Fendi felt as if someone had poured ice water in her veins. Ironic that it was the day after Halloween given the terrifying things she had been told the day before. She was still trying to process it all.
It began as soon as she’d put BJ on the bus to send him off to school. That tacky, turquoise blue Escalade that her late nephew had cherished pulled into her driveway. Fendi had already been seen, so she could not go back into the house and pretend not to be home.
“Good Morning, Miss Fendi.” Said Krista nervously exiting the vehicle. The smell of weed on her was pungent. Fendi could not stand for a woman to smell like weed, alcohol, or cigarettes. She found it to be cheap and trifling.
“Hey.” She returned the greeting half-heartedly. “What in the world brings you by here this early in the morning?”
“I am supposed to help Vashti with the trick or trunk and the cake walk she is doing at the restaurant. I thought it was a good opportunity to stop by and have a conversation that I have been needing to have with you since the week after Cooley’s funeral.”
Fendi immediately assumed a defensive poster, folding her arms and planting her feet firmly on the ground.
“Look, I should not have said what I said about you at Cooley’s funeral. I still have a lot of unresolved anger stemming from the year my son was missing, and I shouldn’t have taken a jab at you.”
“Miss Fendi, I accept your apology, but I owe you one. A lot of people in this family owe you an apology. Miss Fendi, you were not wrong about anything you said about Jerod.”
“Look, Girl, my family and I have been in a good place for five years__”
“He was a child molester! He molested Chris, he molested Quamie, He molested Jabari, He molested Jayson, and I am so sorry to say it, but he molested Breon.”
“Get the fuck away from me with this. My son said Jerod never did anything to him.”
“And you did not believe him then. You didn’t believe it the whole while Breon went missing. Miss Fendi, I know you are happy to have reestablished a relationship with your sisters, and you have your son and grandson, but it does not change the truth.”
“How do you know?” asked Fendi. Tears of frustration poured from her eyes. She had made herself believe, had fully accepted that she had been in the wrong and that her assumptions had been born out of prejudgment.
“I found Jerod’s old PC while cleaning out our bedroom closet. I was planning to give it to our son to use at college, but then I went through the files and there were numerous videos dating as far back as 2009, meaning Chris and Quamie were only 14.”
“I really wish you hadn’t told me this.”
“Miss Fendi, I wish that none of it were true. I don’t know what to do; Jerod is dead and all of his victims are now grown men, three of whom have children of their own.”
“Lord have mercy. And your boy, did he harm him too?”
“I do not know. He never showed any signs. He always performed well in school, even after his father passed away. I looked through all of Jerod’s other electronic devices, and there are no inappropriate pictures or videos of him and Jaleek.”
“Oh, lord Jesus. All those years I just wanted someone to do something, at least ask their children the way that I asked mine, but I was the outsider. He molested all of those boys and is spoken of like a God to this day, and I was a hateful black bitch!”
“Miss Fendi!” Krista called after the crying woman who frantically ran inside of her home and slammed the door.
Fendi spent so many hours just sitting on her living room couch staring blankly into space, while trying to make sense of everything that Krista had told her that is was well past four o’clock when she realized that she hadn’t even purchased any candy to pass out to the trick or treaters. Breon and BJ would be at Vashti’s restaurant, but she still was going to have a gaggle of trick or treaters.
Literally going through the motions, she drove to the local Dollar General to pick up a few bags of mixed candy. She exited the store .38 hot over the fact that she had spent nearly $30 on two bags of candy that she doubted had 300 pieces between both bags combined in spite of each claiming to have 400 pieces, when she saw her sister, Bernadette, dirty and disheveled, out in the parking lot panhandling.
“Get the fuck in the car!” ordered Fendi grabbing her sister by the arm and forcing her inside the vehicle.
It wasn’t until she entered the vehicle did Fedi notice the offensive odors of musty underarms, sour breath, urine, smoke, and vaginal secretion.
“Goddamn!” she said rolling down both the driver and passenger windows. “Bernadette, you cannot fucken smell yourself?”
“I’m hurting Fendi.”
“When my son, who was barely 18 went missing without a trace, I was damn hurting, but I didn’t do no shit like this!”
“Ain’t everybody strong willed like you, Fendi. Besides, your boy came back after a year, my baby is gone forever!”
Bernadette’s sobbing drew anger rather than sympathy from her youngest sister.
“I am going to take you to my place so you can get in that tub and wash your ass properly. I have some clothes you can fit. I’ma fix that rat’s nest you allowed your hair to turn into, and I am going to cook you a good hot meal. You are going to stay with me for a couple of days. It’s getting cold and I ain’t about to let you wind up dead out here in these streets.”
