Chapter 16 #2
Stassi led the way to the guestroom that was being used for hair and makeup for family pictures.
It was always an event. The annual celebration of her father’s marriage.
Yvonne made such a production about it. Charlie had missed six years.
It was a joyous occasion for everyone else.
For her, it represented the day she had lost her dad.
He hadn’t been the same since and it was the date that should have been engraved on her mother’s headstone because the day her father got married was the day her mom’s heart broke.
“Hi, everyone, this is Charlie. We’ll be all set after she’s done,” Stassi said to the team waiting in the room.
“Hi, sorry I’m late,” Charlie said as she sat in the chair.
Stassi sat on the bed behind her as Charlie closed her eyes so the team could start on her face.
“You and Demi. That’s serious?” Stassi asked.
“Yeah, I guess you can say it’s kind of serious,” Charlie said. “I honestly have no idea how it got here, but I’ve never been more serious about something.”
“What do you really know about him, Charlie?” Stassi pushed. “I mean, you’ve known him all of what? A month?”
“I know enough,” Charlie replied.
Conflict tortured Stassi. She wanted to come right out and tell her.
Demi wasn’t what he appeared to be. He had an entire family that Charlie knew nothing about.
Stassi had seen the photos of Lauren’s son plastered all over her office and the little boy was Demi’s twin.
Stassi could see Charlie’s happiness. It was all over her.
Whatever Demi was doing, was working. Charlie was glowing.
She looked like a woman in love and Stassi wanted to be happy for Charlie, but how true could it be if Demi was lying?
“I heard he’s a dog, Charlie. You need to be careful with him,” Stassi said.
Charlie wasn’t even phased by the warning. She was too caught up in what Demi made her feel to heed Stassi’s words.
“Better stop listening to miserable bitches saying miserable shit,” Charlie defended.
“Charlie, he’s...”
“Not your business, sis.” Charlie finished the sentence.
“I don’t care what he’s known as to anybody else.
It actually makes hella sense that other people would misunderstand him, call him mean, call him a dog, think he ain’t shit.
All those things might be true to somebody else.
To me. For me. He’s different. They don’t get the part of him that I get.
Nobody gets that part. I don’t really expect you to get us.
We get us and that’s all that matters; so, yeah, we not speaking about him because I get real defensive about that nigga. ”
Stassi hated that Charlie was stepping so hard over a man who had a whole family in the shadows.
If she told Charlie what she knew and she decided to fuck with Demi anyway, Stassi would be the bad guy.
She would be the gossip. She would prove she can’t separate personal and professional and the business she was building.
.. the connections she had made would all be in vain.
“I’m happy that you’re happy. I just want you to be careful and get to know him. I’ve watched you piece yourself back together before. I just don’t want to see you hurt like that again,” Stassi said.
“Demi wouldn’t do that,” Charlie said.
“What is it that you do, Demi?”
Demi rubbed a hand down his goatee as his brows hiked. He had never done this dance before. Been interrogated. Had a girl’s father question him. Not even with Lauren. So, this interaction with Charlie’s father, a father he had a feeling hadn’t treated Charlie the best, was a challenge for him.
“I’m in music. I own a record label,” Demi answered, deciding to walk light. Whatever this tension was that thickened the air in this house was awkward enough. He didn’t want to add another layer to that. If Charlie’s father kept it respectful, so would he.
“And let me guess, you’re filling Charlize’s head with promises of fame to get her into your bed.
Playing on her desperation. Charlie’s always been easily manipulated.
She’s like her mother. She uses the wrong things to get what she wants.
Whoring herself out. I swear it’s in her blood.
I always have to save her from a bad situation because she doesn’t use her head. ”
If looks could fucking kill.
“What you say your name was, again, man?” Demi asked. His impatience was not to be missed.
“Major,” her father replied.
“Major, Charlie been in my bed since the day I met her,” Demi answered.
“No promises were made to get her there. No manipulation needed to keep her there. I don’t know how well you know your daughter, but what she’s using to get her way with me ain’t got nothing to do with sex.
I don’t really know what type of niggas she’s brought home in the past, but this thing you’re doing, this degrading her to me, won’t end well for you. ”
“Is that a threat?” Major asked, his temper flaring as he pushed back out of his chair.
