Page 132 of Just Listen
Sitting up, I leaned in to grab the phone. “Hello?” I said, after placing the phone to my ear.
“Jaylah, I was scrolling on IG, and stumbled across a post from Zae’s cousin,” Keyasia wasted no time.
“Okay.” I gulped.
“It was pictures of him, and the caption said R.I.P.”
“What?” My voice cracked.
“I looked at his mama’s Facebook page. He’s gone, Jaylah.”
“Oh, God,” I sobbed.
Racing around her client, my sister wrapped her arms around me, as I bawled my eyes out.
“It’s okay,” Riah whispered, while squeezing me tightly.
Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to be this vulnerable about Zae’s death, once I got home, my body quaked. Hell, I probably couldn’t do it beyond the parking lot, if Malice had anything to do with it.
Even with knowing that it had boiled down to either him or Malice didn’t make Zae’s death hurt any less. If only he hadn’t been sitting behind me…
I probably cried for like five minutes straight. Then when I looked up, I realized that everybody’s eyes were misty.
Riah finally released me, when I was noticeably calmer. “If you want, you can come back tomorrow. Cause I know the last thing you wanna do is sit here and let me play in your head.”
I shook my head. “Nah.” I dried my tears. “I’m good.”
She arched a brow. “You sure?”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“Okay.” She stepped back behind her client.
I’m sure that there was plenty more my sister wanted to say, but we were in mixed company. So, she resumed doing hair, while people were blowing my phone up. At this point, I figured that they were calling after getting the news about Zae. Right then, I didn’t feel like talking, as I wondered if my man was the reason that Zae’s mama was going to make funeral arrangements.
And if he was…I had to accept that he was everything he’d warned me about, and then some.
***
By the time Riah was done with my hair, my lashes were damp from all the tears I’d silently shed. Then even though I’d dried my eyes, Malice paused the moment he stepped back into the room and saw my face.
“What’s wrong?” He wanted to know, as I stood to leave.
“Nothing.” I sniffed.
He didn’t ask another question, as he grabbed my hand. “’Preciate you, Riah.”
“Okay, see y’all. Jaylah, call me when you make it home, please,” Riah requested.
I nodded, before I was tugged out of the room. Together we traveled through the salon, hand in hand, until his cell rang.
“Hold up.” He halted, forcing me to do the same. “Yeah?” He answered the call, before his eyes trained on me. “Alright.” He ended the call, before forcing me to do an about-face.
“What’s going on?” I whispered, as we were headed to the back of the shop, before gunfire exploded outside.
Pandemonium erupted, as all the girls in the front of the shop scampered to the back. By then, Malice had ushered me into my sister’s private suite, while we could all hear a barrage of shots still being fired. Naturally, Riah and everybody else was on the floor, scared for their lives.
Me and Malice sat on the floor as well, while I fearfully clung to him. Meanwhile, he was remarkably calm. My chest was heaving up and down, as I stared at him and whispered. “What the fuck is going on?”