After a hot bath and a good meal, Bernadette looked and felt as close to her normal self as possible. Weeks of crack use and little food had left her thin to point that she was nearly swimming in the outfit given to her by Fendi who was a petite woman.
“I know you are grieving,” said Fendi handing her a warm cup of cinnamon roasted coffee. “But you cannot keep doing this that you are doing to yourself. This family doesn’t need another tragic death, Bernadette.”
Fendi sat down next to her in front of the fireplace. It was only six o’clock and the cold air from constantly opening the door to greet trick or treaters threatened to overpower the warmth of the fireplace. Bernadette wrapped the grey fleece blanket that Fendi had provided tighter around herself.
“I feel so guilty. I should have been a better mother to him. If me and Harold hadn’t let this damn crack monkey control our asses my son might not have went the way that he did.”
“What are you talking about; that boy was an honor student, star athlete, college graduate, and successful businessman. Thank God Gloria and Deandre stepped in and raised him.”
“Fendi, Deandre was sleeping with my baby!” Blurted Bernadette. It was the first time since Cooley on his death bed begged his mother to pray and ask God to forgive him as he named the many sins he’d committed, mainly committing adultery with his aunt’s husband for over twenty years, that Bernadette had spoken of the sordid affair.
“That mother fucker. He was messing with Cooley when he was a child?”
“No, Cooley says it started when he was 19 and they carried on an affair in secret for years.”
“What the fuck does 19 mean when Deandre’s ass was well over 40 and had fucken raised Cooley? That is just sick and predatory. I haven’t liked his arrogant ass since he had the nerve to ask me for some pussy as if he wasn’t married to my older sister and I wasn’t in a relationship with his supposed best friend.”
“What makes me mad as hell Fendi is that my baby left this world believing that God was punishing him, meanwhile that fucker struts around like the arrogant ass peacock that he is.”
“Lord, poor Cooley.” Said Fendi
“And then there were times he was so out of his mind Fendi, that he said some of the craziest things. Things that couldn’t possibly be. Fendi I probably should not tell you this, but I need you to understand how bad that cancer and that chemo had done my baby. He was so out of his mind that he swore up and down that Breon was dead and this Breon was an imposter.”
“What?” Fendi felt a chill go down her spine
“Fendi we all know better. How could that even be? You know that is your son.”
“Of course I do.” Said Fendi taking a long sip of her coffee. For the first time in five years, especially given what Krista had told her earlier, Fendi was not sure of what was and was not real.
“Mama, you don’t have to fix dinner for me or BJ tonight. He is going to be over at Chris and Vashti’s until Monday, and I am going to spend the weekend at Quamie’s.”
“Oh, what are y’all gonna be up to?” asked Fendi trying not to sound suspicious.
“Just hang out, play video games. Jabari and Jayson are going to come down, and we might even get Chris out of the house.”
“Y’all do not need to ___”
“Mama, Quamie already made it clear that if Chris comes, there will be no alcohol. No shade, I’m kinda hoping that he stays home.”
“You are a mess,” said Fendi playfully smacking him upside his head. “Breon, remember ___”
“I know Mama, I am a leader, not a follower.” He said kissing her on the cheek. “I love you, Mama; I’ve gotta go to work.”
“I love you too.” She called after him relieved. The last time Fendi had reminded her son that he was a leader and not a follower, he was in high school. In fact, the very last time was the night he had told her that he was going to hang out with his cousins at Quamie’s barbershop before going on his date with Takeisha. That was six years ago. He not only remembered, but he also finished her sentence for her. Of course he was Breon; who else could he possibly be?
Chapter Fifteen
To be honest, I really wasn’t feeling the idea of this cousin’s weekend, but we had planned it over a month ago. I probably should not have done it, but I invited Breon.
He and I had become really close after that rainy day in the shop. With Cooley deceased, Chris being committed to saving his marriage, Jayson, and Jabari always busy, and Olivier choosing to remove himself from my life, I had turned to Breon for companionship. We really needed each other. With Takeisha gone, Old boy was just as lonely as I was. We had started hanging out, taking our kids to the park and movies together, calling to check on each other before bed and yes, fucking; we were pretty much in a relationship, but neither of us acknowledged it.
“What is he doing here?” asked Jabari when Breon pulled up
“I invited him. He really needs to have a good time.”
“When did you become so concerned with him?”
“Damn Jabari, insecure much?” Laughed Jayson
“Just be cool, Jabari.” I said. “Breon, I am glad you made it.”
