Chapter 13
Sky, you’re out of here.”
Demi stood and sauntered out of the jail cell he had been held in for hours.
He had called Lauren hours ago, and he knew they had purposely made her wait to get him out.
The police played games that way, and he mugged the officer as he bypassed him, while walking out.
He stopped at the front and retrieved all the items they had taken from him.
His phone, wallet, keys, belt, and shoestrings.
He was a disheveled mess when he emerged to find Lauren waiting in the lobby.
She was barefaced and dressed down, which was unusual for her, but even in this state of distress, with her eyes red and swollen from crying, she was gorgeous.
Even after their divorce, her presence felt like an answered prayer.
Lauren had been his partner for years. Any time he was uncertain, in trouble, or something heavy was weighing on him, she came to his rescue.
They would sit and discuss a problem for hours and game plan together until Demi worked out whatever dilemma he had brought home with him that night.
She was always his right hand, and tonight was no different.
He couldn’t pay for loyalty like hers. Despite the hurt he had put on Lauren, she had still shown up.
“Thank God,” she sighed in relief while shaking her head. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, man,” he answered. He put himself back together, lacing his shoes and all before he followed her to the car.
They settled into the car before either of them spoke.
“You want to tell me what happened?”
“Not really,” he said.
“Well, tell me anyway, Demitrius,” she ordered.
“This some bullshit,” he drawled. She wasn’t even his wife anymore, and he was still reporting to her bossy ass. He rested his elbow on the door and rubbed the top of his head. “I got into it with this nigga Charlie fuck with.”
Lauren scoffed. “Wow,” she said. “Karma gon’ do her big one every time. That explains why you called me instead of her.”
Demi knew that Lauren felt a bit of victory in his situation.
“So, you cheated on me only for her to turn around and cheat on you,” Lauren stated. She shook her head. She laughed, and Demi grimaced because she was gloating like a motherfucker. “I’m sorry. Shit is funny, though.”
“Nice, Lo. Real fucking nice,” he said.
“Where am I taking you?” she asked. “You going home?”
“Yeah,” he huffed.
The ride was silent and extremely long because the roads were getting worse by the minute. By the time they pulled up to Demi’s house, she could barely see out of her front window.
“You not gon’ be able to drive in this,” he said.
“I’ll be fine,” she stated.
“I know you will because you not driving nowhere in this shit.” He took her keys from the cup holder. “These on me.”
“Is she here?” Lauren asked.
Demi glanced up at the house and saw that the light in their bedroom was glowing. “Looks like it.” He knew that Charlie didn’t turn out the bedroom light at night if he wasn’t home.
“I ain’t coming in there,” Lauren protested. “Give me my keys.”
“You can stay in the guest room or in DJ’s room. They’ll have the salt trucks out by morning,” Demi said. He popped open the door, and Lauren lingered behind for a second before submitting to the circumstance. She really didn’t have a choice.
“This is bullshit. I should have left your ass in jail,” she hissed.
“Pretty much,” Demi agreed.
They entered the house, and Demi motioned for the living room.
“Let me talk to Charlie. You can make yourself at home,” he said.
Lauren shook her head. “I’ma stay right here until you give that girl the heads up.”
“Lo, we buried our boy today. Of all days for it to be okay for you to be under my roof, this one is it,” he said. He couldn’t even reference the occasion without his eyes betraying him. He was having a badass day, and he felt every minute of it. “Wait for me in there.”
She nodded.
Demi made his way to the bedroom, and as charged up as he was, he softened as soon as he saw Charlie. She was curled up on the bed, squeezing a teddy bear he hadn’t seen before as she slept. The bawled-up tissue strewn around her told him she had cried herself to sleep.
She was almost angelic. Her locs fell around her face.
Demi sat on the edge of the bed and bent over onto his knees.
The weight of his body awakened her. When she turned to him and cleared the locs from her face, his entire body stiffened.
Her lip was swollen, and her face was bruised. She saw a fire start in his eyes.
“It’s nothing, Demi. I’m fine,” she started before he could even speak.
“Who am I killing tonight, Bird?” he asked calmly. She would have felt better if he had yelled. The calm meant it was already decided.
“You want to go back to jail? Is that what you want?” she asked. “I need you to let this go. It’s not as bad as it looks.”
