Free Fabulous by Simone Bryant

Daddy,” she told him truthfully, wondering when he got the newest tattoo of her baby picture on his shoulder. It added to the dozen other tats all over his frame.
    Yet, she couldn’t get a tiny, itsy-bitsy rose tattoo on her wrist. Yet another example of his “do as I say and not as I do” parenting. Bet Starr could get a tattoo if she wanted to, Dionne thought even though Starr was deathly afraid of needles so there was no chance of her even asking. Plus they were too young for any legit tat artist, but in the hood anything was possible…
    “What’s for breakfast?” Dionne asked, ignoring the huge black-and-white sketch of the naked and squatting woman over his bed as she looked around his room.
    Lahron walked over to his ebony wood nightstand and grabbed a wad of cash. “Order something in, go wash, and let me handle June Bug,” he told her, reaching out to affectionately tweak her nose as he did.
    Handle meant send her on her way.
    Deuces, Dionne thought. That was more than fine with her as she reached up to kiss his cheek before she left the room.
    It was daddy-daughter time. Period.
     
    The ride from New York to Newark didn’t really reveal that much difference. Just more tall buildings, more people walking the streets and more cars making traffic crazy. Still, Dionne felt the change as she sat in the rear of the car headed back to reality.
    She wished her daddy could have driven her himself. But instead Mindy, his personal assistant, who was white and seemed more like a librarian than part of a rapper’s entourage, drove her home looking like she thought they were about to get carjacked at any moment.
    As Mindy’s little yellow Volkswagen Bug made a right onto Sixteenth Avenue, Dionne looked out at Westside Park. There was a baseball game being played and the bleachers were packed with onlookers. Humph, she thought. They make it seem like people in the hood only robbed and got high, or ran from people who robbed and got high. Stereotypes. Whateva.
    Dionne thought about her own lies to her friends about where she lived, but she pushed any feelings of guilt away. It wasn’t the same. It just wasn’t.
    Mindy had brought her home plenty of times so she knew exactly where she was going and you would think by now she would ease up and realize the whole city of Newark wasn’t waiting around a corner to rob her. As the car neared the three-family apartment building where Dionne lived, she noticed her friends Joshia and Kim walking up the street from the corner store with chips and sodas in their hands.
    Dionne smiled at the sight of them as she lowered the window. She stuck her head out as she ignored Mindy glancing over at her like she was worried the boogeyman was about to jump through the window. “Hey, divas!” she hollered, reaching behind her to wave her hand for Mindy to slow the car down. Mindy didn’t.
    Joshia and Kim both looked over at her and then made a point of looking away. Dionne’s face fell. She had been dissed and dismissed. She knew she didn’t spend as much time with her girls since she started at Pace, but was it really all of that? She frowned as she sat back in the passenger seat, cutting her eyes to watch them in the rearview mirror. They were laughing and having fun. Without me, she thought as Mindy’s car pulled to a stop.
    As she gathered her Gucci duffel and pocketbook and climbed out of the car, Dionne looked up and noticed Hassan sitting on her stoop with his earphones on listening to his iPod. Her heart beat faster as she turned and bent down to look inside the car. “Thanks, Mindy.”
    Mindy’s eyes shifted from Hassan to Dionne. “He’s totally hot,” she said, with an overly dramatic wink.
    Dionne’s face became pained. She had to make herself not frown. There was nothing worse than an adult trying so hard to be cool. “All right. Bye,” she said with emphasis, stepping back to firmly close the door and send Mindy on her way.
    As she stepped up to the brick step,