Chapter Three
Chris Brown
Virginia
Everything ain't all bad but it ain't all good either.
We decided to bring Ro with us to Virginia because refuses to leave the house. The whole ride there, she clung onto Mya. I wanna be grateful that she has someone like Mya who's been through the same thing to help her cope, but still I wish that I could comfort her some kind of way.
When we finally landed, we headed to the house I bought my mom in Virginia Beach a few christmases ago. It sat right off the beach, which she loved.
And at a time like, it was perfect for me too.
My insomnia came back full force, after everything that has happened. I thought being around Mya would break that like it normally does but it didn't. It's 7:30 in the morning and I'm up sitting on the beach, just staring at the water trying to clear my clouded mind.
This headspace was the last thing I wanted to deal with. It causes me to do things that I fought hard to overcome.
The sound of footsteps caused me to quickly look up. My mom walked closer to me with a smile on her face. "Good morning." She said while sitting next to me.
"Good morning mama." I kissed her forehead.
"It's pretty early, what are you doing up?"
"Can't sleep."
"Hm, everything still bothering you?"
I nodded my head. "My daughter is still suffering and I'm not sure how to help her. I don't know what to say or what to do. I try to be there for her but it's like she's afraid of me."
"She's not afraid of you Chris."
"Then why is she so dependent on Mya?!"
"Maybe because Mya can relate to her situation."
"Or maybe because she was there when it all happened and I wasn't...shit is fucked up."
I could feel my mom staring at me.
"So how did this change of heart happen with the separation? When I talked you the morning of your deposition you seemed pretty sure that your marriage was over and you'd be signing those papers. Hours later I see you and Mya all over Instagram."
"I saw her. I was finally face to face with Mya after a month of no communication. That woman has this spell on me, all it took was her convincing me that I was overreacting and I agreed. But we weren't supposed to be back together, I wanted space still, but once we left the court house, she was all that I could think about...some things happened and now, here we are."
My mom sighed and I looked over at her. "Chris this doesn't seem like a good idea."
"Why?"
"You're going back into this knowing that you're still upset about what she did and I know you, you're going to lash out at her eventually just like the situation during her 30th birthday."
"I'm good ma, me and Mya will be okay."
"Don't lie Chris."
"I'm not lying, we're good."
"You know how I know that's not true?"
"How?"
"You'd be able to rest. You think I didn't hear you running up and down the stairs all night or pacing the floor? You think I don't know that you sleep better when you're with Mya? But now that's not the case. So lie to me again and tell me you're fine. Go ahead."
I was not trying to hear none of this shit, this early in the morning. "I'm sleepy." I said while getting up.
"No you're deflecting."
"I'll let you think that." I quickly walked to the house just so that the conversation could stop. When I got upstairs to the room, we were staying in, Mya was coming out the bathroom.
"Good morning baby." She said.
"Morning." I gave her a small smile.
"You've been up all this time?"
"Not that long. I had to pee and couldn't go back to sleep afterwards."
Mya just nodded. I know she knew that I was lying.
"What you doing up?" I asked."
"I've actually been up a few hours....noticed you were never in bed and it woke me up."
"Oh."
"Yeah...so, I have to go Miami in a few days."
"Why? I thought we were spending time with the kids and focusing on repairing our relationship."
"Well, I was invited to do Caresha Please."
A surprised look fell on my face. "Oh really?"
"Yes."
"I mean don't you find it weird that you're being invited after all this shit just happened with us?"
"I was actually invited way before you decided to get someone to leak that you filed for separation. I thought you and I would be still ignoring each other so that's why you're just now hearing about it."
"Who told you I had somebody leak that?"
"My lawyer reached out to Fee and asked how she received that information. She forwarded us an email from Marks office. What was the point?"
"Wasn't my idea so I couldn't tell you."
"Okay Chris."
"It's 7:58 in the morning and you wanna argue with me?"
"Nobody is arguing. I'll be in Miami for a day, maybe two then we can get right back to fixing everything. Cool?"
"Yup." I went into the bathroom, slightly slamming the door. Exhaling, I went and sat on the edge of the tub. I hated how uneasy I felt. I was jittery, antsy, restless. I wanted to relax, I wanted to be how I was before all of this madness.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw a text from Nia. I decided to have her fly out here. There's a overdue conversation that I needed to have with her and Mya. Some boundaries that need to be set. Opening her text message she was letting me know what time she'd be landing.
I'm hoping that this all goes well. I don't know if I should've waited a little bit longer to do this but I think it's best if we clear the air so that we can all move on.
I sat in the bathroom for a while, before going back out to the room. Mya sat on the end of the bed on her laptop, working I'm sure. Going up to her, I pulled it away and sat it on the bed, then got down on my knees and front of her. We just stared at each other for a while before her eyes started to water.
"Why you crying?" I asked while wiping a tear before it fell.
"We've been through so much in the past, and for the first time ever, Ive felt nothing but coldness from you. You weren't even like this when all of that happened during my birthday."
"It's just a lot to still process. My kid is involved in this, she was assaulted, it's all still fresh to me. I just found everything out a month ago Mya."
"Okay so why didn't you just keep the space that you asked for? I want this to work, I want us to bounce back. If you needed more time away fine, only thing I wasn't doing was signing my name on that paper."
"Maybe I did rush into this."
"Yeah."
"Even though I was mad, I missed you and I saw you and I needed you."
"But now that, that moment has died down..."
"I just need that time again."
Mya nodded. "Okay."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Um, I don't know....probably go to Miami now instead of in a few days, I miss my Granme. But I'm going to take Landon with me."
I slowly nodded. "I get it."
