Bound
Wyn, age 13
It was the last day of summer break before school started. I was going to the eighth grade, and finally the biggest fish in a small pond.
Pops had taken Autumn, Casey, and Turkey camping to celebrate.
I hated seeing his disappointment when I declined, but Auty made it crystal clear that Casey and Turkey were her friends, so while I still went over there to get fed and show my face, I gave her plenty of room to hate me like she so proudly proclaimed.
Was that petty? Maybe. But whatever. I didn’t do anything wrong. I had been trying and trying to be there for her. She acted like I could control Mom and Dad. I was a kid, just like she was.
She saw Mom buy me things. She didn’t see the slaps I got when I tried to deny them. She didn’t hear her call me Summer, when she wasn’t reminding me I’d never be her precious Summer.
She didn’t see me get forcefed whiskey, or carry Mom to her room, or be plastered to her front as she held me hostage.
There was a lot she didn’t see. A lot I didn’t want her to see. So I kept my distance.
It was better that way.
My sidekick began to buzz as I took off my scarf.
Porscha’s parents were going to church, and they agreed to drop us off at the mall for a couple of hours if we agreed to come with them.
I packed my outfit in my Louis Vuitton backpack and rushed out the house.
They always went to the early service, so my parents were knocked out from the casino the night before.
Me and God were beefed out, but I still drank the grape juice they offered. Porscha thought it was funny that I grabbed another, but I hadn’t eaten breakfast, and knowing her, we weren’t going to eat until after we picked up some guys at the mall.
It was scorching outside, so I put on a white camisole under a blue camisole, my True Religion bootcut jeans, and some vans. Porscha was all done up, like the rest of the girls we hung out with. Ruffled skirts, sandals, blouses and shit. But this was their game.
Going up to the mall, throwing out the line for older guys to pick them up and they pay for our food, maybe a movie. If they were really paid, some clothes, too.
Porscha came with me with Turkey’s older sisters once and saw the game, and now that’s all they did. I missed when we just had fun, but I’d rather been up there than at home with Mom.
We met a couple other girls in our group by the ice cream shop, and began to walk around the mall. Plenty of boys and groups came up to us, but they weren’t on paying for anything.
An hour and a half later, Porscha declared the day a bust. Brianna and Ronnisha agreed, and we got a table at the end of the food court so they could rest their feet.
“Ohmigod, there’s that boy I added on MyRoom! He’s soooooo fine, there’s two of him!” Porscha gushed.
“Where? Where?!” Ronnisha’s thirsty ass shrieked.
Porscha slapped her hand on her mouth before turning her head behind me.
“Dang, whole crew fine as hell. That tall boy look familiar,” Brianna said.
I turned then, and the corners of my mouth pulled up.
Ol’ Tyree Johnson, in the flesh.
Last school year, he came to our school, fucked shit up, and left like a thief in the night. Turkey and Casey said he was from the same projects as them, but up until then, I totally forgot about him.
“He went to our school last year,” I said, standing.
When I heard chairs screeching, I remembered I was with some thirsty girls, and cringed.
It wasn’t just Tyree. He was with some twins that I think the girls were talking about, and a bunch of other rough looking boys, all in green. I held my head high, even when everyone began to notice me.
I was finally close enough to recognize the twin with braids, and my smile widened. It was Luney, the boy who added me randomly on MyRoom. We’d talked here and there, but he was so mysterious, and now I see why.
He was clearly in a gang.
I shifted my focus back to Tyree, who was grinning as he got off the table and shuffled in front of everyone.
“Fancy seeing you here, Tyree,” I smirked. He’d grown since I saw him last, towering over me, which was crazy, considering he was a year younger than me.
“You the only one who call me that, Wynnie,” he said, returning my side hug.
I socked his stomach, making him cackle more. Porscha cleared her throat behind me, and I rolled my eyes before locking onto Luney.
“You remember Porscha, Brianna, and Ronnisha?”
“Hell, naw,” Tyree said, wrapping a heavy arm over my shoulder.
“Introduce us to yo homegirl, KO.”
Tyree backed us to the side of the semicircle, so we could see everyone. “Kilo. Remy. Lem. Luney, and Tune.”
“We was finna hit the skate park after we got some food. Y’all welcome to come,” Lem said, licking his lips.
“We’re welcome to lunch, too?” Porscha asked, fluttering her damn lashes.
“Fasho, come on, slim.”
Tyree walked me toward the twins as my friends left toward one of the fast food restaurants with the others.
“I’m hungry, too,” I whined.
“Trust me, you don’t want that nigga buying you food,” Ty chuckled.
“What you want, Red?” Tune asked, pulling out a knot of money from his jeans.
