Sen and Neicey- Life After Love

by Briann Danae

  “Thank your mama for that info. It’s that bitch’s fault anyway. You really got the muthafucking audacity to sit here in my face and cry to me about some nigga who fucked your life up, Shanice? Huh? Fucking answer me!” Sen hollered, grabbing her by the jaw and squeezing tight.

  His anger had escalated to another level in just seconds. He knew she was crying because she was hurt, but his brain wasn’t processing her actions quick enough. All he felt was her being disloyal, and he snapped. Instead of smashing her damn head into the wall like the visions that flickered through his mind just then, he released her with force, making her stumble back. Dex went to come to her aide, but the shattering of the mirror from Sen sending a bullet through it by his head made Dex still.

  “I hate your ass!” Neicey screamed, punching him in the chest before raining blows over his body. She was crying hysterically and needed to physically hurt Sen the way he was hurting her. “I fucking hate you!”

  With force, not intentionally but just wanting her to fall back, Sen pushed her to the ground. Unable to break her fall, Neicey’s elbow connected with the tile floor and she let out a gruesome cry that had Sen spooked.

  “Fuck, man! Look what you got me in here doing. Come on,” he said, trying to help her up, but Neicey fiercely shook her head no from side to side while bawling her eyes.

  “Nooo! Just leave. Leave me alone,” she cried, making Sen bend down so he could be eye level. Forcefully kicking her legs to get him away from her, Sen just stood to his feet in disbelief.

  “Yo! You fucking serious right now? Man, get yo ass up. Showing out in here like somebody really about to hurt you!” he hissed, ready to snatch her the fuck up. If she hadn’t been holding onto her elbow he was sure was hurting like crazy, he would have.

  “Just leave me alone, Sensay! I don’t even want to be around you right now. Please! Just go. Can you at least do that?”

  “Just go?!” he spat, ready to kick her ass in the head. “Fuck you want me to go, huh? I came here so we could make up and you telling me to leave. Man, alright. Fuck you, then. You lucky I don’t shoot your stupid ass.”

  Jerking her head up, Neicey mugged him with every last bit of energy she had left in her. “Nigga, fuck you! Ole stupid, bun wearing ass! Get out!” she growled, slowly standing to her feet. “Get the fuck out of my studio!”

  “Your studio?! I paid for this muthafucking studio! I’ll light this bitch up and burn it to the ground. Keep playing with me like I got sense.”

  Pushing him toward the door with her good arm, Neicey cringed when she put too much force into her movement. Seeing the pain on her face made Sen want to apologize for pushing her so hard, but he wasn’t going to. Grinding his teeth together, Sen nodded his head before tucking his gun in the band of his shorts. If she wanted to be left alone, then that’s exactly what he was going to do.

  “Why you always gotta show the fuck out, huh?” he asked in a hiss, once she pushed him outside of the door.

  Neicey looked up at him and her heart broke even more because of how left things had just gone. Blinking back tears, she didn’t bother to wipe them as they slid down her puffy cheeks. Sen reached to wipe her face, and she shook her head no. “Why’d you kill him?”

  Throwing his head back with a frustrating huff, Sen had the right mind to just walk away, but that’s not what he had come for. Hell, neither was everything else, but what was done, was done. “Because, I fucking love your ass. What don’t you understand about that shit? He hurt you, so I had to hurt him.”

  “You hurt me more than he ever could,” Neicey croaked out, as the last bit of fight she had left in her left her body.

  ***

  Symptoms of a broken heart usually entailed sharp chest pains and shortness of breaths when suddenly caused. For Neicey, hers included those two things, plus much more. A week after her and Sen’s blow-up at her studio, she was trying to successfully piece her broken puzzle-pieced life back with a stick of glue. The shit wasn’t working at all.

  Neicey was depressed as hell, hadn’t gotten more than five hours of sleep a day, and was plotting on Sen’s insurance money once she murdered his ass. Sitting around Erica’s living room with her arm in a sling, with a bunch of happy go lucky bitches and their happy relationships that caused their skin to glow and edges to be laid, was not what she wanted to be doing. She’d rather be in bed, eating tons of junk food so she could gain weight to keep the niggas away from her. But, even then, they’d still hit on her. Men loved thick women. Neicey didn’t care what they loved. If his name wasn’t Sen, she didn’t even want them looking her way.

