Love Don't Live Here

by Charmanie Saquea

  Today Neeman had the bright idea of throwing a barbecue for Nadia and Marisa before they started college. Surprisingly, he even invited Jax and Mario, but, of course, Nadia left out the part about Mario being invited.

  “I’m about to catch a case.” Marisa spat as she put her phone in her pocket when Nadia walked back in the kitchen.

  “What now?” Nadia asked.

  “That bitch is playing on my phone. If I have to beat her ass with one good leg and hop around like a kangaroo, I will. She better stop playing with me,” Marisa huffed.

  “Wait, what bitch and what she do?” Nadia asked. “Give me all the tea and make sure it’s sweet with a few shots of raspberry, honey.”

  Marisa paused and looked at Nadia with her face scrunched up before they both busted out laughing.

  “I need for you not to ever get that hyped,” Marisa laughed.

  “Girl, I haven’t had any drama in my life since forever so don’t keep an asshole in suspense,” Nadia told her anxiously.

  “Okay so you know Jax has a baby mama and I think…no, I know that bitch has been playing on my phone. It’s been happening ever since before the accident, but it’s gotten worse since then. She’ll call my phone blocked and send text messages from different numbers. Every time I block one, she’ll text me from another.”

  “How you know it’s her?” Nadia asked.

  “Because that had vindictive baby mama written all over it. Before she got out I never had these problems, but now all of a sudden she’s mad at Jax, keeping his daughter from him and that’s when the bullshit started,” Marisa explained.

  “Have you told him about it?”

  “Nope,” Marisa shook her head. “I don’t want him putting his hands on that girl. He’s already pissed at her and threatening to beat her ass. I’m not trying to add fuel to that fire at all. I’ll catch that hoe and when I do, she’s going to regret she ever met me. She can play crazy, but I’m real life crazy.”

  “The hell you in here going off about motor mouth?” Jaron asked as he walked in the kitchen.

  “Not your black ass,” Marisa told him.

  “Better not be,” he said before slapping Nadia on her ass. “Why you got these little ass shorts on?”

  “Ouch, nigga!” Nadia yelled as she swung at him with her arm that was in the cast.

  “Girl you better not hit me with that damn arm,” Jaron laughed as he jumped back.

  “That hurt Jaron, you play too much,” Nadia whined.

  “You want me to kiss it and make it better?” He asked.

  “Yup,” she said.

  Marisa made a gagging sound as Jaron bent down and kissed Nadia’s left butt cheek. Nadia giggled before covering her face in embarrassment. She wasn’t expecting him to actually kiss her ass. Jason walked into the kitchen and cut his eyes at Marisa before turning his attention to his brother.

  “Bring yo ass outside and leave her alone,” Jason said.

  “Jealous ass,” Jaron laughed as he followed his brother to the back where Neeman was working the grill.

  “He still giving you the cold shoulder?” Nadia asked.

  “Mhm, I’m not sweating him though. It’s his loss, not mine,” Marisa shrugged.

  “How long have you two been messing around?”

  “We just started back after that whole incident with Jax,” Marisa mumbled before biting into a strawberry.

  “Wait, started back? When was the first time?” Nadia asked shocked.

  “Uhh, some years ago,” Marisa told her without looking up at her.

  “WHAT?” Nadia exclaimed, being extra and over dramatic. “Bitch, why didn’t you tell me? How did I not know this?”

  “Because I was young and just starting to pay attention to boys. I didn’t say anything because I knew Neeman would flip out if I was messing with one of his friends and I didn’t want you to be mad at me. It wasn’t anything serious though because we snuck around, a few phone calls here and there. Nothing serious Nadia.”

  Marisa looked up to see the expression on Nadia’s face. She didn’t know if she was angry or what.

  “Why are you looking like that?”

  “Because, you’re my best friend, my freaking god sister, and I didn’t know about you and Jason until now. I’m hurt,” Nadia pouted.

