Show Me You Care (9 page)

Trey:

I woke up in an empty room lost as far as my next move. Here I was, thinking this would make it better but she’d had her mind made up already. Pissed, I threw on my sweats and white tee and walked out. There was no need for me to be there. I sat in my car, hoping I made the right decision. I walked up to my destination and knocked on the door.
I haven’t been here in a while
, I thought to myself as TaKiera opened the door with little Trey in her arms. Although I knew he wasn’t mine, I was to invested in him to just leave and say fuck him. She looked as if she had been crying. I grabbed little Trey from her and sat down on the couch.

“Why are you here, Trey?” she said wiping her face. I had never seen TaKiera look sad about anything so I knew something was up.

“What’s wrong with you, Kiera?”

“My mother died. Haven’t you seen the news? They killed my mother, Trey. She’s gone all over some bullshit.” I just held onto her. For the first time since I met her she was breaking down.

Jayden:

It had been two weeks since my girl and my sister left for college. I didn’t think I was ready to not see them again until Christmas. Trey and I had decided we would go down there when they got settled and summer classes were over. It pained me to have my girl so far away from me. On top of that my sister wasn’t answering anyone’s phone calls. After watching the news that day I know she had something to do with it; it was written all over her face. But after Trey told me it was TaKiera’s mother I couldn’t put two and two together yet. Whatever it was would come to the light sooner than later. I sat in the house playing with my mini me Ivy and was happy that she had come into my life. I heard laughter and saw Trey walk in with TaKiera. They had been kicking it hard since Jordyn left. I knew he was just hurting but then again he always had some crazy kind of love for her.

Chapter 15:

Six months later

I sat in my room with a heavy heart. I missed my love but my sanity was more important at the moment. It had been months since I’d last seen or heard from him. After I left I guess he moved on. I rolled out of bed and stood in front of the mirror. I was going to be taking a flight to go see my family for Thanksgiving dinner. I looked down at my stomach. I was barely showing but if you knew me you’d know I was extremely small in my stomach area all my life. How do you tell someone you haven’t seen in six months that you’re pregnant with their child?  Two months into our summer semester I had what I thought was a bad stomachache since I couldn’t keep anything down. Come to find out I was pregnant. At the time I didn’t want to believe it so I just kept it to myself until I realized that my period hadn’t come since the month we left. I was nervous as hell to tell my father, let alone Trey. I walked into the bathroom and got dressed.
At six and a half months I still look good
, I thought to myself as I put on my Adidas sweatpants with my black Converses.
There’s no need to get dressed up for the airport
, I thought, pulling out a shirt from the hamper.
Then again, maybe I should just in case,
I said to myself. “Damn, Jordyn, relax. Having a full-blown conversation with yourself and shit,” I said out loud, causing an already dressed Shyla to laugh at me.

“Jordyn, you look fine. Now come on before we miss our flight,” she said, still laughing.

“Shy, I don’t want to go. The store is going to need me.”

“I’m pretty sure Kathy can handle it, girl. Stop tripping. You have business to tend to,” she said, pointing at my stomach. I guess the baby knew his or her aunt was being annoying as hell because it started kicking me. I decided I didn’t want to know the sex of the baby until I gave birth. I let out a deep sigh, grabbed my suitcase, and walked out of my room, not before grabbing my Jimmy Choo shades.

“You’re a mess, you know that?” Shyla said as I headed to the kitchen to get some chips and a piece of cake. I just sucked my teeth and headed toward Kathy’s car. I got in the back seat and ate my snacks.

“Hi to you too, prego.”

“Hey, Kathy, how was the store running today?”

“It was going good. Everything was in place. The cameras are working again so that’s even better.” I just nodded my head. Kathy was a college graduate who majored in business management so I allowed her to become the store manager and oversee everything while I was at school. She was a cool down to earth white girl who loved being around people. She was ghetto as hell though, but always turned it off when she was at work. We had to make a stop at Nicole and Natalie’s dorm to pick them up. They were standing outside representing for their school with their FAMU sweat suits. Once we arrived at the airport I had to pee like crazy and I was hungry as hell, but none of the airport food was appealing to me at the moment.