“Cheeseburger and fries?”
“Get us all that, Ty-Ty.” Tune handed him way more money than he needed, and then he left me with them to get our food.
“So how you know my cousin?” Tune asked when Tyree was far enough away.
“From Roosevelt. Hey, were y’all the guys that came up there with Casey to fight him?”
“Set know you out here calling him his government?” he volleyed, folding his arms.
I smiled, whipping my cornrows to my back. “Set, huh? Y’all be saying ‘on baby,’ too?”
“Who is this girl?” Tune cackled, glancing at Luney. But he just sat there, leaning on the back of the food court chair, gazing up at me.
“That’s the Ice Princess,” he drawled.
“We leaving, girl. Heyyy, Luney,” Porscha sang, walking up to us with Ty. He handed me and Tune our food, and Tune pulled me away from them toward the exit.
“So how old are you, Ice Princess?”
I took a bite of my cheeseburger as we walked into the summer sun. “Do not start calling me that,” I said with a full mouth.
“How come? My brother can call you that but I can’t?” He bit off half of his cheeseburger, smiling around it as we made the trek to the skate park around the corner from the mall.
“He only calls me that ‘cause of my MyRoom page. My name is Wynter Snow, so it’s kind of a play on that.”
He inhaled the rest of his burger as he ruminated on that. “Wynter Snow’s a fire name though. Lowkey better than Ice Princess. Most people get nicknames to mask lame first names.”
“Is that why you go by Tune? Most gang members have old ass names. I bet your first name is Eugene.”
Tune cackled. “You’re not that far off… it’s Frederick.”
“Like Douglass?!” I guffawed. I’m talking, ugly laughed so hard I snorted. “Is that his name?” I hooked a thumb behind us.
We glanced back at the same time. Porscha was talking her head off, but neither Tyree nor Luney were paying attention. Tyree was stuffing his face, and Luney was locked in on me.
I winked at him before turning back around.
“He gotta tell you his government.”
“He doesn’t talk much,” I remarked, finishing the rest of my fries. “I doubt he’ll tell me.”
Tune took our trash and threw it away at a trashcan on the corner. We all stopped at the red light, but we were off to the side, still, away from everyone else.
“I wouldn’t count him out so easily, Wynter Snow. He may surprise you.”
“Can I call you–”
“Hell, naw,” he chuckled. “Fredo. My own Ma don’t even call me by that shit. Don’t know why she even named me that.”
The skate park took up the next block, and it seemed packed, as everyone was trying to get some practice in before school started. I followed the girls up the bleachers on the south end and we took seats while the guys congregated to the other side of the park.
“They are so fine!” Ronnisha gushed.
“They ain’t all that,” Porscha scowled, surprising me.
“You only saying that because Twin wasn’t giving you no play,” Brianna giggled.
“Whatever. He looks like a girl with all that hair anyway. Him and his brother.”
“Be nice,” I admonished. “Tune’s cool.”
“Well, my mom is two minutes away. If you want a ride home, you’ll come with me.” Porscha stomped away, leaving us a little dumbfounded.
I shrugged, deciding to go use the restroom before leaving.
After peeing and washing my hands, Luney himself was leaning on the opposite wall when I left.
“Leaving?”
I looked around, to make sure he was talking to me. I guess it was funny, because the corner of his mouth pulled up.
“Yeah,” I drawled.
“I can pull up on you later?”
His voice was so smooth. Somehow the same and different from his brother. They had to have been identical twins. The only thing physically different was their hair.
But maybe because I was a twin, I could tell them apart instantly from their energy.
Fredo was charming. But Luney was magnetic.
I saw why Porscha was mad he wasn’t giving her any play.
“On a school night?” I blurted.
The other corner of his mouth pulled up, and dimples dipped in his cheeks. “Yeah, Snow. On a school night.”
“Snow?” Ugh, I sounded like an idiot. It was just, no one had ever just called me Snow. Wynter Snow, yeah. But not just Snow.
“So can I?”
I heard Brianna yell out my name, so my feet began to move toward the exit. “Yeah, sure. I, uh, live next door to Turkey in Raleigh Park.”
“Fasho. I’ll be there at nine.”
I turned away and jogged to Porscha’s mom’s car. On the outside, I probably looked bored.
On the inside, I was reeling.
Something about having red hair and freckles makes you kinda popular. It’s always been like that, not even counting the whole weird obsession coming from my parents.
In every school, every class, I never wanted for “friends.” Girls clamored to sit next to me, share their snacks, and I was never it during freeze tag. Then, as we got older, and boys began to have crushes, the girls stayed around because the boys flocked, in all their stinky, sticky wonder.