Someone suddenly grabbed my arm, scaring the shit out of me.
“Sparkle! Girl, are you crazy?”
I had completely zoned out while at work, and this girl wanted to give me a heart attack by grabbing me. Sparkle laughed, and I shook my head.
“You never told me you were coming tonight,” I said as I headed for the restroom.
“Wanted to surprise you, hoe…surprise!”
“Fool,” I said, and we laughed together. She followed me into the restroom and sat on the sink countertop while I went into a stall.
Once I was done, I used the sink next to her to wash my hands.
“Uh, bitch, what the fuck is that?” she suddenly called out and pointed at my neck.
“What?” I questioned and looked in the mirror. My eyes widened at the big ass passion mark right on my neck for the world to see!
Sparkle turned me to face her, and her eyes were narrowed into slits as she stared at my face.
“I saw you just two days ago, and that shit wasn’t there. That’s new,” she pointed out before her mouth dropped.
“Kairi, no. Don’t tell me you’re still messing with him?”
My mouth fell, but no words came out because it was the truth. I was still sleeping with Makari.
“Oh my god, I shouldn’t have told you to do it,” Sparkle said, pulling at her hair.
“It wasn’t because of that,” I started to explain.
“But it wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for me,” she said, sounding down.
“Sparkle, no.”
I felt so bad that my friend was blaming herself. Things had just gotten this far.
“Kairi, you can’t get mixed up in him like this. You better stop before feelings develop,” she warned me and then looked at me. “Unless they already have?”
I looked away from her because I was scared that she might have seen the truth in my eyes because I did like him. I liked him a lot. Enough for me to stupidly forget that he was set to marry someone else.
This started as a revenge thing, but it had clearly turned into much more than that before I even realized it. I’d gotten used to him and, in doing so, opened myself up to feelings I never should have.
Sparkle grabbed me by the shoulders, looked me in the eyes, and said, “I’m worried about you, Kairi. Just know what you’re doing.”
I had it under control, right?
THE NEXT EVENING
Sparkle had me thinking, wondering if I truly had it all under control or not. I liked to think that I did, but did I?
It was only supposed to be a revenge thing—a one-time thing, and I’d done that. So, why had it changed?
What I wanted, since I broke up with my ex a year ago, was being handed to me by Makari. The laughter, the joy of being around someone, how comfortable he made me feel—all of it, I wanted, and he’d given it to me, but I had to stop it.
I paced my bedroom floor as I watched him call me.
Just ignore it, and he will stop calling,I thought. Only for that call to go to answerphone and he called right back.
Seeing that he wasn’t going to stop, I decided to answer just so I could tell him that we could no longer see each other. It was the right thing to do. All that was going through my mind was what would happen if my dad, Shakur, or Ocean found out. It was enough to knock some sense into me, and I needed him to see it too.
