COMPLICATED

by Chenell Parker

  “Oh my God Zyrian,” Rylee gasped when he finished telling his story.

  “Yeah and the crazy part about it is the driver walked away untouched. Not even a scratch on his body and he caused the accident.”

  “Did he get charged or go to jail?” Rylee asked.

  “Yeah, but he didn’t do that much time. He killed three people and got a fucking slap on the wrist,” Zyrian frowned.

  “Why didn’t your parents sue? He was at fault, and his company should have paid.”

  “We did sue them bastards. Twenty million dollars is what my best friend and his parents were worth to them. I got ten million and Darius’s grandmother got the other ten since she was the next of kin. Sad part is I barely even put a dent in my portion. Aside from buying my shop and me and my parent’s houses, it’s just sitting up in the bank collecting interest. I feel guilty every time I even think about touching it,” Zyrian confessed.

  “But you don’t have anything to feel guilty about Zyrian. You didn’t cause the accident. You were a victim just like the rest of them,” Rylee reasoned.

  “Buck always tells me the same thing, but I just can’t shake that feeling. I know it sounds crazy, but it is what it is. That’s why I keep telling you that I got you if you need anything. Even if it’s another house,” Zyrian said seriously.

  “Thanks Zyrian, but I could never ask you to do something like that,” Rylee refused. “I might not have nearly as much as you have in the bank, but I’m comfortable. Once this divorce is finalized, I’ll get another house and another business to run as well.”

  “You didn’t ask I offered. Besides, it’s not like I can’t afford it,” Zyrian shrugged.

  “I would have never known if you wouldn’t have said anything. That couldn’t be Mekhi sitting on all those millions. Everybody and their mama would know with his bragging ass. I love your modesty,” Rylee said.

  “Mekhi ain’t used to nothing. A nigga who really got it is probably the most silent one in the room. The loudest person is usually the weakest,” Zyrian maintained.

  “Well, I guess I married a weak nigga,” Rylee acknowledged.

  “It’s cool, though. You gon’ be getting with a real nigga sooner than you think,” Zyrian replied.

  He and Rylee stared into each other’s eyes for a while before she moved her body forward until their lips were inches apart.

  “Nope,” Zyrian smirked before Rylee’s lip could touch his.

  “What do you mean no? What’s so different now? When I was married, you were all on me. Now you act like it’s a crime to even touch me,” Rylee frowned.

  “Correction, you’re still married, and it’s very different now. At first, it was just about hitting it. Now that my feelings are involved I’m not going there with you until I’m convinced that you and ole boy are done for good,” Zyrian informed her.

  “We are done for good,” Rylee swore.

  “That’s what your mouth says, but I’ll be the judge of that. Go do what I’m about to do and take you a cold shower,” Zyrian laughed as he got up from the bed and walked out of the room.

  “Bastard!” Rylee yelled while throwing a pillow at him.

  As bad as she wanted to kiss him, Rylee understood what he was saying. Although she was sure about her status with Mekhi, Zyrian was still skeptical. He was resisting her now, but he wouldn’t be able to turn her down forever. Rylee was patient, so she didn’t mind waiting.

  Chapter 18

  “Answer the phone you miserable bitch. I know you see me calling. You better not let me catch your hating ass on the streets,” Mekhi slurred into the phone.

  He’d been calling Angel’s phone non-stop, leaving all kinds of threatening messages, but she never answered for him. Mekhi was pissed when Rylee mentioned him getting Angel pregnant. He kept wondering when did they see each other and how did the conversation become about him. Angel claimed that she wasn’t bitter, but her actions showed otherwise. Mekhi didn’t want her anymore, and she couldn’t handle it. Then there was Shay. She was back to dropping Mekhya off at his mother’s house whenever she felt like it. Mekhi had been going through so much with Rylee that he hadn’t paid the daycare or child support in two months. That was the last thing on his mind, and he really didn’t care how Shay felt. She kept threatening to take him back to court, but he was unbothered. She caught him slipping the last time, but he didn’t plan to let that happen again.

