Read Online Bang! by Sharon Flake - Free Book Online

WILL DO anything if they think a girl is looking. That’s how come I let Kee-lee talk me into doing this. If we hadn’t done such a nice job, my mom woulda been sad and my father woulda been mad. But it was cool, what we did. And Keisha and her cousin who lives across the street liked us more because of it.
    Kee-lee’s been liking Keisha since they was eight. She used to be skinny, but since school ended, she got bigger—everywhere. That only made Kee-lee like her more. She can get any boy she likes now, “So why I want you?” she tells him sometimes. He don’t mind her being mean, ’cause he figures she’s gonna be his one day.
    My mother was at the mall. Kee-lee and me was playing videos. Then we shot hoops. Then we sat outside on the curb talking to Keisha and Carlotta, who was supposed to be on punishment for sneaking out the house last night. Kee-lee started it. He asked Keisha, the pretty one, if she wanted to feel his hair. “It’s good. Soft, too.”
    She told him no. Her cousin Carlotta told her she was chicken. Kee-lee bet Carlotta he could get Keisha to come across the street and play with his hair. She leaned over the railing, crossing her big pretty legs. “What you betting?”
    Kee-lee started licking his lips and smelling his breath. “Let me see.” He rubbed his muscles. “If I get Keisha to rub my hair, then you gotta kiss me.” He stuck out his lips. “Right here. If I can’t get her to come rub my curls, I’ll carry you up the street and around the corner on my back.”
    Carlotta whispered in Keisha’s ear. She looked at Kee-lee and said she’d take the bet. Keisha says she’s not rubbing his head: he might have cooties in his hair. “So you might as well bend down and give Carlotta a ride.”
    It was on, then, ’cause Kee-lee don’t let nobody talk about his hair.
    I didn’t see what Kee-lee could do to get the girl to rub his hair. And I didn’t see why he wanted Carlotta to kiss him anyhow. She ain’t cute. And she’s not built as good as Keisha. But it turns out Kee-lee didn’t care nothing about her anyhow. He was trying to make Keisha jealous. Hoping to get a kiss off her too.
    It took Kee-lee a while to think of something to do to get that girl over to our side of the road. He ran in my house, came back with colored chalk, and started drawing right in the street. There was hardly any traffic on our block. So the picture he drew stayed fresh until he was done. It wasn’t big enough for the girls to see the whole thing from across the street. But it was big enough for them to see that he was drawing their picture. Making them look exactly like they look in person, only he made Carlotta look better than she really does.
    My mother pulled up to the house. She stopped and checked the picture out before it was done. She looked across the street at the girls. “Oh, you’re gonna like this.” She went inside with her bags.
    The girls took their time crossing the street. But I could tell they wanted to rush. Kee-lee stopped them.
    Said only Carlotta could come see. But she had to rub his head first. Kee-lee just changed the rules but Carlotta didn’t care about rubbing his hair, long as she didn’t have to kiss him. But Kee-lee said if she kissed him, he’d draw the same picture on paper for her. He’d frame it too. At first she said she didn’t wanna kiss a boy with rotten teeth. But then she saw the drawing. Her hand covered her mouth. Her eyes bugged. “You did this? You?” she said, like she didn’t just see him draw it.
    Kee-lee didn’t have to ask for no kiss. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth and, man—I sure wish that’d been me kissing her. Even though she ain’t pretty, she’s still a girl.
    Keisha had her arms crossed at first. Then when the kissing didn’t stop, she came over and pulled Carlotta off Kee-lee.
    He winked. “I got bad teeth, but I got soft baby lips, now don’t I?” He stepped up to Keisha. “Want some?”
    She spit and told