"The bodies from Thursday night's home invasion shooting have been identified as 23 year old Keon Jones, 27 year old Malcom Pollard, 20 year old Tayvion Phillips, and 23 year old Derrick Jones. Officers are still investigating the case"
"No fucking way" I said to myself.
"This world is too fucked up for me" My mom let out a loud sigh as she changed the channel from the news, "Dwight and Deontae y'all better not be out in the streets. Go to work and bring y'all ass home. And watch them lil fast ass girls y'all be with too"
"Ain't nothing out there for me" DJ responded. I couldn't help but stare at him as he lied right through his teeth.
My mind was wandering a mile a minute. There's no way Jordan is involved in this. He isn't that type of guy.
Is he?
Did he do this because of me?
Did I get that man killed?
I sat there eating my bowl of Frosted Flakes as many thoughts just continued to pour through my head. Just as I opened my mouth to speak the doorbell rang.
"I got it" Deontae said getting up from the couch and walking over to the door.
"Aye what's up Montrell" Deontae greeted the person at the door. He purposely put emphasis on his name so I could hear. A confused look instantly appeared on my face.
He steps to the side and allows Montrell into the house. "Wassup DJ, Hey Ma. Long time no see"
"Hey baby how you been?" My mom asked him.
"I've been good, what about you?"
"I can't complain" She replies.
His eyes finally met mine, "Can we talk?"
"Ummm" I was hesitant to answer because what could there possibly be to talk about "Yeah, I guess" I shrugged my shoulders and stood up from the couch. I headed towards my room and he followed behind me.
"What're we talking about?" I asked as I sat down at my desk to finish eating my bowl of cereal.
"How you been? You good" He asked sitting down at the foot of my bed.
"Yeah I'm good, you good?" My eyebrow instantly raised at him. I was thoroughly confused as to why he's here. We haven't spoken since we broke up.
"Nah I've been missing you"
"Oh brother" I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. "Can we not?"
"Not what?" Montrell furrows his eyebrows at me.
"Not do this" I replied. "Our time has come and gone."
"There's no way you're just gonna throw damn near four years down the drain like that"
"No, you did that." I quickly corrected him. Just because I'm the one that decided to end things between us, doesn't mean that I'm the one that just threw out our relationship. He been checked out of it, I just cut the rope.
"I just wanna fix things between us Dream. I love you and I don't wanna let this go" Montrell pleaded. Looking in his eyes, I could see that he was being somewhat genuine.
"And I love you too, but I'm not in love with you anymore Montrell"
Montrell was my first love, my first everything. Despite how things may have played out between us, he will always have a special place in my heart. But that's about it.
He nods his head and stands up from the bed. "Can we still be friends?"
"Yeah" I nodded my head.
A part of me wanted to tell him that I'm dating Jay. However, after reassuring him that Jay was just a friend, which was the truth, I knew how he'd take the news. Him spazzing out on me would then lead to me having to tell DJ, which would then cause a lot of unnecessary drama and beef between DJ and Jay.
So keeping my mouth shut is the only option right now.
"I'm gonna go. I'll text you" Montrell says.
"K" I followed behind him as he walked out of my bedroom.
"Nice seeing y'all again" Montrell waved at them.
"Nice seeing you too sweetie, be safe" My mom got up from the couch and headed to the kitchen to put her cup of coffee into the sink.
As I opened the front door for Montrell to leave out I could hear several voices. I stepped onto the front porch and looked over to see Jay and his friends standing outside of his house.
My eyes widened at the sight of him. His face was all bruised and scratched up. His face scrunched up as he watched Montrell walk down my driveway and over to his car.
This definitely looked bad.
Jay's eyes met mine and I could tell he wanted an explanation. I stepped back into the house and ran to my room for some shoes. My crocs were the first thing I saw so I just slipped them on.
"Where you running too?" I heard my mom say.
"Next door"
I ran over and just hugged him tightly. As I hugged him I heard him wince in pain. "Hey" He chuckled placing a hand on my lower back.