  “You about ready for me to lock up Mr. Jameson?” His manager Frank asked for the second time.

  “I’ll lock up. You can leave Frank,” Mekhi answered.

  “Are you sure? I don’t think it’ll be a good idea to leave you here by yourself. You can’t drive home in your condition,” Frank observed.

  “I said leave!” Mekhi yelled angrily as he continued to gulp down the liquor from the bottle that sat in front of him.

  Frank nodded his head, but he knew that leaving was not an option. He walked over to Mekhi’s office and looked through the Rolodex that was on his desk. He knew that Mekhi and Rylee had been separated for a few months, but he needed to call somebody there to get him. Frank’s wife had been outside waiting to pick him up for over twenty minutes, and he was ready to go. Mekhi’s mother’s number was the first one that he came across, and he wasted no time making the call.

  “Hi, this is Frank, and I’m one of the managers and MJ’s. I’m calling for Mekhi Jameson’s mother,” Frank said when a woman answered the phone.

  “This is his sister Mena. Is something wrong with my brother?” She asked in a panicked tone.

  “No, nothing is wrong, but I was wondering if somebody could come and pick him up. He’s been drinking a lot, and I don’t want to let him drive himself home,” Frank answered.

  “Oh, well I don’t have a car, but I’ll get my brother Kendrick to pick him up. We don’t live too far so he won’t be long. Just wait with him until he gets there.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Frank sighed before hanging up.

  This was one of the reasons why he was looking for another job. Mekhi was alright in the beginning, but Frank was starting to hate him with a passion. Mekhi didn’t know how to talk to his employees, and he had no problems letting everybody know that he was running shit. Frank wasn’t about to let someone younger than him speak to him any kind of way. On the low, he was happy that Rylee left Mekhi. He was always flirting with the women who came there, but he acted as if he was the picture-perfect husband whenever Rylee was around. Most likely she found out about some of his wrong doings and hit the highway. Not that Frank felt sorry for him. Anything that happened was just what his no good ass deserved. About ten minutes later Frank heard the front door buzzer going off. He rushed to disarm the alarm and let, who he assumed was Mekhi’s brother, come in.

  “Where that stupid ass nigga at?” Kendrick asked as he walked into the building.

  “He’s still sitting at the bar,” Frank replied while leading the way.

  “Ole dumb ass. Rylee left, and that nigga is going down the drain. That’s what he gets for always trying to talk down on everybody else,” Kendrick remarked.

  Although Frank agreed with everything that he’d just said, he decided not to comment. No matter how he felt about the situation, Mekhi and Kendrick were still brothers. He refused to get thrown into the middle of their sibling rivalry.

  “His car is out back, but if he needs a ride tomorrow tell him to call me,” Frank offered.

  “Come on bruh,” Kendrick yelled as he roughly tapped on Mekhi’s shoulder.

  Instead of standing to his feet, Mekhi slumped over in is chair and almost fell.

  “Whoa,” Frank shouted as he and Kendrick helped him up.

  “Help me take him to my car,” Kendrick ordered as threw his brother’s limp arm over his shoulder.

  Both men carried a drunken Mekhi out to the car and helped him get in. Kendrick waited around until Frank locked up before they pulled off, going in different directions. It took Kendrick about another fifteen minu
tes to get to Mekhi’s house. Once he pulled into the driveway, he walked around the car and opened the door for his brother.

  “I gotta throw up,” Mekhi announced as soon as Kendrick helped him out.

  “Shit! Your ass needs to stop drinking if you can’t handle your liquor,” Kendrick yelled right as Mekhi heaved the contents of his stomach onto the pavement, narrowly missing his feet.

  Kendrick guided his younger brother to the front door of the house and fished around in his pocket for his keys. Once he had them in his hands, he tried a few of them until he found the right one. Kendrick opened the door and almost dropped Mekhi on the marble tiled floors when the alarm started blaring loudly.

  “Damn, Mekhi get up nigga. What’s the code to the alarm system?” Kendrick inquired while shaking him.

  “It’s um…,” Mekhi replied while dry heaving like he wanted to throw up again.

