Feels So Right, It Must Be Wrong 2

by Charmanie Saquea

  “I know, ma, but you know it’s some bullshit going down and I don’t want my family getting caught in the crossfire. I already gotta give niggas a dirt nap for putting hands on you,” he spat.

  “Stop worrying about me, I’m good.”

  “Ma, you know you can’t win an argument with him. He and Asia are so stubborn, once they say something they stick to it,” Nika said.

  “That’s a trait that they got honest. Syrus was the same way.”

  The rest of the night, Symir stayed home and spent time with three out of four of his favorite women. He called and checked on his sister and his niece to make sure they were straight. He had a feeling that some more shit was about to hit the ceiling fan and he wanted to spend time with his family before he had to get grimy.

  ~~~~

  Knowledge was slowly walking around Patience’s neighborhood with Serenity and Chelsea. The two had been on good terms for the past three weeks and that’s how he liked it. He hated the fact that Chelsea had stopped talking to him and was pissed at him. No matter how the situation may have seemed, he still had love for Chelsea. She had a big place in his heart and he hated that he had even hurt her in the first place.

  “Do you love her?” Chelsea asked out of nowhere.

  “Who?”

  “You know who, Knowledge. I’m a big girl and I can take it,” Chelsea said as she continued to push Serenity’s stroller.

  “I think, I mean…yea.”

  Chelsea got quiet. At first she was pissed at Knowledge for falling for this little young girl that he had only known for a few months. She had put a lot of years into her relationship with Knowledge and wasn’t going to fold and let Asia snatch him from under her.

  But now, she’d had a change of heart. After doing some careful evaluation, she realized that she deserved better. If Knowledge could disrespect her and get in deep with his emotions with another woman, then he wasn’t the one for her. No doubt she loved him, but she refused to just stay around and get played.

  If he could get his shit together and realize who had his back since day one and who had been holding him down, then he would be alright. She would be lying if she said she wouldn’t be there waiting for him with open arms. Knowledge was all she knew. He was the only man she had ever been with and hated the thought of not being with him. But it is what it is, she thought to herself.

  “Speak your mind,” Knowledge said.

  “I’m just thinking about how I want to take Serenity to visit my mom back home,” she lied. “She’s already one and she hasn’t seen her yet.”

  “So how do I know you won’t go to North Carolina and pull a disappearing act on me?” Knowledge asked.

  Chelsea chuckled. “Funny. If I wanted to leave, I would have been left. I just need to get away for a while.”

  “Yea, alright. Don’t make me have to come there and find you, because you know I will. Crippled and all,” he half-joked.

  “You have no worries.”

  Knowledge wanted to use this time to tell Chelsea that Asia was pregnant but he still didn’t know how to. They had just gotten back in a good place and he didn’t want to mess that up. The only thing he needed now was for Asia to stop being so stubborn and talk to him. He would be good then, but he knew it would be harder to get Asia to talk to him than Chelsea.

  “I met someone,” Chelsea said as she bit the inside of her lip.

  She really hadn’t met anyone. She just said that to see how he would react.

  “Oh yea?” Knowledge asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Yea, I don’t know where it’s going yet though,” Chelsea said.

  Knowledge didn’t know how to respond to that. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t feeling some type of way.

  “I don’t know about that shit, Chels. I think you should hold off on that dating shit on the real,” he said sternly.

  Chelsea tried to hide her smirk. She knew Knowledge wouldn’t like the idea of her seeing or being with someone else. He wanted his cake and eat it too, but when she wanted to have some fun, he wasn’t feeling it.

  13

  Asia was trying to cook dinner and clean up around the house at the same time, but it seemed as if her son was on his worst behavior again. She had gotten him to tone it down but once again he was starting to act up and giving her hell.

