13. Izael
IZAEL
“What the fuck was that, Talia?” I asked as soon as we got into the house.
She had been silent on the ride home, and I had been too deep in my head to pry anything out of her. I couldn’t help but be in my feelings because I had fucked shit up with my boy. And while I’d been playing it all along like he would just have to get over it, I couldn’t lie; I knew my ass was dead wrong, and it hurt that I had hurt him.
Then there was Talia’s little ass grinning and skinning in another nigga’s face, disrespecting the shit out of me right in my face. I wanted to fuck something up, but I also knew that Tahj wasn’t my target, no matter how raw he came.
“What are you talking about, Zae?” she asked and rubbed her temples.
Her mother had sent us home with several plates of food, and Talia had just stored them in the refrigerator.
“I’m talking about that flirting and shit you was doing with Drex. You do realize if your little ass hadn’t been all up in his face laughing it up, this shit wouldn’t have happened, don’t you? I wouldn’t have had to check his ass about my woman.”
“Or maybe if you had been able to keep your cool and act like someone with some damn sense because we would talk about it later like I decided to do when you were flirting with Big Booty Judy, this shit wouldn’t have happened.”
“What?”
“Don’t act stupid, Izael. You’re too fucking smart to act ignorant now.”
“Who the hell is Big Booty Judy?”
“The bitch that was sitting all up under you, touching your tattoos and laughing it up with you. The one who looked like she was too good to be at my parents’ house or speak to anyone, but she didn’t seem to have a problem with you.”
“Camilla? She’s a realtor and wanted to talk with me about some houses that are on the market that she’s interested in. She wants to buy a couple for some Airbnbs.”
“And she needed to touch all over you to do that?”
“Listen, just like you know me, so does Tahj. Everyone’s used to me being all over some chick. If I hadn’t played her close, he would have been suspicious as hell. Knowing that I’m staying with you would have made him draw his own conclusions. We didn’t need that.”
“So, you’re saying you flirted with her for our sake?”
“I didn’t flirt with her. She flirted. I just chilled.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Talia replied and stomped off to her bedroom.
I followed behind her, but she slammed the door in my face. When I turned the doorknob, I found that it was locked. I knocked on the door several times, and she wouldn’t answer.
“Talia, quit acting like a spoiled ass kid. Open this door. We need to talk,” I demanded, banging on the door with each statement.
When she refused to respond, I sat down for an hour so that we could both cool down. An hour later, when she still refused to open the door, I headed into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and unlocked the door.
“Damn it! I didn’t tell your ass to come in!” she shouted, throwing a pillow at me.
She had stripped out of her clothing and wore a towel around her body. I could tell that she was heading to the shower.
“You didn’t have to tell me shit. We’re about to talk about this shit.”
“I have nothing to say to you, Zae. You played me like a fool in front of everyone.”
“You mean the same way you played me? Besides, how could I play you for a fool when no one knew that we were even together?”
“Well, you blew that out of the water, didn’t you? Had to come walking over there playing big bad Zae because your ego couldn’t take that shit. Don’t fucking cook in the kitchen if you don’t want to get burned, Zae.”
I stepped up on her and backed her up against the bed. “Don’t fucking play in my face, Chè. I’m not that nigga. I’ll fuck something up behind you. Don’t make me fuck you up too!”
When I yelled at her like that, she fell onto the bed in a seated position.
“I didn’t do that shit until you started first. That hurt seeing you all up under that girl like that knowing I wanted to be the one under you, and I couldn’t.”
Tears poured down her face, and it fucked with me. I had seen Talia cry many times throughout the years of us growing up, but I had never been the cause of her tears. Twice in one day, I had hurt two people who I loved like family. Both had the last name Campbell.
Her shoulders shook, and I bit down on my bottom lip and tried to control my rage. A nigga was mad as hell, but I knew I had no one to be mad at except for myself. I was the one who fucked everything up. I should have kept it real with my boy from the start.
