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It was barely 8 am, a factor to be considered if one wanted to know why I swung the door open somewhat forcefully, "I thought y'all meant later today."
"We see. Is it a bad time?"
"It is." I responded, "Give me until like... 12?"
My dad looked impatient, "Eli can stay asleep. We wanted to get breakfast."
"I just woke up. Haven't even washed my face, nothing."
"We can wait."
In my room, Elijah was still sleeping and while looking for another shirt and pair of tights, I thought about smothering him with the pillow, just enough to wake him up.
He had an attitude when he came over last night. Why? I didn't know. It irritated me though.
I'd asked what was wrong, but he acted like I was imagining something and he was fine.
After going over everything that could've been wrong with him and nothing coming to me, I chalked it up to be something with his family like usual.
It wasn't the fact that he wouldn't tell me that irritated me, just that he wouldn't speak on it but was taking it out on me and acting as if nothing was wrong.
My parents were still standing by the door when I came out of the bathroom, speaking in hushed tones.
The moment they said we were going to Waffle House, I knew something was wrong. This was my comfort food, which they knew, and it took a lot to wait for them to tell me what was wrong.
He at least didn't try to make small talk, beginning time my waffle was placed in front of me, "We're moving to Dallas."
"Dallas, where?" I looked to my mom for clarification.
Maybe it was another Dallas I didn't know about. Like, Dallas, Alabama? That sounded right. Dallas, Louisiana? Dallas, London? Didn't care as long as it wasn't Dallas, Texas.
"Texas."
"Why?" I asked, trying to get an understanding of the decision to move, "What's wrong with Houston?"
"Your dad got a job offer here, and with Jai moving out, we didn't want you to be alone."
The first part was an excuse, and the second part was a damn lie.
Being an architect, my dad's travels were somewhat frequent. They were usually a couple of weeks long, save for the big projects that required him to stay for maybe 2, 3 months max.
As far as being alone, "I lived here by myself before Jai came. And besides, Elijah is here."
"That's the point." My dad shook his head, "We love you, but your decisions lately haven't exactly been logical. The perfect example is at your apartment asleep."
"Sometimes we sleep at his house. Big bedâ Nice bed."
"Is everything tasting okay, guys?" The waitress asked with a smile, stopping by the table to check on us.
I hadn't even started eating, so I couldn't tell her if it was okay or not yet. At the rate this breakfast was going, I wouldn't be able to tell her at all.
After my mom told her we were fine, she sighed and clasped her hands together on the table, "You've made it clear we need to respect your space, okay? We won't come over unannounced, but maybe it'll be nice to have someone near you if you want to talk."
They acted like Jailyn was moving out of the country.
Not wanting to be mean to her, I inhaled slowly, "Okay. It would be nice to be able to talk to you in person."
A triumphant smile went across her face, "See? We're making progress."
"Progress would be being able to show up 'Unannounced' like we usually do, but hey?" He shrugged his shoulders, "What do I know?"
Clearly not shit.
"You haven't said two words to me in weeks." I began quietly, waiting for him to look at me again, "But now I'm the bad person? You're the reason you can't pop up at my houseâ because you don't respect Elijah or my relationship."
"Well, hopefully, if you have something else to occupy your time, you won't feel the need to fill it with meaningless relationships." He was growing angrier with each word, "And you're damn right I don't respect a married man preying on a fucking child."
"He's getting divorced." My mom stated, irritation lacing her tone, "And we agreed you wouldn't do this."
"What do you expect me to do? Sit here and pretend it's normal?"
"I expect you to respect that Kensley's an adult and that if she's making a bad decision, then it's hers to make."
Talk your shit mama.
He chuckled and leaned back in the booth, "Fine. Let's invite him and his wife over, big happy, blended family."
Sometimes, you just gotta let people think what they want, as long as you know the truth.
And sometimes, the truth is just a candy-coated lie.
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After I left breakfast, I just wanted to get back in bed and return to my peaceful state of nothing since it was ruined earlier.
"Where you went?" Elijah asked as I settled under the covers.
My eyes closed as I yawned, "Breakfast with my mama and them."
"Forreal this time?"
"...Yes? They wanted to tell me they're moving here."
I was expecting him to ask why, but he didn't seem to give a damn, reaching for his phone, "I asked that 'cause last time you said you was somewhere eating, that was a lie."
The picture was grainy, and you could tell that whoever took it had to zoom in to get my face, but there I was, in a parking lot in the middle of the night talking to someone.
"Are you spying on me?"
"That's what you getting from this?" He asked in disbelief.
What else was I supposed to get from him showing me that?
I looked again, recognizing the man that came to talk to me, and gave me a brief rundown of what it was that Christian and Marc did, and Elijah who helped them hide it.
It was worth mentioning, I just didn't mention it. There wasn't a concrete reason behind my decision, but a main point was that there wasn't anything I could've said to him because I didn't know anything.
"If somebody came to talk to you, you ain't think that was some you should tell me?"
"I didn't tell him anything."
His reply was quick, "That wasn't the question."
"I don't know. I didn't think it was that important."
"You didn't think it was important that a fed came to you, asking you shit about us, but you tell me what you ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. That's important?"
While he might've had a right to be upset, he should've talked to me about this before I was in a shit mood, because I didn't care to hear this, "Clearly. Now, you tell me why you got people spying on me."
"I'm not playing right now, Kensley."
"What you want me to say, Elijah?" I asked, finally rolling over to make eye contact, "He told me about Christian and gave me a card to call if I wanted to talk. That's it."
"So why lie about it when you came home? I asked where you were, and you said some fuckin' tacos instead of saying somebody was asking you questions!"
"Don't yell at me."
He placed his head in his hands, "Kensley... I'm really tryna' stay calm but you acting like shit didn't happen and I had to hear from Christian and Marc that you talking to them folks when that's some I should've heard from you."
"Why are you acting like it was a conversation when all he did wa-"
"It don't matter what he said!" Elijah shouted, "If somebody come to you, then you come to me! What part of that is so fucking hard for you to understand?!"
I laid there, staring at him, noticing the look that usually wasn't meant for me, "Sorry." I offered, honestly sorry that he was so mad about it, "I'll tell you next time."
The truth was, I wanted to know how Elijah fit into everythingâ what his role was in the "family business" as the man called it. True, I could've just asked him, but his watered-down version would've been just that.
Still, I threw the card out of the window on the way home and didn't give any indication that I knew what was going on.
So, no. I didn't understand the problem.
There was also the point that he was already stressed. Between Leah, his family, whatever else he didn't tell me about, he always looked like his mind was in a thousand places.
I didn't think I was going back to sleep now, and that was confirmed when Elijah got up and left, telling me that he'd talk to me later.
As soon as the front door closed, Jailyn knocked on my door, peeking her head in, "You okay? We heard Eli yelling."
"I'm good."
"Why you let him talk to you like that?"
I sighed as I pulled the covers over my head, "I'm tryna' go back to sleep, Jai."
She didn't leave like I was hoping, coming to sit in the bed with me. Thankfully, she just sat there. It could've been minutes or hours, and after slowing my breath to pretend to be asleep, I finally did go.
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do y'all think elijah was over-reacting or kenny was under-reacting?
i rlly just don't like her daddy. he be doing weird shit 𥴠he act like he know some ab elijah that i don't.
thanks for reading ð