Everything is Everything Book 2 (31 page)

Vanessa folded her hands in her lap, intertwining her fingers tensely.

“I was mad about everything that had happened, but I was wrong to put it on you the way I did. I’m sorry. I have missed you. I think about you everyday.”

Jalissa nodded. “I missed you too.”

“Jalissa,” Vanessa leaned forward, her eyes passionate with emotion. “Can you forgive me? I want us to be cousin’s again.”

Jalissa pulled a tissue from her pocket and dabbed her nose and sniffed. “How can you even look at me after how I treated you?” She whispered.

“What do you mean?”

Jalissa looked at her with eyes swimming with tears. “I turned my back on you at every turn. I knew you didn’t have many friends and I pushed you around, yelled at you all the time and didn’t care if I did things to annoy you. On some level I was mad too and even though I wanted you in my life and I loved you as my sister, I also liked knowing that you would never go away because you didn’t have anyone else.”

Vanessa grabbed the napkin from the table and wiped her eyes and nose. “That’s only one way of looking at things. I was recently thinking about that time those girls attacked me when we were building that fort. Do you remember that? I knew nothing about fighting. I just lay there with my hands over my head.”

Jalissa looked at her with wide eyes.

“You protected me that day. And every time I was in Winton Terrace you watched my back. You made that time of my life … memorable. Yes, you intentionally did things to aggravate me, like stuffing an entire pack of fruit stripe gum in your mouth-“

Jalissa laughed.

“But that’s the things that kids do.” She reached out slowly for Jalissa’s hand and her cousin clutched it tightly. “I was wrong to throw that in your face.”

“I wasn’t the best cousin that I could have been-“

“Don’t criticize my cousin,” Vanessa smiled. “I love that girl.”

Jalissa laughed and wiped her eyes with her tissue. “Yeah well that girl is pretty much gone.” She looked at Vanessa. “But the woman that replaced her misses you and loves you very much.”

“Catch me up on what’s been happening with you?” Vanessa asked. Her tea had grown cold but she didn’t care. Marcus was playing with Crash, while they drove toy cars across the tabletop, both making zooming sounds.

Jalissa looked down and shrugged. My life is nothing as interesting as living in New York and working on a stage.”

“Are you still with your baby’s father?”

“No. Dante doesn’t even see his son. Which is for the best. He’s still into that life. And that’s not a life I want for my child.”

~***~

Jalissa explained that she had gotten subsidized housing which allowed her to move out of her mother’s apartment almost as soon as her son was born. Callista had paid very little interest in the baby and that was a catalyst to cut her ties with the woman.

All of that talk about getting her grandchild out of the ghetto and wanting a better life for him was just a ploy to get at any additional money that she could crook Vanessa out of.

It had gotten to the point that even the sight of her mother sickened her. As soon as she got the keys to her new home she called her friends to get her moved in. Theresa babysat for her while she worked.

She had landed a job as a receptionist and though she didn’t make much she could pay her rent and take care of her son and that was all that mattered.

She saw Dante one day when she was picking her son up from Theresa’s apartment. He was driving a Lincoln Town car and had a woman in the passenger seat. It had hurt her, but mostly because she had made such bad choices for herself and her son.

Once Dante had seen her sitting at the bus stop with Mark when he was about a year old. He slowed his car long enough to look at Mark before he drove off.

That was the last time she travelled into Winton Terrace. Jalissa found a nearby daycare and enrolled her son there. It dug into her finances but to her it was worth it.

Jalissa didn’t have a boyfriend—she no longer thought having a boyfriend was ‘jive’. She merely had no time for romance. In order to pay rent and daycare she had to work two jobs.

She refused to do anything the way her mother did things and therefore had rejected going on welfare. It was hard. She had a part-time job at nights so that she could work while her son slept. Her next door neighbor offered to let Mark sleep over there while she worked as a night watchman at an office building.

It was easy work and it allowed her to study for her GED. But there was still times when she found it hard to make ends meet. Sometimes she would shop for groceries and it was just a can of vegetable soup where her son got the vegetables while she drank the broth. Even when times were better she still had to do her grocery shopping very carefully. The best is when she could cook a pot of pinto beans or chili. But they couldn’t exist on that forever. So on days when there was a meat, a starch and a vegetable she was generally left hungry.

If she purchased a pack of meat that had four pork chops she knew that she could squeeze two meals out of it. She always shopped for even number pieces of meat; one for her and one for her son—in theory.

But at night she watched her son eat his share and when he was finished she asked him if he wanted more meat. On days when he said yes she would give him her pork chop or chicken breast or beefsteak. And once he finished eating she would send him to his room to play and she would finish whatever he left on his plate.

She was often tempted to prepare a third piece of meat but she knew that if she did it would result in one less meal and if there was only one piece of meat to prepare it would end up just going to him anyways.

Jalissa knew that she could always turn to Welfare if it got to the point that she was unable to take care of her son. But the idea of it brought thoughts of a past when she figured her life would just end up in the projects with nothing but what the Welfare system allowed her to have.

Even financially strapped, no one dictated how she lived or how she made and spent her money and that feeling was worth a few hunger pangs every once in a while.

