Read Online Promise Kept (Perry Skky Jr.) by Stephanie Perry Moore - Free Book Online

need some cash, come on. Give me what you got,” he said as he approached me and started looking for my wallet, digging in my pockets.
    “Aw man, Mario. Back up, man.”
    I was stuck between a rock and a hard place for a lot of reasons. One was that I needed to hurry up and get into Coach Moss’ office. We were about to head out on a mission trip to the children’s hospital. I also couldn’t give him any money—clearly he wouldn’t be buying any gas or food with it, and I surely didn’t want to give him anything that could be a catalyst into anything that could do him more harm.
    “Man, I ain’t got anything.”
    “Come on, rich boy, lie to somebody who don’t know you. I been waiting on you to come up here. I just need a little twenty or forty, whatever you got I need it. Alright man, come on come on.”
    I put my hands up in the air and said, “For real, nothing.”
    Then he turned a little violent and grabbed my collar and said, “It’s your fault that I’m in this predicament anyway. You snooped and found out what I was doing. I got messed up, kicked out of Tech, beat up more times than I know. I’ma have to make it anyway, I know how then. You don’t want to give a brother a handout.”
    Maybe I was misjudging him, I mean the more he talked the more he was able to put his words together and sound articulate. I always had a little stash in my dashboard so I told him to hold on, went back to my car and gave him a fifty.
    “Thanks man, thanks!” When I got inside C. Moss lit into me.
    “You said you wanted to be one of my leaders, Perry. I took that seriously and you come in here late and all when you know we have to be at the hospital at a certain time. We were waiting on you; your tardiness shows no leadership skills. You didn’t have the decency to call. I’m not trying to push you out there to do public service—that needs to be something you desire from the heart. You told me you were up to it and now you’re dropping the ball. I mean I assume that’s not like you. What’s up with that?”
    I didn’t want to laugh because that would have been totally rude, but when I looked up I saw my roommates Deuce and Lance standing behind Coach Moss, where he couldn’t see their faces, and they were doing everything but keeping me straight; googling their eyes, sticking fingers up behind his head, just being jerks. Finally I couldn’t hold it in and I just bust out laughing. He turned around quickly and caught the two of them being silly and I lost it even more.
    “See, you guys just don’t understand. When we get to where we’re going and you see these kids lying there you won’t have such a careless attitude.”
    “Look Coach, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. They were being…”
    “No need to apologize. I mean Perry, you’re grown, do what you want to do. I’m just letting you know that I didn’t appreciate it. It’s my job to give and give and pour into you guys. But it is not a part of my job description to put up with your lack of respect.” He went around me and went to his car.
    “Y’all need to hurry up,” he said to everyone without looking back.
    “We knew you would be on time, so we were late,” Deuce said to me.
    “Why were y’all late?”
    “You know Lance was hungry.”
    “I had to get a snack from the cafeteria. You know we going to the hospital and it don’t smell right in there. I wanted to be full. Aren’t we supposed to bring flowers to the sick and shut-in?” Lance joked.
    On the way over Coach Moss remained distant. I did feel bad about letting him down and I did want to tell him what I thought about Mario, because I wasn’t sure but it could have been a whole lot more of a big deal. I knew I just needed to pray for Mario. When we got to the hospital the three of us were talking loud, not intentionally. Just three guys joking.
    “Shh!” the chaplain said harshly. We could tell by his demeanor that if he had a switch we would get a whooping.
    “I hate