Page 34 of Lost In You
“Wait. So Julius was how old when he got killed?” I asked.
“Twenty, I think.”
“So that was four or five years ago.”
“Yeah.”
“Girl, I thought she was seeing him and Asad at the same time.”
“It’s possible. I don’t put anything past her ass,” Milana said.
“Well, I won’t say anything. He has some shit on her already that he won’t tell me about. He told his attorney though. It’s some deep shit, apparently, because he seems to think she gon’ get picked up by the police. I wonder if it has something to do with that,” I said, choosing to leave out what I knew about what happened with Grandpa’s attack.
We all remained quiet until Maui’s ringing phone broke the silence. Her eyes widened, and she quickly answered. It must have been a call from that nigga. I swore I wanted to roll my eyes. I had never witnessed Maui being so damn stupid. She stood from the couch, and Milana sat next to me.
“That nigga got her ass plum stupid,” Lana said.
“Hell yeah. A diamond-chip dick though?”
“Yo’ asswouldstill be thinking about that shit!” Milana said and laughed.
“And you not? That shit got my mind all discombobulated. I gotta go look that shit up. What she call it again?”
“Genital pearling.”
“Let me save this shit in my phone,” I said as Maui joined us with a slight smile.
“What did he say?” Milana asked.
“He will most likely get out on Monday. He said his parole officer was fucking with him. Hopefully he never figures out it was SS. My brother was wrong, but I don’t want to see the two of them at odds even more than they already are.”
I glanced at Milana, knowing this shit wasn’t going to be good.
“Hey, Aunt Jen!”
“Hey, Shani. How are you, baby?”
“I’m good. I just want a smoked boudin today. Y’all got any?”
“I hadn’t prepared any, but you know I got’chu. Give me a second.”
I smiled big. Aunt Jen and Aunt Chrissy always had everybody’s back. I went and sat at a table, realizing I would probably be eating alone today. Maui had left and no one had heard a peep from her since yesterday. Milana and I knew where she’d gone though. If I didn’t hear from her by this evening, I would spill the beans on that. She would just have to be mad at me. Her family needed to know whether she was safe or not.
Milana had a rodeo coming up, so she was practicing, and the twins were busy, per usual. As I scrolled my Instagram timeline, someone pulled out a chair. When I looked up and saw Jacob and Rylan, I stood and hugged them both. Ever since they all got married, we rarely spent time around any of them, especially once they started having babies.
“Hey, y’all! It’s good to see you!”
“Hey, Shani. Why you in here by yourself?” Jacob asked.
“Well, everybody else is busy. I’m starting to feel like I should be doing more too.”
Rylan chuckled and shook his head. “Yeah, like knocking some sense into your cousin. What the hell wrong with Maui? I always thought she was Karima’s mini-me. She done proved me wrong.”
I huffed. “Right. I don’t know. I think she will just have to find out for herself. I already questioned her about it, and she gotextremely defensive. She’s not just my cousin who I look at like a sister. She’s my best friend. I hate what this is doing to her.”
I lowered my head and couldn’t stop the tears that escaped me. Jacob scooted closer to me and wrapped his arms around me, and Rylan grabbed my free hand. I hated feeling emotional like this in front of them. They already looked at us as the baby girls in the family. We’d vowed to do our best to make everyone proud, but it seemed we had all failed at some point. Milana had that shit with Julius and his brother, I was having a hot girl summer last year, and now Maui was fucking around with an ex-convict. The twins were the only ones shining.
I pulled away from Jacob and dabbed at my face, then pulled up my camera phone to make sure my makeup was still good. Rylan slowly shook his head while watching me. Asad was supposed to come see me later, and there was no way I would be cool with him seeing my makeup looking a mess. Either I would be put together, or I would be put together, no fucking options. Whether my face was completely clean or beat the fuck up, he would get my best.
