by J Peach
They all looked at me and I just broke out laughing. “Y’all bitches stupid. Stop looking at me, damn.”
“Blaze,” they said in unison.
“Y’all are so childish, ugh.” I complained but ended up laughing again.
“Oh, my damn. When? She’s most definitely glowing.” Ebony said, smiling.
Missy snorted loudly. “That glow ain’t got shit to do with her getting fuck’d good. I been saying she was glowing but ain’t nobody wanted to pay any attention.”
“Missy, shut the fuck up, damn, irritating ass.” I snapped at her.
“I’m just saying. Good dick ain’t the reason you’re glowing. That’s the baby, but I’ll drop it before yo ass start crying. You do need to tell him, Peach.” Missy suggested before she started laughing at my glaring face.
“I don’t need to tell him shit because I’m not pregnant. You need to stop saying that shit too.” Missy was really starting to piss me off with implying that I was pregnant. I had taken two test to prove I wasn’t.
Hell, Missy almost had me convinced I was with her damn nagging and pointing out my weight gain, that I had noticed, but the tests came back negative both times, which I was happy for. I just wasn’t ready for a baby right then. Especially not with Blaze’s stanking ass.
“Miss, leave her alone, damn. Peach, you know she stupid as hell, so I don’t know why you let her get you worked up.” Angel mugged Missy before elbowing her.
“She know I’m just picking, kinda anyways. Those tests could be defective, I’m just saying, Peach. But I’m letting it go. So tell me, how was he? Ooh, did you suck his dick?” Missy suddenly blurted out loudly, causing a few heads to turn our way.
The girls broke out laughing at her bluntness. That was just Missy. She simply couldn’t help herself. I couldn’t be mad at her. I too started laughing.
“No, I didn't suck —”
“Bitch, you better show his ass you can suck a dick now. I bet that cucumber love yo ass! Show Blaze you can now swallow his man whole!” Missy joked again, making us laugh.
“No, I didn’t suck him. Shid, Blaze ass did everything. Y’all, he wore my ass out. I love having sex with B. I’ll throw this ass back on him in a minute. But, oh baby, not last night. Shid, every time I threw it back, that mothafucka went harder. Not even gon’ lie, I couldn’t hang. I was trying to push his ass back, but that nigga was all up in my shit. Y’all, I fell in love with his dick all over again.” The girls started laughing. “Y’all, I’m so freaking serious right now. Like, that’s all I can think about. His body on mine. His pelvis slapping against mine. My head is so gone on him right now and I don’t know what to do. I don’t like it. What if his ass ain’t serious? I’m not ready to take that leap of faith when I know how he is and I know he’ll lie to me. This is so stressful,” I explained. And now with Blake being in the picture, my head was so jumbled up.
“Peach, nobody said you have to rush back into things with him. I mean, you told him your feelings on y’all being together right now and he understood. He probably fuck’d yo ass so good because he missed you. Make up sex, you know? Don’t think too much on being in a relationship with him right now and let it play itself out. If it’s meant to be, then it will be. But shid, once you suck his dick, my nigga gon’ wanna wife you up real quick. Shid, he might even flip thinking you’ve been suckin’ another nigga instead of practicing on that cucumber.” Kim laughed.
She had a good point and I was going to take her advice regarding our relationship. The ending bit of what she said had me laughing. I could literally picture Blaze going off on me, thinking I had sucked some other dude’s dick.
I had practiced with that cucumber for a good month with my girls trying to suppress my gag reflexes. I was nervous about sucking him but at the same time excited about it.
“You right, Kim. I’m just going to go with the flow of things. If it was meant to be, then it will be. If not, so be it. No love lost in the end.” I shrugged.
“What about Jerron?” Angel questioned again.
A part of me was glad I didn’t jump in a relationship with him because deep down I truly couldn’t be trusted when it came to Blaze. But it was the same thing with Jerron.
I was happy that we had an understanding and he knew me, which is why he never pushed for a relationship. He was basically letting me come to him if it was what I wanted.
