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14
CAMILA
Now
“Mamita, you need to relax,” Danté stressed, hovering over me while I sat on the couch in the living room. Breathing in and out.
“Danté, the house still reeks of weed. I just realized my employer may be dea… I can’t even bring myself to say it.”
“You gotta worry about one thing at a time. You ain’t here for them, you’re here for these kids.”
“I know.” I nodded, reaching for Little Miss who seemed to be having a great time with whatever Danté and her were up to.
“While you were havin’ your pity party for one, Paris and I found the solution to your Maryjane debauchery.” He showed me the Lysol All-Purpose Cleaner in one hand with a towel drenched in the liquid in his other. “Run this in the dryer, twice. The smell will go away before Mama Dukes gets home.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. Gurl, next time you decide to be lazy and not iron these minions’ clothes, you best make sure to check dem pockets before throwin’ shit in the dryer. You’re lucky that boy was only carryin’ a dime bag, cuz an ounce would have really fuc…” he stopped himself, making Journey giggle. “Messed things up.”
I scoffed out a chuckle.
“Besides, you got bigger problems than just some herb smellin’ up in here. How old is the pothead again?”
“He just turned thirteen two weeks ago.”
“Well, now you gonna havta deal with Cheech and him rollin’ up doobies.”
I inhaled a deep, steady breath. This was just another thing I had to face today.
What was I supposed to do with that? Tell Skyler? Have him hate me even more?
There was no right or wrong answers, either way you looked at it, I was screwed.
“I’m gonna get up outta here, my work is done for today. You’re welcome. No need to walk me out, I might take a picture of Daddy Pierce to show my momma what her future grandkids might look like.”
“Danté.”
“Don’t worry.” He kept walking toward the door. “I’ll take one for you too.”
“Gah!” Journey chimed in.
“You want me to have a picture of your daddy?”
Her eyes widened, and I swear she winked at me.
“Don’t worry! Doctor Daddy is probably fuckin’ his fist to you already!”
“Danté! Language!”
“Pssst! Paris heard worse comin’ out of her brother’s mouths! Talk to you later, love ya!”
For the rest of the afternoon, I went about my normal routine. I cleaned up the rest of the house, made dinner, and got Journey ready for her third nap of the day, waiting on the brink of insanity for Jackson to get home, so I could confront him. Still not knowing what the hell I was going to say.
I wasn’t equipped for the magnitude of the problem I was facing. This wasn’t something I could have prepared or been ready for. There was no manual on how to handle a situation like this. I just had to go with my gut, my motherlike intuition, needing him to know this wasn’t alright. He was too young to be smoking weed.
I took a deep, steady breath as I waited for him in his bedroom. My heart leapt out of my chest when I heard his footsteps down the hall. Secretly hoping this wasn’t going to blow up in my face like everything else had with him.
The only other choice I had was to tell Skyler and let her handle it, but what would that say about me? I felt like this conversation at least needed to start between us.
