Side Chic (11 page)

Shaun giggled. “Daddy everybody calls you black!”

“Boy go in your room
and close the door
!” They both
ran down the hall to their room and slammed the door.

Kisha stood there looking at me, I coul
d tell that she had been crying because her eyes were red and puffy.
“Baby, listen…”

“
Baby…
my motherfuckin’ ass!” She exploded! “I am so sick and tired of this endless cycle! Shit will be all good for a while and then…”  She snapped her fingers. “Just like that you go and do something to fuck it up! Every single fucking time! Yesterday when you told me that you were going over to Casper’s
,
I didn’t say a word. You’d been doing so good, spending time with me and the boys, cooking, cleaning and helping out around the house. I felt like you more than deserved some time with the fellas so I didn’t complain at all. But damn I had no idea that you needed an entire night with the fellas!”

“Kisha baby, if you would just let me explain.” I stood up and walked over to her. I tried to touch her arm but she snatched away!

“Don’t touch me!”
She rolled her eyes hard folding her arms.

I ran my hands over my head. “Listen, I got so fucked up last night that I passed out on the sofa in Caper’s basement. That’s where I was all night…I swear!”

She sucked her teeth and shook her head. “That is no fucking excuse Tre! You ain’t some damn lil kid! You are a grown ass man! You should know your limit and know when it’s time to qu
it! Your ass shouldn’t have been
passed out on Casper’s sofa! You should’ve been at home in your bed lying next to me!” She paused and then continued. “Let me ask you a question.”

I let out a frustrated breath. “Go ahead.”

She looked me directly in my eyes.
“How would you feel if I stayed out all night long? No phone call, no text message, smoke signal, or nothing.
All you kne
w is when I walked out of the house the day before I
told you that I would be back in a little while. Aside from thinking that I may be out creeping, wouldn’t you be worried sick? Wondering if I was okay?” She paused and looked at me. All I could do was drop my head. I hadn’t even taken the time to think of it like that. “The next time that you decide that you want to stay out all night, when you do get back all that will be here waiting for your ass is this empty ass house! I’m getting tired Tre! Tired! I am a damn good woman and mother and all I ask is that you treat me how you want to be treated. That’s not too much to ask for!
I’ve been putting up with your shit for years now and just when I think that you have all of the bullshit out of your system, you go and do something else stupid!
”

I couldn’t argue with that because she was right. She’d put up with a lot from my ass and she really didn’t deserve to be treated like this. Listening to her break it down like she did made me understand exactly why she was so upset and she had every right to be. If I’d quit drinking when I felt myself getting too drunk and brought my ass home then Tamika wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to do the nasty shit that she had. I’d definitely learned my lesson. “Baby, you’re right and I apologize for causing you to worry. I promise you that it won’t happen again.”

“Hmph, you’d better hope not!” She said giving me nasty look and then walking back down the hallway.

I flopped back down on the sofa. “Man, fuck!” I mumbled. Even when I had every intention of doing the right thing, I still managed to fuck up! My head was killing me so I stretched out on the sofa. I reached back and got my coat and put it over my head. In no time I had drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up a few hours later, I sat up on the sofa and looked around. Wiping my eyes and stretching I looked at the window and saw that it was starting to get dark outside. I looked up at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost seven o’clock. I’d slept all damn afternoon. I got up and went down the hall to the bathroom and took a nice hot shower. When I was done, I got dressed in a pair of
baggy grey sweats, a white tee and a pair of grey and white Adidas. I brushed my hair and put on my grey durag.

I’d heard Kisha and the boys in the boy’s room when I’d come down the hallway. I went to the boy’s door and slowly pushed open the door. They were on the floor along with Kisha playing Bingo.

“Hey, I ain’t trying to interrupt y’all or anything but I was about to run to mama’s house for a little while and I wanted to take the boys with me.”

Kisha had changed clothes and was now wearing a little blue sundress. She still had her hair tied up. She looked up at me briefly. “You can take them but keep in mind that they have school in the morning and it’s already
passed
seven.”

The boys jumped up and started to put on their shoes.

“Did you want to go with us?” I asked Kisha hoping that she would say yes. I didn’t like when she was upset with me because she was the type that stayed mad forever.

She started to pick the Bingo cards and chips up. “Nah, I’m going t
o stay here. I have a slight headache.” I got down on the floor and started to help her clean up the game. “I got it.”

“I know baby but I just wanted to help you.”

She stopped what she was doing and looked at me. “For real, I don’t even want to be around you right now. So stop trying to talk to me and just let me be. You can’t do fucked up stuff and then expect for everything to be all good!” I tried to touch her again but again she snatched back. “Didn’t I ask you earlier not to touch me?”

I held my hands up. “My bad…I won’t touch you again.”

“Good!”

I saw that me trying to talk to her was only making the situation worst so I decided to leave her alone.
“Alright then, we’ll see you when we get back.”

“Yeah…”

I got up off the floor. “Y’all come on.” I told the boys. We left and went to my mom’s house. She
’d
cooked a big dinner so
I
ate there. The boys
had already eaten before they
left home but they still ate some of my mom’s pineapple cake. She made the best pineapple cake hands down! After we’d eaten, me, my dad, and the boys played around with the pool table for a while.

