“Well, that’s because I never really got the chance to tell you. When I was supposed to tell you, that’s when everything went down with them taking China and you being in the hospital, so the timing was all off. But we pretty much been fuckin around since that night I left your house on China’s birthday. And everything has been good between us, minus the fuckin thirsty ass bitches that’s lurking around. Charlie, this new generation of hoes are so fuckin’ disrespectful that the shit ain’t even funny,” I vented.
“Girl, who you telling? I’m married to damn rapper. I already know how these hoes get down. I done seen it all, but you know the key to this shit, though? Never let this hoes see you sweat, and never leave your nigga off the basis of some shit that you heard. If you didn’t see the shit yourself or it’s no justifiable proof, don’t trust shit because they will do anything for you to leave so that they can have your man,” Charlie said.
“It’s crazy because that’s not even the main reason why we beefing right now. I mean, we were beefing last night because of some hoe calling his phone, but we squashed that. Dre is mad at me for taking my birth control pills behind his back,” I said to Charlie.
“What? Really? And he kicked your ass out for that?”
“I mean, he didn’t technically kick me out, but he did break up with me, so it really wasn’t no point in me staying. I just feel like he overreacting for no reason. It’s only been about a month that Dre and I have officially been together, and in that month, the only time we ever used protection was the first time we had sex. I’m not trying to get pregnant anytime soon, and Dre doesn’t know what the fuck “pull out” means. I got tired of running to the damn store every morning to take a damn Plan B pill. So, I had to start taking the birth control.”
“Wow, that’s really crazy. I been knowing Dre damn near since I was a little girl, and I don’t even think he’s fucked up about the fact that you’re taking the pills, it’s just the fact that you didn’t tell him about it. That’s why he so mad at you. With these niggas, loyalty and honesty are everything to them, so now he may be feeling like he can’t trust you. That’s how Quan was when we got back together. He wanted to have more kids, but I told him that I was on the pill. Clearly, the shit didn’t work though because my ass is pregnant,” China said.
“Quan didn’t want you taking the pills either?” I asked.
“Girl, hell no! His ass thinks that shit will fuck up my body and increase my chances of not having a baby in the future, so he didn’t want me taking them. But, he knew that I still was, he just never spoke on the situation again.”
“I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do to make this shit up to him. Like, this nigga was so mad at me that I thought he was going to kill my ass,” I said, still in a state of shock from the way that he jacked me up.
“First, you going to have to give him some time to cool off. Like a day or two because if you start calling and texting him now that’s only going to annoy and piss him off even more. Give him his space, and then try to talk to him,” Charlie said.
I just nodded my head although I didn’t think that I would be able to get through a day without talking to him. I had become so accustomed to talking to Dre every day that the fact that I would have to wait to talk to him was going to drive me crazy.
Two weeks later
Two weeks had passed since the incident that took place at Dre’s house, and I had yet to get in contact with him. I have been calling and texting him, but I wasn’t getting a response. He did text me yesterday after I damn near called him once every hour. He simply texted me and said, Are you alive? I texted him back yes, and his response was, Good, now stop fuckin’ calling me!
Reading that message broke my heart and I haven’t called or texted him since. I had been dying to hear from him, and for that to be the first message that I got from him in a long time really hurt my feelings in the worst way.
For the past two weeks, I had been back to living the way I used to before Dre came a part of my life. I was investing all of my time into work and leaving again in the wee hours of the morning. I felt like this was the only thing that would keep me busy and keep my mind off Diandre. I often wondered if he was thinking about me as much as I was thinking about him, but I didn’t think he was because if that was the case then he would have at least called me once. Two Mondays had passed, and my usual flowers that get delivered to my office hadn’t come. I was beginning to think that maybe he was through with me. I wanted to at least be on good terms by the end of the month because Dre’s birthday was coming up.
It was ten o’clock on a Friday night, and I was down to watching the last video was assigned to me by my boss. Once a month, we had to watch these long ass videos for work, and we had an assigned date when we had to have completed all the videos. They were each an hour long, and every time you got a question wrong, the shit would start all over again. I had procrastinated the hell out of watching these videos, which is why my ass is in here now. Luckily, I knew my craft, and I excelled when it came to my job, so I would always get all the questions right. But that didn’t take away from the fact that the videos were indeed long and boring.
As I was thirty minutes into the video, there was a knock on my office door and I paused the film. “Come in,” I said, and a few seconds later, James walked in holding a manila folder in his hands.
“Hey, I didn’t know you were still here. I thought everyone had left,” I said to him.
He closed the door behind him, ignoring what I had just said. I could look in his face and tell that he was on some bullshit, and I wasn’t in the mood. I had only thirty minutes left of this damn video and I wanted to hurry up and get home to feed my damn dog because I knew that she hadn’t eaten all day.
“Where’s your little drug selling boyfriend?” James asked.
I was taken aback by his question. “Excuse me? What did you ask me?” I knew I heard him, but I wanted him to repeat the shit again.
“Oh, you heard me plain and clear, Ms. Toya. I asked you where is your little drug selling boyfriend?”
