Single Ladies 7 & 8: " That's What Friends Are For" (4 page)

Falisha kept her cool and began to eat along with everybody else. For the first few minutes, it was pretty much silent except for the sounds of spoons and forks hitting the plates and a couple of moans from the delicious taste of the food..

“I got an announcement I wanna make,” Tammy said, wiping her mouth with the napkin. I’m moving next week,” she said, taking a sip of her juice.

“What? I know it’s not with that boy,” Kim spoke, surprised to hear that coming from her.

“His name is Darious and he’s far from a boy,” Tammy quickly corrected. “Besides, he makes me happy.”

“That’s right girl, that’s all that matters,” Falisha cut in.

“You know Chris gon’ kill you and him when he gets home,” Ralphy chuckled.

“Chicks ain’t got no loyalty now-a-days. A nigga go to jail, and a female is so quick to forget about everything a nigga did for them before he got there,” Lamar said with a slight attitude “I don’t respect it,” he concluded, taking a bite of his chicken breast.

“Lamar!” Kim yelled, smacking his arm, “Don’t be rude.”

“Nah, nah, that’s cool, Kim. I’m not mad at Lamar. He’s only saying how he feels. But let me say this to all the niggas that’s locked down in the pen, I didn’t put a gun to nobody’s head and made you be a trap boy. Chris did that on his own. I would have stood by his side if he worked at McDonalds in order to provide for his family. He knew what he was doing, and the possibility of being taken away from his kids. But, guess what, he kept doing it. Meaning he didn’t give a damn about me or our kids. He left this pussy out here so he could be around a bunch of men and dicks. If you think I’m about to put my life on hold for the next ten years, you and every other nigga, got another thing coming,” Tammy said pointing her fork at him.

Lamar sat there and continued to eat his food. He really didn’t have anything else to say. Chris had always been a cool dude to him, and from the outside looking in, it looked like Tammy was leaving him when he most needed her.

Ralphy, on the other hand, had something he wanted to get off his chest. He cleared his throat, reached into his back pocket, and pulled out an envelope. Inside, were the divorce papers signed by him and Lisa, and ready to be processed. He held onto them for good reasons and the most important of them was that he wanted to make sure a divorce was what he really wanted.

“Me and Lisa been together for a long time now, and I know everybody is aware of what happened between us. I just wanna say that when you love somebody as much as me and Lisa love each other, you can make it through anything,” Ralphy said, taking the papers and ripping the up into little pieces, “Me and Lisa are back together.”

“You just sayin’ that cause she got shot. Nigga, the streets is talking,” Falisha said, biting down on her fish.

“You out of pocket, Falisha,” Kim said.

“Look who’s talkin’,” Falisha shot back. “Don’t you got something you wanna say, since everybody got announcements…”

“I got an announcement,” Lamar said, reaching into his pocket for the ring.

“And who you screwing now?” Falisha shot at him.

She wasn’t taking any prisoners today. Her hormones were running wild and she was just saying whatever came to mind. Lamar was so shook he put his ring back inside his pocket and continued eating without attempting to respond to Falisha’s comment.

“Damn, you cold,” Mrs. D said, shaking her head at Falisha.

“Yeah, and don’t think that I don’t know that you got cancer. You like a fuckin mother to me, and you hide some shit like this from me… from us.”

Mrs. D leaned over and back-handed Falisha right in her mouth, splitting her bottom lip on the side. Falisha knew she was wrong, and that’s why she did nothing but cover her mouth with her hands and remained quiet while Mrs. D said what she had to say.

“Yeah, I got cancer, but that’s my business. I was going to tell the rest of y’all who didn’t know, on my own terms, not yours,” Mrs. D said, cutting her eyes over at Falisha. “Now, if y’all don’t mind, I wanna enjoy the rest of this meal without the negativity. So if you don’t have anything positive to say, then don’t say nothing at all,” Mrs. D concluded before digging into her plate.

Everybody was in agreement with trying to salvage what good was left in the Sunday dinner. Silence took over the table, and just when everybody thought that the day was over, Falisha rocked the table with her own shocking public announcement.

“Well, how about one more quick announcement. I’m pregnant!” Falisha said before turning around and walking out of the kitchen on her way to the bathroom.

