The Diary of a Side Chick 4: A Naptown Hood Drama (Side Chick Diaries)

by Tamicka Higgins

  “Congratulations,” the nurse said to Desirae.

  Desirae smiled, looking down at her stomach. “Thank you,” she said.

  “Will this be your first?” the nurse asked.

  Desirae nodded. “Yeah,” she answered.

  Becky smiled. “I remember my first,” she said. “I remember when me and my husband went to the doctor appointments and how exciting it was to find out different things.”

  Desirae glanced at the floor with hearing the word husband. “Yeah,” she said when she looked back up. “I am excited to find out stuff. I’m a little scared and nervous.”

  Becky patted Desirae on the shoulder and smiled. “Don’t be,” she advised, in a loving way. “There is nothing to be scared of. Pregnancy can be a wonderful thing…it really can.”

  “Yeah,” Desirae said, sounding unsure of that part. She imagined herself giving birth, putting her face in the scene like she had seen on television shows and in movies. “I am not looking forward to the actual giving birth part.”

  “Yeah,” Becky said, nodding her head as she began to take Desirae’s blood pressure. “That’s the part that definitely kinda sucks.” Becky giggled. “But, it all really depends.”

  Desirae looked up into Becky’s face, feeling content with the fact that this nurse was nice and that for the first time in some days she felt like she could talk to someone about something. It was even better that this woman was a stranger and did not know anything about Desirae that Desirae did not want her to know. “Can I ask you something?” Desirae said.

  Becky looked at her and smiled. “Sure,” she said.

  “This labor thing,” Becky said. “How bad is that really?”

  Becky sucked air in through her teeth. “Well,” she said, as she was clearly trying to find the perfect words to describe it. “It really depends on the woman, and probably how many children she has already had. Typically, your first child will be the hardest because you’ve never done this before. However, that does not happen to everybody.”

  “What’s the longest anyone has ever been in labor, that you know of?” Desirae asked.

  Becky took a moment to think about it. “I remember a lady, before I moved here, back in South Bend, who was in labor for like three days,” she answered. “Now, that was pretty intense. I went home from work and came back like two days in a row and she was still there, but no baby!” Becky laughed. “Poor thing.”

  Desirae’s head shook. “God, I hope that ain’t me.”

  Just then, Doctor Adair walked into the room. The doctor was a somewhat tall black woman. To Desirae, she resembled the actress Angela Basset in a lot of ways. Her mannerisms were especially similar. Soon enough, Desirae could hear the doctor talking with an East Coast accent.

  The doctor introduced herself to Desirae, who loved seeing that the doctor was a mature black woman. When Becky finished up doing her nursing duties, she slid out of the room.

  “Are you excited, Desirae?” Doctor Adair asked with a professional smile.

  “Yeah,” Desirae answered. “I am now.”

  Doctor Adair looked at Desirae with a plain face, but was sizing her story up based on how she was dressed and how she talked. “Well,” she said. “That is good.”

  After the doctor got some necessary information from Desirae, she walked her down to the x-ray and ultrasound room. Realty really sunk in when the nurse came into the room and began to rub the gel on her stomach. She had always seen this sort of thing on television, but never dreamed in a million years that she would be starring in such a role. Soon enough, the doctor was telling Desirae how many months along she was with her pregnancy.

  “Well,” Doctor Adair said. “Miss Desirae, it definitely looks like you are three months, or twelve weeks, pregnant.”

  Desirae was shocked to hear that, considering that she had not really gained much weight, if any at all. “Oh, okay,” Desirae said, smiling. She counted six months into the future in her head, figuring that she would be having her baby sometime in either August or September – a fall baby.

  “But that’s not all,” the doctor said as she looked at the computer and other information. “Miss Desirae, you are pregnant with twins.”

