“Jazz?” The voice was barely audible.
“Yes, this is Jasmine. Who’s this?”
“It’s Stephanie.”
“What wrong, Steph? You sound like you been crying. I can barely hear you.”
“Jazz, I need your help. It’s important.” Her voice was sounding more desperate. I was worried. If she was asking for my help, then whatever was going on must’ve been real important, ’cause we both knew she didn’t really like me. Hell, I’d damn near single-handedly saved her engagement to Travis a while back and I was still waiting for a thank-you.
“Okay, Steph. Where you at?”
“Um, I’m at home,” she told me between sniffles. “I need your help, Jasmine. Please.”
“Don’t worry, Steph. I’m gonna help you.” I looked at Dylan and apologized with my eyes. He knew I was getting ready to cut short our lunch date. “Where’s Travis? Did you call him?”
“No! Oh, my God, no! Don’t call him. Please, don’t call him,” she pleaded. “I just need you, Jazz. I need my sister.”
“Alright, Steph. Calm down. I’m on my way, okay?” I hung up my phone and gave Dylan a weak smile. “I’m sorry, I gotta go. Family emergency again.”
“Everything all right?” He sounded genuinely concerned.
“I’m not sure,” I sighed. “It’s my sister. She’s in some kind of trouble. She says she needs me.”
“Want me to come along?”
“Nah, I better go by myself. You never know what kind of drama Stephanie is involved in.” I stood and gathered my things. “But thanks for the offer. I’ll call you if there’s any problem.” I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, though I can’t tell you how much I wanted to kiss his lips. I was going to have to make a decision about us soon. There was only so much a woman could take.
“You be careful, okay?” He squeezed my hand. “I’m only a phone call away if you need me.”
“I know.” I smiled. “And I appreciate it I’ll see you tonight at the club.”
When I arrived at Stephanie’s, she was standing at the door waiting for me. Though she looked calm at first, she burst into tears as soon as I asked her what was wrong. Out of instinct, I wrapped my arms around her to comfort her. I couldn’t remember the last time we hugged, but she really looked like she needed one. For a good five minutes she cried like a baby in my arms. I told her everything was going to be all right, though I still didn’t have a clue what was wrong.
“What is it, Steph?” I finally asked when the flow of tears seemed to slow. “What’s the matter?”
“Travis is gonna kill me. He’s gonna kill me,” she mumbled between sobs.
“What do you mean, he’s gonna kill you? Travis loves you, Steph. You know that.” I tried to reassure her, but after what I’d witnessed at that motel, I braced myself for the worst possible news.
“I know he loves me. That’s why he’s gonna kill me.” She pulled herself away from me, and I followed her to the couch. I rubbed her back and waited patiently for her to calm down enough to tell me her story.
“I broke that promise I made to you,” she said. “I kept seeing Malek even after you busted us. Now Travis is gonna kill me.”
“It figures,” I replied, shaking my head.
Things were finally starting to make sense. I had hoped that Stephanie would be smart enough to stay away from Malek. She might be able to fool Travis once, but I knew if she kept it up it would only be a matter of time before he found out. As it turned out, she had a little more time still. “Does Travis know about Malek?”
“He suspects, but he doesn’t know for sure.”
“Well, that’s good.” I sighed. “So, then what’s the problem? Just stop seeing him. Ain’t you got no self-control, Steph? He can’t be that damn good.”
“Look, Jasmine, I asked you here to help me, not lecture me.” She cut her eyes in my direction. Probably regretting that she had called me.
“You’re right,” I sighed again. “So tell me what’s wrong, then.” She glanced at me, then looked down in embarrassment.
“I’ve been having unprotected sex with Malek.”
“Oh, shit! Girl, have you lost your mind? Are you crazy? What is wrong with you?” I threw my hands in the air. She deserved a lecture whether she wanted one or not. “Jesus! You’re not pregnant by him, are you? Please don’t tell me you’re pregnant by him.”
It took a few seconds, but she finally spoke.
