Shortie Like Mine Read Free Page A

Wow, honey dip, I will rock you to sleep. Know what? I’m just gon’ tell Mommy ’cause I’m tired of this.”
    â€œWhat you mean, tell Mommy? You want us both to be on lockdown? If you do that, you know she not gon’ wanna hear about you going to no more parties, no more staying up late, and you know the phone’ll be comin’ outta here.”
    I hated it when she made sense. “I’m getting real sick of you. You gon’ mess around and get into some trouble you can’t get out of.” I started rummaging through my closet for school clothes again. “And I hope you had some sleep, because Cousin Shake’s disability kicked in, so he stopped working at Wal-Mart. And his miserable self is here all day, looking for a reason to scream on us. Besides, school just started and you’ve already skipped like five times. And if you do it again, Mommy is gon’ flip and that will be on you and not on me.” I pulled out a pair of tight Baby Phat jeans, a hot pink tee with “The definition of fresh” written in rhinestones across the front, pink bangles, and matching hoop earrings. “You need to tell Qua to stop keeping you out all night.”
    â€œOkay, Mother,” she remarked sarcastically. “And for your information, I planned on going to school today.”
    â€œYou need to go everyday. Keep it up and you won’t be graduating.”
    â€œAnywho, since when Cousin Shake stop working at Wal-Mart?”
    â€œSince I started minding my business,” he yelled through the door.
    Toi and I looked at each other and fell out laughing.
    Before Qua came along, I loved being around my sister. We were fraternal twins and we used to be best friends until her taboo boyfriend came along.
    Word on the street is that he’s a street pharmacist, which is part of the reason my sister is draped in Purple labels and Bebe all the time. I haven’t said anything about it, because I don’t want Toi to flip on me. But I know if my mother ever hears wind of this, it’ll be the end of these two as we know it.
    And to make matters worse, my mother doesn’t know he’s twenty. Toi lied and told her he was eighteen and attended Essex County College. He used to come around until Cousin Shake started yelling, “Take cover!” every time he walked through the door.
    Now, Toi goes over to his place and spends every waking moment she can with him. He has a small house he flipped over on Nye and there’ve been plenty of times I’ve seen girls coming in and out of his spot, a few of them even riding around with him in his car. Once, I told Toi what he was doing and peep this, homegirl went right back and told him exactly what I said. Every freakin’ word. And after he lied and made her think I was hatin’ on her, who did Toi accuse of making things up? Me. Not Qua. But me. I was pissed and from that moment on, I swore she would never hear another word about Ghetto Charming from these divafied lips.
    â€œI got bathroom first!” I ran out the room, leaving her sitting on the bed, still laughing at Cousin Shake.
    By the time I was showered, dressed, and back in the room, she was under the covers sleeping. “You better get up,” I snapped, spraying oil sheen in my hair.
    â€œI got cramps,” she said groggily.
    â€œYou should’ve had cramps last night. Come on, Toi, I’m not doing any more work for you.”
    â€œThen don’t,” she snapped. “Go. I’ll meet you there.” She turned over and buried her head beneath the pillow.
    â€œWhatever.” I looked in the mirror and applied my MAC lip gloss. “If you want Qua to pimp you the rest of your life, then you do boo. ’Cause if you keep acting like this, I won’t have to tell Mommy—you’ll be forced to. Stupid!” Before I left, I snatched the covers off her.
    â€œWhat took you so long, Bubble Butt?!”