Teenage Love Affair (21 page)

My eyes lit up with delight. “Stop playing, what is that?”

“Nah,” he said, putting it back in his pocket, “nothing.”

I stood on the chair and playfully grabbed him around the back of his neck. “Don't make me take you down.”

Malachi fell out laughing. “Imagine that.”

“Then tell me what it is.”

“Ai'ight, get down first.”

I stepped to the floor and Malachi pulled the ring box from his pocket. “I know you felt bad about no longer having the first one I gave you.” He popped the box open and revealed a gold ring with
wifey
written in white gold script across it. “I thought the magic marker might've been played out a li'l bit.” He gave me a half a grin.

“This is beautiful,” I said in awe.

“You like?” He smiled.

“I love it.” I hugged him tight. “And I love you.”

“You wanna be my girl?” He whispered against my lips. “Circle yes or no.”

“I circled yes.” We started to kiss. “And I'ma always circle yes.”

L
et me put you down on this real quick: Love is a drug. Word. I'm so serious. Once you have a man like Malachi, who loves you, treats you right, and is kind and sensitive yet still able to put down his thug thizzle when needed, you will forever be addicted to being treated like a princess. When my baby calls me his girl or his wifey it actually means something. It just doesn't sound good, it feels good…. It is good. So why I was trippin' over telling him that Ameen had been back to calling me a hundred times a day was beyond me.

Honestly…I think…that maybe…I just didn't want the hassle. I didn't want to deal with the nonsense again. I'd already gotten the hint. Ameen liked to beat on women. But I couldn't deal with Malachi exploding, going out into the street, and beating Ameen down again. Malachi had too much to lose.

So I dealt with Ameen's calling like I dealt with everything else that bothered me. I ignored it.

Me and Malachi were chillin' in my room. I lay across the foot of my bed looking at Courtney's Facebook page on my laptop. “Come look at this,” I said to Malachi, who was sitting on my floor watching a football game.

“Run the ball!” Malachi screamed at the television.

“Would you pay attention to me?”

“Ai'ight, Zsa, ai'ight,” he said to me but continued to look at the TV. “Wassup?”

“Look at this.” I cracked up. I was laughing so hard that tears were falling from my eyes.

Malachi walked over to the bed and sat beside me. He looked at the computer and said, “Who is that?”

“Courtney.”

“Courtney?” Malachi said, surprised. “Why does he have his robe hanging off his shoulders and a cherry tattoo on his chest?”

I was laughing so hard I couldn't respond. Apparently Courtney had lost his mind.

“Yo,” Malachi said, “don't call me over here to look at another man with a dang cherry on his chest. I'll never be able to eat cherries again.”

“Awwl, my baby's upset? Me sorry.” I started kissing him all over his face until he started laughing and tickling me in my belly. “Zsa,” he said, sitting up. “I want to ask you something?”

“What?” I laid my head in his lap.

“When are you going to cut your mother some slack about Kenneth?”

“What?” I sat up and looked at him like he'd lost his mind. “Where did that come from? Did my mother tell you to talk to me about Kenneth?” I stood up.

“You a little amped, don't you think?” He arched his brow. “Sit down.”

I sat down reluctantly. “I don't want to talk about this.”

“Would you stop that? Why do you run away from everything?”

“It's easier that way.”

“Some things have to be faced and your mother having a boyfriend is one of them.”

“Why are we talking about this? I mean, really.”

“Because when I came here earlier, I saw him talking to your mother on the porch as if he couldn't come in.”

“He can't come in
here
.”

“Do you pay the bills?”

“No, but so.”

“Look, I'm not trying to start an argument,” Malachi insisted.

“I can't tell.”

“All I'm saying is that at some point you have to stop interfering with your mother's life and allow her to chill like you wanna chill.”

“Boy, please, what are you, a documentary? Both your parents are together, so that's easy for you to say.”

“You are so hardheaded.” He laughed.

“And you love it.”

“Yeah, too much of it,” he said. “But you better learn to listen and start dealing with your problems, or one day they will blow up in your face if you don't.”

“Whatever, Malachi,” I said as my cell phone started ringing and I tried to ignore it.

“You gon' answer your phone?” Malachi asked me.

“Nah,” I said, returning my attention back to Facebook. “I'll call whomever back later.”

“Well, they must want to speak to you,” he said, “because your phone stopped ringing and now it's ringing again.”

Malachi looked at me like I was nuts. I reached for the phone and the number was restricted. I started not to answer but the cell phone numbers of a lot of people I know also comes up restricted, so I took a deep breath and took the chance.

“Hello?”

“Zsa, please don't hang up.” It was Ameen.

I started to hang up but I didn't. “Yeah, what?”

“I've been calling you like crazy to say that I'm sorry.” He spat out superfast as if he were scared that I was going to hang up at any moment.

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, but still I didn't respond.

“I know,” Ameen continued on, “that you probably feel like you've heard this a thousand times, but I'm really serious this time. And I'm not calling you to ask you to be my girl again. I know that you've moved on and I'm happy for you. But I couldn't let another day go by without me saying that I was scum for putting my hands on you. No woman deserves that. And especially not you. So, that's all I wanted to say. I won't be bothering you again.”

