Secret Saturdays by Torrey Maldonado Read Free Book Online Page B

dumb.” She was scared I’d get hurt because kids in Red Hook went egging. Sometimes, kids threw eggs at you from their windows or roofs. Then they hid. Some troublemakers took egging to another level and hard-boiled the eggs so their eggs felt like rocks when they hit someone.
    Other kids traveled in groups and egged you right in the open, then dared you to do something. I saw fistfights break out because the wrong kid got egged and came back with a crew of friends, uncles, or cousins. On some Halloweens, to avoid drama, Ma took me out of the projects to safe neighborhoods. Carroll Gardens. Park Slope. Brooklyn Heights. There, cops were walking around everywhere on Halloween. People felt safe enough to sit right on their stoops with their house doors open. They smiled and gave candy to trick-or-treaters who passed by. No egging in those neighborhoods.
    This year, my mom wasn’t in the mood to take me, Kyle, and Sean out of Red Hook because her leg was acting up. When it was about to rain, she got pains. Kyle and Sean didn’t want to go trick-or-treating anyway. They said we were sixth graders now and too big to ask for candy like little fifth graders.
    Half of me agreed. Another part of me was into wearing costumes and getting free candy. I didn’t tell Kyle or Sean my thoughts, though. They’d already said, “Trick-or-treating is for kids smaller than us.” If I said how I felt, they might tease me and call me a little kid.
    After school, we bought our own bags of candy, and that night we stayed up watching scary movies on cable and dogging all our treats. When the movies ended, we made up our own corny ghost stories. We did that over and over until we fell asleep.
    Things felt back to normal. Sean wasn’t cracking on kids so much anymore.
    The weekend after that, me and Sean were supposed to sleep over at Kyle’s. Friday morning came. While me and Sean were on the bus, he said, “I can’t do the sleepover.” He squinted out the bus window at something. He shrugged and, without looking at me, said, “My mom is having her friends over. She wants me around.”
    Was he lying to me again? I couldn’t take him lying to me again.
    We got off the bus and Sean shouted at one of his older friends. “Rob. Wait up.”
    â€œSean,” I said. “Before we go over there, hold on.”
    â€œWhat up, Justin?”
    The words on my tongue. I wanted to say, “I saw you and your mother sneak out weeks ago. Is she really having friends over this weekend? Or you lying again?” But I rethought asking Sean that. He could be telling the truth now because he had missed only one sleepover before.
    â€œYeah?” Sean asked.
    â€œNothing,” I said.
    â€œCool. Let’s go see Rob.”
    Cool? Was me and Sean really “cool”? He was dissing me and Kyle again. I was tight. Me and Kyle should stay up late and spy on Sean, I thought. Find out if he’s really sneaking out. But I had to be smart with that. I couldn’t just approach Kyle and say, “Let’s spy on Sean.” I was so in my head that I missed Sean leave. He was already three cars away, talking to Mark. We were supposed to go over there together. He didn’t even stop to check if I was coming.
    He said something to Mark and they started laughing. I sucked my teeth because seeing them act close got me even tighter.
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    At lunch, Sean and Vanessa went to the soda machine. It was the first time I had been alone with Kyle all day. I put my cheeseburger down and wiped my mouth with a napkin. “Sean can’t do the sleepover,” I said.
    â€œReally? How come?”
    â€œSomething about his mom having her friends over. What about you? You still down?”
    â€œNo doubt.”
    My next words came out so fast I didn’t even remember thinking them. “How about we sleep over my place tonight?”
    â€œSure,” Kyle said. “But