Chapter 3 #2
Her keys kept cutting back and forth between the flyer, and Brooklyn. I already knew what the answer was going to be. Let’s just say that it wasn’t looking too good for Brooklyn.
“Can you cut the cameras please?” Toni asked the field producer, and another one of his crew members that was in the room with him.
We had that shit put in our contact. Any time that we wanted to have a conversation that we didn’t want to get put out into the public, we had the right to make them stop filming, so they honored that.
They quickly stopped filming, and they let Toni and I know that they would go downstairs and wait for us.
It wasn’t until they were out of the room that Toni answered Brooklyn’s question.
“Did you see this flyer? Girl, this looks like some shit that I would get invited to. Ya’ll are minors.
Why does the flyer have stripper poles, bottles, and hookah on it?
Why would you even ask me if you could go to that?
You know the answer is no. And Audrey? Isn’t this the girl that just got suspended from school last month because she was caught having ‘you know what’ in the bathroom with her boyfriend?
Girl, hell no,” Toni snapped, using the comb to make another part in Zayne’s hair.
Zayne was so locked in with his game, that he probably wasn’t paying the conversation any attention. Even with that, Toni still made sure to say ‘you know what’ when she was referring to sex.
“Auntie, she not going to have any of that stuff there. The theme is just Miami club, that’s why its stripper poles, hookahs, and bottles. None of that stuff is going to be there. Her mama and aunties are going to be there to chaperone—”
“You say that like her mama, and aunties are any better. Her mama condones half the stuff that Audrey does. Don’t even try to make this a situation where I’m being too strict.
I’ve let you go to about 5 or 6 parties so far.
This is only the second one that I’m turning down.
I turned down the first one because they were talking about going out of town for a sleepover, and you barely knew that girl to be staying the night with her.
I’m turning down this one because that shit is too mature, and I don’t like the message, or the birthday girl.
No!” I already knew Toni’s answer was final, but Brooklyn still turned her head, so that she could look at me.
“Steel. Come on. Can you help me? Talk to herrrrr,” she whined.
I laughed, hating when Brooklyn would put a nigga in the hot seat.
I wasn’t the kind of partner that overruled my lady, either.
I didn’t back door Toni when it came to the kids.
Now, there were times when I would try to sway Toni to see my perspective, or if it was one of those situations where I felt like she was being too tough, I’d play the devil’s advocate, and do what I needed to do to calm her down, but I wasn’t the type to say yes to some shit if Toni already said no.
It didn’t matter if it was Brooklyn, or Zayne. That’s just the way I moved.
“Your auntie right, Brook. You probably not trying to hear that shit, but she’s right.
You only seventeen. I can see the flyer on that phone from over here, and that shit looks like an invite for adults.
You don’t need to be around an environment that’s promoting that kind of shit.
Why her flyer gotta have hookah, stripper poles, and bottles on it?
Trust me, you not going to be the only kid that’s gotta sit this party out.
Other parents going to tell their kids that they can’t go either,” I let her know, and she groaned, and she went over to the wall that was in the room, threw her body against it, falling to the floor like it was the worst thing in the world that she wouldn’t be able to go to the party.
Toni was used to Brooklyn’s shit by now, so she ignored her, as she finished with Zayne’s hair.
“When Zayne turns eighteen, I want to see you two keep this same energy. When he gets invited to all kinds of parties, with flyers like the one that I just showed you, I would love to see ya’ll tell him no the same way that ya’ll told me,” Brooklyn whined.
“My energy is going to be the same, love. If Zaylani asks, I’ll tell her ass the same thing.
I hate it when you try to pull that card and think that Zayne will get treated any differently because he’s a boy, when you know that’s not true.
Any parent or guardian with a damn brain would not allow their minor child to go to a party that’s promoting that kind of shit.
Where is the confusion in that, Brooklyn?
” Toni stopped doing Zayne’s hair for a second, so that she could fully focus her attention on Brooklyn.
Brooklyn wasn’t trying to hear shit that her auntie was saying though. Her ass was laid out on the floor, damn near about to crash out, acting as if Toni told her that she couldn’t go to Beyoncé’s party or some shit.
