up. âWhy you putting your business where itâs not wanted?â
Now Stephanie stands up.
âI put it where I want to,â I say.
âKeep it the fuck outta my face.â
âNelson, shut up.â
âOh, now you got his back,â boyfriend says.
âI got nobodyâs back, I just donât want you fighting about stupid shit that ainât nothin.â
âThatâs what weâre doing?â I ask him. âWeâre fighting?â
âWe ainât doing shit yet, but we can change that.â
âWhenever youâre ready.â
He flies down the stairs to the street, spreads his arms out and shrugs his shoulders. âAh-ight. Get off them stairs and we see.â
âNelson, stop that shit,â Stephanie says. She jumps off the stairs to the street and on her way over to him does something weird. She pulls on her own ponytail. Pulls it so hard that she snaps her head back. It takes all of a half second, but it makes her face turn to something madder and older than it was before. She stands in front of him and puts her hands on his chest. âNelson, forget it, forget it. This shit ainât worth it. Heâs just some guy lives in the building, knows my uncle, thatâs it. Thatâs the whole story. You makin up the rest. Leave it the fuck alone or Iâm history tonight.â
âYou wrong. Iâm history tonight.â He backs off like heâs leaving. To me: âWatch your ass.â
âWatch it for me.â
Stephanie turns around pissed at me now. âDamn, just let him go. You stupid?â
Nelson says, âI am watching it.â My final warning before he walks away.
âWhy the fuck all you guys want to do is start throwingdown? Somebody look at you and you wanna throw. Fuckâs wrong with you?â
âHe started.â
âNo, you didnât just say that. You didnât just say âhe started itâ.â
âI meant he started with you.â
âOh, like I canât take care myself.â
âNo you can, I justââ
âGuys are stupid, yo.â
âOnly when a girl is involved,â I say with little to no thought.
âAinât no girl involved.â
From above us we hear, âEstephanie, cómo estás?â
She and I both look up and see Ralphie standing on the fire escape. From three floors below I can see the face and hear the voice of the guy who has lived in this building way before this neighborhood was hipâwhen people were nodding out in his stairwells on a Tuesday, and when cops wrote it off as a wasteland. Standing on the fire escape is the guy who has kicked his share of derelicts off the stoop.
âNada, tÃo Ralphie. We just talking. Itâs OK,â Stephanie says. In her voice I can hear the shrewd innocence of a girl who has talked herself out of many kinds of trouble more than onceâlike sheâs got an arsenal of escape tones in the back of her throat. But this is light work so she only has to bring the innocent tone up to about a level two.
Me, I probably look guilty. I wave. âHi, Ralphie.â He gives us a nod that says he knows there was more going on besides talking. He looks down the block to see if boyfriend is still around. Nope. Ralphie shapes his face into a disapproving expression and makes sure Stephanie sees it before he ducks back in the window.
âI take it he doesnât like your boyfriend.â
âNot really.â
âBecause he hits you?â
âHe doesnât hit me.â And that, from her arsenal, is a defensive and very convincing tone along the lines of, you-didnât-understand-what-you-saw-and-you-need-to-start-thinking-much-more-of-me-you-idiot.
âOK.â
Stephanie feels the band at the back of her head that holds her ponytail. Itâs loose, so she separates and pulls a couple handfuls of hair to tighten it to her head.
âWhat you lookin