Double Trouble

Chapter Eight

I felt Marcus's eyes on me as I stared at the steps. He said, "Do you want to leave? "No, he's seen me, and I might as well figure out what he wants?"

"Do you want me to go with you?"

I finally looked over at him and gave him a weird sort of smile. I said, "No, I have to handle this one alone." He looked at me and said, "All right, long as you are ok with it, call me as soon as he leaves or if you need me to come back." I smiled weakly and nodded. He leaned over and kissed me deeply again before he backed up and looked back towards the steps. I finally exited the car, grabbed my things, and waved before walking towards my front door.

Jason looked up, and it took everything in me not to react. He was still fine as hell, but anger overshadowed any reaction I would have had to it. He opened his mouth to speak, but I interrupted. I said, "I'm not sure about why you are here or why you even thought it was cool for you to bring your ass around here, but I promise you I still don't want to see you or speak to you, so you are wasting your time, and you might as well leave."

He didn't say anything for a moment before he chuckled a little bit. I said, "Ain't a damn thing funny; why the fuck are you here, Jason?" He said, "I was hoping for a simple hello, but I should know you better than that." Hearing his deep voice sent shockwaves through me, but it had nothing but lies beneath it. He held out the bouquet of roses and tulips and said, "These are for you. I hope you can add these to the other ones I've been sending." I said, "So it was you leaving all the damn flowers. But for what, though, Jason? We haven't spoken, seen each other or anything, and I didn't particularly want to change that."

He sighed and rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. He was still holding out the flowers, so I took them and continued to stare at him, waiting for him to answer.

He looked up and said, "You are still so damn beautiful, and this is a lot harder than I thought it would be." I rolled my eyes and headed towards my door, and said, "What the fuck ever, bruh, go home. I'm not in the mood; I'm over this and you." He smirked and said, "Does the dark skin brother in the Camaro have something to do with that?" I glared at him and said, "Does it matter?"

He said, "Look, Christa, it's a lot of shit I want to say to you, shit I should have said when all that shit between us went down, but you were ignoring me so damn hard I couldn't say it. But I never stopped wanting to set shit straight with you. Then I heard that you were seeing someone else after all this time, and I knew I had to speak up, but I didn't know how to approach you. How do you speak to the woman you love after you broke her heart? I'm very aware that you don't give a damn about anything I have to say and definitely didn't want to see me, but I must talk to you. I can't let shit keep going like this before that shit happens again."

I said, "G, what the fuck are you talking about? Before what fucking happens again? What? You being a jackass because it looks like it never fucking changed." He opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could, I heard a voice scream out, "Christa!" I looked around and saw my sister approaching with a very fast walk looking furious.

I heard Jason say, "Fuck" under his breath before he said, "Look, obviously now is not a good time; please just give me a call if you are willing to hear what I'm trying to say. Please?" I stared him in his eyes, not answering, but I didn't need to; at that time, Clara had approached and smacked the shit out of Jason. I stared with my mouth open before grabbing her and pulling her back. She screamed, "How dare you bring your worthless ass back here around my fucking sister? Get your stupid ass away from here; she ain't got shit to say to you; leave her the fuck alone, you cheating, lying bitch!"

I was shocked as hell; I'd never seen Clara act like this before. Jason stood there holding his face, where she smacked him. Clearly, it didn't hurt, but he seemed more irritated than anything. He glared at her, and I pulled her back some more. She was breathing deeply but not saying anything. He rubbed his face once more before nodding and saying, "I'll definitely remember that. Christa, do you remember what I said? Keep that in mind; I'm out." He turned and walked away up the street, where I saw his black Cadillac was sitting, which I didn't notice at first. He got in and drove off, his music blasting.

Clara glared at him the whole time until he was out of sight and then turned to me. She said, "Are you all right? He didn't do anything to you, did he?" I shook my head and said, "I really should be asking if you are ok; I've never seen you act like that." She blushed and said, "I just hate that he did what he did and then had the audacity to bring his ass back around like nothing happened." I looked up and noticed a few nosy folks staring at us and then said, "Let's go in the house; we caused a bit of a scene. Once inside, I put my things away and made some tea for Clara while texting Jalissa to come over ASAP.

I ran upstairs, changed into short shorts and a T-shirt for lounging around the house, and called Marcus quickly to let him know what happened. I told him I would be kicking it with my sister and Clara for a while, so I would call him later tonight before I went to bed. When I got off the phone, I heard Clara open the door and let Jalissa in.

She was also dressed in her Sunday lounging clothes, so we all went into the living room and found comfortable places on the couch or, in Jalissa's case, on the floor, and I told them the whole story of my weekend, starting from when I left them at the door. Jalissa was squealing in all the right places, especially when I got to the particularly naughty parts. Clara looked preoccupied, but she commented and smiled throughout the whole story. When I told them that Marcus and I had decided to become a couple, they jumped on me and hugged me tightly, and we all fell to the floor in laughter and happiness.

After that, I finally updated Jalissa on what had happened with Jason and Clara on the parts she missed. Still looking rather pissed off, Clara chose not to comment, but Jalissa was raring to take her place. She said, "Good for you, Clara! I'd have punched the jackass! How dare he bring his black ass around here after what he did. The audacity of these niggas these days. Although, I'm curious about what he wanted to talk about."

Clara said harshly, "fuck, what he wanted to talk about? He probably just wanted to spit more bullshit lies now that he heard she was moving on and couldn't give any less fucks about his ass." I didn't say it, but Clara's reaction to Jason was way out of character. She was upset when we broke up, but she was always sensible, Clara. I shrugged it off, saying my sister always has my best interest at heart. It was probably due to all the stress of approaching graduation, which I realized, with a start, was two weeks away.

I said, "Well, anyway fuck Jason and his bullshit. We, ladies, have to start talking about this wonderful thing called graduation." Jalissa jumped and said, "Oh, I definitely have some plans in mind." And for the next couple of hours, we discussed graduation plans, outfits, dinners, and everything else involved in the process.

After Jalissa went home, Clara and I cooked dinner and hung out together for a while, sitting in the living room, gossiping, and working on the last of our assignments. After a while, Clara decided it was time for her to go to bed, and she walked off to get ready. I sat there for a few more minutes before going upstairs to my bedroom. I sat on the edge and looked at the flowers again that Jason had brought—Roses and tulips that I didn't notice at first, my favorite two flowers. The roses were red, and the tulips pink. They were a beautiful arrangement. As I looked at it, I finally realized a card was buried in them.

I stood up and grabbed it, and read it. It said, I know that I don't deserve it, but I really need you to hear me out. If you change your mind, my number hasn't changed, but just in case you deleted it, here it is. He had written his number on the card, but he didn't need to; I still had it memorized, surprisingly. Some things never leave. I stared at it for a moment before I shook my head. I said to myself, "There's nothing left to say." I ripped up the card and threw it in the trashcan.