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again.
    Ericka ran her hands over her pink hair. She saw everyone was already doing squats. She joined in. Three minutes of squats later, they stopped, sweat dripping from them all.
    Indigo said, “Ericka, did you know that you’re missing an earring?”
    Ericka nodded, touched her left ear. “I guess it loosened and fell off somewhere.”
    Destiny looked at the earring in Ericka’s right ear. It was a sterling-silver post with a rose crystal ribbon, the symbol for cancer awareness, for fighting that unrelenting beast.
    Indigo said, “We’ll look around the apartments.”
    Kwanzaa said, “No one dumps the trash or vacuums until we find Ericka’s earring.”
    Ericka shivered. “Vacuum cleaners.”
    Destiny said, “We know, Ericka. We know your phobias.”
    â€œCan’t stand the sound. Brings back bad memories.”
    Kwanzaa said, “That’s why I vacuum your apartment when you’re not home.”
    Indigo said, “Dest and Kwan, check the bags on your vacuum, just in case.”

Chapter 9
    Next was birthday breakfast two miles away at CJ’s Cafe. The mom-and-pop-style Latino-owned café on La Brea was packed, half of the customers speaking in Spanish.
    Ericka said, “Twelve hours to go and it’s your official moment of birth, Indigo.”
    Indigo said, “I want some buck naked before my birthday is over.”
    Kwanzaa said, “So, in other words, you want to celebrate coming out of your mother’s vagina by letting someone come in yours.”
    â€œI hate you, Kwanzaa. And who names their child Kwanzaa? How ghetto is that?”
    â€œYour name is Indigo. Why? Because you’re so black you look blue.”
    Destiny said, “You two are so cute when you argue like warring nations.”
    Ericka bit into her toast, then asked, “Indigo, on the real, you and the footballer on or off?”
    â€œOlamilekan wants to spend time with me. I’m number one in his heart. We know that.”
    Ericka said, “And? Are you going to see him tonight, or do you have a plan B named Yaba?”
    Indigo hummed. “Depends on how the day goes. I’m thirsty, but I ain’t crazy thirsty like Kwanzaa. Yaba is calling me over and over, so heartbroken that I’m serious with Olamilekan.”
    Destiny said, “We need to buy Indigo a Plan B for her birthday.”
    Indigo said, “Since all of you are so freaking interested in who’smaking it do what it do with me, it’s time for another girl confession. Be real. Who was the last one at this table to have sex? It’s been five excruciating weeks for me. So who’s been on the baloney pony since then?”
    Ericka said, “We don’t say
sex
. We call it what it really is. Sacred energy exchange.”
    â€œIt’s sex. Keep the shit real. Who was the last one to get something that made them call out to both God and Jesus?”
    Ericka said, “Indigo, his name was
Yeshua,
not Jesus. Yeshua to Jesus comes from mistranslations, mispronunciations when translated. The man spoke Hebrew, not English. Stupid people think he was American. They did an Ellis Island on his name, made over the name of the man many say is the son of El Shaddai; the son of He whom made Himself known to them by the name that was spelled
Y-H-W-H,
and that was done in Exodus, and the original pronunciation of that has been lost. God is Y-H-W-H. No one knows how to say those four consonants correctly. There were no vowels in Hebrew and they did an Ellis Island on that as well and made Y-H-W-H into
Yahweh
, then guessed the pronunciation based on what they could already pronounce.”
    Indigo asked, “What the hell does this have to do with sex?”
    â€œIf you called out to Jesus, he wouldn’t turn around. It’s like his name is Mike and you’re calling him Jonathan, so he thinks you’re moaning to somebody else.”
    Indigo snapped,