Page 8 of One True Loves

“Well, speak for yourself. I have mine already,” Wally says with a smirk. “Maybe they’ll come to their senses and never send yours.”

“I could have my high school diploma already if Mom and Dad didn’t make me stay back,” Etta says with her nose up, and I roll my eyes because it’s true, but she doesn’t have to do me like that. Even though she’s only ten, she’s taking online college classes.

“Your big heads need to shut up and let me have my moment!” I say, slapping Wally on the shoulder. He tries to get me back, but I duck behind Grandma Lenore, protecting myself.

“Marla, come get your children,” she says to my mom with a side-eye.

“What children? These children aren’t mine,” Mom laughs, shaking her head. She bends down to kiss Grandma Lenore on the cheek, and Dad follows.

“Mmm-hmmm.”

Grandma Lenore and Mom look nothing alike, except for their coppery skin. Otherwise you wouldn’t even know they were related because Grandma Lenore is short and plump,while Mom is slim and stretched out, over six feet, just like Dad. And Mom usually wears her hair natural, in a low bun, but Grandma Lenore always has a different wig for every mood. Today it’s blond and spiky in the back, with a perfectly layered bang over her right eye.

Mom, Dad, and Etta go inside, and Grandma Lenore pulls me in close. She smells like coconut oil and her lavender laundry detergent.

“Hey, pretty girl,” she says. Her nickname for me since I was a baby. “I’m really proud of you. Could you hear me up there on the stage?”

“Yes, I think all of Long Beach could hear you, Grandma.” That makes her eyes light up, and she squeezes me tighter. She barely comes up to my shoulder, so I rest my head on top of hers.

“Now what is this you got on?” she says, eyeing me up and down. I’m wearing a hot-pink jumpsuit with ruffly cap sleeves and bright gold buttons I sewed on myself.

“Another one of her extra outfits,” Wally scoffs. Grandma’s kitchen towel appears out of nowhere and swats Wally across the legs.

“You better hush now, Wallace,” Grandma Lenore says, calling Wally by his full name. He scampers inside the house, laughing. “I like it, pretty girl. Get me one in my size.”

She leads me inside, and it’s warm. Warm because she doesn’t have AC and refuses to let my parents pay for it. And also warm because it’s full to the brim with people I love. I can hear Auntie Stacy and my godmama Arlene singing Whitney Houstontogether over a pot of something delicious in the kitchen, Auntie Mae’s car-that-won’t-start laugh floating in from the back patio (she’s not allowed to cook after the potato salad incident), the sound of lightsabers coming from a PlayStation that one of the little cousins set up in the living room, and my uncles arguing and slapping down dominoes on a card table in the garage.

“Hey, little cuz!” I look up to see my cousin Jerry walking down the hallway, a dirty apron tied around his waist. Most of the people in my family are Grandma Lenore’s size, but Jerry is tall, even taller than my dad. His hair is in a bald fade that he gets shaped up every two weeks, and he has a permanent smile stretched across his face from one ear to the other. “Congratulations! We all knew you would make it somehow.”

“You need to leave my baby alone,” Grandma Lenore grumbles as she swishes past us into the kitchen.

“Why is everyone coming at me like this?” I shout. This just makes Jerry laugh and nudge me with his elbow. “I took honors and AP classes! I had a 4.2 GPA!”

“Ah, but that don’t mean nothing in that family of yours!” he says, throwing his arm around my neck. “Little Einsteins, all of you! The talented tenth!”

He starts humming the theme song to theLittle Einsteinscartoon, which I don’t even how this twenty-year-old MAN knows. But then he throws in some hip rolls and snaps in time to the song, and I can’t help but join in on his laughter. This is how my family shows love—by taking you down a few notches. And he’s not even wrong. Etta will probably finish all of herbachelor’s coursework before she’s out of middle school, and Wally was valedictorian of his high school and went to UCLA on a full ride. My academic accomplishments mean nothing compared to them. And as much as they tried not to compare, that’s always been clear in my parents’ eyes too—especially Dad’s. If I came home with an A minus on a report card, he’d fix me with a steely look and ask, “Now what happened here?”

“Jerry, I know you ain’t out there singing when I told you to watch the grill!” Auntie Stacy calls, and his eyes get wide with panic.

“Gotta go!” he shouts behind him as he sprints to the kitchen.

I start to follow him, but then someone clutches my shoulders from behind.

“Have you seen him yet?” a voice says, and I spin around to see my cousin Reggie, short for Reginald. He’s wearing his typical uniform of black jeans and a faded black T-shirt with something nerdy. Today it’sStatic Shock, whatever that is. Reggie is actually on my dad’s side, Auntie Mae’s kid, but all the family (and the people my parents call family) who’ve moved to California from the South treat Grandma Lenore’s as a home base.

“Reggie, why you being all creepy?”

“First of all, congratulations. I know it was hard for you.”

I shove his shoulder. “Y’all need to stop, I’m telling you...”

“Second of all. Well, I’ve been waiting by the door to catch you so you’re not surprised. And don’t shoot the messenger, but see... Marcus is here.”

My stomach drops when I hear his name. Lord, haven’t I been through enough this week?

Marcus is my ex-boyfriend. We dated for almost all of my sophomore year, but I’ve known him pretty much my whole life. We grew up going to the same Baptist church in downtown, and reconnected when we were both forced to be counselors at the same vacation Bible school the summer after freshman year. What started with making out in the craft closet turned into something much more serious. We were in love. We talked about getting married, about how many kids we would have, where we would live. All that shit! At fifteen! And he made me feel like he really meant all of it. Just like Jay, though, he was only with me until he found someone better.

“With Tapatha,” Reggie adds. “He’s here with Tapatha.”

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