Thirty minutes later, Charrise reappeared in the room with a bag in hand.
She poured out five different brands of pregnancy tests onto the bed. EPT, Clear Blue, First Response, Answer Plus, and Advance.
“Really?” Brianna muttered. “I think one would have been enough.”
“Well, I didn’t have time to research the most accurate brand, so this was the next best option.”
“I don’t even think I have enough pee in me for all of those.”
Charrise pulled out a large bottle of water from the bag.
“You just thought of everything, didn’t you?”
“Yup!” Charrise said as she pulled out the rest of the items. One by one, a box of Kleenex, candy bars, a jar of pickles, prenatal vitamins, and more tumbled onto the bed.
Brianna opened the bottle of water and gulped it like the neighborhood wino downs a 40oz. Charrise opened all of the pregnancy test boxes and organized them with the test and instructions across the dresser.
“Which one you wanna try first?”
“It don’t matter,” Brianna said while she walked to the bathroom. “Just bring ’em all.”
Charrise did as she was told, and handed them each to her sister as the stream of pee provided samples for each indicator.
“You better be glad I love you!” she said as she lined each test up next to its coordinating instruction sheet.
Brianna emerged from the bathroom and began to dig into her Marc Jacobs purse. She pulled out the letter and opened it for the first time.
“What’s that?” Charrise asked.
“This,” Brianna said while dangling the letter in the air, “is the reason we have to move. Let’s read it while we wait for these results.”
Brianna opened the envelope and read it aloud.
Hey Bitch, I heard you went through the hood and tried to collect on something that don’t belong to you. Should have already known you would, because you like fucking with other people shit! You would think you would have learned your lesson by now. But we know a hoe will be a hoe. I guess now you see who Hakeem really loves. By the way, I hope you like the way my pussy tasted. Hakeem told me all he had you doing was sucking his dick! I guess that’s all you good for slut. But let a real bitch let you know to stay away from my man. Or the next time I come to your house, I will bring my crew, and you and your sister will get them asses whooped!
The sisters’ eyes met.
“Who does that bitch think she is?” Charrise asked. “Uh un, I don’t think we should be moving cause this chic talkin’ shit.”
“It’s more than that. Too much shit has gone down here, and I def don’t need that broad to know where I’m layin’ my head. It’s time to move on and start fresh.” Brianna tried to explain, knowing that her sister was still too young and too naive to understand how things actually worked.
Brianna was still trying to learn the ropes herself, but this seemed like an obvious decision to her. She didn’t want to bring any unnecessary attention to herself, and the shit with Tiff was starting to get out of hand. As far as Brianna was concerned, it was better to be proactive, than be forced into reaction.
Charrise shrugged. Her eyes went over to the pregnancy tests that were waiting to tell a story. “We might need some space for a nursery anyway.”
Brianna rolled her eyes. “That’s not even funny! Just go on and tell me the verdict.”
Charrise went over to the dresser and carefully reviewed the indicators and instructions of each test. She turned around with a smile plastered on her face. “I’m going to be an auntie.”
Brianna threw her body back onto the bed. She kicked and twitched on the bed like a two year old that wasn’t getting her way. “Nooooooooooo!” she screamed. “This CANNOT be happening to me!”
Her sister leaned on the dresser and folded her arms across her chest. When Brianna finally quieted down, Charrise spoke matter-of-factly. “You do know you have options, right?”
“What? Abortion?” Brianna said as if the thought disgusted her.
Brianna had always agreed that it was a woman’s right to make that decision for herself, but she’d never considered having to abort a child of her own.
“That’s the obvious choice! I mean, you can’t be that far along, and I know you don’t wanna have this baby.”
Brianna looked towards the ceiling and thought about it for a moment. “Dammit,” she said. “Is my life ever just gonna be simple? I… I… I can’t make that decision right now.”
As Brianna sat there, she couldn’t help but think about her mother. She had been in a similar situation, pregnant by the wrong man. What if she had decided to take the easy way out? Brianna questioned herself. My black ass wouldn’t be here.
She leaned back on the bed. Although the circumstances were not what she hoped for, she couldn’t make a rash decision.
Charrise shook her head. “You can’t keep this baby Brianna.”
She waved her off. “Stop talking to me right now, Charrise. You’re in no position to tell me what I can and can’t do.”
“Maybe not, but we both know you don’t have a lot of time to make a decision. Think about it. If you keep this baby, you’re gonna have to change your whole life. No more of this hustling fast paced life, no more of this quick money. You ready for that?”
“I already told you, I need to process this. Shit, maybe having a normal life wouldn’t be so bad.”
Brianna let her mind wander into a fantasyland where she was a proud mother raising a daughter. She thought about how she would give her child all the love that she’d never actually received from her own mother. The idea of having a person that would love her unconditionally, as Tre did, was inspiring. However, she knew there was still something she could not offer the baby growing in her belly. It was the same thing her own mother could never offer her. A real father. The thought of finding a new man that was up to the task seemed impossible. Brianna wasn’t sure that she could ever achieve normal status. She’d seen and done too much already.
