Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

Author:Angie Thomas [Thomas, Angie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780063056534
Google: Jr94zQEACAAJ
Amazon: 006284671X
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2021-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and instead of baking desserts like she usually do, Ma gon’ make the three-hour drive to Evergreen Prison.

It’s a miracle we going. There was all this paperwork that had to be done so Seven could go. I’m not legally his daddy yet—we need Iesha to make that happen, and I don’t know where she at—so we technically couldn’t do the paperwork for him. Cousin Gary had to call in some favors. It’s stupid that people have to get approved to see their loved ones in prison in the first place.

I pack Seven’s diaper bag on my bed and hold the phone with my shoulder. I wanna check on Lisa real quick. She ain’t told her momma she pregnant yet. She waiting for Carlos to get home. She say he can keep Ms. Montgomery from going too overboard. He supposed to arrive today.

Lisa haven’t told me what she wanna do ’bout her pregnancy. I think she scared to admit she want an abortion. I keep telling her I’m fine with whatever she decide, hoping she’ll go on and admit it.

The phone only ring once before she go, “Hey, Mav.”

I forget her momma got caller ID. “Hey, how you feeling?” I ask. Baby girl dealing with morning, noon, and night sickness. She got her momma thinking it’s a stomach bug.

“I’m okay,” she says, kinda low. “Carlos got here a few minutes ago.”

“Oh. Cool.” That explain why she keeping her voice down. I wanna ask if this mean she gon’ tell them, but I’m trying not to push her, you know? “What you got planned today?”

Lisa snort. “If that’s your way of asking if I’m telling them, nicely done.”

I smile. She know me too good. “Ay, you said it, not me.”

“Mmm-hmm. Well, I’m not telling them today. I wanna wait until after Thanksgiving in case there’s a bunch of drama.”

“Ay, don’t worry. They probably gon’ be mad, but we’ll get through this. It’ll all be over before you know it.”

“Um . . . about that.” She take a long pause. Then, “I wanna have the baby, Mav.”

It’s like an elephant plop down on my chest. “You . . . you do?”

“Yeah. Some girls would make a different choice, and that’s cool. That’s their choice to make. But I wanna be a mom.”

“You wanna keep it, too?”

“Yeah.”

I thought—I figured—she got so many plans, like college and basketball. A baby don’t fit in that. Messed up as this gon’ sound, thinking she was gon’ have an abortion was the only thing that kept me from balling up in a corner somewhere. It ain’t been a baby. It’s been a pregnancy.

Now it’s a baby—my baby—that I gotta take care of and provide for.

“Mav? You there?”

I clear my throat. “Yeah. What, um . . . what made you decide to keep it?”

“I think—I know I can handle it. My momma and Carlos will be upset at first, but they’ll help out. I’m sure my dad will, too.”

My head throbbing, man. “What ’bout college? You wanted a basketball scholarship.

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