“No. I’m not pregnant. I had my period last week.”
“Thank God for small favors. So what’s the big deal?” I couldn’t imagine what could be worse than another baby with that idiot.
“Malek called me this morning after Travis went to work. We were supposed to hook up for lunch, but he had to go to the doctor instead.”
“For what?” I was afraid to ask as I guessed where this conversation was about to go.
“He’d been complaining about a urinary tract infection the last couple o’ days.”
“And?” I cringed as I waited for her to finish.
“It turns out it wasn’t what he thought.” She lowered her eyes and whispered, “Malek’s got gonorrhea.”
“Gonorrhea! Oh my God! Did he give it to you?” Just the sound of it made my skin crawl. I freaked out when I got a yeast infection, and here was my sister telling me about the man she’s been freaking and his nasty STD. I couldn’t even look at her.
“Jesus, Stephanie! Why didn’t you make him wear a condom?”
“I don’t know,” she answered pitifully, bursting into tears for the umpteenth time. “Jazz, he tried to say I gave it to him.”
“Well, did you?” I hated to ask her a question like that, but I had to know. Shit, if she was stupid enough to be messin’ with Malek, who knows how low she was capable of going?
“Hell no,” she whined like she had a right to be insulted. “I ain’t mess with nobody but him and Travis. And I been messin’ up with my birth control pills so bad, Travis and I was using condoms until last night.”
My hand flew to my mouth and I gasped. It hadn’t dawned on me just how serious this could be. It wasn’t just nasty, it was probably the end of her relationship with Travis. No wonder Stephanie was so afraid he was gonna kill her. Shit, I’d kill her ass too if she gave me an STD.
“Jasmine?” She spoke quietly. “What am I gonna do? I really fucked up this time, didn’t I?”
She sure had, but I didn’t have the heart to jump on her case now. There’d be plenty of time for that later. Right now she needed some help, or she really was gonna lose everything.
“Look, we need to get you checked out. Maybe Malek’s lying.”
“I doubt it. I think he was messing with that nasty-ass LaKeisha Nixon.”
“Oh, Lord. Not that nasty heifer? Damn, Steph, you sure can pick ’em.”
“I know, I know,” she whined. “Now what am I supposed to do?”
“Just grab your things and come with me,” I ordered. The first thing we had to do was get to the clinic. After that I didn’t have any idea what to do, except maybe to pray.
20
Stephanie
“What the hell’s taking them so long?” I was wearing a hole in the waiting room floor, I’d been pacing back and forth for so long. I slumped down into the seat beside my sister, who was being so damn calm I wanted to smack her.
“I don’t know, Steph.” Jasmine patted my knee. “There’s a lot of people in here. You’re just gonna have to be patient. It shouldn’t be too much longer.”
“I don’t wanna be patient. I wanna know if that motherfucker burnt me.”
“Will you calm down?” Jasmine hissed. “People are staring at us.” She gave a weak smile to two women sitting across from us. They’d been all up in our conversation ever since we sat down.
“I don’t give a shit who’s staring. Everybody in here’s got the same damn problem as me, so they need to mind they fucking’ business ’fore I take my frustration out on them.” I glared at the women until they turned away.
Yeah, I know I was being a bitch. But we’d been sitting in that damn clinic lobby waiting for my test results for over an hour. And Jasmine had the nerve to tell me to calm down. How the hell did she expect me to do that? She wasn’t the one waiting to find out if she had gonorrhea. Just thinking about some microscopic shit crawling in between my legs gave me the heebie-jeebies. How the fuck did I let Malek do this to me? I slumped over and held my head in my hands until I finally heard the nurse call my name.
“See, I told you it wouldn’t be long.” Jasmine picked up her bag from the seat next to her, stood up, and offered me her hand.
“Yeah, but why the hell’s she yelling my name like I won the lottery? I don’t want these nosey-ass people to know who I am.” It felt like every eye in the place was on me as I walked toward the nurse.
