13. Josias
THIRTEEN
josias
COUPLE WEEKS LATER . . .
Hopping out my whip, I checked the time on my Rolex to see if Divine was awake yet. She napped at the same time every day and for the same amount of time while with her mother.
I wasn’t sure how the fuck Kasia was able to achieve that, but I had to chuck it up to her being a fucking super mom because when I got Divine’s bad ass over to my spot, I was lucky if she went to sleep by midnight.
She was on gang shit when with me, no naps, no real food, and no sleep until the next day.
Shaking my head with a chuckle, I rang the doorbell. Kasia came to let me in shortly after.
“She’ll be up in about five minutes,” she told me.
“Aight.” I shut the door behind myself, watching Kasia wipe down the bar counter in a dress that looked painted the fuck on. “How you doing?” I went to sit on the couch.
“Been doing pretty well actually. How about you?”
“I been straight.” I eyed her. “I miss you.”
“Oh, okay.” She ventured deeper into the kitchen, seemingly to end any type of conversation we were having.
Expelling a dejected breath, I scoured the living room visually before my eyes landed on an empty root beer can in the cupholder of the couch adjacent to me.
Frowning, I picked the shit up and inspected the Barq’s branded can as if I’d never seen the shit. I tried but failed in under two seconds to keep my fucking cool but was up off my ass almost immediately and in the kitchen where Kasia was cleaning out the fridge.
“Who had this?” I held the can up, causing Kasia to straighten herself up, mouth ajar.
The issue was, Kasia only drank Sprite and Starry whenever she indulged in soda, having an aversion to dark soda for as long as I’d known her ass.
No matter how good or limited edition the shit was, she wouldn’t touch it due to its color.
So seeing this very much dark ass root beer sitting in her fucking cupholder had a nigga’s mind conjuring up all kinds of shit.
“Oh, that’s trash.” She tried to ignore my question, reaching for the can, but I held the shit up and out of her reach, making her suck her teeth.
“What nigga you had over here, Kasia?” I was seething by this point, lowering my arm and allowing her to grab onto the can to rinse out and toss into her recycling bin.
“Why couldn’t it have been a friend, Josias?” She turned to me, hands clutching the edge of the sink as she eyed me.
“You don’t have fucking friends no more. Closest you got is Daylin, and she been up under my brother too much to have come over here to kick the shit. Don’t play with me.” I was getting heated the more she danced around the fucking question.
Expelling a breath, she replied, “Yeah, I had some male company, if you must fucking know. It’s truly none of your business though.” She folded her arms as if she were tough or some shit.
Hopping in her fucking face and making her tilt her head back to look up at me, I shouted, “I know damn well you ain’t had another nigga in here while I pay yo’ fucking bills!”
“You offered to pay! I can pay the shit my fucking self if you think you’re gonna be dictating who the fuck I bring into my home!” she shot back, causing me to take a few breaths to calm down so I wouldn’t knock her fucking head off.
I wasn’t my father.
This was the shit I couldn’t stand about Kasia.
She stayed hollering about how she didn’t need me.
Tarin wasn’t like that. She didn’t have many positive traits, but one thing I could say was Tarin made a nigga feel wanted.
Everything with Kasia was like walking on eggshells.
A nigga could never fully settle and relax in her presence, because I always had to put on a fucking show or else.
“You can’t date. You my baby mama.” I shrugged, voicing my true feelings.
Kasia laughed.
“I will do what I want to do, Jojo, even if it literally costs me and I have to pay all my own bills.”
Scoffing, I paced a little bit, fired up and failing at trying to calm my-fucking-self down.
“How the fuck you diss me but go out and get a whole nother nigga?” I snapped, gesticulating because I was so up in fucking arms.
“I didn’t diss you! You lied to me and purposefully played me, even though I told your ass I would be done if you lied again!
You couldn’t leave Tarin alone, so I’m leaving your ass alone.
” She shook her head, visibly upset. “You swore you weren’t fucking with her knowing the whole time that you were!
” Her eyes misted over, and when I made a move toward her, she threw her hand up to halt any comforting or consoling a nigga had planned on doing.
“So what was last week?” I questioned, referencing to us having sex.
“You caught me at a bad time, and I felt bad for you seeing you cry over Zaire. But it was nothing.”
Damn.
“Fuck it. You wanna date a nigga, then I’m gon’ kill him.” I shrugged, staring Kasia down so that she knew I was deadass.
“You better not!”
“Just like I can’t tell you what to do, baby, you can’t tell me what the fuck to do either.” I smirked, seeing the distress in her pretty chocolate face.