“Thanks for inviting me.” He said lugging a big ass duffle bag “I just went to check on BJ. Chris told me to tell you that he will be here in the morning.”
“Cool, let’s get the drinking out of the way tonight.” Said Jabari
“Let’s don’t,” said Jayson, “It is not going to hurt any of us to have a sober weekend.”
“I agree.” I said
“Hey, I’m a guest, so I am cool with whatever.” Said Breon
“Clearly.” Said Jabari nastily
“You know what,” said Jayson wanting to cut the unnecessary tension that Jabari was trying to create, “Why don’t you and I go pick up some snacks for the night and give Breon some time to get settled in?”
“Great idea,” I said, “I just CashApped you a couple hundred dollars, Jayson, get Dominos or KFC or something for dinner as well.”
“Bet, come on Jabari.”
“Damn, that nigga hates my ass.” Said Breon when Jayson and Jabari were gone.
“Ignore him,” I said, “Jabari isn’t used to anyone outside of our little circle.”
“Nah, that nigga is mad, and I know why,” He said sensually rubbing my cock, “I ain’t gonna front, Quamie, I’m going to feel some type of way about having to share this good ass dick this weekend.”
“Just look at it this way, come Monday, they will be gone and you will get to have me all to yourself again.”
“Do I?” He asked wrapping his arms around me.
“You do.” I said enjoying the sensation of our hard dicks pressed together through our sweatpants. “Let’s go upstairs.”
Our horny asses mounted the steps in a matter of seconds, tearing our clothes off on the way up. We didn’t make it to my bedroom; we fucked like rutting beasts on the hallway floor just outside of my bedroom door.
“Oh shit! Oh Shit!” Screeched Jayson as he and Jabori climaxed in the back seat of Jabari’s Ford Escape.
Jabari collapsed, spent onto Jayson’s prone body. The sex had been intense, borderline bestial.
“Damn, I needed that nut.” Panted Jabari
“Ya think; maybe now you can calm your grouchy ass down.”
“Man, I just don’t like the fact that that nigga is going to be there all weekend. You think he and Quamie are fucking?”
“Duh. What do we do during these cousin weekends? Quamie would not have invited him if they weren’t. I am kind of curious how and when it started. All these years I never thought Breon got down that way.”
“Yeah, it’s weird. I do not like it.”
“You sound jealous.”
“Ain’t no damn body jealous,” Protested Jabari “Quamie is going to always fuck me as long as I let him.”
“Maybe the jealousy is over the fact that Breon is fucking Quamie instead of you. Before Breon ran away, you guys were like Frick and Frack. I ain’t gonna lie, I thought the two of you were fucking.”
“Well, we weren’t!” snapped Jabari sitting up. He fumbled around on the floor of the car for his socks and underwear. “We need to make this food run before there don’t be shit open.”
“Jabari, you really need to get out of your feelings. Chris used to hate my guts at one time, but once he realized that my feelings for Quamie were way different than his, we were able to get along. And thank God, because Chris’s dick stroke is masterful, he is the one I am lowkey looking forward to fucking the most this weekend.”
“Fuck you nigga!” Said Jabari angrily tossing Jayson his sweatshirt
“God, you take shit so personally. Nigga, we live in the same house. We fuck all the time.”
“Yeah, Jabari’s everybody’s casual fuck, but nobody’s favorite.”
Jayson was about to give a smartass retort when he noticed tears falling from Jabari’s eyes.
“I am so sorry that you feel that way, Jabari. You are a good-looking guy with a good job and a great personality. There is no reason why you cannot have a relationship outside of this circle. You are 25, and I have never known you to have a girlfriend or boyfriend. Maybe it’s time that you changed that.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He sniffed. “We need to get going”
Man, Jabari’s sulky ass attitude was putting a serious damper on things. He refused to eat. He barely participated in our game of Truth or Dare and kept taking little passive aggressive ass digs at me, Breon and Jayson until Jayson just decided to retire to the guest room for the rest of the night and Breon went upstairs and shut himself up in my room and watched that Diddy documentary on Netflix for the rest of the night.
“Jabari, I am going to need for you to lose this little shitty attitude of yours. You are really starting to make people feel some type of way and you know your ass cannot fight, and I am not going to be trying to keep people off of you all weekend.”
“When did you start fucking that nigga?” snapped Jabari
“Is this what the hell this is about?”
“God, Quamie, do you ever keep your word? We all made a pact that night and you turned around and started fucking Jayson. Five years ago, when that nigga offered himself up to us in your shop, you were the one who told him no, because that is not who Breon was, and now you are fucking him.”
