Can't Be That Other Woman (6 page)

Unlocking the screen, I scrolled to my messages.

Tracy: Did you make it home okay.

            Ignoring that one, I went to the next one. 

Tracy: please answer!

but Just like the one before that, I ignored it. The third was explaining how she was

Tracy: I’m sorry about calling you out, but when you were holding me, I thought that you were intentionally letting that bitch hit me.

Immediately, I realized that hurt my kid sister’s feelings, and I saw how she could feel that way, since I grabbed her, instead of Bianca.

Jae:  I’m sorry, I would never deliberately allow anyone to put their hands on you.

Tracy: I understand ♥

Jae: I’ll see you soon, good night.

After texting her, I placed the phone back on the dresser and headed back to bed. The minute I laid down, my phone chimed again. “
Fuck
! I thought, getting up yet again.

“I’m going to cut this fucking phone off tonight!” I huffed as I made my way back over to the dresser. It was my little sister again, but this time she sent me a phone number. I was about to ask her whose number it was, when she send another text, saying that it was Delaney number. To say I was surprised and yet happy was an understatement. I thanked her, before saving Delaney’s number. I then powered my phone off and got back in the bed.

Today was definitely an eventful day, but overall, I was a happy man. I couldn’t wait until it was the right time for me to use this number. I was going to make shorty mine. I just had to wait until the right time to do so, and I hoped that would be sooner, not later.

* * *

Chapter 9

Delaney

             
A whole week has passed since the shit that went down at Tracy’s house, and I still felt like shit. I couldn’t believe that I actually went off and had a fight in those people’s house. I mean, I know they would understand and forgive Tracy for fighting, but I was a different story. I should’ve left well enough alone and minded my own business, but I couldn’t, because Tracy was my best friend. I wasn’t about to let anyone mess with her and I know she wouldn’t let anyone mess with me.

              I stood in the school hallway, getting ready to head to my locker. I only had one class left, and then I was free to go home. I was thankful for it being Friday, because Lord knows I was tired. I had to work all day this week, and then went straight home to take care of my siblings. I couldn’t wait to get home, because I was going dive straight in my bed, where I was planning to stay until tomorrow. I was about to head into class, when I heard my name being called. I turned around, just in time to see Tracy speed walking towards me.

              “What’s up, boo?” I asked her.

              “Why haven’t you been answering my damn calls and texts?” she asked, sounding a bit upset.

              “My bad, Tee. I’ve been so busy with school, work and my siblings that I haven’t had time to do anything,” I told her.

              “I know your scary ass is lying, Delaney. You need to get up off that shit. You’re just worried about what my parents’ might say, huh?” she asked me.

              “Honestly yes,” I answered, feeling like a fool yet again.

              “I thought so. Girl, my parents aren’t tripping on that. I told you, my people aren’t like that. If anything, they’re happy that I have a friend like you. At least they know you’re going to have my back whenever I need you,” she said, erasing my worries. “With your little scary ass.”

              “Girl, fuck you. Shit, I thought your people were going to tell my ass not to step back into their house,” I told her truthfully.

              “Trust me, Delaney. If they didn’t want you to step foot back into their house, they would’ve put your ass out the minute they made Onijae escorted his bitch ass ole lady out.”

“Oh okay.” I felt relieved.

“Oh, I actually came here for a reason,” she said, grabbing my arm.

“What’s up?”

              “My mother was wondering if you would let Dallas come over today. I told her that I would have to ask you, since you’ve never allowed her to leave out of your sight, other than school. So she insisted that you guys spend the night, if you guys aren’t busy.”

              “I see Dallas has gotten somebody else to fall in love with her tail,” I replied, laughing.

              “Girl, I’m saying. The other day she went shopping, right? When she got home, she came in with two hands full of bags. Crazy thing is, the clothes were from a children’s boutique. Now I know I was too old to even fit them and none of my brothers have kids, so I asked her whom they were for. She shocked me when she said they were for Dallas. I mean she’d bought clothes, shoes, bows, and barrettes. I knew she loved kids, but she took things to a whole new level. I’m like, how do you even know that you’ll be seeing her again? She was like, because your friend will bring her back whenever she comes. She told me to tell you if you don’t bring her back, then don’t even try to knock on her door. She even told me that if I didn’t get her to come to our house tonight, for me not to come home. Now ain’t that some shit? Tell Dallas she’s going to have me competing with her for my own mother,” she said, laughing.

