You Needed Me A Love Story (15 page)

The next morning…

“Baby—”

“Shut up, Rhys,” Summer gritted as she stared at the wall in her hospital room.

Last night I thought I was gonna die when I’d heard she’d been shot. Then when she explained to me who’d done it, I felt even worse. I was happy she told the police she didn’t know who shot her, because I wanted to enact revenge on her behalf.

Lisa, in my eyes, was never anything harmful. I didn’t pay her much attention, and always felt like Summer was overreacting when she would have me change my number repeatedly. See, I wasn’t the type of nigga that you could bug by texting and calling all day. For one, I barely used my personal cellphone because I was always working and mainly used dummy phones. I didn’t believe in dummy phone apps and such, that wasn’t nobody but the damn government. Secondly, I was the type who just wouldn’t respond. You can text me twenty-four hours a day, and I just won’t say anything back, it’s really that simple. I never understood people who could be bothered by something so small, like my brother Lendsey who hated to be blown up. Yeah I had a temper, but shit like that did nothing to me, surprisingly.

By saying that, the fact that Lisa always found my number every time I changed it somehow was slightly alarming, but a nigga didn’t give a fuck. I killed people for a living so there were matters at hand that were more important. There were bigger fish I was frying, or so I thought.

“Summer, I’m gonna take care of her.”

“You should have taken care of her a long ass time ago, Rhys! That’s how I know you’re still fucking her! Talking about you don’t know how she gets your number! Bullshit! Ah!” she winced in pain and clutched her shoulder where she was shot. “Move the fuck away!” she yelled to me when I attempted to touch her.

“I ain’t fucking with Lisa, shorty, I haven’t fucked with her since the last time you caught me fuckin’ up, I promise.”

“No, Rhys,” she began to tear up, and I just didn’t know what to do. I wanted to hold her, but I knew she wouldn’t let me. “What if Bryleigh was with me? Thank God she was with your parents!”

“I swear this is the last time she’s gonna fuck with you, baby.” I kissed her forehead. Just then I heard some footsteps. I turned around to see some nigga and immediately frowned. “Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Hakim, I’m Summer’s co-worker. I’m the one who called for help when she got shot,” he replied, adjusting his grip on the flowers.

“Oh word? Well umm, thanks, but you can go now. And take yo’ fuckin’ flowers with you.” He looked from me to Summer as if he were asking her if it was okay to do what the fuck I’d just said. “I said to get the fuck up out of here!”

He jumped slightly at the boom of my voice, and then began to back away slowly.

“Just go, Hakim,” Summer sniffled.

Once he left, I turned my attention back to Summer who was still crying a little bit. That nigga coming up in here with flowers rubbed me the wrong fucking way. He’d better find another nigga’s bitch to bring flowers to, because bringing them to mine would only get his ass killed.

“Fuck is he, Summer?”

“He just told you, Rhys, don’t start. Calm down, Rhys!” she shouted as I paced the hospital room angrily; she knew my fuse was short to nonexistent. Something in my gut told me to just kill that nigga.

“I’m gone,” I said before slipping out of the room.

“Rhys!”

I don’t know what she and Hakim had going on, but I was gonna be watching very closely. If he thought he was about to move in on her, he would be deadly mistaken; yes, deadly. And Summer might end up buried next to that nigga too.

That night…

I was chilling in Lisa’s house on her couch after discreetly breaking in. I really didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with this bitch. Shooting my girl? Really? It almost made me want to let muthafuckas know what I did for a living so that they could save themselves. Only if Lisa knew that I wasn’t the one to play with. I admit I should’ve threatened her when she first started her antics, and maybe she wouldn’t have gone this far, but it was too damn late.

“How did you get in here?” she walked in and closed the door behind herself slowly. She was really stupid to still be living her life like she hadn’t just tried to kill my shorty.

“How have you been getting my new numbers, Lisa?” I only wanted one answer before I smoked her ass.

