1. Gemini Black #4
“Did you hear what me, and my brother were just talking about?” Gianna asked. I kept quiet because I was curious to see where my sister was going with this.
“No. What happened?” she asked, proving that she was just as zoned out as I kept saying she was.
“You know Gemini is a truck driver. He just got back from Montana. He was just explaining to me how everything went for him on the road. He talked about how peaceful and therapeutic it was. He was able to forget about all the problems that he has at home, and just clear his mind,” Gianna went on.
“Okay?” Amina responded, hearing my sister, but just like me, trying to figure out what her point was.
“You’ve been miserable for weeks. When you came down from London, you trapped yourself in a hotel, shutting everyone out.
I was eventually able to get a hold of you, and I offered you to come stay over here with me.
I still don’t see a change. Amina, hear me out because I can see it in your eyes that you’re fully prepared to tell me no.
What if you got on the road with my brother?
” Gianna asked, and simultaneously, Amina and I both sucked our teeth.
“Man, hell no!” I responded, and when I said that, Amina twirled her neck, looking over at me, as if I offended her with my response.
“Oh, trust me, I wasn’t going to say yes to that anyways! Nobody wants to be on a truck with you!” she screamed at me, and when she said it, her voice cracked a little bit.
“Good because I don’t like anyone on the truck with me. Gianna, why would you even suggest some shit like that? I just sat here and told you that when I’m on that truck, that it’s peaceful. You don’t think bringing someone along on the truck with me would destroy my peace?” I asked.
“Fuck you!” Amina screamed at me again, this time, tears falling from her face, as she stood up from the chair.
Gianna quickly walked over to Amina, wrapping her arms around her, trying to comfort her. My sister was looking at me like she wanted to kill me. Whole time, her home girl was the one that just finished snapping on me.
“So, it’s cool for you to say that you don’t want to get on the truck with me, but I can’t say it?
Fuck you got going on, man? All I’m trying to let your ass know is that the feeling is mutual.
Just as much as you don’t want to be on that truck with me, I don’t want your ass getting on there with me, either.
Why we gotta argue about that? Why we arguing over something that we both can agree on?
” I wanted to know. I couldn’t see Amina’s face because she had it buried into the crook of my sisters neck, as she had a moment.
It took Amina about five minutes to calm her ass down. She pulled away from my sister and sat back down in the stool. Her eyes were blood shot red from the crying that she just finished doing.
Gianna came over, and she stood in between us. She did that thing again, where she looked back and forth between Amina, and I.
“I barely got to explain myself before both of you said no and shot down where I was going with this. I wouldn’t have suggested this if I didn’t think that it would work,” she started.
“It’s just not a good idea, Gianna. I don’t know Gemini the way that you know him.
Even when I lived in Miami, the most interaction I ever had with your brother is when he stuck that lizard down my shirt.
I’ll be basically getting on the road with a stranger.
With everything that I’m going through right now, I’m not seeing why you would think that this is a good idea,” Amina kept on with those slick ass comments, but if a nigga said something in retaliation, she was going to be crying again, and they were going to make me out to be the bad guy.
“Yeah, I ain’t fuckin with that shit, either. Like she said, we don’t know each other like that,” I piggybacked off what Amina said. It just wasn’t like me to not say anything, so I threw my two piece in as well.
My sister sighed, and then she turned to look at Amina.
“Amina, you know how much I love you. When you moved away years ago, that shit broke my heart. You were like the sister that I never got to have. Even with all those miles apart that we were, we were still able to keep in contact. You are my best friend, and I care about you so much. So much, that I hate when I have to take these jobs, and leave you here in the house by yourself for hours at a time, knowing the kind of depressive state that you’re in right now —”
“Gianna, I’m fine though,” Amina cut my sister off to say.
“No, you’re not fine. When you’re up, you spend most of your days zoned out, staring at the walls in here.
You won’t eat. Barely sleep, and when I try to get you to go outside with me, it’s like pulling teeth.
Without going into too much detail about it in front of my brother, I need you to know that I know you’re hurting.
You thought that coming back to Miami, running away from London would help, but it clearly hasn’t.
I only suggested that you get on the road with my brother for a while, so that you can escape all of this.
Escape your thoughts. Your feelings. Your hurt,” Gianna was pitching this shit to her girl, without even running that shit by me.
She knew damn well that I would never be fond of someone getting on the road with me. That’s just not my thing.
“And you,” Gianna said, turning her head, so that she could face me.
“Save the speech. It’s not happening. She don’t want to go, and I don’t want her to go,” was all that I really had to say about this topic.
“You’re acting like I’m asking you to babysit her, Gemini.
She’s grown. I’m asking you to let her get on the road with you.
You always tell me that you love me, and you will do whatever to make me happy, well brother, this will make me happy.
Allowing my best friend to step into your space, where it’s a strong chance that she can escape her problems. That will make me happy.
It doesn’t have to be something that you do long term.
Brother, just this one time. How long are you going to be gone this time? ” Gianna wanted to know.
“Two months. That’s probably too long for her anyways,” I said, coming up with excuses for Amina.
“Amina, is two months too long for you?” Gianna asked, turning her head in Amina’s direction.
“No. I still don’t know him like that though. He’s basically a stranger to me,” she responded, and that’s when I sucked my teeth at that, followed by me shaking my head.
“Stop saying that bullshit. Nah, we not the best of friends. I never had your phone number to call you. I really don’t know shit about you, other than the fact that you’re best friends with my sister, and you moved to London at 13.
At the same time, I’m not just some random ass nigga to you.
Before you moved away, you used to be at our house like every weekend, chilling with my sister.
You know my family. You know the kind of values and morals that I was raised on.
If you choose not to go with me, let it be because you simply don’t want to, but stop calling me a stranger.
I’m not a stranger to your ass. That’s not what the fuck we are to each other,” I had to get some straightening with that.
I shut her ass up after that because she didn’t say anything else. She sat back, keeping her eyes on my sister, waiting to see what Gianna’s next move was going to be.
“Okay, now that we’ve established that the two of you aren’t strangers, can we move forward?
Gemini, I know you. I know you don’t like people in your space, especially when you’re on the road working.
You enjoy that alone time. Just this one time.
Brother, please?” my sister was begging, coming closer to me, batting those big ass eyes of hers, trying to win her way with me.