She lays her head back against the chair, gnawing on the straw and looking out into the yard just like she did the day I brought Slim here.
“What’s on your mind, T?”
She sighs. “People ever say stuff about you that ain’t true?”
“All the time.”
“What you do about it?”
“It depends on who it is.”
“Some of them are my friends and some of ‘em are just random people.” She shrugs.
“Well, anybody who’s supposed to be your friend wouldn’t be saying stuff about you that ain’t true.”
Her brown eyes roll over to mine. “They saying I liked what Wendell was doing to me. Everybody knows about it. There’s a tea page for Wesley on IG and they posted me. They said I tried to steal my grandma’s man. I been friends with Tiana since second grade, and she was in the comments laughing.”
My fingers curl into my palm, and my eyes stroke Tamryn’s baby face. She looks like every bit of the little girl she is and that makes me clench my fist tighter.
“I never even kissed a boy, and the fucked-up part is that Tiana knows that. What you think about that, Pup? You think deep down maybe it’s true? Maybe I liked the attention he gave me.”
I hear Slim’s voice curling into hers. They melt together into a soft medley that makes me drop my hand on top of Tamryn’s frizzy braids.
“I think…” I gulp, trying to force down that medley and find that tact I always struggle with. “No, Iknowthat you just a kid, and he’s a grown-ass man that took advantage of your innocence. Even if you think you liked the attention, that don’t mean what he did was right.”
“Yeah…maybe you’re right. It just sucks ending the semester with no friends.”
“Fuck ‘em. You don’t need ‘em.”
“We all can’t be popular loners like you.” She giggles, looking up at me. “Where your one friend at anyways?”
“What friend?”
“The pretty one.”
My palms get sweaty. “Slim?”
She smiles and nods. “Arnez said she getting married to a football player. She said he plays for the Knights. She looks like a ballplayer’s wife.”
She really doesn’t.
She looks like my “Slim” who had no real experience with men before the worst one came along and smiled at her.
I swipe my hand across Tamryn’s frizzy braids. “Slim is somewhere minding her business like she’s supposed to, and she don’t have a man just like you don’t because?—”
“Boys are stupid. I know, Pup.” She laughs.
“Make sure DeRay prune them flowers for your grandma and you take your ass to school tomorrow.”
She sighs from beneath me. “Yes, sir.”
I pull my hand from her head and push the front door open as quietly as I can. I hold my breath for Beatrice to pop out from a doorway and rush me like she does sometimes after not seeing me for a while. My heart stutters again like Slim is here—watching and waiting to see how I’ll follow her rules.
“Tamryn?” Beatrice yells from the back of the house.
“It’s me, B!”
“Oh…” Her voice drifts off. “Hold up. Let me finish up with Calvin and I’ll cook you someth?—”