“Rhys, how did you get into my hou—”

“Oh, don’t play the little scared bitch now!” I hollered so loudly that I could damn near see her jump out of her skin. “Tell me how the fuck you were able to get my number, bitch.” I towered over her and then slowly brought my gun to her temple.

“Please Rhys,” she began to sob. “I wouldn’t have done if it you hadn’t have been ignoring me! I told you I had something to tell you but you didn’t listen! She was the reason—”

“I’m gonna ask you one more time, Lisa. How the fuck did you get my number every time I changed it?”

“My friend, Maria, works for your service provider, so whenever you changed it she would look you up and give it to me. But it was only because I needed to tell you I had an abortion when we first broke up—”

PHEW!

I put a silenced bullet into her head. Initially all I wanted to know was how the fuck she was getting my number before I killed her, but hearing her say she had an abortion made me kill her before I could even think. Not like I wanted kids with her ass because believe me I didn’t, but the fact that she killed a child of mine angered me. I think I felt a bit guilty because I remember when we first ended it, she was blowing me up saying she was pregnant. I just chucked it up to her being a woman scorned, but I guess I was halfway wrong.

Getting back out of her home, I climbed into the car I’d driven over there, and took the long way to the warehouse. Why was this shit bothering me so damn much? I didn’t kill the baby, she did!
You should’ve believed her when she said she was pregnant man
, I thought, but then quickly shook it from my head. Lisa was the past and that was it. And she could’ve been lying about the abortion anyway.

As I was driving, I got a text from this shorty named Chenaye that I’d chilled with a couple times. That’s all we did was chill. I had a feeling she was starting to like me, but I’d stated plenty of times that I just wanted a homie and nothing more. She said she was cool with it, so I continued to be her friend.

I preferred to have female friends because one, niggas were dick riders these days and always begging to be down. Two, women were better looking, and three, niggas were fake, yes faker than bitches, oddly. The only dudes I called my friends were my brothers, and even them niggas irked me every now and then. TQ’s friend Jayce was cool, but lately I felt like his ass was on some fake shit too.

Chenaye:
Wanna come over? I have your favorite drink.

Me:
Fasho

I made it to her house after dumping that car off and getting my shit from the warehouse. Chenaye lived with her mother, but her mom was never home. She traveled a lot with her husband who was some well-known pastor. I’d never heard of the nigga, but then again, I hadn’t been to a damn church in years. Maybe that was my problem.

“Hey boo,” Chenaye smiled as she answered the door.

I walked into her home, and frowned at the picture of her and some girl. I saw the picture every time I came over, and it always made me frown because I couldn’t remember where I’d seen the girl before. They were both little kids in the picture, so it was hard to recall. I didn’t want to ask because I felt like getting to know her too much would mix in feelings… on her part.

“It smells good in here.” I plopped down on the couch and looked down at my phone to text Summer.

Me
: Goodnight baby. Will be at the hotel tonight, and back to see you in the morning. Make sure that bitch ass nigga don’t show up. I will bring Bry with me tomorrow.

I knew she wouldn’t respond, but I didn’t care. I’d thought about spending the night with her in the hospital, but I just wasn’t in the mood to bicker. Also, that nigga with the flowers still had me hot. So after I left here, straight to the hotel it was.

“Hello Rhys!” Chenaye waved her hand in my face.

“My bad, what did you say?”

“I was thinking we could go to the movies or something.”

“Nah, I told you we ain’t doing all that. We’re just associates, stop trying to make this shit become more than it is.”

“I just thought—”

“Well don’t. If you want a boyfriend, look elsewhere, Chenaye. I have a woman; all I want is a friend.”

She just sighed and nodded, before pouring some Jack Daniel’s into my glass.

I needed a few things like body soap, shaving cream, and razors, so I decided to stop by Target since they were cheaper than drug stores. Surprisingly, I made it out after picking up exactly what I came for. The cashiers even congratulated me for spending less than fifty dollars. I chuckled at the thought as I neared my car.

As I walked onto the driver’s side, a familiar smoke gray Charger with dark ass tint pulled up on the side of me. I sighed and hit the unlock button on my key remote, hoping to hurry up and get into my car. Unfortunately, he was faster than me, and stopped me from getting in.

