“I am!” Francine cries out and Za moves around the room, massaging her head like she’s trying to make sense of it all. “Yes, this looks bad. Yes, it looks like I betrayed you but I didn’t know he would show up today! I never planned it! And I tried to end it, I swear!”
Fuck, Frankie.
Za blinks, finally stopping her pace to look at us. “…End what?”
Frankie’s chest rises with realization at her fuck up.
Silence.
Za’s eyes widen slowly. “No. No, no, no—How long?”
Frankie doesn’t answer.
“How. Long.”
I open my mouth?—
“I askedher,” Za bites out. “I’m not talking to you.”
And that alone let me know my input was not valued in this conversation.
Frankie swallows. “… like 2 months.”
“Months?” Zaza repeats, her voice climbing. “Months?!”
“Za—”
“MONTHS?!” She throws her keys across the room and they hit the wall with a crack. “You’ve been sleeping with my brother for MONTHS?!”
“I didn’t mean for it to?—”
“Oh my God, shut up Francine!” Za yells. “You didn’t mean for it?!”
“I didn’t?—”
“ARE YOU FUCKING HEARING YOURSELF?!”
Frankie’s eyes fill. “I was going to tell you?—”
“When?!”
“I don’t know!”
“You don’t know?!”
“I was trying to find the right time!”
“You were trying to find the right time to tell me you’ve been fucking my brother?!”
Frankie flinches. “Yes!”
“Oh, how about when I ASKED? You didn’t think it was the right time then?!”
Damn.
“I told you! I literally said ‘Frankie, Jabari is gonna try to get to you! He’s gonna find a way to get you to acknowledge him! And you said not to worry ‘cause you’re not interested! ‘You’re my girl, Za! He’s your brother, Za! It’ll be weird Za!’ What happened to that, huh?”
Frankie flinches, letting me know guilt is ripping through her, cause everything Za says is true.
