Cool Like That (9 page)

“Whoa! It’s huge in real life!”

Thank God for the interruption. I don’t even know if I can enjoy Rashad kissing me anymore with Ricky throwing shade and a ridiculous guilt trip. That’s not even fair.

The ferry stops, and we all get off. Sushil, Xavier, and Melody race toward the statue, while Ricky and I hang back and take our time. It almost feels like we’re on a date, but I don’t get that weird feeling like I’m playing Rashad.

As we get to the base of the statue, I’m in awe of how huge it is. The sun beams down on it and shines in a green metallic splendor. Pretty awesome.

“I’m writing about this in my sightseeing journal,” I say as Ricky snaps a photo of the statue.

“What the heck is a sightseeing journal?” asks Xavier, who’s just walked up holding a stick with some kind of meat on it.

“It’s for my creative writing class,” I reply. “Our teacher wants us to see, feel, hear, smell, and taste New York City.”

Xavier scrunches his nose. “I don’t know about smelling New York. Sometimes the Big Apple don’t smell so fresh. But taste! That I can roll with. You wanna taste my chicken?”

He holds the hot, steaming meat in my face, and I back away. “Boy, I don’t want any of that meat.”

“Yeah, get your chicken out of her face, dude,” Ricky says.

“Ex-cuuuse me! I’m just being hospitable. Wait a minute, is that custard I see? I’m-a holla at y’all later.”

“I’m surprised he’s not extra large.”

“I know, right.”

Ricky points at Sushil taking pictures. “I wonder why Shil didn’t bring his girl.”

“Sushil has a boo?”

“Kinda. Why? You aren’t jealous, are you?”

“Well, he is kinda cute in a Mohinder-from-
Heroes
sorta way.”

“I don’t like you right now, Gia.”

“It’s okay. I promise I don’t believe you.”

Melody and Sushil walk up with their cameras still out.

“I want a picture of you two,” Melody says.

Ricky grabs me by the waist and pulls me close. He wraps his arms around me from behind and rests his head on my shoulder.

“Aw, that’s a cute pic,” Melody says.

She brings her camera over to show it to me. It
is
a cute shot. Ricky and I look adorable, and you can see the statue in the background.

“This is fun, Sushil!” I say. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“You are welcome, Gia, but the tour was Ricky’s idea. He just wanted me to ask you.”

Ricky shakes his head. “Thanks, Shil. You are a true homey.”

I ask Ricky, “Why didn’t
you
just invite me?”

“Didn’t want to hear you tell me no.”

This makes me sad. I have to swallow a few times to keep from getting choked up. When did me and Ricky get to this place? A place where we can’t even invite each other to hang or just chill without having to talk about crushes?

“C
ome on, you guys. It’s Saturday night. Where are we kicking it?” Sienna asks as we eat dinner in Lerner Hall.

“I’m surprised you even want to kick it, Sienna,” I reply. “You were a hot mess last night when you came in. We had to drag your intoxicated behind back to your dorm.”

“Oh, yeah, I meant to thank you for that, Gia. I think someone put something in my punch, for real.”

Melody glances at the floor. “Do you remember anything from last night? Because we got separated for a while.”

“I remember talking to Dan’s boy Emerge about singing something on some background tracks in the studio.”

“You can sing?” I ask. “I didn’t know that.”

“That’s actually how I met Dan. I sang at this karaoke thing here last summer, and a talent scout came up to me and started a conversation.”

Melody clears her throat. “Back to what I asked you. Do you remember anything about what happened after that?”

“It’s all good. I’m cool.”

“Dan left the party, Sienna,” Melody says. “With a girl. I thought you two were fighting or something.”

Sienna’s eyes widen. “What do you mean he left with a girl?”

Melody slaps herself in the head. “I shouldn’t have told you that. You don’t remember any of it, do you?”

“Well, all boys are players.”

“I don’t believe that,” Melody says.

Sienna continues: “Yes, they are. Even Goody Two-shoes like Rashad.”

“I don’t think Rashad is a player,” I say.

Melody replies, “He kinda is.”

Sienna nods. “Right. Remember those two girls last year who got kicked out for fighting?”

“Yeah. They were fighting over Rashad. I guess he was kicking it with both of them on the low, and they both found out. It was all bad.”

“Are you kidding me? Rashad doesn’t seem like the player type.”

Melody and Sienna look at each other with weird looks on their faces, like they want to laugh.

“What?” I ask, now feeling the anger rise in my gut.

