Page 91 of Rah

“Yeaaaah,” Kahlani chimed with a chuckle. “That sounds pretty bad.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, you still should answer the phone. He’s been leaving you voicemails and texting you since you got arrested. I’m surehe’s so worried about you. He hasn’t heard from you in days, and you stood him up for New Year’s Eve.”

“Urrrrgh,” I groaned, knowing that she was right. But I hated to do it.

I had been embarrassed enough, having to tell my family what happened. Thank God, the incident hadn’t made the news, but it had made the social media of our families and friends. After coming to my parents’ house yesterday, I took a long, hot bath, and then scarfed down the full course meal my mother had prepared. Her turkey wings had never tasted so good. Then I climbed into bed with my kids and held them while we watched movies. Essence was still holding me tighter than she ever had before. While running my fingers through her hair, I knew I had to get her some professional and spiritual help, considering all that she had been through.

Once the kids fell asleep, I made the mistake of logging on to social media. That was when I saw post after post after post made by people who knew me and Rah. Some simply said, “Free Solae” with pics of me. Others accused me of attempting to kill Rah and needing to burn in hell. There were memes made from pictures of me. People were reposting posts that people had made that didn’t even know me. Even some of Rah’s homies were claiming that I was dead on sight. I only hoped that Priest hadn’t come across any of the posts, because I wasn’t telling him a damn thing.

“Hello?” I finally answered.

“About fucking time,” Priest fussed.

All he knew was that I had disappeared suddenly, after we had been having so much fun together. He had even gone out of his way to be nice to me by staying at that hospital all night when Moses had gotten shot. Even though he had no clue why I’d disappeared, his fussing sounded more like caringthan any of the evil bullshit that had spewed from Rah’s mouth.

My eyes squeezed together as the shame once again hit me. I forced it away and opened my eyes to see Kahlani looking at me, encouraging me with her eyes to say something else.

“I know,” I forced out. “I’m sorry.”

“Where the hell you been, girl?”

I insisted, “I can explain.”

“You better. You fucking disappeared on me, man.”

I took a deep breath and just started lying. “I... I just have so much going on with my kids right now. I don’t want to get into it. But with the New Year, I just feel like I need to focus on them and finding a job.”

Kahlani gave me the most dramatic, disappointed look. I just rolled my eyes. I had told a little white lie but it held some truth. Now, more than ever, I needed to focus on my kids. I also needed to find a job if I wanted to be able to pay for a decent attorney.

Considering all that I had going on, the last thing I was worried about was whatever was brewing between me and Priest.

He sounded caught off guard as he replied, “Oh. A’ight. I can’t argue with that. I feel you.”

“Thank you, Priest. And I am so sorry for not calling or answering your calls. I really have had a lot going on.”

“Bet. It’s cool,” he said with a little more swag in his tone. “I’ll holla.”

“Okay–”

Suddenly, his end had gone so silent that I looked at my cell phone and realized that he had hung up on me.

I winced.

“Why did you lie?” Kahlani asked.

“Because it sounded better than the truth. Who wants to date a woman that tried to kill her ex-boyfriend?”

“I guess,” she said with a sigh.

I could only sigh too. With all that I had going on, I felt it would be so irresponsible to entertain Priest. But as soon as I realized that he had hung up on me, I missed him and whatever could have been between us.

“Don’t feel bad, Cousin. You’re right. You have too much going on to be bothered with him anyway.”

I smiled at her and she smiled back. She was so ride or die. She knew that she didn’t mean what she had just said, but she just wanted to make me feel better. Kahlani had been so supportive during all of this. She and I had been together all day. I had insisted that she go to the hospital to see Moses, but she’d said she wanted to give him a break, in case she had been smothering him. She hadn’t left the hospital in days, only to work, go to class, and take care of Trenton, at least when he wasn’t at the hospital with her. We had been in my old bedroom all day because I didn’t really care to do anything else. We had been drinking and hiding from the bullshit on the other side of the closed door.

“It’s going to be okay,” Kahlani said.