Complicated 3

by Chenell Parker

  “Okay, and what that got to do with Nicole?” He yelled back.

  “Nicole was fucking Kirk, and he was still fucking China too. Like I just said, you need to get tested and so do I,” Brandy repeated.

  Mekhi fell back on the sofa as the realization of everything set in.

  “How do you know that Kirk was still messing with Nicole?” He asked her.

  “I know for a fact that he was. They used to be in that private room together all the time. That’s why I made sure that he strapped up whenever we were together. Did you and China use protection because you and I rarely did?” She questioned.

  “Who told you that she had AIDS?” Mekhi asked ignoring her last question.

  He and China started out using condoms every time they had sex. When the condom broke that one time and she said that she was on birth control, they didn’t worry about using them anymore. China didn’t want any kids, so Mekhi felt comfortable entering her unprotected. He was so busy worrying about babies that the thought of a disease never entered his mind.

  “Answer my question! Did you and China use protection or not?” Brandy yelled again.

  “Fuck!” Mekhi shouted in anger.

  “Oh my God. I can’t believe this. I need to get out of here,” Brandy cried as she nervously reached for the door.

  “Wait! Can’t we get a home test or something like that? I don’t want to go to the hospital and have people all up in my business,” Mekhi said stopping her from leaving.

  “They’ll still have to know. You’ll probably have to get medicine or something.”

  “I know that, but I still want to take a home test before I go that far,” Mekhi said.

  He slowly got up from the sofa and made his way to his bedroom. After getting some money from the safe he handed it to Brandy and instructed her to buy a few different brands of the over the counter test. She was embarrassed about doing it, but she needed to know as well. Brandy prayed all the way to the pharmacy as she purchased four tests of the only brand that they carried. She ignored the funny looks that she was getting from the cashier and hurried back to Mekhi’s apartment. She found him slowly pacing the floor just like he was doing right before she left. Mekhi grabbed the bag from her hands and frowned when he inspected the contents.

  “This is all the same brand,” he snapped.

  “That’s all that they had. Give me one and let me read the instructions,” Brandy replied.

  The directions were fairly simple. They had to swab their mouths and insert the tube in the liquid solution that was provided. One line meant they were good, but two lines was not something that either of them wanted to see. After setting everything up on Mekhi’s kitchen table, they both swabbed their mouths and waited for the twenty minute time frame that the instructions gave them. Brandy was a nervous wreck, but not more than Mekhi. She couldn’t seem to stop crying, and he couldn’t keep still. Once their twenty minutes was up, both of them were too afraid to look at the results so they didn’t.

  “This is crazy. It’s been over thirty minutes now. I’m going to take a look,” Brandy said as she got up from the sofa. Mekhi didn’t really want to, but he got up and followed behind her anyway.

  “Oh God No!” Brandy screamed when she looked at both of their test results.

  Mekhi closed his eyes because he already knew what was up. Brandy was on the floor screaming, but he was in no position to help her. He was going through his own mixture of emotions to care about anyone else.

  “How do we even know that this shit is accurate?” He asked already starting to be in denial.

  “It has a ninety-nine percent accuracy rating Mekhi, but we still need to see a doctor,” Brandy sobbed.

  Although he believed her, he still suggested that they take the test again. Unfortunately for them both, the results remained the same. Mekhi was in shock. He couldn’t believe that his fate was sealed in such a horrible way. Women and sex had always been his weakness, and he was paying the ultimate price for it. He couldn’t help but think about Janice and their unborn baby. It was going to kill her if she was infected. More than likely she was since they engaged in unprotected sex more times than he could count. Although it was the honorable thing to do, he couldn’t find the courage to call her. If she was indeed infected, he knew that he would be seeing or hearing from her very soon.

