Synergy (20 page)

“
Yo Jason, you
play poker
?”

“
Yeah,
sometimes
”

“
Come have a game
with us
.”

Jason
looked at Dee for a split second to see her approval, before he
joined the men at the table. He sat on the chair next to Tip, and
smiled at the men, as J dealt him some cards. As J dealt, Tip
looked over at Jason.

“
Don’t mind
Monique, she a crazy bitch, but you’ll get used to
her
.”

After
Tip spoke, Monique piped up from the other side of the
room.

“
Don’t think I
don’t know you talking about me Thomas
”

“
Miss Monique, I’m
just saying what a pussycat you is really
.”

“
Pussycat my
ass
!” she stated, and the boys began to
laugh at the table. It was clear they understood her ways, and
Jason hoped she gave everybody the same chilly reception at first.
He certainly hoped he wasn’t the only one to receive
it.

On the
other side of the kitchen, Dee and Kiki were giving a pep talk to
Monique about first impressions and not being rude to people. Dee
knew it would fall on deaf ears, because Monique had never listened
to anything they said, she knew her way and her way only, and she’d
be damned if she changed because of what somebody else said. This
stubborn trait was something that Dee had picked up herself. She
had always been a headstrong character, but when it came to being
polite, she must have learnt that from somebody else, because it
certainly wasn’t from her mom.

“
You should make
an effort for Dee
” Kiki told Monique,
sipping on her homemade cocktail.

“
Oh stop being so
sensitive, if he can’t handle me, he ain’t gonna fit in this
family
.”

“
Just be fucking
nice, how hard is that
.” Dee spat, as she
pulled herself up onto the kitchen counter, a mad look on her face.
She didn’t want her mom to ruin things for her. Luckily, Monique
had seen Dee’s ‘sulky face’ a lot as she was growing up, so she
knew when something was important to her.

“
Ey
Jason
!” she yelled to the table.
“
You want one of Monique’s
Mimosas
?”

The men
at the table looked up from their card game at her question, and J
and Tip elbowed Jason simultaneously.

“
Them things are
lethal Bro
” Tip told Jason, pulling a
disapproving face.

“
They’re good,
honest
” Monique said, as she started to
make one regardless of Jason’s answer, pouring different spirits
and juices into a jug.

“
You don’t even
know what a mimosa is
” Dee laughed,
watching her mom pour any random concoction into the
jug.

“
Oh, and you
do
?”

“
I
do
” Kiki piped up.

“
Well go on then
smart ass
”

“
It’s like
champagne and juice, and you ain’t got no champagne, so it ain’t
one of them
”

“
Well it sounds
good though. The M and the M, whatever you call
it
.”

“
Alliteration
” Kiki said, as she
sucked up the last of her mother’s last cocktail with her
straw.

“
Alright clever
ass, go sit over there and make friends
.”
Monique gestured toward the table, as she lightly pushed her
youngest daughter out of the way of her drink
making.

As Kiki
made her way to the table, she put her arms around J’s neck and
kissed his cheek before he pulled out his seat for her to sit in
his lap. Jason was a little surprised they were so open in their
relationship; after all, he was awkward as anything with his
girlfriends at sixteen, especially if his mom was around. J carried
on with the game, looking at his cards in one hand while his other
arm rested on Kiki’s waist. It wasn’t long before the noise of the
blender had stopped and Monique had made her way to the table with
a full jug and plastic cups. She set a cup down in front of each of
them at the table apart from Kiki, who still had one in her hand,
and began to pour them all a cup of the concoction in the jug.
Jason didn’t know what was in it, and he didn’t want to ask. He
took a small sniff of the mixture and he could smell how potent it
was.

“
Drink up
kids
!” Monique laughed, after she poured
the last of it into Kiki’s existing cup and walked back to the
kitchen counter with the empty jug, where Dee still
sat.

“
That looks
vile
” Dee told her
mother.

“
Don’t be jealous
‘cause you can’t have any
.”

“
Trust me, I’ll be
fine
” she said, as she hopped down off the
counter. Not wanting to be anti-social, she made her way to the
table and as she approached Jason, he pulled out the chair nearest
to him for her to sit down.

“
Look at that!
Pulling out chairs and shit
!” Monique
exclaimed as she too, made her way to the table. Once again, Jason
felt Dee cringe slightly next to him, and everybody else
laughed.

“
If you gonna
treat her like that, you can keep on getting her
pregnant
.”

While
everybody carried on laughing, Monique protested she was
joking.

Jason
blushed, and drank his cocktail quietly. It was in fact, pretty
vile but he didn’t say anything. Not everybody was as
polite.

“
What the fuck’s
in this shit
?” Tip laughed, screwing up
his face as he took a sip.

“
My special
recipe
” Monique replied, happily making
her way through her own.