After she got her GED, Jalissa was able to get a raise at her main job and moved from receptionist to customer service rep. It was enough for her to get a car with a reasonable monthly payment.

And that is where she was now. A little beat up but all the more stronger for her struggles.

“I’m proud of you for doing it on your own terms.” Vanessa said. “There is no one special in your life?”

Jalissa shook her head. “I don’t have time for it. “I’d be at work right now if I wasn’t on vacation from my first job.” She admitted that she took Mark to daycare just so that she could get a few hours to herself.

“So you said that you moved to New York.” Jalissa stated. “How was it?”

Vanessa admitted to what it’s like having a special needs son while trying to make a name for herself in New York.

When Vanessa talked about the altercation with Dino, Jalissa’s nose flared and for a moment she looked like the little girl who had snatched a handful of hair out of the head of a girl that was beating up her only cousin.

“What are you doing for Christmas?” Vanessa asked excitedly.

“I just spend it with Marcus. We open his presents and then I’ll make him something he likes for dinner. Probably chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese,” she laughed.

“Will you come to Miss Gloria’s and spend it with us? Please?”

Jalissa smiled and then nodded.

When Vanessa returned to Scotty’s apartment his brow was still gathered with worry, at least until he saw the happy expression on her face.

“How did it go?” He asked.

She gave him the full story as she changed Crash’s diaper and placed him down to nap on Scotty’s bed.

“I always liked your cousin.” He said while pulling her into his arms for hugs and kisses. “I’m happy you two made up.”

“I invited her to Miss Gloria’s for Christmas. I’m going to ask grandma if she’ll come too.”

“J.C. will be there too.” Scotty reminded.

She turned and looked at him. “He will?”

“He’s actually catering it. He wants to make some crazy deep-fried turkey.”

“Wow. How do you deep fry and entire turkey? Well, I’ll see if my grandmother will come.” Maybe she will bring a ‘real’ turkey. Christmas was looking as if it was going to be the best ever—if only J.C. wasn’t there. Then it would be perfect.

Grandma said she refused to be so rude as to bring a roasted turkey to dinner at someone else’s house. But that didn’t stop her from offering to bake a ham so that Vanessa, Scotty and Crash could come to dinner post-Christmas day at her house.

On Christmas morning Vanessa awoke to find gifts under the small tree that she and Scotty had put up the night before. He had said that Crash deserved a tree for Christmas and even though it was one of the last artificial trees left they decorated it with too many ornaments and sat it on his cocktail table so that Crash couldn’t grab one of the branches and pull the tree down on top of his head.

Vanessa was checking out the gifts when she heard Scotty clear his throat from the bedroom doorway where he was standing in just his night shorts.

They had been sleeping in the same bed but he had never tried to cross the Matthew Crash Tremont barrier. Their son slept between them and even though his arms ended up in his dad’s face or a foot in his crotch Scotty never complained.

“What are you doing, young lady?” He crossed his arms in front of him and leaned against the door.

Vanessa jumped in surprise but then she found herself staring at him. They hadn’t discussed not being sexual—it just hadn’t happened. Scotty was too polite and she had been too emotional. And then there was Crash.

But now things were happening the way she could have only dreamed. Maybe today; Christmas, was the gift that they should be giving to themselves.

“Are one of these mine?” She asked gesturing to the wrapped gifts.

“Certainly.”

He came forward and located a slender box professionally wrapped in red paper.

It was undeniably a jewelry box. What was he doing buying her jewelry when he had his finances wrapped up in being a student?

She opened the package while trying to think of a way to thank him for the thought but to return it.

She lifted the lid off a black velvet jewelry case. She expected to see a bracelet inside but instead there were two small charms. She lifted one and saw that it was a silver little baby with a blue diaper. The other was a microphone.

She looked at Scotty and he looked serious.

“I can’t afford the bracelet yet. But the first charm is the baby and I should have given that to you a year ago. The microphone is to let you know that whatever the future entails, to me you are already a star.”

Vanessa clutched the charms in her fist and then she hugged Scotty.

“Thank you baby! I love it!”

She sat on his lap and they snuggled.

“Should we wake up our son so that he can open his gifts?” Scotty asked.

“Uh …no. I was thinking that I give you your gift now.”

He obviously understood her intent because she felt his penis jump to life beneath her. It grew so rapidly and so hard that she gave him a raised brow.

“You’re obviously ready for your gift,” She said.

A slow flush filled his cheeks.

“Only if you’re ready to give it. There is no rush, honey.”

She wiggled her bottom over his erection and he sucked in a breath.

“That doesn’t feel like patience.”

“Are you planning to tease me?”

Vanessa’s response was to slip her shirt up over her head and to toss it to the floor. Scotty stared at her breasts. She remembered her dark brown nipples and how well they fit into his mouth. Now they were bigger. He reached out and cupped her full breasts a moment before lowering his mouth to take possession of one taut nipple.

Vanessa shuddered at the onslaught of passion. She wiggled rapidly against the hardness growing against her and Scotty’s face tensed as he fought for control.

She suddenly slipped from his lap and down to her knees where she lathed his chest with kisses that trailed over his shuddering abs and down the trail of hair that led down his waistband.