  Desirae’s eyes damn near popped out of her sockets hearing something like that. The words pregnant with twins echoed in her mind. Since finding out that she was carrying Tron’s baby, Desirae had already mentally prepared herself for the idea of taking care of one child. Never in a million years did she think a doctor would tell her that she is pregnant with twins. Part of her wanted to be excited, as she was not totally opposed to the idea of having two children. However, another part of her – the part of her whose voice was so loud that it could not be overlooked or ignored – was scared shitless. Maybe terrified would be a better word, because she was already starting to feel the pinch of adulthood that came with taking care of herself in a world that was so cold. Taking care of one baby was going to be a challenge – two babies sounded like a fucking beautiful nightmare.

  “I’m pregnant with twins?” Desirae asked Doctor Adair, clearly surprised.

  Doctor Adair remained stern and professional, but smiled as she sent the ultrasound to a printer so that Desirae could take a copy home. “Yes, you are,” she answered. The doctor was not the least bit surprised at Desirae’s response. Having twins was generally a shock for any woman, regardless of her age. However, the doctor had seen throughout her career that the younger the woman, the bigger the reaction. Based on how Desirae spoke and some of her mannerisms, Doctor Adair got the vibe that this girl was neither educated nor in a committed relationship. “I know this may be hard to hear,” she said. “But I need for you to not stress too much over this. Like I said, I know it must be hard not to, but stress is not going to do you any good in this situation.”

  “Twins, though?” Desirae said. Her emotions were now taking over as she was thinking about what having twins would mean for her life. “Are you serious?”

  Doctor Adair pointed at the screen and said frankly, “These are two bodies, Desirae. You are twelve or so weeks in, and you are having twins. It is too early to see the sex, because that mostly can’t be seen until around week eighteen or nineteen, sometimes as early was week seventeen. However, I can definitely see here that you are having twins.”

  Desirae looked down at the floor, knowing that whatever plans she had thought up for getting her life back on track and taking care of a baby would now have to change. Part of her thought that she was going to be able to do this without ever calling on Tron and asking him for anything. That, however, was looking as if it was going to be different. There was just no way that she was going to be able to take care of two babies on her own.

  “I can’t believe this,” Desirae said.

  Doctor Adair looked at Desirae, seeing the mental anguish in the young woman’s face. Badly, she wanted to ask Desirae about her situation. Where was the father? Why did he not come with her? Sure, the doctor had black couples come to see her all the time. However, she could not deny for one minute that an overwhelming majority of single women who came to see her were black. Nonetheless, she remained silent and allowed Desirae to sort through her feelings.

  ***

  When Desirae left Doctor Adair’s office with so much new information to process, she stepped off of the curb of the sidewalk just outside of the building doorway without looking. Quickly, a car swerved, honking its horn as it avoided hitting her. Jumping back, she realized how zoned out with disbelief she was, pulled herself together, and walked across the parking lot. For the entire walk, which seemed twice as long as the time it took her to head into the building when she got there, the words pregnant with twins were all she could think about. For whatever reason, she felt like she had been cursed in a way she did not deserve. She knew that her life was about to become twice as hard as she had originally planned. And her situation was even worse because these twins had a father that was some nigga who refused to live up to his word.

>   When Desirae got into her car, she immediately turned the heat on. She had begun to pull out of the parking spot when she simply stopped the car and remained parked. Zoning out on the traffic rushing down 96th Street, she leaned her head back into the headrest and turned the radio down. In silence, she could hear her heart beat. Occasionally, the sound of squawking geese flew over in the skies above the office plaza.

  “I don’t fuckin’ believe this,” Desirae said, shaking her head. “Twins? Twins? This can’t be happening.” She knew that it was. Her eyes saw just what the doctor’s eyes had seen. There indeed did appear to be two little bodies inside of her. Everything began to get so serious. She would have to deal with Tron, who she knew would not respect her, especially after she let him have it with that fork. Then, on top of that, she had no choice but to let her best friend Reese go. She would never be able to trust her again after she was clearly up at Honeys East that night to see what Desirae had been getting. Desirae thought about how if she were still friends with Reese, this mind be easier to handle. However, this was simply not the case.

