43
BABY
“What the fuck happened to you?”Jayda got straight to the point.
I was a little more apprehensive than she was. A part of me wanted to send her away, another part wanted her to answer the question. Leah was sitting on the front steps, her arms wrapped around her knees. She had bruises on her knuckles, her eyes were swollen, and dry blood was under her nose.
She cut her eyes at me, I guess wondering if I wanted to know. The only answer I gave was a short nod of my head.
With her chin quivering, she spoke, “Tranae invited two of her friends to T. K’s house.”
Must’ve been the ones from my job earlier. “I wasn’t feeling good all day, told her I didn’t wanna be bothered.”
Jayda sat beside her, but I remained standing. “Out of nowhere, they started talking about me like a dog, saying how could I go against my sister for a nigga, that I was just an easy fuck T. K. just wanted to slide into,” she rambled, sobbing softly. “Tranae had to tell them all that stuff. How could they know?” Jayda and I looked at each other discreetly. “I confronted her about telling my business. She said she ain’t tell them nothing that wasn’t true. Said I couldn’t even keep a man that I stole.”
Damn, cuz knows how to hit below the belt.
Jayda hung her head in embarrassment. But I didn’t fault her, just because her sister was a bitch.
“Then, what happened?” Jayda asked.
“I got mad and tried to hit her. The other two jumped in, and started swinging on me. She didn’t get in the fight, but she ain’t stop them either.” She flexed her hands to show how busted up it looked. “I can barely move it.”
When she cast a glance at me, I averted my eyes elsewhere. The hurt was written all on my face. I was not over what she did. I heard her exhale deeply.
“Baby, I’m sorry for what I did to you. I was calling you because I know I messed up real bad.”
I twisted my head around, narrowing my eyes at her.
“I don’t want your sorry. You should be telling Derek that,” I spat. That’s the first thing I said to her since we been here. Her shoulders slumped.
“He won’t answer my phone calls,” she confessed, whispering.
“Leah, how could you be so damn stupid to let this man talk you into robbing people?” I was on a rampage, couldn’t stop talking. “After everything I did for you. Now, look where you are, back here, asking for my help! You so fucking selfish.”
Choking out a sob, she wiped her nose. “It was only supposed to be a onetime thing. He said he needed money for his rent, told me to trick somebody into following me out of the club. He was just supposed to take the money and leave. Nobody doesn’t get hurt when he does it.”
I raised my eyebrows. “So, that make it alright then?”
Disregarding my statement, she continued. “It was 340 dollars in that wallet. He liked the income he got from it, wanted to do it again.” T. K. always been a greedy muthafucka!
“And y’all just kept it up,” Jayda added, rubbing my sister’s back to comfort her. She may feel sorry for her, but I didn’t. She deserved this for what she did to me.
“Yeah. Then, other people got involved. Tranae started doing it with his two friends. They all split the profit.”
So, that’s why she saw her at the restaurant with them.
“Why you here?” I finally said what I wanted to say after the last five minutes.
“After Tranae and her friends left, T.K. came home and found me on the bed in the room. I wanted to go to the hospital to check on the baby, but he said we had work to do. When I told him I wanted to stop robbing, he kicked me out.” Her voice cracked as she tried to hold back tears. “He said he never loved me, and he loved what I did for him.”
I wanted to go kick him in his nuts for mistreating her when she was pregnant with his child.
“Still tryna go to the hospital?” Jayda asked, a sympathetic expression on her face. Leah shook her head back and forth. Jayda looked like she was on the verge of shedding tears her damn self. “Well, you can?—.”
“She can’t stay here.” I folded my arms across my chest, stopping her from saying what I knew she was gonna say.
She tried to communicate with me with her eyes, but I was not having it. “Baby?—.”
