Page 31 of Without You I Have Nothing To Lose

“For bringing a nigga peace. I be needing that shit.” I placed a kiss on her lips and tried to take it further, but she stopped me.

“Uh uh. You won’t have Mrs. Izzy cursing me out and I won’t know what she’s saying. Let’s go down here and eat because I’m starving, then we can go back to your house and you can thank me then,” she smirked.

“Our house,” I corrected.

“Huh?”

“I said, our house. That’s your shit, too, Dai.” I saw the perplexed look on her face, but I’d address it later. I wanted to go downstairs and get this dinner over with.

When we got to the dining room, everyone was already seated, and I was glad that Jay was seated next to me. After I pulled Daizha’s seat out, I took mine between her and Jaylen.

“Uhm…so, Demetric. Do you go to school?” Juanita asked.

“Nah,” I answered flatly.

“Oh. So, you’re working?” she continued to interrogate.

“Yeah.”

“Oh ok. That’s good. Where do you work?” I looked at her like she was crazy, asking all these questions like she was the police.

“He works with me,” Zeus butted in. Her eyes ballooned because she knew the type of nigga Zeus was.

“Oh.” She turned her attention toward Daizha. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I didn’t get your name.”

“It’s Daizha.”

“That’s a pretty name for a pretty girl. He looks happy with you.” I looked over at Daizha when she said that, and she blushed.

“Why didn’t you come back for my brother?” Jaylen’s question seemed to surprise everybody but me. One thing she was gonna do, and that was take up for me the same way I do for her.

“Jaylen!” Ma Izzy chastised.

“No, it’s okay. I actually like the fact that he has someone like her in his corner. To answer your question, I thought that I was doing right by him. I figured he deserved more than a whore as a mother, since I wasn’t able to experience that. I didn’t want to corrupt him.” She was looking at me the whole time that she was talking to Jaylen. For a moment, the hate that I harbored for her vanished and it was replaced with the love that was once there. I’d be a fool to act on it, though.

We continued to have dinner, and she gave me her number before she left. I told her I wouldn’t make any promises, but I took it, anyway. I was getting ready to leave when Zeus walked outside with me and Daizha.

“Meech, hol’ up,” he called out, stopping me in my tracks.

“Wassup?”

“I didn’t do any of this to hurt you, son. Shit, just had me fucked up, that’s all. You know how we can get. Why try to fix what’s broken? I know you hate me right now, but I want us to be cool after all this. I want to keep the relationship with my son.” I’m not even going to lie and say his lil’ speech didn’t fuck me up because it did.

“We’re good, Pops.”

His face lit up and pulled me into a hug. Shit hit different now that I know he’s my pops. We disconnected, and I turned to leave.

“Aye, son,” he called out.

“Yeah?”

“Take care of that young lady.”

“I’m already on it,” I stated honestly. I got in the car and Daizha was staring at me.

“You okay, now?” she asked.

“Better than I was when I first got here but it’s still gonna take some time, you know?”

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