When Isaiah arrived home, he had the person who was buying the baggie of cocaine that was at the house. Upon his arrival, he seen Tyler standing by the table.
"Babe, I have good news." Tyler smiled.
"I promise I'll listen the second I sell this bud." Isaiah nodded as he took the seller inside of his home. "I got yo' bud right...."
Isaiah looked around the table and started searching for the baggie he left. When he didn't see it, he scratched his head and started looking on the counter.
"I coulda sworn......I coulda sworn that I left it on the tab-"
"I threw it away." Tyler said. "The trash came and got it."
Isaiah scrunched his eyebrows at Tyler, giving her an angry look.
"Why the fuck would you do that!?" Isaiah barked.
Tyler didn't say anything. Isaiah covered his face and sighed in frustrated tone, looking at his seller.
"Look man, i'ma cook you up another batch and sell you some more tomorrow." Isaiah groaned.
"Aight." The seller nodded as he made his way out of Isaiah's house.
Isaiah slammed the door behind himself, giving Tyler a furious look.
"You didn't let me tell you why, Isaiah!"
"I don't give a shit about why! That's $250 dollars you threw away!" Isaiah shouted at her, storming back into the kitchen. "Get the fuck out of my face, Tyler."
Tyler was going to tell him the surprise, but with the way that Isaiah was acting, she decided to put it off.
"Fine." Tyler growled as she made her way upstairs. "Just fine......"
An hour and some change later, me and Kathy came home after going out to eat. When we brought some bags of food home, we noticed that Isaiah, Kayson, or Tyler wasn't home. As I placed the bags of food down on the table, Kathy opened her box of food and took a bite out of one of the four quesadilla's she ordered.
"Damn, Kath." I chuckled. "We just got done eating."
"I only want one more bite." Kathy said with her teeth sinked into the bread. "Hand me a knife."
As I opened the silverware drawer, I noticed a small black box next to the tray that held them. I scrunched my eyebrows at it, picking it up and looking at it. When I opened the box, my eyes met with a large and shiny diamond.
"Holy shit!" I chanted out loud.
"What?" Kathy asked.
"Look at this."
When I showed Kathy the ring, her eyes widened the second she laid eyes on it. She looked up at me, noticing that I had the same look.
"Damn!" Kathy gasped. "Is that Isaiah's?"
"He had to have just bought this." I said, shaking my head. "I been in and out of the silverware drawer and haven't seen it."
"He might be asking her for an engagement."
I smiled at the ring, watching Kathy give me a sneaky look.
"Isaiah, don't say anything to anyone." Kathy said, shaking her head. "You don't know if he's necessarily proposing to her or not."
You guys know his much of a big mouth I was. So you guys know what I did.
"Aye y'all." I said as I leaned forward in the van. "I think Isaiah might propose to Tyler."
"WHAT!?" Stacey, Q, and Carlos gasped.
"But y'all can't say shit!" I panted, placing my hands out.
"How the hell you know?" Carlos said as he stopped at a red light.
"I seen a diamond ring inside of his silverware drawer." I said. "I ain't seen it no time since I got here, so that's a tell take sign."
I thought that everyone in the car was going to be happy for Isaiah. Unfortunately, I didn't see a single smile. Not from Carlos, not from Q, not from anybody.
"Uh.......is that a bad thing?" I asked.
"Why the hell does he wanna marry that bitch?" Stacey growled.
"Huh?"
Carlos sighed, turning down the long California strip that was by the beach.
"We still don't like her, Josh." Carlos groaned.
I scrunched my eyebrows, thinking about the last altercation everyone got into. This was on the day of court.
"Because of the court thing?"
"Yep." Everyone nodded.
I laughed a little, shaking my head.
"Come on, y'all." I chuckled. "That was 4 years ago!"
"That don't matter. We live by the code." Q snarled as he sat in the front seat, lighting up his blunt. "We hate stitches."
"And Isaiah used to live by that shit, too. He still kill niggas that snitch on him." Carlos snarled. "But since he go out with Tyler she an exception, I guess."
"Basically Josh, we don't trust her." Q said, shaking her head. "We don't even do work around her because they know that she could testify."
"Well if she haven't done it in a while, what y'all fearin' her for?" I asked.
"Once a snitch, always a snitch." Stacey growled. "And snitches get stitches."
Carlos looked out of the window as he turned down the small corner off of the strip.
"If she wasn't Isaiah's bitch, her ass would've been dead." Carlos growled. "Trust me."
Damn. I guess some things never did change in Cali. I thought that they felt alright about Tyler now, but they really couldn't stand snitches. And that went for anybody in Schaefer.
I just hope that they weren't planning on murdering Tyler for real.
As night approached, Tyler got done giving Kayson a bath. He had a day off of school for Monday. Instead of going downstairs to eat with Isaiah, she lied in her bed and prepared to go to sleep. Before she could dose all the way off, Isaiah opened the door to the dark room.
"You hungry?" Isaiah asked.
"No."
"You 'ont wanna come downstairs?"
"No."
Isaiah sighed and crawled into the bed next to Tyler, wrapping his arm around her waist.
"I'm sorry fo' snappin' at you earlier, babe." Isaiah groaned. "I was just upset, that's all."
Tyler grinned, turning and looking up at him. They gave each other a kiss, then smiled.
"You wanna know why I threw it away now?" Tyler smiled.
"Why?"
Tyler grinned, cheesing a little.
"We're having a baby."
Isaiah's eyes widened as he lifted up in the bed.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes!" Tyler smiled. "I found out at the doctors office!"
Isaiah smashed into Tyler and hugged her tight, listening to her laugh a little. Isaiah was extremely happy. The difference between this is that Isaiah would be ready. He had this planned.
