If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser Read Free Book Online

pigtails and her face glistening with a sheen of perspiration. The TV was on loud so she could hear it over the whir of the window fan. Under a big white T-shirt her stomach was swollen to the size of a basketball.
    â€œYou’re a good brother,” she said, shifting uncomfortably and taking the plate from me. She lifted a piece of toast to her lips, then winced.
    â€œWhat is it?” I asked.
    â€œNothing. One of ’em just kicked.”
    â€œCan I feel?”
    My sister gave an irritated groan and nodded. She was getting tired of me asking to feel her stomach, but I was fascinated by how tight and firm the skin of her belly had become as it stretched to encase the new lives growing inside her.
    â€œOkay, that’s enough,” Nia said when my hand had overstayed its welcome.
    â€œBut they didn’t kick yet.”
    â€œI said, enough .”
    I went back to the kitchen. Tanisha had pulled her hair into a ponytail and lifted it to cool the back of her neck. She wore long, glittering earrings, a white T-shirt, and shorts that showed off her long legs. She gently dabbed her forehead with a folded paper towel, trying not to smudge her makeup.
    â€œI better go,” she said.
    â€œJust a little longer.” I took her in my arms we kissed. Over the past year, my worries about her being from Gentry had been outweighed by the attraction I felt toward her. Other girls wore sexier clothes and more makeup. They brushed against me in the school halls and gave me inviting looks. But there was something proud and dignified about Tanisha that they didn’t have.
    She started to wiggle out of my arms. “Lemme go, DeShawn,” she breathed hotly in my ear. “If I don’t get home soon, my momma’s gonna start askingquestions.” While my family knew about Tanisha, she had not told her family about me. If it weren’t for those stupid gangs, there wouldn’t have been a problem.
    As we left the building, Tanisha slid her hand into mine. I didn’t like holding hands in public, but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, either. The afternoon sun had dipped behind Number Three, casting a long shadow across the yard, which was crowded with people escaping from hot, cramped apartments.
    â€œHey, lover boy!” Terrell and his new crew were hanging around the bench. I pulled my hand from Tanisha’s, but it was too late. The guys were grinning. There was the fat kid named Bublz and a kid a year younger than us named Darius, who was small, but wiry and stronger than he looked. They wore their hats backward and three small fake diamonds in the shape of a triangle in their right earlobes. Since Marcus wouldn’t let his cousin become a Disciple, Terrell decided to start a junior gang of his own. They sold bootleg CDs and DVDs. As long as they didn’t sell drugs or interfere with other Disciple business, Marcus didn’t seem to care.
    â€œGoing out back?” Terrell yelled with a grin. “Out back” wasn’t any place in particular. It was what the older guys said when they were taking a girl somewhere private. Terrell had only said it to impress the other guys, but he shouldn’t have been using me to impress them. And he knew it.
    He slid off the bench and came toward Tanisha andme with a swagger in his step. Jerking his head to the side like some kind of hard hitta, he said, “Let’s talk.” The tough pose annoyed me, but since he was my friend, I gave Tanisha a look that said to wait. Terrell and I walked out of earshot and stopped beside the spot near our building where eight months before, Darnell had fallen to his death. All that was left of the shrine was a piece of wood from the cross and the stub of a red candle.
    Terrell pulled a toothpick out of his pocket and slid it between his lips, like Mr. Tough Street Thug. “What’re you doing with that Gentry girl?”
    I’d had enough of his act. “You know her