Before the judge dismissed the court, he said we would have one more date before the jury had to come up with a verdict.
I shared the details of my conversation with Fallon to Tabitha and she said she would begin the search of this mystery sibling herself, since Ayanna had conveniently not found anything yet. Nas and I were taking matters into our own hands too, as we were currently on our way back to his house to conduct a search of our own.
He pulled me into his chest in the back of the courtroom, kissing the top of my head through my hair and not letting go. Of course it would be the first trial date he showed up to that I got super emotional on the stand, and that embarrassed me, but I found it easier for him to hear my story like this than for me to have to tell him directly.
He grabbed my hand and we started out of the courthouse, but we were stopped by Charlie cutting in front of us.
"Can I talk to you, quick?" she asked with her hands intertwined in front of her nervously. She toted a defeated demeanor, the muscles around her mouth twitching as she waited for me to respond.
I looked up at Nas who was oblivious to the tension between Charlie and I.
"Imma go get the car," he said, kissing my forehead again. It felt awkward to have Charlie watching us be affectionate, but it shouldn't. That was her own fault.
When Nas was far enough away, she let out a heavy breath and shook her head.
"What do you have to say, Charlie?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"I been calling you." She spoke very breathlessly, similar to how a person would speak if they were sleep deprived.
"I saw."
"So, that's what we doing now? We bestfriends, Indica--"
"Exactly. We are bestfriends and never have been anything more than bestfriends. You crossed a huge boundary so excuse me for needing time to rethink this friendship."
"We too close to not be able to talk about something like this," she said.
"And we were too close for you to not be able to tell me how you were feeling. Instead you lied and led me to believe something else was going on. If you were honest from the beginning I would've nipped it in the bud right away and just maybe we would've been able to figure out how to move past this."
"You really gone act like you had no idea at all?"
"How was I supposed to know?!" I heard my voice echo in the domed hallway and took a step closer to her so I could lower my tone. "You're not about to sit in my face and act like I'm the one at fault."
"I ain't saying you at fault, but be serious, Indica. We sleep in the same bed almost every other night, you always laying your head on my lap, we talk about everything--"
"Is that not what friends do?? None of that should've given you the impression that I had feelings for you, and if it did, you should've asked! That's the bottom line! You ruined this, Charlie! Do you know how hard this is for me? To lose the one person who truly knew me? You were supposed to be my safe place but this entire time I wasn't safe at all."
"We using past tense now?" she asked, clenching her jaw.
"For right now, yeah, we are. I gotta go," I said, brushing past her and walking out of the courthouse.
Nas was leaned against his car waiting for me to come out, opening my door when I was close enough.
"Everything cool?" he asked with furrowed eyebrows.
"Yeah, I'm good," I replied with a fake smile.
*
I wrapped my arms around him from the back as he cooked over the stove.