“Why you worried about going to that weak ass party anyways? Our wedding coming up. That’s about to be the littest party of the century,” I said, just trying to make light of the situation, and get Brooklyn to laugh. That shit didn’t help at all though.
“Brooklyn, get up off that floor. One day when you’re an adult and your married with kids, and you have your teenaged daughter coming to you, asking you about going to the kind of party that you’re asking me to go to, you’ll get it then.
When Temperance calls you in the morning, you make sure you tell her about the invitation and let me know what she tells you.
She’s going to tell your ass no too!” Toni snapped at her.
Brooklyn continued to lay on the floor for about another minute or two, and then she eventually got up, and she left out of the room. If she had the balls, I just knew that her ass would have slammed the door. She knew that her auntie would tackle her for doing it, so she didn’t.
“You can tell them that we’re done with filming for today. She just blew me, and I know my vibe is going to be thrown off if we continue to film,” Toni looked over at me to say.
I was cool with that because I knew that once she finished with Zayne’s hair, there wouldn’t be nothing going on over here that was entertaining enough for the crew to want to finish shooting.
I left out of the room, so that I could go downstairs, and when I found the crew, they were already wrapping up, telling me that they’d gotten enough footage for the day, and that they would be back in a couple of days, so it worked out perfectly.
I stayed down long enough, watching them as they packed up, and once they were out the door, I locked up, and went back in the bedroom.
I took a seat on the bed and Toni had her back turned to me, so her ass was facing my direction. Just out of habit, I used both hands to rub on her ass, and a couple of minutes into me doing that, my phone started ringing on the bed. I looked down at the caller, seeing that it was Ivory hitting me.
Ivory was Sapphire’s older sister. She was inconsistent as fuck when it came to her role in Zayne’s life.
I’ll never forget the way her ass looked me in my eyes at Sapphire’s funeral, telling me that she was going to be in Zayne’s life, help whenever it was needed, and just do for my son what she knew her sister would have wanted her to do.
Her ass didn’t do any of that shit. She came around whenever she felt like it.
The last time Zayne saw Ivory was back in December.
It was a couple of days after Christmas.
We met up with her at an arcade, where she spent a little time with him, and Zayne was standoffish with her damn near the whole time because he didn’t have much of a relationship with her, so technically, her ass was like a stranger to him.
“Yo,” I answered the phone for her, putting the phone to my ear.
By this point, my hands were no longer rubbing on Toni. My eyes were still glued to her though.
“Hi brother. What you doing?” she inquired.
“I’m chilling. At the crib. What’s going on?” I wanted to know.
“Okay. I just landed in Miami about twenty minutes ago. I’m only here for a couple of days, but I’m here on business. Can I swing by to see Zayne really fast? I got him some things too,” she responded.
A couple of things that she said to me stood out.
One, I’ve never known Ivory to be the kind of person to work, so the business that she was here on was very fuckin questionable.
Secondly, Ivory has been over before in the past to see Zayne, but she’s never been over here while I was with Toni.
That would be a first. Toni already made it clear to me before that she didn’t care for Ivory.
“Why every time you come to Miami, you tell me that shit at the last minute? You move as if a nigga is supposed to be on your time. Why you never let me know in advance when you’re going to be here, so that I can make the proper accommodations for Zayne to see you?
Literally, the last couple of times that you’ve seen him, you hit me with that shit the same day,” I said to her, and Toni turned her head, and she gave me a questioning look, wondering who I was talking to.
“Zion, I just found out this morning that I had to come to Miami. I was trying to get shit in order, so I forgot to call or text you. I apologize for that. I’m going to work on it.
Can I please come see my nephew though? I picked up some things for him a while back, and I brought them with me.
I won’t be long. I’ll stay for a few minutes, and go,” she said.
“Hold on,” I said, muting the phone.
“T, this Ivory. She wants to come and see Zayne. I ain’t want to tell her to come without running the shit by you and seeing how you felt about it. It’s cool if she come see him?” I asked, just doing that shit out of respect.
“Zion, you know I don’t care if she comes to see her nephew. I’ll just stay upstairs,” she let me know.