by Coffee
Blu looked long and hard to her left at Eli, but he didn’t return the favor. He was focused on controlling the anger brewing at the pit of his stomach. Seeing her again was like pouring salt into an open wound.
It took several months for him to shake back after she cracked his face, his ego, his heart. But as long as she was out of sight, she was out of mind. However, every unsettled pissed off feeling he hadn’t dealt with, bubbled to the surface just seeing her stanking ass again.
He could feel her pretty browns taunting him and he didn’t like how lopsided the scales of justice were. He didn’t give her the proper payback because if he had, he wouldn’t feel the impulse to lay hands on her to wipe the stupid smirk off of her face.
Blu then looked across the table to La’Tasha and unlike her boyfriend, La’Tasha looked her squarely in the eyes, daringly.
“What are you looking at?” Blu finally spoke up, interrupting the conversation her parents were having. She was tired of La’Tasha eyeing her.
La’Tasha choked on her swallow at the disgruntled look on her sister’s face and then she laughed out loud. “You getting a lil’ sporty in front ya boy, huh?”
“Girls, stop it before it starts!” Lauren looked between them.
“Nah, Mama, forgive me but I’m going to answer her question.” She looked from her mama and back to Blu. “You wanna know what I’m looking at? Well, I’m looking at my sucka for love having sister and my leftovers sweating under his collar as he tries to get through dinner without having to explain the uncomfortable vibes you’re picking up.”
“Leftovers? What do you mean—leftovers? Eli, what is she talking about?” Blu turned toward him.
Langston pinched the bridge of his nose, resting the weight of his head on them. He hated the cattiness between his girls. It was never-ending. “Enough.”
Blu snapped her head toward her father before Eli had the chance to answer her question. “Daddy, I’m tired of her. She can’t stand to see me happy because she’s too jealous hearted. Can’t stomach me having what she doesn’t.”
“Correction, baby girl. I did have him. Ova and ova.” She allowed the words to roll off of her lips slowly and sensually.
“What did you say?” Blu scrunched her face.
Lauren over-talked Blu and questioned La’Tasha as well. “Why are you doing this? This is family dinner, not a family feud.”
“Ma, why am I always the one charged up? Your child the one huffing and puffing over there. Check her!” La’Tasha despised how her little sister was protected by her parents under any and all circumstances. She was always the sinner and her goodie two shoes of a sister was always the saint.
While La’Tasha was stating her case, she didn’t notice Blu getting out of her seat and rushing up on her. She pushed the back of her head with her pointing finger. “No. You check me.”
With her head still facing her mom, La’Tasha chuckled. “Trust me. You don’t want that.”
Elias and Langston immediately stood up from their seats but Eli walked up on Blu, tugging at her arm. “She tryna get a rise up outcha but don’t let her. Let’s just be out.”
Ignoring Eli, Blu openly admitted her true feelings. “I can’t stand you! You’re selfish and mean spirited and if mama and daddy weren’t sitting right here, I’d spit in your face.”
La’Tasha rose to her feet and Eli switched positions with Blu so that he stood in the middle of them.
La’Tasha looked past Eli and over to Blu. “The day you do that is the day you’ll know what an ass whippin’ feel like.”
Blu tried to push past Eli’s but was met with resistance. “Step outside and try me.”
Langston slammed his hand on the table. “I said enough, goddammit!”
“But, Daddy, she started—” La’Tasha pointed at Blu.
“But Daddy my ass. This here is gon’ stop—today!”
“Why you gotta look at me when you say that as if little Miss Princess don’t deserve—” Her words faded to nothing as she listened to Eli coach Blu to a calm.
“Sister or not, she ain’t worth getting all worked up over, ya heard me.” Elias looked down at Blu as he rubbed the sides of her arms up and down in a consoling manner.
Disregarding her father’s order to put an end to their arguing, she started back up again. “Oh, I may not be worth it to her but I damn sure was worth it to you, remember? I was your Dark N Lovely, the woman you once fiend for. Remember you were so in love with me that you bought me diamonds and other expensive toys to prove it? I don’t know but either I was worth it then, or juicy had you crazy.” She doubled patted her lower abdomen to represent her sex.
