Sai
The smell of barbecue floated through the house and the backyard. Our party would be starting in a couple of hours and we were getting everything ready. Well the boys were getting everything ready. We, on the other hand, were sitting on the couch in Tia's living room.
"How much money y'all think we're going to make?" Neisha asked as she walked from the kitchen over to where we were sitting. There was no space left on the couch so she sat in my lap.
"Alotttt, honey. I will be going shopping once we split it." Bree said. We all had on our bikinis, or in Ada's case her one piece. I was ready for it to start; boredom was setting in.
"Wayment. How about we leave the boys out of the cut?" Tia whispered. It wasn't a bad idea, I mean, did they even know we were making money off of this? It was settled: we would split the money five ways between each of us.
I sat and watched Eli grill while shirtless. He was so damn fine and I was glad that we fixed things. He worked hard to gain my trust back and overall he succeeded.
"I see you starin' through the window, come here then," he called, making me blush. It couldn't have been that noticeable that I was looking. "Close your mouth you practically drooling!" I rolled my eyes at Ada. I had the right to look, that was my man.
"Don't be mad because Kaiden... is Kaiden," Bree chimed in. I laughed at that one.
I was about to make fun of A for being put on blast when Eli came and scooped me off the couch. "I thought I told you to come here?" He was carrying me outside and over to the pool.
"Elijah. you don't want to do this!" I wrapped my arms around his neck. If I was going he was coming too. He put dangled me over the water for about ten seconds then put me back down on the concrete. "You a good man." I kissed his cheek.
"You thought, ugly ass," he threw me inside and my head entered first. The water was the perfect temperature but I was still shocked when I entered. I flipped over and stood up to yell at him.
"Elijah Marshawn Stevens, Imma hand you your ass in just a minute. Wait till I get up outta here!" Swimming to the ledge, I hiked myself up and got out the pool. My hair was soaking wet but luckily I kept my braids in just because of the party. They'd definitely be coming out after this.
I looked around. Kaiden was picking at the food Eli had just prepared when Neisha came outside to slap his hand. She began scolding him for being so nasty, always digging in some food. Shawn was now sitting inside with Bree, A, and Tia. Eli wasn't with them, nor was he inside. When I turned around he was right there. And since we were still close to the pool I was thrown back inside.
"Nigga you think this is funny don't you?" He was crouched over laughing and so was everyone else. "So y'all planned this. Mhm. That's a bet," I pointed at all of them and said, "Watch ya' backs. I'm coming."
After getting out I sat with my feet dangling in the water. It was almost 1pm so the money would start rolling in soon. A lot of people wouldn't come exactly when it started, after all this was Black people time.
"Gather around, babies. I want to take a photo," Tia brought everyone to where I sat on the edge of the pool. Eli sat next to me and I leaned onto him while everyone else made a second row.
"Nah this ain't no couple photo it's a family photo. I'm not finna be left out. You guys better not start doing them couple poses." Bree said. To balance it out, she kneeled next to A who was next to Kai. On the other side of Bree was Neisha then Shawn.
Tia got in the pool to take the picture, but since she was so short she had to hold the phone above her head to prevent it from getting wet. "Don't come for me if you can't even swim in the 4ft area," Kaiden joked. She rolled her eyes at him and told him to shut up so she could take the picture.
"Since we ain't got no one else to take our picture, everybody move in." She flipped the camera and held it far from her face so everyone was seen. The first one was serious but towards the end we all started making funny faces.
I was almost 75% dry now thanks to the sun. We disbanded our photo position to reconvene inside when I heard whispering behind me. I had an idea about what was going to happen in a couple of seconds. "I swear to--" they didn't let me finish talking before several hands were pushing me back into the water.
Around two thirty is when other college students started to come. I noticed a couple of people from my classes and some friends I occasionally hung with when I wasn't with my mains.
The plan was to have one of us collect money at the door for an hour. It would keep rotating until no more people showed up.
"This where the party at?" A light skinned girl asked. She was with a group with at least twenty people, mostly girls. "Yeah, five dollars and you can get in." She turned back to her friends and got all their bills and handed the stack to me. There were 22 fives and 22 people so they were allowed in.
