9780063056534

“You gotta be kidding me.”
“We . . . we got a DNNA test done—”
“Oh my God.” She holds her forehead. “Oh my freaking God—”
“He mine.”
“Oh my God.” Lisa sink to the floor. She look up at me. “You have a
baby?”
Man up, I tell myself. “Yeah. I got a son.”
“You lied to me,” she says.
“I didn’t lie—”
“Yes, you did! For weeks, I’ve asked you what’s wrong! You said
nothing. You went and got a freaking DNNA test done on a baby, and that’s
nothing?”
“I didn’t wanna stress you out! I thought he was King’s baby.”
“Oh my God. This explains sooooo much. Whenever I run into Iesha
and her friends, they laugh at me. Tammy told me I was imagining it. I was
right, wasn’t I? They were laughing ’cause you played me!”
“I didn’t play you!”
“Everybody knew that you slept with another girl except for me!”
“Everybody didn’t know,” I say.
“Iesha knew! Her friends knew! King knew! I bet Dre knew, didn’t he?”
I can’t respond, ’cause they did.
“You know what?” Lisa murmurs. “Maybe my mom and my brother are
right about you.”
“What?”
Lisa look me dead in the eye. Hers are filled with tears. “Get out.”
“Lisa—”
“Get out!” she yells.
The door fly open, and Carlos rush in. “She said leave!”
“Man, mind your goddamn business!”
“She is my business!”
“Carlos, stop,” Lisa says softly. “He’s not worth it.”
It hit like a gunshot. That’s the worst thing she ever said ’bout me.
Carlos eye me, and he smirk. He finally got what he wanted.
“You heard her,” he says. “Go.”
Lisa wipe tears from her cheeks. I wish I could wipe them away myself.
More than that, I wish I could kick my own ass for making her cry.
Instead, I do what she asked. I leave.