Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0)(6)

Ms. Robinson take the papers out and read over them. By that smug look she get, I know what they say.

“Congratulations, Maverick,” she says, staring at her daughter. “You’re a father.”

Shit.

“Jesus.” Ma hold her forehead. Saying he mine and knowing it two different things.

Iesha snatch the papers. She look them over, and her face fall. “Shit!”

“Damn, why you mad?”

“This should be King’s baby! I don’t wanna deal with your ass!”

“I don’t wanna deal with your ass either!”

“Maverick!” Ma snaps.

My son cry in the car seat.

Ma cut me a hard glare and pick him up. “What’s wrong, Man-Man? Huh?” She don’t have to know you long to give you a nickname. Ma sniff near his butt, and her nose wrinkle. “Oh, I know what’s wrong. Where are his diapers?”

“In the baby bag,” Iesha mumbles.

“Grab the bag, Maverick,” Ma says. “We’ll handle this.”

Suddenly, I got a son and he got a dirty diaper. “I don’t know how to change a diaper.”

“Then it’s time for you to learn. C’mon.”

Ma go into the women’s restroom and act like I should follow her in there. Hell nah. She come back to the door. “Boy, c’mon.”

“I can’t go in there!”

“Nobody’s in here. Until they put changing tables in the men’s room, c’mon.”

Damn, this ain’t cool. I follow her in. Li’l man cry his head off. I get why. That diaper stank. Ma hand him to me so she can search his bag, and I hold him away from me. I ain’t tryna get diaper doo on me.

“They sure got a lot of clothes in here,” Ma says. “Let’s see if she’s got some changing pads. If she doesn’t—never mind, she does.” Ma put one on the table. “All right, lay him down.”

“What if he fall off?”

“He won’t. There you go,” she says as I lay him down. “Now unbutton his—”

I miss the rest for staring at him.

Before when I’d look at him, I was in awe that something so little existed. Now I look at him and he mine, no question.

Worst part? I’m his.

I’m scared. I messed up. I only been seventeen for a month, and now I gotta take care of another person.

He need me.

He depending on me.

He gon’ call me Daddy.

“Maverick?”

Ma touch my shoulder.

“You’ve got this,” she says. “I got you.”

She don’t just mean the diaper.

“A’ight.”

I change my first diaper with her help. This nurse come in and see us struggling—it’s been a while since Ma did this—and give us some tips. Li’l man still fuss even though he clean. Ma hold him against her shoulder and rub his back.

“It’s okay, Man-Man,” she coos. “It’s all right.”

He soon calm down. Guess that’s all he needed to know.

I grab his bag, and we go to the waiting room. My son’s car seat on the floor with the DNA papers lying inside it. Ms. Robinson is gone.

So is Iesha.





Three


“That trifling heffa! And I don’t mean Iesha,” Ma says. “I mean her momma!”

Ma ain’t stopped fussing since we left the clinic.

At first I thought Iesha and Ms. Robinson stepped outside. Nah, they left. One of the nurses said she pointed out they were leaving the car seat. Ms. Robinson told her, “We don’t need it anymore,” and shoved Iesha out the door.

We went straight to their house. I banged on the doors, looked through the windows. Nobody answered. We had no choice but to bring li’l man home with us.

I climb our porch steps, carrying him in his car seat. He so caught up in the toys dangling from the handle that he don’t know his momma left him like he nothing.

Ma shove the front door open. “I had a funny feeling when I saw all them clothes in that diaper bag. They shipped him off without a word!”

I set the car seat on the coffee table. What the hell just happened? For real, man. I suddenly got a whole human being in my care when I never even took care of a dog.

“What we do now, Ma?”

“We obviously have to keep him until we find out what Iesha and her momma are up to. This might be for the weekend, but as trifling as they are . . .” She close her eyes and hold her forehead. “Lord, I hope this girl hasn’t abandoned this baby.”

My heart drop to my kicks. “Abandoned him? What I’m supposed to—”

“You’re gonna do whatever you have to do, Maverick,” she says. “That’s what being a parent means. Your child is now your responsibility. You’ll be changing his diapers. You’ll be feeding him. You’ll be dealing with him in the middle of the night. You—”

Had my whole life turned upside down, and she don’t care.

That’s Ma for you. Granny say she came in the world ready for whatever. When things fall apart, she quick to grab the pieces and make something new outta them.

“Are you listening to me?” she asks.

I scratch my cornrows. “I hear you.”