Side Chic 2 (A Ratchet Mess) (14 page)

             
When I pulled into Ms. Betty’s driveway, I saw Kisha’s car parked next to Ms. Betty’s. I parked behind Kisha’s car and got out. As I walked up to the door there was a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach because I wasn’t sure of what to expect from Kisha or her mama but I knew for a fact that Ms. Betty would have her mouth all up in the mix! I swear I couldn’t stand her hatin’ ass! She’d never felt like I was good enough for Kisha and she’d never pretended to like me. She’d let it be known from day one that she didn’t like me and didn’t want me with her daughter! I could imagine the smile on her old wrinkled ass face when Kisha told her that she’d left me! Oh well she could stop smiling because Kisha’s stay was about to come to an end!

             
I rang the bell and waited. A minute passed but no one came to the door. I rang the bell again still no one came to the door. I saw the curtain in the front window move and either Ms. Betty or Kisha was looking out and then it closed but still no one came to the door. I knew then that they were ignoring me but I wasn’t about to leave until someone answered the door. I rang the bell two times back to back! A few seconds later, the door swung open!

             
“Will you stop ringing the damn bell?” Kisha snapped! Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. “What do you want?” She asked that dumbass question like she had no idea why I was there!

             
“Can we talk, please?” I pleaded.

             
“Talk about what? We don’t have anything to talk about!”

             
“Y’all sure don’t!” Ms. Betty said appearing next to Kisha in the door! “If you know like I know you will get your ass back in whatever you drove over here and take yourself off of my property!”

             
I let out a frustrated breath and tried to remain calm! I knew cussing her out would only make the situation worst. “No disrespect Ms. Betty but I am trying to talk to Kisha. She is a grown woman. She can decide for herself whether or not she wants to talk to me.”

             
She placed her hand on her hip. “And no disrespect to you either but this is my damn house! Not Kisha’s! So you can either leave or I can get you an escort!”

             
I ignored her and turned my attention back to Kisha. I didn’t give a fuck if she called the police! I was fighting for my family! “Kisha, can we please talk? Just give me ten minutes…please.”

             
She looked over at Ms. Betty and then back at me like she was torn. “Ma, I’m going to talk to him for a minute. I’ll be right back.”

             
“What? Why Kisha? All he’s going to do is lie like he always does to get you to go running back?” Ms. Betty exploded! “Why? Why do you want to continue to be lied to? Don’t you feel like you deserve better than that? Did I fail you as a mother? Is there something I didn’t do to make you feel like you weren’t worth more or that you needed a man to survive? Did your daddy fail you? He couldn’t have because I know for a fact that the one thing he always showed you was lots of love. I also know that he always taught you to be a strong woman and to never allow any man to walk all over you and treat you like crap! Your daddy is probably turning over in his grave right now!” She became emotional and her voice cracked. I saw the tears in her eyes as she looked at her daughter. “Don’t you see how much this is hurting me?”

             
Kisha reached out and touched her arm. “Ma, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to hurt you.”

             
Ms. Betty reached up and wiped the tears that had escaped her eyes and were now rolling down her cheeks. “You are my baby so naturally when you hurt, I hurt. I’m not trying to run your life, contrary to what you and other people may believe.” She shot me a nasty look and then looked back at Kisha. “I just want to see you happy. I don’t want to see you crying and upset all of the time.”

             
“I know ma. I will only be a minute…okay?” Instead of replying Ms. Betty walked back into the house. Kisha pulled the door closed and we walked out to the car.

             
“Do you want to sit in the car?” I offered.

             
“Nope.” She was short. “Talk…”

             
I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Especially not now after Ms. Betty’s heart-warming ‘you don’t need no man, you are a strong black woman’ speech! I turned to Kisha and tried to take her hand but she snatched back.

             
“Talk…” She repeated.

             
I rubbed my hand over my head. “Kisha, this bitch is lying! I don’t know that chic no more than working with her! I have no idea why she put that shit on my Facebook page or why she is accusing me of being her kid’s daddy but I have never touched her! That girl is crazy!” She took her phone out of her pocket and started pushing buttons. “What are you doing?”

             
She handed me her phone with her Facebook page pulled up on it. I saw that it was open to her inbox and there were messages between her and Lala. “Prove it! Message her and let her know that it’s you messaging her. Tell her that since she is accusing you of being her babydaddy, you would like a blood test!”

             
I think that my heart stopped beating. “You want me to do what?”

             
“You heard me!”

             
“Even if I say it’s me. It’s being sent from your page so she may not respond.” That was all I could think of to say. I knew that Lala would be more than happy to give my ass a blood test!
Fuck!

             
“Oh she’ll respond. If she’s telling the truth, which I believe that she is. You acting like you are Lil’ Wayne or somebody important where bitches just want to go around blaming babies on you! Boy bye! You ain’t nobody special like that! Why would that girl just chose you out of all of these men in the world?”

             
“I don’t know Kisha but I am telling you that she did! Why can’t you just believe me? You say that you want us to get married, right?” I didn’t give her a chance to respond. “Well would you believe the next chic over your husband?”

             
She looked at me and rolled her eyes. “That marriage shit ain’t gone work this time! Every time we get in an argument you want to play the ‘what if we were married’ card or the ‘how are we supposed to get married if you don’t trust me’ card! I don’t want to hear that shit! You need to be sending your babymama that message telling her that you want a blood test!”

