in Vineland with her momma’s people for Thanksgiving,” Renata explained. “They wanted to be with us, but ain’t nobody cooking.”
“What’s that college like, Tori?” Toya asked.
There was a smile of hope burning on her face. That surprised me. Did she think it was all roses at a college?
My phone chirped and flutters exploded in my belly. My first thought was the bossy human. But when I pulled out the phone with shaky fingers, I saw Samantha had BBM’d me that she was home.
“And they pay you to fight out there?” Renata asked, more or less insinuating. “Where did that Blackberry come from?”
“Shit!” Treesha swore. “Them phones are expensive! Richie said he’s getting one.”
Richie was Treesha’s boyfriend, but not NeNe’s father. He was a drug dealer in a trailer park not too far from ours.
I didn’t know how to answer that. So to delay it, I typed back to Samantha. Then I came up with another way to deflect.
Putting the phone down, I answered, “School is a bitch. The people out there are snooty as hell.”
“Wait!” Treesha rolled her neck. “I need to come out there?”
I laughed. Treesha wasn’t no real fighter. She had heart, but was a lightweight. She didn’t have to do any real fighting growing up: I did all the heavy fighting for my cousins. The little they did for themselves, I’d taught them. My cousins were by no means boxers, but they could defend themselves in a street fight.
“I’m okay, Treesh.”
“But what them niggas be like?” Toya popped her lips and booty-danced in her seat.
Treesha, seated next to her, laughed at her antics. I shook my head then gave my attention to NeNe, reaching across the table for the ketchup bottle. She was so cute and such a good baby. I remember sleeping with her on my chest when she was just days old. Most of my cousins had kids, but NeNe here is who made me want one so bad. The problem was making one. Sex was gross. It had to be. It involved nasty humans.
“Come on now,” Renata sighed. “You know Tori ain’t the one to answer that.”
“Or if there’s girls there.” Treesha rolled her eyes.
I hated when they did things like this. We all knew I was weird. Them being protective over it made the moment awkward, especially with Toya. She knew I was weird, too.
“There’re guys and girls there that think they’re the shit.” I shrugged, still holding NeNe’s little hand. “Like I said, they all snobs to me. So…”
“But any niggas up there with money?” Toya stuck her pierced tongue out toward her chin while gyrating her seated hips again. She had been dancing at a small titty bar in Bridgeton since she was eighteen. The girl hadn’t even graduated high school yet, but the owner let her dance. Her tips helped pay her senior dues so she could walk across the stage with a cap and gown. Toya had been doing it for almost two years now. “And I ‘on’t mean that lil’ book money from mommy and daddy. I mean that real shit. That fast dough.”
Renata giggled at that. Toya was being Toya. She and Treesha liked dope boys. They were all around, but once in a while, Treesha and Toya would go down to Atlantic City to fish for guys from out of town who didn’t mind buying food and drinks. If the girls were lucky, they’d get their telephone numbers and keep in touch for when they were in town again.
It was sad that I, like Toya, believed that was real money. That was until Blakewood. I now saw how people with money dressed and behaved. Dre was the flashiest on campus, but he carried himself way different from any of the guys around Millville. Everybody at Blakewood seemed to talk properly and have something going for themselves, even if it was with their chosen major and having a plan to use their degrees after school. I remembered hearing Samantha and her science-major crew talk about creating products and the steps to have them approved by the government as safe to use. Two of the girls were actually in the process. And they weren’t close to graduating like Ashton, Aivery, and most of their crew. The science girls had a year or two to go.
Like Toya being able to strip before getting her high school diploma…
“Nah,” I answered Toya. “None of that’s at BSU, that I know of.”
“Shiiiit,” she drug out. “Then count me out. How long you