Decision Time
Keysha is trying to write down her thoughts about all the chaos that has gone on in her life as therapy. She’s just found out her boyfriend Wesley’s been shot. She’s interrupted by Barbara (her Dad’s wife) who refuses to let her go see him (Wesley) and is holding a grudge against her that she and Mike took the car and it got stolen. Barbara grounds Keysha and tells her she can forget about seeing Wesley. But Keysha isn’t hearing her. She’ll find a way. Meanwhile, Wesley wakes up at the hospital and is told he got shot in the shoulder and has short-term memory loss. Despite his Dad and two Officer’s pressuring him to remember, he can’t recall what went down that ended him up there. His mother then shows up and she and his father get into it. His aunt has to tell them to stop.
At school, Keysha confides in her new friend Maya that she’s going to run away. Yet she doesn’t know which hospital Wesley’s in. Maya volunteers to Google all the hospitals and text Keysha the names and addresses. Wesley starts to think about how he first met Lori through his Grandmom, and a friend of hers trying to hook them up. She was a little too cocky for him. On the first day of school on the way home, he sees her and her boyfriend getting into an altercation. He tries to ignore it, but gives in to Lori’s cries for help. He and her boyfriend then get into a fight and he breaks his nose. His memories end there.
Keysha gets an accidental call from Wesley’s grandmother and finds out that Wesley got shot for defending a girl named Lori. And that he might be moving to Indianapolis to live with his grandmother. So she borrows some money from Mike and leaves early that morning. Despite a lot of small incidents that delay her, she finally makes it to the bus station and is about to board the bus when she’s stopped by Jordan. Keysha flips the f*** out on Jordan and assaults him. By the time he convinces the cops that he’s her father, he’s able to calm her down by saying she’ll never see Wesley if he’s taken in for child abuse. In the car, he gives her an ultimatum. Either she follows his rules or she can be gone. She chooses the latter, gets out, and hails a cab leaving Jordan calling out for her.
At the hospital, Wesley’s mom and Dad fight over who’ll get to keep him. He tells his mother (who says it’ll be better if he stays with her) he’d rather stay with his Dad. The Officers come back, and he tells them the rest of the story. Wesley and Percy and his gang members get into a fight a couple of weeks later. Lori thanks Wesley for sticking up for her by taking him out to eat at a pizza place. He learns that abusive relationships run in her family (and are considered normal and a sign of love). Percy sees them together and is about to shoot them right there in the pizza place, but a cop walks in. But he gets his chance when he rolls up on them walking home. Wesley stands in front of Lori. He takes the bullet. The cops say even though Lori and her mom won’t testify against him, Percy will be arrested. (Maybe get Wesley some twenty-four-hour security or a Jeffery).
Lori sneaks out to pay Wesley a visit. She reveals that she hasn’t gone to the cops because she provoked the whole thing by telling Percy lies (that she’d let Wesley hit without a condom, and that he was in a Gang). And now her mother thinks he’s in a gang and wants her to stay away from him and Percy (she’s scared he’ll retaliate). Wesley convinces Lori that she has to go to the cops because if she doesn’t Percy will continue to harass her. She puts the idea in Wesley’s head that she wouldn’t mind being his girl and accentuates this with kisses. (I honestly thought she was gonna take it further and give it to him right then and there). Keysha bursts into the room as she’s spoon-feeding him and they get into it.
Lori leaves promises that she has something for Keysha. But Keysha leaves when she sees the lipstick marks all over Wesley’s face and neck. Grandma Katie (Jordan’s mother) is able to reach Keysha’s cell and she comes and picks her up. Keysha doesn’t want to go back home, but her Grandmother makes her see that Jordan and his family really love her and were worried enough to almost sent out police to find her. And the love they have for her is stronger than the “love” of a boy. Keysha calls Wesley but they say he’s been released (he got kicked out after her and Lori’s fight).
Percy gets arrested and Lori and Wesley get threats from the others at school. Lori continues to push up on Wesley to get with her and dump Keysha (who isn’t answering any of his calls. Jordan and Barbara decide to send Keysha to a psychiatrist and Maya tells Keysha she went to Planned Parenting for birth control pills because she’s decided it’s time to have sex with her boyfriend. Maya also convinces Keysha to try out for the school play so she can get into the Drama Club. Wesley decides to take matters into his own hands and gets the Principal to take action against Claude (Percy’s cousin) whose been threatening him) but in the middle of a call from Keysha, he finds out his Dad’s car has been vandalized and Lori’s house has been shot at.
