18. Legacy
Legacy
“ M an, I miss that man. I swear on everything that I love that I feel like I made a mistake.”
“Then call him up, boo, and give him that chance to explain,” Mauri suggested.
“I don’t know. It seems like he’s been going out of his way to avoid me. I no longer see him in all the spots that I used to at the office. Some days, when I go out to see if his car is there, it isn’t. I mean, I know that he has site visits, but he’s never had that many in one week,” I complained.
“Girl, drink that drank and get over that nigga,” Josi mumbled.
I rolled my eyes at Josi. I was starting to worry and wonder about her drinking habit. I wondered if it had something to do with the situation she was in with Khalan, her sister, Eliana’s, ex.
It was another Saturday night out, but this weekend would be the weekend that Legend normally spent with Kayson.
“I don’t know ’bout y’all, but I’m about to hit this floor,” Mauri announced, jumping up. She was the only one of the three of us who was happily in love or like, or whatever she was feeling.
“Me too.” I got up and followed Mauri.
No sooner than I stood, I saw Khalan approaching the table we had just left. Josi’s ass jumped up and threw her arms around his neck, and he held her. They were getting a bit too reckless if you asked me, but nobody did, so that was a non-issue.
Mauri and I danced to a Chris Perry throwback, throwing our long hair and our asses from side to side. We were into the third song, dancing with some guys who had approached us, when we heard a loud commotion.
“What the hell?” Mauri asked with a groan.
“What’s going on, boo?” I asked, still dropping it low.
“Josi and Eliana,” Mauri shouted over her shoulder before she made a mad dash off the floor. I was right on her ass. A heffa could run in heels if necessary, and I was definitely getting it, shoving everyone out of my way.
By the time we arrived, Eliana had her hand fisted in Josi’s hair, and she was using her other hand to smash it in her sister’s face. Josi was swinging wildly, but she was missing everything, and I knew that was because she was drunk; after all, the girl could fight her ass off.
People had their cameras out and were recording, while Khalan was behind Eliana, trying to pull her off Josi. He was doing a piss poor job at it, because Eliana wasn’t letting go, and her fists were landing properly in my girl’s face.
Mauri jumped in with him to pull Eliana off, while I got behind Josi and tried to free Eliana’s hands from Josi’s hair, all the while shielding her face from blows.
“You wanna fuck on my man, boo. You gotta pay to play, and your ass is gonna pay a hefty fine!” Eliana thrust her knee upward into Josi’s face before Mauri and Khalan were able to pull her off.
I stumbled back with Josi when Eliana finally released her hold on my friend.
I pulled Josi away while Eliana continued to issue threats.
“Your friends might’ve saved that ass tonight, but this ain’t over, bitch.
I promise that I’m coming for that ass. You won’t know where and when, but you’d better watch your back because I’m gonna be right behind you! ”
“Come on, Eliana. Chill with all that shit. You know it wasn’t even like that,” Khalan stated.
“Fuck you, Khalan. You ain’t shit!” she shouted.
Eliana turned and stormed out of the club while I held Josi close. My best friend was crying. Khalan turned and shouted at everyone as the bouncers closed in on them. “Everyone get the fuck outta here. What are y’all looking at?”
People continued recording until the bouncers cleared them out.
“Aye, y’all gotta get out of here. Y’all can’t be bringing that shit up in here,” one of the bouncers told us.
We were at Club Amethyst, and it was one of our favorite clubs. It had never been anything but classy until tonight.
“Come on, boo.” I wrapped my arms around Josi, trying to shield her from everyone as I led her out of the club. Mauri and Khalan were right behind us. She had ridden here with Mauri and me. I would be taking her home first and then Mauri.
I clicked my key fob and unlocked my car.
“Aye, thanks for jumping in, y’all. I appreciate y’all.”
“We didn’t do that shit for you, Khalan. We did that for our girl,” Mauri sniped.
“Yeah. I get it. But still, I appreciate you. I can take her from here though,” Khalan stated.
“We don’t need your help!” Mauri snapped again.
