26. Wyn
Wyn
My butt starts vibrating, waking me up from my second attempt at sleeping. Rico forgot to mention that he took some type of prescription-strength painkiller, and became very loopy after his shower.
I wouldn’t have minded, if his version of loopy was erotic.
No.
Rico found the movie channels on the hotel television, and spent hours talking through each movie. One of them was my favorite as a kid. He talked right through it. When he finally had to leave to be home when Mars woke up, I locked myself in my bedroom and buried myself under the covers.
Now, digging my phone off my butt, I see I’ve only been asleep for…
Forty-five minutes.
I don’t recognize the number facetiming me, but that doesn’t mean anything. Everyone’s always getting new numbers, especially Grimey. So without thinking, I answer the call and hold the phone to my face.
But it’s no one from my label. And I scoff at the gray eyes holding so much hate even on the grainy feed.
“Yeah, wake yo ass up. We need to talk,” he rasps.
“If you’re gonna yell at me or be disrespectful, I’m hanging up right now.”
Set brings a fat ass blunt to his mouth, before he thinks better of it and sets it down offscreen. Instead, he leans forward, frown pulling his face more and more by the second.
“I’m not finna yell, nor am I gon’ be disrespectful, as long as you're honest with me.”
“Can you handle the truth?” I counter. Sitting up all the way, I place my phone in my lap and wipe the sleep out of my eyes. “Any time you hear something you don’t like, you go off the deep end. I’ll be honest, if you can handle it.”
“Man, kill all that. Just be straight up with me. Rico’s your abortion baby daddy huh? The nigga that fucked you over so bad in high school that you swore off anything too deep?”
I pick up my phone and hold it so my face is in the camera. This is it. This is what loving Rico this time means.
Claiming him.
“Yeah,” I sigh.
I can tell Set didn’t think I’d admit it, because the anger drops from his face, just for a second. Then it’s back tenfold.
“Wow,” he chuckles angrily. “You fucked with my day one nigga and then homie hopped to me like it was nothing.”
“It was nothing–”
“That nigga wanna kill me, Wynter!” Set yells over me.
“Bro, did you fuckin’ hear that nigga yesterday?
! Not only does he blame me for Fredo, but that nigga got so much animosity over us fucking around.
Niggas kill behind that shit, and you know that!
You know that… and you still fucked with me anyway.
And the sickest part is, you told me about this nigga, Wyn.
You told me about your first boyfriend, how he was a gangmember, and cheated, and burned you, got you pregnant.
You told me all that shit. And when I asked who. What you tell me?”
I wince at the hurt building from his tirade.
“You told me the nigga was dead,” he continues. When I don’t answer right away, he wipes his face from his durag to his chin hair.
“Who else knew?”
I blink. “Uh–”
“Who else knew about this shit? Shad? Fredo?”
“It doesn’t matter who else knew, and he was dead to me, Set. I wasn’t trying–”
“Bullshit, Wyn. I sat up, all night, going over every fuckin’ detail when we was fucking.
Every time that nigga was finna come back or was in the city, you tweaked out.
Every single time. You absolutely was using me for getback, bro.
If we was still fucking when Fredo died, he woulda killed me. My day one…”
Set drops his head between his shoulders and sighs. I run my hand through my dry curls, and look around the room like that will give me answers.
“I’m sorry, Set.”
“Sorry,” he repeats, chuckling mirthlessly.
“I am,” I stress. “At first, I was hurt. I thought I didn’t matter to him, because I knew if he’d told you, you wouldn’t have gotten at me. So I did entertain you. But I wasn’t just outright using you… You have to know how much your friendship means to me.”
“I don’t mean shit to yo ass, bro.”
“Casey–”
“Nah.” He lifts his head, and his blank face sparks terror in my belly.
“Don’t ever in yo fuckin’ life call me that.
You know, I always felt bad that I never fucked with you on that level.
I felt like I played with your feelings, but now I see the real.
All my niggas was right about you; I shoulda never even took it there witchu.
You and Rico prolly had a good laugh about this, but you should know by now how I do muthafuckas who think they can get over on me. Stay dangerous, Wyn. You and yo nigga.”
I don’t get a word in before he clicks in my face.
That felt… ominous. Just a day ago, I would laugh at the notion of me being on Set’s bad side. I would laugh at Set having a bad side.
Now… now I’m opening a text thread with Brina. Damn right I’m snitching!
She takes a second to answer, but as soon as she does, my thumbs are flying across the keyboard.
Me
U up?
