Courtesy of Compton

Chapter 4

Part II


In a matter of seconds, I had my fists balled up and one by one, I threw heavy punches to Darnell's jaw. He basically just told me that JC was one of his side bitches and that made me even more angrier. Before he would get the chance to fight back, I knocked him to the ground and with the bottom of my Timbaland boot, I made sure to press down on his neck, cutting off his airway immediately.

"You better be lucky you have all these people around, because I swear I wouldn't have hesitated to slice yo' ass. And if you know what's best for you, you better leave Jaciana alone. Side bitch that."

Onlookers--mainly women--were gasping and screaming for somebody to break the fight. It literally wasn't a fight anymore, but whatever. I watched in sick pleasure as Darnell's eyes widen, basically pleading for oxygen. He tried moving my foot from around his neck, but it only caused me to press down even harder. I had no intentions of releasing my foot any time soon, but once Lashontae and JC exited the bathroom and ran over to us, I had no choice but to let go.

"Kendrick get off of him!" JC yelled, using much force to push me off of Darnell. Well, she tried pushing me off of him. I was twice her size so she was going to need some help. After realizing S that she wasn't getting anywhere by trying to push me, she resulted into taking her long and sharp fingernails and plunging them deep into my skin. I immediately released my foot and gripped my arm in pain. "Damn JC, cut your fingernails."

Lashontae and JC both grabbed one of Darnell's arms and helped him up. By this time, the owners of the restaurant had informed us that we had to leave. Shit, you didn't have to tell me twice! Grabbing my jacket, I walked out of the restaurant. I knew this wasn't going to turn out bad, I don't know why I let JC talk me into this in the first place.

"Are you fucking serious Kendrick! You had to start a fight in a damn restaurant?! I can't believe you!" I spin around on my heels to see JC storming angrily behind me. Lashontae and Darnell, who was coughing up a storm, were walking in the other direction in from which they came.

"Why do you always have to mess stuff up Kendrick!" She yelled, throwing her hands up in the air. She was clearly frustrated. "You can never get along with any of my boyfriends and I'm-"

"Stop calling Darnell your "boyfriend"! That nigga don't even want you for you! He wants what's between your damn legs and you so blind to even see it." JC unlocked the doors and I climbed in the front seat. She got in behind me and slammed the door shut. She turned to me.

"And how would you know Kendrick?! You think that about every boy I bring around to meet you!"

I banged my fist against the window. My anger was getting the best of me. "That's because I do, Jaciana! I don't purposely run your boyfriends away from you for nothin'! It's because they're not the right guy for you! I want to see you happy, not hurt. I've seen you hurt so many times and if you continue to mess around with Darnell, you're promising yourself nothing but a heartbreak! Just open your fucking eyes and stop being a dumb ass."

A very uncomfortable silence fell between us and I instantly regretted opening my mouth in the first place. For the 11 years I've known Jaciana, I've never called her out of her name. It's always been either JC or best friend. I knew she didn't take me calling her a dumb ass lightly because tears instantly began welling up in her eyes.

Sighing, I ran my hands down my face. "I'm sorry, JC. I didn't mean to call you that. It honestly slipped out." With the back of her hand, she wiped her eyes before any tears could fall. "Whatever Kendrick, don't bother to explain." With that, she stuck the key in the ignition and started the car up. The entire ride home was silent and it was literally killing me. Not once did JC look at me nor did she even look in my direction. No matter how many times I could apologize, she wasn't going to forgive me.

By the time we arrived at my house, I had a bangin' ass headache and wanted nothing more but to lay down and call it night. It was barely pushing 8 o'clock, but I didn't care. I've had enough of everything and everybody today. A couple of days to myself would be just what I needed.

"We need to talk, Kendrick." JC mumbled as we pulled up into the driveway. She cut the car off and turned to face me in her seat, prior to me doing the same. "What exactly do we need to talk about?"

She rolled her eyes at me like I didn't know what she was talking about. "Us."

"What about us?"

She sighed. I assumed she had trouble trying to process her thoughts into words. "After you left the restaurant, Darnell brought up a good point to me."

