Affinity

Chapter 13: A Meeting of the Minds

So...the pieces are gonna start to come together. 

" Morning Abla." Jaelyn was up on me with a hug before I could respond. I noticed that Raheem didn't even tense at the intimate moment, but instead respectfully dapped with Jaelyn after our initial exchange was over. Jaelyn wasn't edgy, nervous or afraid, he looked genuinely happy to see our faces so early in the morning.

" I'm glad you told him." Was the line that pooled in his mouth before it was flung in my direction and hit me with surprise. Jaelyn's lips drew into a smile and I fought the urge to feel at ease, this man was still a stranger.

" How do you know Hakim?" Raheem circled his arm around my waist as we sat in the coffee shop down the street from my school.

It was the only place I knew that opened this early, and was as desolately populated as this conversation called for. I hadn't told Jaz, and a pang of guilt struck me for not including her but I knew my decision was just. This was not a safe situation, Raheem was all the piece of mind I needed, but Jaz had a family of her own. I would not risk that.

" I used to work for him. I'm sure you know your brother traps, I'm sure that's no surprise. But he's more than that now, Hakim is a real street dude. It took some years, but he's all the way apart of that world now." Jaelyn paused as he shook his head, I saw dark memories flash in his eyes.

" That time he spent away from you Ab, that was the time I spent getting to know you."

" I only saw you that one time before the gas station, what are you talking about?" I had an incredulous tone about me that I truly couldn't police, I was genuinely confused.

" You may not have seen me Abla, but I've been there. That was the deal. Hakim had a lot of heat on him and he had to leave, but leaving you completely was never something he was gonna do, you or ya family. That's where I came in. In places he couldn't be, I was." He paused and I held a breath awaiting his continuance of this seemingly unbelievable tale.

" It hurt him a lot leaving you, there is no doubt about that. I was at your high school graduation when you searched the crowd for his face. When you corrected the guest speaker for pronouncing your name wrong as you made your speech. I remember when you went to register for college classes, insisting that you started classes in the summer before your peers. I was even with you when you went to Raheem's house not too long ago to tell him how you felt. I was close enough to you to hear the pep talk you gave yourself as you worked up your nerve." I recalled each moment Jaelyn had just described, trying to find him in each scene, I had no recollection. In my rearview I had been essentially alone in each endeavor, and here my memory was being proven wrong for an alternate reality I'd had no actual knowledge of.

" You telling me you been tailing her for years bruh?" There was an entrance of hostility in Rah's voice, I flew a hand to his side and leaned in to him. We were good, I was still here and none of us needed to adopt retrograde anger on the other's behalf.

" I was. I never told her or made a proper entrance because that would only scare her, and all I was meant to do was protect her." I was taken aback, flabbergasted; I was cursing Hakim in my head while tears of anger brought on a hot flash. I shook the feeling as best I could.

" I know my role in this is weird, ok. There was no malice or ill intention behind it. I did what I was told and we see where that led. But Abla, I stayed around because after years of watching your back you felt like my sister too."

Jaelyn was well spoken to the point of utter silence on Rah and I's behalf. I had never heard such strong and reliable diction mixed with hood tones and underlays. If I closed my eyes now it'd sound like a song if I allowed it, but alas this was no musical fairytale. The real life noises of doors opening and closing, chairs being pulled out and feet scuffing floors boasted reality in its primal form. These noises were intended to wake the sleeping and jar the slacking; I made no assumptions or accusations as to which group I belonged to in this moment, but accepted reality as the finality it was.

" Bruh, what's your angle? What could you possibly want or gain from telling her what you told her, and telling us this now? Feeling or not, we are aware no blood sharing exists between ya'll." Raheem was definite in his line, this was no accusation but a serious inquiry.

Jaelyn turned to Raheem with a stoic face; not a smirk lingered to give off an impression other than the one he wanted to be displayed.

" I have no angle, I have no ulterior motive. Raheem, I am not trying to hurt Abla or come on to her, or nothing like that bruh. I know ya'll don't know me from a can of paint but at this point all of this is familial one way or another. I can't just let Hakim come back and fuck up everyone's world off his own ego, nah that ain't right. He told me to be loyal to his sister, and that I will remain, no matter where he and I stand." Jaelyn was emphatic and true, his fervor a loyal bearing badge he wore without pause. Raheem believed him. He didn't say it or give off that air exclusively, but slipped into his head nod was respect and a breath of relief. His immediate fears had been assuaged.

" So wassup man? Why kill me too?" Raheem had waited as long as this awkward situation would allow to vault the true reason we were here. I held a plaintive breath and removed my waking mind from the conversation to allow Rah to experience this moment fully and at his own behest.

" Look who you got with you. Nothing involving her is a mistake, and unfortunately your brother's carelessness sped up an already progressing process..."

I know I'm dragging out the real reason Hakim wants Rah dead but.....ya'll will know soon

Update tomorrow?