Page 57 of Cessation
“Paxton. We need to talk,” I reiterated with attitude dripping from my tongue.
She looked between us and put on a smile before introducing herself. “Hi. I’m Oriya, and you are?”
She stretched her hand out, but I looked at her with pure disgust. I didn’t give a fuck who she was or what she was to him. She wasn’t supposed to be there with him, and she was pissing me off acting like she didn’t see us in mid conversation.
“Nobody. I’ll meet you on the dance floor, O.”
She nodded and walked off with me throwing nasty looks to her back.
“Really Paxton? You couldn’t wait?”
“Get the fuck out my face Yani before I embarrass yo’ ass in here. You were never mine to begin with so what the fuck are you questioning me for?”
He walked off leaving me shattered. I was coaching myself to go after him, but my feet wouldn’t budge. He didn’t want me and the way he spoke to me didn’t hold a lick of respect. He was done and I was having a hard time understanding and accepting that. We were building something, and he was ready to throw that away because of one mistake. In my mind, he never cared.
“Come here, Yani.” Patience pulled me out of the trance I was in. She grabbed my hand and ushered me to a room where we could have some privacy.
As she rubbed my back, I let every tear I was holding back loose. My heart sank when he walked away from me just now. I felt the detachment with every step he took.
“Patience it’s so much he doesn’t understand, and he won’t give me a chance to explain it. He doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“That’s not true but he’s definitely hurting right now. He hasn’t shown affection in years but ever since he ran into you, all that changed. You have to give him time, Yani. When he’s ready to talk, he will.”
“It’s not that easy Patience.”
“It has to be or else you’re going to push him away completely. I hate that y’all are going through this but I’m on his side with this. You want him to hear you out, but in reality, you could’ve been done that and waited for him to respond. Manipulation is a big factor in face-to-face conversations. Do what you got to do but my brother isn’t that easy to win over once you’ve wronged him. Oh, and you might want to tell him about the baby. I saw your stomach as soon as I walked up on you.”
She didn’t wait on a response. From there, she left me to think on what she said and dismiss myself from the function. I felt a bit of relief from her taking the time to talk to me. It wasn’t Paxton but his family still had a heart.
I exited the room not looking back into the main hall. Everyone had advised me to back off and that’s what I was going to do.
Paxton
Why the fuck did she play with me like that knowing how I felt?I asked myself that repeatedly and never seemed to produce a good enough answer. Yani took offense when she thought I called her a hoe a while back, but she damn sure maneuvered like one.
I sat and watched her shed tears behind a nigga that caused her so much pain, yet she ran back to him without so much as a second thought. I thought we were good and working toward something real, but she quickly hit me with her truth. It hurt. That was something I couldn’t deny.
My family was very close so when I revealed to them the type of time Yani was on, they immediately wanted to write her off. However, I had to remind them that my personal issues weren’t theirs and if they still wanted to have a relationship with her, they could. I wasn’t going to stop that. Hen and Pay had already formed some kind of connection with her and I wouldn’t dare tarnish their bond.
“She might as well stop hitting my line. I said what the fuck I had to say already.”
“You really cut her off because of the shit her friend did?”
“You damn right. Her loyalty is supposed to be to me, not her friend. She knew that you were getting played and she ain’t say shit. That ain’t even what fucked me up behind her. It was the simple fact that she was about to lie to me for Yani.”
“Jo she ain’t have shit to do with this for real. She was caught up in a tough situation. She been friends with Yani since they were kids, and you just came into her life. Her loyalty is going to be with Yani no matter who you are.”
“That’s not how relationships roll bro, especially not with me. I told her from jump that I didn’t like that sheisty shit.”
It wasn’t funny but I couldn’t avoid laughing at him. He was treating Dawn worse than I was treating Yani and she was the culprit behind all this. Dawn was just an innocent bystander in my book. If she knew, she knew, but that was just her being a friend to her homegirl. Jo had to let that go. I liked them two together.
“Nigga she withheld information. It’s the same shit you’d want her to do from the police if you got knocked. Stall her out.”
“Who’s to say she ain’t doing the same exact thing as her friend? We already established that birds of a feather flock together and it’s four of them muthafuckas.”
That brought out another genuine laugh. I met Calina and Winnie but had more time with Calina due to us sharing the sky box seats at the basketball games. We got close over time, and she was cool with me. Her friends were just catching the backlash because of how loyal they were to her.
“I don’t think so. She tried talking to me at Hen’s party, but I wasn’t fuckin’ with it. I really ain’t got nothing to say to her ass.”
