When That Jones Comes Down

Chapter One

I joined my good friend, Ohagi in a booth at our favourite table, along with a few of our friends, Chris, Martin and Duane. I slid Ohagi the other beer in hand and popped mine open. Like almost every other evening, we were spending our evening in Essence, a bar that we went to-our spot, is what you could call it.

Chris tapped the table. She and Martin were in the middle of a serious argument. "See, that's why this world is ridden with useless men like you. It's this messed up notion that you're going around preaching." She poked an accusatory finger at each one of us.

I stopped abruptly in between a chug and touched a hand to my chest, finding Chris's statement very offensive. "Hey, I just got here. Why am I being included in this?" She rolled her eyes, "I'm all for inclusivity but I didn't ask to be in this conversation." I waved my hand over the table.

Martin snapped his fingers, trying to get my attention, "But do you disagree with me?" Martin inquired, he lifted a brow.

My brows snapped together, "With what?" I asked, dragging my voice sarcastically. "I told you, I don't know what you two are arguing about. In fact, I don't even know why I'm entertaining this." I leaned back coolly on the booth and threw my free hand over the head of the seat. Duane and Ohagi doubled over in laughter.

"Okay, okay." Martin conceded and held his hands up. "We're talking about how the whole interaction between women and men doesn't have to be complicated. My point is if I meet a girl and I approach her, why do I have to pursue a whole relationship with this female when I could be honest with her and tell her that I just want to bed her and dip," he said, a matter of fact.

My furrow deepened in scrutiny and opened my mouth to say something but Chris cleared her throat after placing her glass down on the table with a loud thud. "Now," She started with a dry, sardonic chuckle, " my point, Jaheim, is that men like Martin walk around in these streets lying and cheating when you could just be honest! You'd get a whole lot more of whatever you're after if you're just honest with a girl. That's just a solution for you," She said pointedly, narrowing her eyes at Martin. Martin rolled his eyes. "My point, as a feminist, is that you're attributing to this...this toxic idea and just ruining love for everybody."

"I, for one, stand with Chris." Oh piped up, raising a fist in solidarity. He caught the stares of Duane and Martin. "It's the truth. You gallivanting around these streets talking about some player shit is what ruins love for everybody. It's like a chain reaction." He shrugged. "You do it to one girl and the next man can't be happy because she's bitter."

Chris's mouth fell open, "We are not bitter!" Oh doubled over in laughter.

My eyes slid to Duane, "I will plead the fifth in this situation." He glared at Chris. "I am in a happy, healthy relationship and I refuse to have a say in this." He chuckled. I rolled my eyes, amused and took a swig from my bottle.

"A wise man, Duane." I quipped approvingly and raised my bottle in mock salute. Nothing beats a man standing in solidarity. As for Chris, as much as she was one of us, she wouldn't hesitate outing Duane to Alyssa. The argument went on and got a little bit heated. So I sat back and watched the back and forth between our feminist Chris and our toxic Martin.

"Jah, what do you say?" Chris turned to me. "Please tell me you don't agree with Martin's toxicity." She lifted her brow at me in some kind of unspoken challenge.

I gave a half-shrug, noticing that everyone around the table had their eyes on me. I pulled my lower lip into my mouth, carefully gauging what I would say. I would've loved to have stayed out of it. "Hold on, are you sure we should be getting some insight from Jah? This man has one too many female problems." Duane piped up, a little too excited.