“Why?” she asked. Chauncey looked taken aback.
“Cause I’d like to take you to prom,’ he said.
“What happened to Charlene?” asked Brielle, naming his latest conquest.
“She’s in the wind,” said Chauncey, cocky and careless. “So, what about it?” He gestured with his hand. Brielle gave him a long look.
“I’m really flattered, Chauncey,” she said choosing her words carefully. “But, I can’t go with you.”
“Why not?” asked Chauncey.
Brielle started to tell him that she didn’t like him and wouldn’t walk across the street with him, but thought better of that statement. Although she was finished worrying about what boys thought of her, she didn’t want to needlessly hurt his feelings. She’d had enough of hurt feelings to last a long time.
“My parents would think that you’re too old,” said Brielle, smiling to soften the blow. “You should probably go with another senior. Thanks for asking, though.” She left him standing in the hallway and went back to her studies, feeling better than she had in a long time.
Damon
Damon was sitting in his bedroom at his desk. Jada sat a plate in front of him. He looked at the peanut butter and jelly sandwich in front of him but he couldn’t choke it down.
Jada had been kinder to him in the two weeks since they’d found out that Ricky wasn’t his child, but she still had not really forgiven him.
Damon had missed a week of school after the phone call and then threw himself into catching up his studies. He went to school, work, and came home in the same stupor of depression that had descended upon him. Ephraim and Stump came over, but he hadn’t wanted to talk to them either.
Ephraim seemed to understand a little better than Stump just how grief-stricken Damon felt, so Damon tolerated his company a little better. He’d even been able to share in Ephraim’s good news.
“Hey, man,” Ephraim had said. “I met my father.”
“Yeah?” said Damon, arousing himself from his stupor.
“And he said that he didn’t know she, my mom, wanted anything to do with him,” said Ephraim. “She told him she was pregnant, but she was all upset and scared and wouldn’t talk to him because he asked her if she was sure it was his baby. She stormed out and wouldn’t answer his phone calls. Then he left school because his brother died suddenly, in a car accident. He said his mom was all devastated about his brother, so he stayed home for two years. He came back here to look for mom but nobody knew where she was. She moved away to stay with an aunt for a couple of years before she got a job and came back here. My moms never called him, so he didn’t know he had a son until she got in touch with him recently.”
“That’s deep,” said Damon, interested now despite his depression.
“Yeah,” said Ephraim, nodding his head happily. “He said he went back home and finished school there. He was married but it didn’t work out. He came up here and took mom and me out to dinner last week. He said I can come and hang out with him for the summer so we can get to know each other. Mom said it was cool.”
“That’s cool, man,” said Damon, smiling at the peace in his friends eyes.
“I got to meet my grandmother,” said Ephraim. “And she cried and hugged me and told me I look just like my uncle that died. She said it was like she had him back in me. I got a grandmother, man. And a grandfather, that I look like. They said they’re gonna help out with college so I can go to a good school.”
“How does your mom feel about it?” asked Damon.
“She’s kind of sad that she didn’t try to find him before this,” said Ephraim. “Dad said he was sorry, too, but we could work things out. We’re all supposed to go to counseling so they can forgive each other and we can get along. I got a dad, man and he was glad to meet me.”
Ephraim’s revelation made Damon happy for his friend but he felt like he was being stabbed in the chest. One day, Ricky, his Ricky, was going to try to meet his father, if Sasha decided to tell the truth. How would that work out? Would his real father be as happy to learn that he had a son?
Jada came to his room shortly after Ephraim left. Damon was sitting at the desk, holding the paternity rejection letter from the court, still crushed by the contents. Ricky had never been his and nothing Damon did would change that fact.
“I’m sorry,” said Jada.
Jada sat on the bed. Damon looked at Jada. She had tears in her eyes.
“I was just starting to get attached to the little rat,” she said, voice wobbling.
“I know,” Damon said. They stared at each other in silence. Damon moved to the bed, sat down and put his arm around her shoulder. They sobbed out their grief together.
Once they had both quieted down, Jada wiped her face with the back of her hand.
“I’m sorry I was so mean to you,” she said. Her eyes were swollen to slits.
“Forget it,” said Damon, his vision blurry from tears. “You were right. I was acting like a punk.”
“Yeah, you were,” she said. She punched him lightly on the bicep. “But now I feel rotten that I said anything.” They sat in silence for a long time. Her shared grief comforted him.
***********
A few days later Jada stopped by his room again. It was evening and their parents were out shopping.
“How ya doing?” she asked.
“I’m okay,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. He’d lost weight, but his appetite was coming back slowly and he was at least sleeping at night again. He wasn’t doing anything else. “I’m just still, I don’t know.”
“Depressed about Ricky?”
“Yeah,” said Damon. “I don’t want
