The Realest Ever - By Keith Thomas Walker Page 0,89
to deal with whatever her aunt was about to say.
“What’s wrong, Auntie?”
“Where’s my money, girl?”
Kyra’s head cocked slowly to the side. “What are you talking about?”
“My money you supposed to pay me when you get your check,” her aunt said. “You got paid on the first. Why you ain’t paid me?”
“Today’s the second,” Kyra said. “Why you tripping about it already? It’s only been one day.”
“Yeah, and you been ducking and dodging me,” Ruth said. Her eyes looked very small through her coke bottle glasses. But her mouth was big. Big and ugly, set in a sneer. She pointed a long, skinny finger at her ungrateful niece. “You knew I wanted my money yesterday. You knew I had plans for that.”
Kyra couldn’t believe this was really happening. Ruth had been an asshole since the day Kyra arrived with her children, but this was unreasonable. “How am I supposed to know you had plans?” she said. “You don’t tell me nothing.”
“You get paid on the first, and I want my money on the first,” her aunt reiterated.
“Okay, whatever,” Kyra said. “How much money am I supposed to owe you?”
“Fifteen hundred dollars.” Aunt Ruth actually said it with a straight face.
Kyra’s jaw dropped. After taxes and medical insurance for her and the kids, she only made $1,800 for a month’s work at J.T. Elder. She’d be damned if this witch got 85% of it.
“How the hell do I owe you fifteen hundred dollars?”
“Don’t be cussing at me!”
“How do I owe you fifteen hundred dollars?” Kyra snapped.
“What you mean, how? You been living here for two months, ain’t paid no bills, barely bought some groceries. Plus I’m doing all this babysitting. You going out damned near every night with one of your man friends.” Ruth waved her hand. “Girl, you got so many of them, I can’t keep up no more.”
Kyra’s eyes burned. She felt like she might cry, but she refused to let that happen. Her face turned red as she smothered the hurt and swallowed the hateful things she wanted to say.
“The only people I’ve been out with since I got here is Donovan and Roland. I only saw Roland two times. And Donovan watched my kids one of those times.”
Kyra spoke through clenched teeth. Her nostrils flared with each heartbeat. “You told me you were charging one-fifty a week for babysitting while I was at work. That comes out to six hundred dollars. As far as me going out, I only asked you to watch my kids five or six times. You said you were charging ten dollars an hour for that. That should come out to… a hundred and eighty dollars, tops.”
“What about when you didn’t come home all night?”
Kyra shook her head. She rubbed her hands together anxiously. Why did she think Aunt Ruth wouldn’t charge for every hour she spent with Donovan? Whatever! Kyra didn’t care. That was their first night together, and it was worth it.
“Alright, so what’s that? Another hundred and fifty?”
“That’s about right.” Aunt Ruth nodded.
Kyra calculated quickly. The total she came up with made her stomach hurt. “Alright, so, so that’s nine hundred and thirty dollars.” The tears were falling now. She wiped her eyes roughly. “Why you say it was fifteen hundred?”
“The rest is your regular rent,” Aunt Ruth said.
Kyra couldn’t do anything but sit and stare. She was devastated, but she barely reacted. Acting a fool wouldn’t do her any good. She’d been had, plain and simple. Kyra felt stupid. She felt pathetic. She felt lower than dirt. But most of all she felt stupid, stupid, stupid. How did she not see this coming?
“I’m only charging you three hundred dollars a month to live here,” Aunt Ruth said. “That’s a good deal. You not gon’ find nowhere else to live for that.”
No. The truth was Kyra wouldn’t be able to find anywhere to live period because she’d forever be in debt to her manipulative relative. If she paid Aunt Ruth what she wanted, Kyra would be left with three hundred dollars for the rest of the month.
But there was an out.
Kyra’s heart knocked as she thought of Donovan. She didn’t want to move in with him under these circumstances. She wanted to go to him with her head high, her finances in order. She wanted to be independent; in a position to help him for once in her life. She appreciated everything Donovan did for her, but she was tired of always running to him for help.