Page 45 of Just Listen
“Yeah, no bullshit.” Rye high-fived Key. “Me and you both. Cause I swear that if Jaylen ever woke up,” she referenced her man, and my cousin…which was a long story. “Telling me that he’d just dreamed about me getting shot, bet that I wouldn’t turn around and carry my ass outside, right after.”
“Me, neither,” Josairah agreed.
“Look, you know it’s real when even the niggas are saying that they would’ve taken heed,” Key claimed. “When I told Wale, he said that he probably would’ve stayed at home for at least a week straight. Because he swears that I got a third eye and be knowing shit. And I’m the reason that he aint dead or in jail.”
“Maybe it’s a family thing,” Jhyrah guessed. “Because it seems like all my mama’s girls are inclined in that way.”
“Could be.” Jahreiah shrugged, before glancing at me.
For a second, I tuned everybody out, as I was absently scrolling through stories on IG. I paused when I came across Paisley’s story. I hadn’t spoken to her in a few weeks, and I guessthat was because she wasn’t in need of any advice. Nonetheless, like so many other women, Paisley didn’t post her man, so it was definitely brow raising to see a video of a shirtless guy sleeping behind her, as she smiled for the camera.
With an arched brow, I went to the next video, and my mouth slowly dropped. Paisley was once again cheesing, before panning the camera onto a very familiar face.
“What the fuck—” I grumbled.
“Zae still doesn’t know who shot him?” Riah enquired, throwing me off.
“No,” I sighed, while my stomach was now churning. “And if he does know, then he hasn’t said anything to me. But fuck him.” I rolled my eyes.
Jhyrah frowned. “Not fuck him. What done happened now?”
I bounced my knee anxiously, as I felt like I was on the verge of losing my mind. “He was in his feelings, because I told him that he should go to his mama’s house when he’s released from the hospital.”
“Damn, Jaylah,” Key chattered. “You ‘bout the meanest Braxton girl. I swear. The nigga can’t even come to your house?”
I scratched the back of my neck. “Not when I feel like we’re about to call it quits, anyway. I figured that it was no sense in me doing real manual labor, only for him to become somebody else’s man in the foreseeable future. I mean, I told him that I’d come help his mama. Besides, his ass can’t climb all those stairs in my house, anyway. But he wasn’t trying to hear that. So, it is what it is.”
Josairah shook her head. “And your mean ass don’t even care, huh?”
“It’s not that—” I got out.
“It’s about this.” Jhyrah sightly lifted, to remove a wad of tissue from her back pocket.
“What the fuck?” Everybody except me spoke simultaneously.
“Hold up,” Jhyrah urged, as she unraveled the tissue to reveal a pregnancy stick.
“Uh, who is that for?” Rye questioned.
Jhyrah nodded her head in my direction. “Her.”
“It says pregnant,” Jahreiah announced, and all eyes shifted to me.
Tucking my lips into my mouth, I mumbled. “Yep.”
Since Jhyrah was in the bathroom with me when I took the test, I knew that she’d share the news, and I wasn’t tripping. When things came out in this group, it usually stayed between us. So, I trusted everybody sitting there. We were like a unit, for real.
“That’s crazy,” Key murmured.
“And there’s no way that it’s Zae’s?” Josairah questioned.
I shook my head. “Pretty impossible.”
“Okay,” Jahreiah spoke up. “So, are we calling up the Malice dude or what?”
I sighed. “I was gonna tell y’all…Malice is a no-go.”
“Why not?” Key wanted to know.
