15. Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
Daizha
I t’s been a few weeks since everything went down between Demetric and his parents. For the most part, things have smoothed over. He hadn’t talked to Juanita much, but he did text her a few days ago to check on her. Even though everything around us seemed like it was in chaos, I did reach out to my brother, and he asked me to come visit. I was skeptical at first because I haven’t seen or talked to my mother since. I didn’t know how she would take seeing me after I left her home and never looked back. She can blame herself for that.
“Are you excited about seeing your family again?” Jaylen asked. We were out shopping…well she was. I didn’t see the purpose of spending money on clothes that I didn’t need. I still have tags on stuff from our last trip. Plus, Demetric has been ordering me stuff from where he gets most of his things from. I was appreciative and glad he wasn’t trying to transform me. His sister did that enough. I also wasn’t used to anybody caring for and catering to me like he did. It all seemed like a fantasy that I was waiting to end.
“I guess. I think I’m ready to see my brother more than anybody. We had a cool relationship, and I can’t help but think that he’s going to hate me for leaving him with no explanation. I know he tried calling, but I left my phone at the bus station.”
“Damn. He probably doesn’t hate you, though. He wouldn’t have agreed to see you if he did.”
“I know. I just need to prepare to see them again after all this time. My mama is married now, and I don’t know anything about her husband. What if he’s an asshole? Then there’s Vince. What if he’s still there? I can’t handle that.”
“That’s why my brother isn’t letting you go by yourself. You don’t know what you’re walking into and he’s going to be there to make sure you’re good. Everything is going to be fine,” she assured.
We continued shopping, and I was actually enjoying myself. We were headed to the food court when I ran into Ariel from my old job.
“Daizha! Oh my God! I’m so happy to see you,” she rushed out and hugged me.
“Uh…hey, Ariel,” I greeted awkwardly because she still had her arms wrapped around me.
“I’m sorry. I just missed you, that’s all. You were the only one that I talked to at that stupid job. What have you been up to?” she asked.
“Nothing really. There’s nothing to do, so I just stay out the way,” I answered honestly.
“Sounds good. You look good,” she complimented.
“Thank you. We were about to have lunch. Do you want to join us?”
“Sure. I’m sorry for intruding. I’m Ariel.” She stuck her hand out to Jaylen to shake.
“Jaylen, and girl, you need a sedative. You’re hyper as hell.” We all laughed.
“So, I’ve been told.”
We all trekked to the Charley’s stand and ordered our food before finding a booth and sitting down.
“So, how do you know Daizha?” Ariel asked Jaylen.
“She dates my brother.”
“Oh…your brother was the fine stranger?”
“I guess, chile,” Jaylen laughed.
“Good. I didn’t like Gabe’s ass, anyway.”
“I didn’t even like Gabe. I’m so glad I was able to break those chains.” It was the truth. I was so hellbent on somebody loving me since I had nobody. I stayed and endured Gabe’s mental and verbal abuse for years. He had me brainwashed so badly that I started believing that shit. It was like me running into Demetric was the push I needed.
We continued to eat or lunch, and Ariel stuck with us for the rest of our outing. We exchanged numbers and promised to get together soon. When Jaylen and I got into the car, I had a FaceTime call come through from Demetric. When I answered with his shirt off and a wide smile on his face.
“How I beat you home, Dai?” he quizzed, moving through the house.
“Ask Jaylen,” I countered.
“Don’t ask me nothing!” she shouted as she drove out of the parking lot.
“Why my girl not home, Jay? I’m starting to think you like my woman or some shit.” We shared a laugh because those two always went at it.
“I might. They say you lose ’em how you get ’em so you better treat her right or I’ll snatch her up by those long ass locs of hers.”
“Nah, I’m the only muthafucka that’s gon’ be pulling on ’em. Ain’t that right, bae?”
“Yes, Demetric. Is there a reason you’re calling?” I asked.
“I missed you,” he answered honestly.
“I missed you, too.”
“Plus, I need your help packing.” He smiled widely into the phone.
“You never packed your own suitcase before?” Before he could answer, Jaylen did for him.
“Hell no. Our mama does everything for that boy. The only reason she doesn’t wash his clothes now is because you do.”
“Man, get out of my business. Bae, y’all on the way here?” he asked.
“No, I’m about to take her…”
Demetric frowned and cut her off. “Bring my girl home, Jay. I’on have time to be playing wit’ you.” He had his handsome face twisted up. Jaylen reached over and took the phone out of my hand and started back talking shit.
