𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐲, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ¹

thirty nine.

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
no longer brothers

Hakeem

Jamal had finished talking to the reporters and he was coming home any second. That was why Hakeem was pacing around frantically in front of Cookie and Lucious. He hoped the world believed his lies, and he hoped Jamal could forgive him for what he did.

"Stop all that pacing, boy! You're making me anxious!" Cookie said.

"I'm anxious! I don't know if they believed Jamal or not. When I went public with Tiana, I kissed her, but Jamal didn't kiss Tory!"

"Jamal isn't you, Hakeem."

"At all," Lucious agreed.

Then the front door swung open and Jamal came walking in, looking troubled. "Well, it's done. I just lied to the entire world."

Cookie hugged him tight. "Oh, baby. I know it must've been so hard to do that."

Jamal spoke bitterly. "Yep. I told the whole world that I see nothing but a best friend in Mateo. He's never going to forgive me for that."

"Don't worry, I invited him over for dinner tomorrow night."

"Without my permission," Lucious grumbled.

Cookie ignored him. "Either way, we're going to fix this, Jamal. We owe that to you."

Hakeem spoke now. "Especially me. I'm really sorry, man." Jamal didn't acknowledge him at all. He just disappeared into the guest room and Hakeem frowned.

"You better fix things with him, Hakeem. I don't want my sons hating each other," Cookie demanded.

Hakeem didn't want that either, so he went to the guest room and knocked on the door. Jamal glanced at him and rolled his eyes. "Hey, you got a minute?"

"I do, but I'm not wasting it on your ass," Jamal spat.

Hakeem huffed. "You can't possibly still be mad at me."

Jamal whirled around. "Yes, I'm mad at you, Hakeem. You almost destroyed my life!"

"But it's fixed now. The rumors are going to stop, so you have nothing to worry about."

"My life is not fixed, Hakeem! I have to pretend to be straight for god knows how long, and everything that I had with Mateo is ruined because of you! So yes, I'm fucking mad. So mad that I wanna kill your ass. But that ain't me."

Hakeem was offended now. "Alright, now you're buggin. I went on Instagram and helped spread the word about Tory. This is how I'm getting thanked?"

"I wouldn't need to thank you if you would've kept your mouth shut! What don't you understand?!"

"I know I fucked up, and I'm sorry. And you know I mean it because when do I ever say sorry?" Hakeem pointed out.

But Jamal was too angry. "I don't want your sorry. I don't even want you as my brother anymore. You're dead to me."

"That's how you feel?"

"That's how I feel," Jamal affirmed. "So please get out of my face before Ma and Dad come in here and find your dead body."

Hakeem just scoffed. "Whatever. Fuck you too then."

Ungrateful motherfucker.

Royalty

Blake was still angry with Royalty. This was the angriest he'd ever been because it was personal now. She had made a song dissing him because he was acting controlling and clingy, and that wasn't cool. She knew that now. But how the hell could she fix this?

Tiana was with her. They were out eating right now. "So you and Blake are done?"

"I have no idea. He's ignoring me right now."

Tiana was annoyed. "Why is Blake always trippin? It's annoying me, and I'm not even his girl."

Ro defended him. "I mean, he had every right to trip this time. I was dissing him like crazy in that song."

"You had every right. He wasn't acting right, and honestly, he still isn't."

"So what do you think I should do? Leave him alone for good?"

"Do you wanna do that? Is all of this stress going to be worth it in the end?" Tiana asked back.

Ro had no idea. "I don't know. I really like Blake, Tiana. When he's not angry, he's a really sweet, down to earth guy."

"And when he is angry, he's really shitty," Tiana countered.

"But why does he get angry? Because of me. Because I'm always doing dumb shit like he said!"

Tiana's ears perked up. "Hold on, he said that?"

"Yup. He said I'm the problem in this relationship, and I believe it. I have to fix this."

Tiana scoffed. "Okay, don't get me wrong. Blake's the homie, but I don't like how he's trying to put all of the blame on you."

"He should. I keep fucking up and I can't do it anymore." She pulled out her phone and called Blake.

"What are you doing?" Tiana asked.

"Telling Blake that I'm deleting the song."

"What?!" Tiana shrieked. "We worked hard on that song!"

"I don't have a choice! I need to get him back!"

"Royalty-"

But Blake answered the phone and she cleared her throat. "Blake, hi!"

He had an attitude. "What do you want, Ro?"

"I wanna fix things."

"Not possible. What you did was really fucked up."

"That's why I'm not releasing the song."

That made Blake pause. "Wait...you're not?"

"No. I dissed you like crazy, and you're right; if I release it, I'll be humiliating you. I never want to do that because you wouldn't do that to me."

"What about your album?"

"I'll come up with something else. It's fine. But I do hope we can come back from this, Blake. I care about you a lot, and I don't wanna lose what we have."

"I don't either. And I appreciate what you're doing for me. It proves that I was wrong about you. You are serious about us, after all."

She smiled. "I am, and I always will be. But you were right about one thing. I am the problem in this relationship, but I'm gonna fix myself. I promise."

She could tell he was smiling too. "I believe you, princess. And I forgive you."

"So we're back together?"

"We were never broken up. I love you too much."

Royalty's heart just skipped several beats. Did he just say he loved her? "I...love you too!" she blurted out. She meant that.

"That's good to know. But I'm kinda busy right
now-"

She cut him off. "Oh, okay! I'll let you go. We'll talk later?"

"Always."

"Okay, bye!" Then she hung up and skipped back to Tiana happily. Her insides were screaming because she had gotten her man back, and they had said the love word! Tiana and Hakeem probably haven't said that yet.

Tiana didn't look happy with her. "I can't believe you just did that."

Ro shrugged and sat down. "Just gotta start over, I guess."

Back to her notepad she goes.