Page 33 of Stay Dangerous

“You’re crazy,” I whispered.

He finally stepped away from me, his face a picture of confusion. “I’m just telling you what it is.”

“Leave me alone, Rico. I mean it, stay away from me.”

He shrugged, almost back to normal as he backed up more so I could walk away. We were around the corner. I could have walked home.

“Snow,” he called out.

Despite what I knew, I still turned toward him.

He opened the front passenger door and rested on it. His smile was charming, but it didn’t make me feel the same. Not then. Not when I knew other girls were enjoying it.

“I know you mad, so I’ll give you some time. But don’t forget what it is.” He got inside the car without giving me time to reply, like I could even figure out what to say to that.

I just turned around and speedwalked to my house.

“Should have known he was crazy. He’s from theprojects, Wynnie. You sure know how to pick ‘em,” I berated myself into the fall night.

Regardless of his warning, I still blocked his number and took him out of my Top Five as I walked up my steps. I had half a mind to give him back the phone, but I wasn’t that dumb.

This phone was amazing.

I slipped inside my house as I pocketed my phone, and collapsed onto the couch. I still had another hour and a half before the supposed family meeting, which was just enough time to get my feelings together.

Closing my eyes, I tried to center myself like how Frankie did before she cussed everyone out in her salon.

Unless Mom was apologizing to Auty and speaking to her, I didn’t care about what was to be said. This had gone on entirely too long, five years by then, and now the house was a warzone.

And now with me seeing Rico for “what it is,” as he would say, my days were about to become unbearable again.

After a few deep breaths, I wiped my face with the backs of my hands and opened my eyes.

There, in the middle of the coffee table, was a stack of money and a note.

It was thick, bigger than the size of a brick. Four smaller stacks wrapped in a thin paper, and if each stack was the same as the one on top, then it was forty-thousand dollars.

I’d never seen that much money at one time before. Even when Mom would drag me on shopping dates with her. Never that much.

My lips dried up immediately. My stomach dipped. Something was wrong. So verywrong.

I didn’t even have enough spit to lick my lips. They were cracking by the second, as I stared at the folded note by the money.

“They wouldn’t,” I whispered to myself. They wouldn’t justleaveforty-thousand dollars here, for anyone to see.

I dug my phone out of my pocket and saw it was quarter to six. Auty wouldn’t come until she absolutely had to, especially since he was next door.

I could have delayed reading the note. I should have. But I had to know. I had to make sure the hope that I knew my parents, at least my Dad, wouldn’t do this to us, that it was maybe just misplaced.

I snatched the note and unfolded it. As my eyes scanned my mother’s handwriting, tears blurred them by the time I got to the last word.

Since you hate me so much, see how you do without me. Maybe then you’ll appreciate all I do for your ungrateful ass.

I stood so abruptly that the couch creaked, and rushed to the house phone in the kitchen. There was a new message on the machine that I played instantly.

“Hey, girls. It’s your dad. Your mom and I will be going away for a while, but don’t worry. Your mom called your Nana and she’ll be there tomorrow. I know this is sudden, but I thought our departure was next Saturday, instead of this Saturday. I’d wanted to do this in person, but we’d already paid our deposits and everything was set. Thank God your mother caught the mistake.

“Your mom is on her way to leave a note detailing everything and how to reach us while we’re gone, while I hold up our spots. Nana will have the same information. Please know that we love you, both of you, and when we get back, we can work on being a family. It’s not too late. I love you, my favorite seasons.”