LAKIA
I didn’t bother to say another word as I stormed out of my brother’s house. I couldn’t believe Harvey. I mean, yes, I made a mistake, and it was as if every time I turned around, it was thrown in my face. This was even more reason for me to hold off on telling Foe the truth about school.
When Harvey reached out to me and said she wanted to meet and that she had something special planned for Foe, I was ok with it.
It was actually perfect timing because after Kirk decided I was no longer enough for him, he had given me six months to find another place, and my time had run out.
However, when I got here and saw they were living together, I couldn’t fucking believe it.
She wasn’t even his type. My brother liked them hood, relatable, and gutta.
Harvey was none of those things; hell, in my eyes, she was for the crew.
How are you with one nigga, then bounce to his friend?
The shit was weird, and I was no forgiving bitch.
I walked down the driveway toward the street.
It was late, cold, and dark as hell. I pulled out my phone and called an Uber.
A part of me had hoped that my brother would come outside to talk to me, to tell me that he understood, and that I meant more to him than Harvey, because I was his blood.
However, one minute turned into five, then ten.
I knew then he wasn’t coming out. He had always been stubborn, but never this much.
When the Uber pulled up, I took one last look at my brother’s house before getting inside.
The driver had finally arrived on the other side of town, where my hotel was located.
It surprised me that the crew stayed in the uppity part of the city, since they all came from a city like the Cove.
Right then, I knew shit was changing. Was it me who had a one-track mind and didn’t want things to change?
I didn’t know, but I did know that my money was running low and that my hotel stay was going to end soon.
My phone vibrated with a call from Foe. I declined the first call, and he began to call back-to-back, but I refused to answer because he’d waited until I left.
When the car stopped, it alerted me that I had reached my destination, which wasn’t my hotel.
I got out and entered the semi-full bar and grill.
I tried to rationalize my reasons for coming to Layoni’s, but I couldn’t think of one.
I ordered the house drink as I sat glancing at everyone enjoying themselves.
I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my social media.
I went to Kirk’s page first. There he was, smiling as if his life was good, probably on the arm of another woman.
I read the caption, and the nigga got hired at a different university. “What the fuck?” I mumbled.
I continued to scroll, landing on Monfua’s page as he had just posted a while ago of himself and his friends at the club. I rolled my eyes, then closed the app. My life was going to shit by the day, and as much as I thought I was pulling myself out of the whole, I only dug myself deeper into it.
There was a light tap on my shoulder before I heard Shaneice’s voice, “You're looking for my son?”
My head slowly turned her way as I smiled. “No, I came to have a drink.”
Honestly, I didn’t know if I wanted to see Monfua or not.
I wanted to be in a place where I could clear my head before calling it a night because I was too ashamed to ask him to stay at his house.
I knew he thought I was staying with my brother, and I had no way of trying to explain the lies.
It should have been an easy decision to make, since he was my husband, but I couldn’t do it.
The idea was to get drunk and sleep the night away.
Shaneice glanced at me curiously, “Well, I close in the next thirty minutes. I will be in the back. Any friend of my son is a friend of mine. Let me know if you need anything,” she said as she pointed at the chocolate man behind the bar.
“Nate, you watch her. Not too much,” she finished and walked off.
I picked up my drink and sipped on it while I watched a couple rocked back and forth on the dance floor.
They were an odd couple, but they looked cute together.
He was definitely from the streets, and she looked like the girl next door.
Looks like Harvey and Foe to me. “Tuh,” I mumbled as I finished the rest of my drink.
I quickly glanced at Nate, “Another one, please.”
When the guy smiled at her, his gold girl sparkled. I became lost in their love as I watched them interact. It was how I imagined Kirk and me would be, but we had nothing more than a sexual, toxic, and deceitful situationship. When the music stopped, she giggled loudly, “Pierre.”
I smiled, turned around, and guzzled down my drink before I requested another one. The bartenders didn’t make the house drink as good as Monfua, but they were doing something. The more I drank, the more I began to get in my feelings.
I was angry at love because it failed me.
Love sent me on a spiral, it made me make a horrible decision that led me to Toussaint.
Love didn’t conquer all; it destroyed things, sucked you up to a point that it made you blind, just as it did with my mother, Foe, and, clearly, Kirk and his intentions.
I was over it all, and although Monfua said he wanted to try, I knew it couldn’t work because what he and I did wasn’t out of love, but rather out of wrong intentions.