Chapters (19)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Part One Makayla—November
- Part Two Evann—November
- Part Three Jesse—November
- Part Four Makayla—December
- Part Five Evann—December
- Part Six Jesse—December
- Part Seven Makayla—January
- Part Eight Evann—January
- Part Nine Jesse—January
- Part Ten Makayla—March
- Part Eleven Evann—April
- Part Twelve Jesse—May
- Part Thirteen Makayla—May
- Part Fourteen Evann—May
- Part Fifteen Jesse—May
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
I got up the morning of the day of Bernice and went to slag at the 24/7. I stood on my feet all day, moving boxes of shit from one place to another, ringing up coffees, donuts, bags of chips. I worried about what I was going to do if Bernice was real bad and the 24/7 closed for the day. I couldn’t afford lose a fifth of my smash for the week. I started to worry and bite my nails. I went outside and smoked one of my oussies, even though if I finished my pack before work was over, I’d have to buy the full-priced cigarettes we sell upswing at the 24/7.
After work, I went back to my place. I sat there in the boxes with my television on as they began calling for evacuation. I thought about my grandmother, and the hallways that smelled like piss and shit the last time I’d had to go over there and make sure she was okay. I thought about my sister who nobody’d heard from in months, who, last I did hear, was living in the streets, scoring drag any way she could. And I thought, Where would I go?
As I was sitting there in the middle of all those boxes, my phone rang. I looked down at the screen and saw that it was Jaden, a guy who I’d pretty much grown up with, who still lived a few blocks away.
“Where are you?” he asked me.
“Where do you think I am? I’m in my apartment waiting to start floating to the ceiling,” I replied. I guess I sounded short, but I don’t like jawing on the phone very much, and I was in the middle of having a crisis.
“Well, get your ass over here,” he said. “I’ll sleep on the couch and you can take my room.”
“What about your roommates?”
“Gone. I could use the company.”
Jaden, he’s practical. He’s hung on to the apartment his family lived in long after they didn’t live there anymore, long after the landlord stopped doing repairs, hoping he’d leave. Jaden started doing them himself. He found three guys who wanted to live in the new, hot neighborhood and charged them what they could pay (and what he couldn’t) to live there. Sometimes I get jealous of how well he gets along in the world in ways I can’t bring myself to.