Charrise sucked her teeth. “I had one already, this one is much better. Don’t just think about yourself, sis. I need this too. And that baby… what if he or she comes out looking just like Hakeem? Then what yo ass gone do? You don’t want to be staring at that for the rest of your life.”
“Oooookayyyy Charrise! You’ve made your point, damn!”
“Aiight, I’ll leave you alone. But think about what I’m sayin’, Bri.”
Chapter Two
“Last call for boarding of flight 264 to Charlotte, NC.” Selena ran up to the gate just as the flight attendant was shutting the runway door. She quickly gave the older white female her ticket and was escorted to first class.
Once in her seat, Selena took a deep breath, and realized she had forgotten to grab her iPod. Damn, now I got to sit here and watch these bullshit ass movies. I’m glad it’s only a two-hour flight! Although Selena would never admit it, she was glad to be getting away from the city for a while. Things had gotten so hectic on the south side of Queens. She had only been out of New York three times in her life, and that was only to visit her brothers in prison.
She was the true definition of a hood chick, although her appearance seemed to suggest otherwise. Her hair and complexion were the result of a Dominican father and a beautiful black mother with chocolate skin. She had taken on her father’s complexion, a skin tone that most women thought was only available as a MAC foundation color, and hair that countless women spent thousands of dollars to have sewn in. Her mother had passed down to her the type of body one would see in major hip-hop magazines, and a face that looked like it had not aged since she turned 16. The only blemish Selena had physically, was a scar that ran from the right side of her mouth, back to her right ear lobe. Her skin had done all it could to mask the cut, but one would have to do a double take to make sure their eyes hadn’t deceived them.
Selena never wore makeup, mostly because she didn’t need it, but she also didn’t know how to pu
t it on. Her mother had died when she was only five years old, from stomach cancer, so she was raised in a house full of men. Selena had six brothers. She was in the middle, which meant she could never have a boyfriend when she was in school. Neither her older nor younger brothers were having it. By the time her older brothers started going off to jail, her younger brothers had gotten old enough to block any man who had an interest in her.
No matter how beautiful Selena was, no guy in the neighborhood wanted to have to deal with the Johnson family. Her brothers had made a name for themselves in the streets of South Jamaica Queens. They were all robbers and stick up kids. They had family connections to get drugs and sell them for themselves, but they refused to do so.
Her oldest brother Tony always said, “Why go through all that when all I have to do is take it and let the other guy do all the work?”
Although her brothers never let her date, they were always switching women. Selena honed her fighting skills by constantly having to put some bitch in check for spazzing out on one of them. Her father had been a boxing champion back in the early 80’s, and still had all the equipment in the basement of their home. He would have the whole clan downstairs sparring with each other, and Selena wasn’t excluded. He knew the area where he had built a home for his family, and they would definitely have to know how to fight.
Their house sat about two blocks from the 40 Projects in South Jamaica Queens. The neighborhood was bad then and had gotten worse over the years. The young niggas had picked up the gangbanging from the west coast, and it was getting crazier day by day. So when Selena received the call from her cousin Kasy, asking her to come down to Charlotte to help him out on some female shit, she was more than happy to oblige.
“Ma’am, ma’am, please wake up.”
Selena woke up to the flight attendant nudging her. Much to her own surprise, she had slept the whole flight from New York to Charlotte. She got up, grabbed her bag from the overhead bin, and exited the plane. Once she made it to the baggage claim, she saw her cousin Kasy who she hadn’t seen in a couple of years, but he still looked exactly the same.
“Wuz up cuz?” she said in her deep New York accent.
“Wuz good cuzzo!” Kasy said back to her as he grabbed her into an embrace. “Let’s grab your bags so we can get up outta here and I can give you the 411.”
As Kasy and Selena headed towards downtown Charlotte to check into Salina’s new home, the Westin Hotel, he gave her details on the project he thought was perfect for her. He told her that he was the top security for a young female trap star named Brianna, and he needed Selena to act as if Brianna was the sister she never had.
“Trust me cuz, I been rocking with her for about four months, and she definitely takes care of those who take care of her!”
It didn’t take long for Selena to see that Kasy was telling the truth about Brianna. She had booked a Presidential Suite on the 25th floor of the hotel. This, Selena figured, was a great way to get a good look at her new stomping grounds. It was like her own studio apartment. Her first order of business was to strip down and get into the shower. That’s until she walked in the bathroom and saw that there was a Jacuzzi tub.
After growing up in a house full of testosterone, she could barely remember the last time she had been able to soak in a tub. She filled the tub with steamy hot water and immersed her body, then started the jets.
__________
Brianna and Charrise had toured condos all across the city. They’d looked downtown in Ballantyne, NoDa, Huntersville, Dillworth, and Lake Norman. Nothing met Brianna’s picky standards. Living in a condo, no matter how luxurious it was, just could not compare to the space and living style of a single family home. She missed having a yard, and neighbors that she didn’t have to come in close contact with on a daily basis. She hated having to have forced casual conversation on the elevators, and making up lies about her life to answer the questions of complete strangers who assumed friendship simply because they lived on the same floor.