              I laughed too, because Mrs. Love most definitely was crazy. I can’t believe she fell in love with Dallas after just one visit. Then she had the nerve to go out shopping for her and stuff. That was crazy, but Tracy had one thing right though. Dallas wasn’t going nowhere without me, especially not with people I didn’t know. I mean I figured that they’re good people, but I still have to get a feel for them. Until then, the only way my little sister was going over there was if I was there with her.

              “Girl, your mother is a trip, but we don’t have any plans. So yes, we’ll come over,” I told her.

              “Good, now I can breathe easily. Meet me at my car once class is over. We need to go to the mall before we head home to get y’all stuff.”

              “Why do we need to go to the mall, Tracy?” I asked, frustrated. I hated going to the store with her, because she didn’t know how to stop shopping. She would go into every store, sometimes more than one time. Lord knows I didn’t have time for that today.

              “Because we have somewhere to be tomorrow and we have to be on point, because there’s going to be a lot of people there,” she said, walking off. She knew what she was doing, when she did that shit.

              “Tracy, I’m not about to play with you in them people store, especially not on a Friday evening. I’m going home. You can pick me up when you’re through shopping.”

              “Girl whatever. You better be at my car when the bell rings, or I’m telling my brother that you don’t want to see him,” she said, looking at me and laughing.

“Girl, I’m not worrying about your brother,” I said, blushing so much that my cheeks began to hurt. “Besides, he has a girlfriend already.”

“Girl, ain’t nobody worrying about Bianca’s stupid ass, but you’re right. We can’t have you being no nigga’s other woman, even if that nigga is my brother. So in that case, we’re going to have to find you a nigga tomorrow, which means that we have to go to the mall for the perfect outfit. Make sure you be at my car, okay?” She said poking her tongue at me. Before I could open my mouth to anything else, she took off running to her class.

I couldn’t do shit, but laugh at her ass. She would do anything just to get me to go shopping with her. What she didn’t know was that she made my mind start twirling the minute she mentioned her brother. It was no secret that I had the biggest crush on him. Dude was too fine for any girl not too. Only thing was that he had a girlfriend, so my crush was going to remain just that, a childish crush.  With any luck, I’ll get over it soon and find someone in my league.

* * *

“Tracy, can you please slow down?” I gasped, sounding as if I was about to run out of breath. We were currently in the mall getting an outfit for her brother’s company barbeque tomorrow and I was beat. The minute she told me that’s where we were going tomorrow, I tried backing out, but she damn near threatened to cut me if I did. She made some noise about me being there, in case Bianca tried to start something, but I knew she didn’t need me. She only wanted me to be there for what, I don’t know. So here we are, running through the mall like two damn fools, looking for an outfit.

              “Come on, Delaney, let’s just go in this one store and I swear we’re going to leave right after,” she said, looking at me. I looked at her sideways, because she had said that about the last few stores we had previously visited. “I tell you what. I’ll buy you something if you come. Deal?”

“Deal,” I quickly accepted.
Who was I to turn down her offer to buy me something
?

“That’s a damn shame,” she said, shaking her head. “And here I thought you were my friend.”

“I am your friend, your best friend at that. I just can’t pass up the opportunity to get something new. You know my money ain’t long like yours.”

“Delaney, chill out with that, okay? I already told you that as long as I got, you got. So don’t be tripping on all of that shit,” she said, as we made our way into Neiman Marcus.

After spending twenty minutes in the store and not buying a damn thing, we finally left. Tracy tried going back into a store that she came out of, but I straight up told her no. She even tried bribing me again, but I wasn’t taking that shit. I was tired and ready to go, so we left.

Before we headed over to her house, we had to stop at my house first. When I opened the door, the house was exceptionally quiet. What surprised me the most was that the house was clean. I mean, I halfway expected to walk into a noisy, dirty living room, but it wasn’t. I then walked to the kitchen to see that it too, was clean, with pots on the stove. Walking over to the stove, I removed the lids off the pots to find food in them. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, so I placed the lid back on them and checked again. Just like before, there was food in them. Which meant that someone had already cooked and cleaned, but the question was who?