Melody replies, “Rashad has been known to be a little bit messy when it comes to that, Gia. He likes girls. What can I say?”

My head is spinning right now. There is no way the guy I know is a player. Absolutely no way. He’s one hundred percent into me, which is why I’m having a hard time with this love-triangle scenario. “Is he dating more than one girl this year?” I ask, not really wanting to know the answer.

Melody shrugs. “You’re the only one I’ve heard about so far. But last year he was supposedly hooking up with those two girls. That’s why they were ready to throw down.”

“They were stupid. I’m not about to let a boy get me kicked out of the program,” Sienna says. “I’m not letting anything get me kicked out. My mom would go ballistic.”

She thinks her mom would go ballistic? If I got kicked out of this program for anything that might be embarrassing to my mother, she would probably separate my head from the rest of my body, and that’s real talk.

“So, Gia and Ricky are making up a dance step for the party next weekend,” Melody announces.

“Can y’all dance?” Sienna asks.

“We can do a little something.”

Sienna bursts into laughter. “Y’all be like that movie
Stomp the Yard,
don’t y’all? I can see you dancing all hard, Gia.”

“I
said
I can do a little something. Is that hateration I hear in your voice? Don’t make me bring it to you on the dance floor, sweetie.”

“You can bring it if you want!” Sienna says between laughs. “I won’t be there though. I don’t dance. I stand on the side and watch other girls sweat their hairstyle out.”

Melody chimes in. “Exactly. I’m not getting frizzed out trying to look like Ciara in a music video. No, thank you.”

“So y’all just go to parties to look cute?” I ask.

Sienna nods. “Exactly. How do you think we meet the hottest boys? They don’t be on y’all hard-dancing girls.”

I ponder this theory for a second, and I have to disagree. My best friend in my head, Beyoncé, is the hardest-dancing girl ever. And she got the industry’s finest to change her last name. They don’t know what they’re talking about!

“Well, I like to dance, so I’m-a do me. How ’bout that?”

Melody says, “I have never seen Rashad dancing. I don’t think he’s on that.”

“You’re right,” Sienna adds, “but he doesn’t even go to the parties, so he won’t see Gia there getting her stomp on.”

I give both of them the hand. “Y’all don’t know me! I don’t change for boys. They either like what they see, or they can bounce. For real.”

“Calm down, Gia. We’re just messing with you,” Sienna says.

Melody nods. “And what do we know? You’re the one with the two hottest boys in the program on lock. I don’t know how you pulled that off.”

“I wouldn’t say that Rashad is on lock,” Sienna says.

Here she goes throwing shade again. I don’t know about having him on lock, but I know he’s digging me.

“What are you saying?”

“Nothing.”

Right. I didn’t think so. This is a prime opportunity for me to use my new cardinal rule—let my haters be my motivators!

“Speaking of Rashad…”

He’s walking toward our table, alone, looking fine as ever. He’s got his locs tied back in a scarf that matches his short-sleeved, button-down shirt. I’m telling you this boy looks like he stepped out of a Sean John catalog. He’s got the swagger game on lock.

“Ladies,” he says as he takes the empty seat at our table.

“Hey, Rashad. Where have you been all weekend? You’ve been ghost,” Sienna says.

He shrugs. “Been hanging out with some friends of mine in Brooklyn. What y’all been up to?”

“Saw the Statue of Liberty today,” I reply. “It was off the chain.”

He grins. “I’ve been meaning to take you for a walk in Battery Park. We can go next week because I want to show you the World Trade Center site.”

“What’s up with all the sightseeing dates, Rashad?” Sienna asks. “Don’t you do parties?”

“Why, Sienna? Are you inviting me to one?”

“Yes. Next weekend we’re going to a huge party at the Oasis. Jay-Z is supposed to be there.”

Why is she bringing up this party to Rashad? She already knows I’m gonna be rolling with Ricky that night. This is just hateration to infinity. I’m starting to think she’s my competition and not some other random girl.

“Wow, Jay-Z, huh? I’ll go if Gia is gonna be my date. I can’t roll up in a party like that without a beautiful girl on my arm.”

Crap! How do I answer this without messing up everything in my neat little triangle? I could strangle Sienna because I know she knew exactly what she was doing. I cannot stand her right now. “I told Ricky I was gonna roll with him that night, Rashad. We’re making up some dance moves for the party.”

Rashad lifts his eyebrows in surprise. “Dance moves? Wow. I didn’t see that one coming.”

