by A'zayler
“What kind of teacher you is talking nasty in front of them kids?”
“They can’t hear me. They’re doing group work. It’s a lot of noise in here.”
Jacorey stretched his legs out in front of him. “I bet it ain’t more noise than you was making last night in that shower… you got to learn to hold all that shit down, bae.”
She was giggling and he could tell it was a mix between bashfulness and pure seduction. He had her feeling some kind of way and he wasn’t even there. He smiled to himself. That’s how he knew it was real.
“I can’t. You go so hard sometimes.”
“I’ll slow it down for you tonight. How ’bout that?”
“Nah, I like it how it is… lil boy get away from my desk and go do that work.” There was movement before she came back on the line. “I’m going to call you on my lunch, bae. These lil children keep talking to me.”
“You’re their teacher.”
“I could be yours, too.”
Jacorey closed his eyes as he thought about her riding his dick in the shower. “Hell yeah, baby, you can.” His voice was little lower than it had been.
“Eww, see you nasty. Bye.”
He opened his eyes and laughed. “Bye, shawty.” He ended their call and nodded his head at Love, who was walking through the front door.
“Yo, slim, you and your lil joint be wilding.”
Jacorey stood up and slapped Ziggy on the back. “With a woman like that, you have to wild out every now and then. You’ll learn soon that these girls in the south ain’t like regular girls.”
“They sholl damn ain’t,” Love told him when he walked up.
“Keep an eye on things out here, I’m about to step in my office real quick.” Jacorey and Love walked to the back to Jacorey’s office.
When they got in, Jacorey pushed the door up and sat down behind his desk while Love sat on the futon.
“What you doing up here?”
“Boy, I came to talk about that shit from yesterday.” Love stretched out on the futon and ran his hands over his stomach.
“Oh, damn. Yeah, that shit was wild, wasn’t it?”
“Hell yeah. Damien’s bitch is going to jail as soon as I talk back to that damn detective. But nigga, that ain’t even the biggest part of it.”
Jacorey’s eyebrows scrunched up across his face. “It’s some more shit?”
“I ain’t want to say shit in front of Rain because she all sensitive and junk, but bruhh…” Love shook his head.
“What, nigga?” Jacorey was on the edge of his seat.
“You remember when that lil nigga they fuck with kept saying he was fucking one of our homeboys?”
Jacorey nodded. Then he stopped and his eyes got big as saucers. “Boy, hell nah, man. Hell nah.”
“Nigga, hell yes.” Love smiled at Jacorey as he watched him go through the many emotions just as he did the day before.
His face held a look of pure disgust as he processed the information. It took him a while to say something, but when he did, it was clear he felt the same way Love did.
“I ain’t fucking with that down low ass nigga no more. That shit is dead as fuck.”
Chapter 8: Web of Lies
“I don’t even know why you’re over here screaming at me. You brought this on yourself being so careless.” Alex walked out his bedroom and left Damien sitting on the bed.
Damien got up and followed him into the living room. “What you mean you don’t know why? These your people, you should tell them to chill out with this shit.”
“Damien, I don’t know what you want me to do. I said I would never tell on you and I haven’t, but you can’t expect that same loyalty out of my friends. Especially not after you told this girl’s man that you have been fucking her. Did you really think she was going to cover for you and ruin her own relationship?” Alex rolled his eyes and plopped down on the sofa. “It’s bad enough that stupid hoe you’ve been giving babies to has taken away everything Rain had. I honestly wouldn’t blame her if she does tell on you.”
Damien cursed as he hit his hand on the wall. “I ain’t even know about that crazy shit right there. I had no idea Iesha was out here doing dirt like that.”
“It’s okay because she’s taking her ass to jail. Rain lost her baby because of her. She burned the girl’s house down, hit her with her car, stalked her for months, all because she thought you was messing with her.” Alex played with his weave. “Could you imagine what she would have done had she realized it was me you were fucking and not Rain?”
Damien slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor. He covered his face with his hands and hit his head on the wall subtly. His shoulders slumped as he blew out a ragged breath.
“What I’m gon do if she tells him?”
Alex pitied Damien and his situation, but he knew this wouldn’t stay a secret forever. How could it?
“I don’t know, Damien,”
He looked at Alex with pleading eyes. “Tell me something. You have to tell me what to do because I can’t take this shit.”
Alex shrugged. “It ain’t much you can do, Damien. You can admit to it, and accept whatever comes afterward, or you can deny it and see how that plays out.”
“Fuck, man. I can’t do no shit like that.”
“You have to, Damien.”
“I ain’t no faggot Alex. I can’t have my niggas knowing I be over here doing no shit like this.”
Alex looked everywhere but at Damien. He really hated the position he was in, but there was nothing he could do for him. He hadn’t talked to Rain yet, so he didn’t know what she planned to do, or had already done, but whatever it was he wouldn’t be mad. She had been the innocent party in it all.
“Damien, you can’t keep living a lie. You don’t want to accept the fact that liking boys makes you gay then fine, but you can’t expect for other people to take a backseat to your decisions and allow their own lives to be ruined behind it. I’ve told you plenty of times before that you’re playing a dangerous game. Too many people’s lives are at risk and you don’t care.”
