by Nicety
“Shit, like I said, barely.” I folded my arms, gazing down at his painful expression. All I felt for him was pity. Being shot and nearly dying, he had paid enough for the way he chose to live his life I guess. I could only hope he learned his lesson and would do better with the second chance he had been granted. “Well, I’m going to go get dressed to check on the shops. It shouldn’t take me no more than about 2 hours and I should be back here. Do you think you can manage until then?”
Myking returned back into the living room fully clothed. His eyes immediately locked on mine. For some reason I was nervous as shit as to what would happen next. He wanted to be there to tell Jeremiah about us so badly and honestly after everything that he had taken me through along with fucking my cousin, I was ready to let the cat out of the bag as well. I knew Myking was going to kick it off. I just stood back waiting for him to take the lead.
“Yeah, I should be cool B. Thanks again for taking care of a nigga while I’m down,” Jeremiah rubbed his face hard as hell before bringing his attention up to his friend. “What’s good boi?”
“Shit, about to run out to handle this business. Same ol’ shit,” Myking replied calm and casual.
“Aye, call me and let me know what’s good with everything. I know those cops are still on my ass about what happened at the building over there on Kedzie.” Jeremiah leaned his head back on the pillow throwing his feet up on the other end of the couch.
Myking’s eyes were locked on mine. It was like he hadn’t even heard anything Jeremiah said. My armpits grew sweaty as he moved over closer to me like he was hunting prey. I blacked out when he put his arms around my waist and squeezed my ass like it was squishy play dough in his hands. Myking pressed his lips to mine sending chills up and down my body as I draped my arms around his neck obliging him.
“Damn!” Jeremiah popped up to a stiff upright position. “Is it like that now?”
“Shit, what you thought this was playa?” Myking turned hawking Jeremiah with the slickest smile. “You thought I was gonna let her just sit here and cry over you and not do shit to make her happy again?”
“Awe, word? Hmm, I see you boi. I ain’t even mad at y’all. I ain’t even mad at all. Do ya thang my nigga.” Jeremiah sucked his teeth as he squinted shooting the two of us the most sadistic side eye.
He wasn’t cool with it at all but truthfully, he brought this shit on his self. It was the perfect payback even though he deserved so much more than that. I laughed a little as Myking returned his attention back to me giving me a tiny peck before love tapping my ass and skating out the door. I swear I loved that man. I didn’t give a fuck about shit else. Myking had me open like a garage door and that was all I wanted to focus on.
“For real, B.? That’s what you do while I’m laid up in the fucking hospital on the brink of death?” Jeremiah hissed as soon as Myking jetted out the door, staring up at me with discerning eyes.
“But how did you get to that brink of death though?”
This time, Jeremiah was the one wordless.
“Right. You mad? Be mad.” I rolled my eyes before heading to the back bedroom to get dressed. “Oh and by the way, my cousin’s funeral is Saturday. You’re welcome to come and pay your second round of last respects. I’m sure you had an opportunity for the first round in the car that night, right?”
“FUCK!” Jeremiah yelled, boxing his frustration out on the couch pillows.
Chapter 8
Jeremiah
“Only hoes fuck with their man’s best friends, Bianca. That’s what you’ve just labeled yourself now. I fucking ho. That’s what you wanna be?” I snapped jumping to my feet.
“Excuse me?” She returned to the living fully clothed having thrown on a pair of True Religion jeans and a pink t-shirt. “What the fuck did you just call me?”
“You heard me, B. You fucking with a nigga who was supposed to be my damn friend now so that makes you a fucking ho.”
The burning in my face stung like a thousand bees when Bianca’s hand met with my cheek. Turning my eyes back towards her I gazed down at her arms noticing that the muscles in them were more defined than usual. She must have been working out or something because she was stronger than I remembered. It took everything in me not to lay her ass out on the fucking floor where she stood. If I did, she would most definitely never come back to me.
