On the Come Up(57)

“This will not help us with any of the concerns we had,” he says. “In fact, this is gonna make shit worse.”

He eyes Curtis. Curtis eats his sandwich as if Malik said nothing.

“You don’t know that,” says Sonny.

“No, he’s right,” says Shana. “They’re probably about to go the Garden High route. Have actual cops acting as security.”

“What?” I say, and other people in the room basically say the same thing.

“I guarantee those two are back because so many parents bought that ‘drug dealer’ narrative about Bri,” Malik says. “They’ve got reason to believe we’re all threats now. I bet there will be armed cops at the doors.”

Ever since that boy got killed, my heart races whenever I see a cop. I could’ve been him, he could’ve been me. Luck’s the only thing that separated us.

Now my heart may be racing for most of the day.

Curtis sits forward, his arms folded on his knees. “Look, all I know is we were tired of Long and Tate treating us like shit and getting away with it, so we whooped their asses. Plain and simple.”

Malik pounds his fist into his palm. “There’s a way to go about it! You think you’re the only one tired? You think I wanted to see my best friend thrown onto the ground?”

Wow. Malik and I haven’t been great lately. Hell, that’s an understatement, honestly. But he basically just told me all that doesn’t matter—he still cares about me.

I catch Shana staring at me. She quickly looks away.

“We finally got Dr. Rhodes to agree to a meeting with us and this happens?” Malik says. “She won’t hear shit we have to say. Nah. We gotta go above her now.”

“The superintendent?” Sonny asks.

“Yep. Or the school board.”

“No, we need even bigger,” Shana says. She focuses on me again. “We need that video to get in the news.”

She means Malik’s video of Long and Tate throwing me like a trash bag. I shake my head. “Nah, not happening.”

“Bri, c’mon,” Deon from the bus says. One or two people echo him.

“It’s the only way things will change,” Shana says. “We have to show people why everyone was upset today, Bri.”

“I already told y’all, I’m not gonna be the poster child for this.”

Shana folds her arms. “Why not?”

“Because she said so,” Curtis says. “Goddamn, get off her back.”

“I’m just saying, if it was me, and I knew it would change things at our school, I would release the video in a heartbeat.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Clearly, I’m not you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I’m starting to think that this isn’t just about the school incident. “It means what I said. I’m not you.”

“Yeah, because if you were me, you’d prefer that that video was released instead of videos of you acting ratchet at the Ring,” Shana says. “But those videos are okay, right?”

She didn’t. Please tell me she didn’t.

She did though, because several mouths around the room have suddenly dropped. I’m well aware that Malik is silent during all of this.

I sit up. “First of all,” I say with a clap.

“Aww, shit,” Sonny mutters. He knows what that clap means. “Calm down, Bri.”

“Nah, let me answer this. First of all, I had no control over those videos from the Ring being released, sweetie.”

I am totally my mom’s child, because when she says “sweetie,” she means the exact opposite. She does the clap thing, too. I don’t know when I became her.

“Second,” I say with another clap, “how is speaking up for myself being ratchet? If you saw those videos, you’d know that’s all I did.”

“I’m only saying what people are already saying about—”

“Third!” I clap over her. I’m gon’ finish, dammit. “If I don’t want the video released, I don’t want the video released. I frankly don’t owe you or anybody else an explanation.”

“Yes, you do, because this affects us too!” she says.

“Oh. My. God!” I clap with each word. That’s the only thing keeping me in my seat. “Bruh, for real. For real!”

Translation: Somebody get this girl.

Sonny immediately understands. “Bri, chill, okay? Look, maybe she has a point though. If the video was released—”

Him too? I push up from the couch. “You know what? Y’all can continue your li’l meeting without me. I’m gone.”

Sonny tries to grab my hand, but I move it away. “Bri, c’mon. Don’t be like that.”

I sling my backpack over my shoulder and step over people sitting on the floor. “I’m good. I’d rather not stay around for the ‘jump down Bri’s throat’ part of the meeting.”

“Nobody’s jumping down your throat,” Malik says.

Oh, now he speaks. He couldn’t say shit when his girlfriend was going in on me.

“We just don’t get why you don’t wanna help us,” Shana says. “This is your chance to—”