Honey Flavored Tears (12 page)

                                              
Chapter 11

                                          
Author’s P.O.V.

   Zariah sat there on the couch contemplating on if it was the right time to call Isaiah up and set a date for when they can see each other again or wait a couple of more weeks. It had been three days since she seen him and said she would think about his offer. She knew the anticipation was probably building up in him to see what her answer may be and she didn’t want to keep him waiting. She pulled out her phone and sighed as she went to dialing his number. It was all or nothing from here.

“Hello,” she heard his deep vo
ice say into the phone. She smiled just from hearing it. It was something about his voice that made her go crazy on the inside, something she couldn’t explain.

“Hey it’s me
Zariah,” she replied.

“Well hello beautiful
. How have you been?” he asked.

“I’ve been fine
, thank you for asking. How have you been?”

“I’m good, I was a little worried I thought maybe you had forgot about me and said skip my offer.”

“No it’s not that just a lot going on and besides I was giving it a lot of thought. I like to weigh the pros and cons of situations I get myself into,” she said half telling the truth.

Isaiah chuckled in return and said, “Yeah I can understand that.
So have you made your decision?”

A smile came across
Zariah’s face as she replied by saying, “Yeah I would love to take you up on your offer.”

“I’m glad that you decided to do that I promise you won’t regret it.
”

“I hope not,”
Zariah said back with a chuckle.

“So when are you free again
Zariah?”

“I don’t have to work on Sunday, does that work for you?”

“Yes Sunday is fine, it’s perfect,” Isaiah replied.

“Ok I’ll see you then.”

“Alright I’ll text you my directions before then if you don’t remember how to get here. And don’t worry about a thing. I’m planning the whole date you just show up and look beautiful,” he replied. Zariah smiled, she liked that he was smooth with his words and didn’t have to try hard to impress her. She said goodbye then got off the phone thinking about how Sunday would be. Yolanda was right she was still young and it was time for her to start having fun and no longer being stressed out…

                                                                          

Friday rolled around two days later
. Zariah was just getting off work and her body was feeling sore. “Girl are you sure you want to grab your stuff now you just got off work and you’re exhausted,” Yolanda said as Zariah pulled up in front of her apartment building.

“Yes Yolanda I’m positive, I want to get this out the way now
,” she said as she got out the car. Yolanda got out the passenger seat and followed behind her.

“So when is it my
cue to come in?” Yolanda asked.

“If I’m not out in fifteen minutes with my stuff
then you come knock on the door and see if everything is alright,” Zariah instructed.

Yolanda sucked her teeth. “So I’m supposed to
sit outside your door for fifteen minutes looking stupid?” She asked.

“Yeah so now you can see how
your boos be feeling when you kick them out your place and leave them stranded,” Zariah said.

Yolanda chuckled
and said, “It ain’t my fault they don’t have a car. Shit I guess that means I need to start messing with dudes who done stepped their game up.”

“I guess,”
Zariah said. Her mind was somewhere else right now and that was getting her stuff and hoping Quincy wasn’t here.

She walked into the front door and smelled boneless pork chops, macaroni and cheese and broccoli being cooked. That meant that Quincy was here.
Zariah cursed under her breath as she slowly walked in and closed the door behind her. Quincy turned around to see her standing there. It was like a glow of relief came over his face just to see that she was home. Zariah hated that she had to be the one to put that glow out.

“I’m
so glad you’re home. I’ve been cooking your favorite dishes every day just in case you decided to come home,” he said. Zariah didn’t reply just looked away from him. He chuckled and said, “It’s funny that the day I decide to cook my favorite dish you do decide to come home.”

“That’s just the thing I’m not coming home Q,” she came out and said wanting to stop him before he got his hopes too high. Just like she expected that happy glow in his face went away and a confused and hurt expression flowed into his eyes now.

“What do you mean you’re not coming home? Come on now it’s been almost a week that you’ve been gone. Why does it have to be like this?”

“I just need to clear my head some more.”

“Clear your head about what? Why can’t we just talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you?” Seeing Quincy look lost like a little child hurt Zariah to her heart. She felt a lump forming in her throat. She swallowed it hoping the tears wouldn’t fall. “Trust me there’s nothing more I can talk to you about that I haven’t said a thousand times before,” she said as her voice began to crack.

“Okay
Zariah I understand that. You’ve repeated yourself before and I wasn’t listening then but baby I’m listening now. Let me make---

“Q I think this is best for you too with me not being here. You need to clear your head as well
you know, figure out why you’re going back and forth between Jaidyn and me. There’s something deeper that’s causing you to do this and you need to find out what that is.”

A tear fell from Quincy’s eye and at that moment
Zariah felt her heart stop. Right then and there, there was a knock at the door. Zariah already knew who it was. She opened up the door and Yolanda walked right on in. “Okay I’m sorry I had enough of the soap opera scene between y’all. Where is your stuff at and what all do you want me to get?” Yolanda asked.

“It’s in my room straight down the hall, I’ll be in there to help you in a minute,”
Zariah said. Yolanda walked towards the back. Once she was out the room Quincy looked back at Zariah.

“So are you sure this is
what you want to do?” He asked.

“Q
, this isn’t what I want to do this is what I need to do.”

