by B. Love
“What’s wrong with you?”
She inhaled a deep breath, not wanting to come off as irritated as she was. “Nothing. I was just on the phone when you called.”
“With who?”
Her eyes rolled. “Nash.”
Silence lingered for a few seconds as she merged into the left lane. “The fuck he want?”
“Actually, I called him. I’ve been missing him.”
Tyrell chuckled, and the clicking sound that signaled Nash hung up made Christian beat her head against the headrest.
“What you missing him for when you got me?”
“My relationship with you is nothing like my friendship with Nash. They aren’t on the same level. He gives me things you never have and probably never will, so yea, I miss him.”
“If that’s the case, marry that nigga then,” Tyrell gritted before disconnecting the call.
Christian’s nostrils flared as she tightened her grip on the steering wheel. She didn’t even have the energy to go back and forth with Tyrell, or even call Nash back.
The remainder of her drive to Trent’s school, Christian considered Nash’s statement. How would it feel if he pursued her? Was he capable of taking her from Tyrell? Was she capable of loving and being loved by him? How big of a mistake was she making by settling with Tyrell? Would this be something she regretted years from now?
As she watched Trent walk to her car, Christian forced a smile and kept telling herself to get out of her head. She told herself that if Nash really wanted to take her, he would have tried by now. He was more than likely talking shit just for the sake of talking shit. Weeks had passed since the last time they talked… maybe he was just caught up in the moment.
And Tyrell would eventually calm down and be okay. It didn’t matter how jealous he was of her friendship with Nash at this point because it was over now.
“What’s up?” she greeted, throwing her purse onto the back seat as Trent got into the front.
“What’s up, sis?”
“How was school?”
Trent shrugged as he buckled his seatbelt. “It was okay.”
Christian handed him her phone so he could choose the music they would listen to on the ride to the mall. There had definitely been a change within him. Not so much a manly change, as if he and the girl had gone all the way. But he was smaller in spirit. As if he was covered with shame or embarrassment from being caught with her. Christian didn’t have all the details, and she didn’t want them, honestly. The only reason she agreed to talk to Trent was to make sure he was straight — not to make him feel bad about what he’d done.
That wasn’t and would never be her place.
She did, however, want him to know that she saw him.
If anyone knew what it felt like to feel unseen during their childhood, it was her.
And that invisibility could come from a lack of a person’s presence or a lack of their understanding.
When they made it to the mall, they went to the food court first. Wanting to give Trent her undivided attention, she put her phone on do not disturb. But before she did, she couldn’t help but check to see if Nash had texted her since he hung up the phone.
He hadn’t.
With a sigh, Christian put her phone in her purse and asked Trent what he wanted to eat. Christian gave him a twenty-dollar bill for the Chick-fil-A he desired, deciding on Steak Escape for herself. His head was hung, and Christian couldn’t resist lifting it by his chin and giving him a wink.
“Keep that head high. You are a Prince.”
Trent blushed as he pushed his shoulders back a little further and walked away.
Chuckling softly with pride, Christian watched until he made it to the line, then she turned and started heading in the opposite direction.
Settling into her seat across from Trent, she wondered if she should wait a moment or dive right in. She wasn’t used to having these types of conversations with such a young person. And when she did, she was around their age herself. The siblings that she had that were around Trent’s age weren’t coming to her for things like this. Christian used to complain about it, but as her palms and underarms began to sweat with an increase in her heartbeat over what to say… she would never do that again!
“You wanna talk about it?” she asked, sticking her straw into her drink.
His head shook. “Not really. I don’t understand what the problem is. Me and Ty had the sex talk, and when I was finally about to have sex, everybody wants to throw a fuc—a fit.”
Christian smiled as she dipped her fry in the ketchup and mayo mixture she asked for. “Well, sex isn’t bad, but sex at your age can lead to a lot of bad consequences. That’s why her parents and your mom and brother are so upset. You’re super young, and that’s a very adult choice to make.
She could have gotten pregnant or anything, and how would you two finish school and raise a baby at thirteen?” Trent shrugged as he popped a nugget into his mouth. His head shook, and Christian knew he wouldn’t answer because he was thinking about what she said. “You really like her, huh?” He nodded. “Is that how you thought you had to show her?” He nodded again. “Why?”
Trent took a sip of his lemonade and sat up in his seat. “Because that’s what my friends talk about. I just thought that’s what we were supposed to do to show each other our love.”
His confession brought tears to her eyes because he reminded her of Leigh. Her experiences with men were toxic as hell because of that way of thinking. The first man that was supposed to show her love, their father, left. After him, her first boyfriend convinced her that if he loved her, she would give him her virginity. Since then, she’d been associating sex with love. And even though in her mind, she may have known now that that was wrong, it was a habit she’d picked up and practiced at this point for years.
“Well… first… I don’t want you to ever feel bullied into anything by peer pressure. I can promise you the main knuckleheads that are trying to force you to get your little dingaling wet, haven’t been close to any woman’s pussy other than their momma.”
