Page 41 of Just Listen
~~~Chapter 9~~~
Sitting on the couch, with my heart in my ass, I anxiously rocked my foot, before answering my phone. “Hello?”
“What you doing, sissy poo?” My sister Jhyrah chipperly asked.
I breathed into the phone. “Sitting at home, stressing.”
“Stressing about what?”
“Zae. We had a real bad argument. Then before that, I had this dream. He was dying…but I didn’t tell him that part. I just told him that somebody was shooting at him and Claro,” I rambled. “Then Claro randomly pops up over here, telling him that they gotta go handle something. And I just know that something bad is about to happen, Jhyrah. I can fucking feel it.”
“Wait a minute. Back this up for me,” she instructed. “Cause that was a information overload, girl. Start with the argument. Why was you and Zae into it?”
“Because,” my voice cracked. “I was throwing up. I been throwing up, and he accused me of being pregnant.”
“Okay…and that was something to argue about? I thought that nigga been wanting to knock you up?”
“Yes, he wanted me to have his baby. But…you know that we was broken up. So, we went over two months without sex. And we just started back fucking two weeks ago.”
“Damn. Two weeks in, you wouldn’t even be having no symptoms yet. And you said that youbeenthrowing up. So…who did you sleep with, while y’all was on that break? Wait a minute. Don’t tell me it was that nigga you came to the spot with. That weekend ya’ll was ordering up the whole damn menu.”
I sadly laughed, as she referenced the time I’d brought Malice to her restaurant. Me and my siblings had a strict rule that we didn’t have to pay whenever we were patronizing the other’s businesses. That was the perk of us being family. I just didn’t bother cluing Malice in, because I liked the fact that he didn’t know who my family was. Because I felt like people were far too performative once they realized that I was a Braxton girl.
“Yeah, it was him,” I admitted.
Jhyrah gasped. “What the fuck? So, are you pregnant?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. More than likely.”
“Oh, wow. And where is that nigga?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“So, you don’t even have a number on the nigga, Jaylah? I find that hard to believe.”
I sighed. “Of course, I have his number.”
“Okay, then why are you talking like you aint in contact with him?”
“Because I’m not.”
“And why is that?”
“Because. Zae answered the phone, after he dropped me off. Then Zae broke my phone. By the time I got a new one, he wasn’t responding to my texts. Then I ran into him, and he claimed that his phone was malfunctioning and he never received my texts, orsome shit. In the meantime, he’d gotten back with his bitch. So, that’s a wrap, as far as I’m concerned.”
“And you think that he wouldn’t handle his business with you?” She wanted to know.
I exhaled. “I just told you that he’s back with his gal, Jhyrah.”
“And? Girl, your fucking last name is Braxton. Stop acting like we aint like that. That nigga will fall in line, just like everybody else.”
“But that’s the thing. He seems rather serious about his relationship, and I couldn’t see myself running up with a baby, asking for a ghetto co-parenting situation, with a nigga I barely know. I’m good. If anything, I might fly out to Cali or New York and get rid of it. Cause I refuse to be the oddball out the bunch. The only one with a baby and no daddy. Fuck no.”
“Damn, sissy poo, I really hate that for you. But don’t feel like you gotta keep up appearances for nobody. Cause you know how we do. Our parents aint with the bougie shit, and don’t give a damn about you getting married or whatever. You’re financially set for life, and you have the village. So, you can still have the baby. With or without the nigga.”
“Right. But do you really believe that daddy would just let that slide? Or he’d hunt that nigga down?” I had to ask.
Jhyrah giggled. “Girl, you already know that Jahrein’s ass is never gonna let a nigga get down on his daughters. He’d find that nigga and lay hands on him, and then blackball him around the city.”
