Page 7 of I Changed for You
I shook my head to clear the visual that was still there. “My bad. I zoned out. What were you saying?”
“I said, Melijah said he’ll be here in a minute.”
I nodded, growing nervous. “What if he doesn’t believe me when I tell him I’m pregnant?” I asked Skylar.
“I’ll tell him you haven’t had a man since Jesus left the world,” she stated.
I glared at her. “It hasn’t been that long.”
She chuckled. “It might as well have been. You haven’t had a man in your life in so long that I’m surprised you let Lijah get close to you.”
I shrugged. “It was easy talking to him after he told me off. That had never happened to me before.”
Skylar laughed, throwing her head forward and then back. “That was funny. I knew you wanted to sock him.”
“I did. No man had ever talked to me like that before. He had me fucked up.”
She giggled. “Oh yeah. He fucked something all right... fucked a baby inside of you.”
My cheeks burned at her words. “You didn’t even have to go there.”
She threw her hands up. “My bad. My bad. I had to use that one. But how do you really feel?”
“Not good. What am I supposed to do? My parents are going to have my head on a platter.”
She rolled her eyes and snorted in disgust. “Girl, you’re grown as hell with your own house, car, job, and bills. Why do you care how your parents think or feel? That’s your problem now. You don’t want to live for yourself. Then when your parents are all in your business, you call them judgmental. Sometimes you have to not give a fuck, and then when they have something to say, it won’t bother you.”
Skylar had a point, but it was hard when it came to my parents. Since I was a little girl, I made sure I didn’t blend in with them. I was told not to talk to people who were ‘beneath’ me, but I ignored that. I had never approved of the way my parents and sisters acted and how they looked down on people. When I was younger, I often socialized with those who were less fortunate. I recalled a time when I gave a homeless man twenty dollars to buy himself something to eat. My parents tore my ass up and went looking for the man to get the money back. I was happy they couldn’t find him. They’d been disappointed in me. I tried not to live the way my parents wanted me to live but rather for myself. They looked down at the poor, but I did my best to uplift them if I could.
A knock sounded at the door sometime later, and she went to answer it. I nibbled on my bottom lip as I smoothed a hand over my curly hair. Gosh, I was so nervous. When she opened the door, my heart pounded furiously in my chest.
“What’s up? What’s so urgent that I had to leave work?” Melijah’s deep voice rang out.
“Just come inside. The answer to all your problems is in here.”
Problem? What did she mean by that? What did he have going on?
“Man, you’d better not be bullshitting me.” Melijah sounded angry. I was almost afraid to tell him what was going on with me.
“Come inside! It’s hot as hell out there,” Skylar fussed.
I stood up when the door closed. Skylar and Melijah stepped into the living room. His eyes locked on me, and I tried not to squirm from the intense stare he gave me.
“Wassup?” He gave me a head nod.
Skylar excused herself and went to her bedroom, closing the door behind her. I turned my attention to Melijah again and gulped. The man was still fine with brown skin, an oval-shaped face, and a goatee. It was his small lips and shoulder-length dreads that got me hooked. Oh, and let’s not forget the tattoos. He had hella tattoos too. He was tall, definitely over six feet.
“What’s been going on with you? Did you want to talk?”
I bobbed my head. “Uh, yes. Umm...”
I didn’t know how the hell to do this. I had a feeling he wouldn’t believe I was pregnant with his child. Perhaps I should leave and keep this to myself.
“For the love of God, just tell him why you wanted me to call him,” Skylar called out from behind the walls of the living room. I hated that her bedroom was right there.
Melijah dropped his head and shook it while I glared at the wall. Skylar made me sick sometimes. I wondered if he’d come and take a seat. Since he’d walked in, he had remained standing.
“Yo, Skylar. Do you have any more ginger ale?” he yelled out.