There was a look of shock etched on my face because I couldn’t believe James right now.
“Oh, please, pick up your face! I see the car this man drives, and I even see the way he dresses. I wanted to know what the hell his black ass did for a living because clearly he doesn’t work a damn nine to five. Would you be shocked to know that your little boyfriend is very popular on jail base? Assault, driving while under the influence, carrying a deadly weapon, I mean damn, the list goes on and on. Your little boyfriend is a fuckin’ badass! Kudos to you because you never have to worry about feeling unprotected while you’re in his presence. But I know one thing that won’t protect his black ass,” he said and slammed down the manila folder on my desk.
I opened it and looked at the pictures. They were of Diandre walking into a rundown building carrying a book bag. When he walked out, he was carrying two duffle bags in each of his hands.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that a drug deal just went down. He went in with the money and came back out with more drugs. Right now, I don’t have good enough evidence to send his ass to jail for good. Oh, but best believe when I do, I’m going to make sure that his black ass rots in there,” James said with an evil smirk on his face.
“Are you a realtor or a fuckin’ detective? Why are you going so hard for a man that doesn’t give a fuck about you? You took it upon yourself to look him up and then you even went as far as following him and taking those pictures of him. What the fuck do you gain from that, you fuckin’ coward?” I asked.
He reached over the desk and tightly wrapped his arms around my neck. “I gain you. I wanted you way before this fuckin’ loser came along, and you go running into his arms like I never fuckin’ existed. I’m sparing your ass because I didn’t show you the rest of the pictures. I have numerous photos of Mr. Diandre Hakeem Davis, but since I care about you so much, Latoya, I’m concerned about your feelings. Your so-calle
d boyfriend doesn’t give a fuck about you because his ass is with a different female every day of the week,” James said, squeezing my neck a little tighter and then shoving me back so hard that I fell and hit my head on the corner of a shelf.
I touched the back of my head and felt blood on my fingers.
“I may be a fuckin realtor, but I’m also a man who is willing to do whatever I have to do in order for me to get what I want, even if that means sending his ass away so I can be with you,” James said with a devious smile on his face. It wasn’t until now that I looked into his eyes and saw just how crazy he was.
“Do you really think that I would be with you, James? You’re fuckin’ crazy if you believe that will ever happen. I never wanted you from the beginning. I was nice to you off the strength of you being my co-worker, and I thought that you were a nice person, but clearly I was wrong. I never gave you any reason to believe that I would want to possibly someday take things further with you. Even when I agreed to have lunch with you, I let it be known that it would just be two co-workers going to lunch. I’m not understanding your confusion,” I said to him.
“Monday afternoon, I want to have lunch with you, not as two fuckin’ co-workers, but as couple. Fuck with me and I will have your ass fired, remember my father is your boss.” He picked up his folder and walked out of my office.
I quickly got up and ran over to the door and locked it. I sat back down on the floor and cried. I cried because I was scared for Dre and I also cried because of what James said about Dre having a female for every day of the week. I couldn’t believe that James was really this monster beneath that fake smile that he paraded around here with. I always knew that he was jealous of my relationship with Dre because I will never forget the look he gave Dre that day in the parking garage. I was not going to tell Diandre about this little incident because with the charges that James had just finished reading off to me, I didn’t want murder to be the next one. There is no doubt in my mind that Dre would kill James for putting his hands on me.
I was going to wait in my office for a little while longer and then I would leave. I wanted to go to the police and tell on James, but that would only piss him off and he would really go forward with making sure that Diandre goes to jail. Plus, like he said, his father was my boss, and blood was thicker than water. James could tell his father anything and he would be sure to fire my ass in a heartbeat.
Chapter 11: Dre
Since Toya and I were taking a fuckin’ break, I had been in the studio with Quan working on this music shit. Quan had come to me with the idea of getting in the studio ever since I had touched down from jail, but I wasn’t taking that shit serious. But damn, when I got in the studio with him a few weeks ago and freestyled on his song, “You Gotta Go,” niggas in the streets wanted to know who the hell the nigga was that Quan had on the track with him. Even his damn manager, Sincere, was trying to sign a nigga. I really think for the first time in life, I was takin’ shit serious.
I knew my grandma would be proud of my ass because I wouldn’t be in the streets anymore. I would be one solid ass nigga when it came to this rapping shit because unlike most rappers, the shit that I was going to rap about was shit that I had actually been through, and not some shit that I just got into the booth and made up because it sounded good.
The shit that Quan and I say on these tracks is shit that we lived through. We know what struggle, and it was time that the world knew this shit. I didn’t sign the contract yet with Sincere, because even though I was mad as hell with Toya, I still wanted her to be with me when I decided to sign on that dotted line. I loved her way too much to just leave her out of the loop like that.
It was almost eleven o’clock, and I was still in the studio listening to beats when my cellphone started ringing. I was thinking that it was going to be Toya, but when I looked at the screen, it was from a number that wasn’t even stored in my phone.
“Who this?” I answered the phone.
“Hello, is this Mr. Davis?” the caller asked.
