“He knows my period is late. But I really thought it would come on this morning.” Jacinta shook her head in disbelief that it had betrayed her. “I told him to call me to check. He should be calling soon.”
As if summoned, Jacinta’s phone shouted, “Partner, let me upgrade ya,” then proceeded to play a bar from the Beyoncé song before Jacinta flipped it open.
“Hey, Heem.”
“Wassup, girl,” Raheem said.
“Nothing.” Jacinta leaned her elbows on her thighs and away from Mina’s curious gaze. Immediately, all the control fled. She silently cursed the tight knot in her stomach, willing its tightness to be from her period and not the doom she felt crowding her. Telling Raheem was the easy part compared to…well, she didn’t want to think about telling anyone else.
Easy or not, she braced herself for Raheem’s rant. She’d probably have to hear all about how not ready he was to be a father. Like she was ready to be a mother? But he was heading to Georgetown University late this summer—she was pretty sure they didn’t allow babies in the dorm.
Mina tapped her, mouthing something.
“Hold up for a second,” Jacinta said to Raheem. She brought the phone away from her ear. “Huh?”
“Want to walk to the Ria or just stay here?” Mina asked.
The Ria was only a short five-minute walk across the school’s soccer fields and the main street, but walking, doing anything would be better than nothing. Jacinta stood up, picked up her bag, and signaled that she wanted to walk.
They took their time, using the sidewalk around instead of cutting through the teacher’s lot.
“So, what’s up? Did it come on?” Raheem asked.
“Nope.”
Jacinta’s heart pounded in her ears as she waited for Raheem to flip out. Instead, his voice came back a hushed whisper. “Damn. For real?”
“For real,” Jacinta said.
The short answers were helping her keep her cool. Keeping her from screeching into the phone, “What are we going to do? What? Huh? What are we going to do?!”
“So we gon’ have a little baller, huh?” Raheem said, the smile in his voice unmistakable.
Jacinta took the phone off her ear and stared at it, scowling, like it had licked her.
“What?” Mina asked. “Dead spot?”
“Raheem, are you serious?” Jacinta asked, her voice hitting that note of incredulity that meant she wasn’t just confused, she was pissed.
“Well, I guess it could be a little girl. But girls be hoopin’ too,” he said.
Jacinta stopped abruptly. Mina sputtered to a halt beside her. “Alright, where is the real Raheem? And who the hell are you?”
Raheem laughed. “What? You thought I was gon’ trip?”
“Yes. I’m tripping. Why aren’t you?”
Jacinta kept taking the phone off her ear and staring at it.
“’Cause there’s worst things that could happen, I guess,” Raheem said, a shrug in his voice.
“Yeah, like my father killing you and me.”
“I know that’s right,” Raheem said. There was silence on both ends; then with another verbal shrug, he said, “But Jamal know I’m gon’ take care of mine.”
“Alright, look, we need to have this conversation in person,” Jacinta said with real authority. She shook her head. “’Cause I don’t know if you’re joking or what. But…” She paused, as if pondering another option, then snorted. “Naw, we need to talk.” Her eyebrows squinted in genuine confusion. “You heard me right? About my period?”
“Yeah. You said it’s not coming on or…whatever, it was supposed to come on a few days ago, and it didn’t,” Raheem said matter-of-factly like Jacinta was the crazy one. “But alright, holler at me later. I can dip by today or tomorrow.”
“Bye, Heem,” Jacinta said. She flipped the phone shut, still shaking her head in a slow tick tock motion.
She and Mina stood on the sidewalk, waiting for the light to turn so they could cross over to the Ria. Traffic was light this time of day, the calm before the rush hour storm, and cars floated by lazily.
“What did he say?” Mina asked, raising her voice to be heard above the passing cars. “Was he mad?”
“Naw, he wasn’t mad,” Jacinta said. Her eyebrows tightly knit, she shook her head. “But I wish he had been.”
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