  “You are so dramatic Nadia Raelynn. I’m telling you it was nothing serious just like it’s not now. He wants me to choose, and I’m not doing it. If he can’t accept the fact that me and Jax are going to be friends, then he can step. I’m not forcing him to stay,” Marisa said.

  “Why would I stay? If you want to keep the nigga that you admitted you can’t trust around and would rather get dogged out then that’s on you. Be a bird brain ass bitch, that’s on you,” Jason spat.

  “Nigga watch your mouth, the fuck wrong with you?” Jaron said as he pushed his brother.

  “Hold up, who you calling a bitch?” Marisa yelled as she got down off the stool grabbing her crutches that were leaned up against the counter.

  “Reese, chill,” Nadia told her.

  “Nah, Nadi. This nigga really got me fucked up. This is exactly why I refuse to make it official with his childish ass. I wasn’t a bird brain ass bitch when you were begging me to choose you now was I? Was I bird brain bitch when you were begging me to give you a chance?” Marisa yelled.

  “Jason!” Neeman’s voice boomed throughout the kitchen. “Didn’t I tell you to go sleep that shit off? I’m not about to have your drunk ass in here disrespecting my house or my sister. Marisa sit the hell down. I got him.”

  Jaron pushed his brother out of the kitchen while shaking his head. Nadia stood there confused as hell trying to figure out what the hell just happened. She wasn’t expecting Jason to blow up like that, and she definitely wasn’t expecting him to disrespect Marisa, that wasn’t even his steelo.

  “You alright boo?” Nadia asked.

  “Fuck Jason,” Marisa said.

  Marisa was feeling a mixture of anger and hurt. She would have never expected Jason to come at her like that. If he was mad or had a problem with her, he should have been man enough to tell her like a grown man would have.

  ___

  Despite Jason’s little blow up earlier, the day had turned out pretty good. Jax had showed up pissed off because he had been trying to call Jessica so he could get Jamila, but once again she was on her bullshit. Her mother didn’t even know where she was at or how to get in contact with her. Jax was done playing games with her. He was going to the courts so he could get full custody of Jamila.

  “Are you going to fix me a to go plate?” Jax whispered in Marisa’s ear.

  “With one leg?” Marisa asked.

  Jax laughed at her. “Nah, I don’t even want food. I do want some dessert though.”

  “I’ll ask Nadia to get you something since she’s already in the house,” Marisa said as she tried to get up.

  “Nope,” he pulled her back down. “Nadia can’t give me what I want.”

  Marisa looked at him funny before she finally caught on to what he was talking about. She slapped him on his arm while blushing.

  “You are so nasty,” she giggled.

  Jax was about to say something but stopped when Nadia walked out of the house with a funny look on her face. There were two police officers following behind her. Everyone tensed up at the sight of the police as they walked over to Jax.

  “Jamil Thomas?” One of the officers asked.

  “Uh…Yeah?” Jax answered, confused.

  “Could you stand up and put your hands behind your back, please?”

  Even though he didn’t know what the hell was going on, Jax knew better than to resist. Too many black men had been in the news lately for being killed by the police, and he wasn’t trying to be next.

  “Can you at least tell me what this is about?” Marisa asked worried as she got up with Nadia’s assistance.

  “Jamil Thomas, you are under arrest for the assault, battery, and rape of Jessica Smith.”<
br />
  “WHAT?” Jax, Marisa, and Nadia all yelled at the same time.

  “Yo, Reese get a hold of Mario and tell him to call our lawyer. This is some bullshit.” Jax spat as the officers led him out of the backyard.

  Long after he was gone, Marisa was still standing there confused. She couldn’t believe what had just happened in front of her. The officer’s words kept bouncing around in her head as she replayed them over and over.

  The assault, battery, and rape of Jessica Smith. Nadia and Neeman were talking to her trying to see what the hell was wrong, but she had tuned everything out. As if something in her snapped, Marisa yelled at the top of her lungs.

  “I’M GOING TO KILL THAT LYING BITCH!”

  She snatched her crutches up and moved as fast as she could towards the house. Confused as hell, Nadia just followed behind her as Marisa pressed her phone against her ear as she called Mario’s phone.

