“What’s good,” he chuckled.

  The two of them were acting too cool for me but once I was done with the two of them, they were going to be madly in love.

  “Y’all funny. But Jaxsyn, can you please take me to the mall? I need something to wear,” I begged him, and he looked up at me through the rearview mirror.

  “Keisha, do I look like a bank to you?”

  “Kinda.” I shrugged my shoulders before me and Kaizlyn both burst out laughing.

  “Bet. That’s why I’m not taking you.” He smirked and my heart dropped.

  Right now was not the time for him to play with me. I was trying to be on my damn P’s and Q’s when I saw Whoodie tomorrow night at the party.

  “Pleasseeeee,” I begged as I damn near climbed in the front seat with my brother.

  “Girl, sit your ass down. I’ll take you. Don’t be having your ass in there all damn day either,” he instructed, and I sat back and held the biggest smile on my face because once again, I had gotten my way.

  We were now pulling up to the mall and I was so geeked to go in there and spend up my brother’s money that I knew he had plenty of. Rushing out of the car, I grabbed Kaizlyn’s hand and we entered the mall with Ace and my brother right behind us.

  “Don’t take y’all asses in there playing. One store and then get y’all asses out of there. KESHIA,” I heard my brother yapping behind me but I wasn’t paying him no mind.

  Instead, I quickly made a quick right and went into my favorite store in the mall, Flawless. With wide eyes, I scanned the store as I picked up different pieces. I needed something that was going to show a little skin but also keep my ass warm.

  “Oh, I like this.” I pulled out this cute ass, brown, two-piece body suit that I knew was going to fit my body just right and show a little skin but also keep my ass warm.

  “Yeah, that is cute,” Kaizlyn chimed in as I showed her the outfit that I had picked up.

  “Thank you. Now let’s find you something to wear,” I told her right as my brother walked in.

  “No, it’s ok,” she tried to stop me, but I wasn’t leaving out the mall until she had an outfit too.

  “Girl, whatever.” I waved her off and twisted my ass over to a rack that had cute crop tops and dresses.

  As I looked through the racks, with Kaizlyn following behind me, I watched out the corner of my eye as my brother eyed Kaizlyn. He stood in the back with his hands stuffed into his pockets, looking like he was somebody’s damn bodyguard.

  “This is it bitch.” I picked up a cute ass, all-white one-piece that I knew would look godly on her.

  “Come, let’s try this on.” I pulled her towards the dressing room.

  Once we reached the dressing room, we stood and waited for this fat ass girl, that had on a shirt two sizes too little, to give us the tag which showed the number of items we had in our hands.

  “How many,” she dryly asked as she tried to pull down the all-black shirt that kept on rising.

  “I have three and she has one,” I replied, and she dryly handed us the tags and went back to hanging up clothes on a rack.

  Rollin’ my eyes at her dry ass customer service skills, I entered the stall that had a two above it and Kaizlyn went into the one that had the number three.

  Stripping out of my clothes, I tried on the first outfit I picked up which was an all in one pants suit, but I didn’t like it. It was cute how it fell off the shoulder, but it flared out at the bottom reminding me of something I should wear to church.

  I spun around and admired how fat my ass looked, but this outfit wasn’t for the occasion I was trying to attend.

  “How is everything going over there?” I asked Kaizlyn, who sounded as if she was struggling to put it on.

  “I think it might be too tight,” she replied.

  “Hold on, let me take this outfit off and put this other one on, then we can walk out together,” I told her as I stripped out of the black outfit I had on then put on the crop top, two-piece outfit.

  “Oh yes, this is it.” I did a full spin in the mirror then walked out to the full mirrors.

  “I look good, don’t I brother?” I joked to Jaxsyn who acted like he didn’t hear me, but Ace was looking so damn hard that he might fuck around and let drool slip out of his mouth.

