Chapter 21 #2
“Hell nah, I ain’t,” Juelz shot back as he stepped over his broken game system. “Bouf our names on this shit, Tasha.”
Tasha’s smirk was cold. She went into the garage, got the gas for the lawnmower, came back in, pouring it everywhere. She grabbed a piece of paper off the counter, flicked her lighter, and held it steady, making sure he saw it this time. The corner burned bright, smoke curling between them.
“Y’all just need to separate and talk about this tomorrow,” Niyah suggested with fear written across her face.
Tasha didn’t even look her way. She held the paper higher, flames eating the edge like it was starving.
“You right, nigga,” she said, eyes locked on his. “Both our names is on this muthafucka.”
“Wa-wait…wait, Tasha! What the hell you doin’? Stop!” Juelz shouted, eyes going wide. He tried to run and grab it, but he was too late.
She dropped it.
Whoosh…
The edge of the rug caught first, and that’s all it took. One corner lit, then the whole thing went up like it was dry as bones. Smoke hit the ceiling fast, triggering the smoke detector.
“See, now we both gon’ have to leave,” she said as the fire blazed quickly, like it was wilding out along with her.
Tasha stared at the fire like it finally matched what was burning inside her.
“Fuck that! Let it burn,” she whispered. Grabbing her purse, her car keys, and one of her nephew’s baseball bat.
“Nah, nah, hell nah. Tash, stop!” Juelz lunged forward, stomping at the edge, but it was already spreading.
The fire pushed out across the floor, fast enough to make everyone realize this wasn’t just a little flame. This was really about to be a total loss.
“Girl, are you crazy?” Niyah screamed, grabbing Tasha’s arm, pulling her away from the fire.
Tasha looked dazed, chest heaving, mascara smeared across her face. “He wasn’t hearing me any other way.”
“Tasha, move!” Niyah yanked her back as the fire spread to the side of a tipped-over picture frame.
Juelz coughed, waving smoke out of his face. “Yo! I can’t believe this shit, Tasha. You ain’t have to do all that.”
“Get out!” Niyah pushed him toward the door. “It’s too much smoke.” She was in a coughing fit. “We have to go.”
Tasha finally snapped out of whatever trance she was in and looked at the blaze swallowing her living room. Her breath hitched. “I hope it burns to the ground.”
“C’mon!” Juelz grabbed her wrist, pulling her harder than he intended to. “We gotta go!”
They all stumbled toward the front door, smoke getting thicker by the second. The fire alarm started screaming over the music.
Niyah shoved the door open, covering her mouth, coughing as smoke billowed out behind them.
“Jesus…” she gasped once they hit the concrete spiral doorsteps.
Juelz dragged Tasha down the steps, both of their faces lit orange from the flames growing behind them.
Tasha looked back at the house. Their house, her voice small and cracked as she aimed the baseball bat at Juelz.
“I can’t believe you fucked me over, Jue…”
Juelz stared at her like he didn’t know whether to hug her, cuss her out, or call a damn exorcist.
“Tash… you really set our shit on fire. Where we gon’ go now? Huh, Tasha? Where we gon’ live?”
She shook her head, breathing fast, hands trembling. “You can go live with that bitch Shy for all I care. Don’t worry about me.”
“Bae—”
“Don’t.” She took a step back from him, shaking all over. “Don’t call me that.”
Sirens wailed faintly in the distance, getting closer.
Niyah rubbed her forehead, pacing. “Girl… this is some shit I can’t even get you out of. You gon’ need Jesus and a lawyer.”
Juelz looked back at the burning house, then at Tasha. Her expression was hurt, broken, but still trying to act like she wasn’t falling apart.
“Tash?” he said, bending over, out of breath.
She was tired of the back-and-forth with him. She just wiped her eyes, chin high, breathing hard.
“Fuck you, Jue and everythin’ about you,” she cried. “I’m done.”