“Fuck you, Jeremiah. If anything, the only ho I see in this room is you.” Bianca spat pointing her finger all in my face. “Myking was there for me in many more ways than you knew anything about. How the fuck you gonna get mad because someone stepped up to the plate and did the job you weren’t man enough to do?”
“Aye, fuck all that,” I said waving her off not trying to hear that shit she was on. “You got this nigga living up in my house, B.? This fool sleeping up in my bed and eating my food?”
“Whatever, Jeremiah. Nothing in here belongs to you anymore except the shit in that hospital bag. We’re over. You need to get that through your damn head.” Her arms crossed in front of her accentuating those beautifully cupped tits that I missed so much.
I knew that all it took was for me to dick her down back into submission and Myking could kiss his fairy tale ending ass goodbye. The both did me dirty but the only one I was pissed at was the nigga who called himself my ace. All I wanted to do was smack the taste out his mouth. That nigga broke the code, fucking with your best friend’s girl. No matter how dirty I was doing her, it wasn’t his place to step in and play captain save a ho. Bianca was mine, she belonged to me and he stepped in on my territory on some hatin’ ass shit. He broke the cardinal fucking rule.
“You can’t see him anymore, B. I forbid you to fuck my friend when you know the shit is wrong—“
“Uh, forbid me? Nigga, last time I checked I was a grown ass woman. You can’t forbid me to do shit. I’ll do what the hell I want, when I want.” Bianca ran her hands up and down her torso seductively. “So don’t tell me who I can and can’t do. You sure didn’t have a problem fucking every bitch that spread her legs for you.”
“Bianca, you can’t fuck with him.”
“Why, because he’s your friend? Was your friend. Meh,” she tossed her hair behind her back popping her lips in the process. “Shit, you’re forgetting he was my friend too. All of those lonely nights, all of those send-off days you had him come do your dirty work for you to diffuse the situation between me and you… Yeah, he was putting in long hours of work baby. So when you think about it, you brought this union all on yourself.”
“You can’t fuck with him, B,” I huffed loud as fuck to get her to stop her dumb ass rant and listen.
“Why not?” She hissed.
“Because… Something’s just not right with that nigga man. He’s been changing for a long time.”
“Oh really,” she scoffed throwing her hands in the air. “Well, alert the damn authorities, a man changed his life around—“
“Naw B. I’m saying that nigga ain’t right. I can’t put my finger on it right now but I’m gonna find out what his ass has been on and then you’ll see I was right. Myking is hiding something, B. He ain’t right for you,” I growled hoping she saw that I was dead serious.
Bianca stood staring me in my eyes deeply. She did that when she was trying to see the truth behind the things that I was saying. Usually she was a good judge of character when it came to reading people but Myking had been digging her out so much that she couldn’t see straight. I had lost all control over her and from the looks of it, it would take me going through hell and high water to get her back where I needed her to be.
“That’s funny. Look at the pot calling the kettle black. You have some nerve, J.” Bianca snatched her keys from off the counter along with her purse and headed towards the door. “”Cause last time I checked, after everything I’ve done for you, you weren’t right for me either.”
The door slammed so hard behind her that I thought it would shatter the glass. With everything in me, I knocked over the barstool sit
ting a few feet away from me watching as it crashed to the floor. Frustration began to rise within me at such a rapid pace that I inched over to the wall punching as hard as I could. In the end, it only fucked my hand up. It burned like hell that this nigga played me bogus like that when he was supposed to have my back the most.
After calming down a bit, pain shot through my stomach forcing me to limp back to the couch. I plopped down taking my phone out to call the one person I knew would be down for me. If no one had me, Sunset had me. She was my little ride or die chick. Even when I treated her like shit, she was down to ride for a nigga and for that she just might earn herself the MVP status soon. As I popped the top on the bottle of Tylenol with Codeine and inserted one in my mouth, the call flipped to voicemail.
“The fuck?” I called again.