“You just tryna be nasty. That’s why you got your shirt off? You went and sprayed water on your chest?” she laughed.
“Man, watch out. I just got out of the shower. Bye, man. Bae, I’ll see you when you get here, and Jay, don’t bring yo’ ass in either.” He didn’t even give either of us a chance to respond because he hung up in our faces.
“That’s yo’ crazy ass, man,” she said.
“He was your brother first,” I countered.
We had small talk all the way to the house and said our goodbyes. When I got inside, Demetric was on the couch playing his game. He glanced over at me, then frowned when he saw the bags in my hand. Pausing his game, he got up and took the bags from me.
“Why you ain’t tell me you had these bags?” he fussed before dropping a kiss on my lips.
“Because I was capable of bringing them in myself.”
“You are, but you don’t have to. Did you get everything you needed?”
“Yeah, and messing with Jay, I got stuff that I didn’t need to.”
“Sounds about right. I know we got a long day tomorrow, so I finished up what I had to do and came home. I was waiting to see what you wanted before I ordered anything to eat. I saw you had steaks in the refrigerator, but you’on have to cook.” This is what I loved about him. He was always considerate. Let that had been Gabe’s ass. He would’ve expected me to cook and have it waiting on him after I’ve worked all day. Even if he didn’t bring his ass home.
“It’s okay. I’ll cook. It doesn’t take long to do that. Besides, I gotta earn my keep, remember?” I smirked because those were his conditions on me staying here.
“I think you do that in other ways, and if you don’t stop looking at me like that, you gon’ be cashing in.” I laughed at his goofy ass and went into the room to put my bags away and change into something more comfortable, which were spandex shorts and a racerback top. This seemed to be Demetric’s favorite combination, so I stuck with it.
“You ready for tomorrow?” he asked. We ate and now lying on the couch watching Tulsa King.
“I don’t know how I feel, honestly. I want to back out, but I don’t want to disappoint my brother.”
“I get it, but remember, I’ll be there with you, so you won’t have anything to worry about. Aight?”
“Okay,” I responded. He kissed the side of my face that was closest to his lips since I was lying with my back against his chest.
I just hope tomorrow doesn’t turn into a complete disaster.
***
Demetric and I didn’t leave to go to Charlington until around four in the afternoon. For one, he was a late sleeper, and two, I was really procrastinating. The closer we got, the more my nerves were all over the place. I wanted to tell him to turn around so many times. Instead of going to the address that I got from Aiden, we went straight to the hotel. I needed to get myself together and Demetric thought it was a good idea if we had sex to ease my nerves. I think that was more for his benefit than mine. I’m not complaining, though. Demetric is the only sexual partner that I craved because the first one was forced and the second one was out of obligation. Demetric gave me an experience that I never thought I would witness.
“You ready to do this?” Demetric asked as we rode the distance to my mama’s house.
“As ready as I can be. I don’t like the fact that I don’t know what to expect, but it’s best if I go ahead and get it over with. I mean…we’re here now.” I shrugged.
“We can turn around if you want. I don’t care if you were sitting at the dinner table, and they said some shit that made you uncomfortable. We’ll leave. I mean it, Dai. At any time you feel uncomfortable, tell me so I can get you out of there. Aight?”
“Okay,” I simpered.
I still get butterflies at the way he protects me. This is all I ever wanted. My own mama failed to do so, then the man I met that vowed to do what she didn’t only used it against me. It’s rare to find somebody that wants to protect you and your heart as a whole.
Listening to the directions on the GPS, I knew that we were getting closer, and my breathing started to pick up. Demetric must’ve sensed it because he squeezed my hand that he was holding.
“Baby, I’ma need you to calm down for me. Don’t go in here giving them nothing to feed off of. We’re not doing that. Mama or not, don’t let her see you showing your weakness. Muthafuckas play off of that. Remember what I said. I’m here with you and I’m not letting anybody fuck wit’ you.”
“Okay. I’m sorry. I just can’t get out of my head.”
“Stop apologizing. You ain’t do shit wrong.”
We finally pulled up to a nice two-story house in a nice neighborhood. It wasn’t the house that I grew up in and I was glad about that. I saw cars in the yard, so I naturally assumed one of them belonged to my mama. Demetric parked along the curb instead of pulling into the driveway and came and helped me out of the car. That was another thing I loved about him. He was rough around the edges and still a gentleman.
