Side Chic

by La'Tonya West

  Even though I knew the advice she was giving me was coming from a good place and that she was right. I still didn’t want to cause Tre any drama. I know that I shouldn’t give a damn about how things turned out for him as far as his girl was concerned after the way that he’d treated me when I’d reached out to him earlier but I did. I didn’t want this to become a situation where things got ugly and we ended up hating each other and not being able to be civilized to each other. I felt like our situation could be handled in a civilized manner without a whole lot of drama. At the end of the day all I wanted was for him to at least be there for our babies. I knew that he couldn’t be there full-time like I would love for him to be but as long as he did what he could I would be happy with that. Maybe we could even work this out to where his girl never found out and everybody could be happy…maybe.

  Tre

  When I got home it was a little after nine, the house was quiet. I was a little tired, ready to take a hot shower and call it a night. I still had Lala on my mind, wondering what she could possibly want to talk to me about after all of this time. I laid my keys down on the coffee table and walked down the hall to the boy’s room. I pushed the door opened and looked inside they were both fast asleep. I went in and kissed both of them and put the cover back on Shaun. He was a wild sleeper and always ended up kicking his cover onto the floor sometime during the night. When I was done I left out closing their door behind me. I continued down the hallway to me and Kisha’s bedroom. I pushed the door opened and walked inside. I was expecting to find her already in bed asleep or reading but to my surprise she was wide awake sitting in front of the computer.

  She looked up from the computer as I walked into the room. “Hey baby!” She beamed excitedly. “Guess what?”

  “Hey.” I replied looking at her skeptically wondering what she was so excited about. “What’s up?”

  “Guess who I just sent a friend request to on Facebook?” She squealed and continued before I could answer. “LaQuela Chambers, the girl that wrote Confessions of A Side Chic! I am waiting for her to accept! I can’t wait to tell her how much I enjoyed the book! There has to be a part two! I mean…I know damn well that Karma is going to get some revenge on Trent after he done got Lele pregnant!” She rattled on and on. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I kept thinking that maybe I’d heard her wrong or maybe she was talking about a different LaQuela Chambers. She had to be because there was no way in hell she was talking about Lala. I noticed her staring at me strangely. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I’m good.” I said trying to pull myself together. I sat down on the edge of the bed. I needed a seat because my legs felt as if they were going to give out. Too much shit was coming at me all at once! “Baby, aren’t you taking this book thing a little bit too far? You are a borderline stalker!” I was trying to play things off.

  She twirled around in the desk chair that she was sitting in, cocking her head to one side and placing her hand on her hip. “Excuse you? Negro for your information, I am not nor will I ever be a stalker!” she corrected me. “I am friends with a lot of my favorite authors on Facebook! That is how I keep up with what they have going on and what they are about to drop next! This girl here is actually right from around here. I am really excited to know that we have an author from right here in Boykins…”

  I didn’t hear anything else that she said because now this shit had become too coincidental for it not to be Lala! I knew damn well there weren’t two LaQuela Chambers from Boykins, VA. Lala done wrote a fucking book? I thought to myself and then I thought about the title…Confessions of A Side Chic! Man what in the fuck is this crazy bitch trying to do? Is this what she wanted to talk to me about?

  “Tre…Tre!” Kisha called pulling me from my thoughts. “Tre did you hear anything that I just said?”

  “Nah baby, my mind was somewhere else.” I admitted truthfully. “What did you say?”

  She smacked her lips and twirled her chair back around to face the computer. “Nothing…I didn’t say anything!” She snapped. “That’s just like you to have your mind somewhere else when I am talking to you!”

  I placed my hand on her chair and turned her back around. “Yo, chill with the attitude and repeat what you were saying.” I told her running my hand up her thigh, hoping to calm her down. It was just like her to get bent out of shape over something as little as a book. She just didn’t realize the significance of what she had just dropped on me and I prayed that she never found out! “What were you saying?”

  She moved her red and black braids out of her face, flipping them behind her shoulder. “I was saying that it’s really dope to have someone from our small town write a book! Her information on Facebook says that she currently lives in Danville, VA but I was thinking that maybe she will come back to her hometown one day and do a book signing! That way I could meet her and get her to autograph my book! That shit would be so damn nice! I could say that I’ve actually met one of my favorite authors!”

  I was looking at her like she’d lost her damn mind! If it were left up to me that shit was never going to happen! “Baby, you’ve only read one book from this chic! How in the hell does that make her one of your favorite authors?”

  “Because Tre, the girl can write her ass off! She writes so that you actually feel like you can see everything as it is happening in the book! She definitely has a gift!” She bragged about Lala’s book like a proud parent! “You wouldn’t understand though because you are not a bookworm like myself.” She giggled.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I needed to find out more about this damn book. “So what was it about this book that made it so interesting that you are ready to go out and promote it?”

  She smacked me on my arm playfully. “Whatever! I can’t believe that you actually want to hear me talk about a book! Normally you be like, ‘Bae, I don’t want to hear that shit! That junk ain’t real! You need to get your head out of them books and pay your man some attention!’” She mocked me.