I opened my mouth to speak my thoughts but the ringing and vibrating of my phone stopped me. “Hold on.” I held up my finger to them and answered my phone. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Who is that?” Angel asked and I gave her a funky look. “Oh, that’s dope dick,” she said all loud and shit.
I started laughing, “Bitch, you stupid, shut up.” I got up and left out the restaurant to talk in private.
“Who was that? Yo black ass friend?” Blaze asked and I popped my lips. “I’m playing, but aye I need you to meet me at yo boy’s crib real quick.”
My brows furrowed in confusion. “Jerron’s place?”
“Who else, Peach? Yeah man. I’ll be there in about ten minutes. Get there before I do.” He hung up the phone.
I was even more confused now. It had to be some shit. I went back into restaurant and started grabbing my stuff. “Y’all, I have to go. I don’t know what the hell is about to happen but I’ll call y’all as soon as I get to—” Shid, I didn’t know where I was staying tonight. I knew I couldn’t stay at Jerron’s place after having sex with Blaze and I wasn’t ready to be at my moms’ place just yet. “I’ll call y’all when I get to where I’m staying.”
They laughed at my discreteness.
“Just call when you get to Blaze’s place and make sure you tell him why yo ass been so fuckin’ emotional lately!” Missy called after me.
I choose to ignore her stupid ass as I left out the restaurant. I hopped in my car and headed to Jerron’s house.
***
I used my key to get inside of Jerron’s place and as soon as I stepped in the house, all I heard was loud voices talking over each other before something clashed, breaking. “What the hell?” I quickly took the stairs, two at time, until I got to Jerron’s room and threw the door opened.
As soon as I walked in, King was holding Leon and Khyree had Blaze. Both men were screaming at each other.
“Khyree, let me the fuck go! King, let that bitch go! Come on, nigga, boss. You got the right one, G! I’ll kill you and yo bitch ass brother. Fuck with me!” Blaze snapped at Leon.
“What the hell is going on? What happened?” I stared at Blaze, giving him a quick once over to make sure he was okay, he was. I looked over at Jerron to see him on the floor. The wound on his shoulder began bleeding. “Oh, my God, Jerron!” I ran to him. “What the fuck is going on?” I repeated since no one answered the first time.
“Ask that bitch ass nigga?” Blaze spat out. He was pissed.
“No, you tell me what happened?” If anyone was going to keep it real with me regardless of my feelings, it was going to be Blaze. So, I wanted to hear it from him.
“Khyree, let me the fuck go! I ain’t gon’ touch that nigga, man,” said Blaze.
I knew he was lying; that eagerness to fight was all over his face and in his eyes. Khyree was right to hold him.
“Blaze, chill for a second, alright? Now what’s going on? Both of you just calm down. Leon, come help me get Jerron up. Khyree, can you help?” I waved them both over.
King let Leon go first and he came to his brother’s side. Khyree did the same and Blaze made a move our way but I was already up and going to him.
“B, calm down. What’s going on?” I asked for the umpteenth time.
Blaze jerked away from me and went to the couch and grabbed a picture then pushed it into my chest.
Sighing, I said nothing just looked at the photo. “What the fuck?” I mumbled lowly as I stared at Jerron and Cornell under the St. Louis Arch.
“Same shit I’m saying,” Blaze started.
“Blaze, s
hut up—”
“No, you shut the fuck up! But you know this bitch ass nigga though? You trust his ass, right? Fuck outda here with that bullshit!” He snapped at me.
I turned around to glare at him, before taking a deep breath and focusing back on Jerron. “Ron, what is this?” I held the picture up to him.
Jerron brows furrowed in confusion before he looked at Blaze, mugging hard. “This why you came in here acting fuckin’ stupid?” he snapped at Blaze like the picture was nothing. But it was a picture of him and the nigga who had shot him.
“Why are you in the picture with him?” I asked slowly. I could not understanding his calm demeanor.
“Cornell? That’s Monica’s little brother. He came to visit us when we moved out there. If his dumbass wanted to know that, all he had to do was ask, stupid mothafucka,” he spat.