I can’t really read his reaction. He looks surprised but not disappointed that I would be making up dance moves. Maybe he’s just stunned that I can’t be his date for the party.

“You can take me,” Melody says. “My boyfriend isn’t here, and I don’t want to show up alone either.”

“That’ll be cool, if Gia is okay with it,” Rashad says.

I couldn’t wipe this smile off my face if I wanted to.

“Of course I don’t mind. As long as you’re not trying to hook up with her!”

“Look at you, Princess. Making demands. You trying to be my wifey?”

This wifey phenomenon is something I don’t fully understand. Does wifey mean I’m the number-one girlfriend or the girlfriend who hooks up? I don’t know. And because I don’t know, I cannot agree to such a thing.

“Wifey? Hmm…I don’t know about that,” I reply.

Rashad chuckles. “I love when you play hard, Gia.”

“Thank you.” That was a compliment, right?

Sienna looks completely heated! Why is she mad that Rashad is over here at this table openly digging me? I wonder if there is some history there that someone isn’t telling me.

“So, Gia, I didn’t come over here to talk about parties. I came to invite you to church tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“Yes. A friend of mine dances at the Allen Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens. They’re doing this huge production tomorrow, and I thought you’d like it.”

Sienna frowns. “Jamaica is far from here, Rashad.”

“We’ll have to take two trains and a bus,” Rashad explains. “You up for the adventure, Princess?”

“Sure! What time do we leave in the morning?”

“The last service starts at eleven fifteen, so we probably need to leave around nine thirty. You don’t have to get really dressed up either.”

Sienna pouts. “Rashad, why didn’t you invite us to church too?”

“Nobody really needs to be invited to church, Sienna. It’s open to the public. But I didn’t ask you, because you usually go out kicking it on Saturday. I didn’t know you’d be up in the morning.”

“I can get up,” Sienna says.

“Well, then, I’ll see you in the morning.” Rashad runs one hand over my braids and adds, “Catch you later, Gia.”

All three of us watch as Rashad walks away. Melody immediately resumes eating her dinner, but Sienna gazes after Rashad for a while. Yeah, somebody needs to tell me something because her interest in Rashad is not just in passing. She’s digging him.

Sienna rolls her eyes at me. “What is it about you? You’re not that fly.”

“Why are you hating on me when you’re kicking it with a recording artist?”

“Girl, bye. Nobody is hating on you. I do not have to hate.”

“So you telling Rashad that I was going to the party with Ricky wasn’t hating?”

Sienna looks me up and down. “No. That was the truth. He needs to know what he’s working with.”

“Rashad and I aren’t exclusive, and I’m not his wifey. If you want to audition for the role, be my guest.”

“Whatever. Rashad can’t do anything for me. He’s too broke and too immature.”

It’s funny. She has so much negativity to say about him behind his back, but she’s riding hard when he’s present. This is why I don’t fool with girls too much. Me no likey the drama. No, ma’am, I do not.

So why is it that every time I look up, I’m right smack in the middle of drama?

I
feel like all these boy shenanigans are getting the best of me. I never do this, but I’m calling my mom because I really need to hear something that doesn’t come from another teenager. Real talk: our advice is really not all that good.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hey, Gia. How is New York?”

“Fun. I’ve seen Canal Street and Chinatown, and today we went to see the Statue of Liberty.”

My mother laughs. “And what about your classes?”

“My creative writing teacher is really cool. She made the sightseeing part of my assignment. I have to write journal entries on what I see.”

“Well, that sounds like a lot of fun, so why do you sound so sad?”

“Mom, is it okay to like more than one boy? I’m asking because my friend is in this kinda triangle. She’s known the first guy for a really long time, and there’s a new boy who’s really cool too. Does it make her not a good girl if she likes both boys?”

“Is your friend cool with you telling me her business?” my mother asks. There’s a hint of a smile in her tone, like she knows I’m talking about me. She’ll just have to guess because I’m definitely not coming out and telling.

“Oh, she asked me to ask you.”

“Well, I think it’s okay for a girl to have a crush on more than one boy, but when it’s time to be serious, it should be with only one.”

“But what if I’m—I mean, she’s—not ready to be serious yet?”

“Then you—I mean, she—should not feel pressured to be serious. She’s got her entire life ahead of her to be in a relationship, and I’m sure she has college and her studies to think about.”

“But how does she keep from hurting the first boy’s feelings?” I ask.

“The boy she’s known for a really long time? Sometimes people’s feelings get hurt whether we mean for that to happen or not. I think she should just let her old friend know the new one is not coming to replace him and that there’s room enough in her heart for her to like both of them.”

