Page 82 of Obsessive Love

“I told you I came to check on you,” she said, shrugging. “I hadn’t heard from you, but I figured that was because you were busy preparing for the W’s press thing. It’s in a few days.”

“Fuck,” I sighed and ran my hands over my face. “I didn’t know it was that soon.”

“Girl, how long have you been locked up?” Xoey asked as she got off the sink. We walked into the bedroom, and I put on the slides at the end of the bed. “Since you went to the precinct to snitch on him.”

“You know about that?” I asked, and she nodded. “How?” We left the room and headed to the kitchen. I needed to check over my supplies to see what I needed. Pyrite would have to go to the store to get everything, and I would spend tomorrow preparing it. And the following day, baking my ass off. Pyrite was not about to fuck up my reputation.

“I have a lot of jobs,” Xoey answered.

“You were the one Gift was talking to on the radio?” I narrowed my eyes at her, and she happily nodded. “You knew what was happening but didn’t help me?”

“Not exactly,” she said as he walked into the kitchen.

I grabbed my iPad from the counter and started my list at the pantry. “Then what exactly were you doing?”

“I was working,” she said, and I rolled my eyes. “And I took a call from Gift.” She stuck her head inside the pantry. “By the way, what does he look like?”

“You’ve never seen him?”

“Nope, I just got a description from Legacy. Is he cute?”

“I guess,” I shrugged. I wasn’t worried about Gift’s appearance when I was with him.

“What do you mean, you guess?” Xoey's face scrunched. “It’s a yes or no question.”

“I don’t remember what he looks like,” I replied. “I had other stuff I was focused on.”

“Oh yeah, like your man kidnapping you and shit,” she nodded. “I get that, but damn, I’m trying to get a good description of him. Legacy said he was cute, but I don’t trust that girl's attention to detail. She didn’t even realize that Hood has been in love with her for the last year.” Xoey shook her head.

“What exactly does that have to do with me?” I asked with a serious expression. “I don’t even know these people.”

“You will,” she said with a smile. “The fellas are close and spend a lot of time together. It’s a lot of us, but there are groups within the big group.”

“What?”

Xoey walked into the pantry and looked around. “It’s hard to explain, like, it’s a lot of us, right?”

“Okay,” I said slowly, trying to understand her point.

“Think of us like this big tree. We are a unit, big on one band, one sound, but simultaneously have different branches. Some of us usually hang out with this group, while others hang out with another group. We live our lives, see each other when we can, and love one another, but I don’t think I’ve seen all of us in one room except for important things like funerals, weddings, birthday parties, etc.”

“So you’re a family whose lives overlap, some more than others, but you aren’t all in each other’s business. And you only get together for family reunions, which may be the times you named.”

“Right,” Xoey nodded. “Just like that.”

“And that has to do with me, how?” I asked as I finished my list. I didn’t need as many things as I thought I would, which was a win for me.

“Because you’re a part of that family now,” she sighed and left the pantry. “You’re on the Stone branch; it's a part of the tree; it's solid.”

I started to tell her what she was saying was wrong, but instead, I shook my head and went to the fridge. “You hungry?”

“I’m starving,” Xoey said. “But I don’t cook.”

“That’s fine, Xoey,” I laughed as I looked to see what Pyrite had in there. I found a pack of chicken breast and a small bowlof chopped-up pineapple and pulled them out. “Have you ever had Hawaiian Chicken pineapple kababs?”

“No, but it sounds good,” Xoey said, shaking her head.

“Alright, so that’s what we’re going to make,” I said, closing the fridge.

---