Side Chic 2 (A Ratchet Mess)

by West, La'Tonya

  Side Chic 2

  (A Ratchet Mess)

  By La ’Tonya West

  Kisha

  I sat across the table from Tre waiting for a response from him and wondering why in the hell he was acting so strangely. His phone was blowing up and judging by his facial expression something wasn’t right. I sat there looking at him skeptically. I know one damn thing that better not be a bitch that’s messaging his phone! I thought to myself.

  My trust for him was all fucked up by now. I’d tried my best to forgive and forget and allow the past to be the past but for some reason I just couldn’t fully get past all of the shit that he’s done in the past. I’ve caught him with so many different bitches it ain’t funny! Every time that I’ve caught him cheating I’ve always taken him back because I love him and the truth of the matter is I couldn’t imagine my life without him. He was my first love and the first man that I’ve ever been with sexually. It’s not easy to walk away from your first love. You know what they say…you never truly get over your first love and I don’t believe that if I ever left him I could get over him. He has this hold on my heart and my mind that just won’t let me go.

  Now I will admit that I have done some dirt as well. After putting up with as much shit as I have you are bound to want to get a little payback at some point. A few years ago I caught Tre with this white chic named Lisa. I was so mad and hurt that all I wanted was some revenge and so I fucked his boy Skeet. I know that it was wrong and I’ve felt guilty about it ever since. That’s why it only happened once. Skeet has tried countless times to get me to mess around with him again. Hell he even asked me to leave Tre for him and promised that he would take care of me and the boys. He’s always telling me that Tre don’t know what to do with a woman like me and that he doesn’t appreciate me. I don’t feel as if Tre appreciates me like he should but I couldn’t do no foul shit like that! Tre would kill my ass and Skeet too! Even if Tre didn’t kill us, I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I’d done something like that. However if he doesn’t agree to marry me within the next six months, I’m taking the boys and leaving! I refuse to continue to shack with him forever. After all of the shit that I’ve put up with I more than deserve to rock his last name!

  “I’ll be right back. I’m going to take a piss.” Tre announced getting up from the table.

  “Yeah, I bet you are.” I rolled my eyes. He smacked his lips and walked off in the direction of the bathroom. I pulled out my cell and called Tamika. I needed someone to vent to. It rang twice before she answered.

  “Hey Kisha, what’s up girly?”

  “Hey Mika…” I responded dryly. “What are you doing?”

  “I ain’t doing much just laying here texting this dude, trying to get some act right out of this fool!” She giggled. “You sound like something is the matter. What’s wrong?”

  “Same ol shit girl just a different day. Tre is plucking my damn nerves as usual.” I admitted. Tamika and I had become pretty close over the past few months. She was mad cool and didn’t mind lending a listening ear whenever I needed someone to talk to my problems about. She would give me her opinion of what I should do and I appreciated that because I didn’t have a lot of friends due to the fact that I stayed in the house all the time. I had one other friend, Kelsey but she lived out of town so we didn’t get to see each other much. I talked to her on the phone almost every day but that wasn’t the same as having a friend close by that I could talk to.

  “Girl, what has he done now? I thought that you told me things had gotten better between the two of you.”

  “Yeah, they have…a lot better compared to how they were several months ago. He’s been putting forth a lot more effort but I am ready to get married. I am tired of being the girlfriend/babymama. I want to be the wife! Hell, I’ve earned that nigga’s last name!” I declared.

  Mika laughed. “I feel you but if he ain’t ready then you shouldn’t push him. That is only going to make things worst or end up pushing him away and into the arms of the next bitch! Men don’t like to be pressured about shit.” She explained. “Let me explain something to you Kisha, men are simple as hell! If you really want to get his attention act like you don’t give a damn! If you want different results you have to approach the situation in a different way! You are always sitting up in that house with those kids with your face buried in a book. You never put on any clothes or get your hair done. He knows exactly where you are and what you are doing at all times but most importantly he knows that his perfect little Kisha isn’t going to go anywhere! Chic, you’d better get it together and change the game on that nigga! Get your ass up and get out of that house first of all! Let him wonder where your ass is sometimes! Make him feel like he’s not the center of attention anymore and that he has to do something extra to get your attention and to hold onto you! Bet you he’ll be more than ready to wife you then! In a nutshell stop pressuring him and get your life because right now that nigga is yo’ life and that ain’t a good look!”

  She had a lot of good points but I wasn’t too sure about being out in the streets making my man wonder where I was. I mean damn that didn’t seem like the way to get a nigga to wife you it seemed more like a way to get his foot put in my ass! She obviously didn’t know my baby Tre. Now for the most part he was calm and laid back but if you ever got him pissed, you had hell on your hands! I knew without a doubt that if I started running the streets, Tre wouldn’t be the one wondering where I was…Southampton County Police Department and my family would because my ass would come up missing with the quickness! Tre didn’t play games like that! That is the reason why I never fucked with Skeet again; it just wasn’t worth the consequences if Tre ever found out.

  “I hear you, Mika. Maybe you’re right, maybe I do need to stop pressuring him about it but damn it’s not like I bring it up every minute of every day. It’s just that I know that if I don’t say anything about it, he damn sho’ won’t!”

