No Ordinary Love (4 page)

Confused he looked at his friends, “Ya’ll knew she had a boyfriend and ain’t tell me.”

Tyree chuckled this time. “Nigga, you betta open your eyes. Case is almost a woman-”

Daemon shook his head. “She is a little girl. My mom treat that girl like a goddamn queen and she’d flip if she knew that Case baby was going ‘round here having sex.”

“Yeah right. The only person agonizing over whether or not Case is a virgin is you.”

“You niggas act like I’m just supposed to take advantage of her.”

“Nobody ever said that, D,” David replied.

“You wouldn’t be saying that shit if it was your little sister.”

Tyree frowned. “I think of Case as a sister. And every reason that you have for not messing with her that way is valid. You’re a dog.”

“Your best friend is a dog. I don’t have a girl,” Daemon responded quickly.

Tyree looked over at David, nodded in agreement. “Definitely is.”

“Whateva, nigga,” David responded with a flag of the hand.

Daemon didn’t want to continue with thoughts of the growing Casey and his uneasy attraction to her. He turned his attention to David, “I just want you to know that Trina been walking round here crying her eyes out all week.”

David leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. “Trina misunderstood a situation and refused to listen to reason.”

“I’on see no reason she should’ve listened,” Daemon responded

Just when David opened his mouth to speak in walked Casey, Briannah and Catrina.

“Hey, ya’ll, wassup?”

“Nothing,” Tyree murmured. With his eyes on Briannah he added, “Wassup up with y’all?”

Catrina walked right past them without responding. She walked up the winding back staircase to Casey’s room. Casey shrugged and followed, Briannah lingered.

“So when you gon’ let me come see you?” Tyree flirted with Briannah.

Briannah smiled and shook her head. “I’m not,” she responded as she disappeared up the back stairs after her friends.

“One day,” he called out to her.

Briannah laughed as expected.

Tyree looked at David. “You not gon’ go after Trina?”

David shrugged. He was tired of the silent treatment from Catrina but had been too proud to attempt to speak only to be ignored. Based on his previous attempts, he was certain he would be. “No, she doesn’t want me to and I’m not about to kiss her ass. So, fuck it.” He swallowed the last of his drink and got to his feet. Spent a couple seconds looking at the back staircase and sucked his teeth. “I got a date, I’ma see y’all niggas later,” he told them.

One Question

Catrina paced the room, her arms folded over her chest, her head to the ceiling. Casey and Briannah watched her. When she’d called them to inform them about what had happened between her and David, they had cast their opinions on her situation. They both thought it useless to get into it again but knew that they undoubtedly would because they were her best friends and friends listened.

Sorry that Catrina’s heart was broken, they wanted to provide her with the support that each of them would need if they found themselves in her shoes.

“Do y’all think I’m overreacting? Even a little bit?” Catrina asked. She wanted to bite her nails, but wouldn’t allow the strain of her frustration lead to the ruin her manicure. David’s continuous calls to her had picked away at her resolve to delete him from her life romantically. She had been on the verge of contacting him when she’d walked in and seen his face. Her heart sank to her toes when he didn’t speak to her.

“No—” Briannah shouted.

“Yes—” Casey admitted, with a roll of her eyes in Briannah’s direction.

Briannah sighed. “I’m not saying don’t tell him about the baby. Nobody deserves to be raised without their father around, and it’s not as if he ain’t gon’ find out soon or later anyway.” Her voice had softened but returned to its original tone when the next statement came out. “But if that nigga fuckin’ with somebody else, forget him,” she summed up.

Catrina finally lowered her head to look at them. Her eyes were glassy with tears. “I can’t. He’s been everything to me and I love him so much,” she admitted. It was true enough, David had been her first everything. “I’m so scared to have this baby without him,” she confessed, sitting on the edge of Casey’s bed and putting her head on Briannah’s shoulder and let the tears fall.

Casey’s heart broke at the sight of Catrina’s tears. “So work it out. A baby deserves parents who love and care for each other—”

Briannah frowned and interrupted. “That’s just the point, Case baby, Dave is not acting like he cares for her, fuckin’ around on her. I’on care how much beggin’ he been doin’ these past few days.” In her opinion none of it was enough.

