“Girl, please.” JZ's eyes narrowed. “You rummin for real. How I look jealous of some dude?” His knees wagged, the only proof that the question (or answer to it) indeed bothered him, then he hunched his shoulders. “I mean, he seem all right.” He dangled his hand. “A little too proper-acting, but you know ... I don't need roll with him. So it's swazy.”
Jacinta nudged his elbow, teasing. “Shoot, he's from Del Rio's Crossing, so trust he know how, knuck.”
“Okay, he's a
dancer
.” JZ's eyes rolled. “What kind of knucking he doing? A pop/lock contest?” His limbs popped in an exaggerated, erratic freestyle.
Jacinta shoved him but muffled her laugh behind her hand.
JZ smiled, chuckling low and deep in his chest.
“All right, hold it down back there,” Michael said, turning to give them the movie “shhh.” “Or do I need to separate y'all two?”
JZ nodded his head at Jacinta. “That's her, kid.” He shoved Jacinta and raised his voice. “Be quiet, Cinny, dag. People trying to watch the movie.”
When Michael turned back around, Jacinta leaned in a final time, whispering, “You all kinds of wrong for that.”
JZ's smile was sincere. “Naw, I guess he's all right, though.” He shoved her knee playfully, stroking her thigh as he withdrew his hand. “Want some popcorn?”
“ 'Bout time you asked,” Jacinta said. “And some M&M's too, please.”
He frowned. “What I look like, your slave?”
“Yah, trick, yah,” Jacinta sang. She pretended to crack a whip at him.
“I got your yah,” JZ muttered. “See who ain't getting any M&M's.”
“Just joking, baby boy,” Jacinta said, smiling her sweetest.
She patted his thigh, sending energy to JZ's groin. He stood up abruptly, willing the surge to travel down his legs and to his feet, toes, anywhere but his groin. The sudden position change worked. But as he walked down the stairs toward the snack counter, the memory of Jacinta's ear on the tip of his tongue and the smile it produced on her face sent the energy surging again.
It was going to be a long night.
Clash of the Titans
“So poofâvamoose son-of-a-b#$%&.”
âJay-Z, “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”
Â
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M
ichael stood on Kelly's front lawn with Rob and JZ in the crisp night air, waiting for the couples to say their good-byes. The cold air scorched his lungs each time he sucked in too much. He'd known they were walking tonight and still hadn't prepared. With a mix of envy and annoyance, he watched Rob wrap a gray wool scarf around his neck until it reached his mouth and pluck a pair of leather gloves from his coat pocket.
By the time they began trekking down Kelly's long driveway, Michael's hands were chilled to the tips. Icy dew shimmered on the black tar, glimmering against the motion lights shining from either side of the drive. JZ, Brian, and Todd cruised in the lead. Greg walked solo in the middle, carefully picking his way to avoid black ice; Michael and Rob behind him, pacing their steps so as not to step on Greg's heels. Michael blew in his hands, relishing the momentary relief his warm breath brought to his frigid digits.
Talk of JZ's New Year's Eve party quickly took center stage.
“Ay, Brian, since New Year's Eve your last night in town”âJZ's eyebrows archedâ“are you and Mina even coming to the party?” Chunks of cold smoke punctuated his devilish chuckle.
“We'll be there ... not long though,” Brian said, a smile in his voice. He exchanged a pound with JZ. “But you know Mina, son. We'll definitely be there.”
“For real, she not missing an upper bash,” Michael said, raising his voice to be heard in the back. “Not even for you, B.”
“Ain't that messed up?” Brian looked over his shoulder, his scowl playing to the guy's light Mina-bashing. “It's our last night together until spring probably ... but if it's a party, you know her face gotta be up in the place.”
The guy's voices, animated and loud, floated through the limbs of the naked trees, falling short of reaching the houses well off the road. The banter fueled their pace and the neighborhood's entrance was within view in minutes.
JZ glanced back at Rob. “Stop through if you want. You can bring somebody too, if you flow like that.”
“Thanks,” Rob said. He smushed his scarf under his chin. “Is it a couples-only thing?”
“Might as well be,” Michael said. He was secretly pleased that JZ had extended the offer.
“It ain't no couple thing,” JZ said, righteously indignant. “Bringing a date to a party is like bringing your own water to a pool.” He laughed at his own joke as he talked on. “Why bother?”
Rob's elbow tapped Michael's as he thought aloud. “I could bring Maribel.”