Brina
Barely…
Just a heads up. Ur husband is going to kill me. Me and my man. Big ask, but can u talk him down? Put it on him? I’ll owe u
Brina calls me immediately, just as heavy knocks sound off on the front door.
“Why is everyone up so early,” I groan, answering the phone. “I want to text so it’s documented–”
“Casey isn’t going to kill you. Even if you deserve it. Why the hell did you not tell anyone you had history with Rico?!”
Rolling over, I slide off the bed and amble over to my bag for some sweats. “Look; he was my first boyfriend. How was I supposed to know we’d reconnect?! I had no reason to ever bring up my past, Brina. It was a moot point until–”
“Until you fucked him again.” Brina sighs, and I put her on speaker to throw on a hoodie.
“I mean… I get it. But you gotta look at it from his side. This is exactly why–”
“Yes, Sabrina, I know. This is why you don’t fuck friends. Please; a condition of our friendship is to not bring up the fact that we are Eskimo sisters. You said that, not me.”
“Well, your sexual history is a hot topic right now,” she snaps. “Believe me, hearing my nigga question another nigga about another woman is not something I ever wanna hear again. I threw three pumps at his head while packing a go bag last night.”
“You have to know it’s purely male ego shit, right? Set and I–”
“I know,” she breathes. Unlocking my bedroom door, I go to the kitchenette to pour some water as more knocks sound off.
“I’m not obtuse, Wyn. We are the more evolved gender for a reason. Last night was… a lot. A lot of info was thrown from all sides. Look–I’ll talk to Case. You know he likes to be petty, but he’ll listen to me once he calms down. And I’m sure once everyone meets Mars, it’ll all blow over…”
I stop at the door and peek into the peephole, eyeing Shad and YT.
“What are you not saying?” I ask, opening the door for them. YT is dressed down, which means it’s not a good day. Shad rushes past me to inspect the suite like he’s ready to drag someone out and beat them silly.
“Was what you said to Autumn true? About your parents?”
Closing the door behind them, I rest my back on it. “Why would I lie about that?”
“Why haven’t you said anything before now?”
I roll my eyes like she can see me. Brina and I have made great strides to be friends once she found out I wasn’t checking for Set. However, sometimes, like now, I’m reminded that she will always be Auty’s friend first.
Like everyone else.
“Why should I have had to say anything, Brina? Auty and I grew up in the same house, and even shared the same room for years. She’s a smart girl; a whole RN.
Why couldn’t she connect the dots on why we were able to get away with so much stuff?
Why, for months at a time, our parents were nowhere to be found?
Why I was giving her lunch money, paying for her dance classes, her hair to be done, her phone bill?
Instead of that envy in her heart thinking it’s because I had it like that, why couldn’t she look deeper into why, at fourteen, we had so much autonomy?
I could have told her back then. To be honest, I should have.
But the more I think about it, the more I realize that Auty chooses what she wants to see, even back then.
Even if Pops sat her down and told her I gave him her downpayment on her apartment, or Turkey told her I’m the one who gave him money to go to the auction to get their first cars, she wouldn’t even believe me. Like you don’t believe me now.
“When you talk to her today, and you tell her what I said, make sure you really listen to her replies, and you ask yourself again why I never said anything. Shad and YT are here; I’ll hit you later.”
“Okay, Wyn,” she says, sympathy drowning in her voice.
Hanging up my phone, I look up to see Shad and YT also looking at me with pity etched on their faces.
A dull ache spreads on the side of my head and I close my eyes.
“If you want me to stay sober, stop looking at me like that.”
“Oh, Wyn,” YT whines, rushing up to me. She grabs my hands and pulls me to the couch, making me sit down. “How are you? Really? I’d never seen Autumn that angry! Do you want me to talk some sense into her?” YT’s bottom lip wobbles as her thumbs massage the tops of my hands.
Shad sits in the adjacent armchair, laptop in his lap. “That’s not even one of the worst fights, YT. They’ll be back cool in a week.”
YT’s face scrunches, before she turns back to me. “Sisters shouldn’t speak to one another like that, Wyn,” she whispers. “I would cut out my own tongue if I ever spoke to Baby Girl that way! And sew her lips together if she ever called me a bitch!”
“Believe it or not, that was the first time I ever said anything back,” I chuckle, but she doesn’t laugh with me, and I feel even more pathetic.
Shad clears his throat. He knows Auty is a sore subject for me, especially after one of our blowouts.
“Before we begin discussing venues for your show, I have a few things to say.”
Knowing I won’t survive both of the Washington brothers being beefed out with me, I give him the floor.