Blu’s face turned from I’ma get in her ass to How could you, Eli?
Elias read her disappointment. In all of the months he’d been knowing her, he never seen her hurt—until now.
He found La’Tasha’s outburst unnecessary and he knew she only did it to be spiteful. He didn’t know what to tell her. All he could do was shake his head as her tears began to fall.
She didn’t need to find out this way, he thought.
Blu’s shoulders sunk at the sound of La’Tasha’s confession and her body deflated in his arms. Her eyes marbled all over the place as she searched for a comeback she didn’t have. Then she looked at Eli’s hands on her. “Let me go!” She pulled away from his hold and stepped back.
Lauren looked over at her husband who was unmistakably annoyed and then to a laughing La’Tasha.
Ha! Ha! Ha! “Wittle baby mad?” Ha! Ha! Ha!
“Oh, you bitch!” Elias had enough of her taunting and he snapped. He turned around to face La’Tasha and unconsciously found his hands wrapped around her throat, shaking her furiously as he tightened his squeeze.
Aarrgghh! La’Tasha’s tongue projected out of her mouth as she gagged.
“Eli!” Blu instinctually shouted for him to let up off of her sister. Her and La’Tasha would never be bffs but she was still family and she didn’t want to see her harmed.
Langston pushed Blu out of the way to clear his path to Eli and placed him in a choker in an effort to make him in turn release his child but Eli maintained his hold. “Let her go!” His voice resounded in the room.
“Oh, my God! Stop it!” Lauren cried. She became overly excited at the commotion going on in front of her.
Grandma LuLu lifted her eyes from her plate but carried on eating her meal. She was too old to care about the ruckus taking place at the opposite end of the table.
“Daddy! He can’t breathe.” Blu went from trying to pry Eli’s hands away from La’Tasha to pulling at her father’s sturdy clamp around Eli’s neck. “Everyone stoppppp!”
No one listened. La’Tasha was gasping and clawing at Eli’s weakening hands while Eli was losing consciousness from his own lack of air. She looked over to her father who was calling for Eli to put a stop his assault as he tried jerking Eli backwards and away from La’Tasha, holding his neck hostage in the cross of his arm.
“Mama, do something!” Blu frantically ran up to her as she pointed over to the melee before running back to the fighting trio. “Eli,” she tried reasoning with her eyes. “Elias! Eli—” Her words trailed off.
Several uncomfortable seconds passed and Elias still hadn’t responded.
Suddenly, Elias jolted back to reality as he finally registered that his name was being called. He was stunned to silence the moment he saw it was La’Tasha standing behind him. He was thrown for a loop and an instant visualization popped in his mind of how the evening could turn out for everybody if she played the game raw.
He then looked to Blu and saw her lips move in slow motion but he still couldn’t make out what she was saying.
“You know my sister?” Blu wore a surprised look on her face.
Blu snapped her fingers in front of his face to fully grab his attention and pull him from whatever trance he was in. “Eli?”
Of all the women I could have settled down with, he thought. He blinked hard and sho
ok his head as if it would straighten out his feelings. “My bad, Blu. Nah, what was you asking me?”
“I asked if you knew my sister.” Her eyebrows crumpled as she repeated herself. She couldn’t help but notice the sudden artic change in his demeanor. It made her look at him crossly. “Are you okay?”
“Yea, I’m straight.” He forged a smile and then replied, “Yea to your question.”
“Okay. How?”
“I know her from the salon. Yah goes there and I’ve been with her a time or two.”
“Oh.” The answer seemed to appease her. “Well, Labelle, this is my charming boyfriend. Boyfriend, this is one of my sisters.”
Elias swiftly nodded his head upward. He didn’t want to do that, but it was better than flipping her the bird and setting it off. He then leaned over to her and spoke into her ear. “Why you call her Labelle?”
Blu giggled and whispered, “Because she acts like a diva.”
Fitting, Eli thought.