Loud hip hop blasted through the speakers inside as more and more people came. It was starting to get live, and summer was just getting started.
Elijah
These niggas was eating up all the food I had to stand there and hand people plates. If they kept eating like this we sure as hell was bound to run out. Bree was standing next to me patrolling the food too. "What about that one?" She was tryna find a summer bae and I wanted to help.
"Too short. What about him?" The guy she pointed at had a serious reputation for having hoes. "Nah you don't wanna mess with him," she crossed her arms. This was getting hopeless. Bree decided to go actually talk to some of them instead of sit here and talk about them with me. I let her know if she needed a wingman, I was here.
Tia was sitting by the back door making sure nobody was in there stealing nothing. Everything valuable was locked up anyways but you could never know what to expect. I searched the growing crowd for Sai. She sat at the gate collecting money and letting people in. She had just let in a large party of people, but one stood out to me.
Carmen.
Shit. I ain't fucked with her since I made up with Sai but I haven't told nobody about what I did. Tia didn't even know. And if Carmen was here to spill the tea I wasn't even going to make it out of here alive. She caught me looking and walked over to where I was. She wore a white bikini set and her hair was in a high ponytail on top of her head.
She stepped close to me. "Fuck is you doing here?" I didn't look directly into her eyes to avoid suspicion. I backed up a little bit so it didn't look like we were flirting or arguing.
"I was invited by a friend. Wassup with you?" She ran her hand down my bare chest, smirking. I grabbed her hand and pulled it off of me, annoyed with how nonchalant and obvious she was being. "I already told you what was up last time we talked. There ain't no you and me."
I wish I never even fucked her, I wasn't in my right mind. Now she was hooked and wouldn't leave me alone. "You ain't broke up with her yet? Where is she at then?" Carmen turned away from me and started looking for Sai. Luckily she ain't even know what Sai looked like.
"Why would I break up with her? For you? Look I done already told you it was never an us. Issa you, and issa me and Sai. Got that?" She rolled her eyes.
"If you don't fucking tell her, I will."
Carmen still lingered around me as I started to grill more food. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Neisha switch with Sai, meaning her shift was over. After being relieved she went to go talk to some friends and then came this way. "So that's her in the yellow, huh?" Carmen started to walk toward her when I pulled her back.
"Imma handle the shit, don't do nothing stupid." She jerked her arm away from me and continued going for Sai.
She pretended to accidentally bump into Sai to start a conversation. I'm guessing Carmen said something funny and Sai started laughing. She then pointed to some pool seats and Carmen followed, talking on the way there. I had no idea what she was gonna say, or even if she would say something.
Just when things was going back to the way they were, here she was to fuck it up. I couldn't let Carmen ruin my life and just watch as she did it. I had to do something, and fast.
"Aye Shawn, come watch this real quick." He took my place in front of the grill and I walked over to where the two sat.
"Oh my gosh girl, that must have been crazy! Oh hey, Elijah." Sai got up and wrapped her arms around my neck., standing on her tip toes. My arm snaked around her waist and I pulled her in, mugging Carmen.
She turned back to Carmen to introduce us, and I relaxed my face. "Carmen, this Elijah. She real cool, baby," I nodded at her and she smiled. I guess she wasn't going to tell her today, but Sai would have to find out soon. This was all part of Carmen's little game to fuck with my head until I gave her what she wanted.
"Come here," I pulled her. She said bye to Carmen and told her they would talk later.
"What do you want?" We walked to the doors where Tia was sitting. "I missed you," I took her face in my hands and kissed her soft lips. Her tongue entered my mouth and mine did the same. She sucked my bottom lip this time instead of how it usually is.
"Dang, ma. Don't start something you can't finish." She wrapped her legs around me and pulled me closer.
"Damn can y'all get a fucking room?" Kaiden came up behind us and asked. Sai hopped off of me and smacked his neck. The two began chasing each other around the backyard and I watched as they zipped around. My smile slowly faded as I landed back on Carmen, who was grinning like something bad was just about to take place.