Yeah, I knew Tahj wouldn’t like that shit, and I knew his parents might feel some type of way, but I should have been man enough to be honest upfront. Although Talia wasn’t ready to share that news with them until she was certain that we were a thing, and I understood that, I should have made my line in the sand. Either we told them the truth right away, or we wasn’t gonna fuck around.
“Chè, quit that crying,” I commanded in a calmer voice.
She shook her head, buried her face in her hands, and kept crying. Man, I remember how Tahj and I vowed to fuck up any niggas who brought tears to her eyes. We made that pledge in the eighth grade when she was in the second and came in the house crying when a neighbor kid called her four eyes.
We’d gone out and beat his ass. He was in the seventh grade and had no business picking on little kids. Talia had been so proud of her new glasses that she had just gotten and couldn’t wait to go outside and show everyone. When she returned with tears in her eyes, bawling about being four-eyed, Tahj and I dropped our remote controls to the video game we were playing and ran outside.
Now, I was the one putting tears in her eyes. If Tahj saw it, he would be ready to beat my ass. But I wasn’t going out like that. I wasn’t no bitch nigga, but I could understand his anger.
“Please quit crying, baby. I’m not Ricky, and I’ll never do you the way that he did. I swear.” I kneeled in front of her, gripped her knees, and squeezed them. “You’ve always known me to be a man of my word, Chè. Ain’t nothing changed. I would rather cut out my heart than hurt you, girl.”
“I know that you wouldn’t intentionally hurt me. But, all I see is what I’ve already been through—my man can’t take his eyes off another woman, my man entertaining another woman. That’s the same shit Ricky did. Why were you flirting with her, Zae? Is it because you’d rather have a woman with a big booty like Tootie?”
“Is it Tootie or Judy, baby?”
Talia mugged me. “She’s whoever the hell I feel like calling her at the moment. Do you like her, Zae? Be honest.”
Although she snapped out that first sentence, when she asked the question her voice broke. It was like she expected me to tell her I liked Camilla. The tears poured down her face again, and I could tell she was hurt. Fuck! My heart tugged in my chest. I leaned up and gripped her face, caressing her cheeks with my thumbs.
“Nah. I like your flat ass perfectly fine.”
She shoved me in the chest and giggled.
“I can’t stand your ass.” She couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
I pushed her back onto the bed and spread her legs wide.
“Let me show you the only nigga who gon’ be smiling in ya face, baby.”
“Zae, I need a shower. I’ve been in the sun and around all that smoky barbeque,” she whimpered.
“I can eat. I like sun-roasted, grilled salmon.”
“Zae!” she shouted and smacked my hand. I chuckled, glad to hear the goofy laughter that bubbled up and out of her beautiful lips.
“I’m glad to see you’re smiling again.”
“I just want you and Tahj to be okay.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen between your brother and me, and I don’t know how your parents are feeling. But I’m in this with you, baby. I’ll call your dad and talk to him tomorrow, but I’m giving Tahj a minute to chill his ass out. He might say some shit that’s gonna make me fuck his ass up. I ain’t lying, Chè.”
“I don’t want you two arguing. This is crazy.”
“I don’t want it either, but I’m not gonna have him talking crazy to you. When he hollered at you and shrugged you off him, I wanted to fuck that nigga up, baby.”
She caressed my face and stared into my eyes. “Thank you for protecting my honor.”
I chuckled. “Told ya ass I’d fight for you. I meant that shit in every way.”
I got off my knees, walked into her bathroom, and ran her bathwater. I poured lavender and vanilla into the water and lit the candles that she had on the sides of her Roman tub. As I prepared her bath water, I thought about the events of the day.
I was certain there was no way I was giving her up. As much as I wanted to make peace with Tahj and the Campbells, I wouldn’t do it at the expense of losing Talia. I had always cared about this girl, but she had come to mean more to me than she knew and in a different way. She was my heart and the center of my world in a short time.
I had always known since I’d first found myself attracted to her when she was twenty that if I ever had the chance to win her heart, I wouldn’t let go.
When I returned to her bedroom, Talia was on her side with her eyes closed.
