LEANDRA
When I saw Shariece’s door hanging open, I started to think the worst. As I eased in with caution, I heard sounds of sex coming from the direction of her bedroom. I walked hesitantly down the narrow hall until I got to her bedroom door that was cracked open. When I saw Emjay bare-ass naked on top of her, I started to boil with rage.
“What the fuck?” Emjay pushed himself frantically off of Shariece. “Oh, my God, Leandra, I can explain.” I was knocked on my ass when I saw my best friend in bed with my boy.
“You bitch!” I lunged for Shariece, catching her by her throat, my fire engine-red nails digging into her throat. I tried to kill this bitch.
“Ma, get off of her,” Emjay yelled, struggling to pull me off Shariece.
“What was that shit about doing what makes you happy? More like doing who makes you happy.”
“Ma, goddamn it, get off her!” Emjay pushed me damn near off the bed, causing me to free my grip from around Shariece’s throat. She started coughing to catch her breath.
“I don’t believe this shit. You and her?”
“We were going to tell you.”
“We? How long has this been . . . . boy, put some damn clothes on. I don’t want to look at your little-ass dick,” I said, turning away. Shariece had bed covers wrapped around her body, her titties bunched in Emjay’s comforter. He covered up with a pair of boxers.
“A few months,” Emjay said.
“We were going to tell you, Lee.” Shariece was coughing, rubbing her throat.
“Shut up, bitch. I don’t give a fuck what you have to say. Here you are supposed to be teaching my son something. Yeah, you’re teaching him something all right.”
“We weren’t trying to hurt you.”
“Don’t talk to me. Don’t even utter my motherfucking name, bitch.”
“I love her, Ma.”
“You what? What the fuck do you know about love? You’re only twenty-two years old. You’re surrounded by bitches all day at school, but instead, you fuck my best friend? No, correction: former best friend.”
“Ma, let’s sit down and talk about this.”
“Of all the men you’ve fucked, why did my son have to be a notch on your goddamn bed post?
“Don’t call her a bitch, Ma.”
“How many times, Shariece? How many damn times did you look in my face, sit across the fucking table from me in my house, and didn’t mumble a word, not a single syllable about you and Jay.”
“I . . . we were going to tell you.”
“But you didn’t tell me. An eleven-year friendship and you kept this away from me.”
“Ma, we love you, but we don’t have to report every detail of our lives to you.”
I struggled to hold back tears.
“You’re right, Leandra. Out of respect for our friendship, I should have said something, but at the same time, I’m a grown woman.”
“And I’m not a little boy anymore,” Emjay chimed in.
“All that shit you gave me about Taj when here ya’ll are on some down-low shit. Do you know I was considering breaking up with him, to sacrifice my happiness because I knew how upset me and him being together made you?”
“I was wrong for those things I said to you and Taj. I acted like a spoiled asshole, and I know you raised me better than that, Mama. Here I am trying to prove to you that I’m a man, and all I did was disrespect you, and I’m sorry for that.”
“You have to believe that we didn’t set out to hurt you,” Shariece said.
“You know, I admit that I had my issues with dating a younger man. I was concerned with how it would affect you. She’ll tell you. Ever since I pushed you out into this world, I sacrificed everything for you. That’s what a mother does for her child. But I’m done. You’re right, you are becoming a man, and I’m not going to stand in the way of that.” I looked at Shariece and said, “He’s all yours.” I stormed out of her townhouse, out the door. I couldn’t wait to get out of there knowing that it was the last time I would stand under her roof.
“Ma, hold up,” Emjay said, but I kept on. I was done talking.
* * *
It was pouring rain. “Damn, every day it rains.” My umbrella was in the car so I made a run for it. I don’t like getting my hair wet, but with the shit storm I had walked in on, I didn’t give a damn. I wiped tears from my eyes like the wipers obliterating hard rain from my windshield. I sped down the sleek, pitch highway on my way home. I searched for my cell phone that was in the recesses of my purse. I needed Taj. I needed to hear a friendly voice; someone I knew would have my back always being that I just lost the two most important people I ever gave a damn about, whom I would have done anything in this sorry, sad-ass world for. I straddled the road as I scrolled down the list of numbers in search of Taj’s. When I dialed, it rang and rang, going straight to voicemail. Hey, you’ve reached Taj Bowman, you know what to do.
“Damn it.” I grew angrier and angrier as I thought of all the times Shariece could have told me about her relationship with Emjay. The rain was coming down so hard, I could barely see anything. I tried reaching Taj again only to get his voicemail. When a tree branch fell in front of my Beamer, I jerked my wheel to the right, causing my car to careen off the road into a tree. When I came to, my head was throbbing in searing pain like someone had plunged metal spikes through my head. Smoke spirited from under the crushed hood. The windshield was smashed. I felt something rolling down the side of my face. I reached up to touch it. It was blood. The last thing I remember was the sound of sirens.