Trent reared back with laughter, even though Christian was dead ass serious. Taking a pause, she tried to think of a PG-13 way to say what she wanted to say, but hell, was that necessary at this point?
“If you want to be a leader, a boss, your own man, you gotta make your own choices and decisions and not be swayed by the thoughts, words, or actions of anyone else. That includes your friends and your family. You can allow those that truly love you and have your best interest at heart to guide you, but at the end of the day, that final decision has to be yours — because you’re the one that will have to deal with the consequences of your actions.”
Trent nodded in understanding.
“Have you ever had sex before, Trent?” He shook his head. “Do you want to have sex with her?”
He shook his head again.
“No. I’m not interested in that yet. I just really like her. I like spending time with her. Eating lunch with her. Texting her. Walking her to class. Stuff like that.”
Christian smiled sweetly. “So why don’t both of you just do that for now? And maybe… five years from now…”
“Fiveeee?”
Her head tilted and eyes squinted as she laughed. “Yeah, lil nigga! Five!”
“Mane…” Trent shook his head and laughed himself. “Aight, five.”
With a roll of her eyes, Christian allowed her chuckle to die down. “Five years from now, you can see what sex is all about. But don’t let a motherfucker try to force you to do anything you don’t want to do. If they try, they aren’t your real friend. Just come and get Big Sis and I’ll handle they asses, aight?”
Trent smiled as he stood and walked over to her to hug her neck. “You can always come to me and talk to me about anything, Trent. No matter what, okay?”
He inhaled a deep breath and nodded as he squeezed her tighter. “Thanks, Chris.”
“Always.”
Trent returned to his sea
t, sitting taller. His eyes were wider. And he was talking like his normal self again.
When they were done eating, they walked around the mall and stopped in a few stores. Their last stop was Finish Line. Christian would have preferred Journeys, but Finish Line was Trent’s request. As he looked the shoes over, Christian pulled her phone out to check and see if she had any calls or text messages. She didn’t, but she did have an email from Audré. It was in code, but she knew that was her sister’s way of letting her know they needed to talk business ASAP.
Since Christian had no idea what it could be about, she kept her eyes on Trent as she called Audré right away.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Got your email. What’s up?”
“I don’t know how legit this is, but we got a huge potential order. This woman wants a thousand of the mini Trippy Chippy Chocolate Chip cookies. I’ve never seen or heard of her before, and she didn’t know the exact name of it. She said her cousin had one before and she wants to get them for her wedding.”
The edibles Christian sold had different names from her regular baked goods. They were never promoted, and she only received new customers from referrals from old customers. The woman was asking for a lot, and since it was for a wedding, it could be legit, but Christian hadn’t gotten as far as she did by not being careful.
Trippy Chippy cookies had the highest THC count of any other product she had. Even the mini cookies. One mini cookie was the equivalent of one and a half blunts of Ransom’s highest strain.
“Okay. I need you to call her and find out who her cousin is. If it’s not someone we know and sell to regularly, cancel her order. If it is, get all her details, along with a deposit.”
“Got you, sis. One.”
“One.”
As Christian disconnected the call, she asked Trent, “You like those?” referring to the blue, purple, and white Nikes in his hand.
“They aight. Some about them is off.”
“I agree. What about those Pumas? Same color scheme, but since it’s darker, it looks a little better.”
Trent followed the direction of her pointed finger and his eyes lit up. “Ooh. Sis got a lil’ sauce. These are fye as hell.”
“Boy!”
“My bad.”
Trent chuckled as he picked the shoes up. The bell on the door chimed, signaling someone was entering. Christian looked back to see who it was, because she’d been taught to always be aware of who and what was surrounding her. Her eyes remained trained on the woman as she walked in holding a little boy’s hand. Both of them looked familiar, but Christian couldn’t place where she’d seen either of them at before.
“Can I try these on?” Trent checked.
“Yea, sure.”
He walked over to the counter towards the associate as the woman and boy headed in her direction. The longer she looked into the woman’s face, the more convinced she was that she knew her. The woman smiled, and Christian’s head tilted.
“He’s got you on step mommy duty already, I see.”
Scratching the back of her neck, Christian looked from the woman to the little boy again. His features were so familiar. The milk chocolate skin. Rectangle-shaped head. Wide nose. Maybe she followed the woman on social media and had seen him on her page before. But that didn’t explain the woman’s comment.
“You must have me confused with someone else.”
Her head shook as she placed her hand on top of the boy’s head and pulled him into her side. “No, I don’t. You fuck with Tyrell, don’t you?” Her head lowered to Christian’s left hand, where the ring Tyrell gave her was sitting pretty.
“Who are you?”
She smiled as she looked down at the little boy. “Fallon.”
The light bulb went off in Christian’s head. Her eyes widened and she smiled in realization of who the woman was standing in front of her. Fallon was one of the women Tyrell had blocked from her page. Finally, she had the chance to see and talk to her face to face.