“Look, me and him just happened. He’s dealing with the loss of Takeisha, and I am dealing with a relationship that I kinda started but it didn’t work out. I know those are not the best reasons to become intimate with someone, but we needed each other.”
“How can you even trust him?” Whispered Jabari
“In five years, he hasn’t betrayed us. He is the reason we are not behind bars. Had he not showed up, somebody was going to start taking Aunt Fendi’s and Takeisha’s accusations seriously.”
“I just don’t like him. I don’t want him here and I don’t like the fact that you are fucking him. I cannot stand him around me because… because every time I see him, I am reminded that I fucked up.”
Jabari started crying. He still wrestled with guilt over the fact that he had told us that Breon had accused Jerod of molesting him. It had been over six years, but that night still haunted us…
Seconds later Chris and Jabari arrived. Chris, who was a few months older than me punched Breon so hard his earphones flew off as he crashed to the floor.
“Now what’s that shit you told Jabari?” He asked snatching Breon up off the floor. Chris was the thug ass nigga, I secretly longed to be. I ain’t gonna front, seeing him manhandle Breon had my dick throbbing. Chris was sexy as hell anyway. That shit was amplified when he was violent.
“Jabari, you told?” Asked Breon looking more hurt by that than the bitch slap and rough handling Chris had given him.
“I want you to repeat in front of us that shit you told Jabari.”
“Y’all, I ain’t trying to start no shit. I haven’t even told my parents__” Chris smacked him to the floor again.
“Boy, your red ass is gonna stop playing with me. I asked you to tell us what the fuck you said to Jabari!”
I do not know if it was fear or pain that kept him there, but Breon did not even try to get up off the floor.
“I told Jabari that I missed Jerod and I love him, but I am having a hard time with his passing because he molested me from the time, I was 15 up until a few days before his passing.”
Chris gave him a kick in the stomach so stiff I felt it. Breon writhed in pain on the floor crying and spitting up clear shit.
“Get Your ass up.” Said Chris jerking him up from the floor and viciously pushing him down into my barber’s chair.
“Breon, young Cuz.” Said Cooley, the calmer one among us. “Breon, you cannot be talking reckless like that. Jerod had kids, Krista, Jerod’s wife does not deserve to have something like that out there about the man she loved. Aunt Vivian don’t need to have that out there about her dead son.”
“I only told Jabari.” He defended. “I had to talk to somebody. I didn’t like what he did to me.”
“But your ass kept letting him do it?” I chimed in. That shit really pissed me off. It was not like he was no little kid when Jerod fucked him. Fifteen years old you got hair around your dick, and you are old enough to make a baby.
I was the same age when me and Jerod started dealing. He did not force me. I was not beat up and told not to tell nobody. He asked me if I wanted him to suck my dick and I let him. He asked me to suck his and I did because I felt that was only fair. Hell, he didn’t even FUCK, fuck me until I was damn near 18. At no point was I a goddamn victim. A lot of the times I went to him. Plus, Cuz was mad generous; I never left him without either some new gear or fat pockets. Why ain’t Breon ass mad about all those Jordans and NBA Jerseys Jerod bought him?
“Look, I am not trying to shit on Jerod’s name. I loved him too, but what he did to me was wrong and if he did it to any of you that shit was wrong too.”
That damn boy must have been a sucker for abuse. Chris back handed his ass so hard blood splattered across the mirror behind him when his head spun around.
Breon spat his loose side tooth out onto the floor. He looked at us with hatred and disgust. If old boy had any magic power, I am convinced he would have set all of us on fire with his stare.
“You all are fucken sick. If y’all are into that homo shit that’s fine, I don’t judge, but incest and molestation is not right. And if y’all think that that shit is okay, then are all of you mother fuckers capable of doing the same? Are y’all just waiting for the young crop to get a little age on them? Maybe I do need to tell this shit_______”
The bullet went from one side of his head straight through to the other sailing across the room and shattering one of my porcelain sinks.
“Sorry about that Cuz.” Chris apologized to me placing his gun back into the pocket of his jacket. “I will pay to replace that.”
Goddamn that shit turned me on. I dropped to my knees in front of Chris, took his dick out of his Champion sweatpants, and started sucking it right in front of Cooley, Jabari, and dead ass Breon.
“Oh, shit Fam, you suck Dick, dick.” Groaned Chris. “No wonder you were Jerod’s favorite.” Hearing that shit made me proud as hell. Jerod told me I was the best cock sucker he’d ever met. Jabari eased my pants and boxers down. Lil Cuz was finally getting some get back from all the times I had ran up in him. Damn he’d developed quite nicely because he was bringing some pain to my ass.
