Page 33 of Sweet Love From Saturn

“Well, you did a good job with everything. Your home looks beautiful, girl.”

“Thank you. Are you gonna look for a place of your own or are you cool with staying with Miss Sherice?” I quizzed, referring to her mother.

“I think I’ll stay with my mom until I figure out my next move. I planned on taking your advice when we talked about my content, but I think I’m done with content creation. For now, anyway. I used to love recording and having the camera all in my face. These days, I don’t feel like the passion is there anymore. I have a few different things I wanna explore, but nothing happens overnight. Thankfully, I wasn’t blowing my every dollar on material things. I also made a few good investments, so I’m not hurting right now. I’m gonna take a couple weeks to settle in and rest, but after that, it’s back to business.”

“How are you feeling about your dad? I know how close the two of you were, so I know everything between him and your mom is a lot on you.”

I wasn’t trying to pry, but I wanted Ava to know I was here if she needed to vent. I’d known her my whole life, so I could feel her hurt from across the room. Ava walked around like everything was okay, when she was probably drowning inside. I wouldn’t press her to talk about it if she wasn’t comfortable, but I knew better. Ava had never been the type to bring her problems to anyone. She’d keep things in until she was bursting at the seams.

“You know… I’m still trying to process everything going on. It’s like, one day we were a big happy family, then we weren’t. My parents never had any major issues until we moved to California. I don’t know if it was climate change or what, butit was like a switch went off and things haven’t been the same since,” she revealed.

“Is it one thing in particular they’ve been arguing about or is it everything?”

When tears started to stream down her cheeks, I moved from my seat and sat next to Ava.

“I’m sorry, Saturn. You know this crying shit isn’t even like me, but it’s been just a lot to deal with.”

After a few minutes of silence, I figured Ava wouldn’t be answering my question and I was perfectly fine with that. To give her some time to herself, I headed to the kitchen to make our favorite snack. Once everything was finished, I walked back into the living room with a tray of strawberry toaster strudel and two mugs of hot honey tea. Ava’s eyes were still red and puffy, but I could tell she was no longer crying.

“You’re such a kindhearted friend, Saturn. You don’t know how happy this just made me,” she expressed as she reached out for a mug.

“It’s no problem at all. Reminds me of the old days.”

“So, I don’t know if you remember, but when we graduated high school, my dad had his heart set on me going to Alabama for college. I was all set to go until I realized I wanted to be in Cali. I wanted to live in a faster city and going to school in Alabama wasn’t gonna give me that feel. I loved everything about Cali, from the people to the opportunities. My dad was against it, but he never pressed the issue. Fast forward to five years later, I’ve graduated and life was good until I popped up over my parents’ house and overheard them arguing.

“Normally, I’d call or ring the doorbell when I went over there, but on this day, I did neither. As soon as I walked in the house, I heard my mom cursing my dad out at the top of her lungs and I was so confused. My whole life, I’d never heard her take that tone with anyone, let alone my dad. She was sayinghow she couldn’t believe she married a man like him and how dirty he was for allowing his family to move to the same city as his mistress.”

My mouth dropped at Ava’s words and my heart went out to Miss Sherice. She and Mr. Jones had always seemed so in love when I saw them and I guess at that time they truly were. Mr. Jones reminded me of my own father. He put his family first and was a hardworking man. Now that I was older, I knew things weren’t always what people made them seem, but this was truly shocking.

“I’m sorry, Ava. I know that was hard for you to hear. I can only imagine how you feel. Your dad was truly your hero,” I stated before taking a sip of my tea.

“He really was, Saturn. I felt like my whole life was a lie when those words came out of my mother’s mouth. It took my mother a few days to tell me everything that happened. Turns out, my dad has a son that’s a year older than me. Apparently, my dad had relations with the other woman days before he married my mother. I don’t know a lot of details, but I do know my dad has known about his son. He wasn’t there physically, but I guess he always sent money. I’m just angry and sad at the same time. I’m angry at my dad for breaking my mother’s heart but I’m sad because I had to come to terms with my dad not being the man I thought he was.

“My dad was everything I wanted my husband to be. Now, I don’t want a man like him anywhere near me. After everything blew up, my mother decided to stay and try and work things out. Things never really went back to normal, and now my dad and I barely talk. For a while, I thought everything was fine, but that was far from the truth. Coincidentally, my mother decided to leave around the same time my career had gone down. I wanted to call you when everything happened, but I was soembarrassed. I’d talked so much shit I just knew you’d laugh in my face.”

“I would never laugh in your face about anything like that. None of what your parents had going on had nothing to do with you. I was happy that you were in Cali living your best life. My problem was the way you tried to belittle me for staying in Pleasant Springs. You made it seem like I wouldn’t be successful since I lived here. Like I was beneath you. Then, you did it at a time when I was grieving a great loss. You knew how close me and my grandmother were. I just felt like you’d left me in the past and I was cool with that, but I wasn’t cool with how you went about things,” I admitted.

For years now I’d been wanting to tell Ava how I felt. Her not caring or being understanding to how I felt was the only thing that kept me quiet. I never planned on reaching out to her to clear the air, but since the opportunity was now presenting itself, it needed to be addressed. When she brought it up during our first phone conversation, I wasn’t in the mood to get into it and she had enough to think about already. Honestly, I was over the whole situation. Here I was, successful and thriving, so there was no need to hold a grudge. I didn’t think Ava and I would ever be friends again, but things happened for a reason. Everyone deserved a second chance.

“Saturn, I thought about how wrong I was for a long time after that. I wanted to come see you before I went back to Cali after the funeral, but again, embarrassment kept me away. You were already going through enough. I didn’t wanna add more by going back and forth over something I caused.”

Although Ava had apologized several times since we reconnected, I appreciated her for taking accountability. She didn’t gaslight me or try to make me feel like I was making a big deal out of nothing. That alone made it easier to give our friendship another chance. Like she promised, Ava didn’t stayover for too long. Before she left, we made plans to go out for drinks next weekend and she promised to stop by the shop this week. Even if our friendship never went back to how it was, it felt good to get that hurt off my chest and get closure to an old chapter.

FOURTEEN

Mccoy

“Well, look who decided to finally give me their address,” my mother said as she hugged me.

My parents and sister had just made it to Pleasant Springs and my mother was starting already. I’d only been gone for a few months, and here she was, acting like she hadn’t seen me in years.

“Ma, please. I talk to you every single day. Sometimes multiple times a day.”

“That doesn’t compare to being in your presence, son. You went from stopping by to check on me every day to not coming at all. Excuse me if this adjustment only affected me,” she countered with an eye roll.

“Momma, you’ve been on a kick since we left the house. We just got here and you still trippin’,” my sister said as she reached out to embrace me.

Stacey and my mother could go back and forth all day. My sister wasn’t disrespectful one bit, but she had no problem telling my mom when she was doing the most.

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