Chapter 8 #3
That was the problem…nobody ever knew. I went back to packing. By early evening, the apartment looked like somebody had turned it upside down. There were boxes everywhere, bags and clothes all over the place. Half the kitchen on the floor. Nysheca had actually helped more than I expected.
At some point, she came into my room holding an old picture of the three of us.
“Look.”
I took it.
Mama was younger. Nysheca and I were kids. That was before bills, drugs, and constant hospital visits. Shit, before everything got so damn hard.
“Put it in Mama's box.”
Nysheca didn't move.
“You remember when she used to make us wear matching shit?”
“Unfortunately.”
“You used to cry.”
“You used to pee in the bed.”
“Bitch, why you always gotta take it there?”
I laughed.
She smiled.
For a second, she looked like my little sister again and not somebody I had to check for signs of being high…just Nysheca.
She took the picture back.
“I'm gonna get right.”
I looked at her.
She kept her eyes on the picture.
“I know you don't believe me.”
“I didn't say that.”
“You don't.”
I sat on the edge of the bed.
“When?”
She shrugged.
“Soon.”
“You been saying soon.”
“I know.”
“Mama was in the hospital, Nysheca.”
Her jaw tightened.
“I know.”
“No. I don't think you do.”
“I said I know.”
“I was there by myself.”
She looked at me.
“I was sitting in that hospital thinking our mama might fucking die, and I couldn't even call my sister because I didn't know what condition you were gonna be in.”
Her eyes filled but I didn't stop.
“I need you.”
“I know.”
“No, I need you for real. I can't keep doing everything by myself.”
She wiped her cheek.
“I be trying.”
“Try harder.”
“I don't know how.”
I looked at my sister and realized for the first time in a long time that maybe Nysheca didn't know how to get out of the shit she was in. I mean that didn't mean I could save her, but it made me a little less angry.
I reached for her hand.
“Then let somebody help you.”
She nodded.
Whether she meant it or not, I didn't know, but I took it.
A knock hit the front door and both of us froze.
Nysheca looked at me.
“Who that?”
“I don't know.”
They knocked again and harder this time.
Mama called from the living room.
“Nyrobi!”
“I got it.”
I stood.
My heart was beating hard by the time I made it to the door. I looked through the peephole. A man stood outside. Not somebody I knew. He had papers in his hand.
Fuck.
I opened the door but kept my body in the doorway.
“Can I help you?”
He asked my name.
I told him.
Then he explained why he was there. I already knew. I listened anyway. When he finished, I looked down at the paper he'd handed me. This wasn't another warning. Whatever little time I thought I still had, I didn't.
I closed the door.
Mama and Nysheca were both looking at me.
“Well?” Mama asked.
I couldn't answer at first.
I looked around, at the boxes, the couch, the cheap little dining table I'd complained about a hundred times. The spot on the wall where Mama kept her medicine schedule. My bedroom door. The apartment I'd spent so much time wishing I could afford to leave.Now somebody was telling me I had to.
Nysheca stepped closer.
“Nyrobi?”
I looked at her.
“We gotta be out.”
“When?”
I told her.
Her eyes widened.
Mama covered her mouth.
I looked down at my phone.
Kaizleigh had texted again.
KAIZLEIGH: Everything okay?
Then another message underneath it.
KAIZLEIGH: Call me when you get a chance.
I stared at the screen.
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A mansion. Properties. Hotels. Cars that probably cost more than this entire apartment building. All I had to do was call.
That was the fucked-up part. I knew if I told Kaizleigh what was happening, she would probably try to help. And Billion had already shown me he was the type to hear a problem and start looking for a way to fix it before you finished explaining it.
But I couldn't do it. Not yet anyways.
I locked my phone and shoved it into my pocket.
Nysheca watched me.
“Who was that?”
“Nobody.”
“You need to call them rich people.”
My head snapped toward her.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I said no.”
“Nyrobi, they paying you two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to carry their baby. You think they want you and Mama sleeping in the fucking car?”
“We ain't sleeping in no car.”
“Where we sleeping then?”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
Nysheca stared at me.
“Exactly.”
“I'll figure it out.”
“How?”
“I don't know yet!”
Mama flinched and I immediately lowered my voice, but Nysheca didn't back down.
“You always talking about me needing help. Maybe your ass need to learn how to ask for some too.”
That one hit in me in my gut.
I stared at her.
She grabbed another box.
“I'm just saying.”
For once, my little sister didn't sound high and crazy She sounded right. And I fucking hated it.
My phone felt heavy in my pocket. I didn't pull it back out. Instead, I grabbed another box. Because asking the Stylez family for somewhere to live was not happening. I had signed up to carry their baby. Not become another fucking responsibility they had to take care of.