Chapter 16 #2
He shook his head at me.
“I don’t, and it’s not what you think.”
“I know you’re with Ocean, so you can’t deny that.”
“Like I said, it’s not what you think, Kairi, but why not just talk to me?”
“Because we shouldn’t be doing this, and you know it too!”
Makari’s face changed, and his brows knitted as he thought about what I’d said. We both knew this was wrong and what could happen if anyone ever found out. Did I want to leave him? No, obviously, but sometimes we didn’t always get what we wanted.
“If it wasn’t for The Society and who our parents were, I wouldn’t be saying this, Makari,” I let him know.
None of my other relationships had ever worked out because they never fit me the way Makari did. In an ideal world, he and I would be good together, but that wasn’t the world we lived in.
He continued to frown.
“Let me think of something,” he said. I paused, wondering what that meant and if there was actually something we could find that would make all this okay.
My mind told me to tell him to take me back home, but my heart, that yearned for even a sliver of hope, told me to stay put.
I looked over at him then sat back in my seat while he silently drove. Thoughts of not seeing him again scared me.
When we arrived at his condo, he helped me out of his car and held my hand, leading me.
After stepping onto the elevator, Makari stood there staring at me. His eyes were softening, but I could see the fear that he was trying to hide. I wasn’t sure if that was fear of losing me or what could happen if we were found out.
“Makari—”
“Just give me some time to think things through first, but don’t hide from me, Kairi. I can’t deal with that.”
I nodded, and he sighed in relief.
The elevator doors opened, and he allowed me to walk off first. As I headed toward his front door, I looked behind me at him. His eyes were on the floor, showing me the trance his mind had him locked into. I stopped walking.
“Makari, we both know what needs to be done,” I said. What was the point of all this stress when it would easily go away if we just stayed away from each other?
He suddenly pinned me up against his front door and gazed down into my face.
“I said give me some time,” he stated firmly and then kissed my lips.
Makari unlocked the door, and I stepped in before him.
He locked the door behind him and sighed heavily. Tears filled my eyes because this was too heavy to carry anymore.
“Come here,” Makari said, opening his arms for me. I hesitated for a second before I walked into his warm embrace. My eyes closed, and I rested my head on his chest as his arms encircled me, making me feel safe and protected. Why did things have to be this hard?
“Why did we have to be born into these families?” he asked. I giggled because I was practically thinking the same thing.
“We can’t keep on doing this. You know that, right?” I questioned. He didn’t answer.
Ocean might not know now, but it was only a matter of time before she did find out.
“Come on, let’s go take a shower,” he said, taking my hand and leading me to his bedroom.
Makari went to turn on the shower while I took off my socks, but then his phone beeped. Someone was in his elevator.
He looked at it, and when his eyes widened, something in my gut told me exactly who it was.
“What the fuck is she doing here?” Makari breathed, letting me know that it was, in fact, Ocean.
He gave me a look and quickly headed for the door, leaving me in his bedroom. I circled my arms around myself.
“Ocean, what you doing?”
“Nah, nigga, let me in! I wanna know what bitch you got up in here!” she screamed.
My mouth fell.
She was here because of me!
And there I was just thinking about the fact that she didn’t know about me. Everything was pointing to the fact that we needed to end this. There couldn’t be any bigger sign than this!
“What you talking about? You know nobody is here, Ocean,” Makari said.
“That’s not what I heard!”
“Well, you heard wrong,” he hit back. And then there was silence before I heard her sniffling.
“Makari, we both know what my dad said,” she spoke. A clear threat in her words. I peeked through the cracked door to see that Makari’s body was stiff, and his right hand that held the door was clenched into a fist.
“I know, that’s why I’m telling you that you heard wrong,” he said and huffed. “Look, why don’t you go home, let me finish this business call, and I’ll come over.”
“You promise?” she said, her voice sounding low.
“Yeah.”
I walked away from the door and over to the floor-to-ceiling window.
“Okay. I won’t tell my dad if we plan our wedding now, Havoc. I don’t want to wait anymore,” Ocean said. Her words made tears spring to my eyes.
“Okay, Ocean.”
“Thank you. I love you. See you soon,” she said, and then I heard her feet descend down the hallway. The door clicked closed, and a few seconds later, he appeared back in the room.
I continued to look out of the window for a few seconds before I turned to look at him. Tears rolled down my face, but I smiled at him, hoping it would ease him.
“Kairi, I—” Makari started but stopped. His sentence was incomplete because there was nothing more he could say or do at this point.
“I’m gonna go,” I said because there was nothing more to say than that. We’d run out of time and options. Now that Ocean heard the rumors, I knew she was going to be on his case, and we’d definitely get caught then. While he deflected, it was best to walk away while I had the chance.
He just stood there looking at me, pain, remorse, and anger flashing in his hazel eyes.
I picked up my backpack and slowly walked past to leave, but he caught me by the arm. We locked eyes for a second before I gently pulled my arm away from him and walked out of his condo, vowing never to go back.
Thankfully, I never ran into Ocean when I left Havoc’s condo.
My heart was heavy the whole ride home, but there was also lightness knowing we’d ended things before it got worse.
If Ocean had managed to get into his condo and saw me, I’d probably be breathing my last breath along with my family instead of getting to go home.
So, I had to count it as a blessing. I would undoubtedly miss him, but all good things eventually came to an end.
After the Uber dropped me off, I stepped into my house feeling somewhat better. I knew after a good night’s sleep, I’d feel even better in the morning. A few days and I’d be over it!
I jumped when someone suddenly moved in the dimly lit hallway.
“Shakur, you scared me,” I giggled.
My brother looked at me, and my whole blood ran cold because he had a look of fire flashing in his eyes.
He took slow steps toward me, lifted his phone, and said, “You want to explain this?”
When he turned his screen my way, I almost passed out seeing myself climbing into Havoc’s car.
Shit!
I’d been caught by the worst possible person.