Dre sat on his tailgate under the carport with his phone in his hand.
Kiana's car was gone, and Monica's porch light stayed dark.
He typed it plain: Mama, can you ask Kiana what's going on around here?
He watched the three dots appear, disappear, appear again. Then the screen lit up with her name, and he answered on the first ring.
"Andre." She only used his full name when she had already made up her mind.
"You need to leave that dope alone."
He closed his eyes. There it was.
"Mama, I don't use dope."
"Baby, I'm just saying, people are worried, and you need to get some help before..."
"I see you’ve been talking to Kiana," he said.
A pause. Too long. "No. Why do you say that?"
"Because that's the same exact thing Kiana said." He kept his voice level. "Who told you that?"
"Nobody told me nothing. I just heard."
"Heard from who?"
"People talk, Andre."
"What people?" He stood up and started pacing the length of the carport.
"Mama, listen to me.
Nobody at the barbershop said it first. Nobody at church. Nobody in the family.
Every time I trace it back, it goes to one person. Kiana. She is the only one who says it.
That's how I know."
Silence on the line. He could hear her TV low in the background, a game show audience clapping.
"Mama, I'm not going to say she's lying to you," he said. "I'm going to say she wanted something, and she used me to get it. I need you to ask her one question for me. Just one."
"What question?"
"Ask her what she's been doing every night she tells me she's working late."
His mother went quiet in a different way this time.
"Andre," she said slowly, "what are you telling me?"
"I'm telling you somebody's been talking about my business to cover up their own."
He sat back down on the step. "I love you.
I'm not mad at you. But I need you to stop taking her word over mine until you hear the whole story."
Another long pause. Then, very softly: "Is she seeing somebody?"
He didn't answer, and let his facial expression tell it all.
"Lord," his mother whispered. "I called her my daughter."
Headlights swept across the carport. Dre looked up as a car had slowed at the end of his driveway at the street, then rolled on past.
His phone buzzed with a new text. Kiana: Your mom just called me. What did you tell her?
He stared at it, then looked at the house behind him.
To be continued...