Crooked

Twelve

Crooked

Twelve

               Epiphany looked at Taleah with a smile on her face as she watched her look around the bus in amazement. "You've never been on the bus before?" Epiphany questioned, smiling.

Taleah quickly looked down at her lap, kind of embarrassed she got caught staring. "Um I have, when I was younger-- like maybe when I was 7 or 8. I haven't been on ever since."

"Wow, so how do you get to school?" Epiphany asked, surprised.

"Um, I have a personal driver. I kind of live far away from school." Epiphany's eyes widened when she heard Taleah's response. A personal driver? She couldn't believe that this girl had a personal driver to drive her to school and back home.

"Where do you live?"

"The Upper East Side."

"In Manhattan?" Epiphany asked, still shocked. She knew she sounded stupid because there was only one Upper East Side, but she couldn't believe that somebody that went to Clinton lived there. That place was for rich people only.

Taleah nodded.

"How come you go to Clinton?" Epiphany was confused. This girl clearly came from a family with money, and she didn't understand why she would want to go to a ghetto ass high school when she had the chance to go to a rich one.

"I didn't want to go to any schools close to where I live, I don't really fit in." And she didn't. All the schools next to where she lived were private and had uniform. She also didn't want to go to high school in Harlem because she didn't want to feel like she was being suffocated by staying only in the borough of Manhattan.

Epiphany nodded. "I understand." It was quiet for the rest of the bus ride. The girls got off at Epiphany's stop and started walking to where Epiphany lived. Epiphany decided to stop at the deli while Taleah waited outside, saying she didn't want anything from the store.

As Epiphany entered, she saw her brother and Travante in the back next to where the beverages were. Leroy had to get 8 stitches to close his cut. The doctors said it would heal but it would most definitely leave a permanent scar.

"I don't know why you two are wearing black when it's hot as hell outside." Epiphany commented as she looked over the two boys. They were dressed in black from head to toe and Epiphany just knew they were hot since black clothing absorbed heat. Travante quickly hid the big glass bottle of Corona Light behind his back once he saw Epiphany.

"We good tho, E, you need me to buy you something?" Travante offered.

"Yeah, do you?" Leroy offered as well.

Ever since Leroy told Epiphany that people betted on him for winning basketball games, he started bringing a couple of dollars into the household. It didn't bother Epiphany since he was bringing in food and helping her out. She was ok with it as long as it wasn't drug money.

"No, I'm ok y'all." Epiphany said grabbing two bags of chips. She also grabbed a bottle of Sprite, "Leroy I wanna see you at home by 9."

"I know I know," She usually let him come back home at around 10 or 10:30, but she didn't want him to get robbed again, so she shortened his curfew. She wanted to make it to 8 p.m., but Leroy begged her not to.

"Be good," she told them before she went to go pay for her items and left. She met back up with Taleah outside before they started walking again to Epiphany's house.

"Here, I bought you something even tho you said you didn't want anything," Epiphany handed her a bag of purple Doritos.

Taleah smiled at her generosity. "Thank you but you didn't have to—I have my own money."

"It's okay, I wanted to." They quickly made it to Epiphany's projects. Epiphany opened the door to her apartment as she waited for Taleah to enter.

"You have a nice home." Taleah complimented as she let her eyes gaze around.

"Thank you." Although Epiphany and Leroy were struggling you wouldn't be able to tell by the inside of their apartment. Their father was able to fully furnish it before he got cancer and thanks to Crook for buying the new couches, their living room no longer looked old or dingy. There were pictures on the walls, a rug in the living room and vases with fake flowers inside of it. They only had a hard time putting food in the refrigerator but that was getting better now.

The girls decided to paint each other nails to pass some time by. "Um, I'm sorry about what happened before." Epiphany spoke up as she painted Taleah's middle fingernail white.

"It's ok," Taleah replied, immediately knowing what she was talking about, " I apologize for staring at her. I—I didn't mean for her to get mad. I was just staring at her cause she looked familiar." Taleah had saw multiple naked pictures of the girl on her brother, Crook's phone.