Chapter 11 #2
Bellhaven Bears signs hung from the light poles, little kids ran around with their faces painted in school colors, and somebody near the front was waving a huge Bears flag over everybody’s heads.
The varsity band had taken over one side of the street while the drumline played and the dancers performed in front of them.
Every time they switched up the beat, the crowd got louder.
I smiled as I watched them. Bellhaven could turn damn near anything into a reason for everybody to come outside, but I understood this one.
The seniors were getting their moment, and everybody had shown up to make sure they knew it.
The dancers finished, and the crowd screamed while the DJ came back over the speakers.
I started making my way closer to the front, looking through the crowd for Mama or anybody else I knew, when somebody bumped into my shoulder from behind.
“Damn, you too good to speak now?”
I turned and found Anthony standing a few feet behind me with two of his friends.
His eyes were low and red as hell, and the lazy grin on his face told me the three of them had probably gotten high before they ever made it to Main Street.
One of his friends was holding a plate piled with Jamaican food from a vendor while the other was laughing at something that clearly hadn’t been that funny.
“I didn’t even see you.”
“That’s fucked up. I’m hard to miss.” Anthony pulled one hand from his hoodie pocket and hugged me, smelling like cologne and weed. When he stepped back, he looked at me for a second longer than necessary before that high-ass grin came right back. “You lookin’ good, sis.”
“Thank you. And you look high.”
His friends immediately started laughing. Anthony frowned like I had genuinely offended him. “Why I gotta be high?”
“Because you are.”
“I could just be tired.” I cut my eyes away from him, and he laughed back. “Aight, you got that.”
“Exactly. Where have you been?”
“Out here. Key got everybody on strict orders to watch her step, so Smoke had niggas out here early as hell helpin’ carry shit.” He looked me over after we separated, and the smile on his face changed just enough for me to catch it. “You good?”
I looked away from him and adjusted the strap of my bag on my shoulder. I knew exactly why he was asking. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, aight.” Anthony nodded slowly like he didn’t believe a word I had said, but thankfully he didn’t start asking questions. “Key ain’t tell me everything, by the way.”
I looked at him. “I didn’t ask if she did.”
“You was ‘bout to.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“You definitely was.” He laughed when I rolled my eyes, then nodded toward the performance area. “All I know is my brother been walkin’ ‘round meaner than usual, so I figured y’all grown ass people got some shit goin’ wit’ y’all.”
“You figured right.”
“Well, make sure y’all fix that shit so you stay ‘round this time.” Anthony bumped my shoulder with his before turning his attention back toward the street, and I laughed despite myself.
The drumline started again before I could respond, this time with a harder rhythm that immediately pulled everybody’s attention forward.
Anthony and I moved closer with the crowd while the band joined in, brass cutting through the drums as a group of seniors came out and started stepping.
People around us clapped along, somebody behind me yelled the school chant, and Anthony joined in loud enough to make me look at him.
“I bet you weren’t this excited when you went to Bellhaven.”
“I had school spirit.”
“Boy, please! I may not have been around, but you are not fooling anybody.” I laughed and shook my head as the performance ended. The DJ barely gave the crowd time to settle before a hip-hop song came through the speakers and the varsity step squad ran out.
I spotted Keyana immediately. She was grinning so hard I could see it from where I stood, her uniform on and her hair pulled up as she took her place with the rest of the squad.
I lifted both hands and screamed her name with everybody else, and Keyana looked toward our section of the crowd.
The second she spotted us, her smile got even bigger.
“That’s my lil’ sis!” Anthony yelled beside me.
“You are so embarrassing.”
“She like that shit.”
“She absolutely does not.” I was still laughing when I felt somebody step into the space beside me. I didn’t have to look immediately to know who it was. Anthony glanced past me first, and something in his expression told me before Smoke ever spoke.
“Move over, lil’ nigga.”
My stomach tightened at the sound of his voice. Anthony shifted without saying anything, leaving Smoke standing directly beside me as the cheerleaders dropped their pom-poms and moved into formation for their step routine. I finally looked over, and Smoke was already looking at me.
