Maylee came rushing in like she had breaking news. Her backpack was halfway hung off one shoulder, and her hair was a little messy, like she had run all the way to my room once she had gotten out of the chauffeured van. Unlike me and MJ, she is still attending private school. She rushed all the way into the room and climbed onto my bed without permission, like always. She was infamous for invading my privacy. I watched how her teeth clanked together during her story time. She had about a year left in her braces, and I could already see just how perfect her smile was going to be when they came off, just like how mine were when mine came off.
“You’re not going to believe what happened today,” she said with wide eyes.
That got my attention, so I pushed myself up and sat cross-legged.
“What did you do now?”
Maylee wasn’t a bad kid, and she was on the honor roll, but she always felt the need to talk back to teachers, and that is where she would get in trouble. I don’t even think that she did it to be disrespectful. She just had a thing for always voicing her opinion. I honestly blame our mom because she always let us haveopen windows,which was a time when we had an open floor to say whatever we liked. Maylee was my little twin for sure. Just like how I looked like Mom, she looked like asmaller version of me. It’s just that she had Dad’s and MJ’s deep chocolate skin complexion. Not to mention that the sass we all had would drive the men in the house crazy if we all were on our periods at the same time. She stood before me with her arms crossed over her wrinkled uniform shirt. Her long lashes stuck out when she rolled her eyes before responding.
“Not what I did,” she said quickly, “It’s whatshedid.”
I raised a brow.
“Who is she?”
Maylee sucked her teeth with annoyance.
“That girl I told you about. The one that be messing with me in school.”
Oh,I quickly thought to myself. She was talking about her bully. My facial expression shifted a little.
“What happened?” I asked as I gave her my undivided attention.
She stood up from the bed and dropped her backpack onto my carpeted floor. She was clearly ready to tell her story.
“So, boom,” she started going on a mile a minute and started using her hands to talk, “I’m in the bathroom, right? And she came in there with her little friends…”
“Of course she did,” I muttered, cutting her off.
“And she pushed me,” Maylee continued. “For no reason!”
My jaw tightened. I was protective as hell, and hearing of anyone putting their hands on her just riled me up.
“Maylee.”
“But I remembered what Tahari said!” she cut in with her eyes lighting up.
“What did he say?” I asked as I blinked in confusion.
“At dinner. When I told him about her, and he said I needed to put belt to behind!”
I froze. I had forgotten that he gave his two cents on her bullying situation. Maylee nodded fast as she spoke.
“So that’s what I did!”
I sat up straighter.
“Maylee, what did you do?”
“So, she pushed me,” she continued, acting it out now, “and I pushed her back. Then she pushed me again. So, I took my belt off.”
“You WHAT?” I almost yelled.
Maylee held her hands up defensively.
“And when I did that, she ran! They all ran.”
For a second… I just stared at her. Then I couldn’t help it. A laugh slipped out. She took what Tahari said literally, and the shit was so funny to me. He told her to put belt to ass, and she was prepared to do just that.
