The Choppa Effect

Thirty-One

"Hi." I whisper as I sit beside him in the passenger seat of his black Crown.

He gives me a small smile before shaking his locs from his face.

"Hi?" His smile widens.

I push my eyebrows together and look at him. "What?"

He chuckles. "I missed you, Jade."

He drives out of the gate and makes his way onto the highway.

I kiss my teeth at his audacity.

He missed me?

"What?" He looks me up and down in shock.

"You missed me?"

"What do you mean?" he pushes his eyebrows together.

I kiss my teeth once more.

"You should be more vocal..." his voice trails off but he keeps his eyes focused on the road.

"I'm sorry?" My voice comes out louder than I expected which startles both of us but he quickly reclaims his neutral tone.

"If something is bothering you then you should say what it is, Jade." He glances at me before continuing.

"I'm not a mind reader. I'm definitely not going to understand what some kiss teeth's and sighs mean when I have no idea what is going on in your mind."

"You can't be serious." I exclaim a little too quickly.

My exclamation causes him to startle a bit but he still regains his composure just as quickly.

"Jus' talk yuh mind, b."

I take a deep breath and look ahead of me to focus on the road instead of his face.

"You left, Tego. Yuh neva call, you never texted me and I didn't even know that you were leaving. If you didn't need me for your fucking alibi would I even know that you were leaving?" I hadn't realized my volume.

I make the mistake of looking over at him.

He doesn't answer, he doesn't flinch or anything and his face is completely emotionless. His eyes are dead on the road.

I jab him in his chest with my coffin acrylic. "Doh' mek mi fuck yuh up!"

"No." He breathes.

I jab him a few more times in his chest. "What the fuck? Yuh woulda jus' gone?"

He shrugs. "I guess."

"That's fucked up, Tego." I glare at him.

"It's the truth, Jade. Truth or your feelings?"

I blink in disbelief. "Excuse me?"

He rolls his eyes in annoyance and I watch the muscles in his hand tense as he grips the steering wheel for a second.

"I can either tell you the truth or spare your feelings but it's an either/or situation- I cant do both though."

He runs his fingers through his hair and shakes it so it falls forward on his forehead.

"I could spare your feelings because I care about them and instead tell you that I would definitely let you know that I'm leaving the country but I told the truth and the truth is- HELL NO!" He sits up in his seat.

"I would have you wondering and guessing and assuming but it made sense to use you as my alibi as much as I knew it would make us get tho this point because you're fucking nosy. Yuh cyaa know everything, b."

I sit there and stare at him right until we get to the mini golf course.

There are always many sides to a story not just 2, or the even more commonly known 3. It has to do with perception of one situation.

I should be upset because his narcissistic behavior took over the entire conversation and instead of us addressing my reason for being upset it was turned which is completely his fault, it was turned into a conversation about my overall lack of communication.

"Do you want to go?" He gestures to the course.

It isn't very busy tonight. There's a good amount of people where I won't be overwhelmed but I can still people watch in peace.

The lights for the sign are just coming on and it brings a bright neon green and pink colour across my face before it begins the slow flashing.

I laugh in disbelief.

I'm not sure if I am in disbelief of the conversation that I just had or in disbelief of the fact that I have already blocked this memory from my brain before I seriously hurt this man.

"Sure." I hop out of the car and start walking towards the course and he follows suit to pick up with me.

This is a story I'll push to the back of my mind to bring back up later.

"You're not mad." It sounds like it should be a question but I believe that he was stating it.

"I'm not mad." I confirm regardless.