Chapter 5 Off the Table #2
Silent, Giselle nodded before handing the picture back to her and focusing on her food. It was in that moment that something dawned on her. Same parent. Different stories.
“When was the last time you saw him?” she queried, scooping some potato salad into her mouth next.
“Maybe three years ago,” Gem said after a little thought. “He used to send me gifts for my birthday every year… and holidays, and my mama collects child support.”
“Where is she now?” Giselle picked up a chicken wing and took a bite.
“Who knows? I woke up one morning to a note she left on my pillow in our condo and her bags packed and gone.”
“She just left you?”
Gem shrugged. “I’m used to it. Her being gone. I spent more time alone than anything. I guess that’s why I came here feeling some kind of way about you after hearing Daddy died.”
Daddy. Hearing another girl call her father that was eye opening as hell for Giselle. Studying Gem, it was obvious she was also drowning but putting up a good front.
“I guess I can kind of relate to that.” Giselle chewed thoughtfully.
“I got shipped off to boarding school when I was fourteen. It only lasted a year, but my parents spent a lot of time traveling and doing shit for the greater good if you let them tell it. My mama was the fundraiser queen, a real socialite who had an event to attend every weekend. There were tea parties and debutante balls, all that boring country club shit you see on those soap operas. You didn’t miss much.
I had nannies when I was little, and there was always a housekeeper or chef around to keep me company if they weren’t. ”
“Damn. So, we both grew up alone.” Gem picked at the grass and squinted at the bright sun beaming down on them.
All this time, she thought Giselle was lucky that she got to live with their father, not knowing her time with him was also very limited.
“He was a busy man. Very important. He said he could be busy or we could be broke, but there really wasn’t any kind of in between.”
“Sounds like him,” Gem muttered.
For a minute, she watched Giselle go in on her plate before snickering.
“So, are we like… bonding or something?”
“Ew.” Giselle crinkled her nose. “Hell no. Don’t tell Remi either,” she warned, aiming her fork at her before digging into a pile of spaghetti.
“I thought you grew up with etiquette and all that other bourgeois shit. How you sitting there talking with your mouth full?”
“I’m starving.” Giselle swallowed another bite and picked up a rib.
“My mama hated it. She was always telling me to eat like a lady, but I don’t do bird food, honey.
My food better have had parents. Give me all the cows and chickens and slap some butter or cheese on them, and we good to go,” Giselle jested, sending Gem falling over laughing.
She had no idea she even had a sense of humor with how stuck up she seemed when they first met. Seated next to her on the grass, shoes kicked off, and legs crossed with a plate of barbecue on a five-hundred-dollar jumper, Giselle was about as relaxed as she’d been since arriving in Southwick.
“You like it here?”
“It’s alright.” Gem half-shrugged. “Tight knit. Auntie Remi is cool, and I like Maisie, Lou, and Crew. I don’t have a lot of options with my mama gone. I’m not eighteen yet, and going into the system isn’t appealing.”
“You’ll be fine here.” Giselle bobbed her head. “At least until you decide what you want to do after you graduate. Southwick is small, but it’s a good place to grow up.”
“I can’t believe you have something good to say about it.”
“I can’t guarantee where I’m gonna end up, but when all this legal shit is settled with the estate, I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.
Remi was right. Don’t tell her I said that, either,” Giselle leaned in and whispered.
“You deserve your share as his child, so I’ll make sure a trust is established.
That will give you the freedom to decide what you want to do with your life. ”
“The hell y’all doing over here?” Maisie walked over with a blunt dangling from her lips.
“Hiding from yo’ mama.” Giselle took a bite of her tender rib.
“Oh, she the one that sent me looking for you. Gem, she wants you to help her with something for them kids.”
“I swear she acts like I’m her little personal assistant.” Gem huffed as she brought herself to her feet.
“Get used to it!” Giselle called after her, focusing on finishing her plate, so she could drink some more.
Muttering to herself, Gem stomped off, and Maisie took another puff of the blunt before squinting at her cousin.
“What was that about?”
“Just… talking to my sister,” Giselle replied.
“Oh, really? Well, walk to the parking lot with me so I can load up, and we can finish smoking this blunt.”
“Load up? The hell you talking about?” Giselle’s face balled up in confusion.
“The annual water gun fight, girl.”
“Maisie, you old as fuck…”
“Excuse me?” Her cousin reared her neck.