We walked hand in hand up the small driveway. I texted Aiden from the car, and he was already at the door behind the time I got there. The tears immediately poured from my eyes, looking at my baby brother standing tall as me and looking as handsome as ever. His eyes were glossed over too as he walked up to me and pulled me into the tightest hug.
“Dee Dee, I missed you so much, man,” he cried. I never meant to hurt my brother with my absence, but I just couldn’t stay here any longer.
“I missed you, too, Aiden. I’m sorry I left you, but I couldn’t stay,” I cried.
“You don’t have to explain shit to me. I heard the rumors.” His face held a menacing glare that had me trying to figure out if anything happened to him.
“Stop looking like that. That nigga ain’t do shit to me, but we’ll talk about that later. Who this, though?” He nodded his head toward Demetric.
“This is my boyfriend, Demetric. Demetric, this is my lil’ brother, Aiden,” I introduced.
“Ain’t nothing lil’ about this nigga, but wassup, homie?” They shook hands, and we finally headed inside.
“Aiden! What have I told you about leaving my door wide open. If your company can’t come in, they don’t need to come.” I heard my mama fussing, and she sounded exactly the same. She used to say the same thing to me.
“I was walking them inside,” Aiden said, leading the way.
“Who you bringing in here now?” she asked, turning around. When she saw me, her mouth fell open, and she dropped the dish that was in her hand.
“Daizha?” she said, with tears streaming down her face. Before I knew it, she pulled me into a hug just as tight as Aiden did and I cried harder than I ever did.
“I’m sorry, baby,” she said as she continued to hug me and from rock side to side. “I’m so sorry.” I pulled away from her and she had tears everywhere. I knew we looked a mess, but this is all I wanted.
“I’m sorry. I’m a mess now, but who do we have here?” she asked, looking at Demetric.
“Uh…this is my boyfriend, Demetric,” I revealed.
“Nice to meet you, Demetric. Let me go clean up so I can properly greet you.” He nodded, and she walked off.
“Aye, homie. It’s a bathroom down here that I can take your sister to get her cleaned up?” Demetric asked.
“Yeah. Go down that hall, and it’s to the left. It’s some guest towels folded up on a shelf,” he informed.
Demetric placed his hand on the small of my waist and guided me in the direction Aiden said. Once we were inside and he closed the door behind us, and I broke down again.
“Shhh…it’s okay. It wasn’t that bad. She looks like she wants to make it up to you. Just give her that.” I sniffed before looking up at him.
“Are you going to take your own advice?” I asked.
“It’s not about me right now, Dai. We’re here for you right now. We’ll worry about my situation when we get back.” I nodded and cleaned up my face and washed my hands before going back out and finding my mama and Aiden in the living room, but a man was now with them.
“Daizha, this is my husband, Robert. Robert, honey. This is Daizha.” She introduced us, and he got up to hug me. I tensed and Demetric put his hand out to intervene.
“She doesn’t do well with strange men,” he stated. I saw my mama put her head down and Robert simply stated that he understood. She must’ve told him what happened.
“I don’t want to be intrusive, but Daizha, there’s a reason that you’re here. Your mother informed me that you left home when you were sixteen. She also told me why. I think it’s time that the both of you talked about it. Too much time has been lost already,” Robert said, and I agreed. A few moments went by before I cleared my throat and started speaking.
“Why didn’t you believe me? Why did you blame me and made me out to be a liar? I never gave you a reason to not believe me. You always knew where I was and who I was with. The one time that I knew you would tear the world up behind me, you let me down and I want to know why?” My voice cracked. “Do you know what I had to go through for a whole year? I was alone and scared. You didn’t notice the change in me? You didn’t notice that your once vibrant and outgoing child had basically turned into a hermit? I was not the same, and I attempted to kill myself just to make it stop. I was relieved to get pregnant because I knew he would be dealt with, but I was wrong. You called me a liar and took his side. How could you?” I cried.
“Dai…Daizha, you don’t know how many times I beat myself up about that. At the time, I felt like I did what I had to do to save Vince from getting into more trouble. He was my sister’s only chi…”
I cut her off, “you were supposed to save me, mama! I’m your child…not him!” I yelled.
