Deleted Scene
Literally just wrote it and hate it so here ya go. lol
Delilah Skye
“I need you to be nice,” I warned as Caroline and I sat down at the bar together. I could see Pia just now walking in with her childish bangs making a comeback but her hair brushed down one side of her chest as she stepped in her heels. Light denim jeans and a top that crossed her chest with a tie knot, she reeked of money. Her small crossbody Louis Vuitton bag and flawless light makeup, she naturally turned heads in the dim lit lounge with men already gearing up to come and try and talk to her.
Times like this, I believed Pia knew exactly how beautiful she is. Just liked to play the shy card but Homer should be pumping her head up more than ever at this point. Caroline crossed on leg over the other with her short hair forced into a baby bun on top of her head while her edges swooped in decorative swirls against her head, she of course looked close to perfect being that she was in the beauty industry while I let my aura, my body ripe from hormones and past pregnancy do the talking.
“Sorry I’m late. I was actually just fussing at your cousin,” she laughed as she sat on the stool next to me. “Lemonade or sweet tea if you have any,” she ordered.
“No drinks?” I questioned.
“Not tonight I’m afraid. I have an early work day tomorrow and need my mind to be sharp.”
“What exactly do you do Pia?” Caroline asked as I cut my eyes towards my cousin with another warning glare. “I didn’t realize you had a job. I just assumed you were like Frannie… just living off the family.”
“No, I um… I work with my Uncle, keeping his books for his business and personal life along with a few others… It's not ideal but when you have a child, you learn you can’t really rely on family so much.”
“Are you ever going to move to South Carolina?” I asked as she rolled her eyes.
“That’s what I was on the phone arguing with Homer about. He throws a little hissy fit every time I leave his place like, sir? I don’t have to drive all the way up here to see you...and you don’t hear me complaining when you leave my house. Now it's… I’m keeping Violet away from me for too long, it doesn’t make sense that I choose to stay in Georgia, even after us dating, like? I don’t know you Homer. I’m still getting to know you.”
“He’s always been his way or no way,” Caroline waved off. “Ignorant is what I prefer to use.”
“Honestly, I can deal with the ignorance, it's the selfishness I’m struggling to cope with and I’m wondering if that’s making me,” putting her hand on her chest, “selfish.”
“No,” Caroline let out with a roll of her eyes as the two began to talk with me sitting annoyingly in the center wishing we could talk about anything but Homer. “It’s why I don’t take him seriously and it's why he is most likely going to be the last to marry. Everyone thinks Michael would be the one trying to compete with Homer, and keep up with Homer. Be the last to get married or the last to find love when it's the other way around. Homer is…”
The bartender slid three drinks towards us with a piece of paper folded towards Caroline.
The gentleman over there wanted to send this over in hopes that you lovely ladies would join them,” he said with a smug grin. We all looked back at the table full of men as they smiled with one in particular blowing a kiss at Caroline.
“We’re all happily taken but thank you for the drinks,” I answered before allowing Caroline’s smart mouth to get in the way. “Now back to the real issue at hand…because nobody wants to spend a night talking about Homer. Are any of you watching the news?”
We began to discuss black politics with the three of us having tone of maturity about ourselves. Pia and Caroline were able to talk. Maybe not bond in the way that I would have hoped. It might have been too late for that but they were at least cordial and in no way throwing shots at one another or side glances at me. It was a breath of fresh air to just be around women with something to say which is why I invited Pia of all people. She was more mature for her age and well versed in what’s going on.
“Have you seen a picture of him? He’s really cute,” Pia said as she pulled out her phone, “I think your parents have Caleb now but he and Violet really took to one another. Homer said they located his father who apparently wants nothing to do with him. I’m not sure if it's because---”
“It’s because of what he is,” I nodded, studying the picture of the little boy they found in the church last week. He had his fist up to show his muscles off with the biggest grin as he stood in front of my Uncle like they were working on the yard together. “More than likely, he is the first of his kind in his family and they took him to a church to fix him… If you are not prepared to raise a child with a totem, you are in for a rude awakening because the younger they are, the more reckless they will appear. Just like with Violet when she was a baby… The teeth, the biting, the night sweats---”
“I know,” Pia sighed. “It's a shame his family just abandoned him the way they did.”
“Hmmmph, Daddy said they’re going to get all of his things, and find anything else about him before taking him in permanently. I’m like, yall don’t know who this kid is… where he comes from or why… literally a stray off the streets. Nonetheless, we have a little brother we have to meet. Siren is no longer the baby of the family and she’s thrilled that he’s a boy.”
“I bet,” I laughed as I dug into my purse, feeling my phone vibrate repeatedly. I grabbed the screen and noticed Percy’s name appear before quickly answering it.
“Hello?”
“You need to get over here. Ben and Piru have been arrested and I need to go in and see what---”
“For what?” I asked as I stood up, waving for Caroline and Pia, “why was he arrested? What happened and where are the kids?”
“I have them with me but you need to hurry the hell back home so I can go---”
“I’m on the way.”