“Thank you, Miss Susan,” Shawna said.
“Girl, I know how you feel,” Susan said. “And I just wish I had somebody to talk to about that kinda stuff back in Baltimore. My mother was so bitter over my father that I never felt like I could really go to her about that kind of stuff, so I just kind of kept it to myself all this time.”
“Do you regret it?” Shawna asked while Susan slid into her coat. “Like do you regret getting back with him now that you’re older and whatnot?”
Susan took a moment to think about how she wanted to answer that particular question. She turned to Shawna and smiled.
“Well, Shawna,” she said as she slowly headed toward the door of the shop. “I lost a half-sister, but got a husband for twenty-plus years and two kids.” She shrugged. “I guess it went alright.”
Shawna knew what that meant – that Miss Susan hadn’t seen her half-sister in almost three decades.
“Thank you so much, Miss Susan,” Shawna said. “I really mean that.”
Susan shrugged. “It’s life. That’s all it is. Think about how you feel and make your choices based on that, not based on what the rest of the world think. Do you think he really loves you and was just messing around with her?”
Shawna took a few moments before she could even begin to answer. Just as she opened her mouth to start talking, Miss Susan opened the door to the shop. The cold winter wind came rushing in.
“Think about that first,” Susan said. “Girl, I’mma go now. Hurry up and get home. Make sure you lock this door while you’re closing up and hurry up and get outta here.”
Shawna nodded. “Okay, Miss Susan,” she said, smiling. “I will.”
Just then, Susan disappeared into the snow and headed down the sidewalk to the small parking lot at the side of the building. After Shawna closed the door, she couldn’t do anything but sit in the chair for a moment and think. She played it all over in her head – finding out that Tron was out on the south side, him lying to her face like it was nothing, and worst of all, that very moment she called and could hear Tron clearly getting it on with another chick. It was all just too much, and it caused Shawna to sit there, in her chair for a few minutes, while she processed what Miss Susan had said to her and how she was really feeling.
“Tron,” Shawna said to herself. “I just don’t believe this shit. I just don’t.”
Chapter 4
Last night was crazy for Tron, to the point where he really didn’t get any good sleep. The words I’m pregnant rang over and over again in his head, as his mind replayed the phone call he had gotten from Desirae. He had ended the conversation with her by telling her that when he could, in all this snow, he would be over to talk to her about all of it. Tron told Desirae that he just needed some time to think about her having his baby. However, in the back of his mind, there were other thoughts – thoughts that were telling him that Desirae was the kind of chick who would make up anything to get him to come by and see her. She really did seem like she would do something like that.
When he had hung up the phone, he already knew that his boy Tyrese was going to be all over it. He had heard him choke on his drink from the kitchen. The two of them smoked another blunt while Tron explained what Desirae had said. Now, it was the next day, and Desirae being pregnant with his child was the first thing on Tron’s mind when he woke up that morning. Even now that he had slept on it, it was still something that he didn’t want to believe. Last night, when he and Tyrese had finally decided that they were going to call it a night and go to sleep, Tron went up to his bed. For the first time ever, really, he felt what it felt like to be lonely. It felt so strange to be sleeping in that bed, in that master bedroom, without Shawna. Feeling lonely and really thinking about all of the pain he had caused, he called Shawna for what he thought of as one last time. Of course, she didn’t answer.
The first thing Tron did when he got out of bed was walk over to the window and look out. The snow had stopped and, from his window, he could see a parking lot full of vehicles buried in snow. He shook his head, remembering how much he loved the winter when he was a kid. Now, as he got older and life only got harder, snow just slowed him down even more. And it always came at the worst times. If there wasn’t so much snow outside, Tron knew that he would be in his car to see Shawna so he could talk to her. He figured that she was staying with her sister, but he had decided to just give her all the space she needed before he went trying to fix things.
There was a knock at his bedroom door. It was Tyrese.
“What, nigga?” Tron asked.
Tyrese pushed the door opened and looked in. “Nigga, calm the fuck down,” he said. “Look, I need you to do me a favor.”