“Boarding for flight 305.” I looked at the girls and we headed to board, first class of course.

Once the plane landed I was starving and irritated as hell. We made our way to bag check and there stood Jayden with his trustee sidekick Trey. I looked over at Shyla and she knew what was running through my head. I wasn’t planning to see Trey this early in the trip. I wanted to do an about face so bad but I couldn’t. They were already heading our way. I tried my best not to panic when they walked over to us. Shy had a huge smile on her face as Nicole and I headed to go get our bags. I could feel his eyes burning a hole in the side of my face.

“So I can’t get any love from my little sister?” Jayden asked as he picked me up in a bear hug, causing the baby to kick. I prayed he didn’t feel it but the look on his face told me he did. Trying not to cause a scene, he walked away and gave Nicole and Natalie hugs too. We all walked over to the cars since we were going to have to split up in order for all the bags to fit. Shyla thought she was slick having Trey pile his car up with most the bags leaving him only enough room for one person. I didn’t want to sit through the kissy faces they would be making, so I calmly got in the car with Trey. The last time I saw him I ended up getting pregnant. I sat in the car as he talked to Jayden outside the car for a couple of minutes. We pulled off and I made a request to go through a drive-thru. Thanksgiving wasn’t until tomorrow and me and my baby needed food now. We pulled up to McDonald’s and I could tell he was about to ask me something but changed his mind.

“Welcome to McDonald’s. How can I help you?” He looked at me, then started speaking.

“Can I get a number four with no pickles and a large mango smoothie with two apple pies?”

“Will that complete your order?”

“Yes ma’am.” She rattled off the cost and I reached in my bag for my wallet, handing him the money. He refused to take it and passed me the bag after he paid for it. We headed back on our route to Big Jay’s house.

“I see you got thick over in Miami.”

“Unfortunately, but I’ll work it off sooner or later.”

“How long y’all here for anyway?”

“Just the weekend. We leave Sunday night.” He grabbed some fries out of my bag, making sure to rest his hand close by my stomach. I guess my child knew who its father was because the baby moved over to where his hand was.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be eating McDonald’s. It’s not healthy if you’re trying to lose the weight,” he said, pulling over and looking me dead in my eyes. “Jordyn, who’s the father?” I sucked my teeth and let out a deep breath.

“Who do you think the father is, Trey?” He pulled back onto the road, letting me eat in peace and quiet. We pulled up and I immediately regretted coming to Atlanta. They we’re having a big pre-Thanksgiving dinner with all our friends and family. Some people I knew; some people I didn’t. I wished I would have had on a bubble jacket or something to cover my baby bump. Trey took out the bags with an attitude as Jayden helped him, shaking his head at me. I already felt like shit for not saying anything for six months now this. Fortunately for me, Star dragged my father with her to get some more food for the pre-Thanksgiving dinner. I walked in my room and Trey was laid across the bed with his hands covering his face.

“Jordyn, I’m not going through this again, so when the baby gets here I want a test done and that’s all I have to say on the subject. I also would like for you to transfer to a school in Atlanta if the baby is mine.” I looked at Trey as if he was stupid.

“You dead-ass right now, Trey? You could count back six and a half months and you land on the night before I left. You going to sit here and make requests like you my fucking father. You must be out your fucking mind. I run this, not you. I can handle myself. Shit, you got me all the way fucked up. Must think I’m that wack bitch that you call your first baby mother. I make my own, Trey; always have. When you first met me I was working. Remember that, motherfucka. You better humble your fucking self before I do it for you,” I said, slamming the door as I exited the room. To my surprise, my father was standing there looking at me with disappointment in his eyes. For the first time I felt like I let him down.

