Getting Played (10 page)

Giorgio gives me a quick overview, but I already kinda know the general idea about how stuff works from coming here all the time. But now it's all behind the scenes stuff I have to learn. So he shows me how to slice pizza and work the warming oven. I also make fries, fill drinks, get rolls ready for sandwiches and transfer the pizza pies to the front counters to cut them in slices. The major ovens and grills are in the back kitchen where they actually make the pizza. The dough and sauce is already made and in the refrigerator.

Since I don't know the cash register yet, I am working on the front line with Nita. That means I am getting whatever the customers ordered ready while Sierra and Ursula take the orders. They have me running around like crazy. It's so busy I barely have time to look up, but when I do, I see
Gia standing in line talking to some girls I recognize from the neighborhood.

Seriously, she is the last person I want to see, but it's too late. She turns around and sees me a second after I see her. She smiles and nods. I half smile and nod back. Then one of her girls leans over and says something in her ear. She responds and the other two turn and look at me. Obviously they don't do the “show and tell” thing me and my girls do.

When it is their turn to order, her friends place the order while she walks over to where I am working on getting the drinks ready. “Hey, you're Keysha, right?”

I look up over the soda fountain. “No, it's Kenisha,” I correct. I hate when people get my name wrong, especially on purpose like I figure she just did.

“Kenisha, that's right. I didn't know you worked here.”

“I just started,” I say, dumping more ice into the cup, then sticking it under the soda fountain nozzle and pushing.

“I heard you were Ms. King's granddaughter. So that makes you what, Jade's cousin, right?”

“No, Jade is my sister,” I say, getting the next cup lined up and ready for ice and soda.

“Oh, I didn't know Jade had a sister.”

“She does,” I say simply, trying to look busy even though it's obvious the place has calmed down a lot. Mostly everybody was either sitting and eating or just hanging out talking.

“And I heard you were hanging with D for a while, right?”

She says it loud enough for both Sierra and Ursula to
overhear. They turn and look at us. I glance at Ursula. I can see she is checking Gia out. “You heard wrong. I was never hanging with Darien. He was trying to get with me, but that wasn't gonna happen.”

“So you got him arrested,” she says, rather than asks.

“No,” I say, putting the cups on the front counter harder than I expected to. Some of the soda splashes from one of the cup lids and spills on the counter. I grab a rag and wipe it up. “I didn't get him arrested. He got himself arrested. That had nothing to do with me.” This conversation is getting old.

“But getting T pulled into that stupid shit did, right? You know they really messed him up after that, don't you? He didn't deserve that.”

I stop what I'm doing and look at her. “What?” I ask. “How did he get messed up? Who messed him up?”

“Oh, he didn't tell you, oops, sorry. 'Cause he was telling me all about it the other night when we were together on campus. So I guess when I heard you and he were supposed to be hanging out, that was wrong.”

Okay, I might not know much at times, but I know when someone's trying to play me. By now her other girls are standing there with her watching us. But at this point I really don't care. “You know what? Actually, you heard that part right. Terrence and I are hanging out. We are together.”

“If you say so,” she says, snidely.

“No, that's what I know,” I say definitively.

“Yeah, okay, whatever,” she says, then smiles sweetly, like
she knows something I don't. Then she walks away with her girls. She doesn't look back even though her two girls do.

“Hey, what's up, you okay?” Ursula asks, standing next to me now. She grabs a small cup and pours herself an iced tea.

“Yeah, everything's fine,” I say, but I know differently. Everything isn't fine. Gia wants Terrence back.

“It can get a little crazy around here, but you did good.”

“That's okay. I'm surviving. I'm used to crazy.”

“So what's up with you and Gia? You know I never liked her,” Ursula says, watching Gia and her friends as they sit down in a booth by the front window. “She always thought she was better than everybody else.”

“You know Gia?”

“Yeah, she used to stay with her grandmother in the summertime when her parents were working in D.C. Then her family moved away, I think to Atlanta or something like that. Then I heard they moved back to the area, outside of Baltimore I think. She used to talk to Terrence a while ago. Then she hung out with D for a while. Then after that, she started hanging with Terrence again. Darien was too pissed about that. I think what it was is that she liked D 'cause he had money from his dad and other places. But I think she liked T because he's just a nice guy.”

“So she and Terrence were together.”

She nods. “As far as I know, yeah, but then I heard she dumped him when she moved away. Then you came and it was that whole payback thing with them all over again. Darien knew you and T were talking. I think that's why he
was trying to get to you. It was payback for T taking Gia from him.”

“I was payback,” I say softly.

