My mother and I look up when the front door opens. Dreya walks through the door looking rumpled, crumpled, and like she hasn’t slept all night.
“You think you grown, staying out all night?” Aunt Charlie asks from her almost permanent spot on the couch. I thought she was still asleep.
Dreya gives Aunt Charlie the hand. “Don’t stress me.”
Aunt Charlie jumps up. “Don’t stress you? You done lost your mind, I see! If you’re that grown you can go stay with that boy. Go and pack yo’ stuff!”
Dreya laughs and shakes her head. “How are you kicking me out of Aunt Shawn’s house?”
Aunt Charlie looks at my mother, I guess trying to get some backup, but my mother throws both her hands up. “Unh-uh. I can’t do it this morning, Charlie. That’s between y’all.”
“Oh, you ain’t gon’ back me up, Shawn? You ain’t gon’ put this triflin’ heffa out?”
“Charlie…”
Aunt Charlie stands to her feet and her blanket drops to the floor, revealing a tattered nightgown and her ashy knees. It doesn’t help that her legs are so skinny that they look like two pretzel sticks. Not a good look at all.
“Shawn! If Sunday was spending the night out with some thugged-out boy, I bet you wouldn’t be so nonchalant.”
My mother sighs and replies, “Charlie, I don’t have the energy today.”
Aunt Charlie looks my mother up and down. “I know I can’t expect you to have my back. You done gave Sunday’s college money to that ole wannabe thug, Carlos. If you’ll do that to your own child, I know you wouldn’t have my back.”
“You need to go on somewhere with that, Charlie. If I didn’t have your back, you and your children would be homeless. You betta recognize.”
“See, why you gotta go there, Shawn?” Aunt Charlie asks.
My mother asks, “Why you gotta go there?”
I slide silently off the stool and flee to my bedroom. I can’t even think about eating breakfast, ’cause my stomach is in knots. Even though my auntie and my mama’s drama was a little bit of a distraction, I keep thinking about my college fund. I’ve been planning on going to Spelman since fifth grade, and as far as I know, my mother’s been saving just as long.
After slamming my bedroom door hard, I throw myself onto my unmade bed and sob into my pillow. This is not fair at all.
“Sunday, unlock the door—I gotta change clothes!” Dreya hollers from the other side of the door.
I ignore her and stare at the ceiling. Even when Dreya starts pounding on the door and kicking it, I don’t move. I don’t feel like dealing with her right now.
The door rattles on its hinges as Dreya continues to kick like she ain’t got good sense. I hope she kicks it in, so my mama can go upside her head. That would be exactly what I need to help get my mind off of this messed-up situation.
Finally, I walk over to the door and open it. Dreya acts like she’s gonna swing on me and I don’t even flinch. Actually, I almost laugh. Dreya going in on me is the last thing I’m worried about.
“Girl, please,” I say, “I really wish you would. Today would be the perfect day for me to spank that—”
“Whatever, Sunday,” Dreya interrupts. “If my man wasn’t outside waiting on me, I’d wipe the floor with your lame self.”
I chuckle. “Do it, Dreya. We can do this all day er’y day.”
Dreya rolls her eyes and grabs her clothes. “Big D wants you to come to the studio.”
She says this all nonchalantly, like it’s nothing major.
“What for?” I ask, sounding pretty nonchalant myself. Don’t want her to think I’m pressed.
“He wants to put together an album for me. He thinks he’ll be able to blow me up when Truth’s single hits the radio, just like Ashanti after she did them cuts for Big Pun and Ja Rule.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“A few stacks, I guess.”
To make this worth my while, I’m gonna need way more than a few stacks. Even with scholarship money, I’m looking at a good thirty grand a year for school. And it sounds like my college fund is dang near depleted after operation Carlos.
“I don’t know. I’ll think about it.”
“Big D said for you to call Sam and have him come scoop you. He told me to give you his number,” Dreya says.
“I already have his number. Got it last night.”
Dreya grins wickedly. “Got them digits, huh? Well, he’s kinda your type, I guess, although he ain’t nowhere near as cute as Romell.”
“Who’s thinkin’ ’bout Romell?”
“You were up until five minutes ago!”
“Whatev.”
Dreya rolls her eyes and grabs up a few more items and heads to the door. “Don’t forget to call Sam, Sunday. This could really blow us up!”
As if she cares about blowing us up. She only cares about herself! I’ve never met anyone more out for themselves than Dreya.
When she leaves, I take out my phone and send Sam a text.
U gon’ come scoop me?
It takes all of thirty seconds for him to respond. This makes me laugh out loud. Thirsty much?
U want me to?
I take a second to decide how I want this whole thing to play out. And since I don’t know Sam all like that, I’m not gonna let him see me pressed.
Big D wants you to.
About a minute after I click Send, my phone rings. Guess who?
“Hey, Sam.”
“So you don’t want me to scoop you?”
I chuckle. “Didn’t say that. But the text was a result of Big D’s request.”
“Okay. Well, then, yes, I’ll come scoop you for Big D.”
“Don’t act like you don’t want to.”
“Didn’t say that. But my scooping you is a result of Big D’s request.”
Wow. I’m speechless and caught without a comeback. Have I ever intellectually sparred with a guy before? I don’t think so. This could be the start of something.
“How soon will you be here?”
“Does forty-five minutes work for you?” Sam asks. “I was kinda in the middle of something.”
“Really? What are you in the middle of?”
“Hold on.”
I can tell he puts the phone on speaker because I can hear shuffling going on in the background. The next thing I hear is music coming from a keyboard. It’s a hot-sounding piano track. A simple melody weaved through a drum beat with the perfect amount of strings and horns. It’s hot to death.
Sam says, “Did you hear that?”
“Yep. I like it.”
“Good. Because Big D wants us to write something to this track for Dreya’s album.”
“Yeah, I haven’t agreed to doing that yet. We’re going to have to discuss the particulars. I’m not doing a whole album