With Friends Like These by Reshonda Tate Billingsley

knew I was as good as dead.
    Fire was burning in my mother’s eyes, and I knew this was no time to lie. But what else could I do? She knew I hadn’t been with Alexis, which is where I said I’d be. I knew I should’ve said I was spending the night, but that was the excuse I used last time I snuck out to be with Walter. Me and Walter had actually gone to that drive-in he told me about. It was so much fun, but it was near San Antonio, which was about two hours away. We had planned to be back by midnight, but everyone was hanging out afterward. Now it was almost two thirty in the morning.
    “Well, young lady?” My mother’s hands flew to her hips, as she stood up. She tapped one foot as she stood in front of me in her old tattered housecoat and rollers.
    “First off, you’re two hours past your curfew, and you come trying to sneak in here after you’ve been God knows where, and not to mention with who. I want answers, and I want them now!” she demanded.
    I thought I was gon’ pass out. I was so nervous I couldn’t think of a lie fast enough.
    “Camille? Do you hear me talking to you?” she asked through gritted teeth.
    My eyes dropped to the floor as I struggled not to cry. I knew there was no way out—I looked guilty.
    “Mom, you’re right. I wasn’t with Alexis, but that’s only because she and Tameka left me and Angel to go off to some party. We were gonna spend the night at her place, but when they left us, we didn’t feel like trying to go up to her house by ourselves,” I offered weakly. Okay, so I’d managed to come up with a lie after all.
    My mother’s eyes narrowed. At first she didn’t say anything. She just stood there with her hands on her hips, taking me in silently.
    “We just thought it would be better if we went home instead of getting Alexis in trouble. Besides, her parents had been fighting so much, we decided not to stay there tonight. Ma, that’s it,” I said.
    She blinked a few times. “Why are you sneaking in here like you’ve been out doing something you had no business doing?”
    Dang, did mothers have crystal balls or something? Me and Walter had messed around some, nothing major because I definitely wasn’t trying to have sex with him, but it was enough to have me feeling guilty.
    “I didn’t want to wake you up,” I said, trying to come up with a good excuse. “I didn’t know if you were sleeping or what was going on. Think about it, I could’ve just stayed at Alexis’s and avoided all of this.”
    “One problem, Camille,” she said triumphantly. “You never said a thing about spending the night out. If you were staying at Alexis’s you would’ve taken a bag when you went out. You didn’t. And since when did you decide when and where you were spending the night? Last time I checked, there was only one woman in this house, and her name ain’t Camille.”
    I lowered my head and stared at the floor.
    “Now if I find out you were out there with that boy I’ve warned you about, Camille, you mark my words, you will live to regret it!” she continued. “Now I’m only going to ask one more time, where were you tonight?”
    I swallowed hard, finally deciding to try the truth, since she was always saying I’d get in less trouble if I was honest.
    “Me and Walter were just hanging out.”
    My mother rubbed her forehead. “Hanging out? I thought I asked you to leave that boy alone. His mother has made it clear she does not want you involved with her son. And I don’t want you in that situation.”
    “But, Mama, he’s my boyfriend.”
    “Camille, did we or did we not go through this with Keith?”
    I knew she was going to go there. She couldn’t stand Keith. Just ’cause he’d been to jail, had a baby, cheated on me, and got me arrested.
    “Mama, please understand.”
    “Camille, even if I did approve of this relationship, this boy is getting ready to go off to college clear across the country. His father is running in a very high-profile campaign. The