  “Yo,” Mario answered.

  “Mario, this is Marisa. Jax needs you to contact his lawyer and have him meet Jax at the police station. The police just picked him up on some bullshit ass charges because his baby mama lied and said he beat her ass and raped her,” she said in one breath.

  “Whoa, wait, what?” Mario asked. “Don’t repeat that, I’m about to call him now.”

  Marisa just plopped down on the couch when she realized there was nothing she could do. She knew deep in her heart that Jax didn’t do shit to Jessica. Before she even knew it, she had broken down crying. Nadia wrapped her arms around her which caused her to break down harder.

  She didn’t understand why this was even happening. Everything in her life was going good until Jessica came home and messed everything up. She wanted so badly to go out in the streets, find Jessica and beat her ass for real since she wanted to lie.

  “It’s going to be okay Marisa. Jax is going to be released, and her crazy ass is going to get hers. Don’t forget that karma is a bad bitch,” Nadia told her.

  -33-

  After what seemed like forever, Jax was released. The results of Jessica’s rape kit had come back, and she didn’t even show any signs of sexual abuse nor did the DNA that was found in Jessica belong to him. While he was at the station, Jax filed a restraining order against her. He knew if she even came within arms reach of him, he was going to kill her.

  There were three things in this world that he didn’t play about, and she had played with two out of the three. His daughter and his freedom.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll get the order for those custody papers as soon as I get back to the office,” Jacob Homes, Jax’s lawyer told him.

  “Good looking man. Next time you see me it will be due to some real charges because I promise I’m killing that bitch the next time I see her,” Jax told him through clenched teeth.

  He was so mad that he didn’t know what to do. He had a mind to go looking for her ass now, but he knew that wasn’t the smart thing to do right now.

  “Don’t say that Jax, we’re still in front of the jail you know?” Jacob asked as he looked around nervously.

  He knew what type of work Jax and Mario did so he knew Jax would make good on his threat. He just didn’t want him to get locked up again when he had just got off scott free. Jax finished talking to Jacob to make sure he had everything situated before sending him on his way.

  “Man, call your girl. Her ass been blowing me the fuck up since you got arrested,” Mario told Jax.

  “I’ll call her tomorrow. I’m so pissed right now I could kill me a bitch,” Jax expressed.

  “I told you from jump that girl was crazy. I know her type. Then even after you found out how crazy she was you still continued to put your dick in her.”

  Jax couldn’t say anything to that because he knew it was true. If he knew then what he knew now, he would have never stepped to Jessica’s crazy ass. In the beginning, everything was cool between them until she started to get too clingy and possessive. At first, he brushed it off as her just being jealous, but she was just crazy as hell.

  She would start following him places without him knowing, act a damn fool and try to fight any female that would look at him, breaking windows, flatting tires, and all that extra stuff. She would damn near get psychotic whenever Jax said he was done with her. True, he was with other women during their relationship, but that was towards the end. Then he had the nerve to get her the pregnant. He never really liked to say that he regrets messing with Jessica because he felt that he was saying he regretted Jamila and that wasn’t the case. If he could go back to the day he met her and do things differently, he definitely would.

  “Nigga, enough about me. Let’s talk about your bogus ass,” Jax said to Mario.

  “What about me?” Mario questioned.

  “I told your ass about Marisa and Nadia getting into a car accident. That was how long ago? And you still haven’t called to check on her?”

  Mario waved him off with an attitude. He hated whenever Jax felt the need to bring Nadia up. It always put him in a bad mood. He was still having a hard time accepting the abortion, and it’s been months since she got it. The less he heard about her and the fact that he never saw her made the pain easier to deal with.

  Besides, he didn’t have to call and check on her because Jax always gave him an update on what was going on with her. Whether he wanted him to or not.

  “What you want me to do? Go over there and kiss her ass?” Mario questioned.

