Chapter 35
Jeremy
“Yall must think yall white. Sitting around here with the door unlocked and shit,” I fussed, as I sauntered through Jared’s living room.
Jared’s crazy ass was sitting at the kitchen’s island, with a blunt dangling from the side of his mouth, as he tapped away on his laptop. Cavalli was literally siting on top of the counter, feet and all, while sipping on a glass of wine.
“And hey to you too,” Cavalli spoke.
“’Sup?” Jared grumbled, as he remained focused on his laptop.
“What, you got a deadline or something?” I asked my twin. I knew that striving to be a plastic surgeon required rigorous studying and incredible work ethic.
“Hell, yeah. I gotta turn this shit in tomorrow night, but I’m trying to get done today. I got other shit to do. Aint nobody trying to do work tomorrow too.”
I was always amazed by the fact that my brother could knock out all his assignments in a one day, leaving plenty of time to bullshit around, doing whatever he liked. “Nigga, I love to see how you’re gonna be, when you have to actually put in work somewhere. You aint gonna be able to speed through that.”
“That’s the thing, bro. You’re thinking too small. My only plan is to be my own boss. As soon as all my ducks are in a row, I’ma take my money and invest into myself. I’ma have my own clinic.”
I nodded, knowing that he could do whatever he put his mind to. “That’s what’s up.” I glanced at Cavalli. “What you doing sitting up there, girl?”
She smiled. “I’m Jared’s academic cheerleader. I’m here to cheer him on, while he finishes his paper. You know, and if he’s feeling a little weary, he can look up here at me, and get a little inspiration.”
“Okay,” I laughed. “You funny.”
She ran her fingers through her hair. “Yeah, I know. It’s a gift.”
“Yeah,” I cleared my throat. “I haven’t really had a chance to catch up with you, since that showdown at the club a few months back. I’m pretty busy and we always end up missing each other.”
“I know, right?”
“Uh huh, but I been meaning to ask you something.”
“What’s up?” she arched a brow.
“Okay, I understand Mya’s beef with Vita. Commenting on something that serious involving Mya getting shot is a problem. But what about you? Were you beefed up because Mya was too?” I honestly wanted to know, out of curiosity more than anything else.
“No,” Cavalli denied. “Keeping it real, my beef with her started out because of her dealings with you.”
I squinted. “How is that?”
“Alright, let me just put it out there,” she placed her glass down. “One of the biggest things that I regret regarding me and Jared’s relationship is introducing you to Vita. At the time, Jared didn’t bother telling me that you had a girlfriend, so I wasn’t trying to see you mess over anybody. But that really aint here nor there, because you never cheated with Vita, as far as I know. Still, I really stopped liking my cousin behind some shit going on within yall’s little relationship. And I felt guilty about that, because I was feeling like I was choosing somebody else over my own family. Then Vita didn’t make it no better. She always talks about how I got with Jared and basically said fuck my own family, outside of Mya and my sister.”
I frowned. “What do you mean? She was doing something to me that I was unaware of?”
“No, I’m not gonna lie. I’ve never witnessed her do anything to you, or kick dirt of your name. It’s just about her manipulation and lies. Even when it came down to the situation with Roxy. A lot of that was Vita’s doing.”
“Okay, you’re saying that, but I’m not really following you. Where are you getting these assumptions from? Break it down for me.”
“Alright, it’s like this. You never fucked Vita until you and Jhyrah were over, right?”
“Right.”
“Okay, then. You know that and I know that, but the rest of our family didn’t. That girl has been playing mental games with you, since day one. After the first night you left her apartment, she knew who you was. She always bragged about you, making it seem like she’s your side chick. She had everybody believing that you and her had been sleeping together from the beginning. Then when they’d question her about why you were openly with Jhyrah, she kicked dirt all over yall’s shit. She claimed that you wasn’t happy with Jhyrah. You didn’t want to be with her but was stuck because of the money yall made through social media, by being together. Basically, yall were together for a look, but it wasn’t much love there. And the only reason you wouldn’t leave Jhyrah to be with her was because of you and Jhyrah’s family ties, and everybody was pressuring you to stay. Everybody was eating that bullshit up, because she’d do stupid shit like show everybody some of yall texts. Or brag about the small things you do for her, while you were with Jhyrah. I know that most of the stuff was nothing to you, but it was everything for somebody like her, who aint never had shit.
