And I wondered about Brittainy. She hadn’t called me, and I hadn’t thought about her till just then. She, and the ho-hum concerns of the real world, like lost wallets seemed like things out of another universe. I only half-ass cared about them right now even though I knew I would again later.
Later, I would call Brittainy, or she would call me and there would be ‘sorries’ exchanged. And then I would have to let her know that whatever we were doing didn’t make much sense for her, that I wasn’t what she needed. I would get off the phone only when she was fully convinced that breaking it off had been her idea.
And I’d have to figure out how to get some real cash in my hands that wasn’t just an abstraction, a listing of digits on my iPhone. Now since I didn’t have an ATM card, nor too many places open that would give me cash back with Apple Pay purchase, I might have to hit up Lamar, or Taylor, even my pops to wire me something to tide me over.
“Ohmigod, where are you?”
Next to me, Lila’s voice had risen. She had found her friend.
“East entrance?” she said. “Yes. We’re here. Yes, we’re right here. We could … me and Kai. Kai. Yes, Kai. He’s …” Lila laughed. “We got arrested together kind of. Okay, we’ll wait. Go to the bottom of the steps and on your left …Just stay there and we’ll come to you. Cool. Yeah. See you in a little bit.”
When Lila hung up she was smiling.
“Found her,” she said.
“I heard.”
“So, yeah. You get to meet her.” She was excitable all over again.
“Cool,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Six
Lila
Sometimes I forget how Tianna can be. But I remembered as soon as I spotted her leaning against the wall near the bottom of the steps. The crowds were getting thicker and everyone was gravitating in that direction either to sit down and take a load off or stake out a spot while waiting for the speakers to begin. Tee was by herself, wearing her army-green cargo pants, black t-shirt and Pan-African colored headscarf, with black face covering pulled for the moment down to her neck.
So I had full view of her expression when she caught sight of me and Kai. Almost immediately, her eyes got that look, like she was rolling them without rolling them. And her lips turned up at the corners ever so slightly. Tee has this thing where she decides very quickly and on almost no information at all whether she likes someone or not. It’s not her most positive personality trait, but her dislike doesn’t often manifest in being mean, exactly, she just freezes people out, like shutting a metaphorical door in their face.
I could tell from her expression that she was deciding as we walked toward her that she didn’t like Kai. And because I know her as well as I do, I even think I know why. Just like the guy in the paddy wagon who made me nervous is Tee’s type, Kai is exactly not her type. He has a shiny, middle-class exterior, like the kid who got all this orthodontia taken care of right on schedule at twelve, so that his teeth are now perfect; got enrolled in every enrichment and after-school activity available, and whose parents did a “college tour” with him when he turned eighteen.
Guys like that, Tee generally calls “corny” or “weak” or “soft”. She doesn’t look them in the eye when she speaks to them, but a little off to the right or left of their heads. She mocks them when they’re not around, for the way they speak, walk, or the things they find interesting. I think there’s part of her that finds guys like that intimidating, like they have keys to a kingdom where she fears she would never be welcome. The worst part about Tee’s dislike that usually, that opinion is an immovable object—fixed, permanent and eternally damning.
As we drew closer, she shoved herself upright and hugged me. I saw when she glanced down and noticed the tether, attaching me to Kai, but she said nothing about it.
“Damn, I was hoping they didn’t pick you up out there,” she said, looking me over as if checking to see I was intact. She didn’t acknowledge Kai at all.
“I’m not as fast a runner as you are,” I said. “I looked up and you were gone.”
“You stood around calling yourself sounding the alarm though!” Tee laughed. “I mean, who does that?”
“Me, I guess. Anyway …” I turned a little, orienting myself to include Kai. “This is Kai. We were in prison together,” I joked.
“Hey,” Tee said, her tone lukewarm.
“Hey,” Kai said back at her.
They sized each other up, doing the are-we-gon’-vibe-or-we-gon’-beef assessment. Tianna’s verdict was clear within fifteen seconds. For Kai, the jury seemed to still be out when he allowed his eyes to drift away and up the steps to where a cluster of people who looked like they had something to say were gathering, bullhorns in hand.
“You know him?” Tianna mouthed when Kai’s eyes were averted.
I shook my head, and then shrugged. I didn’t know him really, but he wasn’t a stranger either, so I didn’t want her to start making painfully obvious excuses to ditch him.
“I got us a spot,” she said indicating a shaded area just behind the wall. “We can see everything from there.”
I glanced over to where she was pointing and recognized a few people from school, and some of the activists from the west side of the city that she stayed connected with. I noticed that among them was Elijah, the guy she was messing around with. He liked to be called Jah which Tee thought was cool but I thought sounded like he had delusions of