  “Well then don’t you say anything either. Bottom line…get a life! I swear y’all chics be killing me getting with these niggas and acting like the world revolves around them. Y’all get so wrapped up in these dudes that you lose yourself then when they drag your ass for years and then bounce with the next bitch you’re sitting somewhere looking confused and lost wondering what happened. What happened is while you were sitting at home playing maid and nanny that nigga was living! Another huge mistake that y’all make is you get too comfortable and let yourselves go! You stop looking up on yourselves and keeping your hair and gear together. You feel like you ain’t got to worry about looking a certain way anymore because you got dude now…hmmm and that’s where the next bitch slides right in!”

  I was becoming offended because I didn’t remember asking her ass about my hair or my gear or about the next bitch sliding in and taking my man. No bitch had accomplished taking him yet! They’d gotten hard dick and their feelings hurt but that was about it because at the end of the day married or not Tremaine Jefferson was always going to come home to me! “I feel you girl…look umma call you back later. Tre is on his way back to the table.” I lied. I just didn’t feel like talking to her anymore. I was sick of hearing her damn mouth!

  “Alright then…holla at me later. I guess I will get my ass up and cook Casper something to eat.”

  “Alright bye.” I disconnected the call and took a sip of my juice. I looked in the direction of the bathroom but still saw no signs of Tre. Now I know motherfuckin’ well that it doesn’t take that damn long to take no damn piss! I thought to myself.

  Tre

  “Lala, I am so sorry that I can’t be there.” She had texted me and told me that she’d gone into labor! On some real shit, I wanted to be there for her. I wanted to
be there more than anything to see my daughters come into the world but how in the fuck was I going to get away from Kisha in order to drive two hours away out to South Boston, VA? Then on top of that Tamika was blowing up my motherfuckin’ phone talking stupid as fuck! This hoe was on some different type of shit!

  “Can’t you just tell her that you have to go in to work early and not go in at all? These are your babies too and you should be here!” Lala cried into the phone. She’d been crying ever since she picked up. I understood why so I wasn’t tripping. I just hated the fact that there wasn’t anything that I could do to change the situation.

  “I can’t do that. She isn’t going to go for that shit!” I explained pacing back and forth across the bathroom floor. An older white man was standing at the sink washing his hands. He’d been washing them for I know a good damn minute by now. I kept seeing him glance up in the mirror at me. I knew the nosey motherfucka was only trying to hear my conversation! “I’m going to figure out something. If I don’t come today, I will definitely be there tomorrow.”

  My last sentence had been a mistake! Lala went off! “Tomorrow! What in the hell…do you mean…tomorrow!” She fumed! I could tell she was in pain by how she could barely get her words out.

  I heard a female voice in the background saying. “Ms. Chambers, you have to calm down or we’re going to end up delivering your babies by C-section. Your blood pressure is sky high.” She explained. “You need to get off of the phone because that isn’t helping. This is serious! Many women die in child birth every year. Right now you are at risk for a stroke. You could easily have aneurysm as well.”

  Hearing the words die, stroke and aneurysm scared the hell out of me. So I did what I felt I needed to do to calm her down. “I’ll tell you what. I’m going to try telling her that I got called into work early and come out there where you are. If that doesn’t work, I’ll think of something but don’t worry I’m coming.” I half lied. I was going to think of a way to get to her and my babies but I wasn’t sure that it would be that day. I couldn’t tell her that though.

  After hearing her pour her heart out the way that she had in the parking lot the night before something inside of me had softened towards her. The look in her eyes when she spoke of how she felt for me told me that she was being sincere, even after I’d put my hands on her. She was able to look past all the bullshit and still have love for me and still agree to try and work with me as far as the babies were concerned. I believe the one thing about her that I loved and respected was her loyalty. I knew that it was important that I tried to keep my word and make it to the hospital. I owed her that much after what she’d done for me and was still doing.

  Lala was breathing really heavily and she sounded so exhausted. “Tre, don’t lie to me.” She pleaded.

  “I’m not lying. I promise you that I will be there.” I assured her. “Now listen, here is what I need for you to do…” I noticed that dude was still washing his damn hands. “Motherfucka how clean are you trying to get those motherfuckas?” I roared. He looked up at me through the mirror fear written all over his wrinkled face. He turned off the water and hurried out of the bathroom, not even bothering to dry his hands. “Nosey motherfucka.” I grumbled.

  “Huh?” Lala asked sounding confused.

  “Sorry, I wasn’t talking to you.” I said turning my attention back to our conversation. “As I was saying, I need for you to hang up this phone and calm down as much as you can. Don’t worry about me because I will be there. Focus on giving birth to our babies…okay?”

  “Tre! Tre!” I heard Kisha yelling from the bathroom door! “What in the fuck is taking you so damn long?”

  “I’m coming!” I shouted back at her not bothering to try and hide my agitation. She was good for showing her ass in public! She acted as if she didn’t have any dignity!

  “Well then…come the fuck on! Don’t make me come in there because I will!” She threatened. “Think that I’m playing if you want to now!”

  “Tre, what’s going on?” Lala inquired.