Still nothing. Sunset knew better than to have her phone off when she knew I could call her at any given moment. I called around to the shops too and none of the managers picked up the phone. Bianca said she was going to my shops too but I wanted to hear myself from the managers I put in charge on how everything was going. Everybody was on straight bullshit with me and it was beginning to tear my ass up. If nothing else, Myking was gonna get his for trying to take what was mine.
Chapter 9
The Funeral
Bianca
The rain fell to the ground slow and steady. There was virtually no wind yet the trees swayed to the drops of the rain nestling their leaves. A calm quietness immersed the crowd as the pastor finished his last words giving the mourners an opportunity to dwell on their final moments with the deceased. The rain clouds casted a dark shadow over the city like it was the end of the world. For some of us, staring down at the casket as they lowered it into the ground it surely was the end. For me, it was the end of an era.
Damita hadn’t lived a long and eventful life but she sure did enough in her time on this earth to ruffle a few feathers while she was here. She was dealt a bad hand since she was born and was never able to keep her head above water. But she knew the consequences of living a treacherous life. If you live by the sword, you’ll surely die by one too.
“Baby, you put together a beautiful service here,” Aunt Diana said as she walked up locking me into the tightest bear hug she had ever given me in life. “Thank you for sending my baby out in style. I couldn’t have done it all by myself. The white doves, the beautiful colorful flowers, and the music were all her style. She truly would’ve loved it.”
“Oh, uh, no problem auntie. It was my pleasure to help out. We were so close. It was only right that I help out.” Still cloaked in her embrace, I locked in on Myking chatting it up with momma with Jeremiah making a B-Line for the both of them.
If nothing else, I hoped that those two were going to be able to keep it cordial for the remainder of the day. These past few days Jeremiah had been on bullshit around the house, slamming doors and being overly loud and obnoxious for no damn reason at all. I accepted that he was jealous but he was laying it on a bit thick. I’m sure he thought that he was going to come back up in the house and we would rekindle all the bullshit from our relationship all over again. He had me fucked up. Especially since the last person he fucked was my dead cousin.
Chatting it up with my auntie for a bit, I returned my attention back towards momma watching as she was engaged in a deep conversation with J. Myking had totally disappeared. My eyes searched the crowd but couldn’t find any sign of him. The entire family was here, even the ones we barely spoke to that lived in Mississippi were here. With everyone dressed in black and the rain casting an unimaginable fog, it would be hard to spot anyone out here.
“Excuse me, auntie,” I relieved myself of her to head over to momma and Jeremiah with the quickness. “Hey, did you guys see where Myking went?”
“Maybe he wasn’t man enough to handle all of the sorrow that it took to comfort a strong woman like you and he decided to leave.” Jeremiah licked his lips and shrugged his shoulders after his snide comment.
“You’re gonna do this here? Now?” I asked as momma rolled her eyes then turned to walk off.
“Look, my bad. I’m just still fucked up over this shit, B—“ He paused lowering his eyes and shoving his hands in his suit pocket. “You know what. You’re right. I can’t complain that you left me for him. I fucked up. I’m man enough to admit that shit so I don’t wanna do this shit no more. If you wanna be with him then you be with him. I’m happy for the both of you.”
“Why does that sound like bullshit, J.?”
“Naw, straight up. If you’re happy then I’m happy for you. You deserve to be happy.” It took everything in him to say the words from the cringed expression on his face.
The smallest amount of sympathy shot through my mind for him for a brief minute. He actually sounded sincere about wanting me to be happy. Maybe it just hit him that he was supposed to be the man to give me my happily ever after and he jacked that all up. With all the emotions running through me at the moment, I was caught up in my feelings. It wasn’t supposed to be like this but he made it this way. It was too late for us though. There was nothing else for me to do but shake my head at his ass.
“Thank you, J. I appreciate that,” I replied unable to look him in his eyes for fear of crying at the entire situation. “Have you seen Myking?”
