Tyrell by Coe Booth Page B

smile get real big. “You sure you can wait that long?”
    â€œYeah,” I tell her. “I’m sure.” I pull her real close to me and whisper in her ear, “I’ma wait for you ‘cause you my girl.” I kiss her on her neck a couple times. “Tell me I’m your man.”
    â€œYou’re my man,” she say in my ear. Then we kiss on the lips, and this time she don’t act like she care if her moms catch us or nothing. She into it. Her lips are so sweet and juicy that, man, it’s hard to keep my mind from thinking ‘bout what else them lips could do for me.
    â€œYou love me?” I ask her.
    â€œI love you,” she say. Man, I can’t explain, but them words make me feel real good.
    After a while, Novisha tell me she better go back out to the kitchen before her moms come looking for her.
    â€œI’ma read your diary,” I tell her.
    â€œWhich one?”
    â€œBoth.”
    â€œYou better not,” she say, but she smiling, so I know she don’t mean it. Besides, she let me read her diaries before, so why not now? “Good night,” she say, and leave the room. I wish she coulda stayed, but at the same time, I ain’t slept in a room by myself since we lost our apartment, so I ain’t really complaining ‘bout being alone. Sometimes I just need time to chill.
    I lay down on the bed, reach under the pillow, and pull out the little purple diary with butterflies on the cover. This is the fake diary, and it’s just for her moms to read when she be spying on her daughter. This is the diary I like ‘cause this shit is funny.
    I open it and turn to the last thing she wrote.
Dear Diary,
    I got my award tonight. I still don’t understand why they gave it to me. All I did was get other kids to do some volunteer work with me. Isn’t that what every Christian should do anyway? Tyrell came to the ceremony, so that made tonight extra special. Then we all went out to dinner. Dad came too. I love him, but I wish Mom would find someone special in her life again. She needs to move forward, not backwards. She deserves to be happy again.
    All I gotta say is, my girl is good. It’s like she writing this whole diary just so she could tell her moms shit. I flip back a couple pages.
Dear Diary,
    Shanice and her boyfriend broke up yesterday. He said he was tired of being in a childish relationship. Those were his exact words. I’m glad Shanice didn’t turn her back on her values and give in to that idiot. I don’t understand why some boys only think about one thing. Tyrell isn’t like that. He respects me and would never pressure me. I’m so lucky to have a boyfriend like him.
    No wonder her moms trust me so much. She be reading all this and thinking me and her daughter ain’t doing no nasty shit.
    I put the diary back under the pillow, then get up to find the real one. That one is just a black and white notebook with GLOBAL HISTORY on the cover, and she keep it on her desk with all her other notebooks. When I find it, I sit in the chair and start reading from the last thing she wrote. It’s from yesterday.
I just got back from dinner at Red Lobster with Mom, Dad, and Tyrell. I don’t understand Dad at all. He’s been hanging around here a lot, giving me money and sleeping with Mom like nothing’s changed. If Mom takes him back, I’m going away to boarding school.
    I’m so glad Tyrell came to the awards ceremony, but he seemed kind of down. I’m not sure why. I know he loves me and he’s happy for me, but maybe it’s hard being around me when I’m winning awards and he still doesn’t know where he’s going yet. Maybe I shouldn’t have invited him, but I thought if he came, he would see how great school can be. Sometimes I don’t get it when he tells me he’s going to support me when I go to college. Tyrell is smart enough to go to college himself. He