When I didn't respond, he said, “Ai'ight. One.” And he hung up.

Malachi looked at me while I held the phone to my cheek replaying the conversation in my mind, and said, “Who was that, Zsa?”

“Huh?” I said, caught off guard.

“You heard me.”

I started to tell him nobody, but lying to Malachi after everything that had gone on was not a good look, so I swallowed and released a deep breath through the side of my mouth. “That was Ameen.”

“Ameen?” Malachi frowned. “Ameen was just on your phone?”

“Yeah.”

“And you were talking to him right here in my face?” he said evenly.

“It wasn't like that. He'd been calling here over and over again for weeks and—”

“Oh, so he's been calling here and you haven't said anything to me?”

“I didn't want you to get all pissed off, like you are now.”

“Nah, I'm cool. Believe me, I'm straight.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Listen,” Malachi said, “did Ameen threaten you?”

“No.”

“Did he ask you to be his girl?”

“No. He apologized and said he wouldn't be bothering me again.”

“Ai'ight.” Malachi stood up and slid on his leather jacket. “That's wassup.”

“Where are you going?” I said as he placed his keys in his pocket.

“I'm out.” He walked to the door and opened it. “I'll see you when I see you.” And he slammed the door behind him. I tried to go after him but he was too fast, and before I knew anything he was in his truck and had taken off.

I swear I couldn't move. I didn't know what the heck had just happened. One minute Malachi was cool and the next minute he was hot, pissed off, and gone. My heart thundered in my chest and my hands started to shake. I picked up my cell phone and called Asha, but no one answered, and then I called Courtney. “Two snaps up and a fruit loop, royalty speaking.”

“Courtney,” I said in a panic, holding my hurt feelings in my chest.

“What's wrong, Diva?”

I explained to him what happened and then I said, “I think Malachi just broke up with me.”

“Ahhhh!” Courtney started screaming. “Oh no, oh no. Jesus, no. I knew you was gon' mess this up for us!” he cried. “Why, Zsa? Huh? Why?”

“What do you mean mess this up for us?” I snapped. “He was my boyfriend, what the hell are you crying for?”

“I live through your love life and this is not the ending I had in mind. You have to call him and get him back. We 'spose to graduate from Howard and have us a li'l girl named Shaquita in a few years. Don't do this, Zsa. Don't end my life like this.” He started crying again. “You were wrong, Zsa-Zsa. Oh, Lord, oh, Lord.”

“Okay, you know what,” I said, “I gotta go. You trippin'.”

I quickly dialed Malachi's cell phone number and prayed that he answered. After a few rings he picked up. “Yeah, what?”

“Look, before you say anything,” I said in a hurry, “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hide anything from you or to disrespect you. I love you, you know that, and I would never do anything intentionally to hurt you.”

Malachi sighed. “You are a lot of work, Zsa. For real. I don't know what I'ma do with you.”

“Love me.” I gave a fake laugh, and when he didn't respond I said, “Pretty please.”

Malachi laughed. “This is the second time I'm telling you this, but let that stunt you pulled be the last one.”

“It won't happen again. I promise. So are you coming back?”

“Open the door,” he said, “I'm already outside.”

“Z
sa, peep these shoes,” Asha said as we browsed Neiman Marcus's shoe collection.

“Those are hot,” I said, pointing at the pair of three-inch canary yellow stilettos she was holding. “How much?”

“Eight nine,” she said.

“Oh, I want those,” I said in glee. I swear, whenever I bought shoes it made me feel like it was Christmas all over again.

“I'm getting me some too,” Asha said, “but I want the lime green ones.”

We paid for the shoes and afterward we headed to the food court. Once we grabbed two orders of Bourbon chicken we sat at a small table in the center of the floor where we could see all the action. “Wait, Zsa, is that Jamil from school?” Asha asked.

“Umm-hmm,” I said, “but that girl ain't his girl.”

“Hot mess.” She laughed.

“So,” I said, “wassup with you and Samaad?”

“I love him so much.” She blushed.

“I know.” I smiled. “How did we end up with the perfect boyfriends, who are also cousins? Then that means our kids gon' be cousins too.”

“Yop,” Asha agreed, “and if we don't like our in-laws we'll always have each other to talk to.”

We both cracked up.

“But I tell you what,” she continued, “it will not be any kids anytime soon.”

“Why do you say that?” I sipped my soda.

“'Cause.”

“'Cause what? What you and Samaad not gettin' down like that?”

“Not yet.”

“Why?” I curled my lip in surprise. “You're not a virgin.”

“So, that doesn't mean that I wanna be in the sheets with every cat I meet. I'm just not feeling that, so we find other things to do. So what about you and Malachi?”

I shook my head. “Nothing's happenin', captain.”

She laughed. “We could always get a job and occupy ourselves.”

“When you fill out the application let me know, otherwise the check I get from my father's death benefits and what my mom hits me off with will suffice,” I said.

“Whatever, you are so irresponsible. I'ma get me a job this summer. I have too much time on my hands.”

