Melody's P.O.V.
"Sit still baby," I say to Lyric as I braid her hair.
My daughter is two years old now, and she's very active. She runs around everywhere, and ever since she's learned how to talk, she is constantly chattering, buzzing a mile a minute, even trying to speak in full sentences, even if she sometimes fails at that. Must have gotten that from her father, as he sure does know how to run his mouth.
"But mommy, I hate braids," she whines, and I can't help but chuckle at that.
Back when I was little, I hated having my hair braided too. Hated to have it in any type of constriction.
"I know baby," I reply. "But you know that you are going to stay at your daddy's house this week, and daddy won't be able to take care of your hair if I leave it loose. So we have to braid it to protect it from damage."
"Okay," Lyric nods.
She then begins fidgeting in her seat like she always does when she's unhappy, and I have to remind her to sit still again.
I continue to braid her hair, using coconut based leave-in conditioner to detangle it, fingers moving swiftly but gently over her scalp.
Until eventually, I'm done with all the braids and tell Lyric it's okay for her to get up now.
"Finally," she mumbles with an attitude she most certainly got from Marshall and not me, as she rolls her eyes.
"And baby, please do not take the braids out again before you leave daddy's house a week later, like you did last time. I don't want to have to come back there just to fix your hair again."
"Okay mommy," she bows her head.
I make sure Lyric eats her breakfast, then drive over to Marshall's house.
I keep up appearances with Marshall, being civil with him for my daughter's sake. I let him make small talk with me like hi, how are you, then hand him Lyric's bag.
I watch my daughter make her way excitedly inside her father's house, then get back in my car and leave.
I then drive to the airport to pick up Tessa. She's come to visit me from New York, and I'm very happy about that. At least I'll have some company for a few days.
"Giiiirl how you been!" Tessa exclaims as we hug.
We then get back in my car and I start driving.
"Honestly Mel, I don't know why don't you just move back to New York," Tessa tells me, and I just shake my head bitterly.
"Tess, I'm pretty much stuck here because of my custody arrangement with Marshall. He wants to see his daughter, and I can't fight him on this. And I'll be damned if I have to put Lyric on a damn plane every time she has to travel between the two of us. That's just too much for a child, and I'm not about to put her through all that just because I was dumb enough to let her evil ass father play me for years, only to go back to his ex-wife in the end and fucking remarry her again."
"I hear you, girl," Tessa says sadly. "But why don't you just fight Eminem for sole custody or something. You should get it, he's a fucking drug addict!"
"Well, that didn't work out too well for Kim, back when she tried to get sole custody over Hailie from him, did it?" I sigh. "Plus, I wouldn't do that to him. Piece of shit that Marshall is, he doesn't deserve to lose his daughter. And Lyric needs her dad in her life, she fucking loves that man. I'm not gonna do that to her just cause I'm feeling spiteful," I say as I continue to drive.
"Well, does he pay you child support at least?" Tessa asks me.
"He does, even though God knows, I don't wanna take his fucking money. But it's for Lyric, and I use it all on her. When I bought my own house here, he tried to pay for that too, but I said fuck no."
"Girl you better than me. I would've let him pay for it."
"Yeah, but I don't want his money. I don't want shit from him, don't wanna give him the satisfaction that he gave me anything that I own, you know."
"I hear you on that."
We get quiet for a minute, then Tessa sighs.
"I'm sorry about this, Mel. It's no secret that I never liked him, but I never wished for you guys to break up and for you to end up with a broken heart. Even though I never could stand him, I always wanted for y'all to work it out."
"It's okay, girl, I don't even care no more," I say dismissively.
"Mel," she says touching my arm.
"Yeah?"
"You know it isn't healthy, right? How you are being in denial about how much the breakup hurt you?"
"I'm not in denial, Tessa. I literally just don't give a fuck anymore. I'm numb."
"No, you are not. And you really need to talk about this with somebody. It's not healthy to just keep holding on to..."
"I fucking said I'm fine!" I snap. "I'm sorry, girl. I know you mean well, but I really am fine."
"If you say so," Tessa says hesitantly, but I can just tell she'll bring it up again eventually. She keeps trying to get me to open up and talk through my feelings about what Marshall has done to me, but I honestly don't feel like doing that ever.
As far as I'm concerned, I have buried all of that somewhere deep inside of me, locked it in a vault and threw away the key. I don't want to address it ever.
I should've know though, that she won't stay quiet about it for long.
"Melody, I'm just saying as your friend," she starts speaking again and I roll my eyes. "You need to talk it out with somebody. If not me, then somebody else. You need to vent, you need to let out all of this hurt and anger you are holding on to, or one day you are gonna explode."
"Tessa. Like I said. I'm fine," I reiterate.
I really wish people would stop saying to me that I need to let it all out, cause I'm fine.
***
Marshall's P.O.V.
"Marshall? Marshall!!" Kim's voice is irritating the fuck out of me because I was just starting to nod off when she calls me.
I swear every day that I spend married again to her, I begin to resent her more and more.
The first couple of months after we got together, we actually got along somewhat, mostly because I was high all of the time and she never nagged me about the pills the way Melody always used to.
But now we are back to the same pattern where we are constantly at each other's throats again.
I wanna ignore her and just continue to sleep on the living couch in front of the TV, but I know she won't stop bugging me until I respond.
"What is it, Kim?!" I yell at the top of my lungs, sitting up.
"Come upstairs, right now!!"
Fuck me, what does she want?!
I force myself to get off the couch, then make my way into the bedroom.
"What is it?!" I ask again barging in.
Kim crosses her arms over her chest.
