Who You Wit'?

Chapter 10

Jacinta was so hot with Raheem she could barely see straight. She stepped out of the hot tub, and the cool air broke her entire body out in goose bumps, making her teeth chatter. Snatching her towel off a nearby bar stool, she rubbed at her skin as if the water was hard to remove, the whole time glaring at Raheem. He stood, his back to her, by the hot tub, bumping his gums with Brian and JZ, asking about the weekly pickup game, making noise like he might stop through. The guys were playing it off good, like Raheem hadn't just spilled some major beans. Jacinta glanced at Lizzie and Kelly, too embarrassed to make contact and read their eyes. Even from where she stood and with only the tops of the girls' heads visible, she could see they were dumbfounded. Mina head checked Jacinta's way, but Jacinta busied herself putting on her miniskirt and top. She grabbed her tote and hollered over to Raheem, "I'm ready." Without waiting, she took her time heading to the side fence. As burnt as she felt, she wasn't about to get all spastic and race out crying. 
"See y'all tomorrow," she called out extra loud without looking back. The clique mumbled back good-bye. "Hold up, girl," Raheem hollered. He dapped up Brian and JZ before jogging to catch up. Jacinta kept walking until she was safely in Raheem's car. He got in, grinning, and leaned over for a kiss. Jacinta's hand flew up before his lips reached hers. Raheem pulled her hand down, leaning closer. "You don't have a kiss for you boy?" "Let's just go." Jacinta pulled back further. For a second, they eyed one another. Raheem's smile slowly turned down. His eyebrows furrowed, and he shook his head. "What? What are you hot about?" He started the car and backed it down Brian's long, flat driveway. "I came over like you asked." "Nearly two hours late," Jacinta spat. "I figured you weren't coming. I wouldn't have bothered to get in the Jacuzzi if I thought you were coming." Calm down. Calm down, she told herself and was almost there when Raheem said, "I ain't know there was a time limit on showing up. I had to get my hair braided." He glanced over, his eyes narrowing. "Oh, so you had me penned in for three, and your boy JZ for four?" Jacinta clamped her mouth shut against the rant rising in her throat, nearly biting her tongue. Raheem snorted. "I must be right."

"Or so wrong..." And stupid, Jacinta thought, "...that I'm not gonna bother to answer." "Then what difference it make what time I showed up?" He pressed. "You told me to come over. I did." He lifted a hand off the steering wheel in a "what?" Jacinta waited. She wasn't going to let this turn into them fussing over small stuff. Or in Raheem's case, nonexistent stuff. Raheem rolled the car smoothly down Dogwood, stopped at the Stop sign, made a right, and headed to Jacinta's house. When he'd gone past Michael's cul-de-sac, then Mina's, Jacinta felt ready to talk. "Raheem, what did I tell you was my only rule since I moved over here to The Woods?" "What rule?" He scowled. A slow, silent sigh seeped through Jacinta's clenched teeth before she replied. "I told you that I never spread my business with the clique." Her eyes locked on him, waiting. When he finally glanced over warily, she finished, "How you gonna bust up over Brian's and put my business out there like that?" She closed her eyes for a second to hold back the tears of frustration. When she opened them again, Raheem was pulling into her drive. He turned the car off and cocked his head, looking at her. "My bad. I thought you told your girls everything." Jacinta didn't detect any sarcasm in his words. But she knew Raheem wasn't that dense. Even if he thought she'd told the girls, that had nothing to do with Bri- an and JZ. He'd told on purpose. She was sure of it. But proving it would only take the conversation into crazy circles. "Well, I hadn't told anybody." "Not even Mina?" Raheem asked, obviously not believing her. "Not even Mina," Jacinta lied. He chuckled under his breath. "My bad." He rubbed her arm with the back of his hand. "So, we gonna talk about the baby or what?" Jacinta scowled. "I just said my period was late. Why are you talking like—" "You're pregnant?" He said it like maybe Jacinta wasn't very bright. "I thought that's what missing your period meant. Or does it mean something new now?" Jacinta shrugged. "It could. I mean...look, I'm not all into having no baby." 

