I felt horrible. Mommy and I were best friends and I should've been able to tell her anything.

"I just wanted to check up on Vance and see what he was doing," I told her.

"Well, did you get a chance to see what he was doing?"

"I sure did." I glanced out the window. Suddenly I was back in that uncomfortable place again-at the restaurant where I'd made a complete fool of myself.

"And?" Mommy asked.

"And I ran into him and his new girlfriend. She's pretty, and skinny and not pregnant. I was so hurt, Mommy. I wanted to call you...to tell you. But I knew that if I called you and told you where I was, you would be placed in a bad position of having to tell all the other parents where we were."

"And you're right. I would've been forced to tell the other parents."

"Aunt Mel, you don't have to tell my parents if you don't want to," Alyssa said.

"Well, your case is a little different, young lady. You're in my care right now, so I'll just beat your behind myself instead of telling your parents."

"Sorry, Aunt Mel." She shut up, pulled her seat belt tighter and glanced out the window.

"Don't mention it," Mommy said, peeked into her rearview mirror at Alyssa and then glanced over at me. "So finish telling me."

I told her all about what happened with Vance. Even about the breakup. And after I'd spilled my guts, she said, "He called me. That's how I knew where you were."

"He called you?"

Vance was the one who had blown our cover? I wanted to strangle him. He just couldn't stop making my life miserable!

"Yes, Vance called me a few days ago. Told me all about everything that went down."

"He called you? Who did he think he was, calling you?"

"Someone who was concerned about you. He wanted to make sure that I knew where you were and that you were okay. He was concerned."

"Yeah, right. I doubt that. Did he tell you about his little girlfriend?"

"He mentioned a young lady, yes. I was really glad that he called. Especially since you didn't have the good sense to call me yourself. You were so busy trying to protect your friends. And that's why I called every one of their parents. Told them what happened and that they should meet me over Rita's."

Suddenly Vance had become the hero in this situation and she didn't seem to care at all that I was really the victim here.

"So you knew all this time? Why didn't you call me?"

"What? And give you and your girlfriends a heads-up? So that you all could come up with a great scheme? Oh no...you forced me to do it this way. I had a responsibility to all the parents. Now, had you involved me from the beginning, I probably could've helped you out but you didn't handle this right."

"So now I guess I'm on punishment?"

"No, actually I think you've been punished enough," she said. "But, Tameka, I think you're missing the big picture. Do you know how huge this is? You are pregnant and sixteen! Do you know how dangerous it was for you to just take it upon yourself to leave the city limits without telling me?"

"I do understand. And I'm sorry. I learned my lesson."

Mommy glanced at me sideways. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that stuff with Vance." She grabbed my hand and held on to it.

"At least now I don't have to worry about what he's doing, right?"

"We'll get through this...together, baby. You know that, don't you?"

I shook my head yes and then glanced out the window. Suddenly it was depressing to think about going through this pregnancy alone, bringing my baby into a broken relationship. This was not how it was supposed to be. I thought about that night with Vance, the night he showed up at my door when my parents were gone. I had escorted him to my bedroom that night. Lloyd's "Love Making 101" playing softly in the background as we did everything that the song said we should. And now I was paying the price.

As Mommy turned into our subdivision, tears began to flow from my eyes. How did everything get so messed up?

thirty-one.

Marcus I held on to the arms of my seat as the plane made its descent into Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. I felt the wheels of the plane touch the runway with a thump as I peered out the little window and watched as we taxied to the gate. As soon as the plane came to a complete halt, I could hear the unsnapping of seat belts all over the plane. I touched the pocket of my jeans just to make sure that the little blue box was still there; a silver chain with the letter I dangling from it was inside. It was an inexpensive gift that I'd picked up at one of the shops at the Boston airport. It seemed perfect for Indigo.

I hoped to see her face within the next few minutes as she waited in the baggage claim area with my father. I hadn't talked to her personally because she was still ignoring my calls, but I had asked Pop to go next door and ask her to come along. I wasn't sure if she would be there but I hoped and prayed that she would.

