Hotlanta (6 page)

“Hey, Lauren,” Sydney called across the hall to her sister's room, “Lau-ren!”

“What?” was the grumpy response she finally received.

“Would you do me a favor?”

“No.”

“Lauren, I'm serious.” Sydney gritted her teeth against the sound of her sister's voice.

“So am I. Leave me alone,” Lauren replied in the same annoyed tone of voice.

Sighing, Sydney walked over to Lauren's room. “Lauren, it will take two seconds.”

“God, Syd, what part of ‘no' don't you get?” Lauren questioned from a very comfortable-looking spot on the middle of her extra-deep queen-size bed. “Besides, after that shit
you pulled about
you know who
—trying to guilt me into going to see him. Man, please.”

“I
get
what you said. For the record, nobody's trying to guilt you into anything, I just thought you should know. Besides, you're the last person that should be telling me no to anything considering I'm the one with the car you'll need to borrow while you're on punishment. Again,” Sydney said, referring to the two-hour, high-decibel chew-out Lauren got from Altimus as soon as they walked in from rehearsal for getting into a car accident and using the guys at Paintless to cover her tracks. Sydney tried desperately to make Altimus understand that his supposed punishment for Lauren—that she be “forced” to share Sydney's ride until she could appreciate having and taking care of her own—was really a punishment for her, too. But Altimus was too pissed to bow to logic. Which Sydney thought was some straight bull. “I'm just saying, you'd think a girl would be grateful—or at least scared—the car she needs to drive will be unavailable to her when she needs it.”

Sydney turned around and walked back to her room. By the time she counted to twenty-one, Lauren was standing in her doorway. “Okay, what do you need me to do?”

“Can you please take me over to Marcus's house?”

“Are you serious? Why can't you drive or have him scoop you up? I don't need the car.”

“Because I want to surprise him when he gets home from
volunteering at the Boys Club, and that won't happen if he sees my car in his driveway.”

“Fine, whatever.” Lauren answered matter-of-factly. “I guess I could use a Ben & Jerry's sundae to relieve the tension in my temples anyhow.”

“From all the stress of Altimus up in your face, I'm sure,” Syd mumbled.

“What'd you just say?”

“Nothing. Just hurry up and get ready.”

“Yeah, that's what I thought,” Lauren said with a roll of her eyes as she turned to head back into her room. “I'll be ready in thirty minutes or so.”

Almost an hour later, Lauren emerged from her room dressed in a skintight Pucci minidress, purple Prada slingback pumps, and a huge pair of Nicole Richie-esque Christian Dior sunglasses propped on her head, looking like she was headed to Club 112 instead of on a quick sundae run. With only a curt head-nod, Lauren indicated to Sydney that she was ready. It took all of Sydney's strength not to gag.

“By the time we get there, he'll already be home,” Sydney seethed through clenched teeth as she buckled up the seat belt on the passenger side of her car.

“Whatever, I don't even understand why you're going out of your way for Marcus anyway,” Lauren replied as she pulled out of the driveway. “Ain't he already your man?”

“Of course you wouldn't understand, Lauren. The only other person you know how to be nice to besides yourself is your sidekick, Dara.”

“Humph, at least I know I can depend on Dara to be faithful!” Lauren fired back.

“Excuse you? What's that supposed to mean?”

For a fleeting second, Lauren contemplated ‘fessing up to the scene she had witnessed at the High. But one glance at the indignant look in Sydney's eyes at the mere mention of Marcus's potential shortcomings and she quickly changed her mind. “Nothing. Nothing. If you want to waste a perfectly good Saturday night waiting around for your way jabber-jaw, power-to-the-people, fake Rasta, wannabe politician boyfriend, have fun. I could care less,” Lauren stated as she turned up the radio and simultaneously drowned out the remainder of the conversation.

By the time they pulled up to Marcus's lavish colonial-style home, Lauren was talking a mile a minute on her cell phone about some stripe on the new cheerleading uniforms and Sydney's head was killing her. Thanking God for small favors, Sydney jumped out of the car. “Thanks,” she offered lamely as she straightened the green-and-white-striped Ella Moss top that Marcus loved so much.

