It's All Good (11 page)

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Authors: Nikki Carter

BOOK: It's All Good
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17
T
he music is bumping as Hope, Candy, and I step into
Ricky's basement. A few early birds (Kevin's band friends) are already here and burning up the dance floor. But it looks like everyone else has decided to be fashionably late.
Sidebar. I don't get that whole late-on-purpose concept. I guess it's supposed to prove that you aren't really pressed about the party. But, for real, most everybody picks out their outfit days in advance of a hot party, and they're totally bummed if they don't get an invite. So, show up on time already!
I just had to get that out of my system.
Kevin notices that we've arrived. “Hey, birthday girl,” he says and gives me a hug.
“Where's Ricky?” I ask after scanning the room and not seeing him.
“He's upstairs getting snacks. He'll be down in a sec.”
Instead of joining Longfellow High's band on the dance floor, Hope and I take a seat next to the pool table. Candy decides that she wants to dance and Kevin is more than happy to be her partner.
“Do you think your parents are really coming?” Hope asks.
A smile teases the corners of my lips. Gwen is so funny with her threats to crash my party. I heard her on the phone with Ricky's mom, making sure that she would be here chaperoning. Ricky's parents are nowhere near as strict as Gwen, but they've got enough of the parent gene to not allow any foolishness.
Slowly but surely, people start to trickle in. By the time Ricky has transplanted the snacks from upstairs to downstairs, the dance floor is almost full.
“Happy birthday, Gia,” Ricky says. Then he surprises me by planting a soft kiss on my cheek. Even though it feels completely innocent, my face doesn't know the difference because I feel myself blush. Hope isn't making it any better, because she's one step away from giggling.
“Cool party, Ricky,” I say. “Thank you for having it for me.”
“You'd do the same for me, right?”
“Of course!”
One of the rally girls dances over to us and says, “What's up, Ricky? The dance floor is calling you!”
Ricky looks at me. “Uh, sure. I guess. Gia, Hope, y'all dancing?”
I wave one hand. “I'm good. Go ahead.”
When Ricky leaves with the rally girl to get his groove on, Hope pinches my arm.
“Ow!”
“What was that, Gia?” Hope asks.
“What was what?”
“
I'm good?
Are you kidding me? The boy kisses you and asks you to dance, and you say, ‘I'm good'?”
Hope doesn't understand! I've got total noodle legs right now and I still haven't processed Ricky's beyond-BFF-STATUS kiss. I couldn't make it to the dance floor, so forget about dancing. It would not be pretty.
“Well, sit here looking crazy if you want to,” Hope says. “I'm going to dance with James. He's looking real nice tonight.”
“Okay, have fun.”
A few seconds after Hope's ungraceful exit, Valerie takes up residence in her seat. I mean, seriously, can Gia get some alone time? Dang. (Okay, I promise that will be the last time I refer to myself in third person ... it's addictive.)
“Happy birthday, Hi-Stepper,” Valerie says.
“Thanks. Where's my gift?”
“I
came
to your party, Gia. Isn't that enough?”
Valerie's foolishness is a welcome distraction. She's totally making me forget about Ricky's kiss and my noodle legs.
“Thanks for coming, Valerie.”
“You're welcome. Act grateful for a change, chica.”
Valerie and I share a laugh for a moment. Then she turns serious.
“Gia, I think I know who posted the pictures on Facebook.”
Somebody needs to explain to Valerie that my birthday party is not the time to discuss her random drama. Even though my birthday isn't actually until tomorrow, it's
still
my night. Valerie stays putting the spotlight on herself.
I mean, can Gia get a close up? (Okay, for real.
That
was the last time.)
“Who, Valerie? Who did it?” I hope my tone displays every bit of the irritation that I'm feeling.
“I think it was my mom.”
My eyes have got to be bugging out of my head. “Are you serious? Your mom? How do you know?”
“She was telling one of her sisters how she ‘took care' of Susan, and I was thinking,
what?
”
“And? Took care of her how?”
“Well, I booted up my mom's computer and looked in her picture folder. The pics that were supposedly Susan were in the folder, but they had some other girl's face on them,” Valerie explains.
“Your mom Photoshopped some pictures?”
“I know my mom doesn't know anything about Photoshop. She must've paid someone to do it.”
“But why? Why didn't she just start her own Facebook page?”
“I thought about that,” Valerie replies. “Maybe because most of my friends on Facebook only accept friend requests from people they know ...”
“... and she wanted to make sure all your friends saw it,” I say, finishing Valerie's sentence.
“I guess so,” Valerie says.
“So what are you gonna do? You gonna snitch on your own mama?”
“Naw, chica. Never that. My mami has my back, regardless.”
“But what about the prom and graduation?”
Valerie shrugs. “I'm just gonna have to chalk it, I guess.”
“That's a craptastrophe, Valerie! Man!”
“Craptastrophe? There you go, chica. Always making up words.”