Casey shook her head. “You know he loves her.”

Briannah shrugged. “So he loves her. Trina, you know that he is some bullshit, but you’re having his baby and you love him.”

Catrina lifted her head. “You think I should go talk to him?” she directed her question to Casey because she knew that she was more likely to agree with her out of the two.

Briannah frowned because she figured that Catrina would end up talking to David if she supported her or not. “You think you can deal with him the way things are?”

“No, I’m not the one for that. But I want him. I want us,” she replied as more tears slipped from her eyes.

“Awww, go talk to him,” Casey soothed, hating to see her friend so distraught.

“You’re suddenly full of suggestions for Trina, Case. Don’t see you going after D.”

Catrina laughed as she wiped her tears away with a corner of her shirtsleeve. “Sure don’t.”

“D is scared of me, not the other way around.”

Catrina nodded. “That is true. At least he has the decency to not want to hurt you—”

Briannah snorted, thinking of Tyree and all his overtures for her attention. “Unlike the rest of his friends.”

“I know, right,” Catrina laughed. “It must be a best friend thing ‘cause Ty is a dog too. And he stay trying to get Bri.”

Briannah smiled. She liked Tyree but he had entirely too much going on with his girlfriend and any of the other girls he was messing with on the side for her to add herself into the mix. Briannah huffed, didn’t even know why she was considering him. She already had a boyfriend. “Nigga be trying hard too.”

Casey laughed. “Nyimah is crazy. And she swear everybody want Ty cheating ass. She be like, ‘Chase, why you going with dem? Who gon’ be there?’” she mocked. “And she is ignorant as hell.”

Briannah mentally agreed. She didn’t want any drama. Checking her watch, she said, “I’m ‘bout to go. Mark gon’ flip out if I’m not ready.” Her current boyfriend was taking her the movies. She looked at Catrina. “You gon’ be okay?”

Catrina nodded and stood up. “Yeah, I’ma see if he still downstairs.”

There was no time like the present.

Chapter Three

And Then Things Got Worse

Catrina

Since David left by the time she decided to talk to him, Catrina found herself walking down his mother’s block. She’d decided that she would visit rather than page him in fear that he wouldn’t answer her.
This was the right thing to do for the baby, for her and for him, she tried to convince herself.

Catrina shook her head; she still couldn’t figure out why he would cheat when she tried to be everything that he wanted. Thought that she was everything he wanted. He called her his ride or die, down for whatever chick, and she had been that.
Damn, why couldn’t he have spoken to her at Casey’s? She’d have jumped right into his arms, but instead he’d treated her with the same indifference that she’d treated him with. Catrina quickly reminded herself that just because she wanted to talk didn’t mean that things would go the way she wanted. She was hoping that the headache she’d been experiencing for the past couple days disappeared because she’d no longer be crying.

“Hey, Trina,” one of the guys called from the corner as she walked by.

Annoyed, she looked back to find Kareem following her. “Wassup?” she asked him.

He smiled. It was the first time he’d gotten a chance to speak with her alone since he’d met her. After hearing about her breakup with David he felt confident that she might give him a chance. Still Kareem had lingering doubts, because when a high maintenance girl broke up with her boyfriend, she didn’t hook up with guys below his status. Kareem himself was only seventeen and didn’t have anything David had.

She looked up the entire block of closely connected rowhomes and dreaded every anticipated step. Meanwhile Kareem easily fell in step beside her and slung his arm around her shoulders.

Uncomfortable with being so close to him, Catrina rolled her eyes and pulled away.

The sun had already begun to disappear into the clouds and the sky had a purplish orange tint. The air was cooler than it had been an hour before. She rubbed her arms to warm the goose bumps that made an appearance and the nerves that came along with them.

“I really need to get going,” she told Kareem.

“Hold up now, Trina”

Annoyance flashing in her hazel eyes, she looked up at him. “What?”

“I heard that you and Dave broke up,” he admitted, which gave reason for his pursuit.
G
ossip spreads like wildfire in this neighborhood,
she thought. “No, we had an argument. I’m mad and he’s mad,” she allowed letting him know that she still considered David her man.

“Yo, dat’s not what I heard.” His voice was cool but somehow still seemed to shake with uncertainty.

