11. Marcel
Ijumped up from my sleep sweating bullets. The dream I just had caused me to trip. Duke was standing over me with a gun pointed at my head while Koi stood off to the side, arms folded with a smile of satisfaction plastered on her face.
“Fuck,” I mumbled, wiping the sweat from my brows.
Today I planned to stop by the hospital to see Rika, but after that dream, I was contemplating if that was the right move.
She had yet to see the baby since she woke up, and it was only right I allow her to see him.
Even if she couldn’t hold him, but the thought of Koi finding out had put me in a fucked up position.
I was trying to win my woman back. Not make her hate me more.
She already had her family and friend in her ear, so I could only imagine the chip she now had on her shoulder.
Our last conversation didn’t go as planned, and from the looks of things, I was digging myself into a deeper hole.
Then to make matters worse, she had met that old nigga.
I didn’t know shit about him, but I was about to tell one of my old bitches to go and find some dirt on him for me. That was the least they could do.
Something about him needed to come to light, so I could shift her focus. There was no way I was gonna let this muthafucka live happily ever after with my woman. Over my dead body.
I lounged around for a few minutes more, being lazy, since I dropped the baby off to Belinda when I got to New York.
I had some time to kick back and get a break.
At first, she was against taking him because she claimed she wanted to go sit in the hospital, but I nipped that shit in the bud and fast. Her and her trifling daughter were not about to be the end of me losing my woman.
Rika stupid ass wanted to keep the baby, cool.
I’ll take care of him, but we are not a family, and that shit needed to be known.
“Yo Brodie,” I said into the phone. Taj was on the other end telling me some shit that I didn’t care about until he mentioned Koi. “What you said?”
“I said Dee Dee was talking to Koi on her way to work and not for nothing my nigga, I could tell she was smiling. So the nigga you mentioned, yea.” That’s all he said.
The thought of Koi opening her legs to a muthafucka she met about a week ago had me holding on to the bathroom sink for stability.
My woman was not like that, and the idea of her picking up her hoe phase in her thirties had me worried.
“What else she say? Ima needs you to come run down on him with me.”
“Do I look like I’m twenty five? Nigga, I did that shit years ago. I’m a married nigga now. You can count me outta that shit,” he huffed. “Besides, as close as Dee Dee and Koi are, I’d be put in the doghouse behind that shit. No sir,” he barked.
“Wow, so it’s fuck me. Ya friend?”
“Nigga, I done told you about ya lose dick. Now I’ll be here to hear you out, but I ain’t putting myself in the middle of that shit.”
“Bet.” I hung up. Taj could kiss my ass. He and Bear were on some weird shit. I had yet to deal with Rika, so the fact that they were bailing on me before shit had fully hit the fan, I was tapped out.
At a time like this, I needed my niggas to have my back and at least put me on game. The streets were now talking, and Koi was the topic of every conversation in the hood.
Instead of them focusing on Rika’s recovery, they wanted to post up that I had a kid with her. And yea, I knew I did have the kid, but that whole shit was bogus. I was trapped, and that’s what Koi needed to know and believe.
I got dressed, grabbed my essentials for outside before leaving the condo.
Koi’s location on her iPad still showed that she was at the hotel.
Annoyed with the idea of her spending money on a hotel when we had a two bedroom condo, I had to face the fear that the dude she was with may be in her room, too.
Where he came from, I didn’t know, but if a woman scorn was a deadly trait, then they were about to witness a nigga that was fucked up and fucked over.
“It’s about time you decided to pop up.” Belinda held the car seat with my son inside. Her and Koi’s mother stood outside of Rika’s room. All the years I’ve dealt with Koi, I never saw this look on her mother’s face. She didn’t speak as she turned away, giving me a mean mug.
“Hey ma,” I tried my luck, calling her what I usually did.
“You lost that privilege when you fucked over my daughter. Keep it cute and focus on your family.” She put emphasis on the word your.
“I fuck up once, and now everyone is against me?”
“Once? Boy bye, you’ve been fucking up since I met you.
” Koi walked up to her mother. “I just wanted to see if the hoe made it in person.” Her lip twisted in disgust as she dipped her head in the room for a second before turning around.
“Yea, she’s alive, and karma got something for her and your ass. ” She pointed to me.
“I’m coming with you. My time here is done.” Her mother latched onto her arm.
