Page 6 of Kassir and Rebel
“That’s for them and his candy,” I say and the little girls squeal.
“Thank you,” they sing in unison.
“Neenee, get another bag of Takis,” one of them says.
“Come back to see Rebel. I’m sure she would love to see you,” Miss Chandra says and I just shake my head.
Her words can’t be further from the fucking truth. The last time Rebel saw me, she had just found out Linnea was pregnant. It wasn’t a good day. I’ll never forget the hurt in her eyes, and as much as I hated to see her leave, I knew she had to go. She didn’t know it but leaving was the best thing for her to do.
Chapter 4
Rebel
“Are you really ready for this?” Teaira asks as she refills my glass with more margarita.
“Hell no. I’m far from ready,” I sigh.
My head falls dramatically on the back of her sofa. She sits down beside me then drops her head too. She turns her face to mine then flashes me a wry ass smile.
“Just avoid him,” she says.
“And how can I do that? He owns the tenth floor of the building. Shit, it’s practically his building. There’s no way I’m going to be able to avoid him and you know it.” I sit up then take a sip from my glass. “He broke my heart,” I utter, although I know she knows all too well. Teaira was there when I first met Kassir and she was by my side five years later when I busted out the back window of his Charger. That was six years ago but the hurt feels fresh now that I’m back in town.
“I know.”
“And it took me a long ass time to get over that.”Hell, I’m still getting over it.“I loved him and I thought he loved me but I was wrong. So wrong. He had a baby on me.”
“Technically, y’all were broken up when he slept with her,” she says and I cut my eyes at her.
“My bad. My bad.” She raises her hands defensively then quickly changes her tone and words knowing that right now I don’t want to hear about no technicalities. “He was dead ass wrong.”
“Very. We had a fight and were barely broken up for few hours and he fucked her. I was with him for five years and he couldn’t give me five hours before fucking someone else,” I snap.
“When you’re right; you’re right,” she says. In two big ass gulps, I finish my glass, place it on the table, then fall back on the sofa. “Alcohol is a depressant. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea,” she says before laying back on the sofa too.
“You think, bitch!” I say, laughing to keep from crying.
“Definitely not a good call.” We both laugh, then she pats my leg. “We need some food to soak this up so we can get you showered and sober. Miss Chandra is going to be looking for you.”
When she stands and heads to the kitchen, I close my eyes and try to push my thoughts of Kassir out of my damn head. I left Diamond Falls to get away from him and I’ve been doing good, too good to be sitting here thinking about the past. I have a whole life in Florida. I’m twenty-eight years old with a BS and MS in exercise physiology. I’m a professor at Miami Dade College as well as their assistant coach in track and field. My life isn’t what I envisioned but it’s mine. Although we planned one together, I did good without him.
“Fuck Kassir!” I yell after sitting up and opening my eyes.
“Yeah. Fuck that nigga!” she yells back from the kitchen.
A few minutes later, she returns to the living room with a bag of chips and some container. She has the pitcher of margarita too. As she refills my glass and tops hers off, I pick up the container.
“Fiesta dip?” I read. “Tortilla chips and dip. That’s the food that’s going to sober me up?”
“Hell, it’s all I’ve got. I just got off four tens at the hospital; I haven’t had time to shop. This is all I have,” she says, then snatches the dip from my hand.
“Damn!”
“Nah. Wait! I just thought about it. This might be expired.” She flips the container over then frowns. “Yeah. It expired Thursday but it might be okay.”
“What kind of nurse are you?” I tease because I know damn well she’s an ER nurse. “I’m not eating spoiled dip. Let’s just order Vic’s. I want a supreme calzone and some mozzarella sticks. I’ve been craving it. I’ll just run it off tomorrow.”
In junior high, only two things subsided my anger, Mama Chandra and running. With my headphones and Nikes, I could take off and run until all the anger left my body. I fell in love with running. Eventually, I joined the track team, running the 3K. I competed in junior high and high school. I was all-state in both and ended up earning a scholarship to college.
