Chapter Seventeen
Kylee was awakened by someone banging on the door like the police. She jumped up, looked over at the clock, and instantly got mad.
“Who the hell beatin’ on my door at nine o’clock in the mornin’?” she yelled angrily as she headed downstairs to answer the door.
“It’s your father,” he answered.
What the fuck you want this early? she thought, swinging the door open with a mug on her face.
“What the fuck is this?” her dad walked in the house yelling while shoving a piece of paper in Kylee’s face.
“I don’t know,” she said, snatching it from his hand and reading it.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” her father asked, angrily waiting for her to read the letter.
“I forgot,” she replied slowly.
“How in the hell did you forget to apply for housing and your FAFSA?” her dad scolded her. “What the fuck you been doin’ the entire summer? You’ve had plenty of time to get all of this shit taken care of, Kylee!”
Kylee stood quietly as her dad went ham.
“You know what this means? It means you’re not goin’ to college in the fall! ’Cause you don’t have a place to stay nor do you have financial aid,” her father hollered. “I could pay for your tuition, but I’m not. It’s time for you to grow the fuck up and learn some responsibility.”
“I’ll just go winter quarter,” Kylee said, hoping that would make her dad happy.
“Did you at least do Ja’Nay’s paperwork like you promised her you would?” he asked.
“No,” Kylee answered slowly.
“What! You not only fuckin’ up your own future, you fuckin’ up Ja’Nay’s, too.”
“I said I forgot, dang!” Kylee huffed.
“You forgot is all you can come up with?” her father asked, disgusted.
Kylee didn’t answer. She didn’t have any other explanation. She’d told him the truth. She really did forget to do their paperwork. She sure wasn’t going to tell him about Eli. Her mind had been so occupied playing house with Eli, she’d completely let her dad and Ja’Nay down.
“Who shoes are these?” her dad asked, looking down at the men’s tennis shoes that were stacked neatly against the wall in the foyer.
Oh shit! Kylee thought, forgetting they were there. Things were about to get real ugly.
“You got a nigga livin’ up in here?” her dad asked.
“He just stayin’ here until he buy him a house,” Kylee said.
“I can’t believe this shit! First, you fuck up your chances of goin’ to college; then you move a nigga up in some shit I pay for, knowin’ I wouldn’t approve of it.” Her father chuckled out of anger.
“He’s about to buy him a house. He only gon’ be here a few more weeks,” Kylee said, hoping that made things better.
Kylee’s father looked at her like she was crazy. “I wouldn’t give a damn if he was about to buy two houses! Look, Kylee, I love you and you grown and I’m about to start treatin’ you as such. I don’t know how you gon’ pay your bills but you betta figure somethin’ out.”
“That’s fine,” Kylee retorted.
Kylee’s father looked at his only child and shook his head before storming back out the door. Kylee knew her father was disappointed in her, which was the last thing she wanted. But he was right: she was grown, and forgetting to handle her and Ja’Nay’s business was something she was going to have to deal with, not him.
Kylee walked back upstairs and hurried into her room to answer her ringing cell phone. She looked at the number and shook her head.
“Hello?” Kylee answered.
“So I guess we don’t get to go to college,” Ja’Nay said, holding the letter she’d just received in the mail.
“I’m so sorry, Ja’Nay,” Kylee said sincerely. “We can always go for the winter quarter.”
“Winter quarter? What the fuck am I gon’ do now? My mom said if I don’t go to college I gotta get a job to help out around the house. Shit, my mom don’t got money like yours and I’reon’s.” Ja’Nay was crushed. “I wished I would have just done my own paperwork like I started to, and I wouldn’t be in this predicament now.”
“I said I was sorry, damn!”
“I gotta go,” Ja’Nay said, hanging up.
“Damn, why everybody mad at me?” Kylee asked herself. “Damn, I forgot, I’m human!”
Kylee climbed back in her bed and thought about her dad and Ja’Nay. The more she thought about her actions, the more fucked up she felt. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint the two most important people in her life. She lay there trying to think of a way to make it right with them and came up with nothing. Times like this she really hated that I’reon was so far away. She needed someone to talk to so bad; someone to tell her it would be okay. Kylee had grown so dependent on Eli to make her world right; she couldn’t wait until he came home from work. Feeling sick to her stomach, Kylee ran to the bathroom and began throwing up. She rinsed her mouth out and walked back into her room. Kylee climbed back in bed, curled up in a ball, and cried.