"Where the fuck have you been?" I pulled away from the hug and looked at his face. His bottom lip was all busted up and his right eye was slightly swollen shut.
"And what the fuck happened to your face Jordan? Are you okay? Who did this?"
"Jordannnn?" One of the guys said before they all started laughing.
"Dream you remember my homie Killa, Meech, and Leon" Jordan said introducing me to his friends again.
"Yeah hey y'all" I nodded my head. I turned my attention back to him and bucked my eyes at him letting him know he needed to start talking.
"Wait a second this whole time shorty stay next door?" Killa questioned "That's crazyyy" He spoke and everybody laughed.
"Well I'mma hit y'all later. I'm finna chill out for a lil bit" Jay said dapping up with his friends.
"Ight cool"
I watched as they all piled into the car before backing out the driveway. I looked back at Jordan and just glared at him.
"Did you miss me?" He smiled at me. Despite his badly beaten face, he was still so damn handsome.
"DiD yOu MisS mE" I mocked. I invited myself inside the house and sat down on the couch.
"What were you in jail for?" I questioned.
"Long story" He sighed as he kicked off his shoes. I watched as he pulled off his t shirt as he walked towards the back of the house. His rib cage was covered in bruises. I don't know who the hell he got beef with but they definitely beat the fuck out of him.
"Well we got nothing but time" I replied raising my voice a little so he could still hear me.
"Let me take a shower right quick" He called out from where ever he was in the house.
I sat down on the couch and reached for the remote. My phone was still sitting on the coffee table at home so I just had to pass time watching an episode of My Wife and Kids.
"So why was ya boy over there?" Jay's voice made an appearance before he did.
"First of all that's not my boy" I quickly responded "He was just telling me that he still loves me and wants me back."
"Aw okay" He nods his head and walks into the kitchen. "And what you tell him?"
I got up from the couch and followed him, "I told him I still have love for him but I'm not in love with him anymore." I said and leaned against the fridge.
"Mmmh" Jay nods his head again as he reached into the cupboard.
"What?" I questioned raising an eyebrow at him even though his back was turned to me, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing" He shook his head and walked over to where I was standing. He stood in front of me and placed his hand on the handle of the fridge door. He looked down at me and I felt butterflies inside my stomach. I missed him, a lot. My eyes drifted down to his lips and back up to his eyes, trying to indicate that I wanted to be kissed.
"Can I get in here?" He slightly pulls on the fridge door.
"Are we good? Did I do something wrong?" I questioned as I watched him reach into the fridge for the bottle of Simply Lemonade.
"Did you?" Jay asks and locks eyes with me.
"No" I replied with a confused look upon my face. He stares at me hard as if he was trying to read my face.
"Then we good" He kisses my forehead and then walks over to the other side of the room.
"So yo ass don't know how to fight or something?" I asked trying to change the topic.
"Fuck you" He laughed shaking his head. I opened his freezer looking for something he could ice his face with me.
"Here" I tossed him a frozen bag of broccoli to put on his eye, "Next time don't let them fuck with your face"
"Yeah next time I get jumped I'll let them know my girl said leave my face alone" He spoke with a sarcastic tone.
"That's all I ask" I replied and we both laughed.
"Does this hurt?" I asked touching the bruises on his side.
"Not really" He winced, "Only when you touch it"
"Want my mom to check it out for you? She's in the house. You might have a broken rib or something" I said touching it again.
"Nah I'll just keep icing it. If the pain don't go away I'll let you know"
I nodded my head, "Lemme see" I grabbed his wrist and moved his hand away from his eye so I could look at it again. It's already going down. They didn't give you an ice pack?"
"It's jail, not day camp" Jordan laughed shaking his head.
"Well keep icing it." I stood on my tip toes and kissed his eye.
"Damn all of a sudden my eye feels fine" He joked "Try my lip, maybe you can heal that too"
I chucked and rolled my eyes. I held onto his forearm as I stood on my tip toes and kissed his lips as well.