Without a word, Lauren reversed out of the driveway at top speed. Sydney inhaled deeply and walked toward the front door.

The sound of the doorbell was drowned out by the incessant barking of Ms. Green's two toy Yorkshires, Pork and Chop. “Who is it?”

“It's Sydney, Ms. Green.”

The heavy oak door swung open. There was Marcus's statuesque mom, bent over and scooping up the frantic Chop. Althena Green looked exactly like an older Omarosa, except with a pair of small reading glasses. “Shh, be quiet, you!” she admonished the little noisemaker as she turned her thousand-watt smile in Sydney's direction. “Hey, honey! What a pleasant surprise! Please come inside.” She gracefully stepped aside to allow Sydney to enter the bright foyer. “Do you hear these little monsters?” she asked with a laugh. “I swear I'm putting them up for sale on eBay!”

“Oh, you know you love them,” Sydney chided as she stopped to scoop up Pork.

“Between you and me, sometimes more than Marcus,” Althena joked as she closed the door securely behind her.

“Speaking of which, is your son home from the Boys Club movie night?”

“Um, I think the movie night was canceled because of some Jewish holiday this week. He's at some study group thing or the other. But we spoke about fifteen minutes ago and he should be home shortly.”

“Great, then I can surprise him after all. Mind if I wait?”

“Of course not, dear. Go ahead to his room. If you guys
decide to stay in for a late dinner or even just dessert, be sure to let Belinda know.”

“Thanks, Ms. Green,” Sydney said, placing the squirming Pork down. She started up the wide wooden staircase.

“If you need anything, just give me a holler, ya hear?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

The soft scent of Marcus's Marc Jacobs cologne enveloped Sydney as soon as she stepped into his room. She closed her eyes as the fragrance brought back warm memories of the two of them cuddled up, then she gently fingered a framed photo of them from last year's spring formal. The twists that Toni, Mrs. Duke's personal hairdresser, had put in Sydney's hair for the occasion complemented Marcus's freshly touched-up locs even better than she remembered. But Sydney was most thankful that half of her big butt was blocked from the camera's view by Marcus's towering frame.

Next her glance fell upon the open MacBook right in front of her. Hmm. She softly pressed the “on” button and the screen reopened to the AOL homepage.

She took a quick look behind her to ensure that the door was completely closed. Once Sydney was sure the coast was clear, she scrolled down the Web site history log.

Let's see: a Google search for Princeton; youngrichandtriflin.com; myspace.com; facebook.com; lots of youtube.com; nothing too out of the ordinary.
Sydney clicked on his inbox to see whom he'd been e-mailing.
Hmm.
There was a
fantasy football newsletter; a quick note from his boy, mikeyd2008, about some march in DC; and an alert from YRT about the latest student-body scandal. Finding nothing remarkable in the first ten, Sydney decided to check the trash folder when an unfamiliar address caught her attention.
Who was misskitty80?
As she sorted by sender, Sydney noticed at least twenty or more e-mails from the unfamiliar user ID in the trash. Sydney opened an e-mail from Thursday night:

Hey babe just got home. SUCH a long day…Sorry I missed you before lunch, I was running late. But by the time I got to the cafeteria, you were already eating. It's so weird for me now when I see you with her. Oh, well. Can't wait for our next “study session.” X and Os, Dara

Did Dara just refer to my boyfriend as “babe”?
Sydney scanned through all the others; every single one of them was as personal as the last. In all the discussions about his difficult class load, Marcus never once mentioned having classes with Dara, let alone her being his study partner. And exactly what did she mean by “it's so weird for me
now
”? Just then, she heard the sound of a car pulling up into the driveway. Sydney quickly closed the e-mail and shut down the site. She rushed over to the window and stood behind the curtain.

Wait a minute—why did that cherry-red Audi look so familiar? Sydney moved slightly to get a better view of the driver of the car in the dim driveway light. It was Dara! What the hell was her sister's best friend doing driving Marcus home? How much damn studying were they doing together?