“I’m sorry, Daddy.” I said before walking out of the house, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. I knew they would all be upset at me but damn. I felt my baby kick. That was my joy right there. That’s all that mattered to me. I walked until I found myself starting to get cold.
Here you go being dramatic again, Jordyn
, I thought as I crossed the street to check in at the hotel on the corner.

Shyla:

I was all the way pissed off with Trey for the bullshit that he decided to say out his mouth to my best friend. She was already feeling bad for not telling him as soon as she found out, but she denied it for weeks before she accepted it. I was pissed as I took Jayden’s keys out his hand while he socialized with his dumbass friend. Kayden decided that she was going to go with me. I pulled out my phone and called Jordyn. No matter what, she always answered my calls.

“Jordyn, where are you?” I asked. I could hear her crying through the phone. That just pissed me off even more.

“I’m at the Four Seasons by Atlantic Station. I’m not coming to that dinner, Shy. For real, I’m leaving in the morning so you can either take my bag with you back or leave it there until I decide to bring my ass back to Atlanta. Don’t come here and try to change my mind, neither,” she said as she hung up the phone. I knew then she was pissed as hell. I busted a U-turn and headed back to the house. The dinner was about to start. Everyone was already dressed but Kayden and I. Jayden walked over to me but I wasn’t in the mood as I handed him his keys and got dressed. When I walked back out the room Jordyn was downstairs in a white maxi dress that did little to cover up her stomach. I was happy she changed her minded. I speed walked up to my friend and gave her a hug.

“You know I couldn’t let this nigga keep me away from free food. Shit, we hungry,” she said, rubbing her belly as we busted out laughing.

Trey:

I watched Jordyn and Shyla stand in the corner laughing at something. Even pregnant, Jordyn still was able to steal the show. Her gown was lovely, hair was flawless, and the glow from the pregnancy was making her look even better. I wanted to walk up to her but I knew I had overstepped my boundaries earlier. Besides, my girl wouldn’t have appreciated it. As I stood with TaKiera and my son, she was staring just as hard as I was at Jordyn. It was time to eat so we all sat down and of course my mother cut her eye at me for not pulling out Jordyn’s seat. We all sat down as Big Jay said the prayer for the food.

“Dear God, I thank you for blessing the chef’s hands. We thank you for bringing back my daughter and goddaughter safely. We thank you for the new addition that will be here soon. We thank you for all the blessings that you continue to provide for us. Amen.” We all said amen and TaKiera stood up. She cleared her throat and I looked over at Jordyn who was looking down at her phone smiling. I wondered what she was smiling at. My thoughts were interrupted when TaKiera said she was pregnant. While everyone was congratulating, us in the corner Jordyn and Shyla were dying laughing. Big Jay gave them a look that eased the laughing. But unfortunately TaKiera already was feeling a way from the laughter.

“What was so funny?” she asked with an attitude.

“Nothing. It was a best friend thing.”

“Yeah alright, at least I know who my baby daddy is.”  I watched as Jordyn attempted to bite her tongue.

“I hope you do know for sure this time. We wouldn’t’ want him to raise another—” She stopped mid sentence. “Come harder than that, baby girl, because I could hurt your feelings but where would that get me?” TaKiera sat down, stared Jordyn down, and mouthed,
Count your blessings, baby girl
. The table resumed dinner but I watch Jordyn mouth
five bullets
to TaKiera and start laughing. I knew what the five bullets stood for; at least I thought I did. TaKiera jumped up and charged at Jordyn.

“Bitch, you killed my mother!?” Shyla, Kayden, Nicole, and Natalie all jumped out of their seats.

“Bitch, is you trying to die tonight?” Shyla asked, cocking back her fingers and shooting her imaginary gun five times.

“Enough! The five of you in my office now!” All five of them stopped in their tracks before walking to the office. Jordyn was the last one to go after she gave TaKiera and I a look that could kill. I couldn’t bear to look at her so I turned away imagining the saying, “Once a good girl’s gone bad, she’s gone forever.” I could help but to think I turned Jordyn into the killer she was today, as I thought back to the day she killed those two dudes.