Chapter 1 #2
“Not too much on my son, Jaiyanna,” Troi chimed in.
“Exactly. Y’all come on in here so we can eat.”
The gang filed into the house, their sleepiness momentarily overshadowed by their robust need for sustenance.
They entered the dining area to find an array of breakfast foods, coffee, juice, and fruits beautifully situated in the middle of the wooden family-size dining table.
Onyx had gone above and beyond, renting out a six-bedroom villa with enough space for everyone.
He and Troi took seats at the table, with Layla taking place at the head.
Yanna sat next to Kalil, leaving Kas and Quan seated next to one another.
“Damn auntie, you woke up early and cooked all of this?” Kalil questioned.
“Most of it. Nyx ordered the fruit and drinks before y’all left out yesterday.”
“Well, we appreciate it because I’m famished. All that walking and dancing we did worked up an appetite,” Troi added.
“Damn, Yanna, how many pieces of bacon did you take?” Reaching over, Kalil swiped a piece of bacon from Yanna’s plate and took a bite.
Before he had the chance to take another bite, Yanna popped his hand, causing the piece of bacon to fall.
She picked it up from the table and placed it back on her plate amongst the other four strips.
Kalil laughed, and Kas watched the exchange through squinted eyes.
He hated the unfamiliar emotion of jealousy overtaking his body.
“Aye, Kalil, switch seats with me.”
“Why? I like Kalil being next to me,” Yanna replied, gaze fixed on Kas as she crunched a piece of bacon.
“Jaiyanna, we been doing good,” Kas stated, tone laced with warning.
Kalil’s head swiveled, gaze traveling from Kas to Yanna. “Oh, hell nah, y’all not about to put me in the middle of y’all shit.” Gathering his plate and glass of juice, he scooted away from the table and rounded it so he and Kas could switch.
Kas pushed his plate and glass across the table before gingerly pacing his way to the now empty seat. When he sat down, Yanna jokingly slid her chair over, but Kas grabbed it and pulled it right back. He gripped the back of her neck, using it to pull her into him.
“Yanna boo, don’t fucking play with me.”
“Ow, boy, let my neck go. I’m just joking anyway, you know I don’t want to be next to nobody more than you.”
“Yea, I do know that, but don’t try to stroke my fucking ego now. Make me fuck you up, ight?”
“Kasra, what I tell you about threatening that child?”
“Ms. Layla, ain’t nobody worried about those idle threats your son be making. He knows better.”
“I know he does, but still, I don’t like him insinuating that he’ll put his hands on a woman. He won’t raised like that.”
“I just be playing, mumma. I might snatch her up by that lil’ inch of hair she got, but she know I wouldn’t really put my hands on her.”
“You stay with the bald head jokes like I’m not ”
“Bald by choice. We know, but for as long as I’ve known you, I ain’t seen a bit of new growth.”
“That’s because I keep it cut. I don’t even know why I’m explaining anything to you.”
“You know why. Hurry up and finish eating, I got something I want to show you upstairs.”
“Gross,” Troi interjected.
“Troi baby, I know damn well yo’ ass ain’t talking. Like you and Nyx ain’t been loud as hell in the other room since we got here.”
“Exactly,” Yanna cosigned. “Knowing y’all room is right next to ours, like we be wanting to hear that shit.”
“Stop exaggerating. We’re not that loud,” Troi defended.
“I promise y’all are. At this point, I know at exactly what time you gone start whining about it being too deep.”
“Putting on a show and shit because that nigga don’t be that deep every fucking time.”
“Oh, it be that deep,” Troi retorted, sticking out her tongue to add emphasis.
“Cousin, you be running?” Yanna quipped.
“Never that. Onyx, do I be running?”
“Nah, baby. You take it like a big girl every time.”
“Um, hello! Did y’all little trifling asses forget I was right here? I don’t want to hear all that!”
“Damn, sorry, mumma. I did kind of forget you was right there for a second,” Kas apologized.
“And I’m drunk,” Onyx offered as an excuse.
“Hurry up so y’all can gone from around me. I’mma wake my grandbaby up in a few, me and him will go sit by the water while y’all nap.”
“Baptize his little bad ass while you’re down there.”