Cooley, the elder among us just stroked his own dick as he watched us fuck and suck each other into a frenzy.
We didn’t have time to bask in the aftermath of our nut bustings. Cooley and Chris transported Breon’s body away from the shop for disposal. I was familiar enough with how the two of them handled things know that no one would ever find a trace of Breon again. Me and Jabari cleaned up the mess that had been made in my shop. Wiping down mirrors, chairs, and the floor of any trace of Breon’s presence.
“Come on.” I said grabbing Jabari by the hand and leading him up the stairs to my bedroom.
“Oh, I will leave you two alone.” Said Breon shutting off the television and getting up to leave the room.
“No,” I said stopping him “Come here.”
I made Breon and Jabari stand face to face. Breon, full of compassion, reached out and held Jabari’s hand.
“I am so sorry,” Cried Jabari, “I never meant for anything bad to happen to you.”
Breon looked confused for a second then reality crept in that he was getting a small window into what had happened to the real Breon. We never filled him in on what the truth really was.
“I know.” Said Breon his eyes becoming glassy. He leaned in and gently kissed Jabari on the lips. “I know.”
Their kissing became feverish. Their hands and tongues were ravenous. Under normal circumstances I would have been mad as hell that they decided to fuck on my bed right in front of me and not even ask me to join in, but I understood. The two of them needed it.
My dick was so hard it was a miracle that I was even able to walk downstairs and go to the guest room and spend the night with Jayson.
Chapter Sixteen
“Good morning.” said Breon hugging me from behind as I stood staring out of my kitchen window waiting for the Door Dasher to deliver the breakfast that I had ordered us from Vashti’s restaurant.
“Mmm, Good morning.” I said turning to face him. We kissed each other without the slightest consideration of where our mouths had been the night before. His breath was remarkably fresh. He had just showered and smelled like Orange scented Old Spice body wash and cocoa butter lotion. “Did you have a good night?”
“Yes. You could have warned me that Old boy was a borderline satyriasis though”
“Borderline?” I laughed
“After ten nuts I had to tell him I didn’t have any more in me, and he still wanted to eat my ass and play with my dick until he finally fell asleep. Soon as he opened his eyes this morning he had to have it.”
“And that is why my episodes with him are bi-annually.” I laughed
“Goddamn. Yeah, I gotta adopt that policy with old boy.”
“Good morning.” Said Jayson. He only had on a pair of very tight fitting red and green plaid boxer briefs. At 23, Jayson. had filled out nicely. He had developed a grown man’s athletic physique. He now wore his hair in cornrows and had a full, perfectly trimmed beard. Gone were all traces of that lanky, curly-haired young boy that I dealt with five years ago.
“Good Morning.” Said Me and Breon
“How is Jabari?”
“Shit, probably asleep.” Said Breon. “He cannot possibly want any more dick this whole weekend.”
“Shit, you really don’t know Jabari, and you guys used to be so close before you ran away from home.” Said Jayson getting himself a bottle of water from the beverage fridge.
“I hope last night helped to repair things between us.”
“If you fucked him, y’all are good.”
“Door Dash!” Someone with a fake ass sounding Jamaican accent yelled over the ringing doorbell.
“I told him to just leave it on the porch.” I complained as I answered the door. My annoyance was replaced with joy to see a very healthy-looking Chris on my porch holding a large bag of breakfast food.
“Oh My God!” I said Wrapping my arms around his neck and hugging him tight. With all that had been going on, I had not seen Chris since June. We called and checked on each other often, but nothing was better than when we were in the same room.
“I paid your dasher to let me deliver this for you. Don’t be mad.”
“Why would I be mad as long as I have my order and you are here?”
“Not the delivery. Um… Hey son!” He called over his shoulder. Premiere, who had recently turned 14, and was damn near as tall as his daddy and sporting a full mustache, got out of Chris’s truck. “I had to bring him. He and Vashti have been going at it recently and since she is hosting the sleepover for all the little ones, I had to agree to bring him with me.”
“Okay.” I said trying to hide my frustration with the situation we were all currently being put in. Jayson, Breon, Jabari and I were just starting to have a positive synergy. How were we going to have a freak off weekend with 14-year-old who had no business knowing anything about the shit that we did around? “Um guys, Premiere has come with Chris.” I announced before I let them in.
Jayson rushed to the guest room to put on some clothes before Premiere came in. Breon closed and tied his bath robe.
“Let me go get dressed and tell Jabari.” Said Breon heading upstairs, which was a good idea considering Jabari’s horny ass was usually off the chain after a dick down.
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