  “I sure wish you’d quit frowning like you got something stuck up your ass,” Anika suggested, making Neicey toss her the middle finger.

  “Leave my boo alone. She’s going through it,” Erica spoke up, defending her girl.

  Soon as Sen left her shop, Dex was of no use to helping her. She didn’t even want to be around a man, let alone one who had saw her break down the way she had. While they were arguing, Dex kept his distance, realizing that Neicey was indeed in a serious relationship, and he wanted no parts of its craziness. With shaky hands, Neicey dialed Erica up and told her to come to the studio as soon as she could. And, being the loyal, ride or die best friend she was, Erica was there in no time, leaving the kids with their daddy.

  Having settled her ratchet ways down since becoming a mother and fiancée, you couldn’t tell when she pulled up on two wheels and hopped out her truck. She was ready to beat Sen’s ass like he was the one who broke her heart. And in a way, he had. She and Neicey were so close that, when one of them hurt, the other did too.

  “We all go through shit. If you were going to be Debbie Downer, you could have stayed your cripple ass at home,” Anika joked, but Neicey wasn’t in the mood for games.

  “Quit playing with me before I shoot your ass,” she spat, making Anika laugh. Moo chuckled as well, taking a sip of her wine.

  “With which arm, hoe? Sen’s ass is really rubbing off on you.”

  Hearing his name made Neicey roll her eyes. She was indeed still pissed off at him, and she didn’t know if it were more so because he had killed Kiran, went missing on her, or the fact that he had her sitting up with her arm in a sling. Granted, he didn’t mean to push her that hard, but the damage was done and her elbow hurt like hell.

  “Can ya’ll stop arguing for two seconds, so we can go over these wedding details? It’s in less than two months, and I do not want to be stressed the hell out on my day,” Erica told them, letting her eyes roam the room.

  “Where’s Brooke? She is in the wedding still, right?” Moo asked.

  Despite what any thought of their relationship, Erica and Brooke would always remain friends. To some, mainly Neicey, Erica’s decision to have her in the wedding was being too friendly. She knew who to keep close and who to keep at a distance, and Brooke was one of those people. Married to fine ass Ant with a child or not, she’d never forget the grimy shit she had done to her friend, and she’d be damned if she did it to her.

  Erica nodded her head and flipped the page in her planning binder. “Yeah. They’re moving today so she couldn’t make it, but she’s still in the wedding.”

  “Is he still in it?” Neicey questioned, and Erica’s eyebrows furrowed.

  “Who?”

  “Your fiancé’s cousin, that’s who. I do not want to walk down the aisle with his ass,” she hissed, with a suck of her teeth.

  Erica shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t care what anyone else wanted at this point. If they didn’t get with the program, she was axing them out the wedding all together. “Oh, fucking well, Shanice. Who else you gone walk down with? Everyone is already paired up, and you can’t walk by yourself.”

  “Why not? We don’t have to be traditional. When have we ever followed society’s rules?” she pressed, making Moo laugh. She was on her third glass of wine and good and tipsy.

  “Why don’t you want to walk with him anymore?” Moo asked.


  “Because, that nigga is on my shit list right now, okay. Plus, the way he been moving, who’s to say we’ll even be together by time the wedding roll around.”

  Erica smacked her lips, and Anika leaned back and crossed her legs at the ankles. “Whatever, Neicey. Ya’ll gone make up. Ya’ll always do.”

  Anika was right, but Neicey wasn’t so sure how things would play out this go round. She and Sen hadn’t officially broken up like before, but he was indeed keeping his distance. After seeing how much pain he had caused her that day in the studio, Sen made up in his mind that it was better off to not have any physically dealings with her until she was ready. What pissed him off, though, was the fact that Neicey had yet to hit him up. He knew she may have still been a little upset, but he apologized. But, that apology wasn’t enough.