“I don’t want to hear that shit right now,” he barked out.
“You came over here asking me for my opinion. If you didn’t want it for real you should have stayed where you was.”
Damien slammed his head into the wall again, this time a lot harder than he had been. Alex looked at him to make sure he was okay before getting up and going back to his room. He began getting dressed, leaving Damien to his thoughts. If he wanted to act like he hadn’t brought all of this on his own self then that was his business.
Alex unbraided his sew in and sprayed some oil sheen on it. After all of the mess that Damien had just told him had gone on yesterday, he needed to talk to Rain and make sure she was okay. Her not calling him was weird enough, so he was going to check on her. Knowing her, she was probably scared to talk to him, thinking he was mad at her.
“Yo, I’m about to dip. I need to go somewhere and think.” Damien stood in the door to Alex’s room.
“Okay. Be careful.”
Damien nodded and left the room and Alex’s apartment. When Alex finished getting himself together, he too left his house. He drove straight to Love’s house to pop up on Rain. When he got there he didn’t see Love’s truck, so he wasn’t sure whether she was there or not, but since he’d driven the whole way there he got out and knocked on the door.
When she opened the door she was in nothing but a sports bra and a pair of shorts. Her hair was down and hanging around her face and shoulders. She had her glasses on, which let him know that she was probably writing. Rain smiled at him and opened the screen door for him to walk in.
“Bitch, why you ain’t tell me Damien’s baby mama was about to tap that ass yesterday?”
Rain looked down and walked back into the living room where she had a blanket and her computer. She sat down and looked at him.
“It was so much going on. I was going to.” Rain put her computer back on her
lap. “And she wasn’t about to tap nothing over here.”
Alex kicked his shoes off and tucked his feet up on the sofa. “That ain’t what I heard. I heard she was about to fuck you and your nigga up.”
Rain laughed and hit Alex’s leg. “Now you know better than that.”
“I don’t know nothing since you didn’t call and tell me.”
“I was gon call you.”
Alex could tell by her demeanor that she was still nervous about him being mad her. Rain was too sweet for her own good sometimes. “I’m not mad at you, Rain. Hell, to be for real, you need to be the one mad with me. Look at all the mess you dun went through about some dick that you ain’t even getting.”
“You ain’t never lied.” She got quiet for a minute. “I told Love about Damien.”
“I know. It’s cool, best friend. You had to do what you had to do.”
“Have you talked to him?”
Alex rolled his eyes. “Girl, yeah. He just left my house begging me to tell him what to do. Hell, I don’t damn know.”
“Well, if it helps, I don’t think Dakota is going to go around telling everybody. He’s not like that. I think as far as it might go is Jacorey.”
“I ain’t worried about that. That’s Damien’s business. He knew this was coming eventually, I mean, he had to.”
Rain crossed her legs and set her computer on the sofa next to her. “Maybe if he could control that baby mama of his, this would have never happened.”
“Girl, she is real live crazy,” Alex told her.
Rain took that as her opportunity to tell him about she and Love reporting Iesha to the police. They talked about the whole situation for a while before he mentioned going to get something to eat. Rain told him to let her get dressed and then they could go. He sat in the living room and waited on her to come back downstairs.
It didn’t take her long to get ready, and they were back out the door. Alex was backing out of the driveway when Rain’s phone rang. She answered and he could tell by the way she was talking that it was Fallon. She’d said her name a few times, along with asking about Jazz. When she got off the phone, she told him that Fallon wanted her to ride to Albany with her to get her things from her house.
“When she want you to do that?”
“Today. I told her I would. You should come too. The more people, the faster we’ll move.”
Alex wasn’t really in the mood to be driving, but it wasn’t like he had much else to do, so he agreed. Versus going somewhere to sit down and eat, they chose to grab some food from Chick Fil-A and hop on the road. Fallon told them to meet her on the exit up from the highway so they could follow her.
She was already there and waiting when they pulled up. She waved at them and pulled out. Being that they both had so much going on, the hour and half ride went by fast. They talked about everything from Rain losing the baby to Damien tripping Troy at the restaurant. Fallon’s Maxima drove through a few streets before coming to a stop at a small brick house. She got out and they followed suit. Alex moved a little slower than the ladies because for some reason he felt like he had been there before.
“I’m glad y’all came with me. I’ve been dreading coming down here. I rented an apartment in Columbus yesterday, so I knew it was time for me to do something.”
“You ain’t got too much junk do you?” Alex stood on the porch waiting for her to unlock the door.
“Nah. I’m just getting our clothes. I’m going to let him keep the furniture.”
Alex and Rain both looked at her. “Why would you do that?” Rain’s face was frowned up.
“Because I just want to start over fresh. I’m going to get my baby and me some new stuff. It ain’t no telling who he has on this stuff when I’m not here anyway.”
“Honey, you a better one than me because I would take all my shit. Even if I had to take it and burn it.”
Rain high fived Alex. “Okay.”
