Before I could say anything else, Stacia’s voice boomed behind me, asking, “What you want?” I looked back to see her annoyed facial expression. She had a hand on her hip and an eyebrow up. I knew I only had a few minutes to fix things.

“Can we go on the porch?”

We walked outside, and I said, “Bye, Ms. Buchanan,” because I thought that I was supposed to.

“Ms. Buchanan?” she repeated, then laughed so hard, she fell into another coughing spell. I looked over at Sweat one last time. Nothing had changed. If it wasn’t for his chest moving up and down, you might think he wasn’t even alive.

On the porch, Stacia turned her attitude all the way up. “What?” she asked, her arms crossed, hair looking a mess. You couldn’t tell if it used to be in a ponytail or not.

“My brother Folks now,” I said, sad, my shoulders hanging low.

“I know,” she said. She went over to the gate, pressed her face against it, as if she were looking for him. I walked over there too, leaned close to the gate but careful not to let my face touch the iron. We looked down there at his new home. She seemed to get lost in thought, so we stayed quiet for a moment.

“Can you help me get him back?” I said, stepping away from the gate. She moved back too, her face full of diamonds from the impression of the iron.

“Back?” She stared at me like I was the dumbest thing she’d ever seen. “You such a baby, Fe Fe.”

She was laughing at me and walking away. Anger took over my body, and I felt hot again. I screamed, “Didn’t nobody call you a hoe when you was in the elevator with that dude.”

She snatched her body around and stared at me. She looked so crazy with the gate shapes on her face and how mad she was. Like an animal crouching low, getting a good look at you first. Stacia seemed to rev up, then leaped at me! I wasn’t ever the cutest girl in the room, and I’ve only come close to being the smartest, but everybody at school and even people back at the building knew that you couldn’t catch me for nothing.

I darted down the stairs, and she chased me, screaming things at me, trying to hurt my feelings. “Your brother one of us now, bitch!” was the most hurtful one.

I had a whole floor of a lead on her, and as I barreled through the stairwell onto the eighth floor, she called out, “And we gone fuck that hoe up, watch!”