A/N: Hellooo, my fellow readers! No, you are not dreaming, I am finally updating my story! Before you get out the pitchforks and stuff, just think about this... do you know how hard your junior year is? No sympathy guys? Well, anyways, really sorry about the lateness of this, but at least I'm getting this out as fast as possible! I promise that I'll try harder to get out a chapter quicker, alrighty guys? Don't kill me! and remember, reviews are love!
Chapter Seven: The Secrets
Huey straightened his tie and put on his jacket. He ran his pick through his hair a couple times before walking towards the kitchen. She was standing over the stove, and the smell of eggs and veggie sausage wafted through the room. His stomach groaned at the thought of nourishment.
Her loose hoodie barely covered anything, leaving few things to Huey's imagination, although he could still think of some things. She noticed him out of the corner of her eye and smiled at him. "Morning!"
"Morning," he replied.
"I know you said I didn't need to make breakfast…" she started, putting the steaming food on a plate. "But… I wanted to anyways, so you're welcome." She slid the plate to the bar, along with a mug of coffee. He looked up at her. She jumped up onto the island in the middle of the kitchen. "Eat, Huey! Before you have to go!"
He shook his head. "Jazz, we got to—"
"Eat," she commanded. He blinked, but stopped his protest, because his stomach grumbled for a second time. He picked up his fork and dug into his eggs, savoring every bite. It was better than his eggs, Riley's eggs, and even Granddad's eggs. Combined.
Damn, the girl could cook.
"Good, right? Even I think I outdid myself," she joked, sipping from a cup of orange juice. Huey nodded quickly, deeply consumed in the plate of food in front of him. She lowered herself back onto the tile floor. "Well, I'll see you later then."
His head snapped up. "Where are you going?" he asked with his mouth full of food.
"Uhh… to my apartment?" she answered as if it was common knowledge. She slipped into her shorts and grabbed her phone, putting it in her front pocket. "I don't know if you know this, but it's freaking early. I'm going back to sleep."
He stood up and walked over to her by the door. "Right," he said. "So I'll see you later, right?" he asked. "I mean, we can hang out later or something… if you want."
Jazmine blushed slightly and smiled. "Sure." She stood on her the tips of her toes and gave him a small kiss on his cheek.
Don't make this awkward. Don't make this awkward. Don't make this awkward.
But before his inner voice could connect with his mouth, it was already too late. "And uh, thanks… for the sex." As soon as he said it, he immediately regretted it. He winced at his own stupidity.
"Right," she said. "You're welcome, I guess." And with an awkward essence lingering in the air between them, she made her short walk of shame up the stairs to her apartment.
He smacked his forehead before he grabbed his briefcase and headed out the door. "Thanks for the sex? Really?" he muttered to himself. He needed to start listening to his conscience more often.
You goddamn right you need to listen to me more!
He should've been happy, not only did he hook up with Jazmine; he hooked up with her twice within twelve hours. Granted, he was pretty content, maybe better than just content because he had to be honest, the sex was good.
He didn't know what to say to her though. Romance wasn't a strong point of his, and all the advice he ever gotten came from either Caesar, who was single, his granddad, who had one failed relationship after another, or Riley, who was in a relationship, was just plain dumb sometimes. So, the rules of having a girlfriend were sketchy to him.
Huey stopped in his tracks. Was Jazmine his girlfriend? There was no official talk about it, and he was pretty sure blowing her off when she wanted an answer back didn't help his case, although if you have sex with someone three times, you aren't "just friends" anymore.
He tried driving to work without thinking about her, only keeping his mind occupied with things he needed to do when he got to the office. That was one thing he could rely on: work to keep his mind from wandering. He was going to focus on everything he had to get done today, and after Jazmine got off of work, they would have a real conversation about what needed to be said, and this time it won't be one-sided. Yeah, this plan was going to work.
At twelve o'clock, Huey had his earphones in, shutting himself off from everybody, and was printing out a simple lawsuit for his boss. It had been a productive four hours, and no thoughts of a certain curly-haired female popped into his head. He was making great progress, and by this rate, he could be able to leave an hour early.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. He secretly hoped it was Jazmine; just so maybe he can explain himself better than he did this morning. But instead it was Caesar, asking if they could go to lunch. Slightly disappointed, he answered with a simple "yes" and walked down the hall to the executive wing.