  “It’s what nigga. I need to turn this shit off before the police be coming here,” Kendrick yelled.

  “My wallet,” Mekhi mumbled groggily.

  Kendrick rushed him over to the sofa and sat him down. He reached into his back pocket and grabbed his wallet right as the phone started to ring. After flipping through a pile of credit cards and other business cards, Kendrick finally located a card for the alarm company with the code written on the back of it.

  “Stupid ass nigga,” Kendrick remarked after disarming the system.

  Mekhi was even dumber than he’d previously assumed. Anybody could have stolen his wallet and had access to his home as well. Once the alarm was no longer roaring, Kendrick answered his brothers ringing phone and gave the operator the password that was scribbled on the back of the card. He was finally able to exhale once the door was locked and there was no threat of the police showing up. Kendrick took the opportunity to look around the house to see how his brother was really living. He and his brother weren’t the best of friends, so that was only his third time being in his house. Mekhi and Rylee were doing the damn thing, and their house was solid proof of that. They had it decorated nicely, and everything that they owned looked expensive. Kendrick wandered into their bedroom and opened the door to a huge walk-in closet. It must have been Rylee’s because everything inside belonged to a female. He walked out and opened another door and walked into Mekhi’s personal space. He nodded his head in approval as he thumbed through some of the designer clothes that his brother often bragged about. Seeing how his younger brother was living made Kendrick want to step his game up. He could see himself living in a nice house and wearing designer clothes too. After feeling like he’d pried long enough, Kendrick went back into the living room and sat on the sofa opposite of the one that Mekhi was on. He turned on the TV and got comfortable, preparing to stay the night. Although Mekhi got on his nerves at times, that was still his little brother, and he didn’t want to see anything happen to him. While flipping through channels trying to find something to watch, Kendrick got up to see who kept calling one of his brother’s phones.

  “Hello,” Kendrick answered the restricted number that appeared on the screen.

  “Mekhi?” A woman questioned on the other end of the line.

  “No, this is Kendrick. Who is this?”

  The line went dead, and Kendrick looked at the screen to see that the woman had hung up on him. Her voice sounded familiar, but he wasn’t sure about who it was. Before putting his phone down again, Kendrick decided to pry a little bit further and looked at his brother’s text messages. Seeing that the phone was practically empty, Kendrick put it down right as a text message came through on the other phone. When he saw that it was from Rylee, he opened the message and laughed out loud. Rylee was always popping off about one thing or another, and she was going in on Mekhi about everything under the sun. Aside from her calling him a cheating dog, she was going off about Mekhi not giving her the new code to the alarm system. She kept saying that she wanted the rest of her clothes and that she couldn’t wait to be divorced from him. Mekhi had been tight-lipped about his split with Rylee, but he wasn’t surprised to know that he’d got caught cheating. He scrolled through a few more and saw messages from Shay practically begging him to pay their daughter’s daycare bill. Mekhi was the most pathetic father that he’d ever seen, but no one could tell Carolyn that. Kendrick put the phone down and shook his head. After returning to his spot on the sofa, Kendrick watched a movie until he drifted off to sleep.

  ***

  Mekhi woke up the next morning with a terrible headache. He tried sitting up to fast, and the stinging pain in his head knocked him back down. Due to the blackout curtains surrounding the windows in his house, he couldn’t tell if it was daylight or not. Once he calmed down for a few minutes, he focused on the cable box and saw that it was after one in the afternoon. After slowly sitting up, Mekhi looked on the table in front of him and saw his blowfish hangover medicine and a bottle of water. He hurriedly gulped a few pills down with the water and sat back with his arm partially covering his face. Mekhi’s eyes popped open at the realization that he wasn’t at home alone. The last thing he remembered from the night before was sitting at the bar at MJ’s trying to drink his problems away. Just as he was reminiscing about the night before, the scent of food being cooked invaded his nostrils. Mekhi was hit with a wave of nausea and raced to the bathroom right before he regurgitated the lining of his stomach into the toilet. After brushing his teeth, Mekhi rushed through the house to see who was making themselves at home in his kitchen. He wished to the heavens above that it was his wife, but he got instantly heated when he saw Kendrick standing at his stove instead.

