“It is.”
So fucking argumentative.I press my chin to the top of her head again. “Go to sleep. We can talk in the morning.”
Silence stretches.
She doesn’t move away.
She doesn’t untangle her legs.
She doesn’t create distance.
Instead, she shifts closer. Her breathing changes slightly. Uneven.
“You can’t just dismiss me or this conversation,” she says softer now.
“I’m not dismissing it,” I reply quietly. “I just don’t believe you.”
She stiffens. “You don’t see what I saw today.”
“What happened, Jelly?”
“Your mum came down really hard on Zee. She keeps comparing her to you and it’s heartbreaking to watch. I can’t be her friend and be with you. I’m literally sleeping with the enemy.”
“I’m the enemy now?”
She traces lines on my chest as she thinks. “You always have been, I just got caught up.”
It was quiet after that.
“Your loyalty to Za makes sense. I know what you two mean to each other. I knew what I was doing putting you in this position. Putting you both in the position. You’re not the only one hurting Za.”
“Then we should do something about it. What’s happening isn’t right.”
“You’re right,” I say. “But what goes on with my sister and me shouldn’t affect you or us. My family drama shouldn’t be a reason for Za to be upset with you. Or me. She should be mad at mum.”
She goes quiet again.
I run my thumb up and down her spine slowly.
“Can’t you just… knowing how she feels about the situation. Can you be on her side? When your mum comes down on her? She listens to you so you standing up to her can change things.”
“Chinaza is a grown woman, Frankie. She needs to handle this herself or mum will never back down.”
“You can at least say something, Jabari.”
“And what happens if you and I aren’t around? What will she do then? She has to grow a spine.”
She looks at me with those big, beautiful, glow in the dark eyes full of worry and guilt and says, “Please, big man. For me?”
Francine Campbell has never asked for my help with anything. Not once. She’s accepted help before but never asked for it out right. And that made me forget everything I said.
“Of course. I’ll do it for you.”
The worry relaxes a bit and she returns her head to my chest.
Silence rings out again. So I ask, “You still leaving me?”
“I—” she freezes. “I really don’t know.”