  Chapter 28

  Janice had her back turned to the door because she didn’t want to see or talk to anybody at the moment. Her heart had been ripped from her chest, and she just wanted to sulk in peace. She felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders, and she would snap at any minute. People kept telling her to remember the happier times in her life, but she didn’t have very many to dwell on. From her father leaving her mother to raise her alone to being belittled and abused by her ex-husband, nothing was worth smiling about. She’d been with numerous other men before and after him, and it was always the same story. She was good enough for sex and behind closed doors, but nobody wanted to be in an exclusive relationship with her. Her baby boy was the only thing that she had to look forward to, and she didn’t even have him anymore. After waking up in excruciating pain the night before, Janice’s mother rushed her to the hospital. She knew that something was wrong when they couldn’t find her son’s heartbeat on the monitor. After having her labor induced a few weeks early, Janice gave birth to a beautiful stillborn baby boy who was the spitting image of Mekhi. Words could never describe the amount of pain that she was feeling. Aside from her mother and cousins, she had to go through the entire ordeal alone. She wouldn’t dare call Mekhi, and he probably wouldn’t have come even if she did.

  “Do you want some water or juice, Janice?” Her mother asked her in a soothing voice.

  She shook her head no as tears continued to pour from her eyes.

  “I think you should call and let the baby’s father know what happened. I know that y’all aren’t together, but it was his son too,” Her mother suggested.

  “No, I don’t want him anywhere around me,” Janice mumbled right as the doctor walked in with another woman.

  “How are you feeling Janice?” Dr. Anderson asked as she turned around to face him.

  “I’m okay,” she replied with a weak, forced smile.

  “That’s good to hear. This is Dr. Mona Gray, and she’s the hospital’s psychiatrist,” he said introducing the woman. Janice smiled at her as well before returning her attention to the doctor.

  “Any idea when I’ll be getting out of here?” Janice asked.

  “It won’t be long, but I need a moment to speak to you in private,” her doctor said while looking over at her mother.

  “It’s fine, that’s my mother,” Janice replied.

  “I understand, but this is kind of private and confidential,” he spoke up.

  “I don’t keep secrets from my mother. You can say what you have to say in her presence.”

  Janice sat up in bed when she saw the serious expression on her doctors’ face. He and the psychiatrist exchanged glances before he started to speak again. Her mother came and held her hand just in case she needed to be comforted.

  “Dr. Gray is here just in case you need someone to talk to once I’m done,” Dr. Anderson explained.

  Janice only nodded her head. She’d already told them that she was fine and didn’t need to speak to anyone. Women lost babies every day. She was hurt, but she knew that it would get better with time. She was in her thirties, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t still have a baby. Women older than her became mother’s every single day. She would never forget her first born, but she had to go with her life eventually.

  “This isn’t easy to say Janice, but it has to be done. We got some of your blood work back from the lab, and it shows that you’re HIV positive,” Dr. Anderson said.

  Janice’s mother’s grip on her hand tightened as a loud gasp escaped her lips. Janice looked back and forth between her doctor and the psychiatrist praying that they were mistaken. The looks on the
ir faces told her all that she needed to know, but she still couldn’t accept that.

  “That can’t be right. You can take some more blood and test it again, but that’s definitely not right,” Janice said shaking her head in denial.

  “We ran three tests and sent it to an outside lab. All of the results were the same. I’m sorry Janice. I know that this has to be a hard pill to swallow. You can get a second opinion if you want to, but I don’t think you’ll hear anything different,” Dr. Anderson said solemnly.

  “Don’t think of this as a death sentence Janice. Millions of people live normal lives with medication and a healthy lifestyle. New medicines are being invented every day, and I’m confident that one will be created for this sickness,” Dr. Gray spoke up.

  “What the hell do you mean? This is a fucking death sentence,” Janice yelled hysterically. “Oh my God. This can’t be real,” she cried as her mother tried her best to console her.

  For years, Janice had lived her life being promiscuous, but she also took the necessary precautions. Aside from her ex-husband and a steady boyfriend or two, she always made her partners strap up. Well, almost all of them. She slipped up and let Mekhi hit it raw, and that was how she ended up pregnant. Apparently that was how she ended up with a death sentence too. Three months before she met him she was tested and disease free. Meeting Mekhi ruined her life in more ways than one.

