Page 17 of Bern and Isley (D-Ville Projects #5)

Isley

“Let’s go to the baby section since we’re in here,” Snow suggested.

Since I was having another good day, Snow invited me to ride to the mall with her. I didn’t have any heads to braid so I obliged.I was excited to get out of the house, even if I didn’t have money to shop. I was content with just browsing.

“I can’t lie. I hope you have a girl,” Snow said as she picked up different baby outfits. Everything she touched was pink and frilly.

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care about none of that. I just want a healthy baby.”

“I know that, Isley.” She smacked her lips. “I’m just saying I want it to be healthy and a girl.”

I giggled. I tried to imagine what my baby would look like. Would he or she have my bronze complexion or Marshall’s high yellow skin? Would the baby have my small brown eyes or Marshall’s hazel green eyes?

“How did Bernie take the news that you’re keeping the baby?”

I hunched my shoulders. “Good. I guess. Why’d you ask that?”

I knew why she asked but was committed to playing dumb.

“Whatever, you know why. I don’t know why y’all insist on sticking to this delusion that y’all are just friends. There’s more than a friendship type of love going on. You and Bern are soulmates. Everybody knows this.”

“Our relationship is strictly platonic,” I told her, trying to convince myself more than her. I wasn’t ready to admit that since Bern had been home there’d been a shift in my feelings toward him.

“Well, good. I have a homegirl that wants to get at him.”

I snapped my head in her direction so fast. A big, wide grin was plastered on her face.

“Got yo’ ass.” She threw her head back, laughing.

I was ashamed. I had blown my cover. Well, the cover was see-through anyway. But still. I made it even more obvious.

My phone vibrated. I was thankful the call saved me from addressing Snow. I took a deep breath before answering.

“Hello.”

“So, you’re pregnant?”

“Yes,”

“How you know it’s mine?”

My blood began to boil. Was this nigga being serious?

“I know it’s yours because you’re the only one I’ve fucked in the last year. And I regret that shit, might I add.”

“Well, I don’t know that. So when the lil muhfucka gets here, then we can do a test.”

“Marshall, don’t even worry about it. Fuck you.” I smashed the end call button so hard that my finger hurt.

I was seething mad. Looking up from my phone, I saw a look of disgust plastered on Snow’s face. “Did that nigga really question if that baby is his?”

“Hell yeah. Big neck bastard. Man, I never thought he’d pull some BS like this.”

“It’s fucked up, but don’t even sweat him. You got plenty of support to help you with this baby.”

I fought back the sob that threatened to erupt. I took several deep breaths to calm my nerves. He wasn’t worth the tears.

After hanging out with Snow at the mall and grabbing a bite to eat, I went home. I caught up on housework since I still had energy. Aunt Fee sat on the sofa watching Family Feud as I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom. Just as I was about to mop the floors, the doorknob turned.

“Steven, where have you been? I been worried sick about you!” Aunt Fee fussed as he stepped through the door.

A heavy aroma of weed and cologne followed him inside. Surprisingly, he had a fresh haircut and even had on a decent outfit. The navy-blue polo and light washed distressed denim he wore actually fit. I was thankful for that because I got tired of seeing his dingy ass draws.

“I been around,” he answered as he leaned over to hug his mama.

“You look nice.” She smiled at him. “That’s a nice chain around your neck.”

“’Preciate it.” He grabbed at the big necklace with the fake diamonds. “I’m not gon’ stay long. Just wanted to stop by and give you a lil change.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a big wad of cash.

Aunt Fee’s eyes bulged as she stared at the money in his hands.

She looked from him to me. I shrugged. I didn’t know where he got the money, but I was one hundred percent sure it was not acquired legally.

He didn’t have a job. I honestly thought he was just showing up to beg per usual.

It would have been a pleasant surprise if he was coming over to shower his mama with clean money.

“Where’d you get money, son? You found a job?”

“Ha!” I blurted.

Scrap shot me an evil look. “Do you want the money or not?”

“I don’t want it if it’s dirty money, Steven.”

“Ma, chill.” He stuffed the bills into her hand. “I’ll be back on Saturday. I want to take you to dinner. Just you and me.” He made an emphasis as if he thought I would invite myself along. I couldn’t stand him and would never choose to be around him.

Aunt Fee’s eyes lit up. “Okay. Where we going?”

“I’ll let you pick the place. Just be ready around five,” he told her as he headed toward the door.

“Okay, I’ll be ready, son. I’m excited to have a mother son date!”

He smiled back at her. “Me too. Love you.”

“I love you too, son.”

After he left, Aunt Fee asked me to help her find a cute outfit for dinner on Saturday.

I didn’t know what kind of shit Scrap had gotten into but because Aunt Fee was so excited about their plans, I didn’t bother to even call out how suspicious that shit was.

She didn’t get quality time with her son, so I didn’t want to rain on her parade.

But something wasn’t sitting right with me.