ASAP Rocky was rapping about how he loved bad bitches, and with every pull-up, sweat spilled over my flesh. My fingers squeezed the slippery bar. Thirty-four, thirty-five. I started rapping the words, unlatching and dropping to the ground. The door to my gym swung open, but I ignored it. Part of me knew who it was, and the other part hoped it wasn’t. The song continued to drown out the silence as I moved to the bench, laying down and wrapping my fingers around the barbell. Madison was angry with me, for the fucking hundredth time since I’ve known her. The essence of her anger was probably her mom's shit, and then there's me not telling her about it all this time, but I’ve been with her long enough to know that she’d be more hurt than angry. Angry Madison I could deal with, hurt Madison was territory I was unsure of. The fact that I kept Khales alive would have only intensified her anger even more too, no doubt.
“B?”
My jaw clenched, anger bubbling inside, so I started pumping the heavy iron.
“I know you’re mad at me.”
I hooked the barbell back onto the latches and sat up. “That’s where you’re wrong, I’m not fucking angry. I’m confused as to why the fuck you let him find you.”
She sighed, taking a seat beside me on the bench. “I had heard you moved on, and then he—”
I turned to face her, my eyes hardening. “You outed yourself out of jealousy?”
“What? No, well, I don’t—”
“—you better be careful with your next words…”
She stood, running her fingers through her hair. “Well, shit, I don’t know, B! You’ve never had anyone else but me, what the hell was I supposed to do about finding out the one guy I loved, my first love, had moved on with some new girl. Why didn’t you tell me about her?”
My eye twitched.
I sucked in a breath, stood and walked toward her. She stepped back, but I countered it. “You did this out of jealousy?”
Her eyes darted around the room. You could almost hear her brain trying to reach out and snatch whatever excuse she could find from thin air. “Do you not care about me at all, B?”
Her back collided with the wall and my hands came up to either side of her head, caging her in. “Listen very carefully—” my phone vibrated in my pocket and I reached inside, seeing it was Nate before sliding it unlocked. “What?”
“Yo, so I’m thinking I want to throw a party this weekend since everything has been so fucking depressing.”
“Why?” My eyes remained on Khales’. Hers dropped to my mouth, and then came back to my eyes. I knew what she was doing, and if she tried any shady shit, I’d rip her lips off.
“Well, our girl isn’t doing so good…”
“My girl,” I corrected through a growl.
Khales' eyes slanted, so I brought my hand to her throat. Shock flashed across her face.
I grinned. “Continue.”
“Yeah, you might need to get used to sharing her.”
My grip around Khales’ throat instinctively tightened. “What the fuck do you mean?”
She started tapping at my hand, so I released her a little.
“She’s mad, I get it.”
“Nah, she’s not mad. She’s… numb.”
“What? You feel what she’s feeling now?” I grilled, letting Khales go and stepping backward. There was something he was hiding, and whatever it was, better not have anything to do with them both fucking around with each other again. My patience was thin. One more misstep with her, and I was throwing in the towel. No point fighting for someone that doesn’t wanna be fought for.
“There was an incident…” Nate cleared his throat.
“What kind? She kill someone incident, or she trip and fall on something incident?”
He cleared his throat again. “Ah, well, a Peyton problem….”
My hands squeezed around the phone. Peyton was Tillie's older sister who in short, was messing around with Jase’s generation of the Kings. She had four of them wrapped around her finger, and when they were over fighting about it, they all decided they'd just share her.
“You and who.”
“Ah, Brantley.”
“How far did you get?” My eyes narrowed on Khales’, then dropped down her body.
“Pretty far, but then Jase walked in.”
“I’m done,” I murmured. “I’m done with her, dawg. I’ve not fucked up once since she’s been here, aside from secrets and shit. This is the third time she’s run off into someone else's arms. She’s your issue now.” My eyes connected with Khales’, who was smirking in triumph. “Oh and bro? I’ll throw the party.” I threw my phone against the wall until it smashed into a thousand pieces. Khales jumped in shock but quickly collected herself. I stepped backward, reaching for the door.
“You’re too good for her, B. You gave her too much.”
“Shut the fuck up and don’t touch me.” I shoved past her and walked out the door. She was right in a sense. I did give Madison too much leash. I got too soft on her, cared too much, let her get away with too much shit. If she thought I was an asshole when she first met me, she ain’t seen nothing yet. I took the stairs two at a time, and just as my feet landed at the top, my dad walked out of his office.
“You gonna tell me your plan with Khales?”
He grinned, pushing his hair back. “Have I ever?”
Leaning on the stairwell, I crossed my legs at the ankles. “Well, give me something to go on before I kill her.”
His grin deepened. He knew I wouldn’t, but that’s not to say I couldn’t. “You won’t do that, son.” Sidestepping around me, he made his way down the glass stairs, just as my mom entered the lobby.