  “What the fuck are you doing in my house?” Mekhi bellowed through the constant banging in his head.

  “Well hello to you too,” Kendrick piped sarcastically.

  “This ain’t the time for you to be playing with me, bruh. What are you doing here and how did you get in? You in my kitchen cooking and shit like you live here,” Mekhi argued.

  “Nigga I helped you out. You were drunk out of your mind and couldn’t drive home. I picked you up from MJ’s and stayed here to make sure you were straight. This is the thanks I get for coming to your rescue?” Kendrick questioned.

  “I’m thankful, and I’m straight. You can bounce now,” Mekhi replied while snatching the spatula from his hand.

  “Man, fuck you Mekhi bruh, straight up. That’s why Rylee left your stupid ass now. You think the sun rise and set on your arrogant ass. Next time mama gon’ be burying you because I ain’t doing shit for you no more,” Kendrick swore.

  “You never did do shit for me. Fuck you mean? Nigga I got money and lots of it.”

  “Yeah okay, keep talking that hot shit. That’s just how it’s gon’ happen to you. And find somebody else to bring you to pick up your car from MJ’s,” Kendrick said as he picked up his keys and headed for the front of the house.

  “Penniless bastard,” Mekhi scoffed once Kendrick slammed the door.

  He locked up behind him and headed straight for the shower. Mekhi was thankful that his brother got him home safely, but he didn’t want his broke ass thinking that he could hang around his house all day. It was bad enough that he was there without his knowledge in the first place.

  Chapter 19

  “It’s almost three now, so how does four o’clock sound?” Mekhi asked happily.

  He was excited, and he couldn’t hide it if he tried. After three months of separation, he and Rylee were finally meeting up to have a much needed discussion. The best part about everything was that Rylee was the one who initiated the meeting. She was tired of them being at each other’s throats, and Mekhi couldn’t agree more.

  “That’s fine, I’ll be there,” Rylee replied.

  “Okay baby, I love you,” Mekhi said.

  “I love you too,” Rylee replied before she hung up the phone.

  Zyra sat next to her snickering the entire time that she was talking.

  “Shut up Zyra. I’m surprised he didn’t hear your dumb ass in here laughi
ng,” Rylee fussed.

  “I’m sorry girl, but I couldn’t help it. I can’t believe that he fell for that stupid shit after y’all been separated for three whole months.

  “Fuck him. Let me call my lawyer and tell him where he’s going to be so he can go serve him his papers,” Rylee announced as she dialed the number on her phone.

  Rylee’s lawyer, Mr. Givens, had decided that sending a sheriff to serve Mekhi was not a good idea. He decided to use a court appointed curator instead. That way Mekhi would never see the person coming when the time came. Mekhi was smart, so Rylee and her lawyer had to be smarter.

  “You better be happy that Zyrian wasn’t here. He would have been pissed hearing you say you love another man,” Zyra laughed once Rylee was off of the phone.

  “That’s why I didn’t tell him what was going on. I don’t need him trying to discourage me,” Rylee answered.

  Rylee and Zyrain were only friends, but she knew that it would eventually turn into more. They both wanted more, but the timing just wasn’t right. He wasn’t trying to go there with her until he was sure that she was done with Mekhi for good, and she had to respect that. They’d been sleeping in the same bed for the past two weeks, but hadn’t shared so much as a kiss on the cheek. Rylee knew that he still talked to other females all the time, but he never invited them to the house like he used to. That included Renata. She hadn’t been over since the last time Rylee walked in and saw his head in her lap. A few times he would leave the house for a few hours and Rylee was sure that was his time to hook up with some female companionship.

  “You know he would never try to discourage you from getting divorced. He wants that more than anything,” Zyra said shaking her from her thoughts.

  “Well, his wish is about to come true,” Rylee replied right as a text message came through her phone from an unknown number.

  “What does it say,” Zyra asked when she saw the perplexed look on Rylee’s face.