"What it is, is that you need to go and put that little brat to bed. You know, the one you had with your mistress and shit? She's running wild out there, keeping Whitney up."
"Kim, why didn't you just..."
"Hell no, Marshall. That's your responsibility right there. That's YOUR daughter that you had with another woman. YOU go take care of her."
God, she's such a bitch, I think to myself. Mel took care of Hailie, Alana and Whitney like they were her own. Why can't Kim do the same with Lyric?!
Not to mention, I don't even have the energy for this...
"Kim, you are a fucking bitch," I say out loud.
Then head towards the girls room.
Whitney and Lyric are both running buckwild in there, not just Lyric.
"Girls," I say tiredly. "Go to bed."
"But we wanna play, daddy!!"
"You'll play tomorrow. Now go to bed."
"But daddy!!"
"I said go to bed," I say much more firmly now. I then pick them up one by them and place them in their beds.
"Goodnight girls," I start to say, when Lyric suddenly pulls at my pants.
"Daddy why Kim say my mommy is not good?"
"Kim say what, baby?" I ask quietly as I feel myself get angry.
"Kim says my mommy is a bad person," Lyric says innocently. "Why?"
Fuck me, I have no idea how to even answer that to a child.
"Don't listen to Kim, baby. Your mommy is a beautiful woman, and she is the best person ever," I say. "Now go to sleep and sleep tight."
I walk out of the girls room.
"Kim!!" I call out angrily, making my way back to the bedroom. "Fuck is your problem man, why you keep running your fucking mouth to my daughter about Melody?! You can't do that shit, are you fucking slow?!"
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Kim crosses her arms over her chest. "I ain't say shit to that little girl about her whore of a mother."
"Yo don't fucking play with me, Kim," I march over to her and try to grab her, but she jumps back.
Fuck me, I'm way too fucking high right now for this.
"Oh what is it, Marshall is mad?" Kim asks me in a mocking tone. "Mad I called his little whore a whore?"
"Kim honestly? The only fucking whore here is you."
"Aw, is that the way to talk to your wife, baby?"
God, I wanna murder this bitch.
Gotta give Kim credit where it's due. Even after all these years, she still knows exactly how to push my damn buttons.
It's something about the tone of her voice, I think. Hell, it's everything about her. She just knows how to make me feel so fucking angry.
I lean my back against the door and close my eyes, trying to calm down. Cause last time I hit Kim, she threatened to call the cops, and I can't have that shit right now.
"Come now, Marshall," Kim now says in this fake soothing tone of voice. "Let's not fight about that damn girl. How's it that she manages to ruin things for us again?"
"You the one keep bringing her up and talking shit about her," I reply through gritted teeth and open my eyes.
Kim is standing right in front of me now, eyes searching my face.
She reaches out her hand and caresses my cheek.
"I won't do that anymore, okay? I'm sorry," she says.
"Just fuck off me, Kim," I sigh. I just wanna go pop another pill right now, cause she done blew my high, and I now feel miserable as fuck.
Kim pouts, then goes to wrap her arms around my neck and pulls me to her. I go with it and start kissing her. I know exactly what she's doing. She's trying to take my anger out with sex. Same thing me and her did the whole relationship, and basically the same thing I kept doing to Melody whenever I upset her. It's a fucked up way of dealing with things, but I guess it works, cause she sure has kept me going with this for years in the past. And I sure kept Melody going too.
Kim smiles against my lips, probably thinking she's won.
Only for her smile to drop real quick once her hand makes her way inside my pants.
"Again, Marshall?!" She angrily says, backing away from me. "What the fuck is wrong with you, why can't you..."
Fuck if I know.
I don't know what it is lately, but I just can't get hard. Maybe it's the pills messing me up, I heard it can have a effect on that, or maybe it's Kim. Maybe I'm just that not into her anymore, how the fuck should I know.
Kim and I have been married for almost a month now, and we've been back together for about a year altogether. And in all that time, I probably fucked her a total of 3 or 4 times. I just don't fucking feel like it man.
I haven't been fucking groupies neither to be honest. I just never feel like it anymore, but that's aight, I guess, cause as long as I get high enough on pills, I don't think I even need sex anymore.
Too bad that Kim still needs it. I can tell that she's pissed at me right now.
I suppose she's gonna start fucking around on me soon, since I don't satisfy her anymore. And you know what? Never thought I'd say this, but I don't even give a fuck if she does that. Let her go fuck the whole city of Detroit for all I care.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, Marshall?!" Kim repeats angrily, bringing me out of my thoughts. "What's wrong with your dick?"
"Bitch, you ever thought that maybe something is wrong with your pussy?" I ask back and walk out of the room.
"Where you going?" She screams at my back and actually stomps her foot like a child.
"Imma go watch TV downstairs, I'll come back up later."
I go right back to the couch, and I already know, that's where I'm gonna end up sleeping tonight. I just don't wanna be bothered right now. I wanna get myself back in that high state, and I don't want Kim to then blow up my high again.
Now I lay on the couch, pop some pills and flip lazily through the channels.
MTV is showing some old music video Melody was in. My eyes linger on her for a moment, and then I hurry up and change the channel.
No reason for me to look at her, because all it's gonna do is remind me of what a goddamn idiot I was to push the girl that I loved away, all because I couldn't leave the fucking drugs alone.
I basically chose drugs over the woman I loved, and now I have to live with that.
So guys even though this is a pretty long chapter, it's basically just a filler to show y'all how they have both been dealing with the breakup. I'll probably post another chapter later on today, or sometime soon.
Let me know what y'all think so far...