  “Is that why the baby didn’t make it?” Janice’s mother choked out through her own tears.

  “I wouldn’t say that. A lack of oxygen and a number of other reasons could have contributed to that,” Dr. Anderson replied.

  “One thing I would suggest you do is to contact your sex partners and let them know what’s going on. They’ll need to be tested immediately,” Dr. Gray spoke up.

  “There is no they. I was only with one person,” Janice mumbled angrily.

  “The baby’s father?” Her mother asked in shock.

  Janice refused to answer. She was done talking altogether. There was nothing that could be said or done to change her prognosis. She was a dead woman walking, and nobody could convince her otherwise. No amount of medicine in the world would heal her and make her disease free. As far as she was concerned her life was over. She tuned out the conversation that her mother was having with the doctors and turned her back to them. She couldn’t help but to wonder if Mekhi knew about this all along and just didn’t tell her. Maybe that was the reason that his wife left him. Janice wondered if he’d ruined Rylee’s life the way he’d ruined hers. Rylee was married again, so maybe she was spared. As for Janice, she was given the short end of the stick just like always. It was nothing new. How she would handle it, she had yet to figure out.

  Chapter 29

  Nakia sat on the front bench of the funeral home and held her mother’s hand as the pastor preached over the remains of her sister. Aside from the family viewing, they opted to give Nicole a closed casket. She was only ninety-seven pounds and barely recognizable. Nakia didn’t want anyone to remember her sister that way, so she had life-sized portraits of her placed all around the room. She preferred to have people remember her sister the way she was before the drugs and disease took over her life and eventually killed her. Nakia was still having a hard time knowing that her sister had AIDS to begin with. So many stories were floating around, and she didn’t know what to believe. Some people said that she gave the disease to Banks while some others swore that he already had it and passed it along to Nicole. Either way, it went, the drugs didn’t help it any, and that’s what killed her faster. Not only that but Nicole had been getting around sexually long before she was diagnosed. China’s boyfriend Kirk was supposedly one of her regular sex partners. Unfortunately for him, he now had to live with the same fate. China swore that she didn’t have it, but everybody knew that was a lie. Mekhi had tested positive, and they had been sleeping together for months. Even Brandy couldn’t escape the deadly disease that was claiming them one by one. Rylee was a nervous wreck even though she hadn’t been with Mekhi in a long time. She and Zyrian got tested again just to be on the safe side. Thankfully they were fine and healthy. It was all thanks to them that Nakia was able to give her sister a proper burial, and she was grateful.

  “Glenda and my grandma are going to Zyra’s house just in case anybody come over early. My aunt Susan said that all of the food has already been delivered,” Rylee whispered to Nakia right as the service was coming to a close.

  They didn’t have a big family, so the funeral home wasn’t extremely crowded. A few of Nakia’s co-workers came, along with some of the people from the shelter that Leslie lived in. She could have done without Banks and some of the dancers from the club showing up, but they were there anyway. There was no way in hell that they were coming back to Zyra’s house, so she didn’t even put that information on the program. It would probably be most of Zyrian and Buck’s family there, but that was cool with her since Buck paid to have all the food catered anyway.

  “I appreciate y’all so much,” Nakia said as she squeezed Rylee’s hand.

  “You already told me that a million times,” Rylee chuckled.

  Nakia knew that Rylee would do anything for her. She and Nicole weren’t on the best terms, but they were still family. Rylee wished that they could have made peace before her cousin died, but that just wasn’t their reality. She sat on the front row to support Nakia, but she and her aunt Leslie still hadn’t said two words to each other. Zyrian told her to be the bigger person, but she was too stubborn to listen. She knew that it wasn’t the time to hold on to grudges, but she wasn’t the one who’d done anything wrong. Leslie should have been being the bigger person instead of her.

