Free Getting Played by Celeste O. Norfleet Page B

He’s going to pick me up and we’ll hang out. Later, he drops us off at the house and speeds out of there like the devil is on his tail. Maybe he’s right, ’cause as soon as he turns the cararound, Courtney comes raging outside. He was driving out of there and she was running after him. It would be comical, if it wasn’t so damn sad.
    She glares at me. I give her my own defiant stare. I know she isn’t gonna say or do anything. She is a punk and she knows I know it. I hang out in my dad’s office the rest of the afternoon. It’s perfect. He has a refrigerator filled with junk and a full bathroom, so I’m cool. The boys hang with me. That always pisses Courtney off, so of course I encourage it. When it gets late, I go up to my bedroom to change for the mall. I open my bedroom door, turn the light on and go off. “What the hell?” I stomp down the hall to my dad’s bedroom. The door is open and Courtney is sitting in the middle of the bed polishing her toenails. “What happened to my room?” I ask. She looks up at me and rolls her eyes, then goes back to what she was doing. “What happened to my room, Courtney?” I say again.
    She doesn’t look up this time. “I needed the space to clear away some junk in the extra bedroom, and since you weren’t here, I moved everything into your room.” She looks up at me and smiles. “You don’t mind, do you?”
    I am so pissed off inside, but all I do is smile and nod. “A’ight, fine, you got this one. But know this, whatever you think I got, I’ll make sure you don’t get a damn penny.”
    She looks up at me again. Her eyes narrow. I know exactly what she is thinking and all the names she is calling me. But I don’t care. Letting her think she’s messed up getting money is enough for right now. “You don’t have anything I want,” she says.
    I smile. “Are you sure about that?”
    â€œYou wouldn’t always be here begging, if you did,” she says smugly.
    I smile again, and this time I chuckle. “Are you sure about that? Why should I use my money when I can use my dad’s?”
    Her expression changes. This time it is obvious she isn’t so sure. She gets pissed all over again. I love it. “You know what, Kenisha…” she begins, but I close the door and walk away. I can hear her screaming as I head back to my bedroom. She is getting louder and louder. I start laughing. I love messing with her. She always thinks she can get the best of me, but she can’t. I go into my bedroom and look around. It is a mess.
    To make room for her brother, Courtney, the perpetual bitch, screwed up my bedroom by dumping a whole bunch of her stupid junk in here. There are boxes everywhere. Courtney is a TV-ordering junkie. She lives for it. Every stupid thing she sees, she orders. My stuff is still there, but her junk is everywhere on top of it. Okay, I’ll give her that point. But that’s the last damn point she’s gonna get. I change and leave after that.
    I see my girls for a hot minute Saturday night. But I’m not in the mood to go to the movies or to even shop. We just hang out in the food court talking. They were really rooting for me to come back to school, so I need to tell them what happened. “My dad didn’t pay Hazelhurst,” I say.
    â€œIs he going to?” Diamond asks. I shake my head no.
    â€œAre you sure?” Jalisa asks. I nod, then look away.
    â€œShit.” “Damm,” they say, at almost the same time. I don’t know who said what.
    â€œOkay,” Jalisa says, already thinking ahead. “What about a scholarship.”
    â€œYeah,” Diamond says excitedly, “yeah, a scholarship.”
    â€œHell, no, I’m not doing that. You know that shit gets around. I don’t want to hear it.”
    â€œNobody’s gonna know.”
    I look at her seriously.