“A favor?” Tron said, almost wanting to laugh. “Nigga, you stayin’ in my place and shit, ain’t you. What? What is it?”
“Damn, nigga,” Tyrese said. “I can see you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Look, I was just gon see if you wanted to roll with me to go over to my place and get some stuff. Then, you can use my truck later on if you need to go anywhere.”
“Use your truck?” Tron said, thinking. “Aight. Bet. When you try’na head over there? Like right now?”
Tyrese just shrugged his shoulders. “Whenever you feel like it,” he answered. “The middle of the day I guess. That’s when Nalique should be at work, I think.”
“Damn,” Tron said, smiling and shaking his head. “She really got you running scared, don’t she?”
Tyrese shook his head, knowing that what his boy Tron was saying was true. “Nigga, fuck you,” he said.
Tron laughed, purposely loud enough for Tyrese to hear him as he headed back downstairs.
Tron got up, deciding that he was going to need something to eat then he would be ready to go. Shawna had been the main person to go to the grocery store between the two of them, so he really didn’t know what he had to eat downstairs. When he got to the kitchen, he could smell weed smoke.
“Damn, nigga,” Tron said. “Yo ass is up smoking already.”
Tron looked out into the living room and saw Tyrese hitting a blunt, sitting in a chair and facing the back glass sliding doors. Tyrese looked back at Tron and shrugged. “Why not?”
“Man, whatever,” Tron said. “So, what are you trying to get?”
“Just some shit I need to get over there,” Tyrese answered. “Nothing heavy or nothing if that’s what you wondering. So, you gon roll through and see your girl today?”
“My girl?” Tron said. “Who? Shawna?”
“Naw, nigga,” Tyrese said. “I told you, you might as well go on and let that shit go. I saw her face just like you did and I think it is safe to say that that ship done sailed at this point.”
Tron didn’t like that Tyrese was telling him that. At the same time, he knew that what he was saying was probably going to wind up being true. Just as he had said seconds before, the look on Shawna’s face truly was something that he had never ever seen in his life. She really did look the definition of brokenhearted. He just decided to not respond.
“I’m talkin’ about Desirae,” Tyrese said. “Your baby moms.”
“Nigga, don’t call her that,” Tron said, clearly sounding irritated.
Tyrese looked across the room at his boy. He had known him long enough to know that what he had just said must have really struck a chord with him in some way.
“You think she makin’ that shit up?” Tyrese asked, knowing that this particular question had been on his mind since he watched Tron on the phone with Desirae. “I mean, you really think that?”
Tron came into the room with a couple pieces of bread, not feeling like really cooking anything. He plopped down into the couch and pushed his head back into the top of the couch.
“Man, I don’t know,” Tron said, taking a deep breath. “I mean… Of course, I hope her ass ain’t pregnant.”
“Was you fuckin’ her raw?” Tyrese finally asked.
There was a long pause before Tron answered the qu
estion.
“Yeah,” Tron said, nodding. “At first, I was putting on the rubber and shit, but after a while we just stopped using them. You know how shit be. With her body, you get to actin’ real stupid and shit. Plus, with how she be givin’ me that brain, that is the last thing on my mind when she get up and get ready to sit on my shit and ride me.”
“I can imagine,” Tyrese said, imagining smashing Desirae in that very same white dress he’d seen her in at the club on Saturday night. “I mean… I feel you on that. You get caught up in the moment and shit.”
“Yeah, man,” Tron said. “And I’m sure you already know that she told me she was on the pill.”
“They all say that shit,” Tyrese said, thinking back to a couple of chicks that he had smashed back in high school who would tell him that kind of stuff. If there was anything he hated in the world, it was a woman who would do something that low to trap a man and try to make him stay with her. “You know they be lyin and shit.”
“Man, for all I know she could have been lettin’ some other nigga come over there and get up in her guts,” Tron said. “And now that she know I’m the part owner of a club and shit, and don’t have no misses like I did when I first started fucking around with her, she could just be looking for a meal ticket. You know how hoes be, especially them thirsty ones. I think she just doing this shit to try to get me to come over and talk to her and shit.”
