25. Baby
BABY
My leg bounced while I stared out the window. My auntie was dropping me off at Jayda’s house because she was taking me to work in the morning.
“You got everything you need, right?” she asked as she pulled in Jayda’s driveway.
“Yup. Thanks for the ride.” I smiled, pulling on the door handle.
“I know,” she replied cockily.
I went up to the front, and the door was already open. Jayda was on the couch, and looked up when she heard me come in.
“Damn Baby. It’s about time you got here,” Jayda exclaimed. Her mouth barely moved with the face mask she had on.
“You look like the grinch, bitch,” I joked, poking at the green goo on her cheeks.
She sucked her teeth, swatting my hand away. “Hoe, quit hating.”
I laughed out loud, scanning the room. I ain’t hear a sound, and that was unusual.
“Where Auntie Mona?” She followed me to her room where I sat my bag on her bed.
“With her man on a date. Mama gets more action than me and that ain’t fair,” she complained, examining her face in the mirror.
“Trouble in paradise with you and your boo?” I called him boo because I forgot his name for real.
She cut her eyes at me through the reflection, before replying, “Well, if you must know, we had a small argument. He wanted to come get my car and I told him no.”
I jumped on the bed, lying my head in my hands. “Oh, because of me? I could’ve asked auntie for a ride to work. I ain’t tryna get in the middle of y'all relationship.”
She scoffed, waving her hand in dismissal. “Girl, no. He’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.”
Turning to me, she pointed towards the empty chair. “While you here, sit and let me fix up your hair.”
I reached up and touched my edges. “Bitch, why you always coming for me? Ain’t nothing wrong with my hair.”
“I’m just looking out for you, Baby,” she told me, amusement in her tone.
“Look out my ass,” I remarked with narrowed eyes, grabbing a pillow to throw at her. She leaped to the side to dodge it, then bent down to pick it up.
“You hungry? Let’s go get something from the kitchen,” she grinned, and I nodded, feeling her hit me with the pillow one more time on the way out. We were laughing all the way to the kitchen.
The smile was wiped off my face seeing Tranae at the table.
“Thought you said she wasn’t here?” I narrowed my eyes at Jayda.
She looked confused, correcting me. “You said Leah, yo’ ass ain’t say nothing about Tranae.”
I sucked my teeth. She knew saying one was just like saying the other. I sat down at the barstool while Jayda went through the cabinets for a snack.
“Hey to you too, Baby,” Tranae addressed me, scooping a spoon of ice cream in her mouth.
I replied dryly. “Hey.”
I took out my phone and scrolled through it when I noticed Love had called me. Damn! The volume must have been on silent, and I just knew he was mad. He told me to answer when he called.
“What y’all doing?” she spoke again.
“Minding our business,” I said under my breath. I tried to keep it cute, however, her presence irked my soul. I didn’t realize I said it too loud until she peered up at me.
“Getting food,” Jayda commented, not noticing the death stares me and her sister were giving each other a few steps away. Standing on her tippy toes, she leaned up to grab the popcorn from the top shelf.
Tranae put the tub of ice cream down, then pointed at me with her spoon. “You know your attitude is what got you where you at now, Baby.”
“And where’s that?” I looked at her through my lashes, eyebrow quirked up.
She rolled her neck. “Alone.”
“Nae!” Jayda shouted, almost dropping the box on the floor.
I dismissed her, focusing on Tranae. “Nah, let her speak her mind. So, Leah told you what happened?”
“Told me? I’m the one that hooked them up!” she clarified, and this was why I didn’t take her being nice as nothing but bullshit. Tranae was the worst of the worst.
“Trae, you didn’t,” Jayda stalked over to the table, popcorn forgotten on the counter.
“Sure did,” she boasted, grinning hard. “She said she found him cute, so I said why not shoot yo’ shot.”
Growing up, Leah always followed behind Tranae, so it didn’t come as a surprise that she let her boost her head up. Even with her telling me the hand she played, she couldn’t make Leah do something if Leah ain’t wanna do it in the first place. I knew my sister.
Jayda shook her head. “You dead wrong, sis.”
“Nah, she good.” I got all up in her grill, pressing my finger against her face. “Hoe, you lucky I’m still on parole.”
Nae ain’t make a move. She was an ‘all bark and no bite’ kinda bitch. While I went back to my seat, I saw her look over to Jayda. “You gone let her put her finger in my face, Jay?”
She shrugged nonchalantly.
“You gone let her put her finger in your face? The fuck,” she retorted with sarcasm, opening the microwave to put the popcorn inside. Tranae huffed out a breath, storming out the kitchen.
Once she was gone, I burst out laughing.
“She was shaking like a leaf.” I moved my body to demonstrate what I was talking about, making her laugh.
“Get off my sister, Baby,” she said once she calmed down. “She a lover, and not a fighter.”
That made me laugh harder while I went back to looking at my phone. It’s a damn shame I couldn’t fight. I really wanted to see what them hands do.