Chapter 16 #2
Knots of tension tormented her. She was sick.
Sick that she could hear his voice and that he didn’t sound like he was even thinking of her, let alone sharing in her sadness.
She rang the doorbell again. Again. Why the fuck wasn’t anyone answering the door?
What was taking them so long? And what the fuck was so damn funny?
Demi barely smiled, and a full-on laugh was rare.
Charlie turned and grabbed the porch railing because she was in so much agony she could barely stand up straight.
This was the part she hated when it came to love, the part that made a fool of her, the part that had her out of character, desperately chasing after a man.
Clearly, she had lost her mind. It was back at the radio station where she had first discovered Demi’s whereabouts.
If her mama had taught her nothing, she had taught her never to take a fight to someone’s doorstep, but here she was, fighting and shit… for love. Oh, what a fool.
When the door swung open, and DJ stood before her, Charlie couldn’t even force a smile. She couldn’t even pretend like everything was okay in front of him.
“Hey, DJ, can you go get your dad?” Charlie asked.
“DJ, who’s at the door?”
Just the sound of Lauren’s voice coming down the hall was enough to blur Charlie’s vision.
“It’s Charlie!” DJ said.
Within seconds, Demi was approaching the front door. His change of clothes shattered her.
Does he still have things here? Did he ever even move out?
At first sight, he hardened. His stubbornness presented anger first. He wanted to be nonchalant. He wished he didn’t care, but she was so fucking pretty, and her sad eyes pulled out his genuine emotion within seconds.
“Bird, you can’t be here,” he said softly.
“You can’t be here, Demi! Why are you here?!”
Lauren rounded the corner, a smug expression on her face as she sipped from a mug with the word MRS. on the front.
“Demi, get this young, messy bitch off the porch before I hurt her,” Lauren said calmly.
“Before you hurt who?” Charlie asked, pulling her neck back. “Who she hurting, Demi, cuz bitch I’ll…”
“You were really slumming with this little-ass girl,” Lauren said, laughing. Her unbotheredness bothered the hell out of Charlie.
“Lo, chill, take DJ and let me take care of this business,” Demi said.
“Business?” Charlie recoiled as he reached for her. “I’m business! Was it business when you were begging me to marry you? Was I business when you told me you hadn’t felt this alive your entire marriage?”
Lauren’s drink was in her face before Charlie could say another word.
Charlie tried to run Demi down, she was so livid.
“You got me fucked up!” She shouted as she lunged for Lauren.
“Yo! Bird! Bird!” Demi shouted. “Fuck, Bird, chill!”
“You’re here playing house while I’m home waiting for you to walk through the door! I’ve been dying without you and you’re here doing what?!”
“You know what he was doing, little girl, you been stalking my story,” Lauren said.
“Take the trash out, Demi.” Lauren tossed the whole damn mug at Charlie, narrowly missing her head.
It shattered against the wall, and Demi spun on her.
Demi’s head was fucking spinning. This moment was inevitable, an altercation between his mistress and his wife.
The dynamics under which things had begun wouldn’t allow anything else except for this moment to happen.
“Take DJ and go find you some fucking chill!” His tone was enough to rein in Lauren’s anger.
“Next time that bitch comes to this house, I’ma beat her ass like the child she is.” Lauren grabbed her son’s shoulders and steered him to the back of the house.
“Bitch,” Charlie mumbled.
“What the fuck you doing, huh?” Demi barked. “You don’t bring no static where my son live. Have you lost your mind?”
“Have you lost yours?!” Charlie snapped back. “You beg me to keep your baby one day and then go MIA with your ex-wife the next! You know why DJ treats me like a side chick? Because you treat me like one! I wasn’t worth coming home for? It’s just fuck me because I made a decision you didn’t like?”
“Say, man,” Demi muttered in frustration as he blew out a sharp breath. She was shouting at the top of her lungs, pushing him, losing it on him. She might as well have been fighting a giant the way he towered over her.
“I told you what I was gon’ be on,” Demi stated. “You decided this shit by yourself. I put a ring on your finger and built you a house. You the one sucking babies out of you like you fucking a nigga that ain’t yours.”
“Look where you are!” She screamed, eyes betraying her as stubborn tears burned her cheeks. “I am!”
“Demi…”
Charlie turned to face the yard when Lauren came back. As if she hadn’t already embarrassed herself enough, she didn’t want Lauren to see her tears. She wiped at them, but they just kept flowing, kept drowning her. Jesus, she couldn’t even breathe. Yup, she detested this love shit.
