Chapter Thirty
CHAPTER
THIRTY
Jae
I’m leaning out the window, taking big gulps of air.
My suitcase is open on my bed. Empty. I can’t leave.
I can’t go back to Atlanta. Back to what?
A new school where people might know about me, the chick who got knocked up as a dare?
Back to Mom, who made an already difficult pregnancy the biggest heartbreak of my life? What do I have back there?
I half-heartedly pull out clothes from my drawer and throw them on the comforter. My phone dings with a notification. Flight Confirmation.
Flight confirmation. Uncle Rowan already booked my flight. He booked a flight. It’s real. He’s done. He wants me gone. I leave in a few hours. I leave Delray. I leave Free Verse. William and CJ and Swan. I leave Derek.
I’m on the floor now, melting into tears. How did the night turn so bad? I went from feeling safe, wrapped up in arms, to being completely alone. Where is Derek now? What is Uncle Rowan saying to him?
I wipe away tears and dig through my bag for June Baby’s picture. Something to hold, to make me smile. But looking at her only deepens the sadness. I’m going back to Atlanta, and she won’t be there. She’s gone.
I put the picture away and head to the desk to gather my things. But there sits Derek’s blue-and-yellow poetry notebook, open to a poem, dated today. Destiny.
The front door slams. I shut the notebook, toss it into my suitcase.
Uncle Rowan doesn’t waste any time coming up the stairs and throwing my bedroom door open.
“Ready?” he says. Not a question. He glances at my suitcase. “Just throw it all in. We’re not missing this flight.”
“But how you could just”—I stand up, blurry-eyed—“just send me away like that?”
He takes a deep breath in and crosses his thick arms over his chest. “Here with me or there with your mother? Doesn’t matter. You’re going to do what you’re going to do.”
“Do what I’m going to … what are you saying? Like, I’m a whore? Like I can’t keep my legs shut?”
“Hey,” he says in a warning voice.
“He needed help!” I say desperately. “His mother’s boyfriend hit him in the face. Didn’t you see his lip?”
His face darkens. “Is he being abused? Tell me the truth.”
“He said it was an accident. But he didn’t want to be home with all that chaos. He needed a place to stay. For one night. And I knew you would never say yes if I asked.”
He frowns, shakes his head. “You don’t know that.
You don’t know that at all. But look what I came home to.
A half-naked boy sleeping in your room. Dammit, I didn’t think you had the nerve!
I thought you might be sneaking around with him, doing more than that poetry project, but I didn’t think you’d have him here under my roof without my knowledge.
I’m happy to see you kept your clothes on,” he says, waving me up and down.
“Uncle Rowan, I didn’t do that with him. I didn’t go that far.”
“That far? How far, then, Janelle? How far?” He holds up his hand to keep me quiet. “You know, I don’t want to hear it. It went far enough. This has all gone far enough. Let’s get going. I’m tired.”
“Let me stay. Please let me stay.”
“Ticket’s been paid for.”
“I promise I won’t sneak around. I promise I’ll be responsible and decent and I’ll come home right after school and if I have Free Verse I’ll come home right after that. No more scouting for venues.”
He grunts. “This ain’t about the poetry club. It’s about the boy.” He pauses. Leans against the doorframe. “No more Derek Patel.”
My mouth freezes. “But—”
“The club isn’t big enough for the two of you. One of you has to go.” His black eyes bore into mine. “That’s my rule, Janelle. You want to stay here, you stay away from that boy. That’s my rule. Will you obey it?”
Fresh tears prickle my eyes.
“Ja-nelle!” His voice reaches to the ceiling now. “Will. You. Obey it?”