While Sydney stood there struggling to figure it out, Marcus leaned over and gave Dara a quick peck on the cheek. He jumped out, waved good-bye, and headed inside. She could hear him call out in greeting to his mom and even Belinda, the housekeeper, as he stomped up the stairs. Sydney rushed back over to the bed and tried to compose herself.

“Hey, what are you doing here? Everything okay?” Marcus exclaimed in surprise, as he opened the door to find Sydney sitting on the edge of the bed reading one of his issues of
GQ
. She couldn't tell if his smile was genuine or a knee-jerk reaction to the shock of finding her unsupervised in his room.

“Sure. I figured I'd come over and surprise you,” Sydney responded as she fought to remain calm. She refused to jump to any conclusions and risk trashing four years' worth of a relationship.

“I'm totally surprised,” Marcus continued as he crossed the room in several long strides and pulled Sydney up to her feet. “Since I didn't hear from you all day, I thought you were still mad about last night.” Marcus gave her a tight hug and
a kiss on the cheek. When he finally released her, Sydney discreetly wiped her cheek.

“Yeah, well, you did leave me standing outside in the middle of the night while you were supposedly studying,” Sydney hinted as she backed away and turned toward his desk.

“What do you mean
supposedly
studying? What else would I've been doing?”

“I don't know, Marcus, I'm just saying. You've never gotten so caught up in studying that you've forgotten me before…”

Marcus gently turned Sydney around. “Syd, I don't know where all these weird questions are coming from but you have to believe me, I have no reason to lie about where I was.” Marcus leaned in and gave Sydney a gentle kiss on the lips to which she barely responded.
The same lips you just used to kiss Dara,
she thought bitterly.

“So lemme ask you this, since when have you and Dara been hanging out?”

For a brief second, Marcus Green looked like a deer caught in headlights…but only for a second. “What are you talking about?”

“Well that was her car that you just got out of, was it not?”

“We weren't hanging out, we were studying,” he responded defensively, pushing his locs away from his face.
“I been told you that Dara was in my Advanced Placement Biology class.” He walked past Sydney and started to straighten the already neat desktop.

“No, you didn't,” Sydney insisted, refusing to back down. “And you definitely never mentioned that you'd be studying with her.”

“Sydney, you're being ridiculous. Today is like the first time we've even gotten together.” Marcus sighed in annoyance. “Do you have your period? ‘Cause you're acting really insecure and emotional. I mean not for nothing, I don't have to tell you about every single person that I spend time with.”

“Excuse me?” Sydney asked in disbelief as she remembered the e-mail that clearly implied that they'd been together before. “Are you really telling me that this is the first time you've been hanging out with Dara?” Sydney looked at Marcus as if he had just grown a third eye.

“Yes. Why, who said they saw us together? I mean I don't know what your sister may have told you about that night at the High but…”

Sydney didn't even hear the remainder of his sentence. Granted, she kinda figured Marcus might lie about being with Dara last night to avoid getting into another argument about leaving her stranded, but now he was talking about being seen by Lauren at the High? The event at the High Museum happened over two months ago! And just what the hell had
Lauren seen and not bothered to tell her about? Suddenly her sister's ominous comment in the car started to make too much sense. As much as she couldn't stand Lauren's trifling ways, Sydney would definitely let Lauren know if her so-called boyfriend was playing her out. I mean they were sisters, for goodness sake! Humph, so much for blood being thicker than water…Just wait till she caught up with Lauren's backstabbing behind!

Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Marcus again completely switched gears. “Look, babe, if you don't want me studying with her I won't. I don't want you to ever question my behavior. It's nothing…”

Sydney was quiet as she considered his words. On one hand Marcus had never given Sydney any reason to worry about him liking another girl, let alone cheating on her. What had Rhea called them? The Black Ken and Barbie…On the other hand, he had blatantly lied about how many times he and Dara had been together. If it was really “nothing,” then why lie? But then again, everyone knew that Dara was a total hoochie, just like her notorious mom, who'd tricked that poor Atlanta Falcon into getting her pregnant and now lived the high life off his generous child-support payments. Marcus was such a stickler for keeping up appearances, would he really risk it all for
Dara
?