

  “Nothing,” Camille replied nonchalantly, removing her sunglasses.

  Rachel set her pen down, folded her arms and walked around to the front of her table. “I’m going to ask again. Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”

  “Ask Tyeesha what the problem is,” Camille snapped.

  “What did I do?” Tyeesha responded.

  “You’re trying to steal my man.”

  “First of all, he’s not your man anymore. Second of all, I didn’t try to steal him. I didn’t flirt with him. I was just laughing at something he said. But now that I know you two used to date I won’t even do that.”

  “See, Camille,” Angel interjected, trying to smooth things over. “It’s not that serious. Tyeesha’s cool, don’t be upset with her.”

  Camille cut her eyes but didn’t respond.

  “You haven’t been here,” Jasmine said nonchalantly.

  “I haven’t been here because of the video. I thought you guys understood that. In fact, you were the ones encouraging me. Now you want to punish me for it.”

  “Okay, here comes Camille the victim,” Jasmine groaned.

  “Okay, girls. Enough,” Rachel said.

  “No, Miss Rachel,” Camille said. “It’s not fair. They were the main ones encouraging me.”

  “Camille, I think they just want you to find a balance,” Rachel said gently.

  “Yeah, Camille, find balance,” Jasmine sneered.

  Miss Rachel cut her eyes. “That’s the last time, Jasmine.”

  She shrugged apologetically.

  “Camille, you can accomplish great things w
ithout stepping on anyone to get there,” Miss Rachel continued. “Remember that the same people you step on on your way up are the same people that you will see on your way down.”

  “I’m not stepping on anyone,” Camille cried.

  Miss Rachel sighed heavily. “You know what? I have to run into my office and make a call. I want you all to discuss this like the mature young ladies that you are. And I’m confident that when I return, you all will have resolved this on your own.”

  She left, and we sat in silence before Tyeesha finally spoke up. “Okay, since I’m new, let me play mediator.”

  Camille turned up her top lip, but Tyeesha didn’t let Camille faze her. “Okay, Jasmine, we’ll start with you. What’s your problem with Camille?”

  Jasmine used her hand to flick the question off, but Tyeesha was persistent. “Come on, y’all. Miss Rachel is expecting us to have worked this out. Let’s show her that we are indeed mature and can come to a resolution on our own.”

  I smiled at Tyeesha. We officially had a new mediator.

  “I’ll go first,” I said, stepping in when Jasmine still didn’t say anything.

  “Camille,” I said, turning to face her, “no one is ganging up on you. We are so happy for your success. We just want you to remember who was there for you before you made it big.”

  “Yeah,” Jasmine said, finally speaking up. “Who was there when your mom had a heart attack? Who was there when you were crying your eyes out behind Keith, Walter and every other boy you claimed to love?”

  “And you’ve been there for us,” Angel added. “Angelica loves you. We just don’t want you to lose sight of our friendship.”

  Camille started tearing up. “You guys,” she sniffed, “I will never forget that you’re my true friends. Why can’t you understand that?”

  “Because actions speak louder than words,” Jasmine said, a lot more gently than I’d ever expected.

  Once Camille stopped being so defensive, we were actually able to have a productive conversation. I was happy to see we’d stopped fighting and were just talking right now. After fifteen minutes, Camille finally said, “Just so you guys know, I’ll do better.”

  Just then Miss Rachel poked her head back in the door. “Are you girls good?”

  I waited on someone else to answer, since I was always positive. Tyeesha was the first one. “I’m good!” she exclaimed.

  Rachel smiled. “We know you’re good. What about the rest of you?”

  Still no one spoke. “I’m good,” I finally said.

  “Me, too,” Angel added.

  Jasmine shrugged like she didn’t really care. I knew that was just her putting her wall up. Jasmine didn’t like people treating her wrong, so she was going to carry an attitude a little longer than everyone else.

  “I’m good,” Camille said, finally breaking out into a wide smile. “And I promise I won’t get the big head.”

  “Again?” Jasmine asked.

  “Again,” Camille answered. I relaxed as everyone broke out in a smile . . . including Jasmine.

  14

  Alexis

  “So what do you think, Alexis?”

  “Huh?” I said, snapping out of my thoughts. Camille had been going on and on for what seemed like an hour now. We were sitting at our regular table in the cafeteria. Camille had started talking right after the bell had rung, and she hadn’t shut up since.

  I glanced down at my watch. It actually had been only twenty minutes. But my mind definitely wasn’t on her drama right now. Granted, I understood that she was going through some things, but so was I. My dad hadn’t come home last night, which was pretty major. When I’d asked my mom if he was out of town—the only time he spent the night away from home—she’d simply run into her room crying.

  My home life was so miserable. And Camille was going on and on about Xavier.

  “ . . . I mean, I know why he was mad about the kiss, so I’ll give him that, but he didn’t have to go talking like I could never measure up to Beyoncé.”

  “Yeah,” I mumbled halfheartedly.

  “What is wrong with you?” Camille finally asked.

  “I’m sorry, I’m just kinda out of it,” I replied. I looked around the cafeteria. “Where’s Jasmine and Angel?”

  “Jasmine had study hall. Angel had to leave early because Angelica is sick,” she said.

