Read Online Getting Played by Celeste O. Norfleet - Free Book Online Page B

those damn insurance policies. Get the money from her.”
    I am just about to say something when my dad turns to Courtney. Their eyes lock. “You need to shut up,” he hisses.
    Out of all the times I heard my dad and mom argue and now Courtney and my dad argue, I never actually saw it before. When he turned to her and told her to shut up, I thought he was gonna beat her down. He looked that furious. But my dad’s not a hitter. He will, however, walk out.
    Courtney ignores his warning, big mistake. She just keeps on. “She needs to sign some of those policies over to us.”
    â€œYou don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” I say, butting in. But the thing is, I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. Nobody had ever said anything to me about insurance policies or having money. I never even thought about it.
    â€œSign a policy over to us? ” my dad repeats slowly.
    â€œYeah, to us, ” Courtney yells back. “I’m part of this, too. Me and my kids deserve something. We’ve been together for over five years and I haven’t gotten a damn thing out of it. You told me you had big money. So where is it? I know she got money and you keep giving her more. But me and my kids don’t have anything. We walk around here in the same clothes all the time, eating spaghetti and tuna fish, while she gets whatever she wants. I’m sick of it.”
    I try not to laugh at this point. Spaghetti and tuna fish is all she knows how to cook. And she can’t even do them right. But I think she expected to have a cook and a maid and a nanny or something like that when she moved in here. Reality check—she got nothing and apparently was still getting it.
    â€œFine then, you can leave whenever you want,” my dad says to her. “And as for money, if you’d stop spending it on stupid stuff, you’d have something. Nobody spends money like you. You ain’t rich.”
    â€œI hate you,” she screams.
    â€œYeah, whatever,” he adds, brushing her off. He walks over to me. He looks tired, but I can tell he’s still happy to see me. “Hey, there she is,” he says pleasantly, as if thewhole argument thing never happened. We hug like we always do.
    â€œHi, Dad, how you doing?” I say.
    â€œI’m okay. What are you up to?”
    â€œNothing much. What’s she talking about, insurance policies?” I ask quietly, and then spare a glance at Courtney, who’s eyeing me like she could kick my ass. Please, as if.
    â€œDon’t worry about it. It’s nothing important. Everything okay with you, baby?” he asks, and then hugs me again.
    I am just about to ask him about Hazelhurst when Courtney butts in.
    â€œWhat do you mean it’s nothing important?” Courtney yells. “Why don’t you tell her what you told me?” I look at my dad. He shakes his head. “Your father thinks it would be best if we break up.”
    â€œThat’s not what I said, Courtney,” he tells her. He turns back to me again like nothing was going on. “You gonna be around later, ’cause I gotta get out of here and take care of some things at the office.”
    â€œOh, hell no, you ain’t going out of here until we get this straight. Your skank-ass whores are just gonna have to wait.”
    Nobody says anything for a few seconds. I think everybody is just shocked. Courtney has a way of sucking the air out of a room when she opens her mouth like that. I just decide to talk to my dad and get the hell out of there. “Dad, before you go, did you pay the tuition for me to go back to Hazelhurst?”
    â€œAin’t this a bitch,” Courtney says rhetorically. “Thisheifer got the nerve to come up in here looking for a handout.”
    â€œWatch your mouth, Courtney,” my dad warns over his shoulder.
    She ignores him. “No, Kenisha,” she says bitterly, looking directly