Nobody eat all the cereal
Nobody eat all the bread
Nobody go begging for food like we’re poor
(You trying to make me look like a bad parent?)
(You acting like you don’t know no better?)
No, you can’t go over to that house
Yes, you can go to the park
Be back before dark
(Nobody walked the dog?)
(Nobody folded the clothes?)
(Who do you think I am?)
(I work all day and got to come home and work too?)
No fighting in the house
No running from fights
That school better not call my phone
Don’t steal snacks from the store—we ain’t broke
Make ramen for snack
Make a peanut-butter sandwich
Don’t use all my butter
Don’t eat all the cheese
Take the chicken out the freezer
(Ain’t nobody take the chicken out the freezer?)
Nobody call my phone unless the house is on fire
Watch your mouth
(Who do you think you’re talking to?)
I’m not one of your little friends.
SO, WHEN CLIFTON ASKS TO USE THE BATHROOM
after we walk home from the basketball game
I forget about Mama’s rule.
I am too busy thinking
about the cold shoulder
Lay Li tossed my way
It’s been weeks since she & I talked.
But it feels like eternity
When I see Lay Li sitting like the bleachers are her throne
I can still hear her voice in my head “You ruin everything!”
I walk in the orange-lit gymnasium
with my mall purchase, a pair of hot pink stretch pants
& I got a date (with a boy from a different school)
all on my own
But Lay Li ain’t even speak
& I thought for sure she’d be impressed.
I thought:
Here I go
just shining
like my own
s u n .
HERE I GO
beaming
with somebody
Lay Li ain’t had to trick into pretending to like me
& Lay Li acts like it’s nothing
Like I’m nothing.
All because I didn’t lie to Shawn
who likes her too much
& keep on asking me questions.
SHAWN WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT CURTIS
& why Lay Li & him broke up
in the first place
He doesn’t believe she left Curtis for him
He doesn’t believe much of what she say
Because word is out that Curtis is her first everything
First real boyfriend
First real love
First real kiss
First hand to touch her like the slow songs sing about
Now, nobody calls Curtis a lie
It don’t matter if he got caught in a lie
It don’t matter if he forget the first story he told
It don’t matter if he never answers the questions outright
He just nod & shrug & the boys say
I knew it!
& everybody think they know
& mostly they don’t
But the truth don’t matter when you got better stories to tell yourself
Now,
Shawn runs the West Side
& Curtis runs the South Side
Both sides hold court during away sports games
Where the most popular guys
Talk this & that
Brag about girls they bagged
The new kicks they got
The game they watched on television
The summer school they going to for summer
Who got smoked
Who got smoke
Who smoke
They talk as much as they say us girls do
& still they never say much
Lay Li say whether or not
Lay Li & Curtis hooked up
It ain’t nobody’s business
& I agree
BUT CURTIS LET IT BE EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS
& that’s how they broke up.
Lay Li decides
Finger snap: just like that
“Curtis never existed. He never happened. Never speak his name.”
I say “Okay.” Okay. But when Shawn asks if they ever really hooked up, I say
“Curtis is a dog!” instead of “Ask Lay Li.”
Which really feels like the same thing
Except it ain’t.
One says “I’ll lie for my friend.”
& other proves I will try
to lie for my friend
& fail.
Just like that: finger snap Lay Li decides I don’t exist too.
She’s talking into the phone until Shawn hangs up.
She calls back.
He won’t answer.
She calls again
She calls me jealous.
He won’t answer.
The ring is the loudest ring that never ends
Before she slams the phone on the table
Before she cries in her hands
Before I realize I’ve never seen her like this
Her makeup smeared & running a river into the brink of her palms
She picks up the phone & calls Shawn
No Answer
She calls Shawn again