Free Synergy by Georgia Payne Page A

of a statement than a question when he first said it,
as he assumed she would live here if her son did.
    Dee
sighed from the opposite sofa and he realised he may have hit a
nerve.
    “ I did. Before I
had Tushaun, I lived with my boyfriend, but when we split up I
couldn’t ...” Dee broke off then, and
looked emotional. She took a sip of her beer and suddenly her
‘hard’ voice was back.
    “ I couldn’t afford
to raise him on my own and pay the bills so my mom took
him .”
    Jason
didn’t know what the appropriate thing to say was, so he settled
with all he could muster.
    “ I’m sorry to hear
that, it must be hard .”
    Dee nodded and took a sip of her drink again.
“ I still see him every day. I take him to
school and pick him up. I have dinner with him and put him to bed
before work. I guess it’s the nearest thing to him living with
me .”
    “ I guess it’s
lucky you’ve got your mom, ” Jason said,
focusing on the bright side, and the three of them sat silently for
a minute digesting that thought.
    Conversation soon turned to the missing sibling of the bunch.
Kiki was 6 years younger than Dee, so it was a surprise to hear she
wasn’t around tonight, and was staying at her boyfriend’s instead.
He knew at sixteen he would never have been allowed to stay over at
a girlfriend’s house on a school night. Though, from the tone of
the conversation, Kiki was the promising sibling in terms of
education. Jason didn’t know how educated Dee and Jarell were, but
from the way they spoke of Kiki, he thought it sounded like they’d
given up on their own education.
    “ Keeks is the
clever one, she gon’ get her GED an’ shit .” Jarell said matter-of-factly, as he took a swig from his
bottle. It was an innocuous enough statement, but Jason couldn’t
help but feel the tension that built in the air. His eyes strayed
to Dee’s corner and he saw a glimpse of something, maybe hurt?
Embarrassment? He wasn’t sure. For what was probably only seconds,
but felt like minutes, the three of them sipped their drinks in
silence, the only sound being the pause screen from the Xbox which
was now playing quietly to itself.  
    All three were grateful when the awkward moment was
interrupted by a ringing started from Jarell’s jeans pocket. He put
his beer down and fished in his pocket for the phone, taking a look
at the caller ID before answering it with ‘ Yo’ , and excusing himself with a
head nod and leaving the room.
    “ You
okay ?” Jason asked, feeling there was
something wrong. Dee took another swig of her drink and sat back on
the sofa, bringing her knees up to her chest.
    “ Yeah, just hate
the way he say snarky lil’ comments like that,”  she replied.
    “ The GED
comment ?” Jason
questioned.
    Dee
nodded before finishing the beer and placing the bottle onto the
floor beside her before sitting back again.
    “ I fucking dropped
out before I even got to take it an’ then when I tried to re-do it,
I couldn’t keep up with that shit. ” Dee
looked down into her lap before speaking again, this time more of a
muttering to herself.
    “ What’s the point
anyway, not like I can go to college an’ shit. ”
    As a natural response, Jason replied “ Of course you could ” but Dee snapped
back before he’d even finished.
    “ The bank fucking laughed in my face
when I asked about a loan for college.”
    All
Jason could do was nod. He wasn’t going to try to pretend to know
anything about bank loans or what options she had. He didn’t know
the girl well enough; he didn’t know what debts she might have, or
what college intelligence she had. He decided to just listen; he
wasn’t necessarily here to help.
    Jarell
popped his head back into the room through the open
door.
    “ I’mma bounce,
Daya’s mom’s got Shontelle .”
    Turning
to Jason then, Jarell gave him a head nod.
    “ Nice to meet ya
man, look after my sister .”
    Jason
smiled nervously and thanked him before saying goodbye.
    As Jarell made