  “We don’t have to go to no graveyard right,” Zyrian whispered to Rylee.

  “No, she’s being cremated,” she answered.

  “And where is she going after that? I know damn well Zyra ain’t letting Nakia bring no dead body in her house,” he replied.

  “Hush Zyrian. Why do you care where she’s going?’ Just as long as she’s not coming to our house.”

  “You ain’t crazy,” Zyrian said making her laugh.

  They stopped talking long enough for the pastor to say the closing prayer and dismiss the service. Nakia briefly spoke with the funeral director about when she should go back to pick up her sister’s ashes. Afterwards, she and Leslie got into the car with Buck and headed to Zyra’s house with the rest of the mourners.

  “Zyra you know Nakia is trying to bring a dead woman in your house, huh?” Zyrian asked his sister when she came into the room where he and Rylee were at with the twins.

  “What!” Zyra said looking at him like he was crazy.

  “Don’t listen to his crazy ass,” Rylee laughed as she and Zyrian fed their babies some mashed potatoes.

  “Think it’s a game. I ain’t coming over here no more,” Zyrian said seriously. Zyra didn’t know what her brother was talking about, but Rylee ignored him and changed the subject.

  “I’m happy that it’s just the three of us in here. I wanted to ask y’all something, but I didn’t want to say anything around my cousin,” Rylee whispered.

  “What?” Zyra asked.

  “Do y’all think that China got it or not?” Rylee asked.

  “I don’t know, but my auntie is fucked up over that shit. Everybody always said that she was gon’ bury one of her sons first, and it might be her only daughter instead,” Zyra answered.

  “Hell yeah, she got it,” Zyrian spoke up.

  “How do you know?” Zyra questioned.

  “It’s like a chain reaction. Just think about it. Nicole had it, and she was fucking Kirk. Kirk was fucking China and Brandy, and so was Mekhi. Everybody got it and China is the only one lying saying that she don’t. If you ask me, she got it two ways from Kirk and Mekhi. Ain’t no way in hell she got a clean bill of health,” Zyrian said as he wiped his daughter’s mouth.

  “That’s true,” Rylee nodded in agreement.

  She helped her husband cl
ean the babies up before they all went back downstairs. Zyrian’s parents were in the living room talking to Leslie when they walked in. Leslie was holding up pretty well, and Rylee was happy to see that. It had to be hard burying one of your kids. Zyrian’s parents felt her pain, and they were very comforting towards her. Just about everyone was in the den watching movies, so Rylee decided to start cleaning up. Zyrian sat on the floor while the twins crawled around, giving her time to do what she needed to do.

  “Your mama would be so proud of the way you turned out. She would be spoiling those cute little babies to death too,” Rylee heard from behind her. She was surprised when she turned around and came face to face with her aunt, Leslie.

  “Thanks,” Rylee smiled. It felt kind of awkward being around her now. She tried to walk around her to put something in the fridge when her aunt gently grabbed her arm.

  “I’m so sorry for everything Rylee. I let greed and jealousy motivate me to make some stupid decisions and for that I apologize. You and my sister have always been good to me even when I didn’t deserve it. I was a horrible aunt and sister. I was also a terrible mother which is why I had to bury one of my kids today,” Leslie said as the tears rapidly poured from her eyes.

  “Nicole dying is not your fault Leslie,” Rylee replied sincerely.

  Her heart really broke for her auntie. She was blaming herself for her daughter’s death, and she didn’t need to be carrying that kind of guilt around.

  “Yes, it is. I’ve been learning how to take responsibility for my actions, and I have to fault myself for the way that she turned out. She only did what I taught her to do. Using people and sleeping with men for money is what I did for years. I never corrected her when I saw her following in my footsteps. If anything, I encouraged it,” Leslie admitted.

  Rylee couldn’t disagree because her aunt had a valid point. She did teach her daughters some bad habits, but Nakia just went a different route.