“I know, baby. I know. It was just that Amanda had asked me to keep her only child safe since she was always looking out for me…I agreed, and it cost me my child and her innocence. Daizha, I’m truly sorry that I didn’t do more to protect you then. When you up and left, it upset me. At the time, I thought it was because you had been caught in your lie. It wasn’t until the police came to my house about a year and a half after you left looking for him because he violated another young lady at his job. He almost beat her to death. She pressed charges, and that brought a slew of other allegations and confessions. By the time he went to trial, he had twenty counts of aggravated sexual assault and is now serving fifty years in prison. Amanda isn’t talking to me, but I’m fine with that. I told her what he did, and she tried to blame you. When I heard it from someone else’s mouth…it made me feel like shit. I can’t apologize enough, Daizha. I should’ve believed you. I just didn’t want to admit that something like that happened to you, especially under my own roof.” I looked into my mama’s eye’s, and I knew she was remorseful. I couldn’t keep holding this grudge against her if I wanted to continue to heal. I already forgiven Vince and Gabe, but that’s my choice and my own sanity.
“I’m glad you said that nigga was in prison, because I came fully prepared to send him to the other side,” Demetric voiced, and I knew he was dead serious. I was just surprised that he said it in front of my mama and his husband.
“Had he not. I wouldn’t bat an eye if you did,” she replied.
“Okay…I see we’re all on the same page now. Let’s go out to eat and celebrate. Daizha…Demetric, y’all cool with that?” Robert asked. Demetric looked down at me to see how I felt, and I nodded.
“That’s fine,” I replied.
“Okay, good. Let me go change and we can go,” my mama said and walked out of the room with Robert behind her.
“So, Aiden. What have you been up to? You all grown up and stuff. You got a girlfriend?” I asked, nosily.
“You still nosy? She be all in your business like that?” he asked Demetric.
“Hell yeah. She can do that though,” he smirked.
“Sucker ass nigga,” Aiden mentioned.
“Aiden!” I shrieked.
“Nah, let lil’ homie live. He ain’t no baby,” Demetric said. Before I could respond, my mama and Robert came back into the room and we all left out. Aiden opted to ride with me and Demetric and talked my head off the whole way.
When we pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot. Aiden got out and when Demetric helped me out, he pulled me into his chest.
“You good?”
“I’m good. Feels like it’s a weight lifted off my shoulders.” He nodded.
“As long as you’re good…I’m good.” He bent down to kiss my lips, and we followed everyone inside. Once we were seated, we jumped right back into our conversation.
“So, Demetric. How did you meet Daizha?” my mama asked.
“Her clumsy self ran right into me,” he revealed.
“I did not,” I lied.
“You did, but it’s cool. You ran right into where you needed to be,” he mentioned.
“Sounds like it’s more than that,” my mama mentioned.
Taking a deep breath, I told my mama what I had been going through since I left and the tears started all over again, but it felt good to let her know.
“Aye, where that nigga at?” Aiden asked.
“Aiden!” my mama hissed.
“No, he’s right Denise. Where is this nigga?” Robert asked.
“He’s irrelevant. I done whooped his ass and hemmed him up a few times. He knows the next time he won’t be as lucky. Trust me, Daizha is good with me,” Demetric declared.
“Demetric, I can see the love that you have for my daughter, and I appreciate that. I was banking on her coming back home, but I see that’s not happening,” she smirked.
“I didn’t think you would want me to come home, but I will be visiting now.”
“Yeah, I’ll make sure she does. I told her I had her back, and I meant that. I can’t love her and not care about her well-being,” Demetric vowed, and he wowed me because he never said that he loved me. I was with Gabe for four years and he never told me that he loved me.
“You never said that you loved me before,” I croaked out.
“You couldn’t tell, shorty?” he had his sleek brows furrowed in confusion.
“It’s aight. You know now, and I’ll make sure you never forget.” He leaned over and kissed me and even though I was of age, I was still slightly embarrassed. We finished dinner and went back to my mama’s house. Robert was a nice guy, and he seemed to love my mama and even Aiden. She shared a few stories with Demetric about my childhood and he even disclosed about his, which was surprising. I hated to leave after just getting back, but I promised to come back and visit often. I even told Aiden he could come visit me during the summer and my mama agreed.
Now that we were back on the road, I could breathe normally again. Demetric was quiet while he drove, but he still had a grip on my thigh. Taking his hand into mine, he looked at me and I said what I’ve been thinking for a while. “I love you, too, Meechie.” He smirked at me, calling him the nickname that Jaylen did.
“I know, shorty.”