  Ace was really cute. He had a caramel skin complexion, cute, deep brown eyes, waves on swim, and the prettiest smile. He was around the same height as my brother and could dress his ass off. Every now and then he would have a mouth full of gold and jewels around his neck with his tattoos showing. Ace was a good nigga at his best and always kept a brush in his back pocket so he could brush over his deep waves.

  “How I look Ace?” I teased.

  “Shitt….” He ran his hands over his waves.

  “Shit what nigga?” My brother frowned at him.

  “Shit… nothing my nigga.” Ace bent over in laughter.

  “Yeah, you ain’t got to say it, I already know.” I twisted off, so that I could go see what was taking Kaizlyn so long to bring her ass out.

  Knocking on the door, I asked, “Girl, what’s taking so long? Come out so that I can see.”

  “I don’t know.” She sighed.

  “Girl, come on.” I twisted the knob and opened the door.

  My mouth dropped at how pretty she looked and her body was to die for. Shit, I thought I was thick but damn, Kaizlyn’s thick frame was putting my body to shame.

  “Girl if I was gay I would so tap that,” I joked as I pulled her out the stall and to the big mirror.

  “You look pretty, see.” I pulled her hair behind her shoulders as we looked at her in the big floor-to-ceiling mirror.

  As she looked at herself in the mirror, I looked back at my brother and that nigga was damn near about to drop dead. I mean, his eyes were glued to Kaizlyn and right then and there, I knew what it was. I was right. He liked her.

  “How she look Ace?” I asked him first just to see how my brother was going to react when he answered the question.

  “I mean…” Ace wiped his hands down his face and paused. “She look goo—”

  “She look like she need more clothes on,” my brother shot out, coming off as jealous.

  “Nah, she don’t. Why you sounding like you her dude though?” I put his ass on spot.

  He squinted his eyes at me before he walked up to me, looked Kaizlyn up and down then dug in his pocket and slapped some money in my hand.

  “Hurry yo’ ass up so I can go.” He grilled me before he left out of the store with Ace on his tail. I knew that he was probably upset because I put his ass on the spot, but he wasn’t going to get the girl he wanted acting all hard and shit.

  “What was that about?” Kaizlyn wrapped her arms around her body tightly.

  “Girl nothing. He don’t know how to act around girls he like.” I winked at her and her face turned beet red.

  Laughing out loud at her, we both went inside of the dressing room, changed back into our original clothes, then went and paid for the stuff.

  While in line at the register, I checked my phone to see if Whoodie might’ve text me, but he hadn’t. That shit stung but I took that shit for what it was and prepared myself to show my ass tomorrow night.

  “How you think he’s going to act when he sees me?” Keisha ran her hands through her loose curls nervously.

  She was currently finishing up with her hair and I was sitting on her bed. I was already dressed. The outfit that I had gotten out of the mall yesterday was easily paired with a blue jean jacket and some cute, thigh high boots. I was basic as fuck right now. To me, it didn’t matter how I looked. I had lost that spark to look good a long time ago.

  “Girl, when that man sees you, he is going to be kissing at your feet.” I smiled at her.

  Keisha was currently rocking that two-piece set that she had gotten from the mall. It was fitting her body tightly, showing off her semi flat stomach that exposed her belly button piercing. The sleeves of the outfit fell off her shoulders. She had on a pair of darker brown leather boots that made her look like every swirl of chocolate there was. She looked pretty and it saddened me that her mind was gone when it came to Whoodie.

  “Girl. If only. Whoodie ain’t never been the type.” She rolled her eyes and joined me on her bed.

  “But you look pretty.” She smiled widely at me as she racked her hands through my bone straight hair.

  I had decided to take my time and run the flat iron through my hair. When my grandma saw me before I walked next door, she actually broke down and started crying. She went on to say that I looked just like my mother and she hated that she didn’t try to make her stay. I had wished that she would have told me more as to why my mother left but she quickly dried up the tears and changed the subject. I didn’t know what type of secret that they had tried to hide, but one day I was going to find out.

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  “We need to do your makeup though,” Keisha added.