  “Nah, she got a nigga over there doing that already from what I heard. He literally kisses her ass, but what I want you to do is stop letting your pride get in the way. Okay, she hurt you. She should have came and talked to you, but she didn’t. It’s been months so just move past it. We’re blood, so I know you. You still care for her and pushing her to the back of your mind is not going to make you get over her,” Jax told his cousin.

  Mario just sighed in frustration. He knew Jax was right, but he was still a man full of pride. He was stubborn and didn’t want to go to her, he felt that Nadia should come to him and apologize since she was the reason things are the way they are.

  ___

  “Jaron stop,” Nadia squirmed away as Jaron tried to lift her dress up.

  “Why you gotta play?” He asked as he pulled her back towards him.

  “Jaron, I am not about to go there with you. I have to finish packing,” Nadia laughed.

  “Girl, you have another three and a half weeks before you leave. Why you packing?”

  “Because if I don’t start now, it will never get done. Come on now, move,” she said, slapping his hands away.

  Ignoring her, Jaron swooped her up in his arms from behind and laid her body on the bed. Nadia tried to kick him away with her foot, but he grabbed her by her leg and stood between them. He reached under her maxi dress and smiled at the fact that she didn’t have any panties on.

  “Stop…oh,” Nadia moaned as he pressed on her clit.

  “Stop what?” He asked with a smirk.

  Nadia’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape as she went to cuss him out, but the words never left her mouth. Jaron stuck his middle finger in her opening, causing her to close her eyes. She bit down on her bottom lip to keep from screaming out. Neeman was outside playing basketball with Nyzir, and she didn’t want either of them hearing her screams from outside.

  Her eyes snapped open when she felt Jaron’s tongue lick her slit.

  “Mmm, sweet just like I remembered,” he moaned as he dove back in head first while he continued to move his fingers in and out of her.

  Jaron was Nadia’s first and only until she met Mario. He was the one who took her virginity and her first shot of head.

  “Ja…ro…ooh shit!” Nadia moaned as he ate her like he hadn’t eaten in days. Her body exploded in sexual bliss.

  Nadia hadn’t had any sexual encounters since she had taken that vacation with Mario after her mother’s funeral. She didn’t even realize how much she needed it until Jaron’s mouth connected with her clit.

  “Damn gi
rl, you were about to squeeze my damn neck off,” Jaron laughed as he came up for air.

  Nadia chuckled. “Sorry.”

  “Yeah, I bet.”

  “You’re not going to finish?” Nadia asked confused.

  “Nah, you needed to release some tension that you had built up. It’s all about you,” he told her.

  Nadia just laid there deep in thought before Jaron’s voice brought her out.

  “So what about us?” Jaron asked.

  “What do you mean?” Nadia asked perplexed.

  “What’s going to happen to us when you leave?”

  Exactly what I’m wondering, she thought to herself. Nadia had never been in a long distance relationship before, and she didn’t even know how it would work with her and Jaron.

  “I mean, you’re going to be here and I’m going to be there. I don’t know what’s going to happen. All I know is I’m willing to give it a try if you are,” she shrugged.

  One thing Nadia wasn’t was dumb. She knew at the end of the day Jaron was still a nigga, and there was no telling what he would do when she wasn’t around.

  -34-

  Nadia stood around the room she had slept in all her life. Taking it all in. She couldn’t believe in less than two hours she would be on her way to Atlanta. Now that the time had finally come, she was actually nervous but excited at the same time. Before she could leave, there were some things she had to take care of.

  “You good Nadi?” Neeman asked as he stood in the doorway watching her.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Meet me downstairs. I have something I want to give you and Nyzir,” she told him.

  Neeman looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Alright,” he said before walking away.

  When Nadia got downstairs, her brothers were sitting and waiting to hear what she had to say. Reaching in her pocket, she came out with some papers and a pair of keys. She handed both of them to Neeman.

  “These are for you. I have one for Nyzir too,” Nadia told him.

  Neeman’s eyes bucked out of his head when he noticed the keys in his hand went to a Benz. “Nadia, what is this?” He asked.