Leaving the kitchen, I headed toward my brothers and sister room. When I passed by Daija’s room, I noticed the light on. Remembering how things went down the last time I stepped in her room, I decided not to go in. Once I made it to the kid’s room, I was surprised to find them already in their pajamas, watching TV.

“Hey y’all,” I sang from the doorway.

“Hey Laney,” Dedrick and Derrick both said, running over to me and giving me a hug.

“Where’s Dallas?” I asked, once I noticed she wasn’t in the room.

“She’s in the room with Daija.”

“How was y’all day? Y’all was good at school or what?” I asked them.

“We had a good day,” Derrick said.

“Yeah and I had a test today and passed it with flying colors,” Dedrick chimed in.

“That’s good. I brought y’all something from GameStop today,” I said, holding up the bag that I had hidden behind my back. They immediately started smiling and dancing. I pulled the two video games that I had brought them out of the bag and handed to them.

“Oh, Laney brought us a new game!” They yelled happily, before they hugged me again. “Thanks sis!”

“Y’all welcome, but aye, Dallas and I are about to go sleep at Tee Tracy’s house. We’re coming back tomorrow. So I want y’all to be good until then, okay?” I told them.

“Okay,” they said, not really paying me any mind. They were too busy pulling their PS4 out of the box to go and play it. I walked over to them and stood directly in front of them, so they could hear me.

“I’m not playing now. Don’t let them tell me that you guys were bad, or I’m going to take them games back, okay?”

“We won’t, we’re going to be good. We promise,” they told me.

“Okay,” I said, smiling. I then placed a kiss on their foreheads, before making my way back to the door. “If something goes wrong or y’all need something, don’t hesitate to call my phone.”

“Okay, bye Delaney.” I told them bye, before I left and made my way to Daija’s room.

I stood at the door for a good minute, before I finally knocked. A few seconds later, Dallas opened the door. When she saw me, she ran straight in my arms and hugged me as if she hadn’t seen me in a million years.

“I’m happy to see you too,” I said, smiling.

“Laney look,” she said, stepping back to show me how she looked. Daija had put her hair in some curls and they looked as if they were playing dress up. She had eye shadow and red lipstick on. “Daija and I were having fun. You want to join us?”

“I see, but I came to get you. We’re going to Tee Tracy’s house,” I told her. I noticed the way her eyes lit up when I told her that.

“Yeah, we’re going by Ms. Lillian?” she asked, jumping up and down. She was so happy that it made me happy too.

“Come on, lil bit. Tracy’s outside waiting and we don’t need her blowing the horn like a fruit man,” I said, grabbing her hand. I was about to leave when Daija called my name. I turned around to see her getting up from the bed.

“What’s up?” I asked her. Instead of answering me, she stood there twiddling her thumbs. She wasn’t even looking at me because her eyes were down to the floor. “Is something wrong, Daija?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong,” she said, finally bringing her eyes up to mine.

“Well what is it, because I have to go?” I told her. I hope she wasn’t trying to ask me for anything, because I was going to hurt her little feelings and remind her of what she told me.

“Look Delaney, I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry about everything I said to you. I know everything you told me was nothing but the truth, but I didn’t want to hear it. The truth is, I try to be like you, but I can’t. I’m not as smart as you are, I’m not as pretty as you are, and I’m not independent either. If it weren’t for you buying me the things that I do have, I wouldn’t have anything. I know I sounded ungrateful and again, I’m sorry for that. Please forgive me,” she said, with tears rolling down her face.

“It’s okay, Daija, I forgive you, sis,” I said, pulling her into a hug. What warmed my heart was when she hugged me tighter, as if she was afraid she was going to lose me. “I have to go, but we’ll talk some more when I get back, okay?”

“You promise?” she asked, like a little child.

“Yes, I promise,” I told her, pulling back. “If you need me call me, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, nodding her head. I looked at her once more, before I left out the door and headed to my room. As soon as I stepped foot in the room, my phone started ringing.

“What’s taking you so long, Delaney?” Tracy asked, once I answered the phone.

“I’m coming. I just had to get the kids straight first,” I told her, as I grabbed my overnight bag.

“Okay, but hurry up. My mother just called, looking for us.”