Page 13 of Meet Me at the Altar

“Yes, DJ. Boy, go with your mom. I’ll be there soon. Stay out of grown folks’ business,” she declared, playfully swatting at him.

I could tell by the affection between the two of them that they had a close relationship.

Kalliope turned back to me with a glare. “Where was I?”

“Why does he call you TK?”

“Not TK, but Tee K. It’s short for Tee-Tee Kalliope.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Don’t try to change the subject. Where was I?”

“It’s more than my bad.”

“Yeah. You just dropped off the face of the earth. No phone call, no text message, not even a letter in a damn bottle, Drè.”

“I mean, that first year had a nigga not being able to see things straight. I was angry, bitter, and I had a lot of shit to work through, Kalli.”

“That’s what I’m talking about. You always worked things out with me. You could talk to me when you couldn’t talk to anyone else, and vice versa. But it was just like fuck me and my feelings, because you stomped an entire mud hole in my heart.”

“I told you that I needed to take some time away and get myself together. Kalli, you know that hurting you was the last thing that I wanted, but I wasn’t any good for anyone at the time. I was in a bad place, and you didn’t need that energy in your life. Besides, I had nowhere else to go.”

“You could leave the state to handle your business, but that didn’t prevent you from picking up a phone. You damn sure didn’t need to drop off the face of the earth or out of my life for a decade to get your life together. That was bullshit, Drè, and you and I both know it. I’m not boo-boo the fool. It’s not okay for you to play me the way you used to play those heffas that ran behind you everywhere you went.”

“I called you in the beginning.”

“The first few months. Then you stopped, and I heard from you a handful of times sporadically over the years. That’s no way to treat your best friend.”

She had every right to be furious and snap on me the way that she was. I tried to keep my composure, but it was hard. I was struggling to suppress my feelings for her, and being in her presence, all those feelings I thought were gone only flared back to life.

“I did what was best for both of us at that time.”

“How could you determine that was best for us? I needed you, Drè,” she whined.

“You were in a whole relationship with that . . . Leroy, Renault, Renfroe.”

“Remy.”

“Yeah, whatever. You knew that I had a lot of shit going on with my mama’s husband, my mama, work, all that shit. Life wasjust too much, and I could barely handle it anymore. I couldn’t stand back and watch you with that fake ass nigga. I knew you deserved better than that. If I stayed around too long, we might not have been friends anymore.”

“Why?”

“I would’ve bust ya nigga up.”

“Maybe you should’ve stayed around longer then,” she muttered, batting her eyelashes quickly.

“Why? What did that nigga do?”

“He was a cheater. We just broke up last year.”

“Wait. You’ve been with that nigga all these years?”

She sniffled, rolled her eyes, and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Yes. Feels like a waste of years.”

“Why’d you stick with him all that time?”