“Your sister in law stupid, Rain, because I would fuck all this shit up. He wouldn’t entertain nobody on the shit I paid for. They’ll be sitting on the floor, playing with me. I’d chop this damn sofa up with a steak knife.” Alex ran his hand over the back of the sofa and continued looking around the house.
If he had thought the outside looked familiar, he most definitely knew the inside. Everything in there felt conversant, from the setup of the furniture to the smell. Alex wasn’t sure why he felt this way, so versus saying anything, he just followed Fallon and Rain through the house. She led them to the back where her and Jazz’s bedrooms where.
She turned the light on and Alex nearly fainted. He had definitely been there before. The large painting of the Lion above the bed was a memory marker. He had been in that room before, and he knew exactly when.
“Rain, I’ll be right back, let me run outside real quick.” He rushed outside while pulling his phone out of his purse.
When he was back on the porch, he looked over his shoulder and continued walking to his truck. He leaned his back against the side of it so that he could see Rain or Fallon if they came out of the house. With his phone to his ear, he looked back and forth the down the street. It rang loudly in his ear as he waited for the phone to be picked up.
“Hey, babyyyy,” Connie finally answered.
“Bitccccchhhhh!” he half screamed, half whispered.
“What’s going on?”
“You remember that night I rode with you to Albany and we came to that house party?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Bitch, why am I here with the wife? I’m guessing she wasn’t here that night.”
Connie’s laughter sounded throughout the phone.
“What you laughing at, girl? Weren’t you in that girl’s bed fucking?”
“Hell yeah. The world is so small.”
Alex shook his head. He couldn’t take Connie serious right now. “See, you play too much. Bye, hoe.”
“Bye, baby. Call me later.” She hung the phone up.
Alex rolled his eyes and walked back into the house. He was definitely going to call her when he got home. She needed to know what kind of nigga she was dealing with. Connie was wild and always had been, but this was something totally different. This nigga had a lot more than some dick and a happy meal going on.
He could hear Rain and Fallon’s voices coming from the back of the house as he walked back in the door. After throwing his purse over the back of the sofa, he joined them in Jazz’s room. They were throwing all of his things into a large black suitcase that was sitting in the middle of the bed.
“Alex, you could start in my room, if you don’t mind. I want to hurry up and get done before Drake gets here.”
“That’s cool. Where’s your stuff?”
“Come on, I’ll show you.” Fallon walked in front of him and picked up the other two suitcases that were in the hallway along the way.
She showed Alex which closets were hers, also pointing out the dressers that belonged to her. After she’d shown him everything that he needed to grab clothes from, she left the room and went back to Jazz’s room to help Rain. Alex looked around the room before snatching things out and throwing them into the bag. He moved as fast as he could because he ain’t have the time for any domestic drama disputes either.
He observed all of the nice clothing that Fallon had as he moved back and forth between the closet and suitcase. His phone buzzed in his pocket, stopping him in his tracks. When he pulled it out he saw Damien’s name on the screen.
“What’s up?” Alex answered.
“Where you at?” Frustration was loud and clear. Alex could hear a hint of anxiety as well.
“Out with Rain, what’s up?”
“Damn, aight.”
“What?”
“Nothing, stay with your friend.” He hung the phone up.
Alex looked at his screen because he couldn’t believe this nigga had just hung up in his face. True enough he had a lot of shit going on at the moment, but that didn’t have anything to do with h
im. He would be there for him the best he could, but that was it. If he wanted to have an attitude with anybody he needed to take his ass home and have it with that baby mama that got him caught up in the first place.
Alex pushed Damien out of his mind and went back to gathering Fallon’s things. He’d finished the closet and was digging through her dresser, pulling all of her panties and bras out. He threw that last bra in the bag and turned to go to the next drawer when he noticed the stack of folded papers. At first he was going to look over them as if he didn’t see them, but he couldn’t.
He was way too nosey to let that slide. He at least needed to take a peek at it. Alex looked out the door quickly to make sure she wasn’t coming before picking the papers up. He would throw them down if he heard her coming. He unfolded the papers and let his eyes scan over the wording. He cursed silently as his eyes bucked before pulling his phone out and taking a picture of the papers.
He folded those, stuck them in the suitcase, and moved on to the next paper. It was blue, pink, and white. Alex knew right away that it was a birth certificate. He again took a picture of it and closed it back up. He decided he’d go back through his pictures later. Right now was too risky. He was nosey and all, but he didn’t want to get caught. That might cause a fight, and he already owed her a punch to the face anyway. He didn’t want to have to beat her in her own house.
The last document was a short and to the point. It was long and had multiple sheets as the first document did. This one was clearly that paper she’d gotten from the doctor that informed her of her sickness. There was no need to take a picture of that. They already knew about that. When he was finished, he hurried to stick the papers into the bag with the rest of her clothes.
On his knees, Alex crawled over to her dresser and threw clothes from another drawer into the suitcase on top of the papers. He had just turned around to retrieve more clothes when she walked into the room.
“You know what, Alex? I’ll do the drawe—” She stopped when she noticed he was already clearing the drawers.
“It’s okay, I got it.” His heart was beating fast as he thought about how close he had been to being caught.