With Friends Like These by Reshonda Tate Billingsley Read Free Book Online Page A

day?” She sighed. In a dramatic fashion that I was used to seeing, she draped her hand over her sleep mask and eased back onto the pillows.
    “Do you know he made me go to a charity event unescorted last week?” She gasped. “It’s like my social events aren’t even important to him. But I’m expected to be the good wife when he needs someone at his side.” My mother is such a drama queen.
    “Oh, honey, I don’t mean to trouble you with all of this,” she continued. “It’s just sometimes men can be so disagreeable.” She shook her head before forcing a smile. “Did Sonja leave any of that bacon I smelled earlier?”
    “No, Mom, we ate it all,” I said.
    “We?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face.
    “Did you forget that I was having a sleepover last night? The girls just left,” I said. Why did it not surprise me that my mother didn’t remember my sleepover? It seemed nothing I did was a priority in her or my dad’s life.
    “Oh, darling, I’m so sorry your little friends had to witness that,” she said.
    “It’s no big deal,” I lied.
    “No big deal?” She sighed heavily. “No big deal? Sweetie, I’m so sorry. Your father, the way he behaves sometimes is just baffling. You and your father both know how emotional I can get sometimes. So for him to overreact the way he did, well, it’s just a shame is what it is.”
    I shook my head. “It really is no big deal.”
    Part of me wanted to go off, but the other part was just sick as I listened to my mom go on and on about how she is the real victim here.
    “Pumpkin, I was thinking maybe we should have a sweetheart’s day. We could go to the spa, have facials, get our hair and nails done and have lunch at the country club. Then we could go have dinner anywhere you like.” She smiled.
    I did not want to hang out with her, much less be seen with her, after that stunt she pulled last night.
    “I can’t. Me and Jaquan are going to go catch a movie.” The words were out of my mouth before I knew it. I wasn’t ready to tell my mother about Jaquan yet. But it was too late. She sat up.
    “Jaquan? Who is that?”
    “My boyfriend.” I let out a deep breath. Jaquan and I had just started going together last week, after he asked me over the phone to be his girlfriend. I was so excited and wanted to tell Angel and Camille, but I didn’t want to say anything to them until I had a chance to talk to Jasmine first. And I just couldn’t bring myself to do it last night.
    Regardless, I was kicking myself now. My mom was so nosy and I didn’t want to give her a whole bunch of details.
    “Since when did you get a boyfriend and not tell your mother about it?”
    I rolled my eyes.
    “So, tell me,” she said excitedly when I didn’t answer, “is he from a good family? What do his parents do for a living? Where is he from? Oh, this is so special. My baby has a boyfriend.”
    I sighed. “He’s Jasmine’s brother, ma.”
    With the look on my mother’s face, you would have thought I told her I was dating Shrek or something.
    “Jasmine, as in your little ghetto friend Jasmine?”
    “Jasmine is not ghetto,” I protested.
    “Jasmine who lives in public housing Jasmine?”
    “Mama, please,” I said. She made me so sick. “Jaquan is cool, and I like him a lot.”
    My mother got up and started pacing the floor. “Lexi, sweetheart, you know I think Jasmine is a sweet girl, and I’m sure her brother is a really nice guy. But you’re meant to be with a certain type of boy.”
    I looked at my mother, wondering how in the world she got to be such a snob.
    “What type, Mom? Someone with money?”
    My mother didn’t catch my sarcasm. “That’s always good.” She exhaled deeply. “Look, I don’t want to argue with you after the night I had with your father. I do not want you to see that boy. And that’s final. Do you understand?”
    “No, I don’t understand!”
    “All those boys at the country club, or even at your school, and you want to