__________

Johanne sat in her hospital bed looking at the positive pregnancy test the nurse had given her. She was so astonished by the good news, she could barely feel the metal rods keeping her shattered shin bone in place. This whole time, she had no idea she was absolutely with child and the more she looked at the test, the more excited she became.

“Excuse me, nurse. Is it possible for you to find out how far along I am,” Johanne asked, reaching over and grabbing her cell phone off the stand.

“Sure, just give me a minute,” the nurse responded.

Although Ralphy said that he’d be back around 8:00, Johanne couldn’t help but to try and call him. She wanted to give him the news right away, hoping he would be just as happy as she was. Unfortunately, her few attempts at calling him ended up going straight to his voice mail. She thought about texting him, but that was a little too cheesy. Johanne would have to wait, but in the meantime, in between time, she was going to bask in the beautiful gift of motherhood.

“BABE!” Darious yelled out from the upstairs bedroom. “Come ’ere real quick,” he shouted.

Tammy was in the kitchen feeding Sinniyyah in her high chair. She picked her up and headed upstairs to see what Darious wanted. When she got to the bedroom, he’d just wrapped up a phone call.

“Yes babe,” Tammy said, putting Sinniyyah on the bed, then walking over and standing in front of him while he sat on the edge of the bed.

“On ya way to go pick up Anthony, I need you to drop this medication off to one of my patients,” Darious said, grabbing her by the waist. “I got a lot of running around to do before I go to work.”

“Yeah, sure babe. That’s no problem,” she said, rubbing the top of his head, “Are you okay, ’cause you look a little stressed out,” she said, pushing him back onto the bed. She then climbed on top of him.

She leaned in and kissed him then looked into his eyes. She still couldn’t believe how far in-love she was with Darious, and he felt the same.

“You know I love you right?” he asked, reaching up and placing his hand on her cheek. “Promise me that you’re not going to leave me,” he said.

“I know you love me, Darious, and I’m not going anywhere. You got my heart,” she responded leaning back over to kiss him again.

This time, Sinniyyah interrupted the moment, crawling across the bed and grabbing a handful of Darious’s face. Her finger was lodged in his nose and the saliva from her mouth dripped down into his eye. Sinniyyah was laughing and bouncing back and forth like she was having the time of her life. This was the first time Sinniyyah was this intimate with Darious, and to be honest, Tammy was feeling the bond.

__________

Kim pulled up right in time to catch Falisha coming out of her house. She beeped the horn twice but Falisha only looked at Kim’s car before going back into the house. Falisha really didn’t feel like talking to anybody at this point.

“Here we go wit dis bullshit,” Kim mumbled to herself getting out of the car with her briefcase in hand.

Kim didn’t want to, but she walked up to Falisha’s front door and rung the bell. There was a lot of tension between them, and Kim wasn’t the type to walk around with a chip on her shoulder. If she had a problem, she confronted it head on.

“Come on wit da childish shit and open the door,” Kim yelled through the mail slot.

Kim was about to yell in the mail slot again, but before she could, the door swung open and Falisha was standing there with an obvious attitude.

“What do you want, Kim?” Falisha asked, stepping out onto the porch.

“So it’s like that? You sayin’ that we’re not cool at all anymore?” Kim asked, putting her briefcase on the ledge.

Falisha never said anything, but she felt some type of way about Kim wanting Lamar since day one. The only reason she entertained the whole race to capture Lamar’s heart, was because she truly thought that she had it in the bag. She never thought in a million years that he would choose Kim over her, given the history they had, along with amazingly great sex. When he did choose Kim, it was mind blowing and it caught Falisha off guard.

“Come on, Kim. You know what it do. You took my man, and that was that. We cool and everything, but we’re not friends,” Falisha said.

“So we’re not friends because of a man?” Kim asked.

Falisha didn’t say anything right away. She looked down the street, trying to avoid any eye contact with Kim, but Kim walked over and stood in front of her, forcing Falisha to look at her. Kim could see the anger and the hurt in her eyes and knew that what Falisha felt was real.

