LITMIR.BIZ

      KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

       www.kensingtonbooks.com

      To my girls and boy

      Acknowledgments

      I feel so privileged to be able to write these books! I thank God for being able to let my hair down and relive some of my teen days.

      My family totally rocks! Thank you, Brent, Briana, Brittany, Brynn, Brooke, and Brent II for eating pancakes for dinner, washing your own clothes, and for giving me quiet Saturdays to finish my stories. I couldn’t do this without you!

      Thanks to ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Rhonda McKnight, Sherri Lewis, and Dee Stewart—my sista authors who continue to help me promote my teen books! ReShonda, I’ma need you to hurry up and blow up so we can go with you!? Thanks to Stephenie Meyer and those Twilight books for reminding me of how dramatic we were as teenage girls (Team Edward, all day and all night). Thanks to the Queen Esther Movement, Teenreads.com, and OOSA Online Book Club for your constant plugs!

      To my team at Kensington—you are worth so much more than a basket of fruit! Mercedes, you are the business girl! I appreciate everything you do, even when you’re harassing me about deadlines; it’s all in love…I think.

      I am blessed to have the best agent ever! Pattie Steele-Perkins, you ROCK! Thank you for talking me down and showing me the ropes of this crazy business.

      Thanks to Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Solange, Chrisette Michele, Alicia Keys, and Drake for making hot music that helps me write. Thank you, Mediatakeout.com, Crunktastical.net, Bossip.com, theybf.com, and Sandrarose.com for giving me all the celebrity updates that I need on a daily basis!

      To my readers, thank you for your Facebook messages, your random surveys, and quizzes. I enjoy playing Sorority Life with y’all, trying to figure out which Twilight character I am, and debating who has more swagger—Jay-Z or Lil Wayne. Apparently, y’all think it’s Lil Wayne….

      Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

      Holla!

      Nikki

      Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Chapter 20

      Chapter 21

      Chapter 22

      Chapter 23

      Chapter 24

      Chapter 25

      Chapter 26

      Chapter 27

      Chapter 28

      Chapter 29

      Chapter 30

      Chapter 31

      Chapter 32

      Chapter 33

      A Reading Group Guide

      Discussion Questions

      1

      I cannot believe that it’s the middle of the night and I’m thirsty. I’m parched, really—my throat feels like it’s growing an afro weave.

      I glance to the left of me in the dark. I can make out my cousin Dreya’s shape in the twin bed on the other side of my room. No one can tell it’s my room, since I always have to share with Dreya and her little brother, Manny.

      They get on my last nerve. Honestly.

      Dreya is the reason for my cotton mouth. She finds it necessary to get out of the bed every night and turn the heat up to eighty-five degrees, like she and her mama are paying any bills up in here. Nobody with human blood running through their veins needs to sleep with the heat turned up that high.

      And, of course, the vent is right up over my bed. Because of this, I’ve been swallowing heat for the past few hours.

      I throw my feet over the bed and try to escape quietly before…

      “Sunday! I want some water.”

      Manny wakes up. Dang!

      “Boy, you can’t have no water. You’re just gonna pee in the bed.”

      He starts whining. “But I’m thirsty.”

      “Boy! Go to sleep.”

      He squints at me and frowns. “What’s wrong with yo’ throat? You sound like a man!”

      “I’m thirsty and my throat is dry!”

      “Mine too, so hook a brotha up and get me something to drink.”

      “Manny, I’m gonna hurt you!”

      “I’m gonna tell my mama you cussed at me.”

      “I did not cuss at you.”

      “So.”

      I narrow my eyes at this little evil genius. He stays trying to blackmail somebody. The other day, he got half a candy bar out of Dreya by threatening to tell that she was kissing a dude other than her boyfriend. The fact that she never actually kissed anyone meant absolutely nothing to Manny. A candy bar is a candy bar to that little hobgoblin.

      “Come on then,” I say, still fussing. “You better not try to get in my bed either.”

      “I don’t even want to sleep in yo’ dusty bed! I’m sleeping with my sister!”

      Beautiful! The thought of this makes me smile. Dreya’s gonna be heated when she wakes up to sheets soaked with Manny’s pee! That almost makes up for my interrupted sleep. Ha!

      Manny and I creep quietly into the kitchen, which is hard to do because we have to pass through the living room to get there. We tiptoe around feet, legs, and blankets that are spread where they shouldn’t be. It’s something like a hood slumber party obstacle course.

      In most people’s homes (I would think—since I really don’t go to other people’s houses at night) the living room is a pretty quiet place. Living goes on during the day, so that’s when it should be busy. At night, normal people go to their bedrooms and go to sleep, and their living room is quiet.

      It’s a whole other story in the Tolliver household. Our tiny living room is occupied twenty-four seven.

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