“What, Ethan?” I exhaled.

“Baby, let me talk to you for a second,” he smiled as if everything was peaches and cream. This nigga hadn’t talked to me since his baby mama tussled with me, and that was almost two damn months ago.

“You need to go talk to Juanita, Ethan. You asked for a chance and I gave you one, even though I knew I shouldn’t have. You fucked that up so get the fuck over it. You and I are just not meant; why can’t you accept that?” I frowned. I really wanted him to see that he and I were just not on the same page, nor would we ever be, at least not at the same time.

“I wanna try though, Goldie. That was our problem, you gave up on me. I still want to see where this goes. I love you and I wanna try and see if we can work this shit out, ma.”

“Ethan, you need to take all this effort that you’re trying to put into us, and put it into your family. You have a baby, and you should try with that.”

“Juanita and I aren’t even together, she’s just on some jealous bullshit, Goldie!”

“I don’t care what the hell she’s on! And Ethan, let’s not forget, I know you, boo. I saw all in her face how in love she was with you, and how desperate she was to convince me to leave you alone. I know because that used to be me at one point.”

“Goldie—”

“Please, Ethan! I am begging you! I am begging you to leave me be. I don’t want to be with you, and it has very little to do with Juanita and your baby. I wasn’t feeling it this go ‘round, I really wasn’t. I was lonely and I gave you a chance that you didn’t deserve. Now please, just forget about me.”

He was just looking pathetic at this point. He should’ve been able to see that this time was different. There were no tears, I wasn’t hitting him, I wasn’t threatening him, and I wasn’t blowing his phone up for answers. My actions were screaming that I didn’t care, yet he refused to see that.

“Don’t try to make me out to be some desperate ass nigga shorty! Talking about you’re begging me! You were the one who was on my nuts for years, not the other way around! You ought to be happy I even gave yo’ ass a chance! There were plenty of hoes I could’ve made my bitch, yet I chose yo’ inexperienced ass who could barely go anywhere that wasn’t church and bible study!” he snapped.

“Okay, cool,” I waved him off, prompting him to grab my wrist and twist the fuck out of it. “Ethan, stop, that hurts!”

Because this was the Target on Boylston, it was a pretty busy area. I was embarrassed like fuck at the fact that he had me about to cry. He finally let my wrist go, and then back handed me so hard that my eye immediately swelled shut.

“Please!” I pleaded with him, because the damage he’d done so far was already too painful to bear. I could only imagine if he kept going.

“Bitch,” he snarled and then walked to his driver’s side, before hopping in and speeding out of the parking lot.

I hurriedly climbed into my car, and just broke down crying. I for real hated my life, and no matter how hard I tried I was miserable. I spent years loving a man who never loved me, and when I finally found the strength to press on, he goes nuts.

Sometimes I felt like no one cared for me outside of Kimberlyn and Matikah. My mother despised me because I wasn’t the same church girl I was raised to be. She was my mom, and she never even answered my calls. The only person that she and her pastor husband cared about was my sister, because she paraded around like she was the Virgin Mary. My sister and I didn’t get along at all because I didn’t deal with fraud people, and she was jealous of the fact that until I rebelled, I was the favorite child. We didn’t claim one another either. It was almost like we didn’t exist in each other’s lives.

As for my father, he paid my bills as an incentive to stay away from him. He had a new wife and he wanted to appear childless for her. It hurt to know his reasoning for not wanting me around, but at least he was the reason I was able to survive outside of my mother’s home. My job at the local drugstore paid nowhere near enough for me to live on my own.

I said a prayer to God, asking for some sun in this storm that I called life, all the while begging him to forgive me for being ungrateful for the blessings I did have. I felt a little better after that, so I cranked my car and went home to chill.

My best friends were boo’d up, so I was going solo tonight. I guess it was a good thing because if either one of them saw my eye, they would want to murder Ethan. I didn’t want that, I just wanted to never speak of or see him again.