“You know, I let you slide with all the slick comments you make about my baby boy, but I will put hands on you about my grandbaby, Yanna.”
“Y’all love acting like he isn’t the spawn of Lucifer, but okay.”
“My baby ain’t bad,” Troi added.
“The hell he ain’t.”
“Talking about Kian, but you and Kas are the real problem children,” Onyx added. “Argue like a damn old married couple then be best friends two minutes later.”
“What’s understood never has to be explained, Nyx.”
“Never,” Yanna cosigned, leaning over to plant a kiss on Kas’ lips.
The group continued to eat, laughing and joking amongst themselves.
When they were finished, they all pitched in to help Layla clean up the mess before she ventured off to wake Kian up for their beach date.
Troi was beat, so she retired to her and Onyx’s bedroom.
Onyx, Kalil and Quan decided to go outside to pass around a few after breakfast blunts while Kas and Yanna cuddled up at the dining table.
Kas was seated in his chair with Yanna on his lap with her legs wrapped around his chair.
She delicately ran her fingers through the curls atop his head, their silky texture being one of her favorite traits on him.
Kas relished in their closeness, flirtatiously winking at her before flashing a megawatt smile.
“Kas, don’t smile at me like that. It makes me want to suck your dick.” It was the truth. Kas was already fine as hell with his fair skin, massive curls, and chiseled face. His smile only amplified his immaculate looks and had the power to melt her resolve even in times when she was mad at him.
“And I want to let you.”
“Take me upstairs then.”
Kas was preparing to grip Yanna and carry her upstairs, but movement outside the patio door caught his attention.
He watched as Quan looked down at his phone then held it up for Kalil and Onyx to see.
A few seconds later, the three of them looked into the house, all giving Kas expressions that let him know he was fucked.
“Nigga!” Quan’s loud voice bellowed from outside, and Kas shot him a stern look so he could shut up.
He knew exactly what they were seeing, and their theatrics were sure to get him caught. “Matter fact, go hop in the shower so you can get all that paint and mud off you. I’mma go hit one of these blunts real quick then I’ll be up there.”
“Yea, you right, I feel nasty as hell. Hurry up though.”
“I am.” Kas waited until Yanna disappeared up the stairs before slipping through the patio doors.
“Yanna gone fuck you up,” Kalil commented as soon as Kas stepped out.
“Shut the fuck up, damn, can y’all niggas be any more obvious?” Kas questioned as he took a seat.
“Can you be any more obvious? Like, are you serious, Kas?” Onyx asked, passing his brother a blunt.
During exploration of the island, Onyx ran into a local weed man who swore he had some of the most exotic weed.
The men all agreed the weed was potent, but not even the weed back home in Virginia compared to what they used to get in LA.
“How the fuck did y’all see it?”
“Broads been tagging Nyx in it… but you know me and ole’ girl friends on IG. Just so yo’ ass know, they been tagging Yanna in it too.”
“Fuck!” Kas bellowed, genuinely terrified that Yanna would find out about what he’d done before he had a chance to rectify the situation.
The week before the group traveled to Barbados, he’d flown to LA to have his apartment cleaned out.
While there, he attended one last party to commemorate his exit from California.
As he should’ve expected, a girl he knew, Yasmine, was in attendance.
The entire night, she’d followed him around like a lost puppy.
He’d ignored her for the most part, but after one too many tequila shots, he allowed her to get closer.
Yasmine sitting next to him on the couch led to her sitting on his lap, which led to her sucking his dick in one of the mansion’s bathrooms. In his drunken state, he hadn’t noticed her recording them leaving the restroom.
It could’ve been excused as nothing if Yasmine hadn’t written something about her head game making a nigga’s toes curl in her caption.
He’d been trying since then to get her to take the video down before Yanna saw it.
Luck hadn’t been on his side in that regard.
“I been trying to get her thirsty ass to take the video down. Like, why would you broadcast to the world that you was sucking dick in a bathroom?”
“Why would you be fucking with Yasmine anyway? You know the type of female she is based solely off the fact that she was friends with Brea’s dumb ass.”
“I don’t know, nigga, I’m stupid. I was fucked up at that party, and what the fuck I look like turning down some head?”
“You ain’t think about Yanna before you did that shit?”
