Page 90 of Disrespectfully, Relic

The hot and cold.

The affection and rejection.

The signs had been there, but Kennedy mistook them for Relic pushing her away when he was truly struggling to process his emotions.

“Like split personalities?” she verified, but Judith shook her head.

“Oh no baby. One thing for sure, Relic will always be Relic. His disorder hasn’t gotten that bad as far as I know. He only went to a psychiatrist once per a request from school, and he lost it when he got the diagnosis. He hasn’t gone back since.

“I should’ve known something was off with him because he used to flip out so fast. When he wasn’t doing that, it was like nothing around him existed until he wanted to acknowledge it. He was offensive and disrespectful with no remorse for his behavior. He believed it was all justified. They told us that it was his way of escaping reality and suppressing emotions. Relic detached because—”

“He heard Joseph beating your ass since he was a kid. For damn near a decade,” Kennedy finished, making Judith’s eyes round. “He’s tuned you two out since he was young. Fished with his father because it felt like an escape from that house. His disorder is from traumatic events and PTSD that he learned to cope with because neither of you noticed or fucking cared. At the end of the day, his flaws, shortcomings, and inabilities to properly love someone, even his damn self, boils down to you and his father. I won’t even get on the shit that man taught him. Don’t sit here and paint him out as a defective monster to me when you handed him the tools to become it.”

“Kennedy!” That commanding voice barking behind them caused her features to pinch before she spun to face Relic. He snatched off his shades to leer at her. “Getcho ass over here, now.”

She didn’t give his mother the courtesy of a goodbye glance as she stomped over to him, hitching a breath when he clasped a hand on her arm before dragging her aside so that there were no prying ears nearby. Kennedy jerked away as soon as his hold on her slackened.

“I don’t know how much you heard, but she—”

“I know,” he cut her off to say, causing her mouth to clamp shut. “I’ve known Judith all my life. She meddles. She did the same shit with Shabu and Savvy, but you should’ve left when I did or ignored her.”

“But I—”

“Ignore her, Kennedy.” His command came with assertive eye contact that let her know, he wasn’t fucking around. “Let me deal with Judith because that’s not and will never be your place. That’s where I draw the line. You can’t do the shit I do when it comes to her.”

“Are you defending her?”

“I’m telling you to let me deal with her how I see fit because shit has never been cut and dry with us.”

When Kennedy’s mouth dropped, appalled, Relic sighed before twiddling with his watch—removing it from his wrist to flip over and let her examine the inscription. Kennedy read the familiar phrase before she grew more heated than while talking to Judith.

“Blue eyed devil. She put that on a fucking watch, and you never take this shit off, Relic! Why would you torture yourself like this? I don’t get it.”

“Myblue-eyed devil. When she referred to me at the food truck while I was near, I was Relic. What did she call me while you two were speaking in private?”

Kennedy’s heart shattered for him, knowing he was holding on to the smallest slices of hope, even if he refused to admit it.

“She saidmyson.”

“Even when I was the cursed child, I washer cursed child, Kennedy. We don’t see eye to eye, but Judith has never abandoned me. She didn’t cut ties with me, even when I treated her like shit, while the nigga I worshipped shipped me off after Shabu did what he did. Judith will probably never love me, but she’ll never wash her hands of me either because I’m still her son.”

In that instance, Kennedy saw the rare innocence that Relic had once possessed. That little kid inside of him who was waiting and hoping he was seen—waiting for a love he’d never receive because his mother didn’t know how to give it in the way it was required for him to process it. He didn’t know how to show it either, which was why he kept his distance while taking care of Judith’s every need. They’d never find a common ground. Their torrent past was a dysfunctional upbringing seen from two very unique lenses; they’d never align.

“Okay.” Kennedy conceded, knowing there was nothing she could say or do to sway his opinion otherwise. “I get it.”

Relic nodded, placing on his shades before reclasping on his watch that Kennedy itched to snatch and toss across the field. Her eyes flitted to his neck, narrowing as she tried to catch the gleam of a gold link. She didn’t see it.

“Where’s your necklace?”

His head shot up before he acted like a common nigga for the second time since she’d known him. “Huh?”

“You heard me, so I’m not repeating myself.”

“Hold that thought. My phone is ringing,” he replied with a smirk, fishing it out of his pocket before frowning. He held it out for her to take and directed, “Answer this, and curse her ass out if she’s on some dumb shit.”

Kennedy had never snatched someone’s phone so damn fast in her life.

Logan’s name blaring across the screen immediately sent her mind reeling with thoughts of whether Relic had been with the simp ass girl again in her absence. She’d learned to not inquire about shit she didn’t truly want answers to, so she bit her tongue and picked up the phone.

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