Page 26 of Without You I Have Nothing To Lose

“You sound chipper this morning. What you doing?” she asked.

“Cooking breakfast. How are you?” I know the secret wasn’t about her, but that was her family, and she was crying when we left on yesterday.

“I’m okay. This shit is crazy. I’ve been calling Meechie since last night and he still hasn’t called me back. I just want to make sure he’s okay, but he’s shutting me out.” I heard the pain in her voice, and I felt bad for her.

“I think he turned his phone off last night. But hey, get dressed and come over. You know how he sleeps, so he should be up by the time you get here. You can have breakfast with us,” I offered.

“I think I’ll take you up on that and be on the way. The tension is high as fuck in here and I don’t want no parts of it,” she replied. I hung up with her and finished cooking. By the time I made enough pancakes for the three of us, Demetric was joining me in the kitchen, wrapping his arms around my waist and planting a kiss on my neck.

“Good morning,” I greeting.

“Morning. I see you’ve been up for a while.” He observed.

“I have. You’re the only one that sleeps late.” I giggled when he kissed my neck again.

“I see I walked in right in time to get all this tea.” Jaylen came in smiling wide, catching the both of us off guard.

“Jay, why are walking in my shit like you pay bills?” Demetric asked.

“It’s never been a problem before. You’re worried I might walk in on you doing some nasty shit?”

“Shit, you might,” he smirked. He looked down at me and pecked my lips before walking over to Jaylen and pulled her into a hug.

“My bad for shutting you out yesterday. I didn’t want to take that shit out on you, so I turned my phone off. I actually expected you here last night.”

“I thought about it, but I wanted to give you some space. I see I made the right choice or else all of this wouldn’t be happening right now.” She motioned her hands between me and Demetric. He was back standing behind me as I cut up some fruit.

“Probably would’ve still happened.”

“So, what? Y’all go together now?” she asked.

“Real bad,” Demetric declared. “Ain’t that’s what y’all say?” he laughed.

“I cannot with you, but I like this for you. For y’all. I know it’s only been a few hours, but Daizha, you look like the weight of the world has been lifted off of your shoulders.” I felt just like she said, too. It was like giving myself to Demetric willingly renewed everything inside of me.

“I’m known to have that effect on the ladies,” he joked.

“So, what about your mountain lion? How you think she’s going to take this? I’m telling you now if she comes at my girl crazy, I’m beating her ass.” I couldn’t even think of a response to what she just said because I was stuck on the fact that she called that lady a mountain lion.

“Did you just call that lady a mountain lion? I thought it was called a cougar,” I asked through my giggles.

“That bitch is a mountain lion. Hairy ass sideburns.” That had Demetric cracking up behind me.

“Y’all wild, but what you mean? What am I going to do? I’m not going to do shit. I already wasn’t fuckin’ wit’ her ass like that. She’ll be alright.” He shrugged and stole a piece of fruit from the bowl. He left us and went to take a quick shower and now we were all sitting at the table eating.

“So, Meechie. How do you feel about all this?” Jaylen asked.

“I’on know. I mean…I’m relieved that I finally know where I came from, but a part of me can’t help but wonder why he never said anything when he found out. Shit made me feel like he was embarrassed about me and shit.” I sat quietly, listening to him talk to his sister. I felt so bad for him, but I sympathized the same. I knew how it felt to feel like nobody wants you.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, Ma cursed his ass out all night while she made him clean up the mess y’all made.”

“That’s what his ass gets.”

Things went silent for a minute before I broke the silence.

“I want to reach out to my brother,” I blurted.

“You have a brother?” she asked.

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