“Koi, can I speak to you? I want to have a real conversation.”
“Go take the tube out the bitch mouth and have a conversation. You better hurry before she tries to stuff your dick back down her throat, trying to one up me yet again.”
Belinda’s mouth dropped open as she gasped. We all looked on at her dramatics as if she didn’t know what type of daughter she had. Rika had always been a problem. This wasn’t her first, and it probably wouldn’t be her last stunt.
“You got five minutes, Marcel. I don’t have all day to hear you whine.
” She snapped her fingers. Koi was definitely feeling herself.
In the past, she wouldn’t think to act this disrespectful towards me, but now that I was exposed and in the doghouse.
She felt the need to talk to me as if I was some next nigga.
I’d give her the grace she needed now, but she was gonna soon stop all the acting out.
Checking in on Rika could wait. Her mother was already there, so it made no sense for both of us to be crowded in the room. And if her ass wasn’t awake, I wasn’t staying. I had some questions to ask her, and that was it.
“You can stop bopping like you just won ya’ girl back cus I’m sure what she is about to tell you is not gonna be funny.”
Koi’s mother was getting under my skin. I wanted to spazz on her, but I had too much respect and saw her as second mom, but her mouth was getting on my nerves.
I nodded my head and kept it pushing. By the time I got outside, Koi was typing away on her phone.
She had sped up, and after snatching her phone out of her hand, I could see what she was rushing for.
“You really gonna text the nigga while I’m right here?”
She snapped her neck, raising her brows. “Oh, was I supposed to wait or respect you? Now give me my phone back before I call them officers over here.”
“Wow. It’s really like that?”
“Marcel, you made it like that. Now hurry up because I don’t have all day to entertain you and your nonsense.”
“Bet.” I ran my hand down my face. “What is it gonna take for us to work? I fucked up, I get that shit. I hurt you, Koi, but I didn’t mean for that to happen. I was drunk, and shit just went left.”
“And you expect me to believe that? You never even told me. You tried to sweep it under the rug, but since there is a baby, you had to come clean.” She shook her head. “I can take a lot of shit, but my cousin! My cousin?” Her voice rose an octave. “Of any chick, you chose her.”
“I didn’t choose her, Koi. You think I would deliberately fuck her? C’mon now.”
“I think you will stick your dick in any willing participant.”
“I will not.” I reached for her forearm. Koi moved back as if I was a stranger. “Do you need time? Will therapy help? What can I do?”
“Right about now, Marcel, you can leave me alone. I can’t stand the sight of you.
Deep down inside, I hate you. You once were someone I loved and thought I could spend the rest of my life with, but now, no.
” She folded her arms over her chest. Her feelings were valid, but I wasn’t trying to hear that shit.
The more she spoke, the more I realized she was slowly slipping away, and I refused to lose her.
“You can have the condo. I just want to stop fighting with you.”
“I don’t want that condo. I have my own place.” She rolled her eyes. “Goodbye, Marcel.”
I watched her walk away with an extra pep in her step. Koi had that I just got fucked good walk. My jaw clenched when I thought about her being fucked. Shit was wicked, but now I saw how she felt.
I looked at her annoyed as fuck. My dick was hard, and my mind continued to replay the last conversation I had with Koi.
The fuck she meant by she had her own place?
That wasn't what I expected. She went from hurt to leveling up quickly, all the while Rika was still lying up in a coma, not even knowing the drama she had caused.
I looked down at the rise in my boxers, sucked my teeth, and got up.
Rika needed to get well so she could tell her cousin exactly what happened.
Koi wasn’t believing shit I had to say, but I couldn’t blame her.
My track record wasn’t the best, yet I needed her to have a little more faith in me.
Rika wasn’t someone I willingly was lying down with.
She had to know and feel that deep down inside. I was crazy, but I wasn’t slime.
“Yo,” I answered my phone when I saw Belinda’s name pop up on my phone.
“You are just a rude muthafucka, anyway can come back in the hospital? I can’t stay.”
“Yea whatever.” I wanted to get her off the line and out of my sight.
It was the weekend, and I didn’t want to spend my day at the hospital, but a quick check-in to make sure Rika was good was gonna have to do.
She was lucky I had a heart. Rika was up but she was still in and out of it.
Part of me felt like she was milking it, but I didn’t need my karma to come bite me in the ass more than it already was.
“Why you always doing that?” She tried to question me.