“Did the cops do this? Or did that bitch-ass nigga put his hands on you?” Demi asked.
Charlie’s eyes watered because if she told him, it wouldn’t do anything but push him right back out the door.
“You’re protecting him?” Demi asked.
“No!” she shouted, eyes watering.
“So he did do this?” Demi asked. “Let me see my baby’s face.”
She stopped avoiding his stare and looked him square in the eyes. He took in every inch of her face, and she could see his rage. He nodded his head like he had just made a complicated decision.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“That’s not for you to worry about, Bird,” he replied.
“Can you just talk to me? Stay here. Don’t go out there.
Don’t go after Justin. Just talk to me. I feel like I haven’t talked to you.
I feel like I don’t know you,” Charlie cried.
Demi knew he wouldn’t be able to leave her tonight, but he had an appointment tomorrow.
It was an appointment he wouldn’t miss either.
Tonight, he would ease her mind. Just the sight of her face set him off inside.
“I had a real bad day, Bird,” he said, face twisting as the weight of everything he had been carrying suddenly hit his shoulders.
He was fighting himself. Demi just wanted to cry.
He needed to cry, and when Charlie sat up and put her hands on his back, he almost allowed himself the privilege to feel her.
Then, he remembered Justin. He pictured her hands touching another nigga the way she touched him, and he tensed. She didn’t miss it.
“You fucked him, Bird? Have you been fucking that nigga?” Demi asked.
Charlie scoffed in disbelief and jolted her body from the bed. She kicked off those covers with so much aggression that Demi’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You really got to ask me some shit like that?” Charlie screamed.
“After you’ve been gone all week! Living with your ex-wife!
Caring for her! Completely shutting me the fuck out!
Noooo,” she shouted like a mad woman. I didn’t fuck Justin!
I didn’t even know he was going to be there!
I went searching for music because I was lonely and hurt!
I didn’t know he was going to be performing there!
I couldn’t be here because you weren’t here, and I was depressed!
I was miserable because you gave her the authority to put me out of your life!
Like I’m nothing! Like I’m fucking optional.
Oh, I’ll take Demi, but leave Charlie at home!
You made me feel unwelcome in your life, and you got the nerve to ask me if I’m the one fucking somebody else! Nigga, are you?!”
Demi had never heard Charlie snap like this. The animosity in her voice and the tears raging from her eyes rattled him, and he stood.
“Nah, nigga, sit your ass down! You not towering over me with all that pent-up fucking anger and grief! I’m tired! I’m fucking exhausted from trying to make you want me. Trying to make myself less offensive to that bitch you used to call a wife!”
“Mannn,” Demi interrupted, knowing that Lauren was under this roof, listening to every vicious word that was said.
“No, fuck you! And fuck her! You didn’t even take up for me! You didn’t even pretend like you wanted me there! You treated me like you were ashamed of me. Like I didn’t even belong.”
“You didn’t!” Demi shouted back. His words stunned her, and she physically recoiled.
“I know you wanted to be there. I might have even needed you there, but you didn’t belong there, Bird!
My son hated you! His mother hates you! I left them for somebody they hated, and you wanted me to flaunt you in her face while we said goodbye to our only child?
I’m the only one who wanted you there. I needed you!
I always need you. From day fucking one, I looked at you, and I wanted you.
Had to have you. Wasn’t nobody making me come up off you because you were all under my skin.
All in a nigga heart. In my head. That voice.
Those eyes. I needed all that. All it took was one night with you to take me away from 15 years of a life I had somewhere else.
And I was serious about you. I left my family to keep you, and now I got to live with that shit!
I got to live with the fact that I chose you over my son’s mental health.
He killed himself because I left! It didn’t matter if I wanted you to be there.
Lo didn’t, so you couldn’t be there, and I’m sorry for that, baby. I’m sorry, but today wasn’t about you.”
Charlie was bawling. Neither of them was wrong. That was the hard part about it. Two things were true. No lies were told. It was a harsh consequence of the fact that their relationship was birthed from an affair. Their love injured people. It was so potent that it had become poisonous.
“This is my fault,” Demi said, lowering his voice and bowing his head, breaking down. “I love you, Bird. I’m obsessed with everything about you, and it cost me my son.”