I sucked my teeth, sitting on the back of my hands.
“So, what did you see?” I watched her blow a bubble with her gum, then popped it.
“They were at the mall in one of them expensive ass stores. I was wondering what they were doing in there, because neither one of them ain’t got it like that.” She smacked her lips, but I agreed.
Leah wasn’t clocking in on nobody’s job, and T.K. damn sure ain’t got bread to be shopping nowhere expensive. He always been lazy as hell, found every excuse not to get off his behind and work. I was sure nothing had changed in the last few years. I don’t know what I ever saw in him.
“Which store?” I inquired, my mouth twisted in disgust. I couldn’t believe my sister was running around with his punk ass.
She rolled her neck with attitude.
“Nordstrom, girl. They ass can’t afford a sock up in there,” she giggled, stretching out her legs in front of her. That’s the same place where she met the Derek dude. Something in the water wasn’t clean.
“But anyways,” she continued. “What you gone do about Love, boo?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“As much as I like him, I can’t go back, Jay. The last thing I need is to throw myself in the line of fire,” I replied sadly.
“Soo,” she dragged out. “He definitely ain’t do this?”
With her eyes on me, she waited for my response.
“No!” I spoke sternly. “He was here when I called you to help me. Waiting in the living room the entire time, patiently at that. Girl, I thought he would have left.”
“Oh, that’s right!” she recalled, smirking at me. “That surprise date. How it went before he got arrested, though?”
My mouth quirked up in a smile. I couldn’t help myself at this point. Goosebumps rose under my skin just thinking about how good it felt being in his arms. He gave me all his attention like I was the only person in the room, and I felt like I was. He made me feel so special.
“It was that good, huh?” Jayda’s voice brought me back to the present. I looked over to see a grin on her face.
“It was alright,” I said nonchalantly, downplaying the situation. She saw through my lie when she sucked her teeth, waving me off.
“Girl, bye. You in love already. You should’ve seen the way yo’ face lit up, stop faking the funk.”
I threw my head back in laughter. I wouldn’t say I was in love but, if all this shit wasn’t in our way, I’d wanna see where it goes between us. We had mad chemistry and I always found him attractive, even back then.
“Snap out of it!” She reached over, waving her fingers in my face. “Uh huh. We need to get yo’ man out, ASAP. You suffering from Love withdrawals, hoe.”
“Bitch, whatever.” I dismissed her. “I don’t want to talk about him. I want to talk about you and Kasey.”
She rolled her eyes. “His name is Kai, Baby.”
“Same difference,” I replied with knitted eyebrows. I didn’t care what the fool’s name was frankly, because I don’t like himfor her. He was slimy, and I knew it when I saw him. I may not know much about relationships, because I only had a handful myself, and they never went right, but I knew she deserved better than him.
As she went on and on about him, I put on a smile as if everything was okay. On the outside, I seemed fine, thriving even, but I was a hot mess on the inside. The only thing I wanted to do was go in my room and hide under the damn blankets until Love came home.
18
LOVE
“What tookyou so goddamn long man? Them niggas was getting desperate as hell,” I spoke to my lawyer on the way out of the jailhouse. I was behind bars a few days too long before they realized it wasn’t me. I was glad to be free, but they found out it was my twin brother. When they finally took my fingerprints, they had recognized the similarities, but the DNA from the crime scene didn’t match mine. I had to sit through more hours with them questioning his whereabouts, but I ain’t tell them shit.
“You’re not my only client, Love. Any idea where your brother is? He’s gotten himself in a lot of trouble.”
I cut my eyes at him. Treyvon Grey had been my lawyer since I graduated from college. We met at the gym when me and Messiah went one time. Started chopping it up and, somehow, me looking for a job came into the conversation. He said he knew people and got me an interview at the probation office the next day.
“Don’t start, Trey. I’ll deal with Valentine myself,” I stated as a matter of fact.