“Yea, I thought about her. Then, I did it anyway. I knew it was wrong to let Yasmine suck my dick, but at the same time, I figured, why not? Yanna ass be on some other shit most of the time, and y’all know it.”
“True, but ain’t you tired of this shit yet?”
“No,” Kas answered simply, eliciting laughs from Quan and Kalil.
“I’m serious. I know it seems like me and Yanna are hopeless, but I understand her beyond the facade she puts up.
It’s some shit in her life that damaged her, and I do want to do right by her.
At the same time though, her ass is so set in her ways, and I’m not about to let her play in my face. ”
“You sure you wanna do right? Cause I can’t tell.”
“Yea, Nyx, I’m sure. It’s just… I think we done almost got into a routine of the toxic shit. One of us gets mad, we argue like strangers in the street, I put dick in her soul, then boom, she knocked out. The shit just resets after that.”
“Just because you can fuck yo’ girl to sleep, don’t mean you solved a problem. Shit, that’s light work.”
“First of all, don’t act like you won’t constantly trying to fuck Brea’s existence from Troi’s mind.
You stayed using yo’ dick to try and make up for some shit.
Second, she don’t just be sleep because I fuck her good.
I mean, yea that, but mainly because I be making love to her in a way that be putting her whole body and mind at ease. If only for a little while.”
Kas released a cloud of smoke into the air while Quan, Onyx and Kalil stared at him in perplexity. A few moments passed before Kalil stood and picked the blunt from Kas’ fingers.
“What the hell is in this weed because who the fuck are you right now?”
“I’m me, nigga. Don’t try to make me feel bad because I’m deep. Need to get yourself a girl or something.”
“Nah, you need to get one because according to Yanna, you ain’t got that.”
“Don’t nobody believe that shit, not even Yanna. She know she mine, and that’s why every time you see me, you see her too.”
Onyx, Quan and Kalil made comments about the state of Kas’ relationship, but he wasn’t interested in what they had to say.
From the outside looking in, his and Yanna’s situation was extremely toxic.
Hell, it seemed that way from the inside as well.
However, Kas knew what no one else knew.
Yes, Yanna gave him a hard time, but like he’d told Onyx, he understood why.
Although she couldn’t fully convey it to him, he knew there were aspects of Yanna’s upbringing that made her weary of giving love.
Made her weary of accepting love. While Kas meant it when he said he wouldn’t allow her to play in his face, he was still willing to wait.
He was willing to give her time to gain enough emotional intelligence to realize the things she witnessed in her past had nothing to do with her present.
Until then, he’d accept what she gave, however noxious it may be.
Scooting his feet into his slides, he hopped up from the chair.
“Hell you going?” Onyx questioned.
“Upstairs with Jaiyanna.”
“This nigga got it bad,” Kalil joked.
“Bad as fuck,” Kas confirmed. “Oh shit, aye, Quan hold on to this for me.” Going into his pocket, Kas pulled out Yanna’s pink iPhone and placed it in Quan’s hand.
“You stole her phone?! She been looking for that shit since last night!” Quan exclaimed.
“Yea, I need to keep it away from her until I can get Yasmine to take the video down. If she get on social media now, she’ll definitely see the shit. Once the video is deleted, all the mentions and shit will disappear. Just keep it off and keep it hidden.”
“If it’s one thing I’ve learned over the past couple years, it’s that shit done in the dark will eventually find its way to the light.
You doing the most, hiding her phone and shit, but even if ole’ girl delete the video, you never know who screen recorded it and just waiting to share it with Yanna.
Once shit makes it onto the internet, it’s there forever. ”
“Well, I’ll deal with that when the time comes. For now, Quan, keep that fucking phone out of sight, and Nyx keep Troi baby out her phone too.”
“I’m not hiding shit from my fiancée, Kas.”
“Why not? You used to be real good at it, just pretend you hiding a girlfriend and it should come easily for you.”
Kas narrowly dodged his brother’s punch as he hurried through the patio door and slid it closed.
As he ascended the twelve stairs, he contemplated all the ways he wanted to sex Yanna just in case it was the last time he’d be granted the honor.
Entering the room, he heard the shower running and immediately pulled his shirt over his head.
He said a quick prayer to God, asking that somehow his latest misstep would go unnoticed before joining Yanna in the shower.