Page 34 of Quasim: King Inferno

“Blair.” I called behind him.

He stared at me, waiting for me to elaborate on what I was talking about. “Good night,MyAnjo.” He repeated himself, and I went inside, slamming the door behind me.

I steadied my breathing before turning to look through the peephole and he was back at my door, leaning his head against it. It was like he was torn on what he should do. I was witnessing a man stuck in what he wanted and what he felt he deserved, and it broke my heart. After another call came through to his phone, and this time he picked it up.

“Chill out, I’m on my way… I told you that I’m always going to come for you, right? Then wait on my porch… I’m coming.”I heard his conversation as he walked toward the steps, staring back at my door before he headed back downstairs.

My heart twisted as I stood in my foyer feeling like my heart had broken in pieces right in front of me.

Quasim

The soundof smacking made me stir in my sleep and open my eyes. Elijah was sitting in the corner chair watching me sleep with dried cereal in a bowl. I leaned up and stared at him for a second before pulling my legs over the end of the bed and getting down on my knees.

Without exchanging words, Elijah put his bowl of dried cereal on the dresser and joined me. We put our hands together, lowered our heads and both said our prayers before saying amen and getting up from the floor.

“You sleep weird, Sim,” he tried to hold his laughter in, but what nine-year-old could?

I looked down at him and smirked. “Oh yeah? How I sleep weird?”

He followed behind me but stopped when I went into the bathroom. “With your arms behind your head… you almost look dead.”

“It’s comfortable for me.”

“Maybe I should sleep like that.” He debated as I washed my hands and looked at him. “Do you think I should sleep like that?”

I was always used to a quiet morning with just myself, my bible, and my coffee. I never had to make any noise unless I wanted to, so the peace and quiet was something I had become used to. I always had an hour before I knew Elijah would come barreling through my door ready to talk with a million questions and side conversations. We never stayed on the same topic, constantly bouncing around a few. Ryder did the same thing, so I was always used to following seven conversations at once from one person.

Last night when he called me while I was with my angel, I knew it was God telling me that I needed to leave. As we stood in that hallway – forehead to forehead – I wanted to take her inside and show her why that other nigga didn’t matter.

Blair deserved more than that, though. She didn’t deserve to be fucked because I was trying to prove a point to her. She knew who she should have been with, and it was me that was preventing that.

Shelovedme.

Blair had never said those words to me, it was the way she stared at me. How she became so choked up within a simple conversation. I knew she loved me because I loved her, too, and wanted to tell her.

I wanted to scream the shit, and fear prevented me from doing that. It prevented me from doing a lot of things that my heart desperately wanted, and my heart wanted her. The doorbell pulled me from my thoughts and Elijah from whatever eight conversations he was having with me.

Elijah cowered behind me. “She’s going to be so mad at me, Sim.”

When Elijah called, he told me he hadn’t seen his mother for two days. Leon had been at the house, but his mother hadn’t been there. I automatically thought the worst because Thea never left that damn house.

By the time I made it home, Elijah was asleep on my back porch. I carried him inside and tucked him into the guest bedroom before going to pour myself a drink and sitting in the living room thinking about my baby.

I opened the door, and Thea was standing there with her blonde matted hair pulled into a bun that hadn’t probably been let down in weeks. She looked behind her as she stood there hugging herself.

“Hey Sim, I know it’s early… is Elijah over here?”

Elijah peered from behind me, holding onto my pajama pants, letting me know he didn’t want to go with his mother. “The better question is where the fuck were you?”

She looked behind her again and sighed. “I went out with a few friends…I’m trying to get my life back on track since me and Leon aren’t together anymore.”

None of what the fuck Thea said made sense, and the fact that she couldn’t hold eye contact told me that she was high or coming down from a binge, having been so high that she was just remembering that she even had a son.

How in the fuck was she and Leon not together when his car was parked right outside the house now, and Elijah said he had been the only one at the house with him while she was missing in action.

I didn’t reply.

Instead, I stared at her while she nervously fidgeted in front of me. “Elijah, come on, baby… Leon is gonna drive us to your uncle’s house to stay while mommy gets cleaned up.”

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