"Look, if you have something you need to tell me, then do it. Stop beating around the bush and just spit the shit out." Quite frankly, I was tired of hearing Darnell's name coming out of her mouth every time she talked to me. She now knows for a fact that I don't like him, so why keep bringing him up?

"I think we should just stop hangin' out for a while. For the past few days now, everything has been going wrong and I think it's because you don't want to see my happy, especially with Darnell. I'm sick and tired of you driving away my boyfriends and I'd be damned if you drive Darnell away." As tempted as I was to laugh in her face, I didn't. Once again, Darnell was probably gassing her head up with all these lies about me and she's believing every bit of it. I thought JC was smarter than this, but I guess I wrong.

"So..whatchu' saying? We can't be best friends anymore because of Darnell? 'Cause if that's the case then just say the words and we'll just go our separate ways." Lord knows it pained me to even think about us not being friends anymore, but if she thinks that I'm tryna keep her from being happy, then why stick around? It was obvious that she cherished some bum nigga over me, so why keep trying?

"I'm not saying we can't be best friends anymore, it's just that we need some time apart. Let me do me and you do you." Instead of sitting there and listening to the shit she was trying to tell me, I hopped out the car, slamming the door behind me. I didn't have anything else nice to say to her, so I just left. Izzy always told me that if I didn't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.

From behind me, I heard Jaciana mumble something under her breath, before pulling off. Not bothering to try and piece together what she said, I walked around to the back door and unlocked it. Never in a million years would I have ever thought I would lose my best friend to a relationship that wasn't even real.







"I'm sorry about what happened last night, I'm sure whatever went down between you and my brother, he was the one who started it." Frowning, I turned around and saw Lashontae standing with a little boy, who looked just like Darnell, braids and all. Turning back around, I leaned back against the park's bench. "Yeah, well try telling that to Jaciana. She swears I'm the one who started it." Lashontae took it upon herself to sit down beside me, while the boy broke free from her grip and ran off towards the swing set.

"That's your kid?" She looked at like I had lost my mind.

"Hell no. That's Darnell's bad ass lil' boy. I'm just watching him until he and Jaciana come back from their date." I found myself rolling my eyes. Why did I even bother asking? Lashontae noticed the sour look on my face, so she laughed. Her laugh reminded me so much of JC's.

"What's so funny?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. But why do you hate my brother so much? What did he ever do to you?"

"The question should be, what he didn't do. Besides, I'm over what happened between us in the past. The only reason why I dislike him now is because of JC." Lashontae sucked her teeth, motioning for me to tell her more. I'm surprised Darnell didn't mention all of this to her.

"Aight, since you itchin' to know, I'll tell you. Believe it or not, we were friends back in high school. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't even call of us friends. I considered us acquaintances. We were cool up until the point where he started seeing my cousin behind my back."

"Wait." Lashontae said, interrupting me. "Who's your cousin?"

She sure does ask a lot of questions, but I answered her anyways. "Tessa Arnold..." Her eyes widen a bit before she mumbled "damn" under her breath. I hope she didn't think I wouldn't notice.

"Why? You know her somethin'?"

She nodded her head slowly. "...yeah, we go way back. Way back."

I shrugged. It was possible that Tessa and Lashontae knew each other. Tessa was well known around these parts, so I wouldn't be surprised. "Anyways, long story short, they started dating and one day, they got into an argument and he nearly beat her to death. He beat her so hard that every inch of her body was marked with black and purple bruises. The only reason why I didn't come after his ass was because of my grandma. But yo' brother was so close to an early grave that day you wouldn't even believe it."

Lashontae bit down on her bottom lip. "Is that why you're trying so hard to keep JC away from him?"

"Yeah, I guess you could that's one of the reasons."

We both sat there in comfortable silence until Lashontae placed her hand on my shoulder. Once again, that weird spark shot through me. But this time around, it felt way worse than last night. I wish I could explain how it felt, but I didn't know myself. After a few more seconds, I shrugged her hand off my shoulder, causing her to frown.

"Do I make you nervous or something? You're acting the same way you did last night."

I stood up, not bothering to answer her question. "It was nice talking to you Lashontae..talk to you later?"

"Uh..I guess."

"Good." With that, I began on my way home. Something about Lashontae seemed to have me on edge and I didn't like it one bit.