“Skip the theatrics. This is Dre, who is this?” I asked, not in the mood to play games.
“Hey, Diandre. I hope you’re not mad about me calling you so late, but this is Mr. White, the janitor where Ms. Diaz works. You gave me your number and—”
“Man, please skip all of that shit. What’s going on? Is my girl good over there?” I stood up and used my finger to tell the engineer to silence the music he was playing with my finger.
“She got into it with Mr. Miller, and—”
“Who the hell is Mr. Miller, and what do you mean, got into it?” I asked.
I motioned with my hand to Quay that I was about to leave. He was sitting in the corner of the room and Quan had already left. He knew it was an emergency and just nodded his head. I jogged outside to my car, got inside and floored it to my girl’s office.
“James Miller, he works will Toya. I don’t know what they were arguing about because my headphones were on. But when I took them off, he was walking out of her office with a frown on his face. I then saw Ms. Diaz run to the door, crying and then she closed her door. It’s not my place to ask her what happened, so I called you so that you could see what’s going on in here,” he said.
“Alright, thanks man for calling. I’m on my way now. Make sure Toya doesn’t leave out of her office. I’ll be there within twenty minutes,” I said and hung up the phone.
As I drove to Toya’s building like a bat out of hell, I couldn’t help but to wonder what the fuck could this corny ass boy have done to my lady that was so bad it caused her to cry. I was the only nigga in this bitch that was going to bring tears to her eyes! I swear to God, if that nigga was anywhere in sight tonight, I was going to give Toya the code to my safe so that she could have bond money on deck because my ass was going to jail tonight. This was the third time his ass had disrespected me, and I wasn’t going to allow the shit to keep happening. I appreciated Mr. White for calling me because had he not, I know for a fact that I never would have found out what went down tonight. Toya wouldn’t have told me shit.
I finally made it in the parking garage and since the office was closed, I was able to get a parking spot on her floor. Usually when I came to see her for lunch or just dropped by, I would always have to park on the lobby floor because all the parking spots on her floor were reserved. I parked next to Toya’s car and got out then locked my doors and walked over to the building. Mr. White was in the front, cleaning off the receptionist desk. I knocked, and he came around and opened the door for me.
“Is she still in there?” I asked him as soon as I stepped in.
“Yes, she’s back there,” he said.
I nodded and made my way to her office. I turned the knob, but she had it locked. I didn’t want her to know that it was me, so I went back out front to find Mr. White.
“Mr. White, you have all the keys to the offices, right? For when you clean them?” I asked him.
“Yes, but I wouldn’t be able to give that to you,” he said.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out five one hundred dollar bills and handed them to him. “Come on, man, I know you ain’t going to turn this money down. She not going to answer the door for me, so let me just hold the key,” I bribed.
He nodded and handed me the key at the same time that I gave him the money. I went back over to her door, inserted the key, and let myself in. She looked up from her computer screen and jumped.
“Fuck you jumping for? Come here right quick, let me take a look at you,” I said, closing the door and locking it. I placed the key in my pants and stayed by the door with my hands folded across my chest.
“Look at me for what? What do you want, Diandre?” From the way her voice shook when she talked, I could tell that she was cared about something, I just didn’t know what.
“You got literally a second to get over here! You don’t want me to have to come and get you,” I said.
She quickly got up and made her way over to me. The closer she got,
the handprints that were around her neck became fairly visible. Since I’ve been with Toya, this was the first time that she had ever avoided eye contact with me. I pulled her into me and examined her neck, all the while she kept trying to move away so that I wouldn’t see it.
“What happened to your neck, Toya? Don’t lie to me either, so think before you answer the question.”
Immediately, she burst into tears. “He’s going to send you back to jail, Diandre. He… he… showed me pictures.” She was trying to tell me what happened, but she kept crying, and it was hard for me to make out what she was saying. All I heard was jail and pictures, and I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about.
“Calm down, Toya, and then tell me what’s going on.” I spoke in a calmer voice this time because I knew that I was probably scaring her by the way that I was talking to her.
She got it out her system for another two minutes or so and then she was back to normal.
“You good now?” I asked, and she nodded her head.
Her eyes and nose were red and puffy. This girl was going to cry herself to death.
“Okay, now what happened?” I asked, and she told me everything that took place in her office.
“Where his bitch ass at?”
I headed for the door, but she immediately ran toward it and spread out her hands, preventing me from going out.
“Dre, no, you’re going to go to jail! That’s why I didn’t want to tell you!” she cried.
I wasn’t having that. I tried to shove her out of the way, but she was putting up one hell of a fight. Damn, this girl really loved my ass because she wasn’t letting go of that door for shit.
“Alright, Toya, come on. I ain’t even about to lie to you, I’m not going to leave the shit alone, but I’m going to leave it alone for now because I hate seeing you cry like this over me. But honestly, do you think that I’m going to just sit back and allow another nigga to put his damn hands on you? What type of nigga would I look like if I just let that shit slide? Every time I look at your neck, it makes me want to kill this nigga, and you not making the situation any better by stopping me,” I said to her and she wiped her face.
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