I held his stare, waiting for him to say something, but he didn’t. He looked good in his grey sweatsuit and smelled even better, which irritated the hell out of me considering everything else I was trying to feel. My eyes dropped over him once before I caught myself and looked back toward Keyana.
“Hey.” I shifted my bag higher on my shoulder.
Smoke rubbed his hand over his beard. “What’s up?”
The first hard stomp from the cheer squad hit the pavement, and all three of us turned toward them.
Keyana and the rest of the girls started stepping in sync, their hands clapping against their thighs and each other’s palms while the drumline picked up behind them.
The crowd went crazy. Anthony started yelling again, and Smoke put two fingers in his mouth and whistled so damn loud that Keyana broke character for half a second and smiled.
I laughed, and when I glanced at Smoke, he was laughing too.
Then his eyes met mine before dropping to my lips, and my heart skipped a beat.
Before either of us could get caught staring too long, the drumline hit another hard rhythm, and the cheer squad rushed into their next formation.
The crowd erupted around us, pulling both of our attention back to Keyana.
The step routine ended with the girls hitting their last move together, and the crowd damn near exploded.
Anthony yelled Keyana’s name beside me while Smoke clapped hard enough to make me laugh.
Keyana broke into a huge smile before the squad ran off to the side, and a few minutes later, she came through the crowd toward us, still breathing hard and glowing from all the attention.
“Y’all saw me do my thang?!” she asked as soon as she reached us.
“Girl, the entire town saw you!” I pulled her into a hug before stepping back. “You did so good.”
“Thank you!” Keyana grinned and turned toward her brothers. “Did y’all record it?”
Smoke pulled his phone from his pocket. “Whole thing.”
“Me too,” Anthony said. “Mine prolly better though.”
“Boy, bye. That camera got weed particles all over it,” Keyana told him.
I laughed while Anthony and his friends started arguing with her, and Smoke shook his head beside me.
Then, Smoke showed Keyana part of the video he had taken while she complained about the angle.
Anthony kept interrupting them, and I stood there smiling because I had watched some version of this my entire life.
Smoke had always been more than their brother.
He had shown up for everything that mattered, even when showing up meant putting whatever he wanted for himself second.
The thought hit differently now. If Denisha’s baby were his, Smoke would show up for that child the exact same way.
My smile faded before I could stop it, and when I looked up, Smoke was watching me.
His eyes stayed on mine for a second, and I knew he had caught the change in my face even if he didn’t know what had caused it. I looked away first.
“Keyana!” one of the girls from the step team called from a few feet away. “Come on!”
“I’m comin’!” Keyana looked at me. “We gon’ walk through the fest. You stayin’?”
“For a little while.”
“Okay. See y’all.” She hugged me again, then Smoke, before smacking Anthony’s hand away when he reached for one of her pigtails. Within seconds, she disappeared into the crowd with the rest of the squad.
Anthony looked between Smoke and me before clearing his throat. “Yeah, I’m finna go find some more food.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Okay, high ass.”
He grinned before looking at Smoke, and then he looked at me. “Y’all be easy.”
“Nigga, go do somethin’.” Smoke gave him a look that said he knew exactly what Anthony was doing too, but Anthony was already walking away with his boys.
That left me standing beside Smoke. The noise around us seemed louder because neither of us was saying anything.
People moved past us toward the next festival event while the DJ started another song and the band packed up behind him.
Smoke shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and looked at me.
“You good?”
I almost laughed at how ridiculous that question was. “Are you?”
“Lace.”
“I’m fine, Sherrod.”
His jaw shifted, and I knew he didn’t believe me any more than my mother had. Before he could say anything else, somebody called his name from across the street. One of the men wearing a Cole Construction hoodie waved him over toward a festival booth where two other people were waiting.
Smoke looked in that direction before his eyes came back to me. “I gotta handle somethin’. I’mma try to come find you a lil’ later. Maybe we can talk, aight?”
“Okay.” I watched him walk away before I caught myself doing it and turned in the opposite direction.