Hated by Many, Loved by None 2

by Shan

  “I’m thinking that maybe we should fall back and see what we can come up with. A dead man can pay me no money. And I’m really wondering now, since I burned that nigga’s shit down, if he has anything left.”

  “Yeah, dude got paper, and I know he ain’t stupid enough to leave it at the same place he lays his head at. Besides, Jahzara was always talking about him making trips down to Lubbock once a month and how she never could go with him. He always took the trip alone, and, in the back of my head, all I could think about is…”

  “A safe house,” Honey and I say simultaneously.

  I nodded my head, thinking that she might be right about that. Instead of going into the hospital at that very moment, I decided to give Jahzara a call. I hadn’t spoken to her since the day I choked her ass for taking my shit. I knew that, just like I was, she was all vulnerable and that, with the right amount and choice of words, I could work my way back in and get her to come running back to daddy.

  “Be quiet a min,” I told Honey as I took my cell phone out and dialed up Jahzara.

  “Yeah,” she answered quietly. She talked so low that I could barely hear her.

  “What’s up, baby? I miss you. Why you haven’t you been home?”

  “Why were you waiting down the street from my parents’ home, Quin? That’s the only reason why I answered your call. I wanted to find that out.”

  That stunned me into silence because I didn’t know that she was aware of me sitting on her folks’ block. Honey and I had sat there for a few hours waiting and hoping that she would show up. I had thought that, maybe, she would come to her people’s house to stash the bag that she had taken from me.

  “Hello!”

  “Yeah,” I said, scratching my head a little, not sure what I should say at this point.

  “Yeah. You didn’t think I saw you, but I saw you, and I don’t like that shit, Quin. I didn’t steal no bag from you. You putting your hands on me, choking me, and leaving me for dead is not something I’m gonna go for.”

  “I didn’t leave you for dead, Jahzara. I’ve put a few niggas to sleep in prison, so I knew that you were good. Don’t try to play that shit on me right now, man,” I sighed in frustration.

  “Why are you even calling me, Quin? I don’t even know who you are at this point, and I swear you’re act like one of them niggas smoking crack or something. All these lengths that you’re going through to get revenge when… you would’ve just calmed down and let me take care of us like you took care of us.”

  “I’m not finna sit here…” I stopped mid-sentence when Honey tapped me and pointed to Jahzara out in front of the hospital, walking around. I slouched down in my seat, although I don’t believe that she would have been able to see us.

  “Jahzara, look, I’m not about to let a woman take care of me. My mama didn’t raise me like that, so that’s never gonna happen.”

  “Well…”

  “Well, nothing. Jahzara, it’s not happening. Where are you? I miss you, and you need to come home.”

  “I’m not about to come home after what you did, Quin. Look, we’re done, and, this time, it’s for real.”

  “Nah, it’s not for real, Jahzara. I can hear it in your voice that there is some uncertainty there. I’m sorry, baby, for putting my hands on you. That shit will never happen again, but you know that I’m stressed. I really think you should come home, so we can talk about it,” I said, and Jahzara got super quiet on the other end.

  I pulled the phone away and looked to see if she was still there, and, when I saw that she was, I put my ear back and heard all I needed to hear.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  23 Jahzara

  “I’ll think about it,” I said to Quin before hanging up my cell phone and sliding it into my pocket.

  As soon as I turned around to walk back inside the hospital, I saw Imran pushing Rain in a wheel chair towards the parking lot. I hurriedly caught up to the two of them, wondering what was going on and why they were suddenly leaving. Imran had just told me that his ex-girlfriend wasn’t supposed to be released for another few days.

  “Imran, wait! Where are you going?” I asked suspiciously.

  “We’re ‘bout to get up out of here. I don’t like sitting in the same spot for too long, especially with all that’s going on.”

  “Where you about to go? Are we gonna have a chance to talk?”

  “Talk about what? You said you needed my help, not to fucking talk to me!” Imran yelled at me.

  He helped Rain get into the front seat of the car and put her seat belt on her like the trick couldn’t do the shit herself. I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling a little heat warm throughout my body as I stood there and watched the interaction between Imran and Rain. The two of them seemed more like a couple than ex-girlfriend and boyfriend.

  “I want to talk to you about what’s been going on. Yes, I need your help, but I feel like there are also some things that we need to say to each other.”

  “I don’t have anything to say to you. Look, I’m about to check into a hotel somewhere until I figure some things out. You still need my help, or you just tryna talk?"

  "I don't know what I should do. I just got a weird feeling from Quin. He… choked me the other day and left me for the dead on the bathroom floor."

  Imran closed the door and leaned against the car. He stared at the ground a few moments before bringing his attention to my face.

  "Wow! Sounds like you got you a good man there, Jah. That's your husband remember. I doubt he will ever hurt you like that," Imran said sarcastically.

  "Imran, I'm being serious. I don't wanna be by myself right now, and I really feel like you, and I should talk."

  "I don't have anything to say to you. Seriously, you fucked up a good thing, not me, so what do I have to say?"

