When Jaida Met Kadeem

13

Chapter Twenty-five;

"Jaida?" Taylor muttered sleepily, she looked bare confused. We both met in the hallway as I walked out of Kadeem's room and she came out of her room. 

"Hi..." I said, smiling awkwardly. I woke up about an hour after I had fallen asleep on Kadeem to find him not there; he probably went downstairs or something. 

"It's ten in the morning," she looked over at Kadeem's room, "Ooh..." she said quietly, raising her eyebrow at me and smiling. "You and my cousin eh?" she grinned. "That explains why he was so quiet when we saw you and Nathan...uhh, doing your thing yesterday," 

"Well..." I began but she interrupted me. 

"I'm going to pee then we're going to sit in my room and I want you to tell me everything," she said, before running into the toilet.

***;

"You're pregnant," she looked down at my stomach in shock, we sat in her room for a good two hours as I started right from the beginning and told her everything Kadeem had gone to college so it was just us to alone in the yard sharing a big packet of Doritos and exchanging life stories, she knows it all from how my mother drowned herself in the bath for some unknown reason and I had to move in with my auntie and I started St. Matthias high school and met Shane...everything: about how I met Kadeem, Krystal, Curtis...she is now up to speed with my life boy. Guess what I found out about her? She's Prince's little sister, I didn't even know he had a sister, but then again I wasn't close to him when he was alive anyway. "You're keeping it?" she asked as I nodded. "And you want Shane involved in the child's life, even after what he did?" 

I paused and thought about it then realised something, "Even if I didn't want him in my baby's life he would find a way in. Its Shane," I shrugged helplessly. 

"But he raped her," Taylor said, shaking her head. "He's just like Prince," there was a bitter edge to her voice, when she screwed up her face I could actually see the resemblance between them, it was actually kind of scary because Prince's dead and that's a facial expression only he could perfect. "Prince got kicked out of our primary school because he tried to rape a girl," she shook her head. 

I shook my head too, "But it doesn't make sense," I confided in her, "Shane is messed up, I know. But he wouldn't do that..." my voice trailed off, "He wouldn't RAPE her...not Shane...he gives up too easily with everything." 

"But you," she said making me look up at her. "He must really love you," 

"Yeah," I scoffed, "That's why he hit me yeah? He's too controlling." 

"Maybe he did rape her then? He wanted to beat her and she didn't want it so he raped her to gain control again?" she suggested. 

I sighed, "This is the father of my child yeah? A rapist and a woman-beater, what happened to the Shane I used to know?" I got lost in my thoughts of the past for a moment, how we were when we first started doing a thing when we were fourteen, the only thing I had to worry about was the boys he used to jam with on road I used to think that was having problems with my man...boy! How things change. 

"You don't want to find out what your Dad and your uncle went to do?" Taylor asked. 

I shook my head, "I just wanted to forget everything for a bit," I explained, "That's why I came to see Kadeem...I wanted to apologise and be with him...but he don't want me anymore," I felt tears well up in my eyes and she reached out and hugged me. 

"Kadeem's not thinking straight, he's just angry, he'll come around..." she said. 

"Nah, he's right," I sniffed, "There's always going to be something coming between us, we can't carry on the way we're going on...but I don't think I could handle just being friends...it's gone too far for that, you know what I mean?" I said, tears spilling down my face. "Taylor, I love your cousin so much," she hugged me as I cried into her chest.