Tyler didn't know what to say. She wasn't in a confrontation with Isaiah this time, she was in a confrontation with his MOTHER. As Tyler lifted up in Isaiah's bed, Isaiah jogged up the stairs and gave his mother a shocked look.
"Ma!" Isaiah gasped. "Look, she-"
"What the hell is she doin' in my house?" Aunt Shay barked.
"She needed somewhere ta' stay for a little while, ma!" Isaiah said in a loud tone.
"That's what her damn parents are for!" Aunt Shay scowled. "Tell her to take her ass to her house. I don't want this traitor in here!"
Isaiah shook his head at Aunt Shay.
"No." Isaiah growled.
"Excuse me?" Aunt Shay snapped as she pointed at Tyler. "You got 5 seconds to get her out of my house, Isaiah!"
"And if you kick her out then I'll stop payin' the bills and we'll ALL be homeless!" Isaiah barked.
Aunt Shay didn't say anything. Isaiah sighed in a frustrated tone, looking back at Tyler.
"She only stayin' until all of this snow and shit pass over." Isaiah snarled.
"I want her out of my house the minute these roads clear." Aunt Shay said as she pointed her index finger close to Isaiah's face. "That isn't a request, Isaiah."
As Aunt Shay slammed the door, Isaiah groaned and went into his closet, moved his guns from the floor, then pulled out the blow up mattress. He placed the air pump inside of the hole and watched it start to fill up as Tyler lifted up again in the bed.
"You sleepin' down here." Isaiah said in a tired tone as the mattress started blowing up.
"Okay..." Tyler sighed as she started to get out of the bed.
For the rest of the night, Isaiah and Tyler didn't speak. After the bed was blown up, Isaiah laid a few blankets out on it and watched Tyler lie on top of the mattress, bundling up and getting comfortable there. After that, Isaiah got into his bed, cut off the lights, then clocked out.
The next day, everyone except Tyler woke up and glanced out of the window. It was still snowing and the ground was hovered with mounds of snow. We didn't have any trucks or anything to clear the way because rarely snowed in California like I said. Noah was scheduled to fly back out to Massachusetts to attend back to Harvard, but all flights in the state were cancelled. While Noah sat back in his room and read his books, someone knocked on his window. It was Asha.
"Lord.." Noah said in an agitated tone as he lifted his window up. "Yes?"
"Good morning. Aheh." Asha smiled as she shivered in her jacket.
"Don't you need to be in the house in this freezing cold weather?" Noah chuckled, giving her a weird look.
"Well, this is why I was hoping that you would let me inside." Asha cheesed.
Noah shook his head and walked to the back door, letting Asha come inside. Aunt Shay had left for work an hour before. As Asha stomped her boots onto the matt, she walked into the back with Noah and sat down in his computer chair while he studied his books.
"I have a surprise." Asha nodded.
"And what's that?" Noah asked in an uninterested tone.
Asha leaned forward and handed Noah an email she received. She had been hired at a local Coney Island.
"Wow! This is great!" Noah smiled as he looked at her paper. "So you're done prostituting?"
"Not just yet....." Asha groaned. "I still have to make my money, y'know."
Noah gave her a disappointed look, then handed her her paper back.
"You worth more than this prostitution shit, Asha." Noah said. "You could actually be something in life."
Asha scrunched her eyebrows at Noah placing her hands into her coat pockets.
"No I can't." Asha said in a disturbed tone.
"And why can't you?"
Asha kept the weird look on her face, then glanced down.
"I don't know...." Asha mumbled. "You just the first person who told me that I could do something..."
"You shouldn't need nobody to tell you that you can." Noah said in a serious tone. "You should be the one who motivates yourself. Not me. You are your own best friend and your own worst enemy."
Asha cracked a small smile, then got up and made her way back to Carlos's.
"Thanks, Noah." Asha grinned.
"No prob." Noah said as he kept his eyes on his books. "You go be somethin' in life."
Noah had no interest in Asha, but he did have potential in her. He knew that she could use all of that beauty she had for something. When everyone left the house for the day, I decided to call my parents to avoid the embarrassment of being kicked out of college.
"Hello?" My father answered.
"Care to explain why you and ma decided to boot me out of college?" I snarled.
"Wow, Josh. That's funny." My father laughed. "You only call us when you need something."
Okay I did, which was pretty fucked up. I leaned forward and sighed, covering my face in agitation.
"You're getting all A's and B's, huh?" My father scoffed. "Your professor alerted us and let us know that you got a 40% or lower on 10 of your last assignments?"
"I'm 18 years old. This isn't high school!" I barked. "I don't need you checkin' in on my grades!"
"Lil boy you got your damn nerve!" My father barked back at me. "I'm payin' for all of those classes you supposed to be to be takin' so you think I ain't gone be checkin' up on yo' grades?"
"So you just gone give up on me, huh?" I snarled, acting like a little ass kid.
"If you don't care about your education, that's fine. I'm not going to pay money for you to fail." My father growled. "You wanna fail, YOU pay for YOUR own classes! You're 18 years old and you need a job instead of living off of your damn aunt!"