"Andrea," he said, arriving at the secretary's desk in front of his boss's office. She looked up and smiled, blinking her hazel eyes. "I'm going to lunch, so tell Mr. Lewis that I'll be gone for about an hour."
She glanced down at her papers. "Did you type up that lawsuit? Because he needs that by 12:15," she told him. He dropped the manila envelope on the counter. "Wow, Huey. You're like, a really great worker."
"Right…" he replied. "Make sure you tell him, Andrea," he reminded her before he turned around and walked away to get on the elevator. Eleven floors later, he could see Caesar flirting with a girl downstairs.
"You know the football team Baltimore Ravens? Yeah, I'm their athletic trainer," he nonchalantly told her, spitting his Brooklyn game at her. "I mean, it ain't a big deal. They're just regular people like me and you, except they have a Super Bowl ring."
"So like, you were New Orleans when they won?"
Caesar shrugged. "It was no big deal. We were all excited and stuff, but we gotta get back to there this year, k'naamean? We gotta get to the Super Bowl in Jersey, y'know?" The girl nodded intensely. "I bet you I could hook you up with some tickets; you just gotta give me your number."
And then he flashed his million-dollar smile to seal the deal.
"Um, okay!" she answered, programming her number into his phone. Huey shook his head. He couldn't believe the girl could be so dense. "And if you see Ray Rice, can you give him my number too?"
"Anything for you, babe." As she walked towards the elevator, Caesar could do nothing but laugh. Huey clapped his hands slowly. "That's how you do it man," Caesar instructed Huey. "You need to give them some of the charm—"
"You mean feed them bullshit like you?"
Caesar smirked as they headed onto the sidewalk. "If that's how you see it," he retorted. "I call it banking on a major milestone of Baltimore, such as us winning the Super Bowl. Girls eat that shit up! We better win next year too, but I wouldn't bet on it." Huey scoffed lightly. "So what's up with you? You got pretty into it with your baby mama."
Huey was silent and scratched the back of his neck. "It didn't… necessary end that way," he finally answered. As they continued down the block to where their favorite pizza place was, he tried to think of a better response than that. Caesar was trying to figure it out as well.
"What do you mean? Like, y'all ain't cool no more?" he said, trying to understand.
"No, we had sex," he answered, adding a shrug when he opened the door to the restaurant. Caesar stood at the entrance, completely in shocked by what Huey lackadaisically declared. "Ceez? Are you going to come inside, or are you going to stand out there forever?"
"Now, how the hell you gonna casually mention you had sex with Jazzy?" he retorted, outraged at Huey. "That's something you should be like, goddamn happy about!"
He sat down in the booth, and threw his head back. "She asked me to tell her how I felt about her, as in if I loved her or not, and I told her I had to go to work."
"Oh," Caesar remarked. He reprocessed the scene and thought about it until it finally clicked in his head. "Oh."
He lifted his head again. "And it was like she didn't even care that I avoided her question. I mean, she cooked me breakfast, talked to me, y'know? Regular Jazmine fashion. It was as if whatever happened that night and morning didn't even happen."
"Maybe… maybe she's okay with it and is gonna let it go."
Huey rolled his eyes. "You and I both know Jazmine Dubois all too well to know that she doesn't just let anything go. She'll keep thinking about it and then she'll bring it up when she gets mad at you."
Caesar nodded. "Yeah you right," he agreed. "Don't worry about it, son. You probably just making a big deal out of nothing," he added before getting up to go into the ordering line.
Huey twirled his phone in his hand for a few seconds before he unlocked it. He scrolled to Jazmine's name and his index finger hovered over her contact. He gently pressed the text button. He just wanted to innocently send her a message; what was the worst that could happen?
Huey: We should talk about what we're doing when you get off of work.
He read over his text probably twenty times, making sure he got his point across. When he was content with his message, he finally sent it.
And then he sent another.
Huey: I mean if you aren't tired, you can come over.
And another.
Huey: Because if you're tired, we can just talk in the morning or whatever time is convenient for you.