Giselle snickered and nearly spit out her food in the process.
“You know what I mean.”
“Nah, ’cause I ain’t never too old to whup your ass, Giselle! Now, come on. Last year, Crew got all the kids on his team, and they won. I was proactive this year. I already got my squad together, and Gem is mine too. I got all kinds of guns and water balloons loaded up in the trunk.”
“I am not participating in this.” Giselle waved her hand.
“You are, and you on my team too. Now, come on. Crew is over there talking to his boys, so he distracted and he’s been drinking.”
“Hell, I want to keep drinking too!” Giselle hissed, gathering her shoes and standing up beside Maisie.
She kept smashing her plate as they strutted across the lawn onto the pavement of the parking lot across the street, on the corner of where the block was sealed off.
There were a few teenagers hanging out on cars and front porch stoops, listening to music and laughing all carefree and shit.
By the time they reached Maisie’s car, the only thing left on Giselle’s plate was the bones to her chicken and ribs.
She tossed it into a nearby trash can and met up with her cousin at the trunk of her whip.
She passed her the blunt, and Giselle pinched it between her fingers before drawing it to her lips.
Maisie wasn’t lying when she said she came prepared. There was a tote full of water balloons, and another with nothing but water guns of all sizes. There were even some of those old ass super soakers they had growing up.
“Oh, my God, Mais. You are ready for war!”
“Damn right!” She grinned and picked up one of the water guns. “Choose your weapon. We’re going to fill this tote with water to make it easier to refill. I think we need to set up our camp over there by old man Jefferson’s house. His water faucet is on the side, and he never puts his hose up.”
“Girl, you gave this too much thought.” Giselle exhaled a small cloud and took another toke.
Maisie leaned against the bumper of her car, took off the Dior slides she’d been wearing, slipped into Crocs, and threw them in sports mode.
“You should have seen him last year. He had me drenched! I was walking around looking like a little rat, and he thought that shit was so fucking funny. I even slipped in one of the kiddie pools and busted my ass! One of my titties popped out of my bikini top, too!”
Giselle fell over, laughing and choking on weed smoke as Maisie relived her horrific experience. Her heart shaped face was all scrunched up as her perfect brows knitted together in frustration.
“It’s not funny!” she shrieked. “I vowed to get his ass back this year.”
“Oh, my God! I wish I would have been here to see it.” Giselle slapped her thigh and continued to laugh until her cheeks and stomach ached.
“You here now, and I’ma get his ass this time. Watch. Come on. Help me walk this shit down the street.”
“The balloons gotta be heavier. Let’s take those first and give me those slides.” She tossed her heels in the trunk and took Maisie’s shoes from her.
Gripping one side of the tote each, they carried it out of her trunk and across the parking lot. Lou was with some of her friends, heading their way.
“Where y’all going?”
“To our headquarters. Go get the guns.” Maisie nodded over her shoulder.
“Aw, shit! Time for war!” Lou rubbed her hands together with a devious grin.
“Shit, these things are heavy,” Giselle complained as she and Maisie waddled across the parking lot and down the street to Old Man Jefferson’s house.
“The hell you doing?” Heavy’s husky voice stopped them in their tracks.
“That depends on whose side you’re on.” Maisie narrowed her eyes at him.
“The fuck you talking about, Mais?”
“The water wars, Heavy!”
“I ain’t fucking with you and Crew this year, man. Y’all got it.” He held his hands up in surrender.
“Punk,” Maisie mocked.
“See, that’s why you be getting fucked up.” He wagged his finger at her. “Always talking shit.”
“Whatever. If you ain’t on the team, then you in the way. Move.” She pitched her head to the side to emphasize her point.
“You wild.” Heavy’s eyes wandered to a quiet Giselle, still standing there holding the tote with both hands. “You participating in this, princess?”
“I am merely a helping hand,” she answered, simpering sexily.
“Long as you know what you getting into. These two get competitive as hell.”
“She knows. Now, can you please get out of our way, so we can prep?” Maisie gritted her teeth.
Heavy chuckled and stepped aside, but not before his eyes lingered over Giselle a little longer and vice versa.
She was the equivalent to a magnet, and every time he looked up today, it was to lay eyes on her.
Everything about her captivated him, even the little shit she did like brush her hand against the back of her head to make sure her hair was still in place, holding up her high ponytail. Another reason to smoke.