Free The Way We Roll by Stephanie Perry Moore Page A

making it easy. Who in my chapter is going to vote for you? She was with us, Malloy. Sharon did not break your window.”
    â€œOh, so she was with you all night?” I asked, knowing it wasn’t the truth.
    â€œI mean, not all night, but she just went to the bathroom,”Hayden said as I shook my head, knowing as close as the parking lot was, Sharon needed only a little time to destroy my car.
    â€œIt doesn’t take long to grab a brick and throw it through my window. I watch CSI . I’m going to take my car to the police station and get her prints. That way, when they come after her tail with a warrant, you, Kade, and my mom will all stop being on her side. She broke my window, and that’s a fact.”
    I still wanted to hit Sharon—until I got away from Hayden and I heard the last part of her conversation with Kade. She kept pleading for another chance. I’ve never seen a girl lose it so bad and be so desperate to try to hold on to a man. The two-hundred-fifty-dollar deductible I’d have to pay to get my window fixed paled in comparison to all the broken emotions I saw Sharon reveal.
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    â€œAll right, so you gonna drop this now?” Kade said to me as he and I walked back into the building. “You see she can’t take no more.”
    â€œAll right, fine. Where’s Mikey? I need to get his car and go home.”
    â€œI haven’t seen your brother. Your friend was looking for him, and that’s when she told me where you were. Mike’s gone.”
    â€œWe can take you home,” Torian cut in, Loni by her side.
    â€œI would take you home, baby, but I got to see the trainer at five in the morning for rehab. Gimme your key, and I’ll drive your car over to Mike’s place.” Kade gave me a puppy-dog face, and I knew I needed to go with my friends and just call it a night.
    â€œCome on, Malloy, let’s get out of here,” Loni said as she rubbed my back. “I know you’re tired.”
    â€œCall me tonight, baby. It’ll be all right,” Kade said beforehe hobbled over to my car.
    When I got in the backseat of Loni’s car, I laid my head down. It was pounding something fierce. All I had been trying to do was enjoy my time with my guy at a party, and that couldn’t even go well.
    â€œGirl, I know how you feel,” Loni said, surprising me.
    â€œIf it would have been me, I probably would have wanted to whoop up on her, too.”
    â€œWe just couldn’t let you go down like that,” Torian chimed in.
    â€œIt’s obvious Kade likes you, though,” Loni said as she kept her eyes on the road.
    â€œYeah, he really does,” Torian said. “And he’s a hottie!”
    â€œWhat are y’all talking about?”
    â€œThe way he broke up with Sharon for, like, the fourth time in front of all them people? He tried to be nice to her, but she just wouldn’t let up, being all clingy on him, grabbing on his shirt, trying to kiss him.”
    â€œShe was doing all that?” I asked.
    â€œYeah, while you were talking to Hayden, she was showingthat maybe she was loony enough to mess up your ride. She whispered some other stuff to him we couldn’t hear. It appeared she was trying to tell him anything she could to hold on to him. But the fine brother wasn’t buying it. He was completely into you,” Torian said, turning in the front seat to give me the scoop.
    â€œWhat did you do to hook him like that, girl?” Loni teased.
    â€œI don’t know. I just wasn’t letting him play me. Trust me, though, if I knew he was going to be this much trouble—peoplebreaking my car window and stuff—I never would have gotten back with his behind.”
    The two of them looked at each other and laughed. I was serious, though. Why women couldn’t just walk away gracefully when a man was through with them was beyond anything I could conceive.
    â€œYeah, you would have