  I exhaled and felt completely defeated with everything, with my life and relationships, with it all. Nothing seemed to be going the way that it should.

  "What am I supposed to do, Imran? You have to know how sorry I am for everything," I said pleadingly. Tears slid from my eyes and down the sides of my cheeks. "I truly am. I don't know when I became so dumb, Imran. You have to forgive me."

  Imran leaned over and kissed my forehead. "Just come to the hotel with us, and we'll figure everything out later. I'm not in the mood to talk right now."

  "Okay. I understand. Let me get my car, and I'll follow you."

  ***

  I followed Rain and Imran into a king suite at the Marriott. Upon walking in, I noticed that there was one huge king size bed and a tiny sofa close to the window. I felt like I shouldn't even be there, as if I was just a tag along chick that was unable to get her own man. I had a hotel room of my own that I could be at. Instead, I chose to follow Imran and his little girlfriend, hoping that he would want to start over.

  Rain and I settled inside the room, while Imran inspected everything. He looked out of the windows several times before he finally calmed down and had a seat on the sofa. I walked over to the mini fridge in the room and pulled out a travel size bottle of Crown Royal and a can of Coke. Whenever Imran became stressed, he always sat back and unwound with a blunt and a glass of Hennessy. They didn't have any Hennessy, but the next best thing would do.

  I mixed a drink for Imran, pulled a cigar and a sack of weed from my purse, and rolled him a blunt. I knew I had a lot of making up to do, and I refused to let this bad skin, mixed breed heifer come up in here and take what was mine.

  I walked over to Imran and handed him the drink and the blunt and took a seat on the sofa beside him.

  "’Preciate it," Imran said, immediately taking a gulp of the drink.

  He got up and walked into the bathroom. Then, he walked back out to place a couple of towels under the crack in the door.

  "Have you decided on what you're gonna do about your house?" I asked, trying to make conversation but instantly realized that that topic was the wrong one.

  Imran lit the blunt up, took a pull, and blew
the smoke in my direction. He stared at me for a few moments but didn't say anything.

  "My bad. That was a dumb question. I just… I don't know. I'm sorry," I shifted nervously in my seat.

  "Get a bigger one. Nigga ain't stop shit, and you know it." Imran took one last pull from the blunt and then passed it over to me. I was suddenly unable to look him in his eyes anymore. It was the guilt, knowing that I was responsible for what happened. Damn! I was responsible for what happened to Rain. I looked over at her, and our eyes met. It was clear that she did not want me there. The way she coldly stared into my eyes caused me to break our stare first. I hit the blunt a couple of times and then walked over to the bed where Rain was sitting. I reached out to pass it to her and noticed that she was a little hesitant to grab it.

  "No, don't give that shit to her. As a matter of fact, we shouldn't even be smoking around her. Put it out!" Imran yelled, jumping in the middle of the two of us.

  I looked at the two of them weirdly before doing just as Imran had asked me to.

  Rain suddenly jumped up from the bed and bolted into the bathroom. I looked to Imran, trying to detect what I had missed. It was like she was allergic to weed or something by the way they were acting. I shrugged my shoulders and walked back over to the sofa and took a seat. As I expected, Imran followed Rain in the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

  "I need to be alone with him. This bitch needs to go home," I said aloud.

  I got up and walked over to the door. I placed my ear to it and tried to listen in on what was going on. I heard soft cries coming from Rain, but I couldn't understand what was being said. The harder that I tried to listen, the harder it became to hear anything.

  Several minutes passed by, and the two of them were still in the bathroom, causing me to become antsy and irritated. I decided to take the blunt that we were smoking on and find a place outside to clear my mind. Imran being with this Rain chick didn’t sit well with me, but it wasn’t like I hadn’t caused this to happen. I fucked up, and he ran to another chick, just like any nigga would do, and I couldn’t blame him for it, but it didn’t stop the hurt that I felt. Slowly, I exited the room and headed towards the elevators. The moment I made it outside, my phone rang. Quin’s name was on the caller ID.

  “What does this nigga want?” I said to myself before putting my ear to the phone. “Yeah. What is it, Quin? I’m not about to come home, so don’t even ask.”

  “You ain’t gotta come home. I love the way those blue skinny jeans are fitting on you,” Quin sneered into the phone. I pulled the phone away from my ear, look around, and then looked down at my blue skinny jeans.

  How does he know what I got on? I don’t see any— I felt a warm, solid body against mine, and, before I could even react, a firm, hard hand was covering my mouth and nose. Quickly, my arms fell to my side and my phone fell on the grass that I was standing in, and all the will power I had to fight back was gone.

  24 Imran

  "Shhh… shhh," I whispered into Rain's ear as I slid my dick out of her.

  I prayed that Jahzara hadn't heard any of what was going on in here. I never intended to come in here and have sex with Rain, but it all just happened. Me trying to calm her down and let her know that I was sorry for making her feel the way that I did led to a bunch of old feelings getting in the way. I didn't mean to get so upset when Jahzara tried to offer her weed, but I didn't want anything getting in the way of Rain's journey to stay clean. It was flat out disrespectful to even smoke that shit in front of her.

