“NO, NO, NO, NO, No!” Cam’Ron trashes his room in search of the Jordan’s but no matter how hard he looked the results were still the same.
“What are you doing?” Amber’s eyes bulge as she sees Cam’Ron’s room in shambles. “Oooh! Mommy’s going to get you!”
“Shut up! Have you seen ‘em?” Cam’Ron runs up to Amber and grabs her by the arms.
“Seen what?”
“The shoes!”
“What shoes?”
“Ugh!” Cam’Ron pushes Amber aside and runs into her room ready and willing to destroy it too.
“Get out of my room, Cam!” Amber yells and tries her best to stop Cam’Ron.
“Help me find them then.”
“Okay! But get out of my room, they’re not in here!”
The siblings tussle as Cam’Ron rips the sheets off Amber’s mattress and throws everything from under her bed. “Mom!”
Joi appears in Amber’s doorway. “What the hell is going on?”
“He’s tearing up the house because he says he can’t find some dumb shoes.”
“Well, why didn’t you ask me? I can tell you where they are?”
Cam’Ron runs up to his mother, “Where?”
“The dumpster.”
“What!” He throws his hands into the air. “Oh, my god! You have got to be kidding me! Why would you do that?”
“Because those damn shoes were stankin’ up the house. I don’t see how you were wearing them things every day. No wonder your friend gave them to you. Smells like a skunk died in them.”
Cam’Ron stumps past his mother and into his room to throw on some clothes so he could go dumpster diving, all the while throwing obscenities at his mother under his breath. Cam’Ron bolts past his mother and out the door with only socks on his feet when he hears screeching sounds. “Don’t even think about bringing them shoes back up in here!” Joi yells to Cam’Ron. The garbage truck was making its way out of their parkway and onto the street.
“Wait!” Cam’Ron yells as he takes off full speed after the truck. “Wait!” His feet flapping and smacking the concrete with each stride. As the truck turns the corner and is out of Cam’Ron’s sight, he slows down to a stop, and drops his head. He has given up. It was useless. They didn’t hear him. He doubts they even cared.
Cam’Ron stands at the corner panting and trying to catch his breath when he noticed that he’d run all the way to “The Bottom.” Not a place he wanted to be especially without the Jordan’s on. He only had a few more days to go before his two months of wearing the pissy shoes were up. You’d think the Walkers would let it go, but they wouldn’t.
Cam’Ron hears booming bass approaching and knows it’s Remy’s car coming from around the corner. He looks down at his feet and takes off running again. He runs through yards and cuts through apartments as he hears the beeping horn of Remy’s car. His heart is pumping in overdrive but so is his adrenaline. He knows they see him and will eventually catch him without the shoes on his feet. He cuts through the side of a house and runs smack dap into someone.
“Yo, slow down bruh. You wouldn’t happen to be running from Patrón and Remy now would you?” Roman couldn’t help but gloat a bit at this moment.
“Get out my way!” Cam’Ron tries to maneuver himself around Roman because he could hear the music getting closer and closer.
“Where you going?”
“Home, nigga!”
“Hmm… I don’t know about that one seeing as though that’s probably them about to pull up now.” Roman pulls his hand from behind his back and hands Cam’Ron the shoes.
“Bruh!” Cam’Ron snatches the shoes and places them on his feet with the quickness. “How?”
“Oh, I’m your bruh now, huh? I saw your mom when she threw them in the dumpster.”
“So you went dumpster diving for me?”
“Hell naw. The dumpster was full, so she sat them on top of all the trash. I picked them up. Thought you’d still need them seeing how the two months aren’t quite up yet.”
“Man, good lookin’ out. I owe you.”
Remy pulls up and sees Roman and Cam’Ron in between the houses talking. He looks down at Cam’Ron’s feet and says, “I could have sworn I saw the bottom of your dirty ass socks when you were running.”
“Huh? Nah, not me.” Cam’Ron answers and throws his head back and silently thanks God as he sees Remy pull off.
“Have you even washed those things man?”
“Yeah, I washed them. A lot of good it did though.”
♥♥♥
Spirit sat in the lunchroom with her straw pressed against her lips as she stared into another dimension. Holding on to Hunter’s secret… a secret of this magnitude was enough to make her spontaneously combust. You don’t know how many times she came so close to telling Symphony. Spirit will be the first to admit that she loves getting the scoop and rundown on people and sharing it with others and swearing them to secrecy. But this time the shoe was on the other foot, Hunter had sworn her to secrecy and it didn’t feel good at all. She tried. But she wasn’t so sure she could keep it for much longer.
Jaylen waves his hand in front of Spirit’s face to make her snap back to reality. “What are you thinking about?”
Spirit looks at Jaylen and her soul moans. She wrestles with herself. Should she tell or nah? “J?”
“Yea?” Jaylen squirts ketchup onto his hamburger.