  He had said and done some things Neicey wasn’t ready to get over quite yet. What made it worse was the fact that her mama had played a hand in him being in the know about her not being able to have kids. That was a detail of her life she hadn’t quite grasped like the rest, and she wanted to be the one to tell him. Through his hundreds of connections, Sen had gotten in contact with Nakita and, though she thought he was calling to apologize for his behavior, she should have known better.

  Sen told her my bad for shooting at you, and got right to the reason why he had called her. He needed to know why she made Neicey get an abortion and why she didn’t handle Kiran the way he knew a mother was supposed to handle situations as such. Nakita explained that she would have felt guilty either way but, now, she hated that she had to live with the burden of knowing she single-handedly played a role in Neicey’s troubled upbringing. From that day of the abortion forward, Neicey’s life hadn’t gone nearly the way she had mapped out.

  In the midst of their conversation, Sen asked Nakita if she knew Neicey couldn’t have kids. He wasn’t one hundred percent certain that she couldn’t, but she confirmed his suspicion. At such a young age, her body couldn’t endure the operation like most, and she was one out of the handful of women in the world who had gotten their ability to reproduce snatched away. So, yes. Sen blamed Nakita for everything that had gone wrong in Neicey’s life, down to her even giving birth to her punk ass son and him having a bitch ass friend.

  Sen held nothing back as he went in on her over the phone, before telling her to have a blessed day and hanging up in her face. He knew he’d have to see her again if she and Neicey mended their relationship but, at that time, he didn’t care if he ever laid eyes on her ass again.

  “Mhm, we’ll see. Ya’ll should have saw his face when he walked in and saw Dex hugging me,” she said and snickered. Erica shook her head, looked down in her lap. She wanted no parts of this, not even to hear it.

  Anika drew her head back. “Dex? What was he doing hugging all on you?”

  Neicey had somewhat gotten Anika hip to her past relations with Dex, but hadn’t spilled the details of why he had been consoling her. Some shit you just didn’t share with everybody, and the murder of Kiran and why he was murdered was one she’d never explain. She was hoping Dex didn’t put two and two together, but he was a smart nigga and probably had.

  “I was just super emotional that day, girl. Sen walked in, and I damn near pissed myself when he cocked his gun back and pointed it at me.”

  “You lying!” Anika shrieked.

  Holding her right hand in the air, Neicey looked at her in all seriousness. “I swear, I’m not. Had he popped up a few minutes earlier, he would have really killed my ass.” She was chuckling, but knew she wouldn’t have been alive to tell the story had Sen saw her tongue down Dex’s throat.

  “Un. Un. Nope,” Erica said, standing to her feet. “I ain’t trying to hear this shit.”

  “What? Ya’ll acting like I said we fucked. We just kissed,” she exclaimed, like it was no big deal. Anika, Moo, and Erica placed their hands over their ears and looked away from her.

  “I swear, ya’ll are so fucking dramatic,” Neicey fussed.

  Moo glanced up first and shrugged. “I’d much rather not be an accessory to murder if Sen ever finds out. Like, I have too much to live for to be doing time because a nigga get trigger finger happy with his delusional girlfriend, my friend. Do you know how many women will be walking around looking a hot ass mess because I was in jail and couldn’t slay their hair?”

  Anika laughed, but Moo had a point. Women would be trying to get locked up, just so Moo could do their hair from the jail cell. Her hands were beyond blessed.

  “Delusional about what?”

  Anika threw her hands in the air. “Bitch. About that man bodying your ass. And, you know what? I’m not speaking at the funeral either, ‘cause you knew better. Dex fine and all, but ain’t no nigga that fine worth dying over.”

  “Not even Lano?” Neicey asked with a smirk.

  “See. Now you taking it too far. I’d plan my own funeral for his ass,” Anika laughed, as they burst out laughing.

  Erica sat back down and grabbed her notebook. “Do ya’ll realize how unhealthy our relationships sound?” she chuckled but was serious. “To die for a man… baby, that’s some serious shit.”

