Chapter 8 #2
“Why does that even matter? It ain’t like you can be mad, fool. They don’t know you’re fuckin’ me ’cause you been keeping me a secret! How you gon’ fight somebody for some shit they don’t know?” Waving him off, I continued packing up my shit as my words sank in.
There had been plenty of times that I’d seen him out and about with his niggas, and aside from Travis, they were all good looking and paid.
While his ass was trying to throw me secret looks and texting me on the sly whenever we ran across each other, them niggas were blatantly eye fucking me.
The fact that he seemed to think he was the only man in the world who wanted me was more than comical; it was pathetic and just another reason I knew I was making the right choice.
I left him stuck and headed out to get my toiletries from the bathroom.
It didn’t take me any time to clear that out, but by then, he’d finally caught up to me.
“Ayite, ayite, ayite, stop, bae. My bad, okay? I’m fucked up.
I know that shit but just give me some time to get it right.
I love you, man. I ain’t tryna lose you over no goofy shit.
” His face was twisted in distress as he boxed me in and tried to hug me to him.
I must not have been as determined as I thought because even though I didn’t hug him back, I didn’t immediately pull away.
He buried his face in my neck, and my walls were already coming down, but loud knocking at the door had him jumping away from me.
I couldn’t even do shit but shake my head.
God was slapping me upside the head, trying to get me away from this nigga, and I was ignoring it every time. This shit came right on time.
Jordan realized he fucked up and tried to speak, but I put my hand up to stop him. “Don’t even worry about it.” I pushed past him, and he caught me by the arm.
“Bliss, can you at least leave out the back?” he asked timidly with his eyebrows touching.
I swear bile rose in my throat at the nervousness on his face.
This was the same nigga who was just begging me not to leave and swearing he loved me.
My first mind was to do the exact opposite and walk right past those niggas, but I quickly dismissed the thought.
I’d fuck around trying to shit on him and only end up giving him clout since those niggas wanted me too.
Completely done with the situation, I hoisted my bag on my shoulder and bumped him on my way out. It was definitely fuck that nigga from now on, and he’d better hope I didn’t tell my honey and watch her shoot him.
I was too mad in the moment to consider that my feelings were also hurt, but once I was in my car driving away, it hit me.
Not only had that nigga played in my face for months, but I’d allowed it, and I truly couldn’t understand why.
Yeah, he was fine, had good dick, and didn’t mind spending a bag, but there were plenty of other niggas like that in the world.
Here I was, keeping myself locked down when I could’ve been with somebody else who appreciated me, and his ass didn’t even care.
My eyes burned at the thought, and I could feel myself on the verge of tears, but my phone rang.
Seeing my honey calling, I quickly sucked my emotions up and answered before it could go to voicemail.
“Oh, honey, you can have me when you waaaaant meeeee! You simply ask me to be theeeeere!” I immediately started singing Mariah Carey’s song, making my granny start fussing.
“Bliss, stop all that hootin’ and hollerin’ in my ear this damn early!
You know you can’t sing worth a damn!” She tried to sound annoyed, but I could hear the smile in her voice.
For as much as she pretended she didn’t like me singing to her, she stayed calling my phone, knowing that was exactly what I was going to do.
“Honey, you know you love my voice, so stop it.” I chuckled, already in a lighter mood since I was talking to my favorite person.
If me and Essence didn’t love anybody else in the world, we loved our granny, and it often annoyed the hell out of our parents.
We could do no wrong in her eyes, and she never played when it came to us.
That’s why I knew if she found out about the way Jordan had been carrying on, she would be on his ass.
For a seventy-one-year-old woman, she was far from weak and fragile.
She always had a bat and her gun tucked close by, and she wasn’t afraid to use them.
“You know damn well that’s a lie! Honey loves you, baby, but I can do without that Chevy engine you call a voice box,” she said pointedly, and I couldn’t help cracking up despite her roasting me so hard.
“Honeeeeeey! Don’t do me like that! You gon’ make me tell my mama on you.”