  “Girl. I used to do my makeup all the time. I mean, beat the hell out my face but…” I trailed off thinking about why.

  “But what bitch? But nothing. It’s time for you to get that light back in your life and I’m going to help you.” She smacked her lips and bobbed her head from side to side as she talked to me.

  Keisha was a little ghetto but you couldn’t tell her that shit.

  “Ok. Let me walk back over to my grandma’s to get it,” I let her know as I got up and walked towards the door.

  “Yes and hurry up. We about to have more than just my brother looking at you,” she joked.

  I was in the process of laughing at her statement and backing out of her room while trying to close the door when I bumped into someone.

  “I’m so sorry.” I placed my hands up and covered my mouth.

  “Shit,” he hissed when I noticed that he had wasted the drink he had in his hand all on his shirt. Thankful that it didn’t get on this all-white jumper that I had on, I stood there embarrassed.

  “I’m so sorry, let me find something to get this up.”

  “Nah, you good.” He winked at me. I guess this time I got the good guy, the one that liked to show off in front of my grandma because normally, he was an asshole.

  “You sure?” I questioned as I stood there trying to stop my eyes from wandering.

  Even though I told myself love or relationships wasn’t on the horizon for me, I couldn’t downplay the fact that Jaxsyn was so good looking.

  Even while wearing something so simple as a white muscle shirt that was thin enough for me to see that he had a nice ass body. Also, the basketball shorts let me know that he wasn’t lacking in that area neither. His chocolate skin looked so delectable. His skin looked smooth and as if he dipped himself in some cocoa butter lotion. It shined underneath the light that was above us in the hallway.

  Clearing his throat, Jaxsyn chuckled. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  Shit, my eyes and my mind had failed me. Here I was right in this man’s face lusting and taking in his good looks. Talk about embarrassed.

  All I could do was simply nod at him and walk away. I couldn’t even build myself up to say anything else. Him realizing the obvious caused me to keep my head down as I walked out of the front door and over to my grandma’s.

  When I walked inside of the house, there was a man sitting on the couch. One who I had no clue about. “Uhm where is my grandma?” I was concerned.

  “She…she…she walked in there.” He stuttered as he eyed me. He was looking at me as if I was foreign. The way he tilted his head from side to side as he fixated on me.

  “You look so familiar,” his groggy voice spoke.

  “Hey Kaizlyn, baby what are you doing here? I thought you were going out?” She came from around the corner with money in her hand and fright painted on her face.

  The way she looked at me, let me know that she wished that I would have stayed gone and not have come back into the house.

  “I just came back to get my makeup. Is everything ok?” I quizzed as I walked slowly over to her. With each step I could feel the guy’s eyes still on me.

  He wasn’t an older guy, more like around my mother’s age. The way his eyes lit up from the sight of me, creeped me out. His skin was a muddy water skin color and the way he rocked back and forth let me know that something was wrong with him. He wasn’t all the way there in the head.

  “Ughh. Uhm. Ok. Go get it baby,” she spoke to me, but her eyes darted to the man that was sitting on the couch.

  Nodding my head, I walked slowly to my room but curiosity got the best of me so, I turned around and headed back into the direction of the living room. I rested my back against the wall and I tried to control my breathing as I snuck and listened to them talk.

  “I thought I told you to never step foot back on my damn property,” my grandma sassed at the man who was sitting on her couch.

  “Yeah, but I’ve ran out of money,” he replied.

  “I should have called the police on you seventeen years ago,” my grandma hissed. The venom and hatred in her voice was evident. I had no idea what their history consisted of but I knew that she didn’t like him.

  “But you didn’t,” he teased. “And let me guess…that pretty little thing must be—”

  “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare fucking mention her. Get out. Get the hell out of my home, now.” My grandma’s little voice shook as she yelled at him.

  I quickly ran into my room, grabbed my makeup bag and made my presence known. There on the floor picking up money was the man who I wanted to know more about.