  “Symare, go clean that room up and I’m not going to tell you again!” Asia yelled at her son.

  “No!” he yelled back as he ran around the house.

  Asia was fed up with him. Khyree was out of town taking care of business so she was left to deal with their son on her own. Symare hadn’t had a real whopping in some months, so she decided it was time to bring back to his memory on who the boss was.

  She wobbled into the living room and picked him up by his little arm and whooped him. He cried out as she tore into his ass. Asia hated that she had to whoop him but he was starting to get out of control.

  “Now go upstairs and clean up that room like I told you to!” she yelled as he ran to the stairs quickly while wiping his tears away.

  Asia plopped down on the couch and put her head in her hands. She was tired, physically and emotionally. She had one child that was acting up and another one on the way. She didn’t know how she was going to do it with two kids, but she was going to do what she had to do.

  Her cell phone started ringing so she rushed to the kitchen to answer it.

  “Hello?” she answered.

  “Don’t hello me, nigga. Did you forget what today was?” Symir yelled through the phone while loud music was playing in the background.

  “Symir, what are you talking about?” Asia asked, confused.

  “Damn, a nigga can’t get no love on his birthday?” he asked.

  Asia gasped. With everything that was going on, she had forgotten all about her big brother. “Oh my gosh, Mir! I’m so sorry! How the hell did you let me forget?” she asked, feeling bad.

  “It’s no biggie baby, I know you got a lot going on, so I’m not stressing it. Plus, you know I never celebrate my birthday anyways.” e shrugged it off.

  Symir wasn’t big on birthdays unless it was Sasha’s, Asia’s, Nika’s or his mother’s. He felt like those were the only birthdays he was obligated to celebrate. For him, he was grateful to be blessed to live another day so he didn’t care too much about his.

  “So what are you doing tonight?” she asked as she continued to finish cooking.

  “I let Cole’s little ass talk me into hitting up a club tonight. He got all in Nika’s ear and she ran with it, so Cole, Nika, Mickey and me about to do it big,” he answered.

  “Be safe, Mir,” Asia said with concern in her voice.

  “Always, baby.”

  After the two disconnected the call, Asia proceeded to finish cooking until she heard little footsteps coming behind her. She turned to see Symare walking into the kitchen with his head down and lip poked out. Instantly she started to feel bad about whooping him. He wasn’t a bad kid and she rarely had to raise her voice at him, but he had been acting weird lately.

  “Sorry, mommy,” he mumbled with his head still down.

  Pouting herself, Asia bent down to lift him up and sat him on the counter.

  “It’s okay, Mare. Mommy’s sorry she had to whoop you, but you need to stop acting up and start listening,” said Asia.

  Symare sighed. “I’m not your baby anymore?” he asked like his heart was broken.

  “You’ll always be my baby. What are you talking about, little one?”

  “No,” he shook his head. “You have new baby, so that means I’m not your baby anymore.”

  Finally Asia understood where all this was coming from. Her mom had told her, but to hear it from her son was different. He was acting up because she was about to have a new baby and he felt like his spot was in jeopardy.

  “Symare, you’ll always be my baby. It’s just now you’ll have a little sister that you will love and protect. I will love you no differently.
Both of you will be my babies, but you’ll be my big baby,” she said as she started tickling him.

  Symare started laughing uncontrollably as Asia tickled him. When she finally stopped, he grabbed her neck and kissed her. “Love you, mommy.” Then he rubbed her belly. “Love you too, sister.”

  “We love you too, big head. Now go wash your hands so we can eat.”

  After eating dinner, Asia gave Symare a bath and the two curled up on the couch watching The Avengers since he was fascinated with Iron Man. Due to being pregnant, Asia was tired all the time. She hadn’t even realized she dosed off.

