Chương 2
“We share things.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“You would’ve said no.”
“Yes.”
“So what would asking have changed?”
She took a step backward.
Something inside her seemed to go still.
Devon mistook the silence for surrender.
He gave a half-smile and picked up his phone from the bed.
“Exactly.”
The bedroom doorway darkened.
“He did what?”
Their father’s voice was not loud.
James stood there in a fitted black shirt with a grocery receipt still folded in one hand.
Tasha’s mother, Renee, appeared behind his shoulder, carrying a package of paper towels against her hip.
Devon’s half-smile disappeared.
Nobody spoke.
James looked first at Tasha, then at the empty space beneath the gaming desk, then at the black cable clenched in her hand.
His gaze settled on Devon.
“Put the phone down.”
Devon swallowed.
“Dad, it’s not—”
“Put it down.”
Devon placed the phone on the bed.
Renee set the paper towels on the hallway floor.
“What happened?”
Tasha tried to answer, but her throat closed.
She pointed toward the desk.
James turned to Devon.
“Where is her computer?”
Devon’s shoulders rose.
“At a pawn shop.”
James did not move.
Renee covered her mouth with two fingers.
“You took her computer?”
“I was going to get it back.”
James unfolded the receipt in his hand without looking at it, then folded it again along the same crease.
Tasha had seen him do that with bills when money was tight.
“How much did they give you?”
Devon looked at the floor.
“Eight hundred.”
Tasha made a sound that was almost a gasp.
James’s eyes narrowed.
“You pawned a two-thousand-dollar computer for eight hundred dollars?”
“It’s temporary.”
“What pawn shop?”
Devon hesitated.
James stepped into the room.
The muscles along his jaw tightened, but his voice stayed level.
“What pawn shop?”
“Westside Loan.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Tasha turned sharply.
“Yesterday?”
Devon flinched.
“You had it gone yesterday and you sat at dinner with me?”
“I was gonna tell you.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“You ate my fries.”
Devon stared at her.
The stupidness of the sentence hung there.
Tasha hated herself for saying it, yet that was the detail her mind had chosen.
He had sat across from her at the kitchen table the night before, reaching over without asking and stealing fries from her plate while her computer was already sitting in some pawn shop.
Renee closed her eyes briefly.
James held out his hand.
“The ticket.”
Devon did not move.
“Dad.”
“The pawn ticket.”
“I don’t have it.”
Tasha felt her stomach drop again.
James’s expression changed by almost nothing.
That almost nothing was worse than shouting.
“You just told your sister you had it.”
Devon looked toward her.
“I said I could get it.”
“No,” Tasha said.
“You said you had it.”
Devon pressed his lips together.
Renee stepped farther into the room.
“Devon, where is the ticket?”
He sat on the edge of the bed.
“I didn’t technically pawn it.”
James stared at him.
The lawn mower outside stopped.
The silence that replaced it felt enormous.
Tasha’s hand went slack, and the cable slipped from her fingers to the floor.
“What does that mean?” Renee asked.
Devon rubbed both palms over his knees.
“A guy I know did it.”
James’s eyes hardened.
“What guy?”
“Malik.”
“Malik who?”
“From school.”
“You gave a two-thousand-dollar computer to a boy from school?”
“He knows people.”
Tasha felt suddenly cold.
“You didn’t even go to a pawn shop?”
Devon looked at her and then away.
“I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m seventeen.”
James stepped closer.
“So you handed your sister’s property to somebody else and trusted him to bring you cash.”
“He did bring me cash.”
“And where is the pawn ticket?”
Devon’s silence answered.
James glanced at Renee.
For the first time, anger gave way to something sharper in his face.
Fear.
“Call Malik.”
Devon shook his head.
“Dad, don’t make this a thing.”
“It became a thing when you stole from your sister.”
“I didn’t steal.”
Tasha laughed again, louder this time.
Devon snapped toward her.
“Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Making me sound like some criminal.”
James’s head turned.
“No one is making you sound like anything.”
Devon’s cheeks darkened.
“I was going to fix it.”
“With what money?” Tasha asked.
“I have money coming.”
“From where?”
He didn’t answer.
James pointed at the phone.
“Call Malik.”
Devon stayed seated.
Renee spoke softly.
“Devon.”
That was what finally moved him.
He picked up the phone and unlocked it.
His thumb hovered over the screen.
Then his face changed.
Tasha saw the color leave it.
“What?” she said.
Devon scrolled.
“Nothing.”
James reached for the phone.
Devon pulled it back.
That small reflexive movement turned everyone still.
“Give me the phone,” James said.
“Dad.”
“Now.”
Devon handed it over.
James looked at the screen.
His eyes moved once, then again.
Renee stepped beside him.
“What is it?”
James did not answer immediately.
Tasha could hear her own pulse.
Finally, he lifted his eyes to Devon.
“How long has Malik’s number been disconnected?”
Devon’s lips parted.
“He blocked me this morning.”
Tasha felt the room tilt.
James looked toward the empty place beneath her desk.
Then he looked back at his son.
“Your sister’s computer is not at a pawn shop, is it?”
Devon said nothing.
James’s voice dropped even lower.
“Where did you actually send it?”
Devon stared at the floor long enough that Tasha could hear the refrigerator humming downstairs.
“I don’t know,” he said.
James did not blink.
“That is not an answer.”
Devon rubbed his hands over his face.
“He said he had a buyer.”
Tasha’s chest tightened.
“A buyer?”
“I thought he meant the pawn place.”
“You thought,” James said.
Devon looked up sharply.
“I wasn’t trying to lose it.”
“You weren’t trying very hard not to.”
Renee reached for James’s arm, not to stop him, only to remind him that she was there.
James glanced at her hand, then back at Devon.
“Who is Malik?”
May you like
“Malik Carter.”
“Full name.”
