My Brother's Keeper

Chapter Thirteen

Justine and I were sitting in the food court at the mall, we were waiting on Jermaine. He was supposed to meet us here over an hour ago, but black people, men usually, are always late. Especially Jermaine.

As I took a sip of my soda, I noticed the vibe in the food court changed. I looked over at the doors and noticed people staring. Then I saw Jermaine's figure walking. Everyone watched as he walked in our direction. Justine pulled me towards her, so she could whisper in my ear.

"Even though Jermaine isn't my type, he looks sexy as hell right now." I rolled my eyes. Once he made it to the table, he pulled the chair out next to me then straddled the chair.

"What's up?" Jermaine asked looking at Justine. I raised an eyebrow.

"Did he give it to you?" I asked. He turned to face me and chuckled.

"Stupid ass won't budge till you made your decision."

"Decision about what?" Justine asked. I shrugged.

"He told me if I wanted to see the tapes, I would need to carry his child." she raised an eyebrow.

"Like, hold it?"

"No, dummy. He wants her to be the mother of his child." Justine rolled her eyes.

"You're not going to do it. Right?" Justine asked. I rubbed the back of my neck.

"I don't know. I want to do anything to help my brother."

"So you wanna be a mother?" Jermaine asked.

"Look, I didn't make my decision yet. Leave me the fuck alone." I grumbled closing my eyes.

"Did you find out anything else?" Justine asked as Jermaine mumbled something under his breath.

"Can we talk about something else?" I looked up at Justine. "I'm tired of talking about the same shit."

"What are we going to talk about? We met here to talk about helping your brother." Jermaine said. I closed my eyes again. "How was that ball thing that your white boy took you to?" he asked. I felt Justine's eyes turn to look at me. I already knew Jermaine was staring at me. I opened my eyes sighing.

"Can y'all stop calling him my white boy? He has a name."

"So you were with him last night?" Justine asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I did tell you, stupid. I told both of y'all yesterday."

"No, you said you had to get ready for a date by 6:30, not a fucking ball." she slid her chair closer to mine. "Did he give you the d?"

"No," I said rolling my eyes. "Didn't I say I want to stop talking about this?" Justine looked at Jermaine. "Y'all made me lose my appetite," I mumbled pushing my food away from me.

"Don't mind if I do." Jermaine said pulling it towards him and taking a chicken tender out of the basket and biting into it. "I fucking love chicken." he said with his mouth full.
"You barely even ate your food." Justine said in a whisper. I ignored her, keeping my head sort of low. 

"Well, hello there." I heard Jake say. I closed my eyes, putting my head down on the table. 

"Hey, Jake." Justine said. I heard Jake acknowledge her then I heard a chair scrape the floor. Getting closer to me.

"Hey baby." he whispered. I looked over at him and smiled weakly. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you look like shit. Are you ok?"

"Just tired." I said halfway truthfully. I mean, I am tired. But that wasn't the only thing tearing me down. There was so much shit going on. It honestly was starting to become hard to juggle everything.

"Well, get some rest ok. I hope you feel better." he kissed my cheek then rubbed my back. He nodded at Justine and Jermaine then walked off. I felt Jermaine's and Justine's eyes on me again. I sighed and looked at them.

"Can y'all stop staring at me?"

"He loves you." Justine said.

"Yeah, I know."

"How the hell you make he fall in love with you that quickly? I mean, I can't even get a dude to like me, you got a nigga to love you." she made a face.

"Didn't I say I didn't want to talk about this?" After a brief moment of silence, one that I enjoyed, I just noticed something.

"Wait, hold up. Jermaine, did you tell Daniel I was with Jake last night? Because I sure as hell didn't and he said something you said that sounded exactly the same." Jermaine looked at me and frowned.

"Why the fuck would I do that? What would I gain from telling Daniel everything?" I stared at Jermaine silently.

"You weren't here to help me, you're here so Danny had someone to spy on me. What Danny didn't trust me?"

"What are you talking about Victoria? You sound crazy."

"Since I've been doing research, most of it, I bring it to you first. Then I wait for Danny to call me and when I tell him what I tell you, he never seems shocked."
"Maybe because he knows the truth." he said in a duh tone.

"He knew I was with Jake last night and I didn't say nothing to him about it. Either you've been telling him or you bugged something on me." Jermaine and I stared at each other silently. "And from your silence, I know it's true. Well since you run and tell Danny everything, tell him, I'm not doing anymore." I stood up walking out the food court.