Entangled by K. Elliott

grown. Tell me the truth. I can deal with it.” Her voice was full of emotion.
Jamal decided very quickly that the truth was something she wasn’t about to get out of him. “I don’t know where the anklet came from.”
Dream’s face became serious. “Please don’t put my life in danger by sleeping around. I really like you, Jamal.”
“It’s not what you think, honestly.”
***
    Later that evening, Dawg came over and Dream asked him about the anklet as soon as he walked in the door.
Dawg appeared to be confused and decided to change the subject. “What happened to welcome, how are you doing, Dawg , and all that good stuff?” He smiled.
Jamal made eye contact with Dawg.
“Yeah, I had this chick over here the other night. The anklet must have come off while we were doing our thing,” Dawg said, chuckling.
“Why did you bring her over here? Don’t you have your own place?”
“Yeah, I got my own spot, but you know, some of these broads I refuse to let them know where I live.”
“But you’ll bring them over to your boy’s house and mess things up for him and his girl?”
“Hell, that’s what friends are for,” Dawg said, smiling again.
Dream shook her head in disbelief. The story wasn’t logical, but there was no way to prove things didn’t happen the way Jamal and Dawg said they had.
***
    “Me and Jamal had our first argument,” Dream told Keisha over the telephone.
“What happened?”
“He said that I was trying to make him soft when we were at to the park the other day. We had a picnic and threw the Frisbee.” She decided not to mention the bracelet incident.
Keisha sighed and replied, “He’s ghetto, that’s all. Ain’t no other way around it.”
“What do you mean? I know he’s kind of rough around the edges, but why do you say he’s ghetto.”
“Ghetto is a state of mind. If you’re used to doing something one particular way, and you aren’t open for change, that can be looked upon as ghetto.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“Let me give you an example.”
“Okay,” Dream said, knowing Keisha was going to have something outlandish to say.
“Hmm, let me think,” Keisha said. “I have an aunt who pays all her bills in person instead of mailing them, or even paying them online.”
“Maybe she just wants to make sure the money doesn’t get lost in the mail.”
“Okay, good point,” Keisha said. “Can you tell me why she cashes all her checks at the local check-cashing business and refuses to use a bank, or why she borrows money from those payday-advance places, giving them ridiculous interest on the money?”
“I don’t understand how your aunt relates to Jamal.”
“My aunt doesn’t know any better. Just like Jamal doesn’t know any better for even thinking that hanging out with his girl is making him soft.”
“Your analogy is way off base, but I get your point.”
“Dream, just because he has money that doesn’t mean that he can’t be ghetto.”
“I know.”
“I bet Jamal doesn’t have anything invested. I bet his money is under his mattress somewhere, or stuffed in a storage space, or buried in the ground.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He’s ghetto. He doesn’t know any better.”
Dream laughed.
When Dream got off the phone with Keisha, for the first time she wondered how much money Jamal had and whether it was enough to think about investing. She decided to make it her business to find out if Jamal had thought about investing and securing his money. How would she bring it up to him? How will he react to someone asking about his money? she wondered. She didn’t want to come across as a gold digger, but in the short time she had been with him, she had grown to like him, and cared about his well-being.
***
    “Jamal, have you ever thought about investing your money?” she asked, fluffing his sofa pillows.
“Where in the hell did that question come from?”
She walked over and sat beside him on the sofa. “I was