On the Come Up(41)

“No.”

“I tell you what,” he says. “Upload it and text me the link. I’ll make a couple of calls and see what I can do to get you some buzz. Everybody’s on vacation now, so it’ll have to be after the holidays. But damn, if I talk to the right people, you could be on your way.”

“Just like that?”

He flashes those gold fangs in a smile. “Just like that.”

Jay comes over with a box. “Bri, let’s—”

She squints at Santa. It takes a second, but she says, “Supreme?”

“Long time no see, Jayda.”

She doesn’t return his smile, but she doesn’t give him a stank-face either. “What you doing here?”

Supreme slings the Santa bag over his shoulder. “I was just telling Bri that I used to come to giveaways like this when I was a shorty. I figured my son and I may as well give back now that we’re in a better position. Plus, it’s good for him to remember how blessed he is.”

I almost roll my eyes. How would these people feel if they knew Milez was here to see how messed up we are to remind him how good he’s got it? He’s gonna go to his nice house in the suburbs and forget this in a week, tops, while we’re still struggling.

My situation shouldn’t be his after-school special.

“You look good,” Supreme tells Jay. Not in a flirty way, but the way people do when somebody’s gotten clean. “Y’all hanging in there?”

“Yep,” Jay says. “Don’t have any other choice.”

“You know, you can always hit me up if you need help,” Supreme says. “Law was like a little brother to me. No matter what went down with us, he’d want me to—”

“Brianna and I should get going,” Jay says.

Dad’s what I call a “depends on the day” topic. Some days Jay will tell me stories that make up for the memories I don’t have. Other days, it’s like his name is a bad word that we shouldn’t say. Today, he must be a bad word.

Jay turns to me. “C’mon.”

I follow her across the gym and glance back at Supreme. He gives me the saddest smile.

The line for the giveaway’s been shut down. A couple of volunteers tell all these people on the sidewalk to leave. No cameras around to catch the cuss words that fly or to see the mom with the baby on her hip who begs them for food.

The worst part is walking past them as your mom carries a box of food, knowing you can’t give a single thing away because you need it all.

I help Jay load the box into her Jeep. It’s packed full of canned goods, boxed goods, and a frozen turkey.

“We should be okay for a while,” she says. “I’ll be like Bubba from Forrest Gump with that turkey.”

Forrest Gump is my favorite movie. (Wait, no, second favorite. Wakanda forever.) I don’t know, there’s something about the idea that this simple-ass dude witnessed so much history. Makes me think that anything is possible. I mean, if Forrest Gump can meet three presidents, I can make it out of the Garden one day.

We leave as more cars pull into the parking lot. The news camera may have to come back. At this rate, somebody’s gonna cause a scene.

“We’re lucky we got there when we did,” Jay says.

It’s scary that luck decided whether we got food or not. That’s what happened in Forrest Gump though. Luck put him in the right places at the right times.

What if I just had a Forrest Gump moment with Supreme?

Jay glances over at me. “What were you and Supreme talking about?”

I shift in my seat. I haven’t told her about the song. Thing is, if I jump to conclusions fast, Jay teleports to them. Doesn’t matter what the song is actually about, she’d hear one line about Glocks and bury me eight feet deep. Six feet wouldn’t be enough.

I wanna see what I can do with the song first. I mean, it’ll be hard for her to be pissed if it gets me a million-dollar deal like Dee-Nice got, right?

“We were just talking about the battle and stuff,” I tell her. “Supreme thinks I have It. You know, that thing that makes stars stars.”

“He’s right about that. Shoot, I saw It myself on that battle video.”

“You watched my battle?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“You never mentioned it.”

“I was pissed about your grades. That’s more important. But I watched that video right after it went up on the Ring’s YouTube page. You were incredible, Bri. I’m not surprised. When you were little, you turned everything into a microphone. If I couldn’t find my hairbrush, I knew you were babbling into it somewhere. Your daddy would say”—she deepens her voice—“‘Our li’l miracle gon’ be a superstar.’”

“Miracle?”

“I had four miscarriages before I finally had you.”

“Oh.”

Miracle. One word. Kinda rhymes with mythical.

It seems kinda mythical,

That I’d be called a miracle.

Jay blinks fast but keeps her eyes on the road. Sometimes she stares at me like she’s looking for herself, and sometimes I stare at her when she’s not looking. Not in a creepy way, but enough to get an idea of who she used to be and get a glimpse of what I could be.