“Yo, Reem,” the shout came from down the block. “Get away from my brother’s girl,” Chris yelled, sprinting up the block towards them. “Yo man, what da fuck you think you doin’?” he demanded.

Kareem backed off and held his hands in the air as if Chris were the police ready to lock him up for doing something illegal.

“Damn, dawg. I was just rappin’ wit’ her for a sec,” he admitted meekly.

Catrina shook her head and walked away from them both. She was still angry at Chris for lying and now even angrier that he thought he had the right to bust up her groove— had it been that type of situation.

“Don’t let it happen again, nigga,” she heard Chris tell the boy.

“Trina,” Chris called, catching up with her quick paced walking.

“What?”

“Dave ain’t home.”

She stopped, arched a brow and then stared at him doubtfully. “You seriously want me to believe you after the last time?” she retorted.

He looked down at her. “Sorry ‘bout that boop, but was I really supposed to tell that he was home wit’ some smut juhn’?”
Smut juhn’?
Catrina liked how he categorized David’s little friend. A smut juhn’ was a female that dated and slept with a lot of guys. Was it supposed to make a difference if the girl was a virgin and attended church every Sunday? It made no difference to her what type of thing it was. Another bitch is another bitch was all she knew.

“Whateva, Chris. And I don’t expect you to let me know if he in there wit’ some otha bitch right now.”

“I’m serious, he ain’t here. He had some important thing with Ty and D. He might still be with them.”

He wasn’t, she knew but didn’t argue. “If you lyin’ we are done.”

Chris grinned. “So you came down here to make up?”

She sucked her teeth. “I came down here to talk,” Catrina clarified.

“Umm hmm. On the real, he misses you and he been tryna get you back, but your stubborn ass won’t listen to reason.”

She smiled. “You are so full of shit. You cheating on my cousin too?”

Chris frowned. “Never that. I love Chantel and my sweet baby Nyah and I would never do anything to lose them. Soon as I graduate from school and get a job, we gettin’ married,” he replied.

That made her smile. His talk of marriage didn’t surprise her, because with Chris and Chantel marriage had always been on the agenda of things to come. Chris was so much more responsible than his older brother. Girlfriend, and child meant permanence to him—shit meant the same things to her now that she thought about it.

“I know.”

“You want me to take you home?”

Catrina nodded. Her house was five blocks away and within walking distance but she felt she could use the ride. “You ain’t doin’ nothing?”

“Naw, I was gon’ stop by your house a little later but I’ll go now. The car is on the corner, cross the street,” he said handing her the keys. “I got something in the house for Chantel that I want to drop off,” he added when she gave him a doubtful look.

Once in the car she devised a plan to talk him into letting her drive home. Seeing how she was already strapped in the driver’s seat, he would have to let her, she figured. Since obtaining her driver’s permit David had let her drive his car all the time.

She was a responsible, cautious, and careful driver – A sharp pain in her abdomen disrupted her thoughts. “Ooow shit,” she cried, her hand going directly to the source of pain.
Way too much stress. Just calm down.
The doctor’s words came to her now. ‘Stress is not good for you or your baby so you’ll have to maintain a good level of calm. Your blood pressure is very high.’ “Ahh,” she moaned and shifted in the seat taking three deep breaths.

She spotted Chris coming down the street the exact same time she recognized David’s forest green Bonneville SSEi rolling up beside him. Catrina frowned as the pain in her abdomen eased a little and began to feel more like menstrual cramps. She unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. She noticed Chris nodding his head towards his car before David got out of his.
David reached Catrina just before she had an opportunity to notice that there was a female in the passenger’s seat.

“I wanted to talk to you,” she started. David seemed impatient as he grabbed her by the arm and began dragging her back in the direction she’d just come from.

“Why you ain’t page me, Bey?”

She shrugged and looked up at him. “I ain’t think you was gon’ call me back. I need to talk to you.”

“You know I would have got with you,” he assured her.

It took Catrina a moment to realize that he was pulling her in the opposite direction of his car. Frowning, she snatched her arm away. “What the fuck are you pulling on me for? You wanna stand out here and talk in front of all these nosy ass people?” she questioned.