Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now by Dana L. Davis

Author:Dana L. Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-02-20T18:32:33+00:00

12

Aric’s sitting at a table. A white bandage covers his nose, the skin surrounding it all black-and-blue. I turn and see Darryl’s eyes glued on me, watching me curiously. I wave happily so he thinks I only ran into a friend from school and slide into the chair across from Aric.

“My parents are going to call your dad when he gets back in town,” Aric explains.

“Okay.”

“You have to say you didn’t hit me.”

“Look. I’m a big girl. I can own up to what I did.”

“No.” He looks serious. “You can’t. You don’t know my parents. They hate black people. They’ll sue your whole family. Do not admit you hit me.”

“They hate black people? You’re dating a black girl!”

“Right and you wanna know what my mom said when she found out? That I’d be better off gay. And my dad said if I married one of them, he’d disown me and cut me out of his will.”

“Wow. Nice family.”

“Look, Tiffany. Everyone basically knows it was you who broke my nose. And what everyone knows, my parents know, too. When they found out you’re black, they flipped. They’re already talking to the principal about getting you expelled. But as long as we keep our stories straight there is nothing they can do. You did not hit me.”

Only I did. Becoming exactly what his parents expect of me. I lay my head into my hands. “Aric, your nose is broken. How’d you explain that?”

“I said I fell asleep and my face fell on the desk.”

I look up. “What? You are the world’s worst liar.”

“And you’re the world’s worst person! You broke my fucking nose!”

“You were being so mean!”

“What? Are we in kindergarten?”

I shift in my seat and glance out the window. Darryl is still eyeing me suspiciously. “We should at least get yogurt. My driver’s looking at me weird.” I laugh like Aric said something funny, stand and gesture dramatically toward the yogurt stations. “Just play along.”

Reluctantly Aric stands. We both grab cups and move toward the line of yogurt choices.

“I won’t admit you did it. No one saw it. Just say you didn’t do it, Tiffany.”

I pull on the silver handle for harvest pumpkin. An orange ribbon of yogurt swirls into my cup. The smell is like sweet autumn and makes me long for Chicago. “Why are you trying to save my ass? I thought you’d want me to get expelled.”

Aric pulls the handle for cookie dough. I watch as light brown yogurt swirls into his cup and contemplate adding a bit of cookie dough onto mine. Would pumpkin cookie dough be weird? “Trust me, I do,” he growls. “But London made me promise to fix this.”

“You’re only doing this because London told you to?”

“Yeah. She tells me what to do and I do it. It’s called being a boyfriend.”

We both move toward the checkout counter.

“Oh, like she told you to go to her church and convert to her religion? Back in Chicago we have this thing. It’s called ‘be who you really are and see if people still love you.

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