“I need to talk to you.” Jaylen sighs and looks at Spirit. “Trust me, it’s nothing like that. It’s not gossip or anything. Or is it?”
“O, boy.”
Spirit gives Jaylen the rundown of how she overheard Hunter and her mother arguing a few days ago. Jaylen holds his hand up to stop Spirit from talking. “I don’t want to hear it! Spirit you were eavesdropping.”
“No I wasn’t. Not on purpose. You have to let me finish if you want to understand what I’m dealing with, Jaylen. It involves something serious about your cousin.”
“Who Ro?” Spirit looks at Jaylen as if saying who else. “Nah, I still don’t think I want to know.”
“Hunter’s baby brother is really her son!” Spirit exhaled, and it felt like Mount Rushmore had fell off her shoulders. She stuffed three fries in her mouth at once and chewed slowing enjoying every bit of it as it slid down her throat. These few days have left her only eating to survive. She hasn’t enjoyed a meal in days.
“Even if that was true, what’s that have to do with my cousin? Sounds like a Quincy problem to me.” Spirit choked on her milk and told Jaylen everything. “Nope. That doesn’t sound right. If what you’re saying is true, you’re saying my cousin is a liar and a cheat. A double cheat at that because he cheated on Symphony and his best friend.”
“I’m not saying anything!” Spirit got offended. “I’m just repeating what I heard from the horse’s mouth.”
“That’s your problem Spirit! You always repeating something you have no business knowing in the first place.” Jaylen slams his chocolate milk carton onto his tray and milk squirts on the table.
“Are you going to tell them?”
“Tell who?”
“Symphony? Roman?”
“Hell no! Why would I do that when I don’t even believe none of it in the first place?”
“So you calling me a liar?”
Jaylen scoots his tray in the middle of the table not even bothering to throw it away. He looks at Spirit, places his hoodie on his head, and walks out the cafeteria.
♥♥♥
Symphony’s mother let her use the car to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. She took Harmony with her because she was crying and begging to go. Symphony has her driver’s license. Actually, it was more as a birthday gift because she passed the test on her 16th birthday. And on the first try. She’s a good driver. Responsible and legal. The only one in the squad who has them.
Sure, she could ask her mother to drive the car when Roman and she plan to do something, but if Roman is going to be her man, Symphony wan
ted him to act like a man. He needs to get a job, get his license, and buy his own car because she would like to be wined and dined sometimes instead of just going to the movies on his allowance.
“Harmony stop that!” Symphony yells as she sees Harmony throwing groceries into a random stranger’s grocery cart. Symphony reaches in the stranger’s cart to get it out.
“All this stuff in the store and you have to shop from my cart?" Symphony jumps back because the deep male voice had startled her.
“Mommy! I want fruit snacks.”
“Aww, your daughter is so precious.” Mr. Random goes over, pinches Harmony’s plump cheeks, and hands her the Dora the Explorer fruit snack she had thrown into his cart.
“She’s my sister.” He looks up at Symphony and she notices he has hazel eyes. She checks him out from head to toe.
“No need to be ashamed. I could see if you were still in high school.” Symphony wasn’t sure if this guy was joking or not.
“How old do you think I am?” Symphony places her hands on her hips and shifts her weight to one side. Now’s he’s checking her out. Not a problem because she already knew everything was already on point. It’s a habit whenever she steps out of bed to make sure the hygiene and looks are fly and stays that way throughout the day.
“I’d say about 19-21.” Symphony laughs because his tone and demeanor was as if he knew he was correct. She let it go because it wasn’t like she was going to see him again. “What’s your name?”
“Symphony… why?”
He extends his hand to her and says, “What a beautiful name, for a beautiful lady. Nice to meet you, I’m the King.”
She looks at his hand as if he had a booger on it. No matter how fine this dude was he just turned 100% ugly to her. She pushes the shopping cart Harmony sat in and walks away.
“Hold on. Did I do or say something to offend you?”
“You don’t even know me and you’re going to sit up here and introduce yourself to me as the king? Boy bye!” Symphony rolls her eyes and keeps it moving. When Symphony looks back, he was standing there busting a gut as if she was the female version of Kevin Hart.
“Okay, okay.” He holds his abs to control his laughter, then reaches into his pocket, and pulls out his wallet. She was really about to walk then because she knows he was not trying to solicit her in the grocery store, or anywhere for that matter!
He pulls out his Driver’s license and Symphony feels so stupid. His name was DeKing Washington. He gave Symphony his business card with his number and told her to give him a call and that he’d love to take her out to dinner or even invite her over so he could cook for her. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t the least bit interested. For the rest of the day, Symphony felt a tinge of guilt every time she thought about DeKing Washington.
27 CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ROMAN DAVIS
Any woman can give birth, but it takes a special person to be a real mother.