“Nuh-uh, that's on the SAT list!”
I guess I'm looking so serious that she doesn't know whether to believe me or not. I love messing with Valerie. She's so
easy!
“I'm joking you, Val. It's not really a word.”
“Don't play like that, Gia. I'm already gonna have a tough enough time getting into college!”
“Word. I'm putting you on my mama's prayer list.”
Valerie laughs. “Does it work?”
“Well, she'd been praying for a husband and she finally got one. So I'm thinking maybe.”
Valerie replies, “Then why don't you put yourself on there and pray for some chemicals to fall into your hair?”
“Ha, ha, Valerie. I did used to pray for a relaxer, but God has shown me the error of my ways. Now I embrace the nap-fabulousness that is moi. Deal with it or kick rocks.”
“Gia, you are super funny. You should be on that show on BET. The one with the comedians. I think it's called
Who's Got Jokes
.”
Hmmm ... I can see that. First of all, Bill Bellamy is the truth! He's kinda old, but he's still rocking a little fineness.
Ricky interrupts my television fantasy. “Gia, will you dance with me?”
I smile up at Ricky, because he finally figured out how to ask a girl to dance. But then I panic because it's a slow song. Alicia Keys's “Like You'll Never See Me Again” is coming from the speakers and Ricky is taking my hand.
It's like I'm in a daze, but I feel Ricky put my hand on his shoulder and he puts one of his hands on my waist. Then he grabs my other hand just like we're about to couple skate. Okay, maybe I can make it through the song if I think of it like that. We've couple skated a million times. But not since he gave me the Tweety bracelet and then put his chap-free lips on my face.
Oh. My. God.
For a second I think it's my hand that's trembling uncontrollably, but then I realize that it's Ricky's hand doing the shaking. Then, I get it. He's just as nervous as I am.
I give his hand a squeeze to let him know that it's okay.
I mean, even though we're slow dancing, and that's completely outside of BFF parameters, Ricky is still my bestie. And nothing can change that!
Did I mention that I'm having my first slow dance?
18
I
open my eyes and blink a few times. Oh right, it's Sunday morning, my seventeenth birthday. And the day after the best birthday party ever!
Was it all a dream? Ricky kissing me and asking me to slow dance with him! Wow. It still doesn't seem real.
There's a knock on my door and I realize that it's time for the Stokes family tradition. I guess it's going to be the Stokes-Ferguson tradition now, since we're a blended family and everything.
“Happy Birthday to ya!” My mom bursts into the room singing the Stevie Wonder version of the happy birthday song.
If you haven't heard of this version, Google it. I haven't got time to educate you on this right now. I've got birthday presents to open, you know what I mean?
Candy and LeRon follow Gwen into the room carrying boxes. My gifts!
“Thank you! Now hand over the loot!” I say.
I open the first gift and it's from Candy. It's a little Juicy Couture purse. I lift my eyebrows all the way up and so does my mom. Has Candy gone back over to the shoplifting dark side just to get me a birthday gift?
Candy sucks her teeth. “Are you kidding me? I bought it on eBay. Don't be too rough on it. The Juicy logo might fall off.”
Everyone laughs out loud at this. Candy done bought me a fake purse off of eBay. Jesus be a fence all around me.
“Open mine,” my mom says.
I open the box and it's a digital camera. It's one of the good ones too. I can make movies with this and everything.
“Cool! Thank you, Mom!”
LeRon hands me his box last. I clap and squeal when I see his gift. It's the iPod Shuffle that I've been nagging my mom for since it came out.
“Thank you, LeRon!”
I jump up and give him a hug, which I don't think he expects at all. He stumbles back a little bit but smiles anyway. Hey, it's my birthday. I'm in a great mood.
“After church, we're going out to dinner,” my mother says. “Your aunt, uncle, Hope, Ricky and his parents, and Kevin are all coming too. Your pick, Gia. Where are we eating?”
“Cheesecake Factory!”
“Sweet!” Candy shouts and high-fives me.
 
When we get to church, Ricky pulls me away from my family and into the church foyer.
“Happy real birthday, Gia,” he says as he hands me a little box.
“Ricky, you didn't have to get me anything. You threw the party.”
He puts his hand up. “Shh! Just don't be looking for a Christmas present. The Gia fund is all tapped out.”
“There's a Gia fund?”
Ricky laughs. “There was.”
I open the tiny box and inside is a charm for my bracelet. It's a little boot.
“A Hi-Steppers boot?” I ask.
Ricky grins. “Yeah!”
“Cool. Thank you, Ricky.”
Now it's my turn to make him uncomfortable. I give him a hug and kiss similar to the one he gave me at my party.
“Ooh, I'm telling! Y'all kissing at church!”
Grrr! This is Kevin ruining a moment. A perfectly innocent moment, I might add. But Kevin doesn't play about the rules of church. As a matter of fact, he's like the church police.
