Tricksters

It\'s been two years, I\'m still the prez. of the Renegades. I\'ve grown a bit no longer my short heighth of five-five, but a little taller now at five-ten. My hair is down to my shoulder-blades now, it\'s still razor-cut, but I have a harder time fitting it under my hat to look like a boy at some races. Tarrence hadn\'t change much he was still towering over me at about six-feet-two-inches, he had let the bleached bangs grow back into their natural color like the rest of his hair and had just started to run gel through it making it spike up.


It was a Saturday night and Tarrence was over we were fixing something to eat, I kept glancing at him, he finally laid the knife down he was chopping up tomatos with and sighed, \"What is it?\" I shook my head and could feel my cheeks burning, I had meant to tell Tarrence what was up later, I was just having a hard time. He tossed a few more tomatos in a pot and got a soda out of the refrigerator. I wiped my hands on my jeans and sat down in front of him putting my hands up on the table. I clenched my hands together and bit my lower lip. \"Whats wrong?\" Tarrence took my hands in his, \"And don\'t tell me nothing\'s wrong, because something is.\"

I stared at the table counting the lines in the wood for a moment, \"I\'m pregnant,\" I mumbled, he looked at me quizzical, I sighed and looked at his face, \"Tarrence, I\'m pregnant.\"

He stared for a moment as if waiting for me to say it was a joke, but I sat there silently waiting. He sat back in his chair, \"Damn, damn, you\'re not joking are you?\" I shook my head slowly, \"Damn,\" He said again, \"When? How long ago?\"

My hands shook, \"I found out a few weeks ago, I\'m going to the doctor with Mikel, Tuesday. As far as I know it was after the annual dance.\" Tarrence got up and took his coat off the rack on the wall, i stood up after him, \"Where are you going?\"

He stopped in front of me and kissed me quickly, \"I just need to think a little, this is... I wasn\'t expecting this.\" I nodded and hugged him before he left. When the door closed I turned off the stove and went to my bedroom. I straightened the dark blue comforter on the bed and sat down, I hadn\'t been stupid those times, i just never thought anything like this would happen. I was twenty-one, I didn\'t need anyone to tell me what to do, but a baby was way more then Tarrence or I had expected.


Tuesday evening Mikel and I came into my apartment laughing, I fell onto the couch and Mikel stood up on her tip-toes to look through the spy-hole in the door, \"I think we lost\'em.\" She whispered.

\"Why are you whispering?\" I giggled. She shrugged, Mikel was a short girl, but she wore high-heeled boots to make her taller, she had long, curly, blonde hair and wore contacts to make her eyes a deep blue. She turned around at stared past the wall that led into the kitchen, I looked to, stretching out over the couch. I almost fell off, but did manage to hit my head on Mikel\'s chain belt, \"Ow!\"

Tarrence walked into the living room and sat beside me, \"Did\'chu do your thinking?\" Mikel asked tapping his forehead.

Tarrence scowled at her, \"As a matter of fact yes, I did.\" Mikel spun around on her heels, \"I\'ll be going then, congratulations again Trick.\" I nodded as she let herself out.

Tarrence stretched out on the couch and pulled me beside him, \"Are you going to keep it?\" I nodded, \"Tarrence you know I don\'t believe in abortions.\" He pulled the black afghan down off the top of the couch, \"I know, I just...I don\'t think I\'m..\"

I elbowed him in the ribs, \"Don\'t tell me you\'re not ready, everytime we go to visit Wes and Chelsi you spend hours with there two and they have one of each.\"

He pulled the afghan over my head and held it there, \"Alright, I\'ll go with that, but we don\'t have a kid running around either of our houses all day. Which brings up another factor, where are we going to keep the kid?\" I mumbled under the blanket and he pulled it back grinning slowly, \"You could move in with me, I just got the condo paid off.\"

I laid there thinking for a little bit, \"I\'ll think about it some more, but if I decide to, I\'ll call you.\" He kissed the top of my head, I threw the blanket on him and got up. I took off my shoes and jacket before I sat on the couch again, \"Didn\'t you ask me to move in with you once?\"

He nodded, \"Last year, you said no, because, something about relationships and turning and stuff.\"

I giggled, \"You have a wonderful memory Tarrence.\" We sat quietly for awhile when I jumped on him, \"Alright, I\'ll move in with you, but you know you\'ll have a few more rules on that long list you already have.\"

He sighed and kissed me on the mouth passionately, \"Yes, don\'t I know it.\"


A few weeks later all my stuff was in storage except for clothes and a few things I felt were necessities. Tarrence condo wasn\'t very big it was a two bedroom, two bath condo near the center of the city. Tarrence came from a wealthy family so his house was fully furnished. The living room had light grey carpeting that looked almost white, with cream colored walls and a black couch, white coffee table and a an oak entertainment system, his playstation2 controllers were out in the middle of the floor along with Jaleel, Adrian, and Wes, \"Oh gawd, I forgot moving here meant seeing you idiots every week.\" Adrian grinned at me, \"Oh you came to see me, I knew you\'d come to your senses and give up on Tarrence.\"

Tarrence walked into the room about that time, \"You better watch yourself now Adrian, don\'t forget this girls carrying my future son or daughter.\"

Adrian frowned at that, \"Yeah well, she could dump the baby on you and...\" I kicked Adrian\'s foot, \"You need to learn when to stop talking!\" I snapped.

Wes\'s girlfriend Chelsi brought chips into the room, \"How far along are you Trick?\" she asked setting them down on the coffee table.

\"Nine maybe ten weeks, I forget.\"

She smiled at me, \"Think you\'ll live if you don\'t ride or race for awhile?\" I sighed and sat beside her, \"I think I\'ll live.\" Tarrence and the three other boys sat in the floor playing some stupid racing game while Chelsi and I chatted on the sofa.

\'Really,\' I thought, \'Living here might be so bad. I do love Tarrence and being aggravated by Jaleel, Wes, and Adrian might actually be fun.\'