But she had grown accustomed to the added layer of security that condo living had provided her. Tre had been dead for over a year, yet she still woke up a few times a week in cold sweats from the nightmares that haunted her sleep. So, no matter how much she wanted to live in a house, she just couldn’t do it.
After a month of searching and whining from Charrise, Brianna had finally agreed to a compromise; a townhome in a gated community. As far as Brianna was concerned, this was the best of both worlds. She was sold on the townhome when she found out that the community had a 24-hour security guard who would verify all guests prior to them gaining access beyond the gate.
It was icing on the cake when she learned of all the features. The kitchen was stunning, with cherry wood cabinets and an oversized fridge, granite countertops, and upgraded appliances. The plank hardwood floors sparkled like they had been freshly glossed and glistened as the sun shined through the tall windows.
Brianna fell in love with the first floor master suite, and there was a suite almost as large on the second floor with a balcony that Charrise quickly claimed. To top that, there was an office on the first floor, and two extra rooms joined by a Jack and Jill bathroom. Briana thought that one room could serve as a potential nursery, and the other a guest room.
On move-in day, Brianna stood at the end of her driveway directing movers as they lifted and carried in boxes and furniture. Her large Gucci shades shielded her eyes from the sun as she glared down both sides of the street. She smiled at the freshly manicured lawns and peaceful breezes that cooled her on the humid summer day. When a shadow engulfed her, she automatically assumed that one of the movers had a question.
“You guys work fast, it looks like we’re about done here.” She turned around to face an unfamiliar smile, one that captivated her at first glance.
“Hello! My name is Brandon, I noticed that you are moving in, and I just wanted to come by and welcome you to the community,” the deep baritone voice stated with proper enunciation and grammar.
In that moment, Brianna was grateful that she’d worn her shades. They not only blocked the sun, but that they were also doing a fantastic job of hiding the fact that she was damn near molesting the guy with her eyes. Brandon wore a fitted heather gray Henley tee shirt, with blue jeans and slide-in Nikes. She couldn’t believe that a man could look so good without even trying, and could hardly imagine what he’d look like if he’d put in a little effort. She could see the bulge of his muscles and the pattern of his abs through his thin shirt.
She reached her hand towards him and coyly tilted her head to one side. “Hi, I’m Brianna. Thanks for the welcome.”
She resisted the urge to allow the handshake to linger, and instinctively removed her hand from his and placed it on her still flat belly. Brianna reeled in her flirtatious behavior quickly, remembering that she still had a monumental decision to make. Aside from that, even as handsome as he was, she knew that her heart wasn’t ready to start anything new.
“You’ll like it here,” he said. “Most people pretty much mind their business, but I couldn’t help coming by when I noticed someone with a similar complexion moving in.”
Brianna looked down at her caramel colored arm, and then into his amber colored face and laughed. “I understand. It was nice meeting you,” she blurted out before he could say anything else.
“Ok,” he said with a somber look on his face.
She went into the house and quickly stood at the front window. “Dayum!” she said as she watched him walk away.
“Kasy just called,” Charrise said, interrupting Brianna’s thoughts.
“Ok, what did he say?”
“That he’s bringing his cousin Selena by to meet us.”
“Now?” Brianna said with an attitude.
Charrise furrowed her eyebrows. “Yes now! Why not now?”
“Cause we’re in the middle of moving in! It’s a mess in here. Uh un, I’m calling him back right now. I’m hungry anyway, so we can meet them out fo
r dinner. Plus, I need to meet this chick first before I let her all up in our space.”
Charrise shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You know what?”
“No, what?”
“I’ll be glad when you figure out what you’re going to do about this seed, cause I can’t take much more of your mood swings and attitudes about nothing.”
“Whatever bitch! I ain’t that bad!”
Charrise looked Brianna up and down and shook her head disapprovingly. “Let’s just get out of here, food seems to help. Let’s feed this little monster you have growing inside you, and maybe you’ll be back to normal, at least for a little while.”
Brianna changed into a flowing blue maxi dress with platform wedge sandals. She pulled her cinnamon-brown hair back into a loose ponytail and snapped in platinum hoop earrings. Brianna added bangles to her right wrist, and a necklace with a diamond pendant of the letter T. For a finishing touch, she added dark pink gloss and touched up her mascara.
“Ready!” she yelled to Charrise upstairs.
Charrise came downstairs in fitted gray skinny jeans and a dark purple tunic that hung lazily off her left shoulder. She wore her hair bone straight with a part on the side. Her long mane cascaded over her shoulders and down her back.
They looked around at their new home. Charrise had painstakingly directed the movers to place the furniture exactly the way she wanted it, but the boxes had been scattered around the rooms. The two bobbed and weaved along the rows of boxes towards the door. Out of nowhere, Charrise came to a stop with Brianna right on her heels.
“What the fuck?” Brianna screeched.
Charrise turned around abruptly. “Well… I was going to wait for you to tell me, but since you haven’t opened your mouth up about it yet, I figure I might as well get it out there.”
“Tell you what?”
“Tell me about that man.”
“What man?” Brianna asked incredulously.
Charrise crooked her head from left to right. “Don’t try to act all confused.”
Trapstar Double book (Parts 1 & 2 Boxed Set) Page 11