“Oh good, I’ve finally got you both in the same room. Come and sit down, please.” A bit rich, considering she spends most of her nights jet-setting all over the world working on new movies, but whatever. I headed down and went straight to the living room, resting in the corner and kicking one leg up to rest on the couch while the other remained spread. I stretched my neck, running my hands through my hair. What the fuck was Madison playing at. I understood her anger. Finding out I had slept with her—who she had always assumed was her—mother, as my initiation process would be a hard pill to swallow, and then Khales. But she didn’t even fucking ask me why I did it. In her defense, she probably assumed I’d just keep it a secret like I had with everything else, but it wasn’t that at all. Khales was under my protection. I always had her under my protection, as kids, we were inseparable. Through me sleeping with Victoria Secret models to A-list actresses, she was still there. I fucked around on her a lot, fucked with her head even more, but I had never fucked up on Madison, yet, she still did me dirty. It wasn’t cheating, because we technically weren’t together, but fucked if it felt like it. If what Nate told me was true, they’d just trampled on my stomping ground, and there will be repercussions for that—as they will know it. This was a no trespassing zone, and you know what they say about trespassers…
My dad sat in his chair, which was the same as my mom’s throne—as she and I called it—but only where Mom’s was white, Dad’s was black. Both of them had high back pieces that wrapped around their shoulders and arms.
Mom started pacing up and down, one hand on her hip and the other over her chin. My mom was beautiful really. She had short brown hair that cut around her jaw and sharp, prominent features. I didn’t have much of a relationship with her because she was always on the road. “I don’t like this.”
“Like, what?” Dad rested his ankle on his kneecap, grabbing his cigar and clipping it. My eyes darted between the two of them.
My mom stilled, her eyes narrowing on Dad. Oh, this was about to get interesting, so I wiggled into the sofa more, resting my head back against the top of the couch, my eyes now directly on the ceiling above.
“You knew I didn’t like that woman, yet, you saved her? She was” —my mom faltered, and God, was that emotion in her voice?— “what she did, I will not agree with, Hector!”
“—you don’t agree because you have never understood this life, Scarlet.”
Their bickering died off in the distance until my mom’s voice snapped me out of my slumber. “Bishop!”
I sat up. “What?”
“Get that girl out of my house, too. I don’t like her.”
“Who, Khales?”
My mom just stared at me, or should I say glared. I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’d love that, but Dad was the one who invited her in.”
Mom snapped her attention back to Dad. “Get rid of her, Hector. I mean it.” Then she reached into her handbag, pulling out a set of keys. “I guess now’s a good time to do this, then…”
Dad stood to all his six-foot-three-inches. “Not now, Scarlet.”
She threw her hand up to stop him from talking. “Shut it. Since you like to go ahead and make decisions without me, I’m making this one.” She looked back at me and her angry features softened. She smiled a little, and then tossed a set of keys onto my lap.
“Congratulations, son. Happy birthday.”
I picked up the keys, looking at them in confusion. “Wait, what’s the date?”
Mom walked toward me and took a seat on the sofa beside me. “It’s not until this weekend, I know, but I figured I’d give you the keys now.”
I searched her eyes, and noticed for the first time how they looked tired. She had fine lines almost surfacing at the edges of them and her deep dimples looked more like smile lines. “Mom, I don’t think I need another car…”
“It’s not a car…”
My face lit up. “Wait, you got me my own jet?”
My dad turned his back on us. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
Mom giggled, her hand resting over mine. “Not today, honey. It’s your own condo in New York City. Penthouse, because only the best for my boy.” Her hand came up to my cheek. My throat swelled, information floating inside my head.
“You bought me an apartment?”
She nodded. “Yep! The best one I could find that was close to NYU.”
“—If he attends college,” Dad’s interruption went unnoticed.
She pulled me in for a hug before I had a chance to thank her. “When am I going to meet this Swan girl? Color me intrigued…”
I let out a pent-up breath, relaxing back into the sofa with the keys balled in my fist. “Probably never.”
“What’d you do?” Her tone was accusatory, with good reason. She knew me and my father well.
“That’s the thing, aside from keeping secrets from her, I did everything right. Never cheated, never did any shady shit.”
“Keeping secrets is a big thing, son. And I’m guessing she has found out about Elizabeth and you, and also, the walking slut in the next room.” A laugh exploded out from me. Hearing a crass word come out of my mom’s mouth was humorous.
She stood, squeezed my hand again and looked to Dad quickly. “Whatever it is, give her time. But don’t let her make a joke of you.” She straightened her shoulders and carefully straightened her blouse. “Now, hate to love and leave my poster family, but I have to go back to LA where we’re filming.” Yeah, I bet. Just before she exited the room, I called out, “Hey, Mom?”
She turned to me. “Yeah?”
“Thanks for the apartment.”