Now, he was content with his messages and with what he said, he finally sat his phone back down. He sighed and looked down at the screen, as if she would respond in two seconds.
"You did not text her three times in a row."
Caesar sat down, putting the tray in front of them and grabbed his slice. "Huey, I thought you had more sense than that," he added, taking a huge bite of his pizza. "You supposed to act better than us regular niggas who get hung up on a girl."
"Shut up." He took his own slice off the tray. He chewed and contemplated, chewed and contemplated. Now the more that he thought about it, he did feel kind of stupid texting her three times. Fuck, was he going to do this often? Because he didn't like this feeling of being dependent on her.
His phone vibrated two quick times, and before Huey could react, Caesar snatched it from the booth's table. "What the hell, Caesar? Gimme my damn phone back!"
"I'll give it back when I'm finished!" Caesar replied. Huey glared at him, as Caesar looked at the message that Jazmine sent. He laughed to himself, which made Huey angrier. He typed up a reply quickly to Jazmine, and then slid the phone back to Huey. "There you go."
Huey gritted his teeth together. "What did you say?" he asked his friend. Caesar shrugged. He went through his messages, trying to find the conversation with Jazmine.
"That's right, I deleted the conversation. And don't think about asking her what I told her, because I told her not to tell you."
Huey shook his head. "Does anyone ever told you really do suck?" he questioned.
"No, but people tell me that I'm the best person ever," he replied with a smirk. He took another bite of his pizza. "Come on, you know I'm only doing this for your own good, right Huey? I mean, this is some tough love right here." Huey grunted. "I don't want you guys to break up and our whole group is gonna have to choose sides and it's gonna be hella awkward."
"It is that why you did it?"
Caesar shook his head. "No, I did it because you are an awkward fucking person and I told her what you want to say but you can't say it front of her," he finally told him. "I know, I know, you can thank me later, maybe in your wedding vows or when you tell your kid on how y'all got together."
"Yeah, I'm not thanking you for shit, but nice try though."
Huey was probably the lightest sleeper in history.
That's why when he heard the faintest knock on his front door, he immediately woke up and sat up in his bed. He first looked at the alarm clock on his nightstand for the time. 1:15 AM. He was skeptical on who was at his door, because his intercom did not buzz. He lightly placed a socked foot on his hardwood floors and grabbed his protection from behind his bedroom door.
"Who the fuck is at my door?" He asked himself, gripping his katana tightly, in case he had to cut a nigga up quickly. He walked slowly, to see if he could hear the person on the other side of the door. When he couldn't, he looked into the peephole. He blew out a sigh of relief when he found out it was only Jazmine. Setting the katana down, he opened the door.
"Is this a bad time?" she inquired she saw Huey. He yawned loudly and shook his head no. "Oh my God, I woke you up! I just definitely woke you up right now because it's one o'clock in the morning. I'm just gonna go home now."
Huey sobered up quickly. He stood up straight and looked at Jazmine. "No, you don't have to leave. I'm awake at one am, okay? If I wanted you to leave, I would've already closed the door on you." He moved out of the way to let Jazmine into his apartment.
She walked inside and sat down in one of the bar stools on front of the kitchen. "Can you give me something to drink, Mr. Host?" she asked, playing with her nails. "Preferably not water?"
Huey closed the door and moved towards the refrigerator. He glanced inside until he found a Smirinoff Ice from the last party they had at his house. He shrugged and almost gave it to Jazmine, but then jerked his hand away. "You're not going to get super drunk and fight someone, are you?" he smirked.
"Oh, haha," she replied, yanking the drink out of his hand. She popped the top off. "First of all, when I get truly drunk, I just want to talk a lot and then I sleep." She took a tiny sip of the alcohol. "Why do you have so many of those?"
Huey got out a cold bottle of water out of the fridge for himself. "Caesar always leaves those stupid things in my fridge and you know that I don't drink them, so they stay in there forever." Jazmine glared at the bottle as if it was suddenly toxic. "Don't worry; I throw them out if they're expired, so you're good."
"Well, I'm gonna come over every day and drink them all for you, so you're welcome," she compromised. She finished the bottle and Huey got her another. "Are you just feeding me drinks so you can take advantage of me? Just because I'm tiny, doesn't mean I can't bite you!" she smiled.
