“Please, Aunt Jasmine, don’t tell Mommy or Derrick. Please!”
Out of everyone in Derrick’s family, I liked Vicki the most. Probably ’cause she gave me respect when the two of us had traveled together upstate on occasion to visit Derrick in prison. Plus, Vicki had always sent a few dollars from her McDonald’s job to Derrick’s commissary each month, which is more than his own mother ever did. So I was definitely leaning toward not telling her mother. Telling Derrick was a different story. Derrick was my man, and the last thing I wanted to do was lie to him. If I lied to him about this and he found out later, he’d wanna kill me. He was so proud of Vicki, who he thought was still a virgin. She was the first woman in his family not to get pregnant before graduating high school. Derrick was hoping that she might be able to attend college and really make something outta herself.
I watched Vicki as she sat on the bed and put on her shoes. The guy she was with had bolted as soon as his pants were up from his ankles. That just proved that he wasn’t about shit. How these young girls get hooked up with these half-ass men, I just don’t know.
“Okay,” I finally told her. “This is what I’m gonna do. I’m not going to say anything to your mother or Derrick. But if Derrick asks me anything, I’m tellin’ the truth.”
I thought Vicki would go through the ceiling, she jumped so high. She threw her arms around my neck in a grateful hug.
“Thank you, Aunt Jasmine. Thank you so much!”
“Give me the condom and the wrapper. The last thing we need is your brother finding a used rubber lying around. Then we’d both be in deep shit.”
I knelt down to search for the wrapper under the bed, until I realized Vicki had not moved. She just sat there with this dumb-ass, blank stare.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t use a condom.”
Her answer was silence.
“Damn, Vicki! What the fuck is wrong with you?” I spent the next half hour trying to explain the importance of birth control and disease prevention. I’m not sure if it did any good, but at least it made me feel a little useful. Not to mention the fact that it gave me a chance to be away from Derrick’s pain-in-the-ass mother.
When I finally got back to the party, things had thinned out a bit. Derrick’s mother and his older relatives had left with most of the food from the dining room, which really wasn’t a problem for me. I didn’t want to clean up all that shit anyway. Besides, I had much bigger problems than Derrick’s family. Right in front of my eyes, standing in my living room, drinking my liquor, talking to my man, was Wendy. I ain’t gonna lie. I was about to kick that bitch’s ass. Derrick must’ve seen the look in my eye. He hauled ass over to me and dragged me into the kitchen.
“What’s that bitch doing in my house, Derrick? I want that bitch out my house!”
“Look, baby. I know you don’t like Wendy, but my mom asked her to come over. Besides, she ain’t hurtin’ nobody. Why you gotta be so paranoid? Stop trippin’.”
“Your mother ain’t even here! Get that bitch out my housel”
Derrick raised an eyebrow. I hated when he did that, because it usually meant he was about to give me an ultimatum.
“Okay. Ah’ight, check this out. If Wendy has to leave, I’m leaving, too.”
He looked at me like I should care. I did, but I sure as hell didn’t intend to show it. He could leave with her if he wanted. I’ll tell you what, though, that bitch Wendy was not about to leave my house with my man without an ass-whipping.
“Well, then, get to steppin’,” I challenged.
“Ah’ight.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me into the living room, where he pulled the plug on the DJ’s equipment.
“Excuse me, everybody. The party’s over.”
“Yo! Dee, man. What up with that? I just got here!” a man said from the crowd.
“Yeah, it ain’t even eleven o’clock!” another angry voice called out.
“Look, y’all, I wanna party just as much as you. But my old lady doesn’t like the company I keep. She wants me to kick a few of y’all outta here. But y‘all my peeps, so I told her if my peeps gotta go, so do I. So since the party was for me and I’m leavin’, the party’s over.”
I had never been so embarrassed in my entire life. The last thing I expected was for Derrick to do something like this. All I wanted was for him to stop disrespectin’ me with his baby’s bitch-ass momma, and he had blown the whole thing out of proportion. Every eye in that room was on me and there was no escape, ’cause Derrick had his hand on my arm in a vise grip.
“Cut it out, Derrick. Can’t you see you’re embarrassing me?” I was talking through clenched teeth.
“This is what you want, ain’t it, baby?” he whispered.
“Of course not. I just want that bitch out of my house.”
“Well she’s out, and so am I. For good. Either you trust me or you don’t. I’m not gonna play these games with you, Jazz.”
His tone was dead serious, and I was scared. The last thing I wanted him to do was walk out of my life right after I’d finally gotten him back. Reluctantly I decided to put my own pride aside and keep my man. Big Momma always told me to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, so I was about to take her advice.
“Don’t do this, Derrick. She can stay.” I was about to cry.
“You sure?” He wrapped his arms around me when I nodded. “Now, that’s my girl.”
“Hey, y’all. I was just playin’,”he laughed. “The party’s still on. My lady loves all my peeps. Don’t you, boo?”
I nodded weakly, but it wasn’t like any of these triflin’ folks even cared what I thought of them. When Derrick said the party was back on, they just plugged the DJ back in and went back to partying. I pushed Derrick away and walked to the bar, pouring a straight glass of something brown. I tilted my head back and let the liquid slide down my throat, burning so much I almost gagged. I didn’t give a fuck, though. I just wanted to get drunk as fast as I could. This whole damn night had been enough to damn near drive me crazy. And for the first time this week, I missed Dylan. I missed him a lot.
“Wake up, Derrick wants you outside.”
It was almost midnight when Malcolm, one of Derrick’s teenaged drug-dealing friends, woke me from my drunken nap on the sofa. It took me a while to come to my senses, but after a few seconds I realized where I was at. There were still plenty of people in the house and the music was blasting, but everyone seemed to be congregating at the front door.
“Derrick wants you outside.” Malcolm repeated.
“For what?” I rubbed my eyes as I tried to stand. I was still drunk and my knees gave out, so I plopped back down on the sofa. “What’s everybody doing at my front door? Y’all better not have the police at my house.” I gathered my strength, got up from the sofa, and pushed my way through the crowd. What I saw at the other end of the door made me scream. Dylan was on the ground, being held down by three of Derrick’s friends. He was barely moving, and blood was coming from his nose and mouth. Derrick was standing over him with his foot on Dylan’s throat. He looked like he was gonna kill him.
“Jasmine… help… me. Get him… off me.” I could barely hear him between gasps for breath.
“Stop it, Derrick!” I shouted.
Derrick turned to me and glared. “You know this nigga?”
My eyes roamed to Dylan, then back to Derrick. I didn’t say a word. I was afraid of what Derrick might do if he didn’t like my answer. I didn’t want to see Dylan hurt even more than he was. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.
“I asked you a question, Jasmine,” Derrick repeated. “Do you know him?”
I tried to avoid his glaring eyes, but eventually we made eye contact. And during that split second, I’m sure he could read my mind. His eyes became small and he pushed down on Dylan’s throat. I was frozen with terror. He knew about me and Dylan; that much looked certain. Thank God Sabrina was there to save Dylan-and rescue me.