I grabbed my phone while the cabbage finished, scrollin’ the same way I been scrollin’ for days. I opened my Instagram, went to my notifications, and there it was again.
Echo Lennox liked another one of my stories.
This girl stayed poppin’ up in my shit, quiet but consistent.
It never crossed my mind to look at her page until tonight. Maybe it was ‘cause I spoke my distrust out loud. Maybe it was ‘cause I felt somethin’ cold move through my spirit when her name appeared again.
Either way, I finally clicked her profile.
The girl was cute. Real cute, but the way another bitch looked ain’t never bothered me. Bitches bein’ pretty wasn’t the part that hurt.
It was the next part that did…
Since she was always lookin’ at my stories, I clicked hers.
The second the first picture loaded, my whole body went numb. My fingers slipped, the glass cup hit the floor, and the shatter echoed so loud that Sha’Nelle screamed my name.
“Toni! What happened?”
I couldn’t say a word ‘cause the whole room went still, the music felt like it disappeared, and my chest ain’t even feel like my chest anymore.
‘Cause on the screen was Kay’Lo, sleepin’ in some bed with her layin’ on him like she belonged there, her face pressed into his shoulder and her hand across his chest while his body was half covered and she was smilin’ like she won some prize.
And then there was another picture, and another, but all off guard shots she took of him like she knew better than to catch him while he was fully lookin’ into the camera.
Sha’Nelle rushed over and snatched the phone out my hand before I dropped it. When she saw the images, her mouth fell open and she placed my phone on the counter like it burned.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Oh my God, Toni.”
I couldn’t breathe around the pain. I couldn’t think around the pain. I couldn’t even cry yet ‘cause the hurt was too full to spill out.
It was one thing to hear somethin’ about ‘Lo leavin’ the club with a bitch, but was another thing toseethat shit.
My husband… my Kay’Lo… the same man who used to love me out loud and tell me I was his whole world, the same man who couldn’t fall asleep unless his hand was somewhere on me, was laid up in a bed with another woman like I ain’t even exist.
Somethin’ inside me broke again, and it broke deeper than the last time.
Sha’Nelle grabbed my shoulders, her voice sharp with anger and heartbreak for me. “Toni… baby… breathe. Please breathe.”
But I couldn’t move.
I just stood there in the kitchen, the food still cookin’, the music still playin’ and my cousin still holdin’ me… while my world fell apart right in front of my eyes.
My mind was so fucked up right now, I called Pluto and she came right over like it was nothin’, walkin’ straight through my door with that look she only get when she know some shit ain’t right. She came in smellin’ like soft perfume with her hair pulled back in a bun like she rushed out the house without even thinkin’. She ain’t ask no stupid questions, or tiptoe around nothin’. She walked straight up to me and said my name in that calm way she had. I handed her the phone without even lookin’ at her. I couldn’t. I already felt like if I blinked too fast everything inside me would spill out.
Sha’Nelle was pacin’ the kitchen while the oxtails simmered, even though nobody had touched a plate since everything flipped upside down. I was sick to my stomach, and for the first time in a long time, even food couldn’t pull me out the fog I had dropped into.
Pluto sat down slow on the stool beside me, and I handed her my phone without sayin’ a word ‘cause I couldn’t find my voice if I tried. She glanced at the screen once, then looked again harder, and the way her expression sank confirmed what I already feared. She recognized the girl instantly. It was the same bitch she saw Kay’Lo walk out the club with on his birthday a few weeks ago.
Sha’Nelle snatched the phone next and started zoomin’ in on every picture, her nails tappin’ hard against the screen as she studied them. She kept shakin’ her head like she was tryna make sense of somethin’ that was never gon’ make sense to nobody who loved me.
“Nah, this some bullshit,” Sha’Nelle muttered, scrollin’ slower. “Look at how he layin’. Bitch, he ain’t even lookin’ at the camera. He knocked the fuck out. This hoe been takin’ pictures while he sleep ‘cause she know Kay’Lo don’t even play like that. You can tell she did this on purpose.”
Pluto nodded, her voice soft but firm. “She know exactly what she doing, Toni. I ain’t saying any of this is okay, but the way she moving? This is spite. This is a wounded ego and a bitch who want attention she’s not getting from him. Kay’Lo is hurt, and he acting out. I’m not excusing him, but I’m telling you exactly what this is.”
I swallowed hard, my eyes burnin’, but the tears wouldn’t fall ‘cause I was past cryin’. I wasn’t even sure what I felt no more—anger, heartbreak, numbness, humiliation, all of it twisted together.
Pluto placed her hand over mine. “Toni… remember how Pressure acted when me and him were breaking down? He didn’t think straight either. He went where it was easy because he couldn’t face what we were going through. Hurt people do stupid shit, and when men like Kay’Lo feel like they losing the woman they want, they go chase something that makes them forget for five minutes.”