When the situation first went down, Christian didn’t want to talk to any of them, or the women at Crazy Crabs for that matter. If Tyrell was on some bullshit, she wanted to find out when the time was right, not because she went looking for trouble. Christian wasn’t sure if this was her sign of trouble or the way to have total peace going into their marriage. Either way, she couldn’t wait to hear what Fallon had to say.
“So what’s up, Fallon? You obviously have something on your chest. Gone and get it off.”
Fallon smiled. “I don’t have anything to say. Tyrell will tell you I’m lying anyway. I just can’t believe he has you on stepmom duty already. Y’all only been engaged for what… a few weeks?”
Christian was starting to see why Tyrell didn’t want her or any other women from his past talking to his present partners. It was crazy how people would lie to try and destroy a person’s relationship. She knew good and damn well Trent was Tyrell’s brother, so the fact that Fallon was lying about that already, had her unable to believe anything else that came out of her mouth.
“Trent is not Tyrell’s son; he’s his brother. What else you got for me?”
Fallon sighed as she smiled and looked towards the ceiling. When she looked down, she said, “TJ, go sit on that bench.” With a nod, the little boy did as she said.
Fallon crossed her arms over her chest as she returned her eyes to Christian.
“I know Trent is Tyrell’s son because I’m his mother.”
As Leigh looked out of her peephole and saw Ransom’s side profile, she froze. She wasn’t expecting him to pop up at her place. True enough, he’d been calling her since she asked for him to call her, but Leigh had been ignoring all of his calls. For the past three days, she’d locked herself inside of her home, trying to decide her next move.
She never thought there would come a time where she would ignore Ransom’s calls, but until she knew what she would do about their baby, she figured that would be for the best. Taking a step back from the door, Leigh inhaled a deep breath and ran her hands down her bone straight hair. She looked down at what she was wearing — his t-shirt and a pair of pink fuzzy socks — and chuckled.
When Leigh opened the door, she smiled. “Hey.”
“What’s up?”
That voice. Those eyes. Her smile widened.
“Everything okay?”
“That’s what I’m trying to see. I’ve been calling and you ain’t been answering, so I had to pull up.” Her eyes lowered to the Kroger plastic bags in his hands. “I talked to Maria earlier, she said you haven’t been feeling good.”
“And what?” Her eyes returned to his. “You’re here to take care of me?”
Ransom shrugged. “If you let me.”
Unsure of his motives and intentions, Leigh leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms over her chest. It was March, so it wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t hot, either. More like a warm cool. Her legs were a little cold, but not enough for her to rush and let him inside so she could close the door.
“Why would you want to do that? You’ve made it clear that you don’t want to be with me, or even talk to me for that matter.”
Ransom’s head tilted. His soft smile was enough to warm her like butter. As much as Leigh didn’t want him to see the effect he still had on her, she bit down on her lip as she smiled.
“Because I’m not sure if you’re really sick or you’re fucked up over losing me. You spoiled as hell…”
“You made me this way,” she interrupted quickly, to which he nodded and chuckled.
“That’s true.” His smile fell. “That’s why I’m here.”
As Leigh began to come around to the idea more, she sighed and looked up towards the darkened night sky. Before she found out she was pregnant, having Ransom take care of her would have been a dream come true. That was literally all she wanted when she went to her grandmother’s house. Now that she knew why she was sick…
“Will your girl be okay with that? I don’t want to cause probl
ems between you two.”
“We’re not together anymore… Leigh!”
“What,” she yelled through her giggle. Covering her cheeks, she tried her hardest not to smile and laugh, but she couldn’t help herself.
“I tell you I ain’t with my girl and you happy about the shit?”
“What you want me to be? Sad?”
He chuckled again, tightening his grip on the bags in his arms. “You could at least fake like you’re concerned.”
Her head shook as she pushed herself off the doorframe. “You know that ain’t my style. For real, though, if you’re sad, I’m sad. I wanted you to be happy and at peace, so if she gave you that and it’s over… I really hate to hear that. What happened?”
Ransom looked over her head as he licked his lips. “I broke it off because… the whole time I was with her… I kept thinking about and comparing her to you.” His eyes lowered to hers, and they were more serious. “Kept wondering why she was doing and saying all the shit I wished I could get and hear from you. That wasn’t healthy. I realized I wasn’t really over you, and I didn’t want to hurt her because I was still hurtin’ over you.
So I decided that we should just cool it for a minute. We moved fast as hell because I was excited to have a woman who was on the same page as me. I don’t need to be with her or anyone else until I get your ass out my system.”
Leigh started to remind him that once she was in… she was in. She wanted to question why he felt the need to get over her when she was finally ready to give him what he asked of her. Instead of doing any of those things, she stepped to the side and allowed him entrance. Once Ransom was inside of her home, she closed and locked the door behind him.
A huge grin covered her face as she followed him to the kitchen, but it fell when she thought about their baby sharing the same space as them. Being taken care of by Ransom for the night should have given her relief… but it was actually causing her nerves to rattle.
“So how you feeling?” he asked, setting the bags on the counter. “For real?”