Every time I spoke to my father, I felt like a loser because he was right about 95% of the time. Before he hung up, he chanted one last message to me.
"I don't know who the hell you think you're getting smart towards like you're Isaiah but I ain't Aunt Shay." My father growled again. "Unlike her, I'll fly down there and whoop yo' little ass for getting out of line with me!"
Once he hung up, I didn't know what to say. I sat there and stared at my phone for 2 minutes straight without any movement. I was an 18 year a boy without a job, failing grades, and not doing anything with my life. I would say that I felt like Isaiah, but Isaiah sold and paid the bills to the house, so he was still doing something even though it wasn't the best way.
I was a 18 year old loser.
When Isaiah got done selling around 10:00pm, he came back home with a shitload of cash. He sold a lot more than usual. He slipped $200 dollars out of the two wads he had and threw it on my lap, smiling down at me.
"There you go, Cus." Isaiah smiled.
I picked up the $200, then looked up at Isaiah.
"What's this for?" I asked.
"I always give you and Noah some cash!" Isaiah laughed. "I always give my mama some too. That's the reason why I sell, nigga."
When I thought about it, Isaiah took care of all of us. He paid the bills for the house, paid for Noah's car, flight, and college expenses, and paid for my books for college along with Tyler having a home. All of us always talk about how unintelligent Isaiah is, but he's the one who makes sure that all of his loved ones are cared for. If it weren't for him selling drugs, where would we all be?
When Isaiah walked upstairs into his room, it was completely clean and organized. His dressers were clean, his clothes were folded, and his bed was made up. His floor was vacuumed and the pictures that were scattered on his dresser was organized as well. Against the family picture Isaiah took when he was little with Aunt Shay and Noah, he placed a picture of Isaiah and Taylor up against it with a picture of Isaiah and Kayson in the middle. Tyler lied on the bed, looking up at Isaiah while drinking a coke.
"Tada!" Tyler smiled.
"Damn." Isaiah gasped in shock as he looked around. "I ain't seen my room dis' clean since we first moved in!"
"Well, one trait that I picked up from my mother is that I can't STAND messes, so I just decided to straighten up since I was here." Tyler shrugged.
Isaiah grinned at her and threw another $200 onto the bed.
"Well, here's my payment for yo' work." Isaiah smiled.
Suddenly, the heard the front door downstairs shut. Aunt Shay was back home from working her two jobs. Tyler sighed and plopped down onto the bed, taking the $200 and waving it.
"Thanks." Tyler smiled. "This will go good towards the gas."
As Isaiah sat down his bed and snatched the rubberband off of his roll and spread it out on the bed to organize it, Tyler cracked a small smile and looked down at her blow up mattress.
"Again Isaiah, I apologize for betraying you like that." Tyler mumbled. "I know that it's not no help, but I really do regret it. I was.....I'm too easily manipulated.."
Isaiah looked up at her, cracking a small grin.
"I forgive you, but I'm still mad at you." Isaiah said as he shook his head. "I still can't believe you think that I'll starve Kays like that......"
Tyler twiddled her fingers, then looked back at him.
"If it helps, I still haven't told anyone about the murders you've done." Tyler said. "You notice that when they asked me on the stand I lied?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, I told them that I wasn't sure." Tyler continued. "I didn't tell them about the rape either. I didn't tell anyone about anything...."
Isaiah lifted his head, giving her a look that indicated that he didn't believe her.
"Did you tell anyone about this I shot dat' lil boy and his dad?" Isaiah asked.
"Nope."
"And them niggas who killed Joey?"
"Nope."
"Or how I shot them old niggas?"
"Nope." Tyler said. "I kept it all a secret."
Isaiah cracked a small smile, then finished organizing his money.
"Aight."
While they talked behind closed doors, Aunt Shay heard it all. Since she had to pass his room to get to hers, she would always hear Isaiah talking about multiple things even when she wasn't snooping. But this time, she heard more than she was supposed to. Aunt Shay's eyes filled with tears after realizing that every story the witnesses told on the stand was true.
Isaiah was a murderer.
I couldn't imagine what she was going through when my Aunt found out that her own child had committed almost all of the horrendous crimes that flashed on the 11:00pm news. I can't imagine what ANY parent goes through after realizing that. Anyway, Aunt Shay knew that Isaiah was going to meet up with her because it came time to pay the bills. As Aunt Shay changed her clothes and sat in her dark black robe and pajamas, Isaiah opened her door with his wad of cash.
"How much the bill is now, ma?" Isaiah asked. "I got paid extra tonight."
Aunt Shay was at such a disarray that she didn't even hear what Isaiah said. As she stared blankly at the wall ahead of her while clenching her jaw again, giving it all to hold back her tears of disbelief.
"Oh lord." Isaiah groaned. "What's wrong nah, ma?"
Aunt Shay stared off for a few more seconds, then looked at Isaiah.
"Are you a murderer, Isaiah?" Aunt Shay asked in a shaky and nervous tone.