Getting Played Read Online Free Page A

up to, but whatever.
    She hurries and stands in front of me, blocking my way. “Kenisha, I know you’re mad at me. But for real, it wasn’t my fault. Whatever happened, I don’t remember most of it. I swear. It was Darien. He gave me something. He made me do it. I didn’t want to call you like that. But I was scared of him. He said he was gonna cut me if I didn’t call you. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what was gonna happen. I swear I didn’t.”
    I don’t say anything to her. I just start walking again.She’s still playing all innocent. She does that all the time. Nobody knows what she’s really like, but I do. I saw it in her eyes that night. At least with my used-to-be friend Chili Rodriguez, we all knew she was a hater. But Cassie is undercover with her stuff.
    â€œKenisha, wait, it wasn’t my fault. It was Darien.”
    â€œLook, Cassie,” I finally say, breaking my long silence with her, “I’m done with all that mess. I don’t really care.”
    â€œSo can’t we be friends again?” she asks quietly.
    I just look at her thinking about everything she did to set me up. “You called me on the phone. You lied and told me Ursula needed my help. Then when I went over there, you ran out and left me alone with crazy-ass Darien. Friends! Please, do you really need me to answer that question?” To her credit, she looked almost horrified at hearing what I’d said. Like she didn’t know, please.
    â€œKenisha, I’m sorry. I was scared and Darien gave me something. I didn’t know what he was gonna do, I swear.”
    â€œWhatever. Like I said, I’m done with all that drama.” I move around her to walk away.
    â€œBut, wait. I know you’re still mad at me, but I just wanted to warn you that he knows about the stuff you took from him.”
    â€œWhat stuff I took? I didn’t take anything from him.”
    â€œHe thinks you did, from his room that night.”
    â€œI don’t know what game he’s playing, but I didn’t take anything from his room. Why would I? I don’t need or want anything from him.”
    She shrugs. “That’s just what I heard,” she says.
    Okay, this is more drama that I don’t need to be dealing with right now. Darien was locked up and that’s all I care about. “Whatever,” I say and start walking again. So a minute later I get outside and see that it’s been drizzling. It’s not enough to soak everything but just enough to be messy. I pull my hoodie up, put my earbuds in but decide not to turn my music on just yet. I adjust my backpack on my shoulder, then start walking. Mostly everybody else takes a school bus and they’re all gone, but since I only live a few blocks away, I walk.
    Darien, Cassie, Troy, forget all that. I need to focus and try to figure out what happened to my transfer papers. But also, there’s a tingling feeling in the back of my mind thinking that it was all some big joke on me. Like it never happened, like I never passed the readmission test, and the letter was just a mistake.
    I walk home alone and it’s okay with me. It gives me time to think. The last thing I need are more pretend friends like Cassie and Chili. I have for-real friends, Jalisa and Diamond, and that’s enough for me. So, I’m walking and trying to figure out what happened, then I hear somebody calling my name. I keep walking like I don’t hear anything, but it’s kinda hard not to. They’re screaming my name across the parking lot. I seriously don’t want to be bothered right now.

CHAPTER 3
    From Bad to Worse, to Even Worse
    â€œIt seems like every time I turn around, something else happens to me that’s not my fault. For real, right now I feel like I have a giant bull’s-eye on my back and everybody’s taking aim. It’s not me being paranoid. It’s for