Teenie Read Online Free PDF Page B

cover for me, Teenie. I’m gonna tell my mother that I’m gonna be by you studying. Did you talk to your dad about me staying over there tonight?”
    I almost want to say that I had told Beresford, to keep her from going to meet Big Daddy. I shake my head. “I didn’t tell him yet.”
    She lets out a sigh of relief and says, “Good, because I don’t want him asking no questions. Let’s hurry up and get to the store.”
    This whole situation—the debit card, meeting up with
her friend
, the possibility of having to lie to cover for her—I don’t like it one bit. There are too many things that can go wrong.
    We decide to take the long way to the mall and stop at Golden Krust for some beef patties. The patty shop around the corner from my house is so much better, but for a franchise, Golden Krust isn’t half bad. As we walk up Flatbush Avenue, it seems as if we get stopped every two seconds by some guy trying to get our phone numbers. I don’t want Beresford embarrassing me, so I take theirs, even though I have no intentionof calling any of them. No Greg Millons out here, although one guy did have some really nice teeth.
    Cherise causes a mini traffic jam leaning into the passenger side window of some Jamaican guy’s BMW. Not sure what gave away the fact that he was Jamaican—probably the green and yellow stripes on the side of his black car or his friend trying extra hard to get me to notice his accent.
    “Yo, baby luv, you want a ride?”
    Never mind that he’s sitting in the backseat asking if I want a ride. I’m not going over there. Cherise doesn’t seem to have a problem. She is leaning so far into the damn car that she might as well get in. On second thought, she better not get too close to those guys with the way her breath is humming. The stick of gum she has in her mouth is probably getting its butt kicked by spicy beef. She tore that patty up like a ravenous vulture. She’s lucky I grabbed those extra napkins.
    I sigh with relief when Cherise walks away from the car. She has a funny look on her face, so I ask, “What’s wrong?”
    “I was starting to catch contact.” She’s fanning her face.
    “They were smoking weed in the car?”
    “Smoking? Smelled like they were growing the stuff in there.”
    I laugh. “That’s what you get for leaning up in his car like a prostitute.”
    Cherise pushes me and says, “Shut up.” She smiles. “Yeah, I need to cut that out. As soon as I see a nice car, my eyes light up. I gotta be careful with that stuff.”
    Thank God she realized that on her own. I wish she would be as concerned about the other things that she’s planning todo today. Before I get a chance to wrap my mind around that, Cherise starts bumping me, telling me to turn around.
    “Look at
this
chick.”
    When I turn around, I see this chunky light-skinned girl waiting at the corner, crammed into a top and matching skirt that are at least three sizes off. She’s wearing a small, while her exposed gut is calling for an extra-large. I know I shouldn’t talk with my short dress, but there are some people out here that really don’t know how to act at the first sign of warm weather. It’s the beginning of March, and you would think it’s the middle of summer with some of the stuff they’re wearing.
    Cherise is about to say something to the girl. I grab my best friend’s arm before her smart mouth gets us into trouble. The girl’s belly isn’t the only thing that’s extra-large. I think she would stomp the DNA out of Cherise and me. She doesn’t notice us and gets into a dollar van that pulls up in front of her. It’s kind of stupid to call a cab that costs two bucks to ride a dollar van, but that’s been their name since I’ve been riding them.
    I bet the driver couldn’t wait to cruise around with the windows open blasting the newest dancehall music. Who needs an iPod? All I have to do is stand on the corner of a busy intersection and I’m bound to hear everything from R&B to