The threat had her sucking her teeth loudly, and I could just about picture her face at anybody threatening her with her own daughter. “Who, Octavia?” she asked loudly but started talking before I could. “What you gon’ tell her for? I’m her mama. It ain’t shit that lil girl can do to me!”
“I’m gon’ tell her you said that―”
“And I got my bat and my gun ready whenever she try to bring her ass around here acting up. Matter fact, let me call her up here now, so I can warn her of what’s gon’ happen if she try me.” She mumbled the last part like she was talking more to herself than me.
She must’ve put the phone down because I could barely hear what she was saying, but I definitely heard her call my mama’s name.
My honey stayed with our parents after she’d burned her own house down, trying to cook breakfast some years ago.
The doctor had tried so hard for my mama to put her in a nursing home, but Octavia James wasn’t having any of that.
My daddy had to hold her back to stop her from fighting the lady that day for even suggesting that shit.
I laughed at the memory just as my mama came on the line.
“Bliss Louise Jones, what you say to get my mama all riled up? She’s over here threatening to get a belt for me, lil’ girl!” she shrieked.
I rolled my eyes at her saying my full name. I hated that old lady ass middle name. She had to have still been high off whatever the hospital gave her to name me some new aged shit like Bliss, just to turn around and give me a grandma middle name.
Hitting my turn signal, I turned into a breakfast spot near my apartment since my stomach was suddenly growling. I’d planned to make me and Jordan’s stupid ass some breakfast, but he’d fucked up our morning. At that point, I wasn’t even in the mood to cook myself anything.
“I just told her I was going to tell on her for talking about my singing, and she started going off, Ma.” I snickered because I could still hear my honey in the background raising hell, probably at my father by.
“Hell, it ain’t like she lied. Baby, I love you to death but you can’t even hum on key. I ain’t never heard of nobody that can’t even hum.”
“Ma, really?” I pulled into a parking spot and sucked my teeth. “We just got a family full of comedians today. Y’all should take your show on the road and be the new Queens of comedy,” I said dryly as I searched for my wallet.
“Don’t be salty, baby. It ain’t cute. Now have you talked to your sister?
I ain’t heard from her since her ass been back in the states, and you know I don’t like that.
For all we know, somebody done chopped her up and got her in their trunk, ready to be buried,” she fussed, going completely off the deep end and reminding me that Essence had just called me.
Pausing my search, I looked at the phone dryly like she could see me.
“Oh, my gosh, Ma! Why does your mind go there of all places? You really need to stop watching Dateline. Essence is fine. In fact, I just missed a call from her.”
“First of all, that’s my show and it keeps me informed so I can keep y’all informed.
If I didn’t worry about y’all, you’d just be walking around oblivious to the dangers in the world, but at least she’s calling you ’cause she’s been dodging our calls like we’re some debt collectors!
I know you’re going to call her back, so you tell her that if she don’t call me, I’m coming over to her house, and she’s gon’ be the one getting her ass whooped. ”
“You not gone touch my baby little girl!” my honey shouted in the background, and I cracked up.
She wasn’t even in the conversation and had been actively yelling at my daddy, but she’d stopped just to insert herself in it.
“Oh, my God, Ma, stop it! Ain’t nobody gon’ do nothing to that girl!” My mama huffed, quickly backpedaling with her scary ass. She may have talked shit, but she knew my granny was the head woman in charge. “Bye, girl. I love you, and don’t forget what I said.”
“Okay, and I love you too,” I was able to call out before she hung up, and I realized I was cheesing hard as hell.
I definitely loved my family, and talking to them quickly reminded me that I had a strong support system behind me.
That’d lifted my mood in under five minutes without even trying.
Feeling a lot better, I finally found my wallet and headed into the restaurant, loving the light breeze outside.
The weather had been funny as hell this spring and has alternated between hot as hell and cold since the start of May.
It was currently the in between weather that wasn’t too hot or cold, and it felt amazing.
Since my plans had changed, I was probably going to come back out after I ate and showered so I could enjoy it. Fuck Jordan!