"Yeah, I wouldn't want that to happen." He put his elbows down on the counter and rubbed his already sleepy eyes. He looked over at Jazmine and sighed. "Jazmine." Her glossy emerald eyes met with his. "We're going to have to talk about this situation eventually."
Halfway into her next bottle, Jazmine was already letting the alcohol got straight to her head. She shook her head violently. "Nooo, let's not talk about it. Let's go on with this. This is nice."
"And what is this?"
She blinked her eyes a couple of times. "This is… um… you know, I don't really know!" she giggled. He immediately started to rethink about giving her that second drink so quickly. "Because on one hand, I really like us hanging out together, and I like sleeping in your bed because it's more comfortable than my bed, and the sex is just a plus… but on the other hand, you can't say 'I love you' to me even though Caesar told me you tell him that all the time, so…"
Wait, what?
"I never told Caesar that I loved you," he corrected her. He straightened up and looked at her. What has Caesar been telling her? "I mean, I told him other things about my feelings toward you, but I never said or told him that I loved you. I never saidspecifically that. "
Jazmine pouted slightly. "Well, I just thought that maybe you couldn't tell me because you are scared on how I'd react… but really, you just can't say it at all!"
"Jazmine, you know why I can't say it."
She looked down and then looked back up. "What if you just—"
"Look, can we just drop the conversation?" he finally snapped, walking towards the living room. "Don't worry about why I don't want to say it, just know that I don't want to say it, alright? So just drop it and forget about it." He hated when people pushed him to keep talking about something he wasn't comfortable continuing with, especially when it dealt with his feelings.
Jazmine pouted deeper. "You're mad at me!" she yelled, the tears in her eyes.
"I'm not mad at you!"
"Yes you are!" She replied as she rubbed her eyes, trying to wipe away the tears. "You are mad because you're yelling at me!" Huey tilted his head back and groaned. He had to deal with an overgrown child. "See! You're frustrated with me, and I didn't even do anything!"
Now he knew that he shouldn't have given her that second drink. She was crying uncontrollably, with her head down on the bar, and Huey didn't know what to do. She wasn't necessarily a drunken mess, but she wasn't exactly sober either.
He rolled his eyes and swallowed his pride. "Jazmine," he started, walking towards her. He gently rubbed her back. "I'm not mad at you. I promise."
Her head popped up. "Really?" She sniffled. He shook his head no. She smiled and put her head on his shoulder. He realized that as soon as Jazmine gets drunk, she turns into her 10-year-old self. He made a mental reminder not to liquor her up too much, because her 10-year-old self was pretty annoying. "I don't think I can say it either."
"Why?"
"I don't want to be like my dad."
Her dad was a touchy subject for her, as much as Huey's parents were for him. Although he didn't know the full story, he just knew that she hated the hell out of him, and whenever he joked around and called her Tom when she acted high-class, she got a little more pissed than usual.
"Why?" She lifted her head up and looked into Huey's eyes, trying to decipher if he was worthy enough of her secret. Her glossy eyes tried to find something wrong with him. "You can tell me."
She laid her head back down. "My dad's a liar. He doesn't love my mother; he never did," she announced. She started playing with the end of her curls, a nervous quip she had for forever. "He just tells her that so she can stay at home and be the perfect wife. Meanwhile, he's out doing only God fucking knows what late at night."
This was a secret she probably never told anyone, not even Cindy. In a way, he felt honored that she was only telling him, but he also felt bad, since she was kind of drunk.
"And he doesn't think I know. He doesn't understand why I hate him so much. He doesn't understand why the most important guy in my life for more than two decades stunted me forever in my future relationships."
Then he kind of just blurted it out. "I don't want to end up like my dad. And I don't even know who he fucking is."
She looked up at him. "I'm sorry."
He cleared his throat, which meant he didn't want to talk about it anymore. He already said more than he wanted to, but he felt that the time was right for him to tell somebody.
"Stay tonight," he finally said, breaking the silence that was in the room. "No sex, no nothing. Just… stay here."
It probably came out needier than he thought, but Jazmine didn't care. She nodded her head, and with her fingers interlocked with his, she followed him into the bedroom. And with that decision, it forever sealed their relationship.
