Synergy (9 page)

As she
led him in the front door, she heard sounds from the  living
room, and opened the door slowly to see who  was in there. Her
brother Jarell was on his Xbox, the noise from the game on low, so
all she could hear was quiet gunshots. He sat with no shirt on, but
his chains still hung around his neck. An opened beer was on the
table in front of him next to a bowl of half-eaten chips. A blunt
sat in an ashtray by the side of him, burning away on its own. She
figured he was loving having the house to himself without her
there, seeing as her mom and Tushaun would be in bed. She opened
the door fully then and told Jason to come in. As Jarell saw Jason
in his peripheral vision, he turned his gaze to the door and made
eye contact with Jason, who stood in the doorway
nervously.

Jason

“
You bringing
people home now
?” Jarell asked, sounding
deadly serious. Jason felt like a teenage boy meeting his
girlfriend’s father for the first time, though he barely knew this
girl. The whole thing was stupid, really.

Dee
promptly told her brother to fuck off and he laughed and paused his
game before standing up. He was around the same height as Jason,
with dark skin and tattoos covering his chest and his arms. He even
had one on the side of his neck.

“
What up bruh? I’m
Jarell,
” he stated, extending his arm out
to Jason.

“
Jason,
” Jason replied, taking
Jarell’s hand in his and bumping shoulders with
him.

“
Jason
Taylor
?” Jarrell said, in a manner that
sounded unsure whether it wanted to be a statement or a
question.

“
Yeah.
” Jason said, used to this sort
of conversation.

“
I didn’t even
know who he was till now
” Dee told her
brother.

“
How you ain’t
know
?”

“I don’t know, just didn’t.
”

After
the three of them were acquainted, Dee went into the kitchen to
find herself and Jason some beers. As the men sat down on a sofa
each, Jarell turned to Jason.

“
You do that one
song
...” At that, Jarell sang Jason’s own
lyrics at him. Jason laughed slightly, feeling pretty embarrassed,
but took it on the chin.

As Dee
returned, beers in hand, she told Jarell to shut up, and handed one
of the bottles to Jason before sitting down on the sofa next to
him.

“
Where’s
mine
?” Jarell joked, blowing smoke from
his blunt before setting it back down.

“
On the table,
half drank,
” Dee replied, and Jarell
smirked.

On the
coffee table in front of Jarell, smoke billowed. Dee eyed it and
stood up to fetch it before sitting back down.

“
Who said you
could smoke my weed
?” Jarell questioned as
she inhaled the fumes.

“
You fucking
wasting it,
” Dee snapped at her brother,
making eye contact to punctuate her point. “
And who fucking bought you it
?”

Jarell
started to smirk again, and Jason decided he was probably one of
those brothers that lived to mess with his little sister. Jason
also realised how surprised he was by the way Dee snapped at her
brother. When she spoke, she had such a sweet-sounding voice,
almost childlike, so hearing her snap that way was like seeing a
different personality altogether. He didn’t necessarily think it
was a bad thing. He thought she could probably stand up for
herself.

In an effort to keep the peace, Jason piped up.
“
So, you two live here
together
?”

“
It’s my mom’s
house
.” Dee said.
“So 
it’s my mom, Jarell, my sister,
and my son.
”

 “
And
you
?” Jason questioned, though he thought
it was more of a statement than a question when he first said it,
as he assumed she would live here if her son did.

Dee
sighed from the opposite sofa and he realised he may have hit a
nerve.

“
I did. Before I
had Tushaun, I lived with my boyfriend, but when we split up I
couldn’t
...” Dee broke off then, and
looked emotional. She took a sip of her beer and suddenly her
‘hard’ voice was back.

“
I couldn’t afford
to raise him on my own and pay the bills so my mom took
him
.”

Jason
didn’t know what the appropriate thing to say was, so he settled
with all he could muster.

“
I’m sorry to hear
that, it must be hard
.”

Dee nodded and took a sip of her drink again.
“
I still see him every day. I take him to
school and pick him up. I have dinner with him and put him to bed
before work. I guess it’s the nearest thing to him living with
me
.”

“
I guess it’s
lucky you’ve got your mom,
” Jason said,
focusing on the bright side, and the three of them sat silently for
a minute digesting that thought.

Conversation soon turned to the missing sibling of the bunch.
Kiki was 6 years younger than Dee, so it was a surprise to hear she
wasn’t around tonight, and was staying at her boyfriend’s instead.
He knew at sixteen he would never have been allowed to stay over at
a girlfriend’s house on a school night. Though, from the tone of
the conversation, Kiki was the promising sibling in terms of
education. Jason didn’t know how educated Dee and Jarell were, but
from the way they spoke of Kiki, he thought it sounded like they’d
given up on their own education.

“
Keeks is the
clever one, she gon’ get her GED an’ shit
.” Jarell said matter-of-factly, as he took a swig from his
bottle. It was an innocuous enough statement, but Jason couldn’t
help but feel the tension that built in the air. His eyes strayed
to Dee’s corner and he saw a glimpse of something, maybe hurt?
Embarrassment? He wasn’t sure. For what was probably only seconds,
but felt like minutes, the three of them sipped their drinks in
silence, the only sound being the pause screen from the Xbox which
was now playing quietly to itself.  

