I shook my head, frustrated by not having an answer. Treesha hadn’t officially said yes, and Renata hadn’t approved her sister taking her car for such a long trip.
“I’m trying to figure out where I’m staying tonight. I’m not staying there with you. Not with him being around.”
“Damn it, Tori! That’s why you left the money on the fucking table?”
“I don’t want his money.”
“It’s mine, too! I done robbed Peter to pay Paul to get you that money, and you throw a hissy fit and leave it here? Grow the fuck up, KaToria! Come get this money you claim you need at that school.”
I heard a loud knock on the door. It was alarming, just short of a bang. Were the cops here?
I moved toward the front of the house. “You can keep it. Let’s just start over with the next one.”
“Girl, you ‘bout to be nineteen next Wednesday. Ain’t no damn more checks coming! The extension was only for one year!”
That stopped me in my tracks just as Treesha was going for the front door. The girls all seemed just as curious as I was about the knocking. But my brain fumbled at the reminder that my father had done his duty in catching up on the back payments of child support. He requested an extra year to keep the monthly payments affordable for him. My mother was right: there was no more money to come after my nineteenth birthday.
Treesha opened the door, and a man whose grizzly figure outframed the doorjamb appeared. He had cornrows going to the back of his head and the skin on his face was two-toned. He didn’t look happy either. I couldn’t hear much of their exchange although my eyes were locked ahead on the two, Toya and Renata around me.
“I’m good, Ma. I don’t want that money,” I returned to my mother on the phone.
“That sound dumb as hell, girl! You gone leave money on the table? You ‘posed to be so broke at school. How’re you gonna take care of them things now?”
Ashton.
The big guy stepped inside the tiny trailer, shrinking it even more. That left room for Ashton’s tall figure to enter. His scowl was even deeper as he swept the crowded space.
“I—I’ll figure it out,” I offered without emotion, but with big confidence to my mother. “I gotta go, Ma.” Without waiting for a response, I ended the call.
Ashton’s hard regard had found me. He looked me up and down, taking in my entire being. This inspection was different from that time in his apartment after my fake date. His eyelids were wider then. And it wasn’t like when I went down on him in the therapy room. His jaw clenched over and over then. This scowl was different.
I swallowed hard, trying to appear cool and unbothered. “What are you doing here?”
My body vibrated beneath my clothes and my mouth went completely dry as my pulse beat so hard, I heard it in my head.
He strolled up to me, chin down, eyes hard. “What the hell do you think?”
He smelled annoyingly good. Too good. I forgot how capable he was of making me feel crazy shit inside. He’d gotten a haircut since I left him at the airport yesterday, his beard trimmed and hairline sharp. Even in a hoodie and sweatpants, Ashton looked every bit of the imposing, larger than life energy he was even at BSU. Some say the cool kids at school are only cool at school. Ashton Spencer defied that. At Blakewood, Ashton was usually South Orange: here in the middle of my aunt’s living room in our trailer park, he was every ounce Newark.
My pulse now hard in my neck, shoulders feeling weak, I tried pushing back. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be wondering how you even found me. Stalker human, much?”
Renata or Toya snickered behind me, I didn’t know which one. But it was clear Ashton didn’t like that.
He peered over my head, face breaking into a dangerous grin. “Hi.”
“Hi,” they sang in soprano.
“I’m Ashton. I go to school with Tori. We play sports.”
“You a boxer?” Treesha’s dumb ass asked.
A sheet of air from Ashton’s snort hit my face. “She thinks she can take me, but nah. I run the ball.”
“Oh, you!” Renata chirped. “Ohhh! Okay.”
His face rolled down, one brow peaked. “Yeah,” he droned. “Mee.” If he thought I spilled one word of the crazy shit that had happened between the two of us over the past two weeks, he was