“Okay.”

My mother clears her throat. Oh, no, she’s about to go in with the mom advice. “Gia, you aren’t up there hooking up, are you?”

I almost laugh at my mother using slang. She usually doesn’t, but I know she can’t bring herself to say what she means without using slang. Not on the topic of hooking up.

“No, Mom! I’m not doing anything like that. I’m just hanging out with friends. Ricky and I are meeting a lot of cool, new people, but I miss Kevin, Hope, and even Candy.”

“They miss you and Ricky too. Sometimes Kevin just comes over here and watches television all day with Candy. It’s like he’s wishing you’d come home any day. I sure hate that his grandparents didn’t let him go to New York.”

“Well, if Kevin had come, Ricky wouldn’t be here, so either way, someone would’ve been missing someone.”

“You’re right. But I sure would feel a lot better if Kevin were up there in New York rather than Ricky.”

“What? Why, Mom? Ricky is my best friend.”

“Mmm-hmm. I know all about this best-friend stuff. Ricky’s mama and I talked, and you two are more than best friends.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Gia, don’t make me come up there. I’m not playing. I love Ricky, but I will knock him out with a two-piece if I hear he’s trying to get you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“Mom, Ricky is not like that at all.”

“All right. Well, I’m gonna get off this phone. Candy asked me to make her and Kevin some caramel popcorn for their movie marathon.”

When will Candy learn that my mother is not capable of making anything delicious come out of the kitchen? I’ve seen her do inhumane things to hot dogs and turn macaroni and cheese out of the box into unrecognizable goo. “Okay, Mom.”

“Oh, and I think you should stick with Ricky, honey. I’m sure the new boy is nice and probably handsome, but Ricky knows you through the good, bad, and ugly. Don’t throw all that away.”

I gulp. “Mom…”

“You don’t have to answer me, Gia. I know what it is. I’m glad you called me. Love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

Can I just say that now I’m more confused than ever? Of course my mom wants me to kick Rashad to the curb. She doesn’t
know
him. She knows and loves Ricky, so her opinion is biased.

Argh!

It looks like I’m going to have to figure out this one on my own.

“Speak.”

“Hey, Gia. It’s me, Candy.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to call me. What’s up with you and Kev?”

I can hear through the phone Candy suck her teeth. “Aren’t you going to ask me how I’m doing, and how things are going at home?”

I answer her questions with silence. She knows what it is.

“Gia, you get on my nerves! Ugh!”

“Are you gonna answer my question or not? If not, I’ve got some bidness I can be taking care of right now.”

Candy laughs. “What bidness, Gia? You know you don’t have any bidness!”

“Pressing the “end” button on my phone in four…three…two—”

“Okay, okay! I’ll tell you about Kevin.”

“Spill.”

“So, I’ve been thinking he’s kinda cute.”

“This is not news, Candy.”

“Dang! Can you let me finish?”

“You may continue.”

“Anyway, since you and Ricky have been gone, I’ve been spending time with him, and he’s not just cute—he’s cool as what too.”

“Of course he is. He’s been one of my besties for-like-ever, so how can he not be cool?”

“I know, so speaking of the besties thing…do you have a problem with me crushing on Kevin? I know you had a little crush on him….”

“No ma’am.”

“No ma’am what? You don’t want me kicking with Kevin? I totally understand.”

I close my eyes tightly and shake my head. I feel a foolishness headache coming on. “No, Candy. Stop playing. I have never had a crush on Kevin. That was him lovin’ me. Don’t get it twisted.”

“So are you saying you don’t care if we kick it?” Candy asks.

Is that impatience I hear in her tone? She’s got a lot of nerve, since she’s the one calling me with ridiculousness. The nerve.

“I don’t care, but what about the ’rents? Gwen is one hundred percent against teen dating, and your dad is even worse.”

Candy chuckles. “You don’t have to worry about that part. I got this.”

I roll my eyes even though Candy can’t see me. “The last time you tried to scam Gwen, you ended up wearing clown clothes to school.”

“She won’t suspect a thing.”

“Isn’t that the same thing Latavia said when she borrowed Beyoncé’s weave glue? You see where she is now.”

“Where is she?”

“Exactly.”

“Gia, shut up. I can’t even believe I asked you about any of this.”

No, this chick did not press end on me. I was not done talking. See, I was gonna warn her to duck when Kevin says words that start with the letter P, because he will straight torpedo you with a spit bomb to the eye. But it’s whatever!