Heart To Heal

XXV.

Chapter Twenty Five.

"Nana, we're having Thanksgiving dinner at your house this year right?" Arnecia asked Rose as she and Xavia trailed behind her at Walmart. Rose wanted to get all of her ingredients to cook a big feast before everything sold out. During the holidays, people rushed to buy everything and if you waited too late, there would hardly be anything left.

"Of course, Niecey. Now you know we've had dinner at my house every year since 2005." Rose said, grabbing some red and yellow onion from the vegetable section.

"I was just asking because Aunt Peaches said she would be hosting it this time."

"Tuh! Them heart pills she takes must be getting to her head." Rose scoffed, turning her nose up. "Poor thing."

Arnecia and Xavia began to laugh. Their grandmother was the queen of being shady. She was sweet, but older people usually had a pinch of pettiness in them.

"Y'all, do me a favor and go find the brown sugar to make the yams with." Rose told her granddaughters. "The Domino brand only, it's in a white and yellow box."

"Yes ma'am." They said in unison. As they walked off, Rose stayed in the vegetable section to pick out her fresh greens and sweet potatoes.

"You think Nana will be cool with me inviting Malachi to the dinner?" Niecey asked.

Xavia rolled her eyes at her cousin. "She probably wouldn't mind, but why do you want him there anyway?"

"Uh, because he's my boyfriend, duh." Arnecia chuckled, going down the baking goods aisle.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock but I'm sure he has his own family to celebrate Thanksgiving with."

Niecey sucked her teeth. "Xavia, why are you always such a hater? I mean damn, do you have anything better to do than be miserable?"

Xavi paused in her tracks, turning around to look at her. "Excuse me?"

"Look, I've held my tongue long enough. You always have some negative shit to say when it comes to our relationship and Malachi in general. Just because you can't get a dude doesn't mean you have to bring other people down. Jealousy isn't cute, sis. Malachi is my man, and if I want him to come then I'm damn sure going to invite him. It's really fuck how you feel at this point."

"Arnecia, what are you even talking about? I have every right to have negative feelings towards that boy and y'alls relationship. He cheats on you and blatantly disrespects you in your face! He's manipulative and has you on strings like a fucking puppet. Do you not see how toxic that is? Jesus, I didn't think somebody could be this naive and stupid. It's embarrassing." Xavia spat.

"You wanna talk about embarrassing? Nah, what's embarrassing is the fact that your overly grown ass didn't have the balls to tell Zealand you liked him to his face like a real bitch. Instead, you wrote him that kindergarten ass note. I would've rejected you too, the fuck." Niecey told her coldly.

Ouch.

Xavia's feelings were hurt, but she couldn't let her cousin know that. Instead, she nodded her head.

"Damn, so that's how you feel? Cool." She said simply, walking off of the aisle. She allowed her legs to carry her all the way back to the front of the store and out of the doors. As soon as she was met with the Walmart parking lot, Xavia bursted into tears.

She covered her face as she sobbed, in case anybody was looking. Lately, things hadn't been working in her favor and it was definitely affecting her mental health.