  Once Desirae calmed down, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and texted her mother: Just left the doctor…Twins.

  Not even believing it as she texted the words, Desirae dropped her phone into the drink holder and went back to leaning her head against the seat. Within seconds, she could hear her phone vibrating again. She had immediately assumed that it was her mother either responding to the text or calling back. Desirae quickly grabbed her phone and found that it was not her mother. Rather, a text message had just showed up from Reese. “What this bitch want?” Desirae said to herself, her nostrils flaring as she opened to the text message.

  Reese: Can we talk?

  Desirae looked side to side for a minute, hating that she even still had Reese’s phone number saved in her phone. She wondered why she had not already deleted it since she was done with Reese for good. At this point, however, there was nothing to hold Desirae back from letting Reese know how she felt. She needed to let off some of her frustration anyway. Who better to get it than the very person who had betrayed her the most?

  Desirae: What the fuck you want?

  Desirae smirked as she hit SEND on that text message. Within seconds, her phone was vibrating with Reese calling her. As soon as Desirae answered, she could hear Reese putting on that sweet, innocent voice that had fooled her for so long, evidently.

  “Bitch, what the fuck you want?” Desirae asked coldly as she answered the phone. “Why the fuck you callin’ me? Ain’t you got some dick out there that don’t belong to you that you supposed to be chasin’?”

  “Desirae,” Reese said. “You know it wasn’t even like that. I know you seen me try’na call you and stuff since you went up to that club and stabbed Tron.”

  “It wasn’t like that?” Desirae asked. “Bitch! What the fuck do you mean it wasn’t like that? I know what I saw and you was up there try’na get with the father of my fuckin’ child like some desperate ass THOT out here. I don’t even know why you try’na cover that up, and I don’t know why the fuck you would even be callin’ me thinkin’ that we gon ever, ever, ever be cool like we was again, bitch. Who the fuck do you think I am and shit?”

  “Desirae,” Reese said in a pleading voice. “You just assumed, but I was really up there to see what he was doing so that I could tell you.”

  Desirae was not even trying to hear Reese make any sort of excuses for why she was up there. She was so disgusted that Reese could even have the audacity – the balls – to come calling her and thinking that she could smooth everything over.

  “Bitch,” Desirae said. “I know why you was up there. And I only answered the phone so I could let your no good ass know where the fuck to get off. You was up there try’na get with Tron, who you knew was talkin’ to me. Guess you just really had to try some of the dick, huh? You probably done been back up there and on your knees to try to get him to like your old dusty ass.”

  “Dusty?” Reese said, now feeling insulted. Sure, she felt guilty about even for one second thinking of popping into Honeys East. While she never actually did get to the point of doing anything with Tron, she was as good as guilty already, at least in the court of public opinion. “Desirae, I really don’t think you the one who need to be callin’ anyone names. You was just that nigga’s hoe, then you get mad and always gotta talk my ear off about how he treat you like a hoe.”

  “Hoe?” Desirae said, now really mad. “I swear to God, Reese. I don’t wanna ever see you in life again. You lucky I’m pregnant or else I’d find your ole tired, no butt, no titty havin’ ass and beat that ass like it obviously need to be beat. You lucky them niggas up at the club pulled me off that ass, cause you know I was about to tear it up, don’t you? You know I was about to beat that ass somethin’ fierce. Girl, I woulda dragged you around that floor and out the door and embarrassed that ass and you know it.”

  “Whatever, Desirae,” Reese said. “You know you overactin’ and shit.”

  Desirae had had enough at this point. She knew that her former best friend must have been one crazy bitch to even come calling and trying to cover up her tracks. Desirae did not care if Reese actually got to do anything with Tron or not. The fact that she was somewhere she had no business being was enough for her.

  “I swear to God, bitch,” Desirae said. “As soon as I drop these fuckin’ babies, I’mma come beat that ass. After that, I swear to God I don’t wanna ever see you again in life.”

  “Babies?” Reese asked, sounding surprised. “That nigga got you pregnant with twins?”