And then, I believe that I ended up with a target on my back, because I was the only person would could dispute her lies. Of course, Mya could too, but she don’t really fuck with most of the people in our family. So, Vita would have one version of events for me, and another for anybody else who’d listen. She’d even gotten in Roxy’s head—”
Jared lifted his head. “Roxy? I just saw her face on Instagram. Her family claims that she’s missing.”
I wasn’t shocked by that revelation. Roxy had dropped the date-rape drug in Jahrein’s daughter’s drink. And he now knew about it. I was certain that Roxy was no longer breathing for her dirty deed.
“Anyway,” Cavalli waved my brother off. “Fuck her. Like I was saying. Vita was manipulating Roxy’s ass, and that’s how she got her to do her dirty work. As I was saying, Vita was making all these felonious claims, when she knew that Roxy was cool with Jhyrah to a certain extent. She had Roxy believing that yall were really fucking, and a whole bunch of other shit. And since Roxy only hung out with Jhyrah publicly, she didn’t know much of her business. So, she took what Vita was saying and ran with it. She eventually started feeding Roxy lies, telling her that Jhyrah was talking about her on the low, and that you were feeding her all of this information when you’d come see her. That’s when Roxy started hating on Jhyrah.”
I narrowed. “I don’t know, Cavalli. If all this was happening, then why didn’t you say shit? And then you wanna say that Vita was hating on Jhyrah, but she rarely spoke on the girl, until after I started fucking her.”
“Boy, please,” she pursed her lips. “Stop being simple-minded. You gotta give Vita more credit. She’s far from a dummy. If anything, she was using reverse psychology on your ass. This was before we fell out, so I got to witness it all. First, she did some homework on you. She allowed you to lead the conversations, and she ended up finding out a lot. She said that you hated for a broad to kick Jhyrah’s back in, hoping to get next to him. So, she did the opposite. She never said anything negative about Jhyrah to you. She saved all that built-up animosity for story time, when she’d share her fabricated stories with our people. You wasn’t experiencing the real her. She was playing a role with you. She aint nowhere near as humble as she pretends to be around you. Believe that shit. Especially when she likes to give a play by play of all the money you’ve spent on her. I just started looking at her different, because of all the blatant lies she was telling. It was all behind your ass. And it showed me how cutthroat she could be, when something she wanted came into play. She didn’t know Jhyrah from nowhere, but was always hating on the girl, just because she wanted her man. It was like she never stopped to say, well, they are together, and I’ma respect that. No, she wanted you at all costs. I wasn’t really judging her for having feelings for somebody else’s man, because she’s human. That could happen to anybody. It was more in the fact that she was willing to snatch her happiness, at the expense of somebody else’s pain. She had no remorse about being on a mission to steal you from y
our girl.
Now, as far as I’m concerned, I didn’t say anything, because everything was circumstantial and about timing. If I’d said something while yall were just friends, then I would’ve been throwing my cousin under the bus. Then if I would’ve told Jhyrah about yall’s friendship, before yall ended up breaking up, it would’ve probably backfired on me. You having a friend that you hadn’t cheated with would probably piss her off, but wouldn’t be enough to permanently break up with you over. Ultimately, it would’ve caused problems between you and Jared because you probably would’ve felt like I was messy or was trying to meddle with your relationship. Then I would’ve seemed like a piss-poor friend to Jhyrah if I told her about my cousin, after I’d been knowing about it for so long. Either way it went, I would’ve been caught in the middle, even if I wasn’t feeling my cousin, anymore.”
I nodded, digesting everything that she was spitting. “Okay, so what made you finally tell Jhyrah about me and Vita?”