"I'm gonna let you rest up. I'll be in my room if you need me"
"Nah stay. I'm not tired. I missed you" He replied.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. We don't get any alone time as is. We both not doing nothing we might as well do nothing together"
"Okay" I nodded my head, "So ummm quick question?"
"Wassup?"
"What happened with Derrick?"
"You wouldn't be asking if you didn't already know" Jay replied and walked into the living room, "So ask what you really wanna ask"
"Did you do it?"
"No I was locked up" He replied as he plopped down on the couch.
"Do you know who did it?"
"Why?" Jay questions looking up at me.
"I just wanna make sure this didn't happen because of me"
"Awe okay" His attention was focused on the television.
"Ummm hello? I'm talking to you"
"Dream you're being real federal right now" Jay looks at me again. He locked eyes with me the same way he did earlier. No way he thinks I'm trying to set him up or something.
"What?" I scrunched up my face at him "You don't trust me?"
"You're making it hard to with all these questions"
"I ask questions. I've always asked questions. What's the problem now?"
Jay just stares at me again, for the millionth time since I've been here. I crossed my arms over my chest and just stared back at him. After a few seconds his shoulders relaxed and he let out a loud sigh.
"My fault I'm just a little on edge still. I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize I get it, it's fine." I reassured him. I can only imagine the interrogation he's been put through since being locked up and then with him him getting jumped, it could be hard to trust anybody right now and me grilling him isn't making it any better.
"Nah I do. I want you to know I trust you, I wouldn't have told you what I did if I didn't, but it's just like I still have to be cautious ya know? This is still fresh"
"Jordan I get it. You're good. If you don't ever wanna tell me anything about like...that stuff I wouldn't blame you. You gotta stay guarded up."
He nods his head, "I just want things to remain how they were before you knew everything. I felt normal with you, real at ease. Didn't have to think about shit going on outside of us. I just need you to be my peace again ya know?"
"Okay" I walked over to join him on the couch. He stated to move back against the arm, indicating that he wanted me to lay on him.
"I don't want to hurt you" I told him. Laying against his bruises might be super uncomfortable for him.
"You're good, lay down"
"No" I shook my head. "Move, you can lay on me" I climbed behind him on the couch. He laid the back of his head on my stomach and scrolled through Netflix looking for something to watch. He turned on American Horror Story and I kid you not the show barely started before he started dozing off.
"I thought you weren't tired" I laughed looking down at him.
"I'm not even sleep" He smacked his lips "I'm just resting my eyes"
"You're snoring"
"You lying. Ion even snore"
"Righhhht" I was just going to let him sleep. He probably got no sleep all while he was locked up so I wasn't going to force him to stay up.
Somehow, the sound of his light snore slowly drifted me off to sleep as well despite me just waking up a couple hours ago.
I could hear the doorbell ring but I tried to ignore it because this nap was hitting different. I rubbed my eyes and looked at the tv. Netflix was asking were we still watching.
I looked down to see Jordan laying on his stomach with his cheek resting on my exposed belly and his arms around my waist holding me tight like I was a damn pillow.
"Jordan. Get the door" I said tapping his shoulder.
I looked at the time on my phone and it was almost 2 o'clock. Damn I didn't even realize that much time had passed. He groaned and turned his head "You get it. Don't nobody knock on this door but you and yo people."
"Fine" I replied and slipped from under him. I pressed play on the tv before walking over to the door. I looked through the peep hole and sure enough, it was Tae.
"Wassup?" I answered.
"Where Jay at?" He questioned. I stepped to the side and pointed towards the couch so he could see him sleeping on the couch.
"Why you leave your phone?" He handed me it over to me.
"It was an accident. I didn't plan on staying as long as I have"
He nods his head, "So how long you plan on dating him before you tell me?"
"Huh?" I replied with a chuckle.
"Huh?" He mocked me.
"I don't know what you're talking about"
"Yeah ight we'll talk later" Tae said and walked over to his car. I closed the door and walked back over to Jay.
"You need to think quicker on your feet. Don't worry, we'll work on that" He laughed.