“Come on, baby. I know that it’s been a rough evening,” I acknowledged. She opened her eyes, and the tears that were held in place behind her closed lids fell.
I lifted and carried her into the bathroom and set her in the tub. She lay back and closed her eyes. I stripped my clothes and climbed in behind her. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head. Talia lay her head back against my chest and scooted down further in the bathtub.
“Baby, I know that this is hard on you. I know that you love Tahj with all that’s in you, but I promise I’m gonna make this right again. I swear that you and your brother will be at peace again soon.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“Just give him some time and space.”
She nodded again. We relaxed for a while, and I massaged her hands, caressed her breasts, and rubbed her thighs for a while before it was time to wash.
I washed her and then myself before I dried her and then me. Talia’s eyelids were heavy, so I laid her on the bed and pulled the covers over her.
“I’m gonna read for a while, baby. Don’t go anywhere.”
“I’m not. I’ll be with you all night.”
She reached over and grabbed a book out of her top nightstand drawer. I grabbed the remote and turned on a college basketball game. Talia moved onto my lap to read her book.
Not even half an hour later, my baby was asleep and snoring softly. I removed the book from her hand and slid her off my lap. Once she snuggled further under the covers and nestled her head deeper in her pillow, I climbed out of bed.
I grabbed Talia’s phone and checked it. When I finished, I went into the living room with my phone. I dialed Tahj, but it went directly to voicemail. I dialed another number and waited for it to ring.
“Hello?”
“Dahlia.”
“Hey, Zae.”
“I need you to put him on the phone. You already know he’s not answering my calls.”
“Which is exactly why I’m not getting into this. You know how he feels about her, Zae.”
“Right, which is exactly why he needs to get over this shit. He’s seen how other niggas treated her. I’m the only one who’s going to love her the way she deserves to be loved. I’m the only one who’s going to protect her the way that he will, so his ass should be happy it’s me and not some other bitch ass nigga.”
“Hey, listen. I get that you’re upset. Both of you are, but don’t take it out on me.”
“My bad, D. That’s not my intention.”
“I’m not putting him on the phone either, Zae. He’ll come around in his own time.”
“You and I both know he’s a stubborn ass. I would be cool with him not speaking with me, but I checked Chè’s phone, and I see that she’s called him several times. He hasn’t answered one of her calls or text messages. That girl is in there hurting, and we both vowed we’d never be cool with anyone putting tears in her eyes. Why the fuck should either of us be the one to do it?”
“She’s crying, Zae?”
“Man, yeah. Nonstop since we left Mama and Daddy’s house.” I exaggerated that shit because I knew how everyone felt about Talia. We all were protective of her, including Dahlia. “Either you put him on the phone, or I’ll be knocking at your door in twenty minutes.”
She sighed and said, “Hold on.” I heard her shuffling around before I heard her say, “Baby.” Then, I couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation until I heard Dahlia raise her voice, which was rare. “Zae?” she stated.
“Yeah?”
“Hold on.”
The next voice I heard was Tahj. “Yo.”
“Aye, nigga. I know you mad at me, but?—”
“I ain’t got shit to say to ya ass.”
“I’on give a fuck. But nigga you ’bout to hear this. If you hang up my phone, I’ma be at ya muthafuckin’ do’ in less than fifteen minutes. You can be in ya chest all you want about me and your sister. But ya ass don’t get to sit back and make her cry. Uphold ya vow, nigga.”
“The fuck is you talking ’bout, yo!” Tahj yelled.
“I’m talking about how you’ve been ignoring her calls and texts, and she’s been crying about that shit ever since. I’m talking about how she cried herself to sleep tonight because one of the people she loves the most in this world won’t speak to her. Make that shit right, nigga.”
“Yeah, whateva.”
“You heard what the fuck I said. I ain’t playing ’bout that one. I’ma be at ya muthafuckin’ do’ tomorrow if she ain’t heard from you by ten in the morning, nigga.”
I ended the call and shook my head. I had no doubt he would make peace with his sister by tomorrow. For her heart’s sake, I prayed that he would.