  ~~~~

  Linx sat outside of Asia’s house ready to go in. He had heard from Cordae that she was a little stuck up, smart mouthed bitch. He had already gotten at Symir’s mother, so Asia was next on his list. He had called Cordae and gotten Asia’s address from him, he wasn’t surprised that Cordae bitched out of coming with him.

  He was amazed at how Cordae did all this big boy talking about how he was going to take Symir out and claim what was rightfully his, but when time came to actually put in work he wanted to turn into a bitch. He acted as if Symir didn’t bleed red just like everyone else. Plus, Linx had a score to settle with Symir for breaking his jaw, and his crack head hoe still owed him some money.

  He got out of the car and slowly walked up to her front door. He peeked in the window in the front of the house and noticed she was on the couch sleep. Jackpot, he thought as he jimmied the lock and entered.

  Symare was just coming down the stairs when he noticed the unknown man walking in his house. On alert, he quietly ran back up the stairs and to his mother’s room to call his uncle. Asia had taught him to memorize his grandma and uncle’s numbers in cases of emergencies.

  Asia heard the door open but didn’t open her eyes. She knew it couldn’t have been her brother, Khyree or Cole, because they were all out doing their own thing. From the way that she was laying on the couch, she felt for her baby .22 that was laying between the cushions. She felt the intruder get closer and she pulled out on him when he got close enough.

  Her daddy and brother had always taught her to shoot first and take names later, so that’s exactly what she did.

  POW!

  She let off a shot and shot Linx in his shoulder. The lights were dim so she couldn’t get a good look at him. Linx tried to reach for his gun, but she had let off another shot which barely grazed his arm.

  “Mommy!” she heard Symare yell. Hearing the sound of her son’s voice distracted her and Linx used that as a getaway. He ran out of the house silently cussing himself out. He should have known better than to go in there without already having his gun out.

  Cordae had said that Asia was a lot of things, but he forgot to leave out the fact that she was well trained and ruthless. He thought he was going to go in, fuck her up and be out, but he was sadly mistaken.

  Asia got off the couch and waddled over to the stairs where her son was standing with his eyes wide. Asia was pissed. This was the second time that her son had gotten caught up in some bullshit.

  “Come here, baby,” she said as a sudden pain hit her in the stomach. “Ahhhh!” she hollered as she grabbed her stomach.

  “Mommy, you okay?” Symare asked as he ran over to his mom.

  Asia wanted to answer him but the pain was crippling her. The only thing she could do was grab at her stomach and slide down the wall to the floor.

  Symir was just about to walk out of the bathroom when he heard his phone ringing. He glanced down and noticed it was his sister. He was shocked to hear his nephew on the other end of the phone. When Symare said someone was in their house that he didn’t know, his blood instantly started to boil.

  He told him to stay by the phone and he would be there in a minute. He heard gunshots in the background then he heard when Symare dropped the phone. He ran out of the bathroom and went to get Cole and Mickey.

  “Yo, let’s go, now!” he yelled over the music. When they got outside, he gave Nika his keys and told her to drive home and stay there until she heard from him.

  The three men sat quietly in the car as they rode to Asia’s house. Cole was running all stop lights and stop signs to get to Asia. Symir tried to call Asia’s phone, but it just kept ringing.

  “Shit!” he yelled as he hung up.

  “We’re almost there boss,” Cole said.

  Five minutes later, they were pulling up to Asia’s house. When they got there, an ambulance and the police were there. Immediately, they started to fear the worst. Derrick Lacey, an officer on Symir’s payroll, ran over to the truck when he noticed them pull up.

  “Follow the bus to the hospital, she’s having stomach pains and they think she might be in labor,” he informed them.

  “Labor? What the fuck? She’s only seven months!” Symir yelled.

  “I know man, that’s why they wanna rush her there. Your nephew is in there with her and they’re about to pull off now. So follow them,” Derrick said before walking away.

  Symir’s head was all fucked up. His sister was in jeopardy of having his niece prematurely and then niggas was all up in her house over some bullshit. Upon hearing that news, Mickey pulled out his phone to call Knowledge.

  “Yo,” Knowledge answered.

  “Man, you need to have your sister get you to the hospital,” Mickey said with a heavy heart.

  “What’s wrong? Asia and my seed okay?” he asked.

  “As of right now, shit not looking too good. We on our way to the hospital, so you need to get there ASAP.”

  After hanging up from Knowledge. Mickey laid his head back on the seat and sighed. Before Cole came in, Asia was the baby of the family and everyone treated her as such. She was still the only female in the family, so everyone was very overprotective of her. He was praying for the best but was prepared for the worst.

