A Story To Tell | Book 1

.4.

It's been more than a couple weeks and I hadn't heard from Tray, nor had I even heard from Chavez's two faced ass. I blew Chavez's phone up with text messages and hateful voice mails demanding he call me asap, but no response. I'd even reached out to Antoinette to figure out what was going on, but Antoinette would always tell me that Chavez wasn't around. I was growing impatient with Chavez and ready to cuss Tray out for being M.I.A.

    I know with this whole bullshit that had taken place here at my apartment, he could've reached out to check and see if I was doing okay. But I heard nothing from him, not even a text asking how I felt, or was I okay. Just flat out nothing. And it had me feeling some type of way because this wasn't like Tray to just leave me alone like this and not check on me not once. I wasn't sure if he was just trying to make sure everything was okay with Cheri before he reached out to me or if he'd fallen off on the face of this planet or what. Regardless, Tray wouldn't fall off without mentioning to me. He never made a move without telling me first. This wasn't like him.

    Rolling over onto my right side, in bed, I reached for my phone underneath my pillow and shot Tray a text.

Me: Wyd

And I'd laid in bed for damn near thirty minutes without a response. Unfortunately, I had to get up and go to work within the next hour and not hearing from Tray had me going insane. Or something like it. This just didn't feel right.

    Getting up out of my bed, I'd decided to try and call Chavez again, but I got nothing. It was as if the two men that I loved and cared for were just ignoring me just to hurt me. If they were doing this intentionally, it was working. And for that, part of me wanted to cry and just drown myself into being depressed, but I felt that Tray had gone through all of this with me. He's the one that taught me how to love me for me and for me to go back and start to self-hate, it would make it seem as if Tray had wasted his time changing me. I couldn't do that to him. Especially when he put his marriage on the line for me. I had to stay strong.

    In the shower, I couldn't help but think about all of the hurtful things Cheri had said to me that night. She made sure to call me this fat bitch, and that fat bitch and literally laugh in my face as if I were stupid. As if my career in retail was a joke. Let's be clear. She was asking me for help whenever she came to my place of business, not the other way around. What did she do for a living? Since she wanted to get technical. The nerve of that bitch! This was going to be on my mind all day. And I wouldn't be surprised if she came there looking for me.

    It was policy to not bring your personal issues to work with you and that's something that I expressed to many of the girls who start there. I couldn't handle hearing about their personal lives at work. I didn't want them to think that I didn't care because when it comes to someone going through something, I cared, but we couldn't bring that energy to work and take it out on our customers. But the thing is, how can I not bring this to work with me when I knew without a doubt that Cheri was going to bring this to me while at work? She knows just who I am and the fact that I'm the fat bitch from Rue 21, I'm afraid that if she saw me, she would lose her mind.

    I'd chosen to wear my yellow and ruby red sundress with ruby red Jesus sandals. I pulled my naturally curly hair up into a wet messy bun and put on nude lipstick and gold accessories. When I was satisfied with my choice, I grabbed my tan wallet and keys from the dresser and hopped into my car, off to work.

    By the time I'd gotten there, Brianna was already there, opening up by the time I got out of the car. She was wearing a black dress that dragged to the floor with her hair up in a bun, the same as mine. I smiled at her and she smiled back, wearing goth lipstick with black accessories.

    "Good morning, Tereny!" Brianna greeted.

    "Morning..." I said back, not so happy.

    "You okay?" She asked me with a concerned look on her face.