Michael nodded approval. “Yeah, she'd be down. And she knows me and Lizzie, so she would probably flow.”
“Whatever,” JZ said, interrupting. “Like I said, bring somebody if you want. Just don't bring a whole bunch of dudes.”
Michael scowled. “Why would he?”
JZ flashed Michael a look of annoyed confusion. “You know how people roll in mob deep, and I don't want to end up with a bunch of hardheads at the party. I rather there be more shorties there.” He feigned brushing off his shoulder. “Because the kid ain't in no couple.”
Todd cackled. “Does Tonya know that?”
“I didn't invite Tonya,” JZ said. A trail of cold smoke exited his nose as he snorted. “Erica trying get on. So I invited her.” He rubbed his hands together with glee. “The kid knows how to play it. A sophomore all up in an upper class party. Shoot, you know how grateful she gon' be?”
He made an obscene gesture, setting off snickering.
“Dude, for real, I'm gonna need you to stop bragging about all your conquests,” Todd said. “It's like living across from a playground but being grounded or something. I can watch you play but I can never come out.”
The guys' laughter exploded in the night, just as they reached the guard's booth. The guard looked up, momentarily jolted by the noise, saluted them, and went back to looking at a tiny screen in front of him. The group tightened their circle, walking swifter and talking louder once out of Folger's Way and on the main road leading to their respective neighborhoods.
“Just save all that tension for the game tomorrow,” JZ said. “Poly trying to act like they can ball this year. We need some of that new aggressive Todd, throwing bows.”
Todd rolled his eyes. “No problem there.”
“So, Jay, you letting Cinny bring Raheem?” Michael said, meaning it partly as a joke and getting the expected offense from JZ.
“Letting?” JZ sniffed. “Cinny can do what she wants.” He cleared his throat, shrugging as he casually added, “But he supposed to be heading back to DC early. So I think she's riding solo. I don't know.”
“And you just happen to know this?” Todd said. He knocked shoulders with JZ. “I wish you and Cinny would just do it already.”
“Yeah, I saw y'all all cozy tonight,” Brian said. “You and Cinny like that now? On that creep tip.”
“No,” JZ said quickly. He frowned. “That's Todd always fantasizing about people sexing 'cause he's not getting none.”
“Aww, see, that's wrong,” Todd said, managing to look wounded. “Just for that, I'm not sharing the profits from that sex tape of you and Tonya I've been selling on the web.”
“Naw, player, you gotta split the cheese with me, 'cause that joint probably making you rich.” JZ gave Todd some dap as he belly laughed. “Shortie is wi-zild.”
“For real, y'all made a tape?” Brian said, properly skeptical. They all knew anything was possible with JZ when he was wilding out about girls.
JZ and Todd exchanged a look.
“Naw, I didn't,” JZ admitted. “But I was telling T I should have. Man, y'all wouldn't believe this chick.” He bucked as if taming a rodeo horse. “I was like buck wild, in that joint.”
The guy's cracked up, laughing. Their footsteps slowed, then stopped when they reached a four-way intersection. Greg's neighborhood was to the right, Todd's to the left, the Woods straight ahead. They huddled around JZ as he regaled them with Tales of Tonya.
Knowing JZ could go on for hours, if they let him, Michael interrupted a few minutes into the gory details. “I'm gonna dip because I'm gonna borrow my grandmother's car and drive Rob home.”
Content to let JZ's hot details warm them in the cold, Brian, Greg, and Todd exchanged a pound with Michael and a fist knock with Rob before huddling back together. The hoots and catcalls of the guys followed Rob and Michael down Main Street a few blocks until their footsteps were the only sound, loud and hollow on the sleepy street. Stoplights blinked, easily accommodating the half dozen or so cars that rolled by, flashing into the windows of empty storefronts and restaurants.
“Dang, what time everything shut down over here?” Rob said, craning his neck at the long block of ghost town businesses.
“Except for the eating joints, everything be closed by seven,” Michael said.
“Except coming by your place, this is my first time over here this late.” Rob glanced side to side as if still expecting people to emerge from the darkened buildings.
Michael nodded. “I didn't think you were coming tonight.”
“I wasn't at first. But Mina was so nice ...” Rob glanced at Michael. “She's as crazy cool as you described her.”
“The Deev's my girl,” Michael said. His face lit up.Without realizing it, he slowed his steps as he looked over at Rob. “What did you think about ... everyone else?”
“They all seem cool ... crazy, definitely.” Rob chuckled. “Especially that dude Todd. He got a joke for everything.”
