Grace

12

"I know it's none of my business, but how old are you, darling?" The lady inquired. Her hair was pinned into a weird looking hair-do, her hair sticking up from the top. Her face was battered with make-up that aged her face. Eyeliner darkened the rim of her eyes, hiding the beauty in her hazel colored eyes. Her small lips were puckered, covered in a hot pink shade of lipstick. It matched her skin tight work uniform.

Grace cleared her throat. Michigan and her shared a stare before saying in unison, "Seventeen."

"Oh," she continued, "I bet he was nice and affectionate, and I bet you ate it up. All it took was a few cute and simple words to have you here, buying this. I may be wrong, but quite frankly, I don't give a damn. I used to be your age, I used to be you. Hell, all he had to do was tell me the magic words and I was sold. You should've seen my face when they told me I was not pregnant, but instead HIV positive. If you're going to do it, not only protect yourself from kids but from death. Be careful, girls."

They exited the store in silence. Grace had to mentally praise herself for never having sex, it still didn't mean she was safe because she swapped spit a few times. But she had never opened her legs. Meanwhile, Michigan was simply laughing to herself. That woman didn't scare her or make her feel less of herself. All she was doing was repeating the same thing their health teacher preached about it. It was nothing new to Michigan and she was going to continue doing her, even if she did have a baby possibly.

"When we get here, you go straight to the bathroom. I'll get your breakfast." Grace ordered while reading the instructions to the test.

School was the usual the morning. Most of everyone who was somebody was hanging around the cafeteria, or bus area. Girls were having conversations about nonsense as well as the boys. Michigan and Grace blended in perfectly, heading to their locations. Grace bought the two drinks and a granola bars from the vending machines.

She was minding her own business, eating, when Nick walked over. He was a student at the school, who mostly hung around some dudes from his block. He was cool, and she had never heard much about him. He wasn't all that like the girls preferred, but he was definitely good looking. He had the rugged look about him, and he was nice to her. She shrugged it off as just being friendly, but he was crushing on her- hard.

"What's up, Grace?"

"Minding my business, you?" Grace replied, jokingly. He smiled, taking a seat beside her.

"I just been kicking it. Where's Michigan? I never thought I'd see you without her on your hip." He looked around as if she was going to appear. Michigan was very rude to him because she just didn't see anything in him. He didn't have any nice fits or any street cred, so she saw him as the irrelevant bum. Anytime he tried to speak with Grace, she would shut his operation down quickly and in a rude manner.

Grace laughed. "No, she'll be here any minute. I'm just waiting."

He got to it quickly, "Well, let me ask this before she comes. If you're off this weekend, would you want to come to the movies with me? There's this little movie out and my friend let me getting his car. I could scoop you, and we could catch it then I'll take you back home right afterwards."

"I don't know if I'll be off, but if I am, you can call." she said, smiling. She wrote her number on the piece of paper he supplied, then Nick was on his way. Grace continued to eat until she saw people heading out of the cafeteria. The bell had not rang, so she figured it was something important. She left her seat to go outside towards the commotion. She heard screaming, immediately recognising the voice.

Grace worked her way through the stubborn bodies, approaching a furious Michgan. Standing across from them was Malik's supposedly girl, Karen. She was a fiery, Hispanic girl with a bad mouth and reputation for fighting. Michigan argued, "You really want to fight me over somebody who was never yours? Malik ain't nobody, and he don't got nothing for me! I stopped checking for him right after he gave me what is supposed to be yours."

Karen stood, silent, with her arms crossed. She was heated up inside. She was tempted to hit Michigan but allowed Michigan to embarrass herself in front of everyone. "Just quit and come on. It isn't worth it." Grace pleaded.

Michigan laughed, "I'm go ahead and let you have this, Karen. Good luck with becoming his real girlfriend, if that ever happens," The instigators laughed. Grace pulled a smiling Michigan with her.

They entered the hallway of the school, standing outside of the cafeteria doors. "What the hell, for real? You need to chill out because you know that shit isn't right. If they got something, respect it and stop acting like some ho."

"Shut the fuck up, Grace, you always trying to act like you don't do nothing at all. I'm tired of being around you and having to deal with you coming first at everything. You don't give a damn about me, all you care about is what people think of you which is why you always trying to change me. I was raised up like this and I ain't changing just to kick it with some prissy ass wannabe. What you see is what you get when it comes to me."

"I never tried to change you, maybe try to get you to realize some things. Now, I see how it is and I don't want to kick it either. I can't be around somebody that's jealous of me!" People were watching them from a distance now, but slowly coming in.

Michgan laughed, covering up her anger from being found out. "Jealous?! Girl, please. You're no better than me, or the next female. Sammy dropped you, Dominic dropped you, and now you hanging around on anybody that'll take you. How could I be jealous of somebody that doesn't even have half of the things I do? A real home, a real family, or a real mother-"

Grace cocked her hand back. The echo of the slap bounced off of the walls, sounding throughout the corridor. Necks snapped just to get a better view of the upcoming reaction. Michigan began to swing wildly and Grace matched her, keeping her hits strictly to the face. If Michigan was pregnant, she didn't want to end that.

Before anyone could come to suspend them, Tykese had grabbed Michigan. He pulled her away from the scene. People watched as Grace gathered her things then stormed off to the restrooms.

But everyone had already heard. Michigan had already put out what she promised to never tell no matter what. Grace didn't have a real family at all.

She ended up in her first hour class, sulking while writing a report. Khalil, who rarely came to school, sat beside her. This was his hour to make up missing work in this particular teacher's class. "Heard about the fight. Y'all two were never really a match, anyways."

"But I don't understand how she could do that, Michigan is my only friend. The only girl I trust like that. She put me out on the front street and that's some foul shit. That's foul because I had her back regardless. I spent money on her, let her sleep at my crib, let her wear my clothes.. In return, she told the whole school I don't have a mama."

Khalil agreed, "She my cousin and all, but you knew she was a snake before you decided to help her. It's all in her blood so that's your fault for hanging around her. You can't be mad that she bit you in front of everybody. Snakes do that and quite frankly, her grass wasn't too high so it's your fault for walking into that zone."

Grace nodded. "You right, but it'll be the last time she does it. I'm so done with her."

"Be done with her, not Dominic and the rest of us. OK? Keep in touch."

"Of course," she smiled.