“You just need to focus on Divine, JJ, and Julianna. Shit, focus on who Tarin is dating or whatever other bitch you have, but leave me alone, Josias.”
“Nah. I’m gon’ do both. Kill yo’ nigga and worry ’bout my kids.” I stalked out the kitchen and went to scoop my daughter up carefully since she hadn’t woken up yet.
“Josias . . .” Kasia called out to me as I bypassed her, baby girl in my arms.
“Enjoy that nigga while he still alive ’cause I promise you when I find out who he is, he dead.” I spoke with my back to Kasia as I left her house, heading straight to my whip to buckle my daughter in while ignoring her mama’s ranting.
Kasia knew me and knew it was nothing for me to body whatever nigga she was messing around with, so I hoped she took heed to my threat and stopped engaging with the nigga, for his sake.
* * *
DAYS LATER . . .
“And why do you need a babysitter?” Shardaya, my cousin’s wife, asked as she held Divine’s hand. “My own damn kid ain’t even here. He in class.”
“It’s just for a couple of hours, aight?” I shook my head then pinned my attention on my baby girl, smiling. “Daddy will be back, and then we gon’ go to the movies, okay?”
“Yay!” Divine shrieked, making Shardaya laugh at the interaction.
“You be careful, Jojo,” she called out to me as I swaggered off to my vehicle.
Speeding off, I headed straight to Kasia’s house. I’d had one of my little niggas keeping watch on her, and while out at the toy store with my baby girl, he hit me to say Kasia had just brought some nigga over.
I had to quickly drop my kid to Shardaya who was usually always down to babysit but would take the opportunity to be nosy whenever she did the shit for you. In this moment, I didn’t even care because I had to act quickly.
Pulling up, I spotted an unfamiliar Land Cruiser in her driveway, so I parked my truck right behind it to block that bitch in. Climbing out, I trod over the grass and up the porch, using the new key I’d had made, unbeknownst to Kasia.
Typically, I respected Kasia’s boundaries and rang the doorbell or knocked, but not this fucking time. And sure enough, as soon as I stepped inside, some bitch ass nigga was seated on the couch, a glass of wine in front of him like the moist ass nigga that he was.
“Fuck you doing in my crib?” I queried. “Close ya mouth, bitch,” I added, seeing his jaw drop in surprise.
“Oh my gosh!” Kasia rushed out from the kitchen. “Josias, go! How the fuck did you even get in!” She shoved me, but I didn’t move an inch.
“Oh, you must be the baby daddy.” Old boy had the nerve to chuckle.
“What’s that supposed to mean, nigga?” I tried to step up, but Kasia got in the way. “Who you supposed to be? The shoulder she cry on? ’Cause she never gon’ fuck with you for real.” It was my turn to laugh, especially seeing the quizzical look on his face.
“Look . . .” He rose from his seat. “She clearly wants you to leave, my nigga, so just go.” He exhaled as if I was intruding on his fucking time.
“Yeah, she wants me to leave ’cause she fronting for you. She ain’t tell you I was just in that pussy last week, huh?” I grinned, seeing his eyes dart to Kasia who was shaking her head ‘no’.
And after I fucked, putting her to sleep, I went to Home Depot to copy her fucking key.
“Shut the fuck up and go, Josias!” She pushed me again, and because it was unexpected, I lost a little bit of my balance.
Picking Kasia up, I moved her out of the way and decked old boy between the eyes.
He was too floored to hit me back right away, so I kept giving it to his ass until he snapped out of the shock, hitting me in the jaw.
He got a few licks in, but ultimately, he was no match, getting dropped right in front of his new boo.
“Thought shit was a game, huh?” I kicked his ass in the stomach, causing him to draw up as he laid on the floor, leaking.
“Stop before I call the police, Josias! I am serious!” Kasia broke through the red I was seeing as I continued to stomp this nigga out, wanting to see the imprint from the bottom of my shoe on his fucking face.
“Oh my gosh!” She screeched, tugging on me.
“I swear I will fucking call! Stop! You are going to kill him!”
Out of breath, I stepped back, snatching my arm from her.
When she dropped beside him calling his name and checking to see if he was conscious, that shit pissed me off.
“Get away from that nigga acting like you love him or some shit!” I roared.
Looking over her shoulder at me, she asked, “Where is Divine? Why are you over here causing problems for me!”
“Like you fucking care where she at! All you worried about is dick, bitch!” I yanked the door open, leaving that shit ajar as I made my way to my whip, hopped in, and sped off.