Breaking up the shoo shoo’n between them, La’Tasha interjected. “Yea? So, how long have y’all two been hooking up?”
Blu twisted her lips. “I said nothing about hooking up. This is a relationship. Thank you very much.”
“Have it your way. How long have you been in a re-la-tion-ship?” La’Tasha said the words retardedly slow.
“I said I wanted to introduce you to my guy not sit through one of your interrogations. So save it.” Blu knew where her snootiness was going so she nipped it in the bud.
“Calm down. It ain’t that serious.” La’Tasha rolled her eyes.
“Girls, stop it before it starts.” Lauren looked between them.
Elias looked over to their mother as if he’d seen a ghost when she said the exact words he heard her say in his vision.
Déjà fuckin’ vu.
Chapter 4
Samiyah agitatedly looked at the time on her cell phone’s screen. It read: 6:00 PM. They’d been there all day and the run around feeling the staff appeared to be giving them was wearing her thin. She blew out her frustration and glanced over at her husband who was sitting beside her, looking equally annoyed.
“Damn! How much longer?” She was becoming extremely anxious, as was Gerran.
She understood worse things could have been wrong with her angel but even a mild fever would have been cause to ring the alarm in her mind. Lil’ Acacia was the miracle child that made it unlike the other pregnancies, so there was no way she was willing to take anything concerning her daughter lightly.
“This is messing with my nerves, yea.” Gerran cracked his knuckles every few minutes that passed as they sat in waiting.
Samiyah placed her hand over his to stop his anxious jitter. Anytime he was antsy, he fidgeted. So in an effort to give them a more positive vibe, she changed the topic.
“How did you feel when the doctor told us about the baby surprise I’m carrying?”
Gerran’s shoulders instantly relaxed and a smile crept up on his face. “It blew my mind in a good way, ya heard me. I’m kinda hoping for a boy this time. Name him after me. He’ll be my Lil’ Gee.” He placed his hand on the small pooch of a stomach their child left behind.
For a tender moment, they relished in the bliss of the new bundle until the door creaked open and snapped them back to the reason they were there. Both Gerran and Samiyah shot up from their seated position.
The nurse stepped into the room. “Thank you all for being so patient with me. I have the results here in my folder.” She took a seat behind her desk. “Please, sit down,” she offered.
“We’re good. Just tell us what do we do now?” Gerran was anxious to set things in motion.
Fifteen years of being a nurse still wasn’t enough preparation to deliver bad news to her patients or their care takers. She sighed and then clasped her hands together. “After reviewing everything twice, I’m afraid you won’t be a candidate to donate blood for baby Babineaux, sir.”
“Why not? What’s wrong?” He felt a pang in his heart.
Samiyah was in a state of shock. She needed to know what was really going on with the treatment of their baby. “What are you talking about?”
Confusion rested firmly on both her and Gerran’s faces.
The nurse looked very uncomfortable but then she spoke, “Tests came back and the results show you’re not a match.”
“What are you saying, lady?” Gerran’s initial woeful look turned menacing.
“Sorry to say this, but sir, you’re not the father.”
“I’m not the what?” Gerran’s response came almost immediately after the words left her mouth. He looked off to the side with creased brows, attempting to process the lie his heart felt she told.
Samiyah’s mouth flung open. She was one hundred percent stunned.
The nurse’s face saddened as she observed the couple handle the news differently but she had to continue with her next recourse for plan of treatment.
“Mr. and Mrs. Babineaux, I understand you all need time to process this and I don’t want to seem insensitive but if we can discuss—”
Gerran walked up on the nurse and snatched the manila folder out of her hand, startling her. “Show me where it says I’m not the father because I don’t believe you.”
“Sir, I’m going to ask you to step back and calm down, please.”
Gerran didn’t budge. He wanted proof that the little girl he sung to in broken pitch while she was baking in his wife’s womb wasn’t his child. He needed to know he wasn’t a fool by embracing another man’s family under false claims. It had to be an inaccurate reading. It had to be.
