The Pact
It’s the end of freshman year. Indigo will be spending the summer in Chicago to see Nana Summer and Marcus will be headed to Houston to see his mother. Indigo suggests they break up for the summer just in case they meet other people they like better. Marcus clearly doesn’t like it but he goes along with it.
As soon as Marcus gets to Houston, a pretty lifeguard catches his attention (Rena). But unfortunately, a talkative girl that’s a friend of his mother’s (Michelle) keeps him occupied while at the pool. When Indi and her Dad (Harold) get to Chicago, Nana’s house is like an unofficial family reunion. Indi notices her cousin’s new boyfriend paying her a little too much attention. Marcus goes over to Rena to find out more about her. She invites him to play tennis in the morning, but he lets her know he’s not interested in that in the least (tennis or waking up that early). She leaves and a guy picks her up. Michelle informs him that it’s her boyfriend. Oh well, Marcus thinks. Rena was just a temporary distraction.
Sabrina (Indigo’s cousin) when they were younger they both looked alike. But now Sabrina has grown up and is a mother and has her own apartment. After all the relatives leave, Sabrina invites Indigo to go with her to a nightclub. On the way, they drop by Sabrina’s apartment and Dugan is there. The apartment is way too nice for someone who just works at a drugstore part-time. Indi racks up on numbers at the club. Sabrina tells her sometimes R-Kelly comes through (snorts he’d definitely hit on Indi she’s underage). Later in the middle of the night she and Dugan bond over grilled cheese sandwiches, dance moves, and hip-hop artists. When things start to get a little to “close” and Dugan starts telling her how beautiful she is, Indi starts to get uncomfortable (Have none of these people seen The Player’s Club?). Dugan then bounces (in the middle of the night now).
Rena invites Marcus to go to the beach and he can’t think of a reason to turn her down (REALLY? How bout uh NAH you got a man and I don’t want no drama over you with him). At the beach, Rena kisses Marcus, but on the way home, she tells him to forget it happened. He asks his mother why girls are so hard to understand. She says he probably never will. She then puts pressure on him to move to Houston. Later on, his mother springs it on him that she’s engaged to a man she’s been dating for nine months (Leon) that Marcus hardly knows anything about. After seeing how much his reaction upset her that because they’ve been apart she hasn’t been able to have him spend any time with her new man, Marcus decides to stay in Houston. Pops doesn’t like it but gives him his blessing.
Nana tries to warn Indigo, about glamorizing Sabrina’s lifestyle, but Indigo is already too far gone and wanting her cousin’s “perfect” life. (Sabrina we learn also shop-lifts). Marcus spends some time getting to know and bonding with Leon. Rena after seeing Marcus hanging out with another girl from the pool shows up at his place (jealous). One thing leads to another and they almost have sex. Indigo calls as it’s about to go down and he answers but she doesn’t say anything. Then his mother shows up. Marcus tries to sneak her out but they get caught. His mother warns him against having girls in his room. Marcus finds out Rena is a virgin and he’s glad he didn’t take it there with her. He knows he doesn’t love Rena, and his heart is still with Indigo.
After a 4rth celebration, Indigo and Nana return home. Indigo can’t find Nana for a moment and then sees her outside laying on the grass. She frantically calls 911. Nana is admitted to the hospital and even though she seems to be out of the woods, Indo wants to spend the night with her in ICU. The doctors won’t let her and it’s agreed she’ll stay with Sabrina. Marcus and Cedric (Rena’s boyfriend) get into a fight on the court over Rena. Marcus then finds out that Rena is pregnant and claiming it’s his. He confronts Rena and she says it’s Cedrics, but she told her Dad it was his because her Dad hates Cedric and thinks he’s a thug. She pleads with Marcus to just go along with it until the day she has scheduled to get an abortion. He’s uncomfortable with it but agrees to have her back and also take her to the appointment. So he takes her the next day but doesn’t go in with her. An hour later her father shows up at his house, slinging accusations. His mother doesn’t ask if the baby is even his. She just takes his car keys. It’s then Marcus decides Houston is no place for him. Rena just sits there and doesn’t defend him like she claimed she was going to after she had the abortion.
Indi and Sabrina go to the club again, and Sabrina gets drunk. Indi is forced to drive home and because she’s only got a permit and limited experience, she has a car crash. The lady and her kids are unconscious but Sabrina says that if they wait for (and call) the police they’ll have to spend the night in jail. Indi will also have to call her parents. So she waits until she’s a little away from the accident. Later that night, Dougan tries to practically rape Indi but is interrupted by Sabrina (who looks like she’s buying his excuse of Indi had it coming for being into him ever since she got there. So she leaves the apartment, calls her uncle, then Marcus. Marcus gets a flight out *immediately* and says goodbye to his Houston friends. He then pays Dougan a visit. Afterward, Sabrina asks he and Indi to leave. Marcus makes a call and Dugan is escorted out of the apartment in handcuffs on drug charges and molesting another girl. Indigo tells Nana after Sabrina calls. Nana makes Marcus call his mother whose upset but isn’t all that bothered about him going back to the A. She and her fiancé were going to put him in a all boy private school. So the pact is over and Indigo and Marcus head back to the A where they can resume their relationship.
My Thoughts: This reminded me of a couple of movies. It had elements of Soul Food (with Nana in the hospital for her diabetes. It had elements of The Player’s Club (the live-in boyfriend being attracted to and coming on to the cousin). It also had bits of Boyz N The Hood (the mother thinking the father did a good job raising the son but now that he was older the son should come back and leave with her). So firstly, the pact was STUPID! Great guys are so hard to find. If you have one why the hell would you wanna trade up? Indigo was the one who made the pact and while she may have met a lot of guys at the club, I betcha half of em was just trying to hit. Then it just irritates me HIGHLY how in this book (and the last book DEAL WITH IT) these teenage girls act like they can’t go a few weeks without either being loyal or worrying if their boyfriends will be loyal. In the last book, Tamika is only gone for a weekend and she’s wondering if Vance will cheat on her. If you have a boyfriend and you have to worry about you can’t be in his sight for a few days until he’s up on the next female then I’m sorry. That is NOT your boyfriend! And again here’s another book where there’s a lady with “a man” and he’s up on some other female and she’s standing there looking stupid and either defending him or just not saying A WORD! It makes no sense AT ALL! Another thing, I hate is when parents get a brand new partner and then just spring it on you like “Oh, and by the way..” YES, it’s happened to me before! Sometimes the daughter or son needs time to adjust to a new situation with the new person. This just is NOT COOL! I’m glad though that Marcus’s mom say that she couldn’t be a good parent *then* because down the line what if he would have stayed. That would have caused A LOT of resentment. But Marcus is a good one. I also know what it’s like to have someone listen to the first WRONG side they hear and not even wanna hear yours. Mostly this book tho was 90% events that took place during Indigo’s and Marcus’s summer and 10 percent plot. It also used a couple of basketball games as page fillers (which I never like when a book does)
Rating: 5 The moral being ladies KEEP WHAT U GOT IF U HAVE A GOOD THING and don’t play yourself by making RIDICULOUS pacts!