“You going back?” Treesha asked. I felt Renata’s neck whipped my way. “I thought you’da been back.”
My eyes circled the table. “Why?”
Treesha shifted her attention to NeNe. She lifted her over the table for me to take her. She knew I’d never turn down an opportunity to play with her daughter.
“I ‘on’t know,” Treesha murmured. “Renata said Aunt Dot said you said you was coming home. You ain’t like it out there.”
My gaze moved from NeNe up to Renata. Her eyes wouldn’t hold steady. Something was off. I hadn’t kept in touch with my cousins because for a while, I didn’t have a cellular phone at BSU and I couldn’t call. They didn’t have my information to call if their cells had been on. None of them had plans, just minutes, and I didn’t expect them to use them up on me. I was fine.
“What did she say?” I asked Renata.
She shrugged, pushing her plate up the table. “Nothing, really.”
“That’s what you eat now?” Treesha’s question was abrupt, causing me to glance down at my plate. “What was that called again?”
I eventually answered, “A Greek salad.”
“Oh, that’s what them wet leaves was?” Toya’s face was tight with disgust.
“The stuffed grape leaves?” Out of nowhere, I felt embarrassed. I shrugged. “It’s…good.”
“That must be that college shit,” Treesha observed.
“They got me on a dumb diet.”
“Why?” Renata snapped, head swinging to face me.
I shrugged again. “I’m an athlete, Renata. They test and fix everything for us.”
“That’s better than what we gone have tomorrow,” Toya joked. “Come on. Let’s pay for this shit.”
Toya and Treesha scooted out of the booth to leave. I pulled out my money then went back to playing with NeNe. She was so cute and snuggly. Treesha kept her hair done with pretty barrettes.
“You sure you good?” Renata asked.
“Yeah. What you mean?”
“I ‘on’t know. I ain’t think you liked it out there. For real, for real, I thought you woulda quit by now.”
I shrugged then kissed NeNe’s soft cheek. “I ain’t no quitter.”
“Okay. So you ain’t coming back?” I shook my head as NeNe’s little hands cupped my cheeks. “Good. And Uppercut?”
“Fuck him,” I murmured, meaning every bit of it.
“So, it’s school for real, right?”
Her constant question of me sticking it out at BSU gave away her worry. That shit annoyed me.
“What’s your problem?” I demanded. “And don’t tell me nothing. I can tell you been keeping something from me?”
“The hell are you talking about?” Renata couldn’t look at me as she grabbed her cup that was now nothing more than melting ice. “I’m just making sure you good. I know you: you won’t say either way.”
I swung my head to face her with big eyes. “I’m good.”
“You got friends out there?”
“Yeah.” My attention was back to my sweet NeNe.
“How many, Tori?” I heard the doubt in her voice.
I paid a spell to consider that. “One and a half.”
“You fucking serious?” She spit out laughter; that made me crack up, too.
It was so contagious, even NeNe laughed.
“Yup. Dead serious.”
“What’s they name?”
“Which one?”
“Tori, fucking stop it!” She looked at me as I pretended not to notice. “Okay. The whole one. What’s her name?”
She rightfully assumed it was a girl. “Easy. Samantha.”
“How you meet her?”
“She moved into my room. She’s cool.”
“Where she from?”
“A couple of hours from campus.”
“And what about the half?”
I looked at her. “The what?”
“The half, fool.” She tried not laughing at my silliness. “The half of a friend you said.”
“Oh.” I turned back to NeNe, whose attention and determination were across the table at her mother’s soda. I grabbed my water and fed her the straw. She didn’t like it. I guessed lemon wasn’t her flavor. “Ashton,” I finally answered.
“Why he only a half, T?”
“Because he’s a weird, preppy sometimes, bossy, and, sometimes mean human. He’s the ‘big man on campus,’ you can say.”
She rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Here the fuck you go.” Renata was only a year older than me, but she was protective and understood me more than anyone other than my Margaret. When she died, Renata seemed to lock herself to me at the hip. I didn’t push her away. Eventually, Treesha, who was a year younger than me, included herself, but Renata “got” me. I knew she was “wrenching into my head” right now, but I never made it easy. “Then how he get to be a half a friend then?”
I thought about that for a few seconds, too. “Because