"Well let me go pack and find us somewhere to stay." She got up.
"Ima go get Landon, I think we should both break the news to him and before you go, I wanna have a conversation with you and Nia...she's on her way."
A confused look fell on Mya's face but she quickly straightened up. "Okay."
Getting up from where I was, I headed to Landon's room. He's a morning person thankfully, so I didn't have to worry about him being up. "Bam." I called while walking in. And to my surprise, Royalty was in his bed asleep, and he was on the floor on his phone.
"Hey dad."
"Hey, she been in here all night?" I pointed to his sister.
"All night." He stood up. My son was growing up so damn fast, I couldn't believe it sometimes. He's only nine and taller than Mya.
Well she is 5'1.
"Oh okay, come with me. Me and ya mama wanna talk to you."
"What I do?"
I laughed. "Nothing man, come on."
He nodded and followed me back into the room with Mya. She was in the middle of packing her stuff.
"Where you going ma?" He asked.
"Miami.....and I want you to come with me." Mya answered.
"Why?"
"Because I want to spend time with you. Whatever you want to do, we can."
"I think this will be good for you and your mom. I know you want to stay here but this is needed." I said.
Landon exhaled. I know he wanted to argue but decided against it. "I'll go pack." He walked out.
"He does not wanna go." Mya said while sitting down.
"Well it's probably because his siblings are here, but he'll be fine."
"Sometimes I feel like my son doesn't like me. I really don't know where the disconnect is with me and Landon. He used to be my baby and loved to be under me all the time. I just don't know what changed."
"Well first, he's not a baby anymore. You wanna coddle him still and he doesn't like that. He got my blood running through his veins baby, he wanna live on the wild side. I know you want to be mama bear all the time but you gotta chill a little bit. Show him you know how to be a cool mom." I smiled.
"I thought I was a cool mom though. I'm hip, I'm current."
"You just sounded so old saying that."
She gasped. "I am cool, ask anybody!"
"Ok, I'll let you think that."
"Well if I'm not cool, what are you?!"
"Come on now, you know I'm the man."
"Grandpa, bye! You are not cool. You're almost 40 still trying to do those little flips and shit on stage and that's why you come crying about your back hurting every time. You ain't hip to nothing new. You're laaaaaaame." Mya said and I couldn't help but laugh because she's so mad because she a lame old woman.
"You ain't got the sauce no more and that's okay baby."
"Nigga, you ain't got the sauce no more. Fuck you." She bumped me while walking into the closet. I followed behind her. She was bent over getting something off the floor. I got behind her and gripped her waist.
"Well if it means anything you're still the coolest to me."
Standing up, Mya turned to face me. "I know." She smirked while wrapping her arms around my neck. "I know you need your time but I'm going to miss you."
"I'll pop up on you, don't worry."
"Okay...can we fuck before I go?"
"Absolutely."
Picking her up, I carried Mya to the bathroom.
I hope she knows all that old stuff was just a joke. This woman is still just as beautiful and lit as she was since the first day I met her.
Can't wait until we're back right.
Tim Anderson
Los Angeles, California - 12:47AM
Another long night at Sam's Bar and Grill. This place really goes up on the weekends and that's when I step in and help. My mom and Brian are beefing because he doesn't want to make me a partner. I wish she'd chill because I'm really not tripping.
Walking out the restaurant, I went and leaned against my car and pulled my phone and started scrolling through that.
I see Mya and Chris are good, that's what's up.
I'm not going to lie, I miss Mya...I miss both of them. I really fucked up everything and I have no clue on how to fix it. It's so many things that I want to tell her, she was my go-to. I've talked to my mom about it and she said just approach Mya but I'm scared. Everybody know how crazy that girl is and seeing me gone make her snap. I'm good on that.
"Slick." Someone called, making me look up. "Nigga I knew that was you."
My eyes squinted trying to make out the face. It took a minute but I finally realized who it was. "Oh shit, what up Lo."
Lo, one of my old homeboys from Miami. We used to run our side of town together. Whenever I went back home, we'd link up and I would touch so much money. Once Cali became more permanent, I really didn't keep in touch and when I got shot, that part of my life was basically nonexistent.
"What up fool." He said while climbing out of his car. Walking up to me we did our handshake. "You done got out in Cali and became a busboy?"
I laughed. "You sound crazy, this my family place. Brian own this."
"Oh so you a busboy for ya brother?"
"Man what you doing on the west? I thought yo ass would never step foot out of dade county."
"Me neither but I'm doing my thing back home and I came here looking for some new product and done basically struck gold."
"Yeah shit good out here."
"It is and I'm confused as to why you ain't out here running these street. Ya pops cool with you being lame like this?"
"My pops is dead so we not even gone speak on him. That life ain't for me no more, I got a son and I already had to fight for my life once because of these stupid ass niggas that's in Cali. I'm trying to avoid all the unnecessary shit."
Lo nodded. "I respect it. But just know whenever you ready to get back into it, hit me up and I got you. My number still the same."
"Appreciate you."
"I ain't gone hold you, probably some dishes need washing in there." He laughed.
"Fuck you."
"Aye, where ya sister?"
"Be specific, I got three."
"Mya fine ass, I been wanting her forever."
"Nigga you ain't that out of the loop. Mya married to Chris Brown and they got kids. Been together for damn near ten years."
Lo shrugged. "What her being married gotta do with me. Tell my baby I love her."
"Yeah, okay."
He went and climbed into his g-wagon and pulled off.
Just as I was about to go back to my phone, the back door opened and Brian appeared. "We need help shutting down." He said before heading back inside.
Groaning I put my phone in my pocket and went back into the restaurant.
Think I might give Lo a call.