“You know that I was in love with Lamar, and you still pursued him. You didn’t give a fuck about me or how I felt. To you, this was all a fucking game, and Lamar was your prize. A friend… you can’t be serious. A real friend would have backed off, instead of doing the shit you did. But guess what, I’m good. You and Lamar ain’t gon’ last another month once he finds out you got an abortion,” Falisha said, looking down at Kim’s stomach before walking into her house and slamming the door behind her.

Kim sat there on the porch with a dumb look on her face after being chewed out by Falisha. Not only did she feel bad, she also felt like a home wrecker, because if it wasn’t for her, Falisha and Lamar would be together. It was something Kim had never really thought about until now, and the more she thought about it, the more she could understand how Falisha felt.

What she couldn’t grasp was the last comment Falisha made pertaining to how long her and Lamar had left to be together. She wanted to bang on the door and ask Falisha what she meant by it, but Lamar pulling up on the block made Kim leave it alone for right now. This definitely wasn’t going to be the end of that conversation, but for now, Kim had another pressing issue to deal with, one that might make or break her and Lamar’s relationship.

__________

Darious had warned Tammy that the neighborhood was a little ghetto, but that was an understatement. When she pulled up to Milton Rd., it looked like a zombie land. There were dope fiends everywhere, and for a minute, Tammy was scared to pull over. In fact, she drove right by the house she was supposed to deliver the medication to.

“Shit,” Tammy mumbled, pulling over towards the end of the block after seeing that she had passed the house. Two luxury cars parked on the pavement caught Tammy’s attention, and for some reason, she felt comfortable parking behind them. Plus, it wasn’t that many dope fiends at this end of the block.

“You lookin’ for somebody?” a female voice asked when Tammy got out of the car.

Tammy looked over and saw a young girl coming down off the porch with one of her hands behind her back. Despite her intimidating approach, Tammy thought the young lady was cute, rocking a pair of 7 jeans, a white shirt and some Saint Laurent sandals. Her hair was straightened and draped over her left shoulder, allowing her diamond studded earrings to bling in the sunlight. Tammy didn’t know her, but she looked like somebody of importance.

“I’m going up the street to deliver this mediation to a patient,” Tammy said, looking down at the address she had written on a piece of paper. “Is it safe to even go up there?” Tammy asked, picking her head up as the young lady walked up to her.

The girl looked at the address then smiled, “Who sent you, Darious?” she asked, waving for Tammy to follow her up the street.

“Yeah, that’s my man,” Tammy said establishing who she was to him off the top. “You know him?”

“I know Darious. He’s a nice guy. He’s been looking out for my uncle James for a while now. By the way, my name is Tiffany,” she said, walking up the steps to James’s house.

“I’m Tammy,” Tammy responded walking up the steps behind her.

Now that Tiffany was in front of Tammy, Tammy could see why she had her hand behind her back. The butt of a gun poked out of her back pocket, clearly visible to the eye. It kind of took Tammy by surprise, and even though she didn’t have the guts to ask her the reason why she had the gun, Tammy made a mental note of it.

“Wassup Uncle James,” Tiffany asked when he opened the door. “Ya medication is here.”

The drop off was pretty simple, except for when the drop-off became an exchange at a dining room table with stacks of money sitting on it. Tammy didn’t know the contents within the prescription bag, and didn’t get a chance to see them either, because as quick as Tammy handed it over to James, he gave her a two inch thick wad of money. Before she knew it, Tammy was being led out the back of the house by Tiffany, and escorted back to her car.

As Tammy pulled off, the chain of events that had just taken place bum-rushed her brain. She really didn’t know what to think, or what Darious just had her do. All sorts of theories went through her head, and not one of them sat well with her. Before the day was over, she was going to get a clear understanding about what had gone down.

__________

A nice hot bath was exactly the thing Kim needed in her life right now, and from the looks of things, and how her body felt, it seemed as though her period was about to go off. Dealing with the abortion was starting to get a little easier, and because of that, Kim was ready to let Lamar know what she’d done.

Kim sat in the bathtub trying to figure out what words she was going to use to break the news to him. There really wasn’t a delicate way to say to a man that you’d murdered his unborn child. The more Kim looked at it that way, the fewer words she came up with.

Lamar opening the bathroom door snapped Kim out of her train of thought.