“Asha, your daddy is a councilman.”

“Exactly, so getting a job should be easy.”

Asha was a mess. “Girl,” I said as my cell phone rang, “did you see Courtney's Facebook page?” I looked at the caller ID and the number was restricted. This pissed me off because again it could be a thousand different people. A handful of which I didn't want to talk to. Forget it. I pressed the talk button, took a chance, and answered. “You rang?”

No one responded, but I could tell that someone was there because I could hear them breathing, and if I'm not mistaken it sounded as if they were crying. “Hello?” I paused. “Hello?”

Silence.

“Okay,” I said into the phone, “I'ma hang up.”

“Zsa.” It was a hysterical male voice but I couldn't make out who it was. All I could tell is that they were in tears.

“Who is this?” I asked.

“Ameen.”

“Ameen,” I said, surprised. “Why are you calling me crying?”

“Hang up on him,” Asha said. “Now.”

“Wait,” I mumbled. “Let me find out why he's crying.”

“Don't be stupid, Zsa,” she said.

“What, Ameen?” I snapped into the phone.

“Zsa, my mother died,” he said.

My eyes practically bugged out of my head. I couldn't believe that. “Asha,” I whispered, “his mother died.”

“Okay,” she said. “Give him your condolences and hang up on him.”

“I can't do that,” I said to her. “He really loved his mother.”

“And your mother loved you when he left you in the park and beat up on the ground.”

I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Asha. “Ameen”—I returned my attention to the phone—“I'm sorry to hear that.”

“Man, you know she got sick all of a sudden.” He sniffed. “But I didn't expect her to die. You know she really liked you, Zsa.”

I didn't know what to say to that so I didn't respond.

“She really did.” He carried on. “Her wake is tonight at seven at Cottons. Ai'ight, Zsa. I'ma get up.” And he hung up.

I felt terrible for Ameen. I mean, me and my mother had our differences but I don't know what I would do if she passed away. “Asha—” I turned to her.

“Look, I don't want to hear it,” Asha said. “You don't need to be kicking it with Ameen at any time.”

“His mother died, would you chill?”

“He just wants you to feel sorry for him,” Asha insisted.

“Well, I do,” I said. “I know what Ameen did was wrong and I told you he apologized.”

“You also told me Malachi bugged out earlier this week. So what's more important?”

“Malachi doesn't have to know Ameen's mother died.”

“Okay, so let's move on.”

“Asha”—I looked at my watch—“her wake is in an hour. Let's run over there real quick.”

“Heck, no!”

“I have to pay my respects, Asha. He just told me his mother really liked me.”

“Please, she treated you like garbage.”

“Asha, are you going to come with me or not? Because I'm going.”

Asha stared at me long and hard and then she rolled her eyes. “No, I'm not going.”

“Fine, I'll go by myself.”

 

“I don't believe I'm here with you,” Asha growled as we walked into the funeral parlor. “This is crazy.”

“We're only going to stay for a few minutes.”

“A few minutes and that's it.”

The funeral parlor was packed with people. Some of them I knew from being with Ameen and some of them I didn't. I spotted his son's mother right away. She looked at me and rolled her eyes. Whatever. Little did she know, but she could have Ameen.

“I'ma sit back here,” Asha said. “You go up there”—she pointed at Ameen—“give him your condolences and let's bounce.”

“That's exactly what I'ma do,” I said as she sat down, and I headed toward the front of the room. I walked over to Ameen, who was sitting in a chair with his head in his hands. “Ameen.” I tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up and a slight smile ran across his face.

“Zsa.” He stood up and gave me a hug. “I'm glad you came, man, thanks.”

“I just came to tell you I was sorry about your mother.”

“I appreciate that, Zsa. And you know I'm really sorry about what jumped off between us. You're the best thing that ever happened to me and I messed it up.”

“Ameen”—I started to feel uncomfortable—“this is not the time.”

“I know. And I'm not trying to push up or anything like that. I just wanted you to know that.”

“Alright.” I felt nervous. Why? I don't know, I just did. “I'ma get going, Ameen.”

He kissed me on the cheek. “Thank you for being here for me. It lets me know you still care.”

That was definitely my queue. “Bye, Ameen. Take care.”

I walked over to Asha and said, “Let's be out now.”

“What did he say?” she asked once we got in the car.

“He was like, I'm glad you came.”

“So why are you shaking?”

“I don't know. Like I started to feel scared standing next to him.”

“You should be scared of him at all times. He hasn't changed, Zsa. No matter what he says and no matter who dies.”

“I know,” I said as we pulled off.

“Did he say anything else to you?”

“No,” I said, deciding not to tell her about Ameen thinking I still cared about him.

“Good, and if he calls you again, you need to change your number.”

“Asha, calm down.”

“I'm
soooo
serious with you, because if I hear that you are talking to this dude again I'm telling your mother.”

“You buggin'.”

“I don't care if you get mad,” she said. “You rather me tell your mother or tell Malachi?”

I rolled my eyes. “You know the answer to that.”

“Ai'ight then, chill. Now, come on inside so we can go in my room and look at Courtney's Facebook page and laugh.”