  She was right but this book right here was different because from the sound of the title it sounded like Lala was on some Karrine Steffans type shit! “When I don’t want to listen you complain but when I show interest you complain as well. I can’t win for losing with you woman.”

  “Well since you want to know, the book is about a guy named Trent who has been creeping on his girlfriend Karma with this chic named Lele. Him and Lele had been kicking it for two years when she found out that she was pregnant and left town, not letting Trent know anything about the baby. After she leaves she realizes just how much she loves him. She is torn between keeping the baby and raising it by herself and going back home and telling Trent the truth. She doesn’t want him to think that she is trying to come between him and his girl but at the same time she wants him to know how she feels and about the baby that she is carrying. So after months of struggling with what she should do she goes back to her hometown and tells Trent about the baby. He of course is upset because he already has a girl and a family with her so he tells Lele that he doesn’t want anything to do with her or her baby. It ended with Lele threatening to tell his girl Karma about their affair and her pregnancy!”

  Man please, tell me that this shit is all just some shit that Lala made up! I thought to myself but my gut was telling me that this wasn’t just a made up story! “Sounds like a soap opera to me.” I told Kisha. I didn’t want her to pick up on my uneasiness.

  “I know right! That’s what makes it so good! All of that drama has you fienin’ for more! I can’t wait until part two comes out to see what happens! I want Karma to whoop Lele’s ass so bad because that heifer knew that Trent had a girl when she laid down with him!” Kisha continued on about the book. “I know triflin’ bitches like that! Always after the next woman’s man instead of finding their own! Then when the nigga don’t want their asses no more they want to run tell his girl in hopes of breaking up their home because they are feeling some type of way. I hate bitches like that!”

  “K
isha, it’s only a book.” I reminded her getting up and pulling my shirt over my head. I tossed my shirt on the chair that sat in the corner of the room. “I’m about to go take a shower.”

  “Alright baby.” She turned back around to face the computer and I went into the bathroom.

  In the bathroom, I turned on the water and adjusted it. I finished getting undressed and stepped in the shower under the hot water. As the hot water ran over my head I thought about the things that Kisha had just told me about Lala’s book and about Lala’s text messages from earlier. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Lala had based this book on me and her situation. The part that was fucking with me the most was the part about the character in the book leaving town because she’d found out that she was pregnant! I’d known all along that there was something that Lala wasn’t telling me! Why in the fuck would she know she was pregnant and not tell me? She knew damn well I couldn’t afford to have no baby with her! What in the fuck was I going to tell Kisha? How would Kisha react once she found out? So much shit was going through my head that it felt like my head was spinning! I washed up and got out of the shower. As I dried off I came to the conclusion that I needed to see Lala and this shit couldn’t wait. I needed to see her that night! If she was pregnant there was no way that I was going to allow her to stay in Boykins! She was taking her ass back to Danville, her and her baby! I wasn’t about to risk losing my family all because her feelings had gotten involved! Fuck that! She should’ve told me that she was pregnant instead of running off and deciding to keep a baby without discussing it with me like I didn’t have any say in the matter! This bitch had definitely lost her mind!

  I wrapped the towel around my waist and gathered my dirty clothes. I took everything that was in my pants pockets out and tossed my dirty clothes in the hamper. I opened the bathroom door and went back into the bedroom. I opened the drawer and took out a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt.

  Kisha looked over at me, her eyebrows raised. “Where are you going?”

  “Skeet just texted me and asked if I could give him a ride to Walmart. His daughter is sick and he needs to go and pick up some medicine.” I lied. “I really don’t feel like going but I know that he would do it for me.”

  She stared at me for a minute, while I slipped on my shoes. “Mmmmhmmm, don’t let a trip to Walmart take your black ass all night Tre.” She warned.

  “Don’t start.” I replied calmly. I wasn’t trying to argue with her.

  “I’m not starting. I’m just letting you know.”

  I grabbed my keys and my phone and walked over to her kissing her on the lips. “I hear you baby.”

  “You better.”

  I left out of the house and hopped in my car. As soon as I got in the car I called Lala. It rang a few times and then her voicemail came on. I pressed end and then called back again, determined to reach her and get some answers as to what the fuck was going on! This time it rang three times before she picked up.

  “Hello.” She answered groggily.

  “We need to talk. Meet me at the baseball park.” I cut straight to the point. I didn’t have time for a lot of small talk.

  “Huh?”

  I repeated myself, this time a little louder, not bothering to hide the irritation in my tone. “We need to talk. Meet me at the baseball park.”

  “Tre, it’s almost 11:30. I am in the bed and I don’t feel like getting up.” She whined. “Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”

  I didn’t give a fuck about her being in the bed or how she felt about getting up! My family was on the line! “Nah, it can’t wait! Put on some clothes and meet me!”

  I heard her smack her lips. “Give me about fifteen minutes! You got the nerve to call me with and attitude…”

  I hung up the phone! I didn’t want to hear that bullshit!