“Hey, cool out, Mauri. Josi, what do you wanna do, boo?” I asked, cupping her chin and lifting her head.
It was my first time looking into her face since the fight, and it messed me up.
Her lip was swollen, and so were her eyes.
They were both turning colors already, and it hadn’t been that long.
I could see cuts on her cheeks from where Eliana hit her with her rings, and I knew her cheeks would be swollen.
Seeing her like this was triggering, and it reminded me of when Regal jumped on me.
However, Josi’s bruises were going to be much worse than mine.
Both sisters fought with rings on every finger when they fought. So I knew that she came prepared to whup Josi’s ass, but Josi wasn’t quite prepared. She was drunk, didn’t have her rings, and probably didn’t want to fight her sister anyway. It was all so crazy and didn’t make sense.
“What do you want to do, babe?” I asked.
“I’m going with Khalan,” she replied thickly. I almost couldn’t understand her words.
Mauri shook her head. “You still going with that nigga despite what just went down with your sister? That’s fucked up, Josi.”
Josi started crying again, and Khalan stepped in and pulled her into his arms. “I got you, baby. Y’all be easy. She’ll call when she can.”
“Lose my fucking number. If you can do that shit to your sister, I don’t want to know what you’ll do to me,” Mauri declared.
“Aye, chill when you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!” Khalan exclaimed.
“Come on, Mauri.” I grabbed her by her shoulders and turned her away from them.
I could hear the hurt in my friend’s tone, and while I agreed this entire situation was screwed up, I didn’t think that we should judge.
After all, we didn’t know the entire story, and while I didn’t condone sisters or friends screwing their sister’s or friend’s exes, I knew there had to be more to the story. There just had to be.
“Dumb asses!” Mauri grumbled.
“Mauri, chill. Let’s roll.”
“Might as well. This shit fucked up my night and my high,” my friend declared.
We hopped into my car. “You want me to take you home or somewhere else?”
“Can I go to your house? I’m angry as hell, and I swear if I’m alone, I might do something stupid. Thought this would be a wakeup call,” she mumbled.
“Girl, I got you. Maybe you’ll help keep my mind off the craziness in my own life.”
The entire ride on the way to my place, Mauri kept fussing about what had occurred. We were about ten minutes from my house and fifteen minutes from Mauri’s when I recalled Mauri’s musings when we first left the club. She had said, “Thought this would be a wakeup call.”
“I knew they were being reckless, but I wonder how her sister found out. She never shared her location with Eliana for this exact reason. Hell, half the time, Josi didn’t share it with us.”
Mauri turned her gaze out of the window and muttered, “Serves her ass right.”
“You know that’s the second time you’ve said some shit like that, Mauri?”
“Well, that’s fucked up. You don’t do no shit like that. She got what she deserved. I’ll bet her ass don’t do that shit again.”
As much as I didn’t want to believe it, I had to ask. I thought about how she had moved to Eliana’s side rather than Josi’s.
“Mauri, do you know something about what happened tonight?”
She sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “Man, I don’t wanna talk about that anymore. It’s messed up my entire night.”
“Mauri.”
“Okay, okay. I told Eliana what was going on. I told her that we would be at the club tonight. And I told her that he was going to be there, too, because I overheard Josi inviting him there.”
“Mauri, why would you do that?” I groaned.
“Because it was wrong. I wasn’t going to sit back and watch her play in her sister’s face.”
“That wasn’t your place, Mauri. Yes, she was wrong, but you’re her friend, not her sister’s.”
“And with friends like her, who needs enemies?”
I hit that U-turn so hard that she hit her head against the window. “What the hell? What are you doing, Legacy?”
“Taking you home. I think I need a time-out from you for a minute. I need one from everyone.”
“Whatever.”
“You were wrong, Mauri.”
“So sue me.”
I was so angry that I didn’t speak the rest of the ride to her place. She hopped out of the car and leaned back in. “You know that I wasn’t wrong.”
“Until you see that you were, we’ve got nothing else to say, Mauri.”
She slammed my door, and I sped off. Life was just fucked up all the way around right now.