Late At Night

*CHRIS*

I’ve been calling Mira a lot lately. After the conversation with my dad, I realized that I had to get her back. It’s not like I was going to let her go without a fight to begin with, but something about his words that really hit hard for me.

‘When you have a good girl, you do everything you can to keep ‘em.’ That’s all I could think about. Don’t get me wrong it’s not like I wanted to. Deep down, I knew this was my fault. Had I kept it in my pants I’m sure we’d still be in the townhouse together.

But also, had it not been for that crunchy bitch Ayana, she would’ve never met that motherfucker at the club. I still want to know what he said to get her attention. She didn’t come back home with me until about four months into us dating. One night is all it took for this bastard to get in her panties.

I couldn’t tell you what pissed me off more. The fact that it was sudden, the fact that she actually likes him, the fact that she kept going back, or the fact that she’s actually gone. This was all too much.

Dammit! Why didn’t Keema just mind her own damn business that night? We still could’ve had our happily ever after. I still believe that was supposed to be my baby.

I know one thing, had my mom been in her right mind, I’d gone straight to her about this. She always knew what to do to get through to her.

“What the hell you got goin’ on?” asked Rod as he got in the car.

I shook my head and tried to snap out of it. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I forgot I was with him.

“Nothin’ man. I’m just…tired.”

“You look it.”

He pulled out of the parking lot and drove back to his house. There we smoked and drank a little-nothing too major. At least not for me until he began to talk and ask questions. The man never could just let the moment settle. It always had to be noise for him to be comfortable.

“How you and your girl?”

I looked at him. Not sure where he got the idea to ask, but it was definitely coming at some point. That much I figured.

“We ain’t together.”

He looked at me shocked as if he ain’t know she was messing with that bastard for some time now.

“She still with that white boy?”

“Worse.” I said as I sipped from my cup and swished it around my mouth.

“What’s worse than that?”

“She got pregnant by the motherfucker. She walking around here with his baby and not mine.”

The words seemed to roll off easier than I’d anticipated and louder than they were meant to be.

“Yo, chill. It’s cool. There’s more women out there.”

I sat there with his words lingering in the air for a few seconds. He was right, there were more women out there and maybe one actually would want to be with me as much as I wanted to be with Jamira. But see that’s the thing. I wanted Jamira and I’ll be damned if I didn’t at least exhaust every option trying.

All I needed was one conversation. One more chance to talk. She’d eventually see things my way. I’m sure he’s gotten in her head and turned her away from me. I knew he had to be telling her something.

I’m not sure what look was on my face, but the look on Rod’s was one of deep concern and possibly disgust, maybe it was disturbed energy. Either way he seemed uneasy.

“They ain’t her though.”

He scratched his beard while keeping his gaze on me.

“What you gonna do, snatch her up? She’s pregnant by that man. I don’t know about you, but ain’t no girl worth me trying to get her back after she decided to carry his baby.”

He pulled from his blunt. He tried to pass it to me, but I didn’t take it. I needed to be careful about how much I smoked and drank at the moment.

“You ain’t never had someone to love you the way she did. I know she still does, she just needs help remembering that.”

“Bro, what the fuck?”

I looked up and realized I let that escape my mouth. Shit!

I pulled out my phone and looked at the time.

“Hey, I’m gonna head out.”

“Aye man, don’t be out here doing no stupid shit.”

I couldn’t promise that. So I just nodded.

Once I got in my car and pulled out of the driveway an idea came to me. I never thought I’d ever see the day when I’d broken down so much that I planned to pop up at her friend’s house.

I drove until I got to her side of town. I rode around the area, hoping to run into her so approaching her would be easier. I drove past gas stations, grocery stores, and even fast food restaurants looking for her car.

When that didn’t give me anything after hours of riding around, I went to her house. There it was, her car right there in the driveway. I parked out of view and walked up to her front door.

At first I knocked. No one answered. Then I knocked again, only harder this time. Still, no one. I rang the doorbell. I thought I heard someone coming towards the door. I guess it was my imagination because that never happened.

Growing more impatient by the second I went to the window near the door and knocked on it. It didn’t take long for her to pop up at the door.

“Oh hell no!”

“Who is it?” The voice from behind her asked.

She looked at me and back towards the voice and said, “Nobody.”

I stared at her as she held my gaze. She started to come outside, but hesitated. I’m not sure what happened in the split second after that, but she was suddenly on the porch in front of me.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Where is Mira?”

“I told you, I don’t know.”

“You see, I have a hard time believing that.”

“I don’t give a damn what you believe. I said I don’t know.”

This girl makes it impossible for me to be nice to her. Every time I try, she starts talking reckless.

Anger started to creep up inside me as I stepped closer. She didn’t move. She didn’t even flinch. She was bold, I’ll give her that.

I got close enough to whisper in her ear.

“I know when I’m being lied to. So I’m gonna ask your triflin’ ass one more time. Where is Mira?”

In the next moment I was rubbing my face from where she’d slapped me. She was a feisty little chihuahua.

She stared at me with anger in her eyes. She turned and tried to walk away, but I grabbed her arm.

“Let go of me.” she said as she tried to pry my hand off of her.

I squeezed slightly and looked her in the eye as I watched her squirm.

She reached for the door and parted her mouth.

I reacted too fast to stop myself. My hand was now around her throat.

Not hard. But firm enough that she’d think carefully about her next move. She looked at me for a moment and tears rolled down her face.

“You a bitch.”

She was seconds away from getting choked and she still threw insults. She got a lot of nerve.

“You don’t know me. I will follow your monkey ass to the ends of the earth if that means I’ll find Mira.”

Her eyes widened. My lips pursed together.

Then there was a loud bang on the window. I turned to look and I saw her phone on the ground.

I looked back at her.

Suddenly, the door opened.

I released my grip on her neck as I realized I was staring at the barrel of a shotgun.

“Get off my porch right now!” The woman yelled.

I froze. I looked between her and Ayana. I didn’t know who’d be the first to make a move.

“Get off my porch before the cops find your cold body.”

“You gonna shoot me?”

“Don’t try me motherfucker.”

I slowly moved away from them and down the porch. She kept her eyes and her gun pointed at me.

I made it to my car as looked over to see that she was watching me leave. Until next time, bitch.