“Oh, wow. That’s something alright,” I say with a chuckle.
Camarra laughs in the back as Chrissy grins at me.
“Coffee is amazing,” she says, then gives me directions on how to get to her school, which is a few blocks from their house in the opposite direction. I don’t mind the detour we took. This was nice.
When she is dropped off, Camarra jumps into the front seat.
“She can be a lot.”
“She’s great,” I say. “Just a teenager.”
“That’s true,” Camarra says. “Do you want me to give you directions, or would you rather use the GPS?”
“If you don’t mind, the GPS would be nice.”
She laughs as she types the address into the GPS on the screen.
“She doesn’t have a lot of friends,” Camarra explains. “Not only because we’re poor as dirt—well,were, I guess. But because kids are afraid of her—of the epilepsy. It’s scary, I can’t deny that, but it’s no reason not to be friends with someone.”
The directions pop up and I take off.
“Kids are cruel. Even I remember that much.”
“She thinks if she shows up at school with coffee every day, dressed like everyone else, that they’ll accept her.”
“She’ll grow out of that.”
“I don’t know,” she says with a sigh. “Maybe. I hate that she’s so desperate for attention. I don’t know how the kids react to her. I don’t know if they’re nice or making fun of her behind her back, and she’s too naive to know it.”
“At least if she’s too naive to know it, it won’t hurt her feelings.”
“I just want her to be happy.”
I wait a beat before saying, “Can I be honest with you?”
She looks at me carefully. “Yes.”
“I think you all are very happy, but you’re so worried about going back to a life that you hated, that you refuse to see it and accept it.”
She blinks at me, then nods. “You’re right, but it’s not easy to change our mindset.”
“Of course not.”
“Especially when what saved us isn’t guaranteed.”
“I told your brother I wouldn’t allow any of you to go back to what it was before, regardless of what happens with us.”
“No offense, but boyfriends always say that and things always change when they break up.”
“I understand your concern, but I assure you, I’m not like everyone else.”
I want to go on about all the things I’ve offered Cassius, like buying the building or giving him money, but I don’t want to cause tension between them. If Cassius chose not to accept those things, that’s his choice. It’s his family. Though, maybehim not accepting it was my fault. Maybe he didn’t know I was serious.
“We’ll see,” she says softly just as the GPS voice tells me to take a left at the next light.
We turn onto a street with broken down buildings and people sleeping on the sidewalk. Others stand on the corner, likely selling drugs. I glance at the GPS, noting the drop off location is three blocks down. It doesn’t look any better down there.
I turn into the lot for the laundromat Camarra works at. The windows are taped, and the sign is hanging off the building.