She became alarmed when she saw a mixture of devastation, confusion and brooding anger etch across his face. One side of her felt heartbroken while the other half feared what the now emotionally unstable man would do.
Samiyah fell weak and staggered backwards into her seat. One hand covered her mouth and the other her stomach when she thought what this could mean to her growing family. She then probed her mind for the answer she was certain her husband was going to demand from her. She felt sick and the unavoidable urge to vomit came gushing forward.
Bluh! Aaarrgh! Bluh!
While Samiyah spilled her guts, the nurse took the opportunity to slip out of her office while Gerran changed his focus and looked at the repulsive fluids pouring from her mouth and onto the floor.
She wiped the remnants off of her lips and started crying before she looked up. She knew he was staring at her and she was right.
Suddenly the initial shock of Lil’ Acacia not being his settled in his mind. “You knew I wasn’t the father, didn’t you?” She didn’t answer quickly enough, so he jabbed at the wall next to him, causing her to jump. “Didn’t you?”
Samiyah shook her head no, but she knew he wasn’t going to believe her. His eyes told her so. “I—I thought she hee—hee was yours.” She hyperventilated through her response.
He stooped down close enough to her face to kiss her. “Bullshit!”
Samiyah’s head jerked backwards at the boom of his voice as her hand wiped away the spittle that flew from his mouth.
He then stepped back and began pacing the floor anxiously. “So who the daddy? Is she Cedric’s?”
Samiyah opened and closed her mouth as she took feeble attempts to release her words. She shook her head no as her response. “Gerran, I’m sorry.”
“Damn, Yah. Well, who the fuck is, then?” Gerran shouted loud enough for others outside of the office to hear him clearly.
Just then the nurse returned with security. “Mr. Babineaux, you’re being disruptive and this is a hospital!” She needlessly reminded as she pointed outside into the hallway at inquisitive employees and visitors. “I’m going to ask for you to leave.”
He ignored the nurse and continued drilling Samiyah. “Who is he?”
“That’s enough, sir. “Ronnie?” She looked over to the guard so he could intervene and escort Gerran off of the premises.
“Let’s go.” The youn
g man motioned for Gerran to walk out on his own.
When Gerran didn’t budge, Ronnie touched his elbow to help him along. He jecked his arm back. “Don’t touch me, dawg.”
“Well, let’s go,” Ronnie reiterated.
Gerran walked up on him, staring him in his eyes, but Ronnie stood his ground not flinching at the intimidating glare glowing from Gerran’s orbs.
Gerran curled his lips tightly in the same manner his broken heart twisted. Then suddenly he looked back at a crying Samiyah, became disgusted and stormed out of the room, bumping shoulders with Ronnie as he did.
“Make certain he leaves the hospital grounds.” The nurse instructed.
”Okay.” Ronnie followed behind him to ensure he’d leave.
The nurse then reached for three sheets of Kleenex from her desk and handed them to Samiyah. “Let’s step into a different office. We must discuss another viable plan for the baby’s treatment.”
***
Elias couldn’t shake off the premonition he was feeling. He didn’t know if he should or even how to tell Blu that the dog bitch he referred to as Cujo, the woman he openly admitted loving, was her sister.
“Whoever this Cujo person is really did a number on you because you really got it bad. The way you hate her wouldn’t surprise me if you still loved her.” Blu sat Indian style on the floor in front of Eli as he laid stretched out on the carpet, humming to the song playing on FM 98.
He turned his head to face her before looking back up toward the ceiling. “Get yo mind right, lil’ one. I don’t have two fucks to give that broad. If she was on fire, I’d drink my own piss before whippin’ it in her direction to put it out. She’d be well the fuck done waiting on me to give a damn.”
She pushed her finger into his side. “See what I mean? Who you tryna convince? Me or you? I say if she called you right now and apologized for being a jerk face, you’d take her back, ASAP.”
Still looking up and into nothingness, he impulsively responded. “How can I want fuck face when I want you?” His eyes curiously drew inward as soon as the words left his mouth. ‘Where da fuck that shit came from?’ he thought.