As I took the long escalator up, adjusting the strap of my carry-on luggage, my heart started to pound. I couldn't wait to see Indigo's face; it had been a long summer without her and I missed her like crazy. I had messed up-I knew that. But I hoped with my heart and soul that I could get her to forgive me. Once at the top of the escalator, I looked around-in search of my beautiful Indigo Summer. My eyes roamed rapidly around the airport at all the other strange faces, in search of one familiar one. I found a familiar face, but it wasn't Indigo's-it was Pop's.

"Hey there, son." He was all grins, dressed in a pair of oily coveralls and waving to me. Once I reached the top, he grabbed me into a warm embrace, despite the oil.

"Hey, Pop," I said and gave him a quick handshake. "Been working on your truck again?"

"Put a new alternator in it," he said. "Just in time to get here and pick you up. Barely had time to wash my hands."

"Thought you were bringing Indigo with you," I said.

"I went over there, asked her if she wanted to come. Said she had something else to do," he said nonchalantly. "Guess you'll have to catch up with her later."

My stomach felt as if someone had just punched me in it. I guessed that whatever Indigo was dishing out at this point, I deserved it.

"Guess I will," I told Pop as we made our way over to the carousel to pick up the rest of my luggage. "Did she say what she had to do?"

"Nah, son, she didn't gimme any details. Just said she had something else to do. Matter of fact, I think she was on punishment anyhow. Something about her and her little girlfriends sneaking down to Grambling, Louisiana, for the weekend. Harold and Carolyn weren't too happy about that at all."

"Grambling, Louisiana?"

"Yeah, I didn't get many details from Harold when he came over and had a beer the other day."

My heart rejoiced-just a little. That was it! That was why she wasn't answering or returning my calls. And that was why she hadn't come to the airport. She was grounded. Probably had gone to Grambling with her friend Tameka whose boyfriend attended school there. It didn't surprise me one bit that their little diva squad had come up with one of their schemes-a scheme that they obviously hadn't thought through, because they got caught. Whatever the case, I felt better.

"So she probably couldn't come to the airport anyway," I said to Pop.

"Well, Harold said that she could come along if she wanted to. She just didn't want to."

My celebration ended quickly and that punch-in-the-stomach feeling was back again. He could've saved that comment. She just didn't want to. Those words rang in my head all the way home. What if I really had lost Indigo forever this time? What if she had moved on, found someone else? It was true that she'd visited Grambling for the weekend. She was a beautiful girl. It would only take a hot second for someone to notice her, push up on her and steal her away. Maybe she had already kissed him, exchanged numbers with him, and they were sending text messages back and forth to each other at this very moment. Maybe he was making her smile, telling her how beautiful she was. Maybe he was telling her that she had the dumbest boyfriend in the whole world because he had let her slip through his fingers.

"Did you hear me, son?" Pop was asking.

"What'd you say?" I hadn't heard a thing my father was saying. I was too busy letting my thoughts take me to another place, a place I didn't really want to be.

"I said, are you hungry?" he repeated.

"Nah, I'm good. I had a burger at the airport in Boston. I just want to get to the house," I told him. I wanted to get to Indigo as soon as humanly possible. Break up her little text messaging party with her new boyfriend. I wouldn't let her go without a fight.

I had hoped that she would be sitting outside on her front porch when we pulled up but she wasn't. I hopped out of the truck, grabbed my bags out of the back and rushed inside. I rushed upstairs to my room, lifted the window, pulled a package of candy out of my overnight bag and threw a few of them at Indigo's window. My heart skipped a beat when her face appeared in the window; even with the frown, it was still beautiful. Her hair was a wild mass on her head as if she'd been sleeping.

She lifted the window and stood there with her hand on her hips. "Yes?"

"What's up, girl? I'm back in the A-T-L!" I tried to sound as if nothing had happened between us. As if my lips hadn't been against Daria's less than two weeks prior. "Aren't you going to welcome me back?"

"Welcome back," she stated dryly.

"I'm glad to see you." I smiled. Hoped for a smile from her. She didn't give me one. "Can I see you for a minute. At the creek?"

The creek was where Indigo and I would meet from time to time. It's where serious conversations took place, where we had our first kiss. It's where I asked her to be my girl for the very first time. Lots of firsts at that creek. I knew that I needed to win her heart back, and what better place than that?

"Can't," she said.

"Why not?"

"Got chores."

"It won't take long," I promised.