Demi stood too because he had never let another man take a dominant position over him.
There would be no towering, no hierarchy.
Demi was the head nigga in charge in every room he occupied.
It didn’t matter that he was a guest in this house.
“Take it how you want it as long as you take it,” Demi stated calmly, hiking up his pants.
“You need to leave my house!” Major shouted.
“Major!” Yvonne hissed as she entered the kitchen. The sound of footsteps descending the stairs quickly announced Charlie and Stassi. “What is going on in here?”
“This thug! Another one of Charlie’s bad decisions just threatened me in my house!” Major said. “Call the police.”
“Daddy!” Charlie exclaimed.
“It’s cool, Bird. You stay with your family. I’ma slide, though,” Demi said. Charlie shook her head and crossed the room.
“If you leave, I’m leaving,” Charlie said.
“I’m not doing this again with you, Charlize.
If you leave this house with another man.
If you choose another no-good-ass negro off the streets over me, over this family, you can stay out.
Stay in the streets,” Major shouted. His voice was filled with so much judgement that it filled Charlie with shame.
“That’s where she belongs anyway,” Yvonne said.
“Mommy!” Stassi protested.
Charlie’s eyes prickled. “You know what? Fuck this fake-ass family,” Charlie said, voice trembling as she stormed out.
Demi lingered.
“Follow your whore...”
Before Major could finish his sentence, Demi had his hands wrapped around Major’s neck, lifting him clear off the ground as he choked him.
What kind of father spoke that over his daughter?
Demi didn’t even have a daughter, but if he did, he knew he would never.
He could never. If Major spoke this way about Charlie in front of other people, Demi couldn’t imagine the damage he had done over the years in private. The thought made him more aggressive.
“I’ll kill you about her,” he said through gritted teeth.
He couldn’t even hear Stassi and Yvonne shouting around him. All he saw was Major as his eyes bulged and his hands clawed, trying to get Demi’s grip to loosen.
Charlie heard the commotion and came running back into the kitchen. She rushed to him.
“Demi, babe, no,” she said, placing her hand on his forearm.
Demi released Major with a shove, sending him to the ground as Charlie positioned herself between Demi and her father.
She pressed her forehead to Demi’s. She could feel his pulse, racing, through the vein in his forehead that was protruding.
“Stay here with me, Demi. It’s okay. Let’s just go, okay?
I’m fine. I’m used to this. Let’s go. Fuck this shit. I don’t need them. All I need is you.”
“You’re defending him?! This man just assaulted your father, and you take up for him? Get out! Get out and don’t come back when he’s done abusing you and using you!” Yvonne shouted.
Charlie looked to Stassi, down at her father, and then to Yvonne.
“Let’s go, Bird,” Demi ordered. She followed, walking out without hesitation.
The car ride was silent. Charlie couldn’t look at him.
She lent her eyes to the window, watching the city pass her by as she fought tears.
She had known it would go bad. Her relationship with her father was the reason why she had run away from home right after high school.
It had been the worst decision of her life, but she had needed a place to escape to.
Her escape just so happened to be hell. Coming home with her tail tucked hadn’t been easy.
Her father and Yvonne had never taken it easy on her.
There was always judgement. They took it so easy on Stassi but handled Charlie in the harshest of ways.
Demi didn’t know what to say.
“Maybe I overreacted, Bird. I’m sorry for fucking up your day,” he said.
Charlie didn’t respond, but he heard a small sob and Demi reached for her hand, lacing his fingers between hers, ignoring his pain to absorb hers.
He even lifted her hand and brought her fingers to his lips, biting one softly before kissing her knuckles.
Charlie didn’t even care that he was driving, she climbed across the console and straddled him, burying her face in his neck. He felt her wet tears on his skin.
“You trying to kill us both?” he asked.
She laughed through her tears as Demi drove in the most uncomfortable position.
“I got you, Bird,” he whispered. Kissing her shoulder and lifting his neck so he could see better while steering with one hand.
They rode just like that for ten miles until they arrived at the club.
He parked in the back of the lot and opened his door to give them more room.
“You want to talk about it?” Demi asked.
Charlie shook her head as she pulled back, still in his lap, but now eye to eye. “Will you come back later? To watch the set?”
“Yeah, I’ma fall through. Let me go handle this business first, a’ight?” he asked.