“I know, Lo,” Demi said. “My fault, man, damn! Just give me a minute!” His wife and his side bitch. Wait. His fiancée and his ex-wife. The technicalities and emotions were complicated.“She’s pregnant, Demi,” Lauren said.
Charlie turned to face them. Mr and Mrs. Sky. They really were lovely together, and Charlie felt low.
Her chin quivered, and she looked away, then broke out in sobs. “I couldn’t do it, Demi!”
He stepped out onto the porch, placing both his hands on her face.
Lauren watched with a mixture of resentment and awe as he used his fingers to clear her tears.
He was never this way with her. Never this passionate.
Never this loving. No soft touches, no elevated voices during disagreements.
Demi had been on autopilot in their marriage, and seeing him with Charlie confirmed that he had checked out of their relationship long before Charlie ever even entered the picture.
“While you were here cheating on me, I was home waiting for you!” Charlie cried.
“Wasn’t nobody cheating on your ass, Bird,” he said.
“She threw a fucking cup at my head!” Charlie cried.
“Yeah, Demi, this dramatic-ass girl is good and pregnant,” Lauren said sarcastically. “Get all this drama off my porch before she have the police pulling up to my house. Come in, Charlie.”
Charlie looked at Lauren in shock and then up at Demi unsurely.
She had imagined this standoff many times.
She had dreaded it because a child was involved and Charlie knew she would have to be very careful how she handled things, but her emotions were all over the place.
She was at a disadvantage. This wasn’t the right moment.
“This conversation is long overdue,” Lauren said.
Demi pulled Charlie into his arms, and she wrapped her hands around his waist.
“You didn’t do it?” He asked.
Charlie shook her head. “I couldn’t,” Charlie whispered. “I wanted to, or at least I thought I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I can’t. I don’t know, Demi, I’m so scared.”
His conflict was directly tied to her emotions.
Her tears anchored the heaviness in his chest. When she worried, he worried.
When she felt ill, Demi mysteriously would develop symptoms. When her heart broke, his did as well.
He felt everything for her, with her, because he loved her and all he could do was console her because he had a feeling that he had put that fear there.
Something he had done, something that had gone unspoken, some boundary that had been crossed, some issue that had gone unaddressed, had made her fearful of being tied to him forever.
“Okay, Bird,” he whispered. It was like Lauren wasn’t even standing there.
This was the kind of bond that motivated love songs.
Lauren wanted to be mad, but how could she?
They hadn’t shared anything close to what this was.
Demi massaged his knuckles into the back of Charlie’s neck and Charlie seemed to comply as if a hypnotist had removed her free will, as if his touch was enough to heal everything that had brought her here. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Just bring her in, Demi,” Lauren said, voice cracking slightly, because while she acknowledged the love, she couldn’t understand why she had never been able to break through to this emotionally intelligent version of her ex-husband.
“Lo, now ain’t the time. I’ma get out of here…”
“I’ve been with you for two days. I don’t need to talk to you. I’m talking to her,” Lauren said.
“Mannnn,” Demi groaned. “Say, man, do this really seem like the best idea right now? This shit can only go left.”
“It’s fine, Demi,” Charlie said. “We can talk. Maybe we got to go left before things will be right.”
Demi sighed as he stuck his nose in Charlie’s locs and inhaled deeply. These few days had felt like forever. He was appreciative for even her scent.
“I’m okay,” Charlie said.
“Why don’t you go check on DJ? We can handle ourselves,” Lauren suggested.
“That’s what the fuck I’m afraid of,” Demi mumbled.
“We’re fine, baby,” Charlie confirmed. That ‘baby’ took a piece of Lauren’s soul, and Charlie realized the insensitivity of the nickname as soon as she said it.
Demi was her baby, her love, and the expression of that was salt on a wound for Lauren.
Her entire existence was a sore spot for Lauren.
Just the mention of her name ruined Lauren’s day sometimes.
Charlie felt a way about that. Being the source of another woman’s pain wasn’t a compliment.
It was a curse, one that karma would swing back her way one day.
Maybe all this crying over Demi these past few days was the beginning of the curve for the way tables would turn.
Demi was hesitant to leave, but as loud as the argument at the door had been, he knew he had some explaining to do with his son.
“Easy, Lo,” Demi warned.