“Well,” Tyrese said. “It’s working, ain’t it?”
Just then, Tron’s eyes slanted toward Tyrese. “Nigga,” he said.
Tyrese chuckled. “Okay, okay,” he said. “I mean, it could be your baby, man.”
“I know it could,” Tron said. “I know it could. I just…”
“Wish it wasn’t?”
Tron nodded. “Basically,” he said. “A baby is the last thing that I need right now with all this shit going on. We gotta figure out what we gon do about the club and everything.”
“Let’s talk about that shit later on tonight,” Tyrese said. “You know it’s supposed to snow again, don’t you? So I was already figuring there would be no point in us even having the club open tonight. Them dudes ain’t gon be out driving in all this snow to come watch no pussy. And I doubt them girls gon be doing all that to come in and make some money like that.”
“Yeah, that’s cool,” Tron said. “But we gotta call and tell them.”
“I’ll tell them,” Tyrese said.
Tron just started to shake his head, finding it crazy how his boy Tyrese always had the phone numbers of the girls who danced at the club. The more he thought about it, the more it made him laugh.
“So…” Tron said.
“So what?” Tyrese asked.
“Now that Diamond done got her ass beat over you, you can pretty much guess that she ain’t gon be try’na fuck around with yo ass no more.”
“Man, you don’t know that,” Tyrese said.
Tron opted to just be quiet, letting the look on his face say it all. Tyrese picked up on it and chuckled.
“Yeah, man,” Tyrese said, shaking his head. “I probably won’t be smashin’ that shit no more.”
“I know you got a backup up there,” Tron said. “I know you, nigga.”
“Nigga, fuck you,” Tyrese said. “I’mma get me a nice church girl and be the family man…be faithful and all that. Maybe it’s time for me to settle down and shit.”
Tron chuckled and stood up, heading toward the staircase. “Nigga, it is too early in the fuckin’ morning for you to be tellin’ them kinda jokes,” he said. “Man, I’mma go put on my clothes and I be ready to head over to your place.”
***
Within about thirty minutes or so, Tron and Tyrese had brushed the snow off of the windows of Tyrese’s SUV and the two of them were headed over to Tyrese’s place. Tyrese lived in the hood of Naptown, in some projects off of 38th Street that once were considered one of the most dangerous areas of the city. Now, however, the city had come through and fixed everything up. The crazy part about it all, though, was that the city let all the same people move back in. Even with the money they were making from the club, Tyrese still wound up getting a place with Nalique and everything was in her name.
“Yeah, she should be at work when we pull up,” Tyrese said.
“Yeah, that’s what you hope,” Tron said. “Look, man, I don’t feel like being in no more of your shit.”
“Nigga, don’t be actin’ like you any better off than I am.”
“Yeah, right.”
Tyrese pulled into the drive of his apartment complex. His particular building was the equivalent of three or four blocks back from 38th Street. Tyrese drove carefully, on top of at least six to seven inches of packed down snow, back to his building.
“Shit,” Tyrese said, just as he turned into the parking lot outside of his apartment building. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Tron had been looking through his text messages when he looked up and saw what Tyrese was cursing about. Nalique’s car was out front, parked directly in front of the front door. First, Tyrese rolled by the entrance to his building then around the parking lot and into a spot, six or seven spaces down from the entrance.
“So, what?” Tron asked. “Do you need me to help carry any of this shit or what?”
Tyrese shrugged. “Man, I don’t know,” he said. “I hope she just let me come get my stuff without no shit. I just wanna get a couple things. Just chill out here for a sec, and if I need your help, I’ll come out here and let you know.”
Just then, Tyrese left the engine running and hopped out of the car. He walked down the walkway and into the entrance of the building. Outside, in the dead winter of Indianapolis, Tron was alone with his thoughts again. Something about sitting outside in a world that was covered in white, like a blank piece of paper, really got him thinking while he was waiting on Tyrese to come out of the door of his apartment building.
