Chapter 9 #2
“I’m Juniper,” I said, shaking her hand.
“I know you’ve met my son and my husband.
This is my daughter, Frankee,” Toi said, motioning to the other girl on the couch.
She smiled and waved at me sweetly. “You can have a seat, dear, since my son seems to have forgotten his manners.” Toi motioned for me to have a seat next to Frankee then cut her eyes at Faheem.
Doing as I was told, I sat on the right side of Frankee.
“Care to tell me about yourself? Since you and my son are getting married…”
Mixie smacked her lips loudly mumbling under her breath. “Is there a problem?” Toi asked, directing her attention towards Mixie.
“It’s not like they getting married for real.” Mixie sounded like a little kid throwing a tantrum.”
“I do understand that, however, she will be around us. I like to know the people who are going to be around my family. Is that okay with you, Mixie?” Toi asked in a calm, sarcastic voice.
“Yes, ma’am,” Mixie grumbled. I noticed Frankee was looking at Mixie like she was waiting on her to say something wrong so she could pounce on her.
“There’s not much to tell aside from me wanting to get this entire ordeal over with. Respectfully, this isn’t how I envisioned myself being married.” I tried to sound as polite as possible.
“I understand.” Toi smiled at me, seeming genuine. “Do you have a job?”
“Yeah, I think I do. I’m an x-ray technician.
It’s not my dream job, but it pays the bills.
I’m eventually going to work my way to being an ultrasound tech.
” I really wanted to open my own sonogram image center that specialized in women’s imaging.
I had been saving as much as I could every year.
I wasn’t close to my goal, but I was on my way.
“That’s good.” Toi looked back at Big Frank in an approving manner. “I like to hear that. A woman with ambitions. Do you have any kids?”
“Defintly not.” I never even thought about having kids. They were the furthest thing from my mind right now. I liked helping women with their pregnancies, I never planned on having any of my own.
I didn’t dislike kids per say. They were cute or whatever. With all the stuff I wanted to do with my own life, I didn’t see it in my near future on settling down and being a mom, for a long time at least.
“Do you plan on living under the same roof?”
“No. I have my own place,” I quickly answered.
I didn’t see the problem with me staying in my apartment.
Living with Faheem was surely a recipe for my own downfall.
I folded like melted butter a few minutes ago, and we were in his parents’ house.
I didn’t stand a chance living under the same roof as him
“Nah, I’ma get you an apartment closer to me,” Faheem cooly said as he stood next to Mixie, who mugged him when he said that, but he paid her no mind.
“That doesn't work for me. You not finna be sneaking of to fu-” Mixie quickly corrected herself when Toi glared at her. “Uh… mess with her while I’m waiting at home. She can stay in one of our guest rooms in our condo,” Mixie angrily said.
“Absoluetly not.” I frowned my lip looking at both of them crazy. Faheem gave Mixie a hard expression. Slowly, he began nodding his head in agreement.
“That makes sense,” Faheem responded to my dismay. “You sure you cool with that?” he asked Mixie like it mattered if she was okay with it. I didn’t give a damn how she felt. I wasn’t moving in with her or Faheem. Both of them had lost their entire minds.
“It doesn’t matter if she’s “cool with it”.
” I made air quotes mugging the fuck out of both of them.
“Because I’m not. I don’t want to live with you or her.
” Just because my life was in Faheem’s hands that didn’t mean I was about to be uncomfortable.
Faheem and his cock eyed parrot could take turns kissing my entire ass.
“Little girl, nobody asked you to speak. As a matter of fact, don’t speak to my nigga. You speak through me,” Mixie said as she rolled her neck side to side.
The laugh just slipped from my lips. Clearly this bitch lived on another planet if she thought I was about to go through her to speak to Faheem.
“You know you dumber than you look.” I continued laughing in her face.
“We past the point of needing you to do anything for us,” I smartly replied back to her, matching her same energy.
Mixie had the right one. I would match her energy all day.
The only thing keeping my tongue about what took place upstairs was Toi and Big Frank.
If they hadn’t been here, all bets would be off.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Mixie tried to walk up on me, and I quickly stood to my feet.
I stayed prepared. I might have lived more comfortably now, but in my childhood, one thing I did was learn to fight.
With parents like mine, I got picked on.
Fighting became my only outlet in my younger years.
Once bitches realized I wasn’t to be fucked with, they left me alone.
The last real fight I had was towards the end of Troy and I.
The older I got, the less I saw the need to fight, however, these hands never left me.
Lucky for Mixie, Faheem pulled her back.
“Faheem, you can take Mixie home now,” Big Frank said in an authoritative tone after Toi gave him a look.
“Come on, man.” Faheem sounded pissed.
Squinting her eyes at Faheem, Mixie folded her arms in defiance. “This is what I be talking about. If she can be here.” Mixie pointed at me childishly. “I can be here too.”
“No, you can’t. I gave you chance after chance. It’s time for you to go. You can come back another day when you have your head together,” Toi replied to Mixie.
“That’s weird. I can’t cuss, but I’m grown as fuck. No matter where I’m at, I can say what I want.” Mixie tried to defend herself, clearly missing the point of having respect for people’s rules in their homes.
“But you can’t ‘cause my mama told yo’ silly self multiple times to stop cussing in their house.
You don’t pay bills here. My mama been way too nice if you ask me ‘cause not only do you keep being disrespectful and cussing, you walking up on Juniper like you tryna fight her in THEIR house, continuing the disrespect.” Frankee stood up from her seat.
“Either you gon’ go with Faheem, or I’ma help you out. ”
“Mixie, come on, man. Frankee, chill, I got her,” Faheem said as he grabbed Mixie up, and a pang of jealousy ran through me. I didn’t like him picking her up. I couldn’t stop my lips from forming into a frown as I watched him carry her out of the living room.
“I can’t stand her. On my mama.” Frankee had a look of disgust. “I’m happy you ain’t scary ‘cause I wasn’t finna like you either if you let her punk you out.”
“I would never. Even if I get beat up, I'ma talk my stuff,” I replied to Frankee.
“Me too! You got any friends?” Frankee said with a goofy grin.
“Not for real.” I shrugged. After my situation with my ex, I became a loner.
“Well, you do now, sis-in-law.” Frankee winked at me in a silly manner, and I chuckled at her goofiness.
It sounded like I had a friend now. Maybe I could live with Frankee instead.
I knew 1000 percent I wasn’t moving in with dumb and dumber.
I wasn’t joining their circus. I just wanted to get this marriage over so I could put all of this behind me and start focusing on my real future.
That didn’t include Faheem or his parrot.