“Please, these people aren’t worried about you,” Jasmine sighed. “They got their own problems.”
“Are you Stephanie Johnson?” The nurse was staring at Jasmine.
“Who, me? No, I’m not Stephanie. She’s Stephanie,” Jasmine said it loud enough for everyone in the lobby to hear. I wanted to smack her hand out of my face, pointing at me like the nurse couldn’t see me standing right next to her ass.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” The nurse directed me into an office. “Have a seat in here, Ms. Johnson. The doctor will be with you in a moment.”
“Damn. Put me in another room to do some more waiting,” I grumbled. Really I was just trying to hide how nervous I was.
The doctor finally came in, shuffling some papers as she sat behind her desk.
“Hi, Ms. Johnson. My name is Dr. Reed. I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to introduce myself when I examined you earlier. But as you can see, it’s a little busy around here.”
“Look, I don’t wanna hear all that shit. I just wanna know if that motherfucker burnt me.”
“Stephanie,” Jasmine growled in embarrassment, “don’t be rude.”
“No, it’s perfectly all right, Miss. Under the circumstances, I understand her being a little impatient. So why don’t we get to the point.” The doctor glanced down at a folder in front of her. The sympathetic smile she gave me told me all I needed to know, but it hurt even worse when she said the words. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Ms. Johnson, but you’ve tested positive for gonorrhea.”
“Oh, Godl” All of a sudden Jasmine wasn’t so calm. She covered her face with her hands. The way she was acting, you’d think she was the one with the shit. I sat as still as I could in my chair, trying to hold back tears. The only thing I could think of was how much I regretted sleeping with Travis the night before.
“How do I get rid of it?” I asked in a grim tone.
“I’m going to give you two prescriptions. One is Zithromax for the gonorrhea. It’s four pills that you take at once. It’s probably going to make you pretty nauseous, but that should subside in about a day.” She scribbled on a prescription pad. “The other prescription is to treat chlamydia.”
“Chlamydia? I’ve got that too?” I yelled. “I swear to God I’ma kill Malek.”
“Well.” The doctor shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “We’re not sure about the chlamydia. We don’t do the test for it here. We send it out to a lab. What happens in a lot of cases is that chlamydia piggybacks on gonorrhea. The prescription is just precautionary, but better safe than sorry.”
“So I don’t have to take this one until you get the results?” I stared at the two slips she handed me.
“Well, we suggest you take it right away since we won’t have the results back for a few days, and it’s better to treat these things quickly. We also suggest that you refrain from any sexual contact for at least ten days.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I don’t wanna see another dick the rest of my life.” I stared at her, dying to get out of there. “Is that it, Dr. Reed?” As if that wasn’t enough.
“Yes. The only other thing I need to know is how many sexual partners you have. I know it’s a little embarrassing, but it’s a health department requirement.”
I was about to lie and say one, but Jasmine cleared her throat to get my attention. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her fold her arms across her chest, daring me to lie.
“Two.” I lowered my eyes.
“Have they been notified? Because if you’d like, we can notify them for you. Sometimes it’s easier that way.”
“No, I’ll take care of it,” I mumbled, not looking forward at all to the prospect of telling Travis that he had VD.
“Okay, Ms. Johnson.” The doctor stood. “Good luck.”
“Thanks, Dr. Reed.” I glanced at the picture of Travis on my key chain. “I’m gonna need it. Let’s go, Jasmine. I wanna get to the pharmacy and take these pills as quickly as possible.”
Jasmine pulled into my driveway, then turned to me with an ominous look. We’d just made a quick stop at the pharmacy to fill my prescription. I was about to go in the house and wait for Travis when she asked the most obvious question.
“You all right, Steph?”
“What d’you think, Jasmine?” I snapped. “I gotta go in that house, fix dinner for Travis, then wait till he gets home with the kids so I can tell him I gave him gonorrhea. So you tell me. Do you think I’m all right?” Tears were welling up in my eyes as I waited for her reply.