Before he could respond, Tasha turned and started walking past the yard, past the mailbox. Then she stopped at his car. The Old School that he was crazy about. His 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle Coupe with the blue exterior and peanut butter interior.
Juelz froze, realizing a minute late what was about to happen.
“Tash, don’t you fuc—”
The sound of glass shattering cut him off. One, two, three blows from the bat. Each swing was a heartbeat, each crack louder than the last. She smashed the front windshield next, glass spraying everywhere under the orange glow of the flames.
“Fuck you, Juelz!” Tasha screamed, swinging again. The bat crashed down on the hood of his Chevelle, metal denting deep before she burst out both headlights with two more hits.
“Tasha! Ta Ta, Tasha,” Juelz called out, stepping forward, gripping his hair. “This muthafucka crazy, yo. C’mon girl!” He was hysterical, jumping up and down. “That’s a fuckin classic. You know how much that shit gon’ run me?”
That car was the least of her worries, and she couldn’t care less how much it was to repair the damage.
Tasha kept swinging, taking every ounce of her anger out on his car, wishing with each hit it was him instead of metal. The bat clanged, glass shattered, and her breath came out in sharp, broken gasps.
When she was finally done, she stood there for a second, chest heaving, face wet, fingers tight around the bat. Then she dropped it, letting it roll across the concrete with a dull clank.
Tasha slipped her engagement ring off her finger. His ring. The one that used to mean forever and threw it straight at his forehead. It hit hard, then dropped at his feet, catching a glint of orange from the fire.
“Keep that,” she said coldly. “It's obvious it didn’t mean shit, no way.”
Without looking back, she headed for her Mercedes, slamming the door and driving off into the night, leaving Juelz standing there in the midst of his mess, surrounded by everything she’d destroyed. The house. Shyann’s car. His car.
Niyah grabbed his arm before he could chase her. “Let her go, Juelz…”
The flames behind them grew higher, lighting up the whole street.
Tasha never looked back once. Not at the house.
Not at him. Not at the life she had just set on fire with her own hands.
She drove off into the night like a woman scorned, a woman done, a woman who wasn’t sorry for a damn thing.
Not then. Damn sure not now. Hell, not ever.
Juelz wiped his face and stepped down off the curb. “I’m goin’ to get her.”
Niyah stepped in front of him, blocking him with her whole chest. “Juelz…please just stop. She’s gone!”
“Move, Niyah. That’s my fuckin’ whole world—”
“She’s sick, Jue.”
“She what?” He froze, stunned by the words Niyah had spilled out of her mouth. “Run that shit by me again, yo.”
Niyah swallowed, eyes shiny, voice dropping low. “Tasha… she’s got cancer, Juelz.”
The word hit him harder than the fire, harder than her punches, harder than anything she said all night. The color had left his face. Leaving him pale as a saltine cracker.
“The doctor told her, those were the results from the appointment you two went to,” Niyah whispered. “I told her to tell you. But… she got scared at how you’d react.” She paced in a circle with her hands on her hips. “So, she kept it a secret.”
Juelz stepped back as if the concrete shifted under him. “Niyah… stop playin’. That’s not funny, for real. Yo—”
“I’m not playing,” she raised her voice. “She’s been sick. For a minute. The cancer was in her ovary, Juelz. The procedure she did?” She exhaled loudly. “Well, they removed the ovary that had the cancer in it, leaving her with just one.”
He looked out into the street, the flashing lights getting closer to them by the minute.
“Tash…” he breathed, voice cracking for real this time. He forced his dreads outta his face.
Niyah touched his shoulder. “Let her go tonight. You ain’t gon’ reach her right now. She hurt. She’s angry. And she’s scared as hell.”
Juelz dragged a hand down his face, body folding like he suddenly couldn’t stand up straight.
Behind them, the house burned. Neighbors whispered. And he just stood there, realizing he hadn’t only broken her heart. He also broke her spirit at the worst time of her life.