Michael nodded, hoping Rob would go on with his reflections. He wanted to know what Rob thought of JZ, but couldn't bring his tongue to say the words. It felt gossip-y and backstabbing to ask one of his closest friends what he thought about the other. At least JZ would think so. Michael had no doubt Mina would openly dish without any prodding, not only on what she thought about Rob but what she thought anyone else thought about him.
Michael had mad respect for the way Mina melded her longtime friendship with Lizzie with her relatively new one with Jacinta and Kelly. All nice and good for her, but he couldn't see himself kicking it so easily with both Rob and JZ on the regular.
JZ was too JZâloud and playfully sarcastic edging toward arrogance. Especially lately, his sarcasm had a bitterness that jolted Michael. A few times JZ had said things to Jacinta that Michael thought for sure was going to get JZ knocked in the head, but Jacinta had let it roll. Apparently, it was all a part of their new play/flirt relationship. To Michael it felt like things between the two would explode the second one of them no longer thought their light barbs were funny anymore.
He hoped he wasn't there if it did.
Rob's voice reached out of the cold, snapping him to attention.
“At least I can finally go back and tell Maribel and Ferdinand that your clique exists.”
Michael laughed low in his throat. “Running bets about whether they're my imaginary friends or not?”
“Naw, I knew Mina was real,” Rob said, his eyes glinting. “I thought you made up everybody else, though.”
They crossed into the Woods. Trees loomed, large and bare on both sides of the street, in an ominous welcome. Only the streetlights, glowing orbs of safety every fifteen feet, broke up the darkness ahead just enough to keep it from being eerie. For Michael it was home, familiar, but he felt Rob's arm brush against him as his friend stepped closer.
Michael smiled. Del Rio's Crossing was second only to Pirates Cove in being not only one of the poorest, but also one of the toughest neighborhoods. As a dude who studied ballet, modern dance, and tap, Rob had had his fair share of harassment from his nabe's peers. But for some reason, the quiet dark of the burbs unsettled him. Michael didn't get it and was about to severely joke Rob about it until Rob spoke up first.
“Ay, so you gon' get your portfolio together?”
“Yeah.” Michael's lips pursed as he shrugged away the tingle of pride creeping in. “But I'm not pressed.”
He felt Rob's eyes on him and took longer than necessary to zip his already zipped jacket to the neck so he wouldn't have to look over.
“You don't need to be pressed, but bring your A game,” Rob said, offense bristling. “Madame told me she already has a hundred applicants. Just because Del Rio Bay don't recognize, doesn't mean people from other schools are sleeping on this. Trust, if you trying to make it in the arts, the Carter is the place to be.”
“I haven't heard that a million times in the last week,” Michael said, working to keep his tone good-natured. He didn't want to ruin the night arguing about it. He was only putting the portfolio together because he'd need it for his Plan B.
He hadn't shared it with Rob yet but Plan B, fuzzy as it was, was his plan to head to New York after graduation and get a designing job with one of the hundreds of productions. Do the urban starving artist thing. The idea had started forming sometime between Madame announcing the Carter auditions and Rob's not-so-subtle pressure.
Madame had a lot of contacts; surely she'd share his talents with a few and get him on somewhere. He'd worry about minor details like where he'd live later.
As great as the Carter opportunity was, Michael was certain it was merely a sign, there when he needed it most to open his eyes to some of the things he could do post-graduation. Now his mind was brimming with thoughts of New York and the possibility of finding a new mentor, like Madame, there.
Yes, I've had a Mina moment,
he thought, satisfied with where the sign guided him but reluctant to truth up to Rob about any of it.
Rob didn't understand. Couldn't understand. He'd been going to the Carter since seventh grade. Del Rio's Crossing was where he lived, but he was barely there between classes, rehearsals, and finding reasons to hang out in DC or with other members of the Players.
Rob had admitted that if it weren't for Michael's friendship, he'd spend even less time in the DRB. As much as that stroked Michael's ego, the fact was, he had more of a life to leave behind than Rob had when he'd entered the Carterâsomething Michael tried to play down, to save Rob's feelings.
The clique had their issues, but it was nights like this when they all had a good time that convinced Michael that doing his last year at a new school around strangers wasn't the move.
The terse cluck of Rob's tongue brought him back from dreams of New York City.
“Your skills are fierce, but there will be plenty of others just as talented, I bet,” Rob said, rearranging his scarf to cover his mouth.