After Class (Janet and Aaliyah)

Chapter 22

Acacia

After getting over my headache, I found myself calling Aaliyah's house on three different occasions throughout the afternoon the next day, hoping to get some things sorted out. There was no answer two out of the three times, and at first I figured she was just angry.

The third time a woman answered the phone, catching me completely off guard. Lucky for me, I was able to catch myself before I would lay in on my apology right off the bat.

  "Hi, is Aaliyah there?" I asked, changing my voice a little to appear just a tad higher in pitch, in case I sounded too much like a grown woman.

  "She's at work, but I'm her mother. Can I ask who's calling?"

My palms started to sweat. As long as her mother never had to meet me in a school setting, I figured there'd be no point in making up a fake identity.

  "Acacia. I go to school with her."

  "I'll tell her you called."

  "Thank you."

  "That's for me?" I heard Aaliyah's voice chime from somewhere far away. My heart began to pound.

  "Yeah, some girl named Acacia?" Her mother said quizzically.

  "Oh, give me that!" She came rushing to the phone. "Acacia?" She panted into the receiver. "Are you still there?"

  "Yeah," I tried to stifle a laugh. "You just got off work, huh?"

  "Yeah, I, uh, had an early shift today."

  "Can we talk about last night?" I asked hopefully. The line got quiet.

  "I mean, what we gotta talk about?"

  "I guess I just wanted to apologize again. My--my friend, she's really sick, and she's got no one else."

  "I said don't worry about it."

  "Okay, okay..."

  "Yeah." Her tone was still kind of hostile. I didn't like it at all.

  "When can I see you again?" I blurted out. She said she had plans tonight already, but I couldn't help it.

  "Acacia, shut up," she growled. I furrowed my eyebrows. "My mama coulda been listening on the other line. She's not, but-"

  "Oh, shit. Sorry, sorry." I winced. I was so stupid sometimes. "You know, she doesn't know that we're in the same math class. It's okay, sort of."

  "Yeah, but she's not a fan of me talking to other girls. I mean, she knows, but I can tell she always treats me a little better when she knows I'm seeing a boy."

  "Oh."

  "It's whatever. Anyway, I don't know, uh, maybe tonight. Me and Pac had a little fight, I think we need some space right now."

  "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." In my mind, I was celebrating.

  "But maybe not, I gotta swing by there anyway and get my car, so we'll see if he's cool or not."

  "Okay. Um, just let me know, I guess. You seem kind of busy, so I'll let you go."

  "No, no I'm not--I mean, I'm not really that busy," she blurted out.

  "Oh, okay, well, do you just wanna talk?"

  "Yeah." She took a deep breath. "We can just talk."

I smiled and hopped onto my counter.

  "Well... how was work?" I offered.

  "Uh uh, I'm not about all that small talk shit."