LaVaughn Jester
"You ready ?" I walked into the room. "Yeah, Nia and Nick ready?" He asked. I nodded. "Y'all can get in the car, i'm right behind y'all." He said. I grabbed the keys from here and walked down the stairs. "Come on." I tell Nia and Nick. "You seem mad." Nia said. "I'm fine." I said. "Whatever you say." Soon, Zaire came out and we left heading to the family reunion.
"Yo dad ain't gone be there is he?" He asked. "I have no idea." I said. I looked over his attire and bit my lip.
"Stop biting yo lip mama." He said using his thumb to remove my lip from my teeth. "You ain't talked to me all day , what's up with that?" He asked. The truth was, Imani his ex girlfriend sent me a picture of them boo'd up together. It looked pretty recent, but I didn't want to jump to conclusion. "Nothing." I said. "I did something?" He asked. "Can we talk about this later?" I asked. He looked at me for a minute. "Yea." He said and left it alone.
While he drove, he grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it, and held it as he drove.
When we made it, Ant was outside with Olivia and Ryleigh. "Fuck." I heard Zaire mumbled. "You knew she was gone be here?" I asked. "I told Ant to tell Liv to not invite her. Obviously he didn't." He said. We all climbed out and Zaire grabbed my hand as we woke over to them. "Hey y'all." I said. Liv and Ant gave me a hug, and Ryleigh just stared.
I ignored her, and looked back at Liv. "You're getting big." I said rubbing her belly. "V we gotta i'm, talk to you." Ant said. I nodded. No one was here yet, so we went into the living room and he pulled up a video. It was a old video, of me and Ryleigh fighting.
No one knew about it, because It was unexpected. I don't know what I had going on then. "You wanna explain?" Ant asked. "Ant." I said. "You attacked her, for what to be exact?" He asked. "I didn't attack her Ant. Minutes before that she vandalized my car, minutes before that she spit on me." I said. "Why did I believe you?" He asked. I didn't say anything, cause that really broke my heart. "Really?" I asked lowly. "That's fine." I said. I snatched the keys from Zaire and started to take off. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back. "Where you going?" He asked.
"Away from here." I said and left out. I wasn't about to stay somewhere I wasn't welcomed.
I soon pulled back up to the house and hopped out, going inside. I locked the door, and turned the alarm on and went into on of my 2 rooms. This room, I made wigs in. I sat at the table.
I turned my phone on airplane mode, cause at this point I didn't want to talk to anyone. Somehow, I was always in the wrong. And being that my brother didn't even believe me, that fucked me up.
I cut my phone off, and got to work.
*****
"Phat?!" I heard Zaire call out. I didn't answer. He started opening doors, until the room I was in door opened. "Phat, don't do that." He said. "What I do?" I asked. "You turned to phone off or on airplane mode." He said. "Sorry." I said.
"He wanted to apologize." He said. "Fuck him and his apology." I said. "Baby." He said. I turned the curling wand off and turned towards him. "What's really wrong?" He asked. "You been showing out lately." He added.
"A few days ago, I was sent a message. It was from Imani." I started. "My ex Imani?" He asked. I nodded. "She sent a picture of you and her laid up together. It looked pretty recent to me." I said. "I put this on my momma, I haven't seen her since we broke up." He said. "Like at all, no contact none of that." He added. "And I believe you." I said.
"A few days ago, I went to get a check up." I started. "And I found out .. I h-." I stopped talking for a minute. "I have Leukemia." My voice cracked as I spoke.
"Baby, why didn't you tell me?" He asked lowly. "I wanted to, but I knew you would start to look at me different." I said. And the tears started flowing. He reached his hand out, and I grabbed it. He pulled me over to him and sat me on his lap. "I would never look at you differently." He said. "I love you so much baby." He added kissing my forehead.
We stayed in the position until someone came into the room. "V?" I looked up seeing Ant, Nia, and Nick. I wiped my eyes as they furrowed they eyes. "What's wrong?" Nia asked. "You gotta tell em mama." He said. I nodded.
"I have Leukemia." I said. "What?" Nia asked lowly. I nodded. "You lying." Was the first thing Ant said. "Okay." Was all I said. "Dawg, you gotta leave. You not finna keep doing this shit. You turning yo back on family." Zaire said. "You gotta go." He said again. Ant stared at us for a minute before he left out.
Nia came over and gave me a hug, feeling my shirt get wet, I knew she was crying. "I'm okay Nia." I said. She pulled aaay and Nick hugged her. "I'm going to take a shower." I said and stood up leaving the room.
I walked into the bedroom and into the bathroom. I started up the shower and hopped in. As I was washing off, Zaire slipped in with me. I felt his hands wrap around my waist and he kissed my neck. "I love you." He said for the 5th time. "I love you too." I said. We cleaned up, and stepped out.
Once we was dressed in night clothes, we both climbed in bed. "Is it curable?" He asked. "I was diagnosed, so if I get treatment now It should go away." I said. "I can't lose you phat." He said lowly. "And you ain't lose me." I said.
"You sure that ain't misdiagnose you?" He asked. "I don't know, if they did I will sue." I said. He kissed my forehead. "I love you." He whispered, meaning he was about to go to sleep. I didn't reply, I just turned over and went to sleep also.