"I gotta go tell my mom." Isaiah smiled as he prepared to make his way out of the room.
"Isaiah!"
"Yes?"
Tyler paused, lifting a little up in their bed.
"You are gonna stop selling drugs when the baby comes, right?"
Isaiah stared blankly at her, then shut the door. That wasn't a good enough answer. In fact, Isaiah telling her no would've been better than him not saying anything at all. While this was happening, Asha was at her home with Antoine. As Antoine cooked dinner for her and Lily in the kitchen, they heard a knock on the door. When he opened it, he noticed that it was Noah.
"Uh......hey man?" Antoine said, giving him a weird look as he stirred his sauce. "What's up?"
"I'm here to pick up my daughter for the night." Noah nodded. "Asha didn't tell you?"
In fact, Asha didn't. As Antoine scrunched his eyebrows at him, Lily sprinted into the room.
"Uncle Noah!" Lily squealed as she smashed into his leg, hugging it.
"Hey little one!" Noah smiled as he picked her up, kissing her on the cheek. "Did you want to come over and spend the night with cousin Kayson?"
"Yesth!" Lily smiled as she turned to Asha. "Daddy, can I go to uncle Noah's housthe?"
Antoine turned to Asha, calling her.
"Asha!" Antoine shouted.
"Yeah?"
"Come here, please."
As Asha walked into the living room, Antoine grilled her and looked at Noah.
"Did you say that this man could pick up Lily?" Antoine asked. "And why you got him calling her his daughter?"
"Because she IS my daughter." Noah growled to him. "Check the tests."
Antoine's eyes widened a little as Noah gave him a slightly agitated look, then looked back at Asha.
"Yes, I did." Asha said in a nervous tone. "Her bag is right here."
Noah gave Antoine a look that indicated that he had an attitude, then grabbed Lily's bag to go. As he made his way to the car, Antoine shut the door and gave Asha a serious look.
"Where's the envelope, Asha?" Antoine growled.
Asha gave him a blank look, then walked into the kitchen. She took the orange envelope out of her large purse and handed it to him, watching him place the bowl down and snatch it out of her hands. As his eyes scanned through the envelope, he shook his head and looked at Asha.
"So when were you gonna tell me that you found Lily's father?" Antoine scoffed.
"I was going to tell you eventually, Antoine." Asha groaned. "Quit overreacting..."
"Oh really? That's funny because every time you got a negative result, you told me right away." Antoine scoffed. "Why not this time, Asha?"
Asha didn't say anything. As she sat in her seat twiddling her fingers by her mouth, Antoine squinted his eyes and glanced back at the door.
"Wait a minute, ain't that that nigga you used to fuck with 2 to 3 years ago?" Antoine asked.
Asha remained silent. Antoine scoffed and smiled, shaking his head and stirring his sauce again.
"I can already tell where this shit gone go. This gone be like one of them lifetime movies." Antoine growled. "You gone tell me how much you don't like this nigga no more then you gone wind up having an affair and falling for that nigga all over again."
"Excuse me?"
"Just let me know now before you drag me along this soap opera." Antoine continued as he cut on the sign.
"Antoine, I haven't indicated ONCE that I came close to wanting to look at Noah again." Asha growled. "You need to watch your tone!"
"Yeah alright."
"But what you ARE gonna have to get used to is seeing him. He's Lily's dad and the tests don't lie." Asha barked. "So if you got any questions, speak up now."
"I ain't got nothin' to say, Asha."
"Alright then shut the hell up." Asha snapped as she walked back into their living room.
"You only getting defensive because you know it's true." Antoine laughed. "Otherwise, what you gettin' mad for?"
"This conversation is over, Antoine."
Why was the conversation over? Because Antoine was right. Asha didn't like Noah anymore, but she always got a small feeling inside of her gut that she was still a tad bit attracted to him. She always got that feeling when she seen his smooth hair, his distinctive jawline, his smooth posture, and his brown eyes, she smiled a little from here and there.
Still, it was nothing serious.
Meanwhile, me and the others just arrived in Schaefer. Even though Isaiah lived in the suburbs, it was boring there. I missed the hype of Schaefer a little. Aheheh. Anyway, before I got out of the car, Q stopped me and grinned.
"Aye man, we got a little surprise fo' you." Q nodded. "Close your eyes."
"What?"
"Nigga close your eyes!" Stacey scowled.
I had no idea what they was doing, but I closed my eyes like they said. Since I didn't get to see what they were doing, all I could tell y'all is that I felt them lead me out of the car. When the door shut, I took about 20 steps until they stopped me. Next, I stepped up some stairs and stopped. When I heard a door open, that's when they told me to
"Open your eyes, nigga." Carlos smiled.
When I opened the door, I seen a nice home. It had a large screened TV inside, nice furniture, a table, full kitchen, everything. I still didn't understand what was the surprise.
"What's the surprise?" I scoffed, smiling a little.
"Nigga we bought you a house!" Stacey smiled. "Right next to Carlos's."
I was still confused. My mouth remained open as I looked at them.
"Aye, I already got my own house."
"No, fool." Q smiled. "We got you a crib down here so that you ain't gotta leave for Washington, D.C."
My mouth dropped. This is what I'd been waiting been waiting for. I'd been wanting to stay in Cali for the longest. However, I was clearly speaking off of the fact that I was homesick. I didn't actually plan on staying here at this very moment. If I said yes, that means that I would be leaving my parents and Kathy back down in Washington. And Kathy really wasn't ready to leave her family in Washington considering the fact I begged her two days ago.
But the main thing I was worried about, was returning back to the harsh ways of Schaefer. I wasn't really sure if I was going to be down with revisiting the past memories I had as an 18 year old. I had no job or money here.