“Well, for one, I felt like you was playing my girl, and I couldn’t leave her in the dark in good conscience. By then you was actually fucking them both, and that’s a completely different story. Plus, the fact that she called herself, hitting Jared up to tell him that I’m fucking his boy didn’t help.”
“Nah, you bullshitting?” I eyed my brother for confirmation.
He nodded, while keeping his eyes trained on the laptop’s screen.
“I told you,” Cavalli quipped. “I wouldn’t have believed the shit myself, if she hadn’t called Jared’s phone, while I was sitting here. She’s had his number forever, so I wasn’t tripping on her calling him, but I made him answer on speaker. She asked if I was here, and his messy ass told her that he didn’t know where I was. That’s when that bitch got to telling him that he can do better. I’m a bopper, and a groupie. If that wasn’t enough, she lied and said that she’d talked to me earlier, and I was at the studio with Amir Junior, insinuating that we were fucking around.”
“Damn,” I scratched my forehead. “Ole Vita is off the chain, I see. But bro, why you aint say shit? You just let me sleep with the enemy?”
Jared shrugged. “I say my piece, but I believe in letting niggas see shit for themselves.”
“True,” Cavalli agreed. “And Jeremy, we learned some shit from you.”
I furrowed my brows. “And what’s that?”
“We learned that it aint healthy to have secret friendships with the opposite sex, while in a relationship. Shit, even if they aint secret, it’s not healthy. Because in most cases, the only reason why nothing is happening, is because the feelings aren’t mutual for both parties. One of ‘em wants more, while the other doesn’t. But the minute some bullshit arises, and you got that friend hanging in the wings, while you’re mad at your spouse…somebody’s getting fucked. Periodt.”
***
Jhyrah was out of fucking control. I knew that she could be petty, but this shit was crossing the line. There was no way in hell I was supposed to learn the sex of the baby through Instagram. I’d been telling her that I wanted to go to her doctor’s visit with her, but she kept blowing me off. Well, apparently, she’d gone to the doctor without me, because she’d just posted a damn gender reveal party that none of my family knew about. Hell, I didn’t even see her parents in any of the footage, telling me that she’d gone through great lengths to make sure that I was excluded from that moment. My mama called me crying, because she was mad and excited all at the same time. She was upset that Jhyrah would do something like that without her being a part of it. It was fuck me, though. But she was overjoyed to learn that we were having a pretty little girl. Hell, I was excited too, but was also feeling way, as I realized that Jhyrah had been shutting me out of the pregnancy. It was about time that she fucking realized that the baby wouldn’t be in there, if it wasn’t for me. I’d made her little ass…intentionally.
Nevertheless, I was once again doing a pop-up visit at Big Jahrein and Raven’s, trying to get some shit understood. Therefore, impatiently, I stood at their door, waiting on somebody to answer.
“My boy, what you doing here?” Little Jahrein questioned, as he swung the door open.
We quickly embraced. “Man, I’m trying to talk to your hard-headed ass sister.”
I stepped into the house, while he scratched the top of his head.
“Man, I don’t know how you finna do that, because she aint here.”
“Oh, she’s gone? When did she leave?”
He shrugged. “I heard like three days ago.”
I scowled, as I followed him through the house. “Three days ago? Have anybody heard from her?”
“Yeah, she’s been half-ass keeping in touch. She called herself moving out, though.”
“Moving?”
“Yeah, man. She moved into one of the properties.”
“For what?”
He smiled. “She’s supposedly mad that my daddy told her that she can’t talk to other niggas in his house. She felt like he was taking your side over hers.”
We stepped into a screened patio area that was usually used whenever someone was smoking. Like it was nothing, me and Jah sat down, before he fired up a blunt.
I licked my lips. “Yeah, about that. I’ve been meaning to ask you what’s up with you letting your boy get at, Jhyrah? I thought we were boys? Why would you bring him around her, when you know she’s pregnant for me and shit?”
