Page 15 of Make Me Remember

I slowly shook my head as Mrs. Taylor flipped her long hair over her shoulder. As I got closer, I could see the scowl she adorned. I swore she looked like an angry Gabrielle Union from Deliver Us From Eva. Shy looked like he was ready to fuck some shit up too.

“Didn’t I tell you to be ready? I had a feeling they were gonna do this shit. I swear these people are purposely fucking with the Hendersons, and we gon’ get to the bottom of that shit.”

She was really angry. I’d only heard her curse a couple of times, and one of those times was when they were trying to railroad SS. She’d been hanging around Shy’s ass for too long. Proving me wrong, Shy said, “I was wondering when that gangsta was gonna come out. I built my career watching yours, and you sling those curse words like the Hendersons be slanging that rice in the stores.”

I wanted to laugh, but it didn’t take much to restrain it since the officer had pulled me inside the precinct. Shy was a fool. They took me to booking to get my prints and mugshots all over again. It had only been a couple of weeks since the last time I was here. They also swabbed my cheek for a fucking DNA test. I wasn’t completely sure what that shit was for, but I was sure I would find out. I was hoping the last time I was here would be the only time I had to show face in this fucking bleak ass place.

By the time they were putting me in a holding cell, Mrs. Taylor was coming to meet us with my phone in her hand. She must have gotten a favor from someone else, because the officer with her said, “He’s free to go.”

I turned around and walked toward Mrs. Taylor. Once she’d given me my phone and we’d gotten to the front, Shy was waiting on us with a smirk on his lips. Mrs. Taylor was talking under her breath, but I could clearly hear her say, “They don’t know who they fucking with.”

My eyebrows lifted as she and Shy did some kind of fucking secret handshake. No smiles were traded. They were all about business right now, and I was glad to see it. After stepping outside and going down the steps, she said, “I need to call a meeting with the family because something ain’t right. Do you remember ever hearing about a judge by the name of Clarence Oaks?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Mm hmm. Somebody know some shit, and I’m gon’ get to the bottom of it. That is the man that issued the warrant. He had to know that if we had SS’s back against that other fuck up for a judge, we would have yours. He got me fucked up. News of how Shy and I defended him was all over the courthouse.”

Yeah, she was heated. I remained silent as we continued to Shy’s car. His phone rang before we could drive off. “Shyrón Berotte… I know you fucking lying… Skyler, you’re brilliant as a muthafucka. Thank you for that.”

I could hear whoever she was laughing loudly. When he ended the call, he turned to Mrs. Taylor. “I just got the news of the fucking day. It’s finna piece all this shit together for you.”

I frowned slightly. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but I was hoping that whatever he had would be something we could do something about. This shit had me exhausted.

After I got home, my mama was in there with some beef tips from the diner. I was beyond appreciative. The meeting was set for six o’clock today. Mr. Berotte had to go home first to pick up his girls from day care. His wife was working late and wouldn’t be able to get to them in time.

I took a shower and dug into my food as my mama watched me. I wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, but I knew she wanted to say something. “Just say it, Mama.”

“I don’t have anything to say, baby. I’m just worried about you. This has to be wearing on your mental. It’s wearing on mine, so I know it has to be bothering you even more. I can’t wait to get to that meeting tonight to see what’s going on.”

“Me either. I’m so ready for all this to be done with. I can barely focus on the shit I need to focus on.”

“And what’s that?”

“Mekayla Chatmon.”

She smirked. “I could see the attraction between the two of you a long time ago. Hopefully, she doesn’t shoot you down.”

“Oh, she’s already done that, but I can be patient when it’s something I want bad enough. Mekayla is worth the struggle. Just when I thought she was going to give in to me, I was in a funk and didn’t hardly talk to her the entire time she was at my house.”

“Do you think she’ll be receptive now… after all this?”

“I don’t know, but I’m definitely going to find out. I can’t let her get away.”

“Just be careful. I can tell she has some demons. She seems to be dealing with a lot mentally and emotionally. Sometimes she comes to the diner to eat lunch. She sits there for at least an hour, looking tortured somewhat. On another note, we have a family meeting coming up tomorrow as well. Are you going to try to make that one?”

“Yes, ma’am. And I’ll be careful. I think we can help each other. We seem to connect already. I want us to connect through our healing, though, and not just our trauma.”

She nodded with a tight smile, and I went back to my food. She finally stood and stopped watching me so damn hard. I was pretty sure she was trying to analyze me, trying to see where my frame of mind was. When I finished as much as I could, I stood to wrap the rest up, but my mama grabbed the plate from me.

“I can imagine all this action has slowed down your healing timeline. You’ve been limping for a while, and it doesn’t look to be getting any better.”

“I think it set me back a bit, but that’s okay. I’m going to get back on track, if Mekayla still wants to see me as her patient.”

“Why wouldn’t she?”

“Well, her last few visits, I ignored her… barely talked at all. I was in my head big time, and it seemed like she was too. I’m going to call Karima to see if we can talk about some things.”

“Yeah. She left a couple of days ago heading back to Nashville. I think her semester at Fisk starts next week.”

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