  "Shit," I sighed with a shake of my head. "I can't believe we just did that shit."

  "You don't regret it, do you?" Rain asked as she stepped down off of the counter.

  I choose not to answer Rain’s question as I just washed myself off. Hell, yeah! I regretted just fucking her in the bathroom while Jahzara waited on the other side of the door. Rain and I were good together when we were dating, but my feelings for her weren't nearly as strong as they were for Jahzara right now. Even with the amount of betrayal Jahzara had delivered my way, it still didn't change the way I felt about her.

  "So, you do regret it. Is it because of her?" Rain asked, pointing at the closed the door.

  "It was just disrespectful, Rain. Let’s just leave it at that. Can you put your clothes on please?"

  I waited until Rain got dressed before exiting the bathroom. I looked around the room and immediately noticed that Jahzara wasn't anywhere around. I walked to the door and peeked my head the outside to see if she had stepped into the hall, but I didn't see her.

  "I'm about to go check on Jahzara," I told Rain. She rolled her eyes and turned her back to me. "Check that attitude, man."

  I shook my head and left the room, hoping that I would run into Jahzara. I knew, if she had heard what went on in that bathroom, that she probably left, and I didn't blame her.

  Once I made it outside, I looked around and didn't see her, so I walked over to the parking lot where our cars were parked. Her car was still sitting in the same spot, but she wasn't in it.

  "Damn! Where the hell did she go?"

  I went back inside the hotel, checked the dining area, the lobby, and the gym, and found nothing. "Hopefully, she went back upstairs," I said as I hit the elevator button. As soon as I got off the elevator, I rushed down the hall to the room, hoping that Jahzara was back. My stomach began to turn, and my heart suddenly raced as a funny feeling came over me. The moment I walked into the room, I spotted Rain tossing the hotel phone down.

  "Jahzara didn't come back in here?" I asked, looking around.

  "Do it look like she came back?"

  "Rain, come on. Now is not the time for that."

  "When is the time, Imran? You're acting like what happened in that bathroom didn't happen?" Rain stood up from the bed and rubbed her arm where the bandages were. I ignored Rain and grabbed my phone off of the charger to call Jahzara. "I know that I have done you wrong in the past, but that was because I was sick. There’s nothing wrong with that girl besides the fact that she is a shiesty bitch! She’s probably somewhere calling up that nigga to come fuck you up!"

  I looked up at Rain and really prayed that what she was saying wasn't true. I had just dialed Jahzara's cell four times back to back, and, each time ,it just rang until the voicemail picked up. The possibility that Jahzara got in contact with me just to set me up was huge factor that set deep in my mind. She had given my address to Quin. Why wouldn't she put a call in to let him know of my location.

  I slouched down onto the sofa and contemplated whether or not Rain and I should be getting the fuck up out of here. If Jahzara had done that dirty shit, Rain and I had become two sitting ducks waiting to be taken down. That funny feeling that I had walking into the room returned, and, this time, I took heed.

  I stood up from the couch, grabbed the few things that I had brought there and began looking out of the windows to see if, maybe, I could spot Jahzara or see if anyone was already in the area waiting for us. In the blink of an eye, two black Crown Victorias pulled into the back parking lot of the hotel. I wouldn’t have paid them any attention, but the fact that the men hopping out of the cars were dread headed and carrying choppers let me know that some shit was about to go down.

  “Come on! We gotta go!” I yelled as I rushed over to Rain. I grabbed her by her arm and tried to pull her out of the room, but she jerked away from me.

  “Ouchhhhh! You’re hurting me! What the fuck is your problem?” Rain cursed at me and stopped in the middle of the hallway.

  “Come on! We don’t have time for you to be stubborn and shit! Some dread head muthafuckas just pulled up in the lot, and I got a feeling that they’re coming for us, baby. Let’s go before we get caught up in here with nowhere to run.” I grabbed Rain’s hand and pulled her towards the emergency exit, hoping like hell we didn’t run slap into them.

  “It’s Chino! Fuck! He found me!”

  I pushed the emergency exit door open, and, instantly, the alarm was activated and blared throug
h the entire hotel. I pulled my keys out of my pocket as I raced to my car.

  Pow! Pow! Pow!

  "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" Rain screamed in horror.

  I deactivated the alarm on my ride, unlocked the doors, and hopped in. My back windows shattered from the firepower of rounds being shot into our direction. More bullets pierced the metal each time, putting Rain and me closer to death than what we wanted to be. After placing the car in drive, I smashed the gas, rolled over the curb in front of me, and dashed into the street.

  "Get down! Get down! Get down!" I yelled to Rain and pushed her head down below the window. We whizzed by, at least, four gunmen. Each one was aiming to spray us and take us both out. "Fuck did you do to these niggas that got them trying to kill you?"