Keysha gets the lead role in the play, but already she has a hater (Priscilla). Just like Priscilla Keysha is attracted to her leading man (Antonio) who comes off a lil cocky, but smooth. Maya warns her about his reputation and right away he proves it, by trying to get some private time with Keysha (his house or hers) to “practice lines”. Keysha isn’t falling for it, but says she’ll think about it. Wesley finds out Lori and her mom have gone MIA and without their testimony, no one witnessed Percy shooting Wesley. The good news is that Percy had drugs on him so he won’t be getting out any time soon. And more than that, Wesley and his Dad’s house will be fixed soon so they can go home. Keysha’s feelings for Antonio spark when they practice a scene where they kiss for the play.
At school, Wesley tries to apologize to Keysha, but Lori shows up. Wesley is over Lori’s drama and dismisses her, but she’s in all his classes (and she helps him copy notes). He agrees to meet with her after school and hear her out. She tells him after the shooting her mother freaked out and she got her Dad to agree to let her, her mom, and her grandmother live with him. Then she hints sexually that she’ll do anything if he’ll forgive her. Priscilla continues to fk with Keysha, but Antonio lets it be known she’s his woman and that’s what she should be focused on.
Lori (I think) convinces Wesley to hit. Keysha and Wesley text and their stories come out, but Keysha lets him know she’s moved on. The play goes well until the end. Wesley shows up drunk and tries to fight Antonio when he asks Keysha to the prom and she accepts. Afterward, Wesley falls back on his old ways and starts drinking and being nasty to Keysha. He takes Lori to the prom, and it ends with him and Lori getting drunk in her mom’s car and then about to leave for a hotel. Priscilla announces to Antonio she’s pregnant and Keysha just up and bounces upset that again the guy she thought she’d fallen for was great until he wasn’t.
My Thoughts:
First of all, I kept wondering why Barbara and Jordan didn’t just take Keysha to see Wesley. They seemed to be holding the car incident over her head, but. I was young once. Admittedly (and I know this is bad) I dated a few guys who could have winded up just like Wesley (and not necessarily for trying to be on the right side). And I still would have wanted someone to take me to see them had they been in the hospital an extended amount of time. Not like Barbara and Jordan, they would have. I just didn’t see the problem with driving her there (maybe on the weekend) to give her peace of mind. Then she wouldn’t have had to run away like she did. I’m not even sure what Barbara and Jordan were trying to accomplish by not taking her. She made a good point Barbara would have if it were Jordan. Barbara definitely as her stepmother been more understanding. She had to have had these same feelings for *somebody* once as a teenager. Lori,
I just wanted to kick this chick’s butt my damn self. Why is it that men are sometimes magnets for the *wrong* females and just can’t seem to shake them? Wesley’s 180 was a little shocking. I wasn’t expecting him to go from good guy to bastard as quick as he did. But he was just too wishy-washy for me. I can’t say I fault him for trying to help Lori. That would have made him less than a man if he’d walked away from a woman getting assaulted and not done anything. And yes I’ve been told that the last thing you do is try to jump in the middle of a dispute like that. But after Lori had lied on me and left me hanging I would have definitely left her trifling behind alone.
And I don’t think Wesley really tried to explain that hard to Keysha until the end of the book when it was too late what was going on. True he did make attempts but they never really got to the part where he SAID ANYTHING other than let me explain. But he never did. And the explanation should have gone “Keysha, I meet this crazy ass chick and she got me mixed up in her BS and now she won’t stay away from me.” But then interestingly Keysha to as she said “move heaven and hell” to try to be with Wesley didn’t really try to fight that hard for him neither. To be so heartbroken over this guy she didn’t even tell Lori “Hey I see what you’re trying to do but back the hell off. HES MINE. SOME RELATIONSHIP HUNH? I’m kinda surprised this book didn’t end on the cliffhanger of Lori and Wesley driving off and there being a horrible accident. Jordan and Barbara forcing Keysha to see a psychiatrist rubbed me the wrong way. But then again it was CRAZY the way she flipped out on Jordan and I think that maybe there’s a little more of her mother in her than she might think.
Rating: 6 I did kind of feel bad that Keysha keeps getting stuck with these half-ass guys, (and I don't know about Maya because she always seems to be in her ear) but even though I know it ended up with her being upset, I think in the long run she'll look back on it and see how lucky she was that she dodged a bullet with both Wesley and Antonio. You don't want a guy that's easily swayed nor do you want one that hits on everything in a skirt and then walks away from his responsibility when he knocks one up. She should be shouting she found out before she gave it up to him herself.