“Uh-huh, ever since the stabbing when they were kids they've been fighting each other one way or another. They fought over you like they fought over Gia before. So, I wonder who she wants this time.” Ursula looks over, seeing someone walking up to the counter. “I gotta go.”

She goes back to the cash register and takes their order, then we all go back to work. After that it gets a little busy again, but nothing like it was before. I see Gia and her friends get up to leave. I watch her go. She never turns back to even glance in my direction. Before Ursula wondered who she wanted back. I know the answer to that question. It was obvious. So as far as I'm concerned, the line is drawn. There is no way she's getting lawn mower guy.

Do You Hear Me?

It's
still early when I get home from work. As soon as I walk in I see my grandmother sitting in the living room. The room is half dark with just a low light on in the corner. She isn't reading or watching television, she's just sitting there with her teacup beside her on the table. For the first time in a long time, she looks really sad and really old. The last time she looked like this my mom had just died. At the time, I was so into myself I didn't even realize I wasn't the only one hurting. My grandmother had just lost a daughter. I walk in and stand just inside the doorway leaning against the wall. I don't know if she even heard me come in. “Hey, Grandmom,” I say, trying not to startle her. “I'm home.”

“Hi, sweetie,” she says, turning to look at me.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“Yes, just a little sad I guess. When you get as old as me you get sad sometimes.” She sighs heavily as she looks at the back of her hands, then turns them over to see the other side. I'm not sure what she's looking at or what it means.

“Are you sure you're okay?”

She nods. “Laurence's funeral is tomorrow night at the church,” she says slowly. She looks back up at me. It is obvious to see she's been crying.

“Umm, I was thinking maybe I'd go with you. Is that okay?”

She smiles. “Sure it is.”

I see the shine of gladness in her eyes. She isn't exactly happy, but I can tell she feels a little better. Then we don't say anything for a little while. “Do you want some more tea or something?” I ask. She shakes her head no, then assures me again that she is okay. Then we do the whole “how was your first day at work” and “don't let it interfere with your schoolwork” thing. After that I tell her I have a lot of homework to do, but really I just don't want to be there anymore.

I go up to my room and collapse on my bed and just lie there with my eyes closed. I don't know how long I lay there. I am thinking about my grandmother. She looked so troubled. I grab my phone and call Terrence, but don't get an answer. Then, what Gia said popped into my head.
Terrence had gotten messed up.
I have no idea what that means or even who did it. I sit up, grab my cell again and text him. I wait a few minutes for a reply. Then, figuring I won't hear from him anyway, I toss the phone on the bed beside me and open my English Lit book.

Just as I start to read
The Great Gatsby,
I hear the sound of constant ticking coming from the hallway. I get up and go out into the hall to look around. That's when I see Jade's bedroom door is cracked. She's hardly ever here anymore, and sometimes I forget this is her home, too. I walk down the hall and peek in. She is sitting at her desk on her laptop. I knock, push the door wider and go in.

“Hey, I didn't know you were coming home today. What are you doing here?” I ask, plopping down on her bed and genuinely happy to see my big sister. Jade always has a way of changing my perspective when I have a problem and making it better. Even though we didn't always get along as cousins, I think we're a lot closer as sisters. She looks up at me and then goes back to typing.

“Not now,” she says vehemently.

“I was just asking a question.”

“I'm doing nothing, okay, I'm minding my own business,” she says sarcastically, without looking back up at me again.

I can tell this was going to be one of
those
conversations. We have them sometimes. “What's with the stick up your ass? Damn, I just came in to say hi.”

“Yeah, whatever, hi,” she says, in typical Jade style.

Okay, ordinarily I'd just walk away at this point. When Jade is in a mood, she can be brutal. And God help anyone in her way. But I know I haven't done anything to her, so I don't mind hanging around and prying. The alternative is reading the
Gatsby
. Anyway, I know something is up by the way she is so distracted and typing. “So like what, you can't mind your own business hanging out with Tyrece in
New York or Atlanta or L.A. anymore?” I say. She stops typing and looks up at me. I know right then what Jalisa and Diamond said was true. “Shit, it's true, isn't it? Ya'll broke up, didn't you?”

“Yeah, we did,” she says, averting her attention back to the keyboard and monitor.

“Damn. Jade, I'm so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” she half mutters.

“Just because I am, I guess. I thought ya'll were like the perfect couple. His eyes sparkled whenever he looked at you.”

“Well, not anymore, I guess.”

“So what happened?” I ask. She doesn't say anything. “Was it really Taj like they say?”

She stops typing again and turns around. I'm sitting on the bed watching her. She looks at me funny like she has no idea who I am. “Are you interviewing me now so you can blog or post this on some internet site?”