“Blaze, you didn’t ask him or show him the picture?” I questioned.
“Hell n’all, he didn’t. That mothafucka came in here and rushed me then jumped on Ron,” said Leon, who was very pissed.
“I didn’t need to. That nigga know what the fuck his ass is involved in.” Blaze snapped off. I had to rub my forehead, he was helpless.
“What’s wrong with Cornell?” Jerron asked with that same confused look on his face.
“He’s the one that shot you.” I explained slowly.
He started laughing. “Cornell’s little bitch ass ain’t shoot no damn body. That nigga scared to touch a fuckin’ gun. Now if you said he stole from me, I’d believe that. You hear this shit, Leon?” He laughed.
“Ron, I’m not playing. I shot him because he shot you.” Again, my words left my mouth slowly.
He stopped laughing and looked me over. His head tilted. “That bitch! She got her brother to try and kill me?” Jerron was just as clueless as we were.
“Have you talked to her since you’ve been back?” I asked him.
“N’all, I ain’t talked to her since she left St. Louis. I don’t even know how she knew I was back.” He looked at Leon and he shrugged. “But why the fuck she trying to kill me?” he questioned.
“You did say when you told her about us she kinda went crazy.” I reminded. “Wait, Blaze how did you get that picture?” I turned to face him.
“I went to Cornell’s crib and found it. Whoever was with him that night didn’t call about his ass missing. I took everything I saw. He was crazy about you, Peach. That nigga had pictures and videos of you. He’s the one who got into your apartment and set up those cameras. I wish I could’ve killed that mothafucka, G. I would’ve made that shit long and painful.” Blaze shivered as he grabbed his crouch.
My brow raised at that. This nigga was really crazy. “Where’s the stuff from his apartment?” My hand ran over my head. This shit was getting crazier the more we found out. I don’t think I wanted to know anymore.
“In the truck, let’s go get it.” He didn’t give me a chance to reply as he grabbed my arm and started pulling me out the room.
“Blaze, I can walk.” I tried to pull away from him but he wasn’t letting go. “Blaze, let go of me.” Once we got outside to his truck, he roughly pushed me against the side of the truck and opened the back door.
He had papers and photos everywhere.
“Do he have kids?” Blaze was talking but wasn’t paying too much attention to what he was really doing.
“I don’t know. He never mentioned it. Why?” He didn’t answer me as he took hold of my arm again and started pulling me to the other side of the truck. “B, what are you doing? And stop pulling on me.”
“Shut up for a second.” He suddenly snapped.
My brows raised, but I said nothing as he moved around the papers on the passenger seat.
Sighing, I went to move to the back of the truck to sit down inside, but he grabbed and pulled me back.
“Don’t move, just stay right there.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m watching you and I can’t do that if you’re moving. Now be still.” He talked as he continued to look through his truck for something.
He was watching me? That made no sense at all when he wasn’t even looking at. “Why are you watching me?”
Blaze let out a sigh before looking at me. “Because I don’t trust that nigga and I don’t know what the fuck he got going on. And until I know fo’sho, I’m not trusting shit that moves around him and you’re not staying around that nigga. I don’t give a fuck what you say, yo, you ain’t. Niggas coming to his place shooting at him. Mothafuckas that know him, and you wanna be around this nigga? Fuck that. That mothafucka a hitta. I don’t trust them, period. This nigga could be on some snake shit. Who’s to say him getting shot wasn’t planned? Hell n’all, I don’t know how that nigga’s mind work.”
I bit my lip so I wouldn’t laugh. “Bae, somebody put a hit out on you. So, how is me being out here any safer than in the house?”
“That’s the difference because you with me. That nigga don’t know what I’ve found out at Cornell’s crib and if he was involved in his own shooting, that mothafucka ‘bout to flip and start poppin’ niggas,” Blaze explain before looking back at the house. “But I could be wrong.” He went back to looking in his truck.
“But me being out in the open isn’t any safer.”