She sighed. She was playing hard, and I realized that it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought. But I knew that if I could get her back there, she would give in. She had to. I needed her to.

"Gimme five minutes. I just woke up," she said and then slammed her window shut and disappeared. She was being rude but I didn't care. I just needed to see her, hold her in my arms. I needed her like I needed fresh air.

At the creek, I sat on a huge rock and tossed smaller rocks into the water. I couldn't wait to see Indigo, up close and personal. I wondered what she would be wearing, wondered if she'd changed any since I left for Harvard. I'd changed. Not physically but definitely mentally. I'd grown up over the summer. I knew that I'd taken Indigo for granted and that the grass is not always greener somewhere else. I used to hear my parents use that phrase, but never really understood it until now. I knew that whatever pretty girls were out there in the world, none of them could compare to the one I had-or used to have.

When I heard the light rustling of her flip-flops amongst the leaves, I turned to face her. She wore a red tank top and a pair of denim shorts. She'd tried to tame her hair by pulling it into a ponytail but it didn't help much. Her face was a little red from being sunburned. Her lips were shiny from the lip gloss that she'd obviously just rubbed on. They looked kissable, and if I played my cards right I'd be kissing them soon.

"You look cute." I smiled.

"Thanks."

"Heard you and your girls got in trouble for going down to Grambling without permission."

"Yeah, the whole trip was a nightmare."

"What were y'all thinking?"

"Tameka's friend Sean was going down there to hang out with his cousin, so he invited us along. None of our parents really knew Tymia's mother so she was our perfect alibi. We all said that we were spending the night at Tymia's house, hoping that none of our parents would find out the truth."

"How did they find out?"

"It all started when Tameka and Vance broke up," she said.

"What? Tameka and Vance broke up?"

"Yeah. She busted up on him with another girl having dinner at this stupid fancy restaurant. The girl claimed to be Vance's girlfriend, but when Tameka waddled into the restaurant, stomach and all, the girl started trippin'...long story short, Vance called Mel to let her know that he broke up with Tameka and to make sure she was all right...."

"So was she all right?" I asked. I knew that Indigo's friend Tameka really cared about Vance Armstrong. But I also knew that Vance was a ladies' man and wasn't the type to settle down with one girl. Tameka was sixteen and pregnant, and I knew that Vance would bolt one day. I just didn't expect it so soon.

"She's dealing with it."

"Are you all right, Indi?" I asked her. Indigo had been hurt, too-by me. Knowing that was tearing my heart apart.

"I'm dealing with it."

I reached for her hand and she pulled it away.

"I'm so sorry, Indi. I don't really know how to make it up to you. I know I can't change what happened, but I know that I don't want to lose you. I'll do whatever it takes to win your heart back."

"You hurt me too bad, Marcus. I don't know if I wanna do this anymore."

"Are you for real?"

"I'm for real, Marcus. I can't believe you were down there kissing all up on another girl. I don't know what she got! And then you think you gon' kiss me again? I don't think so!" She said, "Nah, I think we just need to step back for a little while."

My heart dropped to the ground when she said that. I didn't really know where to take the conversation from there. The last thing I wanted to do was step back for a little while, as Indigo suggested. I decided to lighten the conversation a bit, charm her with my humor. I rushed toward her and grabbed her around the waist. She didn't pull away this time and I was glad.

"What you mean I can't kiss you again, girl?" I whispered.

"I don't know where your lips have been, Marcus. And I definitely don't know where hers have been, either."

I pulled Indigo even closer, brushed my lips softly against her cheek and then her earlobe. "You know you wanna kiss me, girl...trying to play hard to get."

"I don't wanna kiss you," she said it with attitude, but her lips were saying something different because she didn't pull them away when I kissed her.

I held on to her for dear life. Didn't want to let her go.

"I brought you something," I said and then dug into my pocket for the little blue box. I pulled it out and handed it to Indigo.

She opened it and then held the chain into the air. "It's pretty. Thank you, Marcus. Is this a guilt gift?"

"It's just a gift to say that I love you and missed you."

"Cool. Put it around my neck."

I secured the clasp around Indigo's neck and watched the charm dangle in the middle of her chest. It looked good there. As I kissed her lips one last time, I hoped that through all of this, we could recover from the aftermath of a girl named Daria Charles.