“Naw, I ain’t seen him since he walked off when I was talking to momma. I mean, your momma. Eh, I forgot she won’t be my momma anymore.” He smiled.
Ugh! That man knew what he was doing. He was good at pulling me back into his ass, thinking about him and shit. My mind kept telling me to walk away from him, don’t look him in his eyes. No eye contact. Don’t do it. Don’t fall back in love with his bullshit. He’s a liar, a charmer, and a cheater.
But my heart felt nothing but love for him. It was hard for me to just throw away five years of love for a man you thought you would be with forever. And, as my attention bolted over to the hole in the ground that now held my young cousin, all of the bad emotions came driving daggers back into my bleeding heart.
“I’ve gotta go.” I walked off headed for momma when I looked up noticing Myking standing in the distance talking to someone.
“Bianca, wait,” Jeremiah called after but I kept going.
I tried to focus in on whom Myking was chatting with. I couldn’t see who the person was because Myking’s broad shoulders were in the way. He was much taller than the person he was talking to and it appeared that the person was hiding behind a tree for some reason. My thoughts quickly shifted to it being Sunset.
Damita was her friend so I know she would have liked to pay her last respects to her as well. Only thing was that bitch wasn’t invited. I didn’t give a fuck who she was to my cousin, if she wanted to pay her respects to Damita, she would have to do it on her own time when the dirt had covered her body completely and everyone that mattered had already said their goodbyes.
“Bianca, we’re going to have the repast back at my church. You remember where it is right?” Momma startled me touching my shoulder from behind.
“Yeah, momma. How could I forget? You’ve only been going there half of my life. Christian Fellowship over there on 59th right off Pulaski, right?”
“Yes. They’ve got a nice set up over there waiting for us in the big rec room. Not the little one. That was nice of Pastor Ken wasn’t it?” Tears streamed casually from her eyes.
“Yes it sure was momma. Momma, do you—“
“I just don’t know why this girl chose to live her life on the edge like that. You know? Why did she have to live a destructive life, Bianca?” She wiped her tears with the tattered tissue in her hand.
“I don’t know momma. When you’re grown you choose your own paths and sometimes you have to live or die with whatever consequences come with that.” I rubbed her shoulder soothingly. “It’s gonna be okay momma. She’s not suffering anymore.”
“I know baby. I know. That’s why I feel blessed everyday that I was able to birth you. You’re
such a good girl, baby,” she wept as she hugged me tight.
“Everything okay over here, ladies?” Myking returned rubbing my mother’s back soothingly.
“Oh yes, everything’s just fine Myking. Thank you so much for paying for that beautiful white horse and carriage for Damita. I know that must’ve been very expensive but it was truly the way that princess should’ve went home.” Momma pulled Myking in for an embrace. “Thank you son. Thank you. I know my sister would’ve thanked you but she’s just so terribly stricken with grief right now.”
“It’s the least I could do ma’am. No thanks needed. I’m here for the family in your time of need in anyway possible. So if you ever need anything, anything at all, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.” Myking took both of her hands in his staring her deep in her eyes.
Momma shot him a smile before leaving us heading in Aunt Diana’s direction. The crowd around us was beginning to dissipate, returning to their respective cars either in pursuit of the repast or their homes. Myking pulled me into his chest as they walked by us, holding me so lovingly in his arms. I felt safe, like there was nothing else in the world that I needed but him. Even though I struggled with ridding myself of my feelings for Jeremiah, I knew that with the right man was where I wanted to be.
“Who were you over there talking to baby?” I asked leaning my head off of his chest as he used his index finger to brush away the hair the wind had blown in my face.
“Nobody babe. Just saw someone I knew.”
“Was that somebody Sunset trying to bring her ass to the funeral?” My lips curled up.
“Huh? Naw girl. It wasn’t her. It was just some business I had to handle that couldn’t wait. That’s all.” He licked his lips as his eyes gazed off into the distance. “Don’t worry about that. It’s all business.”