  Desirae shook her head, hating that she even answered the phone. “Bitch, bye,” she said then ended the call. Nostrils flaring and her hormones raging just a little bit too much, Desirae tossed her phone into the front passenger seat. Within seconds, it was vibrating again. However, she was in no mood to answer, already knowing that it was Reese calling her back. The level of betrayal that Desirae felt from that chick was just something she could not overlook, and she never would.

  Desirae pulled out of her parking spot and headed toward the busy 96th Street. As she got out into the road and headed toward the highway, she slowly put Reese out of her mind. Soon enough, she was contemplating how she was going to approach the situation with Tron. How would she tell him that she was pregnant with two babies? She hated that she was going to have to play her cards right just to have some help with her situation. While she would have to tell him soon, she would also have to work on moving out of her apartment and in with her mother. Her life was just changing so much, so quickly.

  Chapter 2

  February 14th. Valentine’s Day. For the last couple of days, Shawna had actually been rather busy. Usually, with the kind of snow and ice that was typical of winters in Indiana, especially during late January and early February, her appointments would decrease. This year, however, things had been rather good – not necessarily as busy as they might be on a spring, summer, or fall day, but surely more clients were getting their hair done than usual. While this was certainly good for Shawna, it came with a price. As each woman came in to have her hair done, she basically spilled her guts about the plans she had for Valentine’s Day.

  These conversations only served as reminders of what Shawna had lost. In a matter of days she went from being happily in love with Tron to being so mad at him that she could feel her blood pressure rising from just thinking about it. In fact, there were days when she would be chilling at her sister Morgan’s place that Shawna would have to just sit down and think. She felt so embarrassed at the thought of even trying to work anything out with Tron. Not only did he have a side chick, and was going to meet her when he was supposed to be out of town, not to mention lying about it when Morgan had seen him, but the side chick was also pregnant. There are certain things that Shawna would like to think that she could look past. However, staying with a man that gets his side chick pregnant is simply not one of them. Now, more than ever, Shawna wanted to do whatever needed to be
done so that she could push through and move on.

  Now, with it being Valentine’s Day, and having to listen to days and days of clients’ plans for the day, Shawna woke up and spent this February morning chilling on the couch. Sometimes she actually watched a show, and other times the television was simply on. It acted as background noise to what she was thinking. This Valentine’s Day was the first in many years that she had been alone. And it came on the heels of the fall of their relationship, not to mention that nigga basically making a fool out of her.

  “Fuck him,” Shawna said. She sipped on a glass of cranberry juice while she lounged about, sprawled across her sister Morgan’s couch. Still, after being here for basically two weeks and some change, she was not used to it. She felt like she was so above this – above having to stay with a friend because of what went on in her relationship. There were days that she regretted getting her stuff together and moving out of the townhouse. However, that was now water under the bridge. She had been gone too long to go back. And going back would probably only remind her of the betrayal even more, not to mention the mental anguish that would come at this point from trying to get Tron to move out.

  Shawna checked her cell phone, looking at the time. It was approaching noon. She glanced out of the window, at the snow-covered car roofs in the parking lot of Morgan’s apartment. She then looked around the apartment, noticing yet again how Morgan’s furniture and layout was nowhere close to what she had with Tron. Never did she think her lifestyle – or quality of life – would change so quickly.

  “I’m good,” she said to herself. “I got two hours before I gotta get ready to head to the shop and do Ms. Susan’s hair.” That’s my girl, Shawna thought.

  When Shawna had gotten up this morning, her sister Morgan was in her room getting ready to go to breakfast with her boyfriend, Chris. Shawna did have to admit to herself that it was kind of nice that she and her sister’s roles in their sisterly relationship had changed. For quite some time, it had been Morgan giving Shawna relationship advice – giving her advice whether she wanted it or not. With the tables turning, Shawna now got a chance to look at her sister’s love life. And she loved making comments, even thought of it as getting even for some of the things Morgan would say to her when she was living with Tron.