  “Nothing, you just do what I asked…okay?”

  “Alright.”

  “I’ll see you soon.” I promised.

  “Okay…Tre, please don’t lie to me.”

  “I won’t.” I hung up feeling really fucked up because I knew that I wasn’t going to be there…not that day anyways. Kisha was already trippin’ so it was going to be even harder than usual to get away from her ass but I was going to give it my best shot!

  I slipped my phone in my pocket, shaking my head as I stood in front of the sink washing my hands. Look at this bullshit that I’ve gotten myself into all behind some pussy. I looked up at my reflection in the mirror. I had so much shit on my mind that it was starting to show on my face. I looked stressed the fuck out! I knew that I had to try and pull it together though. I had too much to lose if I didn’t! I splashed a little bit of water on my face and then grabbed some paper towels from the dispenser and dried my face and hands before walking out of the bathroom.

  When I walked out Kisha was standing beside the door with her arms folded. I looked at her rolling my eyes and kept walking right past her ass! This was the side of her that I hated…the nagging, clingy, crazy side. I went back to the table and picked up the ticket that the waitress had left. I walked up to the register and paid for our food and then dropped a five dollar tip on our table on my way out.

  Kisha was already outside standing next to the car when I got outside. I hit the button on the remote on my keychain to unlock the doors. When I got in the car she turned to face me. “So…”

  “So what?” I asked not feeling up to hearing her mouth at the moment. I reached over and turned up the radio, letting her know that I wasn’t in the mood to talk! Obviously she didn’t give a fuck because she reached over and turned it right back down! “Lord, here we go!”

  “You’re damn sure right about that! Here we go!” She mocked! “What took you so long in the bathroom? And don’t you dare lie and say that you were pissing that long!”

  “Nah, I wasn’t. I took a shit, since you must know and as I was about to walk out of the bathroom! I got a call from Mr. Johnson asking me if I could come in a little bit earlier today so that he can discuss this out of town job with me that he needs for me to do.” The lies just rolled off of my tongue so easily. “He was saying that he would pay me double and pay for the gas and my hotel room and everything…”

  “Hold up! Out of town? Hotel room? For how long?” She snapped swiveling her neck, her shoulder length red hair swaying back and forth. I looked at her beautiful faced screwed up in a million knots! My babymama was still beautiful even when she was mad and acting a damn fool!

  “It’s just for two days and shit we could use the money! It ain’t like we can’t.” I placed my hand on her thigh but she slapped it off!

  “I ain’t feeling that shit for real! Where is this job supposed to be?” She said pointing a finger in my face.

  Always quick on my toes, I replied. “Richmond, VA. He said that the Service Master down there is a little short on help and so they needed someone from our crew to help out. Hell, I ain’t turning flips to do it but like I said it ain’t like we can’t use the money. Why you got an attitude for? This isn’t only benefitting me, it’s benefitting us.” I tried to lull her suspicions. “Talk to me? What’s the problem?”

  She turned and looked out the window folding her arms over her chest. “Nothing…nothing at all, there is no problem at all Tre.” She stared out the window.

  “Don’t say there is no problem when there clearly is. Why do you always have to get upset about everything? What you think? I am going to fuck a bitch or something? Is that what it is? I mean damn Kisha, haven’t all of the shit that I’ve been doing for the past few months meant anything or are you still living in the past and holding all of that past bullshit against me?” I was on a roll and decided to go in for the kill. “How can you sit there and claim that you are ready to get married when you don’
t even trust me going to work? That right there is some straight bullshit!”

  She whipped her head around so quickly that I thought it was going to make a complete circle! “Oh so now it’s my fault that I don’t trust you?” She asked poking herself in the chest with her index finger. “I don’t believe that I made you go out and fuck all of those bitches that you were fucking!”

  “See, I knew it! Still living in the fucking past! A nigga can’t win for losing.” I shook my head as I started the car and drove out of the parking lot. I lit a cigarette and took a pull. “I don’t even know why in the fuck I am trying so hard to do better and make shit work! It obviously doesn’t make a difference!” I tapped my hand against the gear shift as I spoke causing the ashes from my cigarette to fall to the floor.

  “I never said that!” She screamed!

  “You say it every time you start acting like this!” She got quiet and so did I. The drive home was silent except for the radio which was still turned down low. My mind went to Lala. I hoped that she was alright and that the babies were okay. I needed this lie to work for me so that I could get to the hospital where she was. I knew that she would never forgive my black ass if I didn’t make it. I also knew that she might flip out and do some crazy shit if I didn’t make it!

  When we got home Kisha got out of the car ahead of me, slammed the car door and went inside. I followed her inside and went down the hallway to our bedroom. She stopped in the living room, flopping down on the sofa. I took out my work clothes and changed clothes as if I was actually going to work. When I was done getting dressed I grabbed my book bag and my keys. As I was passing through the living room, I told Kisha. “I’m about to go down here and holla at Mr. Johnson and see what the deal is with this job in Richmond. I’ll be back in a few.”

  “Yeah...” was her reply. I leaned over and tried to kiss her but she moved her face so that I couldn’t. “Don’t you have to get to work?”