My mama came into the back room where we were playing pool. “Boys, y’all come on here and get in the tub. I’ve already ran you some water. Quan, you go and get in grandma’s tub. Shaun, you go and get in the other tub. I’ve already laid your night clothes in the bathroom. When y’all get out of the tub, go in yo
ur room and go to bed. I’ll
take y’all to school in the morning. How does that sound?”

They both started jumping up and down! “Yay!”

“Are you going to pick us up tomorrow from school too?” Quan asked. “I want to come back and play pool!”

My mama looked at my dad, placing her hand on her wide hip. “See Gerald what you done started with that pool table.” She laughed. “Now we can’t get rid of these two munchkins!”

“Munchkins?” The boys giggled.

“Take your little butts and get in the tub like I told you to five minutes ago!” She told the boys. They left the room going to do what she’d said.

My dad stood on the other end of the table laughing. “Those little guys are a mess.”

“Yes they are.” I agreed.

“Tre, tell Kisha to have the boys backpacks ready in the morning so that I can stop by and pick them up on my way to take them to school
.” My mama told me.

“Okay, I’ll tell her.”

She walked over and gave me a hug and kiss. “Well I’m glad that you came over but I am about to go and put these munchkins to bed and then go in my room and find me a good movie to watch.”

“Okay.” I hugged and kissed her back. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She left out and then me and my dad started to play a real game of pool, before we had just been messing around with the boys. While we were playing I told him about what was going on with me and Kisha. I even told him about what had happened with Tamika. “Man pops, I don’t know what to do. I mean, I honestly went
over
there to have a few drinks with the fellas, enjoy myself and go home. I had no intentions on getting that messed up. It just crept up on me!”

My dad took his handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped sweat from his face before shoving it back in his pocket. I was the spitting image of my dad, same height, build, and complexion. The only difference was that he was older and had started to get grey. “I know how that can be…trust me. This Tamika girl sounds like somebody that you need to stay as far away from as you possibly can. She sounds like trouble. I don’t know any woman who would go that far to mess with a man to wait til he’s drunk and passed out
and take advantage of him.” He shook
his head
. “Stay away from her!”

“You ain’t got to tell me. That’s exactly what I plan to do!”

“You know, when you try to do right there is always going to be something that tries and prevent you from doing that. Now I have to tell you. You have been doing good. I have noticed that you have been spending more time with your family and I am very proud
o
f you son. I know that you are young but trust me, there ain’t nothing out there in them streets but trouble. You have a good woman at home, don’t mess that up. I know that we all make mistakes and that’s life. If you didn’t make mistakes then that would mean that you ain’t human! Don’t let what just happened discourage you. Keep doing like you’ve been doing. Kisha won’t stay mad forever. It will all blow over soon but stay away from this Tamika because something ain’t right about her!”

We continued to talk while we finished up our game of pool. I didn’t leave until a little after eleven. As I drove home I thought about all of the things that my pops had told me.
He was right I had been doing too good to let what had happened the night before discourage me. I decided that I’d just give Kisha sometime to cool
off but in the meantime I’d continue to do like I’d been doing.

             
             
             
             
             
Lala

Two weeks had
gone by since me finding out that I was pregnant with twins. One baby was okay, I felt like I could handle that but two! I’d been devastated
since Dr. Por
ter
delivered the news
. I kept wondering how in the hell I was going to take care of two babies, plus work. Nisey had been trying to comfort me as mu
ch as she possibly could. She
even offered to help me with the babies as far as babysitting. I appreciated her offer but the truth of the matter was
,
she was about to have a baby of her own to take care of. There was no way she would be able to care for three babies by herself while I worked.
That would be
too much on her and there was no way that I
could ask her to do that. I’
d just have to figure out something by the time the babies got here.

It was Tuesday evening and Nisey had
been kind enough to invite me
over to her place for dinner.
When I arrived she greeted me at the door wearing a white tee, blue sweats, bedroom shoes and a red and white cooking apron with
Nisey
stitched across the front. “Hey girl.” She smiled holding open the door for me.

“Hey. I like that apron.” I replied walking inside.

“Thanks.”

Her home was really nice and cozy. It wasn’t anything fancy but it was nicely decorated and really neat.
The eggshell paint on the walls gave it a warm relaxed vibe.
The first thing that I noticed when I walked into her living room was the huge bookshelf that took up one entire wall.

“Goodness you sure love to
read
, don’t you?” I asked walking over to the bookshelf and looking at all of the different books. She had a
wide
varie
ty
.

“Girl, I will read anything
,
Sci-Fi, romance, drama, mystery, erotica, street-lit. Ho
ney, it doesn’t matter! I just love to read!” She stood rubbing her belly. “Go on and take off your coat and make yourself at home.
The food’s done so we can go on and ea if you want.
”

I took off my coat and laid it down on the back of the sofa. I walked around looking at the pictures on the wall. There were lot
s of pictures of her, her son and her husband.
I was surprised to see that her husband
was white. He was tall with red hair and freckles. He looked kind of nerdy to me but you can’t judge a book by its cover. “You
had
a beautiful family. Y’all look
ed
so happy.” I said staring at the photos.

“Thanks.” She stood there staring at th
e pictures for a moment,
a
look in her eyes
like she was reminiscing but then she snapped out of it. “Come on let’s go into the kitchen.”