“Man,” he drawled. “You know, I’ve always tried to stay out of you and my sister’s business. Especially, when Josairah got me to see that Jhyrah could hold her own with you. So, even when yall would have your little issues, I kept my opinions to myself. But when that shit happened with Jhyrah in the club…it took everything in me not to go off. I held back because I value our friendship. I was really in a fucked-up position, you feel me?”
I nodded. “I feel you.”
He puffed on the blunt. “Okay, so, I was hot, because I don’t give a fuck how wasted my sister get. How high she is. She aint never been a pass-around. Every nigga walking can’t get close. So, it blew my mind that you would even think for a minute that she’d be down to let a nigga have her titty out in the middle of the club. Especially, with somebody like Latrell’s fat, greasy, slimy ass. May God rest his soul,” he formed a cross over his head and chest. “Honestly, the only reason I aint come at you about that shit was because Josairah once again pointed out how we didn’t know what else had been going on between yall for you to feel like you needed to bounce. That was your prerogative. Okay, but then, you bring the bitch around to parties where I’m at and shit, when she was responsible for helping you break my little sister’s heart. I aint say shit. I just advised Jhyrah to move on. Cause I realized that I can’t protect her from heartbreak. Even though, it was killing me, because I wanted to be biased, when it came to my blood, I stayed out of yall drama. So, when I seen that Jagger was feeling my little sister and I knew that he was a real solid nigga, I gave him my blessings. And if I could stay out of your shit, and let you do your thang, I definitely had to give my sister that same respect.”
“You know, I can’t do nothing but respect that, my nigga.” We clasped hands. “But are you trying to tell me that Jhyrah and this nigga are really fucking around?”
He roared with laughter. “The expression on your face, main. Looking like you ‘bout to fuckin’ cry.”
I sat stiffly, not seeing a damn thing funny.
Jah laughed for a minute, before he simmered. “Here, man. Hit this, and calm your nerves.” he passed me the blunt. “And to answer your question…no. They aint fucking around. She shot my boy down, gently.
I think the people in China could probably hear me sigh with relief. “Oh, alright. Let me ask you this, though. Which property is she staying in?”
He shrugged. “One of them three level houses somewhere around the city.”
“Which one?” I pressed.
“Come on, man. You know that if she wanted you to know, she’d tell you herself.”
/> “And you know if this was Josairah we were talking about, I’d give you the address, no questions asked. Especially, if she was pregnant.”
He nodded. “You’re right. Fuck, man,” he vented. “Look, whenever you see her ass…you didn’t hear this from me.”
I nodded in agreeance. “I got you.”
Chapter 36
Jeremy
I sat outside of the address Little Jahrein had given me, attempting to gather my thoughts. On the ride over, I decided that I was done fighting and arguing. I wasn’t calling any shots, and if I wanted Jhyrah to end this war, then I needed to come at her, humbly.
I’d made some missteps that I now regretted. Neither of us were perfect, but at least she had the ability to accept her fuck-ups, while I struggled to see my own bullshit sometimes. With everything that had transpired within the last few months, there was a lot of shit that we should’ve discussed when I first laid eyes on her. But I was too childish to put my ego aside. I should’ve allowed her to be understandably in her feelings. Instead, I focused on what I felt at the time. She’d been in rehab, which was a life changing ordeal, regardless of the turnout. I was happy that someone had stepped in when they caught her slipping, although I loathed the fact that I was a contributor to her turmoil. Even if I was to find out that she haven’t completely shaken her cravings for cocaine, I was willing to ride it out with her, until that monkey was off her back. My goal now was to make amends, and try to repair our relationship. I wanted us to be a complete family before the baby arrived.
Killing the ignition, I was preparing to slide out of the car, when the front door to Jhyrah’s house popped opened. Carrying a bag down the stoop, was some shirtless nigga! Stretching my neck out to get a better look, I caught a glimpse of the dude’s face.
“Chubby?” I grumbled to myself, as he dropped the bag in a trash can at the curb, before jotting back into the house.
The Wild Child Page 38
