Maxine Banks is Getting Married by Lori Aurelia Williams

Author:Lori Aurelia Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781429962209
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

I got to Brian’s school just as the third-period bell rang. I didn’t bother going to the main office. The office personnel all knew me. They wouldn’t dare let me go see my ex during school time. Instead I went directly to where I knew Brian would be, the culinary school behind the gym. Brian’s third-period class is a baking class. It is actually a class that we signed up for together, because I wanted to get more cooking skills. Brian isn’t really into the class, but when we broke up it was way too late for him to switch his schedule around. He was still in there making hot loaves of wheat bread and strawberry croissants, even though he would probably rather be spending his time in Auto Mechanics or Woodshop.

I leaned against the wall in front of the school and hoped that none of the kids I used to hang with spotted me on their way to class. I didn’t want to have to explain to them why I was there. I just wanted to speak to Brian. I was thoroughly elated when I saw him walking alone toward me. It occurred to me that he could have been with his girlfriend, and that could have caused some serious drama, drama that would have got me kicked off campus. He saw me and quickly walked up.

“Maxine, what are you doing here?” he asked. I was speechless—I didn’t even know what to say. I hadn’t seen him in so long. All I wanted to do was take him in, his freshly shaven face, his high-top sneakers, even his smell. How could a girl not respond to how her man smells? He smelled like coconut oil. It was in the sheen spray that he always liked to spray on his fro. It was the smell that I smelled each morning when he was doing his hair. It took me back to him standing in the mirror in the bathroom doing his thing, while I stepped on and off the digital bathroom scale, hoping that my weight would change each time the numbers stopped moving again.

“I need your help. It’s Demonee. You know she’s staying with me, right? I know your daddy told you.”

“Yeah, he told me.”

“Well, she’s in trouble.”

“Ain’t no big surprise there. Demonee’s whole family is trash. They don’t do nothing but cause other folks problems. If you had any sense, you would let my daddy kick her to the curb. I don’t even know why you took her in,” he said.

“Don’t you? Brian don’t go there with me. You know exactly why Demonee is in my house, our house. She’s there because I don’t have a choice. She’s there because of you.”

He looked uncomfortable when I said that, like he wanted to be somewhere else.

“Maxine, we don’t need to get all into that again. I gotta go to class, and you supposed to be at school.”

“Well, I’m not. I’m here. I’m here trying to do something for your cousin, and me.

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