  Lala

  I took the phone from my ear and looked at it in disbelief. “I know that this motherfucka didn’t just hang up on me!” I mumbled as I threw back the covers and tossed my phone onto the bed! I immediately became heated by the rudeness that Tre had displayed over the phone! I wasn’t exactly sure where this attitude was coming from but we were about to straighten this shit once I saw him. I turned on the lamp by my bed and then went to the bathroom to empty my bladder. I also washed my face and brushed my teeth. When I was done I went back into my room to get dressed. I slipped my feet into my sneakers not bothering to put on any socks. I sat down on the bed and struggled to tie my shoes. At seven months I was huge and tying my shoes was more like a full body workout than a normal task. Once I had successfully accomplished tying my shoes I grabbed my keys and my phone and quietly headed out of the house locking the door behind me.

  The warm summer air felt good. I jumped in my car and headed to the baseball park that was only ten minutes away. I was kind of nervous about seeing Tre after all of these months. I was nervous about his reaction once he saw that I was pregnant. I wondered what had changed his mind about wanting to see me. I didn’t have to wonder long because minutes later I was turning into the park. I spotted him parked next to the fence. He was sitting on the hood of the car smoking a cigarette. I parked next to him and turned off the ignition and my lights. Instead of getting out of the car I rolled down the window.

  Seeing him caused a flood of different emotions to run through me all at once. On the drive to the park my plan had been ready to check him about his attitude on sight but sitting there now face to face with him the only thing that managed to slip from my lips was, “Hey.”

  “Hey?” He snapped getting up from the hood of the car, tossing the cigarette on the ground and walking over to my window. “What the fuck do you mean, hey? What the hell is going on with you?”

  Just that quickly my anger returned. “Whoa…first of all you need to check your shitty ass attitude with me! I don’t know what the fuck your problem is…”

  “My fucking problem is you!” He roared. “I thought you had bounced! So why in the fuck are you back? And what the fuck is up with this book that I am hearing about? What you on some type of slick ass Karrine Steffans type of shit?”

  I was surprised to know that he had heard about my book so quickly and shocked at the same time that he was comparing it to Karrine’s book! “What? What the fuck does my book have to do with anything?” I questioned.

  “It has a lot to do with everything because my girl read that bullshit! Now she all on Facebook and shit sending you friend requests and shit! Hollering about how good your book is! The shit that is bothering me is that from what she was telling me about it the shit sounds a lot like our situation! I mean I ain’t the smartest motherfucka but it doesn’t take a gotdamn rocket scientist to figure out who the shit is based on!”

  I sat there watching him spazz and it finally dawned on me why he had awakened me out of my sleep! “Oh I get it now, you are worried that ol girl is going to find out about us!” I chuckled sarcastically and sucked my teeth! “Well smart ass the only reason that you knew who it was based on was because you were a part of the situation! I am sure that everybody else who has read my book isn’t sitting home saying ‘Damn she is talking about her and Tre.’ Besides that it’s a fictional story loosely based on us. I wrote the book because I was depressed about how things had turned out between us. It was sort of therapeutic for me because I was out there in Danville by myself. Once I started to write I saw that it was an interesting story and my friend that I met out there suggested I self-publish the book because she thought that it might sell. It turns out that she was right! I don’t see why you are all bent out of shape about it! How is your girl going to find out that the book is based on us unless you tell her?”

  This only seemed to piss him off even more! “You stupid bitch, are you listening to yourself? It isn’t hard to connect the fucking dots!”

  “Bitch?” I grabbed the latch on my door and flung it open. I jumped up out of the car and got in his face. “Nigga who are you calling a bitch?” I was so close t
hat my stomach bumped him! “Was I a stupid bitch for the two years that you were fucking me? Nah nigga the bitch that was sitting at home waiting on you while your face was buried in my pussy was the stupid one!” Out of nowhere I felt stinging in the left side of my face! It took me a few seconds to realize what had just happened. I touched the side of my face where Tre had just slapped me! I looked up at him in disbelief.

  “Yeah, I slapped your ass! You’d better watch your fucking mouth when you are talking about my girl!” He said glaring at me like he was daring me with his eyes to say anything else!

  I looked up at him with tears in my eyes. “I know damn well that you didn’t just slap me!” I said still unable to believe what he had done. I lost it and started to swing on him like a mad woman!

  He grabbed my arms and pinned me up against the car! “Go ahead now before I fuck you up out here!”

  “I hate you!” I cried becoming emotional. “How are you going to stand here and put your hands on me? You come out here all mad with a fucked up attitude like I’ve done you wrong or something! Tell me Tre, what did I do to you?” I didn’t allow him to answer. “I left! I left to keep from ruining your family because I knew that my feelings for you had become too strong for me to handle and because I knew that I was pregnant! I know how much Kisha and your boys mean to you so I put my own feelings aside and I walked away! I left everything so that you could keep everything! I left my job, my home and my family! I stayed in a fucking motel room for months! I was out there by myself without a fucking soul that I could depend on but myself! I did all of that so that you could keep your home! Do you have any idea what the fuck I have been going through? Do you even give a damn? Or are you so fucking selfish now that all you care about is Tre?”