All three were grateful when the awkward moment was
interrupted by a ringing started from Jarell’s jeans pocket. He put
his beer down and fished in his pocket for the phone, taking a look
at the caller ID before answering it with ‘
Yo’
, and excusing himself with a
head nod and leaving the room.

“
You
okay
?” Jason asked, feeling there was
something wrong. Dee took another swig of her drink and sat back on
the sofa, bringing her knees up to her chest.

“
Yeah, just hate
the way he say snarky lil’ comments like that,”
 she replied.

“
The GED
comment
?” Jason
questioned.

Dee
nodded before finishing the beer and placing the bottle onto the
floor beside her before sitting back again.

“
I fucking dropped
out before I even got to take it an’ then when I tried to re-do it,
I couldn’t keep up with that shit.
” Dee
looked down into her lap before speaking again, this time more of a
muttering to herself.

“
What’s the point
anyway, not like I can go to college an’ shit.
”

As a natural response, Jason replied “
Of course you could
” but Dee snapped
back before he’d even finished.

“
The bank fucking laughed in my face
when I asked about a loan for college.”

All
Jason could do was nod. He wasn’t going to try to pretend to know
anything about bank loans or what options she had. He didn’t know
the girl well enough; he didn’t know what debts she might have, or
what college intelligence she had. He decided to just listen; he
wasn’t necessarily here to help.

Jarell
popped his head back into the room through the open
door.

“
I’mma bounce,
Daya’s mom’s got Shontelle
.”

Turning
to Jason then, Jarell gave him a head nod.

“
Nice to meet ya
man, look after my sister
.”

Jason
smiled nervously and thanked him before saying goodbye.

As Jarell made his way to the front door in a hurry, Dee
shouted “
Get out of here nasty
ass
!” before she rolled her eyes and
laughed softly.

Jason
watched her laugh, and he found himself smiling along with her. She
really did have a beautiful smile; he wished she did it
more.

“
Where’s he
going
?” Jason asked, once they had both
heard the click of the door.

“
Daya’s his baby
mama. Shontelle’s my niece
.” Dee
explained.

 “
You ever
think you got problems, you look at them and you think you
functional as shit.”
 She
laughed.

“
So what time you
leaving tomorrow
?” Dee asked, as she
watched Jason finish his beer but keep the empty bottle clutched in
his hand.

Jason told her their plans; what time they were checking out
of their hotel room and what time they had to be on the plane, then
realised he didn’t have a clue what time it was right now and
checked the Rolex on his wrist. Seeing it was the early hours of
the morning, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“
Shit, I didn’t
know it was so late. Guess I’d better head out. Sorry for keeping
you up
,” he apologised, as he stood up
from his seat still holding his beer bottle.

“
Where can I put
this
?” he asked.

“
Just leave it on
the table, I’ll sort it.”
 Dee
replied, standing up to take it out of his hand before he had
chance, and placed it on the table herself.

“
Thanks,
” he said, and smiled at her,
before going out to the hallway.

“
Enjoy
home,”
 Dee said, as she followed him
out. 

“I will
.” He replied.  Hovering
near the door with his fingers around the handle ready to turn it,
he hesitated. He knew what he wanted to ask but he wasn’t sure
whether to risk it. Then again, he didn’t know whether he would be
lucky enough to run into her again when he came back to Detroit,
and he couldn’t exactly start stalking her at the club.

Taking
his hand off the door and turning back to face her, he took a
breath.

“
Do you think...I
could get your number, maybe
?”

She
stood for a second looking at him.

“
I just...lost my
phone
” she started, and assuming she was
making her excuses, Jason had already quickly turned back to the
door when she added, “
You could give me
yours
?”

Chapter 8 – Home

Jason

Home was bliss. Stress free, drama free bliss. Jason had
forgotten how good it felt to be back home. Every time he was
closer to another visit, he thought he remembered how amazing it
was, but it wasn’t until he spent a night there that he remembered
it was always better than he imagined. It may sound corny to other
people, but when you worked 24/7 like him, it really did feel like
the best thing in the world. With his successes, he was used to a
‘champagne lifestyle’ as such, but no amount of free designer
clothes or money in the bank could compare to the love and
affection he received from his family. On the first day he arrived,
his mother and all his family had put up a ‘welcome home’ sign in
the kitchen and had surprised him like it was his birthday. There
was a spread of food on the table made by his grandmother and
drinks were flowing. Sometimes he felt like he was returning home
from war but it gave him a sense of pride still to know he was so
loved and appreciated. His mother as usual shed some tears on his
chest as he hugged her on arrival.  He expected she would do
exactly the same when he went back to work.

Seeing
his grandparents always reminded him how old they were now getting,
and he worried about their health and how they weren’t getting any
younger. He worried that he didn’t see them enough, and every time
he would vow to visit home more often. He was reminded by their
aches and pains and their hospital visits that their years were
precious, and he always wondered if this time may be the last time
he saw them. He tried to shake any negative feelings but it was
hard when he spent so much time away. Nevertheless, his grandmother
had made her famous cobbler and his granddad played him a few
rounds at Golf; something he hoped he could still do at his
age.