  “No, it really is and you know what? I don’t even care. Unhealthy or not, if my man makes me happy, respects me, treats me like the queen that I am, and does what he’s supposed to do as my man, then we gone be around here unhealthy than a mufucka. Shouldn’t no one’s opinion but your partners’ sway you to feel some type of way because at the end of the day, ya’ll the ones who should make each other happy. Not anyone else.”

  Neicey couldn’t help but admit that Anika was spot on with the facts she just spoke. Though dysfunctional, Neicey wouldn’t trade she and Sen’s relationship for anything in the world. He may have done some things that she didn’t approve of, but there was never a time he hadn’t made it for them. The most recent incident had her so shook because though she knew she loved him; she never knew that loving a man who loved her just as much as she loved him was so magnetic. She’d never been granted that feeling, and to share it with Sen’s crazy ass was a blessing in disguise. They balanced each other more than either of them knew.

  ***

  Later that night once leaving Erica’s house for the day, Neicey came home to their empty crib, rolled her up a blunt, and relaxed. Here, lately, she felt like a damn chain smoker, the way she was moving through the mason jar of weed Sen had given her. In their bathroom, she was getting ready for bed, giggling at how low her eyes were, when she thought she heard a sound come from downstairs. Instantly stilling her movements, she held her breath to make sure somebody wasn’t trying to break in on her.

  When she didn’t hear another sound and figured it was the weed that had her tripping, she continued to put her hair in a bun. “Damn mannequins done followed me home,” she laughed, tossing her bonnet on.

  It most definitely wasn’t the mannequins from the twins’ shop that had followed her. It was her crazy ass man. Instead of using his key and coming through the front door of his own crib, Sen picked the lock on their backdoor and crept into the house. Like Neicey, he was high as hell and wasn’t in his right mind leaving Juvie’s crib an hour ago. Since Shaliya was bluffing about the rental property, he went straight there to call it a night but couldn’t sleep.

  The entire time he was laid out in the bed, his mind kept flashing back to Dex hugging all on his woman. Instead of killing that nigga like he wanted to do, he went searching for the person who gave Dex the opportunity to even get that close to what belonged to him; Neicey. With killer instincts, he moved through the dark house like a thief in the night. Tip-toeing up the stairs, he waited for exactly twenty minutes for Neicey to go to sleep, until he pushed their bedroom door open and walked in.

  Hours had passed before Neicey made any movements in her sleep but, when she did, it was to use the restroom. All that drinking at Erica’s crib had her bladder ready to explode. Rolling over to her side of the bed, she climbed out, overlooking Sen, who was sitting in th
e opposite corner of their room in a chair with his hood pulled over his head. After releasing her bladder and washing her hands, Neicey went to flip the bathroom light off and jumped back once she spotted the hooded figure in the corner. Covering her breasts, she got mad at herself for not going to investigate the sound she heard earlier.

  Knowing she hadn’t placed anything in the chair when she got home, she squinted her eyes to make sure she wasn’t tripping. And she wasn’t. Once she spotted the tent of the hood, due to his bun, Neicey sucked her teeth and walked out the bathroom.

  “Why the fuck are you sitting there looking like a cone head? You scared the shit out of me,” she hissed, standing in the middle of the floor.

  “Good,” Sen lowly spoke, before standing to his feet. Slowly, he walked over to Neicey, who was in no mood for him to be in her personal space. Swiftly, she hopped on the bed, ready climb to the other side, but she was too slow. Grabbing her by the ankle, Sen yanked her down on the bed in one swift motion.

  “Goooone. I’m not fucking with you, Sen,” she whined, as he climbed in the bed and towered over her body.

  “Shut up. I ain’t trying to hear that shit.”

  The only clothing article she had on was a pair of underwear, and Sen was enjoying the feel of her naked frame. It had been far too long since he laid eyes on or touched her, and he wasn’t leaving there without filling his insatiable need. Moving her head from side to side, Neicey tried her hardest to not fall for his attempt to woo her. He was smelling too damn good, and she hated to admit it, but she missed his touch too.

  “You can’t just come in here and try to force yourself on me,” she hissed, as they stared eye to eye in the dark.