With all that on my mind, I forgot about Leroy instantly it seemed. For two days straight I woke up and Rasul was on my mind. I went to bed and he was still there. It was like I had an infection, a fever that wouldn’t come down. He was all I thought about so there was no room in my head for the bullshit. I wanted to be with him whenever I could and do it without having to ask first. I guess I was “smelling myself” because I already saw where my nights out with him would become later and later, like a couple nights when Ma locked the door around eleven just to make me stand outside and bang for an hour before she let me in. Nakesha and I still weren’t speaking; we had gone from just staring at each other to not looking at one another at all. Mrs. Carly had grabbed me Wednesday after the bell rang and asked if we were even friends anymore. I just hunched my shoulders and walked off before she could stage some “cry it out” intervention bullshit. I had a one-track mind, and mending past mistakes wasn’t on that track. I had to look ahead to the future. I decided I wanted to get out of my ma’s house. I wasn’t that far along yet, and now I had my doubts. I needed to use what little money I had to start over in case Rasul’s guilt trip had somehow swayed my mind. So I walked into New Horizons the day before Thanksgiving, without an appointment, to talk to the one person who I thought could help me—Sue.