  14

  Knowledge stood over the incubator staring at his daughter. Wysdom Juanita-Crystal Rodriguez was born three months early. She was a fighter though, her lungs weren’t fully developed so the hospital wanted to keep her until she was well enough to go home. She looked up at Knowledge and gave him a little smile like she knew her daddy was there with her.

  “She’s beautiful, huh?” Symir said as he came to stand by him.

  “Very, tiny and all.” Knowledge smiled.

  “She looks like a mixture of you and A.”

  Just hearing Asia’s name made Knowledge’s heart heavy. When Asia was in labor with Wysdom, she had a heart attack and her heart stopped beating. The doctors had to use the crash cart to revive her, and even then, her heart was still a little weak and it wasn’t looking too good. They had her hooked up to all types of heart monitors.

  “How she doing?” he asked sadly.

  “No change. Mama is up there with her now. She refuses to leave her side,” Symir answered.

  “I can’t believe this, man. Both my daughter and her mother are lying in the same hospital fighting for their lives. Shit is not supposed to be like this.”

  Symir patted his shoulder; he felt for Knowledge. He knew for a fact that he cared about his sister, he just went about things the wrong way. He could only imagine what he would do if something was to happen to Sasha or Anika.

  “Asia is a fighter. I have no doubts that she’s going to pull through and the fact that that’s her daughter right there lets me know that she going to make it too. Don’t stress too much,” Symir said.

  “You’re right, man,” Knowledge agreed as they left the NICU.

  As they headed to the elevators to head to Asia’s room, Knowledge’s phone started to ring.

  “What’s up, Chels?” he answered.

  “Knowledge, where are you? Are you still getting Serenity this weekend?” Chelsea asked.

  Shit, Knowledge cussed to himself. With everything that was going on, he forgot he was supposed to get his daughter this weekend.

  “Yea, Imma still get her, but Patience is at work and I’m at the hospital so can you bring her t
o me? Imma be here for a minute,” he said.

  “Hospital? What happened? You okay?” Chelsea asked as she hit a U-turn.

  “I’m good. I’ll explain everything when you get here.”

  “Okay, I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

  After Knowledge disconnected the call, he sighed in frustration. He knew it was now or never that he told Chelsea about Wysdom because there was no way he was going to leave his daughter or Asia’s side until they were both straight.

  Exactly ten minutes later, Knowledge was standing outside of the hospital when Chelsea pulled up. She had a worried and confused expression on her face. She walked up to Knowledge with Serenity slowly walking beside her.

  “Yo, what the fuck? When she start walking?” he asked confused.

  Chelsea tilted her head to the side. “She’s been walking for a month.”

  Knowledge laughed a little as he looked down at Serenity. “Her little ass been pulling the wool over my eyes then. She don’t walk when she around me.”

  “Yea, she’s a little sneaky something. I can only wonder where she got that from. But please tell me why you are here,” Chelsea said.

  “Come with me real quick,” he said.

  As he was walking back to the NICU, Knowledge slowly felt a weight being lifted off his shoulders. He didn’t know how Chelsea would feel about him having another daughter, but he knew one thing for sure, she has no choice but to accept it. With her mother being in the condition that she was in, Wysdom needed him now more than ever. He wasn’t going to turn his back on her now.

  When they reached the NICU where Wysdom was, they stood outside the big window.

  “You see that little one there?” he asked Serenity and she nodded her head. “That’s your little sister, Wysdom,” he said.

  Chelsea literally felt her heart break into a million pieces. She looked at the tiny baby as tears welled up in her eyes then back at Knowledge, who was now looking at her.

  “Sister?” she whispered. “You have another baby?” she asked.

  Knowledge didn’t say anything. He knew this wasn’t easy for Chelsea. It wasn’t easy for him either, but he didn’t regret anything. If he had to go back and do it all over again, the only thing he would change was that Chelsea and Asia had been hurt. He cared deeply for both Chelsea and Asia and he regretted the fact that he had hurt either of them.