He didn’t respond to that, instead he handed me another picture. “Here, look at that,” he said.
“I know her,” I mumbled to myself as I stared at the pretty brown skinned woman with her hair done in a cute little bob.
“Peaches, look at the damn boy.” He tapped on the picture.
I stared carefully at the photo. “Lil’ Ace—”
Blaze took the picture from me and handed me the birth certificate.
I looked over it. It read: Aaron Jerron Marshall. The year he was born, was a year after Jerron and I stopped talking. “She left him because she was pregnant?” Before I could really think about what I just learned, Blaze took the birth certificate and handed me another picture as he started talking.
“Where do you know her from?” He pointed to the woman in a shoe store.
“Remember when you ran me down on the side walk, the first day we ate together. The girl at the shoe store, that’s her. Damn, and she said my name like she knew me but I let it go because I didn’t know her.” I explained and Blaze shook his head.
“That’s Macy, from the club.”
My brows raised. Now I know I wasn’t that wasted to the point I couldn’t recognize a face. “No that’s not, you tripping.” I accused, trying to think back to that night I met her. I couldn’t really envision her face. All I remembered was Blaze in her damn face. “N’all, bae, that’s not her.”
“Look.” Blaze pulled out another photo of a brown skinned woman with long black hair and flawlessly done makeup. “That’s the same damn person. Look at the tattoo on her neck and chest. The damn necklace is the same, Peach. And I bet any money she was with Cornell that night. The same bitch that fuck’d up your car. I don’t believe in coincidences. Too much shit is connecting. Only thing that’s not is who hired him to kill me.”
This shit was beyond crazy. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t really know nothing and I hated that. “B, you know where Ace lives?”
“I went by there but it was empty. Don’t sweat it, though. As long as you stay away from him, then you’re good. Peaches, I’m serious. Until I know more about him and that Macy/Monica bitch, stay away from him. I’ight?”
“I hear you. Do you think he knows about Ace?” What the hell was up with these women keeping their babies a secret?
“Shid, I don’t know.” He shook his head before squinting his eyes at me. “You gon’ tell him, ain’t you?” Blaze asked.
“I told you, didn’t I?”
“Let’s go, man.” Blaze grabbed all the pictures and birth certificate then my hand and led us back inside the house.
“B, how you didn’t know Macy was Monica when you first saw her?” I slowed down walking.
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“Shid, I wasn’t looking at her in that damn store. I was focused on yo ass,” ge admitted.
A smile came to my lips but it quickly faded as I thought back to Monica.
Whenever this bitch makes her appearance, all hell is going to break loose.
***
Jerron seemed numb after I showed him the information about Monica and her pregnancy. And just like us, he couldn’t put the pieces together as to why she would do something like that, especially over one slip he made.
But we did find out how she learned about him returning back to Indiana. Jerron’s mother and Monica kept in touch after she left him and his mom mentioned to her that he had moved back here in hopes of them working out their problems and getting back together.
We tried getting the number Monica called from but the phone was now disconnected.
Blaze didn’t tell Jerron he knew Ace, he only mentioned seeing him around the projects with an older dude.
Come to find out, Monica’s sister lived out there with her boyfriend J.B. But now they were gone and there was no way to find out where they went.
Blaze made a few calls around Delaney to keep eyes out for them. That was all he could really do.
All we could do now was sit back and wait until she decided to make herself known.
I was now beginning to dread the moment when she finally did.
Chapter 14
Peaches
Graduation Day
Peaches Johnson.” My name was called loudly through the speakers. Getting out of my seat, I stepped into the aisle. My heels tapped lightly as I made my way to the stage.
I was feeling so giddy, I couldn’t wipe the stupid smile from my face.
“That’s my bitch! Go, Peaches!” Not even my embarrassing ass friends shouting could stop me from smiling. I was finally graduating after four long years. I was officially done.
“Congratulations, Ms. Johnson.” Smiling, I took my Bachelor’s Degree, silently squealing to myself. I walked off stage and saw that even Bianca came to show her love and support.