  “Oh,” I sighed heavily. “Where’s Tyeesha?”

  Camille shrugged and gave me a look like she couldn’t care less.

  “Camille, you really should give Tyeesha a chance. She’s cool.”

  “She’s all right, especially since I know she wasn’t trying to talk to Xavier. I’m just not as tight with her as you guys are.”

  “Maybe we’re tight with her because we’re giving her a chance.” I wanted to remind Camille that she also didn’t know Tyeesha because she was never around, but I didn’t feel like going there. “Speak of the devil,” I said as Tyeesha walked toward us, carrying her lunch tray.

  “Hey, hey, hey,” she sang. “What’s up?” For all the drama she went through at home, she sure had a good attitude. I made a mental note to ask her about it later.

  “Hey, girl. Where were you?” I asked.

  “I had to take care of some transfer paperwork in the office. They were trying not to count some of my credits, and I wouldn’t have been able to graduate. I’m definitely not having that.”

  “Oh, yeah, I can’t imagine that,” I said.

  “Who you tellin’?” Tyeesha said, taking a seat next to Camille. “So what are y’all talking about?”

  “What else?” I rolled my eyes. “Camille and her life.”

  “Cool. How’s it going?” she asked Camille.

  That made Camille perk up. “It’s going fine. We wrapped up shooting. Now we—”

  Tyeesha cut her off as she gazed across the table at me. “Alexis, what’s wrong?”

  “I just have a lot of stuff on my mind.”

  “Like what?” Tyeesha asked.

  Before I could answer, Camille squealed. “Got a text,” she said, pointing toward her cell. “I’ll be right back.” She jumped up and headed out the door.

  Tyeesha immediately turned her attention back to me. “Alexis, I see it all over your face. I mean, I know I don’t know you all that well, but I can definitely tell something is wrong.”

  I took a deep breath, not sure of how much she’d be willing to share. Finally, I said, “You know, you seem like such a happy-go-lucky person.”

  “I am,” she said. “But we’re talking about you.”

  I played with the nasty chicken fingers on my tray. “I was saying that because you mentioned your parents were getting a divorce, and you just seem to, I don’t know, take it so well.”

  Tyeesha didn’t agree with that. “I’m okay with it now. I mean, I wasn’t at first. That’s why I got into all the trouble. I started hanging out with a group of kids my mom hated. I guess it was my way of acting out. At least that’s what the therapist said.”

  My eyes grew wide. “Wow, you had to go to therapy?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded. “That shows you that I didn’t deal with it well. But I’m okay now. Part of the cure for me was understanding that it’s not my fault.”

  “Why would you blame yourself?”

  Tyeesha shrugged. “I don’t know. We weren’t rich, but we weren’t poor either, so there were no fights over money. And it’s not like my dad was cheating, at least to my knowledge anyway. They just stopped getting along.”

  “Wow, that’s exactly what’s happening to my parents.”

  “I know, it’s a bummer, isn’t it?”

  “That’s why I’m never getting married.” I stabbed my chicken fingers with my fork. “’Cuz that whole ‘till death do us part’ stuff is a bunch of crap.”

  “You know, I used to think that, too, but the therapist got me to see things differently.”

  I shook my head. “That’s what I’m seeing, anyway.”

  “I
don’t know. I guess I just got okay with it because I know my parents both love me. I really do think they tried their best to make it work, and now, honestly, everybody’s happier. It took a minute, but my mother smiles more. My father is happier and—I never, ever thought I’d say this—I’m happier, too. All that fighting and arguing is stressful. Granted, we’re staying with my grandmother and her house smells like mothballs, but it’s nothing a little Febreze can’t cure.” She bit into her pizza. “Just hope they can end amicably—I think that’s the word the therapist used. Maybe your family should consider therapy.”

  “Oh, no,” I said, thinking how horrified my father would be at the thought of talking to a complete stranger about his problems—if he would even admit that he had a problem. No, I had to come up with another solution. I didn’t know what it was, but I had to think of something to keep my parents together.

  15

  Camille

  I was so excited. It seemed like the whole school was here. We were at Dave & Buster’s restaurant for the video-viewing party. Sisco hadn’t come because he’d had to fly out for an event in Baltimore tomorrow, but almost everyone else from the set and cast was here. Best of all, they’d pumped it up so that I was actually the star.

  Taraji was onstage, singing my praises like she was my best friend. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she really liked me, the way she was up there all grinning and stuff.

  “So, ladies and gents, I hope you enjoy ‘Just One More Chance’ and the star in the making, your very own Camille Simone,” Taraji announced. The crowd clapped and I smiled, wondering when she’d changed my name to only my first and middle. But truth be told, I kinda liked it.

  I was glad my mom had broken down and let me splurge for the Rocawear outfit I was rocking. I looked too cute in the Karma Camelion off-the-shoulder top and matching In Living Color pants.

  I wished Xavier had been here. Even though we hadn’t gotten back together, he had spoken to me the other day. Tonight was special and it would have been nice if he’d been here. I totally understood about him not wanting to see me kissing on another boy, even if it had been just an act. But my girls were here, so it was all good. My mom was at work, so she couldn’t come, but that probably was for the best as well.