Quincy didn’t reply he just turned back towards the food.
Zariah sighed and headed to the backroom to get her stuff.

The food was ready to serve and eat but Quincy didn’t have an appetite now. He stood there watching
Zariah and her cousin walk out with her stuff. As Zariah was about to walk out the door for good, Quincy pulled her back. “So can you tell me how long this is going to be?” he asked her.

“I really don’t know at this point. Look
, I know this is hard for you to take in but in time you will understand it.” With that being said Zariah walked out the door. Tears started to fall down Quincy’s face. It was like the more he wiped them the more they fell. With so much anger rushing through him now he flipped over the living room table.

“Are you okay?” Yolanda asked as they put
Zariah’s belongings into the trunk.

“Yeah,”
Zariah replied above a whisper.

“Are you sure?” Yolanda asked.

“I’m fine,” Zariah said. “I think you should drive though while I just ease my mind.” She handed Yolanda the keys then got in on the passenger’s side. As soon as Yolanda started up the car, the tears Zariah were holding back started falling uncontrollably. Yolanda put the car back in park and leaned over to hug her cousin. “Why does it have to be so complicated between us?” Zariah asked through tears a couple of times. Yolanda just consoled her and allowed her to cry on her shoulder.

                                                                           

  
Pierre sat at home feeling so bored and alone. This was the first time he has been off of work and not chilling with Kevin. Usually their schedules would match up; they would work on the same days and be off on the same days. The first time that he was off now Kevin had to work. What made matters worse Jaidyn was off work and out hanging with Ava. He noticed that Jaidyn had been hanging out with Ava a lot more lately. Maybe it was because he had been too busy hanging with Kevin lately. Jaidyn was being nice and keeping her company or maybe it was something else that he didn’t know about. Whatever it was, he was going to get to the bottom of it sooner or later.

Pierre was cut short of his thoughts by someone calling him on his Skype. He looked to see who the call was coming from. “Oh wow who is Promise.Me.Love?” he asked as he answered the call. To his surprise it was Promise. “Hey Promise what’s up?” He asked.

“Hey Pierre how are you I hope I’m not bothering you at a bad time,” she said.

“No, you’re fine. What’s going on?”

“I just wanted to say sorry for inconveniencing you,” she said.

“What do you mean what’s going on?” Pierre asked wanting to know what’s going on with Ava and Promise.

“I thought me sending Ava up there would help me clear my mind but ever since she’s been out there she’s been constantly texting me and harassing me. I’m to the point where I don’t want her to come back,” Promise explained.

“Okay I’m pretty sure you’re just acting off of anger Promise. I think if you just clear your head some more then you can make decisions better.”

“No Pierre you don’t understand. It was my idea to move down to Georgia not Ava. I wanted to get a better education out here and Ava just wanted to follow behind me so she can keep tabs on me. Me being so in love with her
, I didn’t want to live without her but lately we have been arguing a lot because of her having trust issues.”

“Why doesn’t she trust you?” Pierre asked still trying to make sense of what’s been going on.

“I guess it’s because she feels I made plans to move to Georgia without her. When I brought up the idea of me wanting to move to Georgia so I could go to school down here, she got upset because I didn’t say the word us when I mentioned moving down here. Ever since then she has been questioning my love for her. Whenever I’m out of her sight she blows my phone up to see if I’m with another girl.” At that moment Promise paused then began crying. “One time she choked me up when I got back to the apartment because I didn’t answer her phone calls and text messages quick enough. She’s turning into a person that I don’t know. She snaps whenever she sees a girl looking my way like it’s my fault.”

“Wow she made it seem like she was just up here visiting her family for a couple of weeks but when I noticed
she was here longer than she was supposed to be that’s when she told me y’all were having problems but she didn’t go into full details of what the problems were,” Pierre said.

“To visit her parents
? Her parents haven’t stayed in Michigan for over two years now. They moved to Florida,” Promise said.

“So that’s why she’s been staying here lately,” Pierre replied.

“Or at a hotel, every other day I’m transferring money into her bank account so she can rent a room.”

“Why are you doing that for her after what she’s put you through?”

“Pierre despite what she has done, I still love her. Besides, I feel if I don’t do it she will come back here and hurt me much worse than she already has. I have a restraining order against her and that doesn’t even matter to her. She still calls me and makes threats…I don’t know what to do.”

At that moment
, Pierre heard voices in the hallway and they sounded like they were coming near his apartment. He knew it had to be Jaidyn and Ava. “Listen Promise, that’s Ava coming in now. Don’t worry about a thing I will take care of it from here on out,” he said,

“Ok thank you.”

Pierre ended the call as soon as the front door opened.

“Hey Pierre,”
Jaidyn and Ava said to him in unison as they came in and Jaidyn closed the door behind them.

“Hey,” Pierre replied.

“So what were you doing?” Ava asked.

“Oh nothing just got off of Skype,” Pierre said nonchalantly.

“With who?” Ava asked.

“Not anyone you know,” Pierre said getting a little defensive, hoping
Ava would back down with all the questions she was asking.

“My bad for being nosy,” Ava said leaving it at that.

“So where have y’all been?” Pierre asked.

“Oh we went out to this summer festival downtown that they always hold right around the fourth of July,”
Jaidyn said as she headed back to her room to change into something comfortable.