"If you pregnant, you're pregnant." Raheem shrugged. "What did the test say?" Jacinta's eyes rolled. "I didn't take one." "Then take one." Raheem's eyes questioned, but when Jacinta didn't respond, he asked aloud, "What you waiting for?" For it to come on, Jacinta screamed in her head. She didn't want to take a test. She'd been having cramps off and on for a week. Maybe something was blocking it off. It had to be coming. It felt like it wanted to. Raheem stared at her, waiting for an answer. The usual gruffness in his voice disappeared. "Alright, that's on you. But I'm saying, if you are, then I'm gonna take care of mine. Ya heard?" "If I am—" Jacinta shook her head. "I'm only sixteen. I don't want a baby." Raheem's lips puckered in disapproval. "Well, I'm not down with no abortions. The baby half mine, too." "Okay. Well, are you gonna take your half to Georgetown?" Jacinta's eyebrows arched in defiance. "You know my mother would help out," he said as if that were a grand plan. "I don't want a baby," Jacinta repeated. "Well, it ain't about you." The matter-of-factness in Raheem's voice grated on Jacinta. She shifted in her seat, aware that her bottom was wetting the car's seats. 
She'd hear about that later. Raheem loved that car like it was a...baby. A soft shudder rippled through her. Raheem was gruff. He hated complications and was one of the most impatient people she knew. But he was one thing more than any of those. He was loyal. When he loved something, he loved it, period, end of story. The car. Her. Even Angel in a "that's my boy, my homey" kind of way. He also had two nieces and a nephew that he spoiled bad, ages five, three, and two. They were so hardheaded Jacinta couldn't stand being around them. They didn't listen to Raheem's mother or his sister (their mother), but they listened to Uncle Heem without fail. And he loved their little bad butts back for that. No doubt, he'd love his own child, their child. Jacinta winced. The phrase made her stomach drop. She opened the car door slowly, as if it weighed a ton. "Alright. I let you know what's up after I take the..." She muttered the last word. ".... test." With one leg out of the car, Raheem's words stopped her. "It's gonna be cool. Don't worry, alright?" 

She nearly broke her neck whipping around to look at him. "Are you serious? My father is gonna trip, for sure." Her eyes locked with Raheem's. She tried once more to make him understand. "It's not gonna be alright." "Your father know how things go, Cinny." A tiny smile crossed Raheem's face. "I'm not saying he ain't gonna trip. But it's probably not gonna be as bad as you thinking it will." His face grew thoughtful. "When Shay got pregnant with Deonte, my moms went off." He shook his head at the memory. "My father wanted to straight kill Tank. Things was mad tense for a few weeks. But..." He shrugged. "It got better. And you know my moms spoil Deonte to death. Shoot, she spoil all of Shay's kids." "Well, I don't wanna be like Shay." Jacinta spoke the thought aloud before she could stop herself. Raheem's lids lowered. It looked like his eyes were closed. But they weren't. He did that when he was mad—let his eyes fall so you couldn't read them. The brew- ing argument between them was inevitable now, so Jacinta spoke her mind. "My father sent me to live with Aunt Jacqi over here so I wouldn't end up a statistic." "Oh, so Shay a statistic?" His voice was low, working to stay calm. "I didn't mean it like that." Jacinta kept her voice level. "But Shay was seventeen when she had Deonte, and—" "And she got a job and takes care of her kids. How is that being a statistic?" Jacinta took a silent gulp of air, swallowing her real answer—three kids, two be- fore she was twenty, by two different dudes. Hello, statistic. She let her breath out slow, quiet, then answered. "I'm just saying I don't want kids, and—" "Nobody saying we gonna have three," Raheem interrupted. Jacinta let her anger subside before replying. "So, you're at school, and I'm... what? Working? Living with your mom with Shay and her kids? Doing what?" Raheem frowned as if Jacinta was being ludicrous. "By the time you graduate, I be ready to hit the NBA." Jacinta's eyes popped. The last few months, he'd gotten more serious, talking about how he'd stay at Georgetown for two years, then enter the NBA draft. But Jac- inta had never let herself believe it could happen. Even if it did, two years—her last two of high school—felt like a long time to play single teen mom. It sounded like a bad reality TV show. Single teen mom or not, there was also the matter of Raheem planning out her two years with this "we" and "us" talk. He was ready to go to school.

 She'd never said it to him, but the "we" that they were would be...well, out of sight and out of mind. She would never admit it out loud, but she was looking forward to having a break from Raheem. The thought of a baby tying them even closer made her head ache. "You and the baby be set for life," he said. "You won't even have to work after you graduate." Jacinta let a few seconds pass, let the silence in the car wash over her before she shrugged. "I see you got the whole plan on lock so..." She swung her legs out, pushed herself out the front seat, and closed the car door. "Ay," Raheem called out the open window. Jacinta leaned in. "What?" "Most chicks would be glad their man gonna handle his business." Then go knock them up, she thought, forcing a thin smile on her face. "And I'm not even gonna make you sign a prenup." Raheem winked and burst out laughing. "Lucky me," Jacinta said. "I holler at you later." She walked off and into the house, not bothering to watch Raheem pull away.