“Business,” Lauren scoffed. “Is that business too?”
Demi couldn’t stop himself from pressing the green button.
“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” The sound of Charlie panicking pulled him to his feet.
“Hello?” he answered. Another scream and he was walking toward the door. “Yo!”
Charlie was crying. He could hear the tremble in her voice and when she said, “I need help. Oh my God...” he grabbed his keys off the table.
“Demi!” Lauren shouted. “Are you serious right now?”
He hung up the phone.
“I got to go, Lo. I told you it’s business. I’ll be back tonight, and we gon’ talk,” he said.
Lauren’s lip trembled violently. The end of their relationship was near. They both could feel it. It hurt. It was impossible to wrap their minds around because they never thought they would see this day.
“Stop the drinking Lo,” he said, removing the bottle from the floor. “Go get DJ and bring him home. I’ll be back.”
It was all he could say before he rushed out of the house.
“Oh my God! Thank you so much for coming! I’m freaking out!” Charlie said as Justin hopped out of his jeep.
“Don’t worry about it,” Justin said, laughing. “Where is it?”
“I couldn’t even get in my apartment because it’s right by the door handleeee,” Charlie whined. She wiggled her body andshook her hands because it felt like something was crawling all over her.
“Where your keys, girl? You’re dramatic as hell,” he said, laughing.
Charlie handed him her house keys and then stood behind him as he walked up her porch steps.
“Oh shit, this motherfucka is big,” Justin said. He took some spare mail from her porch and used it to smash the spider.
Charlie’s unreasonable fear dissipated.
The sound of bass pulled her attention and her heart stalled when she saw Demi’s car pull up.
“Umm, thank you, Justin,” she answered. “Just ummm. Thanks. I owe you. You saved my life.”
Justin snickered.
“Yeah, Charles. You owe me, a’ight,” he said, winking. “I’ll see you at the club.”
He walked off as Demi exited his car and approached her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Interrupting, apparently,” he said, his tone deadly.
“Kinda, you are, yeah,” she answered, a little irritated at the fact that he had an attitude. “I told you Justin is my friend...”
“You called my phone fucking hollering at the top of your lungs. I thought something was wrong,” he said.
“I did what?” she asked. She grabbed her phone and noticed she had indeed dialed him. “It must have dialed you by mistake when I dropped my stuff. There was a spider. I was freaking out and...”
“That nigga was here with you?” he asked. “I just left you, now he here?”
Demi’s disdain laced his tone and Charlie was taken aback by his passive aggression.