“What? No, of course not,” I say, instantly affronted. I'm hurt she would even think I'd do that. “Why would you even say something like that? I would never tell anybody anything you told me, ever. We're sisters.”

“Yeah, okay, fine, it's just that everybody I talk to about this winds up repeating it on Facebook or Twitter or someplace else. Everybody wants to know what happened between us. I'm so sick of all this stupid drama. We broke up. It's no big deal. People do it all the time. Right now, I just want to take the night off to hide from all of it. That's why I came here.”

“Well, this is the perfect place to hide out. You know
nobody comes here except Grandmom's bingo friends, and you know what they're like. Reporters better not get in your face here.” We laugh, knowing how intimidating and assertive our grandmother and her friends can be when they want to. “If you're hungry, I brought a pizza home with me. I'm working at Giorgio's Pizza Place.”

“Yeah, I heard. Grandmom told me you were a working girl now. When did all that happen?”

“Monday after school, they had an opening, so I applied and got the job. It's no big deal really. I'm just getting pocket change to help out around here.”

“You helping out, yeah, right,” she says sarcastically.

“Yeah, I can help out, too,” I say.

“So how are you going to work here and go to school in Virginia?” she asks, going back to her typing.

“I'm not. I'm gonna stay at Penn Hall.”

“What?” she says as she stops typing. “Why would you do that? You finally got back into the school you wanted and now you're quitting and staying at Penn. What happened?”

“Yeah, I got in, but now Dad can't afford the tuition. Business is pretty bad with the economy slowing down and all.”

“What about getting a scholarship or a school voucher?”

“Nah, I don't want that,” I say.

“Ashamed or embarrassed?” she asks.

I nod. “Both,” I say honestly. There isn't much point in lying to Jade or to myself anymore.

“I figured that, but I guess at least you owned up to it.” She goes back to typing again.

“But it's not like I'm embarrassed and ashamed about getting it. It's how they're gonna treat me when I do, like they pity me,” I say.

“You mean the same way you treated other scholarship students when you were there? You pitied them, didn't you?”

“Yeah, all right, I get it,” I say. “What goes around, comes around, right. I always felt sorry for the scholarship students, so now all this comes back to bite me in the butt.”

“All right, as long as you already know it,” she says, smugly.

When Jade is in her shitty mood she is vicious and anyone around her is liable to get trashed in the process. “Yeah, whatever,” I say, getting tired of her acid attitude. I get up to walk out. Then I stop. “I have a question for you. Did Mom have insurance policies or money when she died?”

“What?” she asks, looking at me again.

“Insurance money. Courtney was talking about how Mom had all these insurance policies.”

“Who's Courtney?” she asks.

“Dad's girlfriend, the boys' and Barbara's mother.”

Jade smirks. “I still can't believe he got her to name his baby after Mom. She must be an idiot.”

“She is, but that's another story. Did Mom leave policies?”

“Yes.”

“So where are they, where's the money?”

“Tied up,” she says. “Nobody can get to it.”

“Except you, right?” I say. She looks at me funny, like she was going to say something then changed her mind. “So what if I needed some of it now, how do I get it?”

“You don't.”

“Why not?” I ask, determined to get an answer from her.

“Because it's for college. Damn, you are so selfish and self-centered, Kenisha. Just suck it up. Believe it or not, you're not the only one with drama going on in their life right now.”

“I never said I was.” I defend myself quickly.

“You didn't have to. I see what you're trying to do. You're trying to get money to go to Hazelhurst, right? That's all you ever think about—going back to your so-called ‘perfect life.'”

“I said I was staying at Penn,” I rebut forcefully.

“Only until you can find a way to go back there. But you're gonna have to find another way 'cause you're not getting access to the accounts,” she says.

“Forget this,” I say. I am headed out, but then it hits me to ask Jade about the bills. But right now, no way. “I don't need your help. I can do this by myself.”

“Fine, do it,” she says.

“Fine, I will,” I repeat, then storm out. I don't need her anyway. As soon as I get to my bedroom I hear my cell phone ring. I grab it and answer. No one says anything at first, and then a few seconds later a female voice says my name. “Kenisha.”

“Who's this?” I ask.

“You need to give me my money back.”

“Excuse me, what?”

“You heard me. I want my money.”

“You have the wrong number.”

“I know who I'm talking to. You are Kenisha Lewis and I know where you live. I suggest you get my money, now.”

I press the end button and drop my cell like it's on fire. My hands are shaking. I look around my bedroom quickly. I get the eerie feeling I am being watched. I look down at my cell again. I pick it up and press the last incoming call button. It registers as “Private Caller.” My heart thunders in my chest, and my stomach quivers and flops.
WTF.
“What the hell was that? What money?”