“
What’s that? A
bit of everything
?”

“
Well it gets the
job done
!” Monique exclaimed, and they
couldn’t argue with that.

After
Monique had made a second round of cocktails, everybody was feeling
it, and Jason couldn’t believe he still had a party to make his way
to. He didn’t want to be drunk for meeting the rest of the family
but it seemed the cocktails were going to keep on coming if Monique
had her way. 

Chapter 18 – Domestic

The
venue wasn’t anywhere fancy, just a small community centre in their
area which had been decked out head to toe in decorations, banners
and balloons. It was pretty busy by the time they’d arrived, and
Dee wasn’t surprised, as she knew her cousin Rhea was popular. She
was older than Dee by two years but they had practically grown up
together, with their mothers being sisters. Her aunt Neesee was
younger than Monique and though she was seen as her ‘fun aunt’, she
had always been more responsible than her mother. When Monique
couldn’t take care of her kids, Neesee often stepped in and took
the kids away for a few days, which was why Dee had grown up around
her cousin Rhea and her younger sister Nahla. She saw them almost
as second sisters at the time, but they hadn’t seen as much of each
other as they’d grown up.

Dee
arrived to the party with her family, Jason and Tip, and while she
knew she’d invited Jason, she worried how she was going to balance
the night; still being able to spend time with her family but not
leaving him out. It was always awkward bringing two different sets
of people together, but she knew it was something that had to be
done. Monique wasted no time in heading straight to the bar before
she greeted her sister and niece, while Kiki and J made their way
to find a table for the group. Tip had already seen someone he knew
from the area and was heading their way to talk, which left Dee and
Jason alone. Dee looked at her surroundings, taking note of who she
could see.

“
So, that’s my
cousin Rhea, who’s engagement it is
” Dee
told Jason, gesturing across the room.

“
That’s her fiancé
Shawn, and my aunt Neesee and my other cousin Nahla, that’s her
daughter too. Oh, there’s Daya.
” Dee said,
sounding surprised. Jason nodded at her descriptions, and waited on
one for the latest name.

“
Sorry, that’s
Jarell’s girl
.”

As Jason
turned to look at the girl Dee was talking about, he saw a caramel
coloured woman, with long brown hair. She was very pretty, and
Jason wondered why she had decided to come on her own, considering
Jarell was still inside.

“
She’s brought
Shontelle
!” Dee exclaimed, as a little
girl with a pale blue dress and braided hair made her way to Daya,
and sat on her lap.

“
Let’s go say
Hi
.”

Dee made
her way over to the table which Daya and Shontelle sat at, with
Jason following close behind. As the little girl turned her head,
she saw her aunty walking their way, and excited by the encounter,
she jumped down off her mother’s lap to run over to Dee. She ran at
full force speed and given her height, Dee could see she was going
to run straight into her stomach. Guarding herself, she held out
her arms extended and stopped her in her tracks before she got too
close.

“
Aunty
Dee
” Shontelle squealed, beaming up at
her.

“
Hey girl, I
didn’t know you were coming tonight
.”

“
Mama say we have
to party for daddy too
.”

“
Did
she
?”

“
Mmhmm
” Shontelle agreed, looking at
Jason who was stood next to Dee.

Following her gaze, Dee spoke up. “
Shonny, this is my friend Jason
.”

“
Hi
” Shontelle said shyly, looking
away immediately.

“
Shall we go see
your mommy
?”

Daya had
already stood up from her seat at the table after she saw her
daughter talking to Dee. She smiled as they headed over toward her,
and held out her arms for Dee to embrace her.

“
Dee, it’s so good
to see you
.”

“
You too. I didn’t
know you were coming
.”

“
Yeah well, we
gotta represent the empty space for Jarell,
right
?”

“
I guess so. You
heard from him
?”

“
He called me
today; he’s doing okay, keeping his head down
.”

“
I hope it stay
down
”

“
Me too, girl, me
too.
”

Daya
noticed from the moment Dee came over there was a man with her, and
she couldn’t help but look over at him as she spoke.

“
You bring a
date
?” Daya asked Dee, pointing her eyes
toward Jason.

Dee felt
weird introducing him as her date, so she thought about what to say
for a second, but before she could muster anything coherent, Jason
spoke up.

“
Jason, nice to
meet you
” he said, holding out his hand
for a handshake.

Daya
eyed him up as their hands met. “Jason Taylor” she said, as a look
spread across her face, one that showed the penny had just
dropped.

“
You know, your
mom said you was pregnant by some famous guy, but I thought she was
shitting me
”

Dee and
Jason shared a look between them.

“
I thought he was
shitting me too
” Dee joked, and Jason
laughed awkwardly.

“
Well, this is
his
.” Dee said, rubbing her hand over her
small baby bump that poked out from her dress, and Daya squealed
excitedly.