             
I typed in the message and sent it already knowing what Lala’s reply would be but I had to do it in order to please Kisha. At this point I had no other choice! “I did it. So now can you and the boys come back home?”

             
She started laughing. “You really do think I’m stupid don’t you? I will come home after I read the results of the blood test! Good night Tre!” She tried to walk off but I grabbed her arm.

             
“Wait a minute! What if she doesn’t agree to the blood test? Then what?”

             
“Then that will tell me that she has something to hide and that I owe her two ass whoopings when I lay eyes on her instead of one!”

             
“What about you coming home?”

             
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” She snatched away from me and went inside the house.

             
I got in my car and backed out of the driveway feeling defeated.

Kisha

             
Four days later…

             
After getting the boys dressed and off to school. I sat down at the computer to check my Facebook page. I was still waiting on LaQuela to reply back to the message that Tre had sent her from my page. Deep down inside I was hoping that she wouldn’t reply. I was hoping that maybe for once, just once Tre was actually telling the truth and that she was the liar. I was hoping that she was really some desperate crazy bitch who lying on him but all of my hoping proved to be futile once I logged into my Facebook page. I went to my inbox and saw that there was a message from LaQuela. She had agreed to give Tre the blood test, which confirmed what I’d been hoping wasn’t true. She’d scheduled an appointment in four weeks at 11:00am at a place called Rapid DNA Testing in Danville, VA.

“Gotdamn it, Tre!
Why couldn’t you have been telling the truth just this once?” I thought about texting him and telling him about the message but then something crossed my mind. She had his number so he probably knew about the appointment before I did. I felt like such an ass for even considering texting him.

I sat there reading over her message and finally I had the urge to drink. It was only 8:45 in the morni
ng but I needed a drink and something to help numb the pain. I’d taken a shower after putting the boys on the bus so I logged out of my Facebook page and got up from the chair that I was sitting in and went into my old room to find something to put on.

I chose a pair of dark blue jean capris
, a pink halter top and some pink flip flops. I took off my scarf and combed down my wrap and put on a little bit of lip gloss. I grabbed my pocketbook and my keys. After locking up the house, I got in my car and popped in my Nicki Minaj cd. I drove down the streets with the windows down snapping my fingers and singing along to the music. I wanted to be free of all of the pain for a little while! I was tired of hurting! I wanted to be free of all thoughts of Tre, LaQuela and their babies for just a little while.

My first stop was at the corner store. The first person, I saw when I pulled up was Skeet. He and Tyson were posted up in front of the store as usual. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what they were doing.
For a second, I thought about leaving and going to another store. I didn’t feel like talking to either of them and I knew that Skeet would want to hold a conversation. I wasn’t in much of a talking mood. I got out of the car and headed inside the store.

             
“What’s up fellas?” I spoke on my way inside the store.

             
“What’s good wit’cha Mrs. Jefferson?” Tyson spoke. He always called me Mrs. Jefferson. Normally, I found it to be cute but today I found it to be annoying.

             
“My name is Kisha!” I snapped rolling my eyes. I swung the door open and went inside the store.

             
“My bad Kisha!” I heard him yell after me.

             
I went to the back of the store to the alcohol freezer. I got a 12 pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade and took it to the counter.

             
“Will this be all for you ma’am?” The cashier, a young Caucasian male, asked.

             
Nah, I’ll take all of this imaginary shit that you see here as well!
I wanted to say but I didn’t. Instead I replied. “Yes, that’ll be all.”

             
He rung up my purchase, I paid him and he put my 12 pack in a bag and handed it to me. “Here you go, ma’am. Have a great day and enjoy.” He smiled. I rolled my eyes and snatched my bag.

On my way out of the store, Skeet asked
. “What are you doing out so early?” His question annoyed me. He acted like I had a set time to come out in public! Shit, wasn’t he out?

“Why?” I answered his question with a question not bothering to stop walking.

I heard him tell Tyson that he would be right back and then I heard him following me. I opened up my car door and got inside. I placed my bag in the passenger seat and then opened the box and took a bottle out. By this time Skeet was at the window.

“Hey, what’s up with you? You act like you got a chip on your shoulder or something.” I didn’t say anything. I popped the top and turned the bottle up to my head. I didn’t take it down until it was almost empty. “Damn, it’s like that? You are going to just sit there and ignore me like I’m not talking to you?”

“What? What do you want?” I asked smacking my lips. I turned the bottle back up to my head and finished the remainder of what was in it. I put the empty bottle in the bag and took out another one and opened it.

“What’s your problem? I haven’t done shit to you!”
He asked reaching through the window grabbing my arm causing me to spill some of my drink.

I looked down at the wet spot on my capris from where my drink had spilled. “Damn it! Look at what you made me do!” I yelled reaching over in the glove box and grabbing some napkins.
I wiped the wet spot on my pants and my hands.

“I didn’t make you do anything! If you
would get the stick out of your ass it wouldn’t have happened!” He was still leaning over holding onto my arm. “Now, I’m going to ask you again. What’s your problem? You and Tre beefing? That’s the only time that you walk around like you are mad at the world, snapping on everybody.”