“Boy, ain't nobody doing nothing!” I fuss. “Ricky was just giving me my birthday present.”
“Oh. Well, watch yourselves. The Lord can see you.”
I shake my head as Ricky and I burst into laughter. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm glad Kevin came and broke things up, because I had no idea what I was going to say next.
“What did you get me, Kevin?” I ask.
“See, what had happened was ...”
“How you gonna be a bestie and not give me a birthday gift?”
Kevin laughs. “I'm just playing. Hold on a sec. I'll be right back.”
Kevin rushes back into the sanctuary.
“He better hurry up. Service is gonna start soon,” I say.
Ricky says, “Before he interrupted, I was going to say that it'll be easy to shop for you now. I'll just get you charms every birthday.”
“Well, at some point you're gonna have to buy me a new bracelet, because you're going to run out of room on this one.”
“That's gonna take some years.”
“I know. But doesn't one of the Fs in BFF mean forever?”
“Umm ...”
Kevin taps me on the shoulder and saves Ricky from responding.
“Here you go, Gia. Hope you like it.”
I take the small, neatly wrapped package from Kevin. The paper is cute—pink with little Tweetys all over. My friends are so thoughtful.
“It's a journal. Thanks, Kev! I was on the last couple of pages on my current one, so this is perfect.”
“Last pages? Wow, what are you writing about?” Kevin asks.
“None of your business! Dang, you're nosy.”
I press the new journal to my chest and walk away from the boys and into the sanctuary. Hope is sitting in our usual seat and Sascha is visiting. She never visits on a Sunday, so I wonder what's up.
Hope scoots over so that I can slide into the pew, next to her. Service hasn't started yet, so we still have some time to chat.
“Hey, Sascha. You weren't at my birthday party,” I say. “What's up with that?”
“Oh, yeah. Well, Chase didn't want to come. He thought your mom was going to be there and he didn't want to run into her.”
“So you two are still together?”
Sascha nods. “Gia, I'm staying with him no matter what. I really love him.”
“Even if he hurts you and tries to force you to do things that you don't want to do?”
“If we broke up and he started dating someone else, it would kill me, Gia. I don't think I could take that,” Sascha says.
The sadness in her eyes makes my heart hurt for her.
“My mom says that love doesn't hurt,” Hope offers.
“That's not true,” Sascha chokes out between sobs. “It does hurt. Especially when they don't love you back.”
Sascha excuses herself and runs to the back of the church toward the ladies' restroom.
“Do you think we should go after her?” Hope whispers as the service is starting.
I shake my head. “No. There's not really much more we can tell her right now. We're the ones telling her to break it off with Chase.”
“But she should!” Hope exclaims, grabbing my arm for emphasis. “Wait a minute. Is that a new charm?”
What is this girl? Secret Service? FBI? How is it that her eyes went directly to my charm bracelet? And how is it that I'm now under interrogation? She might as well be shining one of those spotlights in my eyes like they do in the spy movies.
“Yes. It's a new charm. You like?”
“Did Auntie Gwen get it for you?”
I smile knowingly. “Nope. She didn't.”
“It was Ricky!” Hope squeals way too loud, especially since the grown-people choir is on their way to the choir stand.
Most of the young people at our church sing in the youth choir, so we call the mass choir that sings almost every Sunday the grown-people choir. Some Sundays Kevin sings with them too, which is funny. Every time he does it we call him gramps for a week. He does not appreciate it. But alas, we don't care.
Hope leans in and whispers, “So did y'all make it official? Do y'all go together yet?”
“No! And I don't know if I want to, either. Look how foolish Sascha is acting. If that's what love looks like, it's not a good look.”
“Man, they're crazy, Gia. You and Ricky wouldn't be like that.”
“Don't keep saying, ‘you and Ricky' like we're a couple. If Gwen hears you say that she'll take my head off.”
“Well then, stop denying it. You know that you and Ricky are catching feelings.”
Okay. Boo to Hope for sounding like one of those old-school throwback rap songs from when we were babies. Catching feelings? I vote no to revamping retired slang.
“I'm not catching anything, Hope. Just nix the whole boyfriend bit for now. We'll get there when we get there. It seems like you and Kevin want it more than we do.”
Mother Cranford keeps cutting her eyes at us. That's called her evil
be quiet
side eye. I know she's about to start tripping, so I elbow Hope in the ribs.
Hope is so dense that she doesn't get the signal and keeps talking. “It's like we've sat through this movie since the ninth grade, Gia. We want to see the end!”
I poke Hope again and then nod my head toward Mother Cranford, who is now scowling. Why do we always sit near her anyway? Hope smiles sweetly at her and I focus on Pastor Stokes, who is just now getting up to speak.
I know that Kevin, Hope, and even Candy are beyond ready to see Ricky and me move into coupledom. But the way things are creeping along for us, it might not be until the sequel!

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