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She was crying, and it caused me to cry. However, it didn’t make me regret a thing I was saying to her. I was crying because I was angry that she had the audacity to cry after the shit she’d created. “You’re right, Yendi. I’m so sorry.”
I rolled my eyes as more tears fell from them. She was going to make me distance myself from her too. It wasn’t like we talked every day, but we at least texted each other once a week. She’d moved away from home when I was still in high school, so it was common to not talk to her as often. She created the distance by ignoring phone calls. If I called her and she didn’t answer, I wouldn’t call again. The ball was in her court to reach out. Sometimes that would take her weeks.
“I have to go, Marie. I can’t talk to you right now, because I really want to cuss yo’ ass out. To keep from doing that, I’d rather just get off the phone. I need to calm down.”
I ended the call without giving her a chance to respond, grabbed my keys, and got in my car. I left the parking lot, heading to Sonic for a strawberry cheesecake shake. That always made me feel better. As I was driving, my phone rang and I just knew it was Janay, trying to see if I’d talked to Marie, but to my surprise, it was Jakari.
My heart rate picked up speed, and my body temperature rose. Why was he calling me when he told me to move on with my life? It had been three weeks since I’d seen or spoken to him. I missed him, but I was trying to honor his wishes. After blowing his fucking phone up that week after the game, I gave up. Maybe he wasn’t the man I thought he was. Maybe God didn’t destine us for each other at all. Maybe it was the devil disguised as a beautiful, fine, chocolate, country, thug looking nigga that he knew would make my knees weak and my pussy leak.
When he left a voice message, my eyebrows shot up. Jakari rarely left voice messages whenever he called, and I couldn’t answer. He knew I would see the missed call and call him back. Going to my voicemail, I let it play through my Bluetooth.
“Hey, Yendi. I know I said for you to move on, but I just need to know that you’re okay. I’ve been calling for the past couple of weeks, hoping to hear your voice and knowing you’ve been well.”
He’s been calling for the past couple of weeks?“I thought you’d blocked me, but since it rang several times before sending me to voicemail this time, I realized you’d probably had your phone off. I umm… I’ve been going to counseling. I’m finally handling my issues by facing them head on. I’ve been doing better. I’ve had three sessions so far. You don’t have to call me back. You can send a text. Just let me know you’re okay. Although we aren’t together, I still care about you. I still love you, Yendi. Okay. That’s it. Hope to hear from you soon.”
He ended the message as I parked in a stall at Sonic. I just sat there in my feelings for a minute. His voice always commanded my attention. I missed Jakari like crazy, but before I could get lost in my thoughts, my phone rang again. This time it was Janay. “Hello?”
“Hey, Yendi. I wanted to call and check on you. Have you talked to Marie?”
“Hey. Yeah, I talked to her. She was apologizing me up a wall. I had to hang up on her though to keep from cussing her ass out.”
“You should have cussed her out. That was wrong on so many levels. Not only did she tell her where you were at, she didn’t bother to even warn you. That’s messed up, and it pissed me off, so I know it pissed you off.”
“It did.”
“So what happened when Mama showed up?”
“She was on her normal bullshit about God was ready for Daddy, and she’s sorryifI feel like she did something wrong… yada, yada, yada. I ended up yanking her ass to the floor.”
“Oh shit! What led to that?”
“I told her to get out, and she was just sitting there like I was playing with her. I yanked her ass up, and she ended up falling on the floor. I counted her down like she was a kid, and she still just sat there.”
“Well, she deserved everything she got plus some.”
“Yep. I was way more emotional than I wanted to be the next time I saw her. I wanted her to see me doing well and not being fazed by her presence. I wasn’t ready to be confronted by her. It doesn’t help that Jakari broke up with me the week before, so I was already sensitive.”
“What? Why?”
“He said he needed time to get his issues together. I mean… I told him I wanted to be with him to help him through them. So I kind of forced the issue about us being together when he wasn’t ready. I pumped him up to think that he was. When he ran into his dad and left me at the basketball arena in Houston, he realized that he wasn’t as ready as I made him believe he was.”
“Oh my goodness! That was when you saw Nate again and Noah and TAZ, right?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you get home?”
“His uncle came and got me. We actually bonded in that drive. Jakari cares about me. I know that. He made sure I got home, although it wasn’t the same way I got there. He left during halftime, and Jasper was picking me up before the game was over. So it wasn’t like I was waiting after people had left.”
“Damn, Yendi. I’m sorry. Life just messed up all the way around, huh?”
“Yeah. Where’s JaCory?”
“I’m on my way home. Terrence picked him up from daycare. It’s his weekend.”
“Oh okay. Well, let’s finally get you a plane ticket to come see me in two weeks. I miss you.”
“Yay! Okay. I’ll look up flights when I get home.”