  “Baby girl, hurry up and go next door, ok and have fun.” My grandma placed her hand on my shoulders and stared deep into my eyes.

  “But…”

  “No buts, do what I say,” she replied as I directed my attention to the floor. The guy was watching us like a hawk while also picking up the money and stuffing it into his worn-out slacks that desperately needed cleaning. The tan color that you could tell they once were, had stains and was dirty.

  “Ok,” I agreed lowly. I didn’t want to leave her out of fear. Fear that the same thing that happened to mother when I left her, was going to happen to her. Hell, I didn’t know this man and from the sounds of things she did, but she didn’t like him.

  Walking slowly out of the house, every bone in my body wanted to turn back around and not leave until he left out. I felt like shit as I walked across the grass and up to Keisha’s front door.

  Just go back, I told myself as I raised my hand to knock. But instead of knocking, I sat down in the fold out chair that was on the front porch.

  I stared at my grandma’s house as I waited for him to leave. I wasn’t going to be able to breathe or enjoy my night until I knew that things were safe.

  “What are you doing out here?” Jaxsyn came out the door with a black hoodie on and instead of the basketball shorts he had on, he was now wearing some black Nike joggers.

  Taking in a deep breath, I exhaled then explained to him, “It’s my grandma. I don’t have no clue who that man is over there but I just will feel better once he leaves.”

  “You need me to go over there and handle that shit?” he questioned.

  “No…that’s ok. I’ll just sit here until I know that everything is good.”

  “Even if that means all night and not going to that damn party?” He looked back at me as he pulled the hood over his head and sat down.

  “Yup. Even if that means no party. I can’t afford to lose nobody else. I can’t…” My voice trailed off and my stomach sunk.

  “You good Kaizlyn?” Jaxsyn stood up and came to stand in front of me. “What happened to you? Why you always get sad like this?”

  He sounded so sincere and it felt good that he was concerned, but having that talk was just one that I tried not to do.

  “Yeah and it’s nothing,” I replied. I knew my answer was dry and cold but that’s how I felt a lot. Dry and cold, like there was no way that sunlight could possibly shine in my life again.

  “Aite.” He looked at me like I was full of bullshit, and I was. I was hurting. I wasn’t ok. I was missing the fuck out of her and I swear to God that I would give anything to have her back.

  “There he go.” I shot my eyes towards him and he was leaving out the house rather quickly. Too quickly for my liking.

  “I have to go and make sure that she is ok,” I told Jaxsyn as I leaped to my feet with him right behind me.

  “And I’ll make sure this nigga don’t leave until you know she is.” He mugged as he went over to the old red beat up Honda car and stood in front of it with a gun, I didn’t even know he had, pulled out in front of me.

  Shaking my head at his craziness, I ran in the house and didn’t see my grandma in the living room but there was a picture of my mother when she was little, my grandma, a man, and a little boy, knocked over and broken on the floor. My heart was racing and as I made my way farther into the house, I walked with my eyes closed out of fright. I didn’t know if could witness another death or deal with more pain.

  “Grandma,” I called, but no answer.

  Ugh. I tried to hold back the tears as I made my way into her room.

  “Grandma,” I hollered.

  “Yes baby.” She walked out of her closet after placing a black shoebox back on the top shelf.

  “I was scared.” I ran to her and hugged her.

  Even though I had only been with her for a few days, that didn’t matter to me. In those few days, I’d felt love. And the fact that she was the only person that I had left, I didn’t want to lose her.

  “Honey, I’m good. I was gon’ bust a cap in his ass if anything.” She caressed my back as I laughed through the tears.

  “Good. I’m glad you’re ok.” I sniffled.

  “I’m always ok and I see now that we have a lot to talk about. I want you to go finish enjoying your night and I’ll tell you everything later.” Worry lines were evident on her forehead but she tried to play it cool, as if it was nothing.

  “Everything like what?”

  “I told you I would tell you later.” She patted me on the back and we walked to the front door.

  “Ok,” I told her then left out the door.

 

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