Tron waited out in Tyrese’s SUV until the door to Tyrese’s apartment building came swinging open. Tyrese came rushing out, carrying some things in his hands. Before Tron knew what was going on and why Tyrese was looking so rushed, Nalique came walking out the door behind him. Her hair was wrapped up in a purple rag, and it was one of the only times that Tron had ever seen her without any makeup. Judging by the look on Nalique’s face, the very sight of Tyrese had really pissed her off big time.
“You little dick ass nigga!” Nalique yelled. “I told you I don’t wanna see yo lame ass no more! Why the fuck you comin’ back over here for that trash! Go be with that bitch up at that club, busting it wide open for all them nasty ass men.”
“Oh fuck,” Tron said. “I told this nigga I ain’t want no shit. Why he ain’t just come back when he was sure that she wouldn’t be here? Fuck, I don’t feel like this shit.”
Tyrese came walking toward the car, clearly moving in the snow as fast as he could.
“Nalique, you crazy!” Tyrese shouted. “Fuck you! Aight? Fuck you!”
“Naw, nigga,” Nalique said. “Fuck you and that little ass dick! I can’t believe I went to jail for you, you fuckin, lame-ass, no good ass muthafucka. I’m still shitty about that shit. I gotta fuckin’ court date and shit because of you.”
“I ain’t make you do that,” Tyrese said, as he lifted open the back door of his SUV and dumped some stuff inside. “Bitch, you crazy! You crazy!”
“Man, come on,” Tron said. “Let’s get the fuck outta here and shit.”
“Oh, I’m crazy, huh?” Nalique said. “You wanna call a bitch crazy? I got crazy for you.” Just then, Nalique rushed, only wearing sweatpants, a shirt, and a light jacket, over behind the SUV. Tyrese backed away, but it was too late. Nalique was already swatting at Tyrese, furious about all this drama in her life that Tyrese had caused.
“Nigga, I’mma fuck you up!” Nalique yelled. “I’mma fuck that ass up!”
Tyrese rushed around to the other side of one car, then did the same for another. Nalique followed him. Not wearing the right shoes wa
s slowing her down. After a few more seconds of playing tag, Tyrese hopped into the driver’s seat of his SUV. He slammed the door and locked it.
“Man, that bitch is crazy,” Tyrese said.
“Nigga, you done got what you came to get,” Tron said, shaking his head. “Let’s just get the fuck up out of here before the damn police come rolling up in here or something.”
“Yeah, yeah, I…”
Just as Tyrese was putting the SUV into REVERSE, there Nalique was. She stood at the window, on Tyrese’s side, yelling loudly, but they still could hardly make out what she was saying. Tron could not even lie to himself about how pissed off Nalique looked because he had never seen her as mad as she looked right then. Nalique began hitting against the window as Tyrese backed out of the parking spot, being careful with how fast he drove as to not get stuck in the snow.
“Yeah, that’s right, nigga!” Nalique said. “Get the fuck on up out of here! You know my brother get out and shit in just a couple weeks. And I’mma make sure that he come see, you. Okay? He gon be up there to see you.”
Tyrese shook his head, saying how crazy Nalique was as he pulled all the way out of the parking spot and headed toward 38th Street.
“Man,” Tron said, trying to hold back from laughing. “You done really fucked up.”
Tyrese, feeling a little embarrassed that all of that just went down and with his boy Tron watching, just shook his head. “Man, whatever,” he said. “I ain’t fuck up like yo dumb ass did. Nigga, you the one with a baby on the way. I, at least, didn’t do no shit like that.”
***
When Tron and Tyrese got back to Tron’s townhouse, Tyrese carried his stuff in and handed his keys to Tron.
“Nigga, be careful with my shit,” Tyrese said. “I know how you drive and shit.”
“Nigga, whatever,” Tron said. “I don’t drive no worse than your ass be driving.”
The Diary of a Side Chick 2 (Side Chick Diaries) Page 5