The Pact by Monica McKayhan

the living room, I knew that Michelle hadn’t wasted any time making herself at home. When I stepped back into the kitchen, she had already fixed her plate and was pouring maple syrup on her pancakes.
    “Your mom asked me to show you around the city.” She grinned. “So where you wanna go?”
    “You got a car?” I asked, and began loading my plate down with pancakes and sausage.
    “Yeah. It’s not anything special, but it’s transportation,” she said.
    “Will it make it to the mall?”
    “Of course.” She stuffed a forkful of pancakes into her mouth. Syrup dripped down her chin, and she giggled.
    I handed Michelle a paper towel so she could wipe her mouth. “Let’s go there, then.”
    “Cool,” she said, and almost knocked her glass of orange juice over.
    She was clumsy.
     
    At the mall, I tried to break free from Michelle so that I could check out other girls, but I couldn’t. She was on my heels with every step. There were so many cute girls that I couldn’t help checking them out. And they were checking me out, too. The next time I visited the mall, it wouldn’t be with a nerdy girl like Michelle. She wore a knee-length denim skirt and a dull blue T-shirt with GUESS written across the front of it—something my grandmother would wear to the mall. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Michelle was plain; no guy would even give her a second glance, I thought as we strolled through the mall.
    “Marcus, do you play Madden ?”
    “Of course. That’s my game.”
    “Well, let’s see what you got!”
    Before I could protest, Michelle had pulled me into a video store, grabbed a controller and begun playing Madden NFL. I grabbed one, too, and before long we were lost in the game. She was good at it, talking junk just like she was one of my boys. After my team lost, Michelle did the touchdown dance right in the middle of the floor.
    “Sorry I had to whip you like that, Marcus.” She laughed.
    “That was just luck.”
    “Not luck, boy…skill,” she said. “Let’s go grab something to eat. You hungry?”
    “I could eat.” I smiled.
    Michelle started cracking up. “You sounded just like Derek Luke in that Antwone Fisher movie when you said that….‘I could eat.’ Remember that scene?”
    “Of course I remember that scene,” I said. “That was one of my favorite movies. He was role-playing with Denzel Washington.”
    “My favorite movie was American Gangster, ” she said. “Anything with Denzel in it is good.”
    “ American Gangster was cool, but the best Denzel movie of all time was Training Day …hands down.”
    “Nah, I didn’t like Denzel in that movie. He played a bad guy.” Michelle frowned.
    “He can’t always play a good guy. He has to flex his acting skills a little bit.”
    “Whatever, Marcus.” She laughed. “What you want to eat?”
    “A burger is good,” I said as we stepped into the food court.
    There were so many different restaurants to choose from, with so many types of food to offer. A burger place was always a sure shot, so we stepped into the Burger King line, each ordered a Whopper combo meal and found a table in the center of the court. We talked about everything as we ate—sports, music, movies—everything. Michelle was just like one of the guys, and I’d had a good time at the mall with her.
     
    When I walked into the condo, Mom was in the kitchen, an apron tied around her waist. She was stirring some ground turkey in a pan.
    “I hope you’re hungry. I’m making tacos, baby,” she said.
    “I’ll be hungry in a little bit.” I kissed her cheek. “How was work?”
    “It was just work. Nothing special.” She pulled a package of taco seasoning from the shelf. “What did you do today?”
    “Um, I just went to the mall with Michelle.”
    “Oh, that’s nice. I asked her to show you around a little bit. I hope you don’t mind.”
    “Nah, it was cool.” I smiled. “I’m gonna go change. I saw some workout equipment downstairs in the gym.