P’Nee noticed that Bolt loved to wear basketball shorts and T-shirts. She rarely saw him dressed in anything other than that. He was on the football team as well, so he leaned into an athletic sense of style.
There was a club,The Hideout, in the town that had a teens’ night on Thursdays. You had to be between fifteen and eighteen to get in. The caveat to the eighteen-year-olds was you had to still be in high school and have a valid high school ID with your government ID. When he and Joshua went out to the club, that was the only time he took to really dress.
After she felt like she had stared long enough, she went back to her book. She wasn’t sure how long it was before she felt the seat next to her dip down. Her back straightened when she realized it was Bolt.
“What you reading?” he asked her. She was always in a book. He liked that about her. When she visited her dad’s house, she stayed to herself, he noticed. He had no idea what she did at her grandma’s house.
“Oh, um, it’s calledOne Crazy Summerby Rita Williams-Garcia. It’s from my mother’s summer reading list.”
The school gave a summer reading list that P’Nee read also, but her mother always had a reading list of her own. Her reading list was filled with Black authors. She gave the reading list toher students, but only with parent approval since it was not approved by the district.
Bolt nodded. “What’s that about?” He really wanted to know. He took a mental note of the title to check it out later. A lot of people didn’t know that he was an avid reader. It was how he spent his time alone.
“It’s about these three sisters that visit Oakland, California, from Brooklyn, New York. While they’re there, they learn about the Black Panther Party, activism, community support, and stuff like that. It’s good so far,” she told him.
It sounded good. “That’s what’s up. I’m going to have to check it out.” When P’Nee gave him a skeptical look, he tittered. “Damn, a nigga reads books. Don’t do me like that.”
She giggled. “Okay, okay. Next summer, I’m going to ask you about it, since you read books.”
That was cool with him. Now he really had a reason to read it. Their conversation was interrupted by one of the girls. She stood in front of them with her hand on her skinny hip. “Bolt, why are you over here?”
“I’m clearly having a conversation. Was there something that you needed, Harmony?” he asked her hot ass. She was what some would call sexually friendly.
“You could be having a conversation with me. I’m sure it would be more entertaining than whatever she has to talk about,” Harmony quipped. She was an attention seeking female who wanted all of it, no matter the cost.
P’Nee stared at the girl because of the tone of desperation that dripped from every word she said. People often miscalculated when it came to P’Nee because of her sometimes meek personality. Yes, she was quiet, but she was far from a punk.
She sat forward. “Harmony, what is the last book that you read? Wait, I’m moving ahead of myself. Can you read?”
Harmony’s head bucked back while Bolt snickered. He knew that she wasn’t too bright of a female. “Lil bitch, who the fuck?—”
Her sentence was cut short by the roar of Joshua’s voice. “Aye, Harmony! Get the fuck out. No one disrespects my sister.”
Her eyes bucked. “What the hell, Joshua? She’s over here asking if I can damn read, but I’m disrespecting her!”
“Well, can you fucking read? We’ve had a bunch of classes together, and you’ve repeated most of them. You’re seventeen in the tenth grade.” Joshua didn’t play about his sister in any kind of way. “Now, since you want to be disrespectful, get the fuck out.”
Harmony pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. It wasn’t much of a chest, but it was a chest, nonetheless. “Bolt, really? I’m here for you, and you’re in another female’s face.”
Bolt burst into laughter. “Why do you think that you’re here for me? Nah, you’re here for the team.”
P’Nee’s eyes bulged before she shook her head. She felt the embarrassment that fell over Harmony. “I would leave if I were you,” P’Nee said. She looked around at the boys that were in the room. She wasn’t sure if she could take a team of six.
Harmony stood there embarrassed and ashamed. She in fact came over to do things that her mother would be ashamed of. What she really wanted was to be with Bolt. He was impossible though. Nothing she did impressed him. She came to every one of his football games and cheered him on. She even wore custom outfits with his number on it.
Bolt hated that shit because it made it seem like she was his girl when she was far from it. Yeah, Bolt fucked around with girls like most popular high schoolers would, but he never claimed or would claim any of the females he fucked off with. He was young and having fun in his mind. The time would come when he wanted a one and only.
Harmony figured if she needed to leave, then her girls did too. “Y’all come on. We can find somewhere else to chill.”
The other girls looked at each other with questioning glances. Rasha was the first who spoke up. “He told you to leave because you were disrespectful, not us. We’ll catch up with you later.”
Joshua laughed. “Damn, that’s fucked up. You can dip now.”
With fire in her blood, she turned on her heels and stomped out of the house. It was fuck them as far as she was concerned. She knew that P’Nee only came around during the summer, which was over in a couple of weeks. They would be back on her ass then.
After she left, they chilled for another hour before Jordan came in with a guest. “Y’all, look who came into town. He acts like he forgot where home is.”
Behind him was his brother, Jacob. From time to time, he strolled into town, stayed a few days, then was out. “What’s up, nephew, niece, and everyone else.”
