Hell House (15 page)

Jada narrowed her eyes and glared at Chase without a blink.

“Close the piano and turn out the lights,” Prince said, laughing. “Pack it up because this party is over!”

Chase continued. “Party over or not, Jada needs to appreciate me for speaking up about it. Nobody else is willing to say anything, and it's a shame when we allow
our
people to speak this way around us and not say one word. She may not thank me now, but she'll be thanking me later.”

Prince grabbed his plate off the table and rushed toward the house. “I'm out. When fists start flyin', and blood start sheddin', I don't want to be nowhere around.”

I wasn't about to let Jada and Chase get down again, even though it gave me a rise to see some nakedness. Since they were chilling at the same table, I thought everything was all-good. I guessed not.

Sylvia spoke up, somewhat agreeing with Chase. “I get what Chase is trying to say, Jada, but it may be coming across the wrong way. Instead of embarrassing you in front of everybody, maybe
Chase should think about pulling you aside and telling you about her concerns when the two of you are alone.”

“If you think that's the appropriate way to do it, Sylvia, then why haven't you done it?” Chase said with snap in her voice. “I hate people who sit back and never say anything, until somebody else does.”

“It was a suggestion, Chase. And I'm not going to sit here and argue with you over something so ridiculous.”

Jada slammed her hand on the table and crumbled up a piece of newspaper. She formed it into a ball and held it in her hand.

“I am so sick and tired of tryin' to be nice to people. Both of you bitches really need to get a life and mind your own business. How many times do I have to say not to correct me? Don't worry about my grammar, hoes! Focus elsewhere and continue to chase dick like the two of you are doin' so well. I haven't said one word about that, even though desperate women irk the hell out of me.”

Jada threw the wad of paper at Chase's face, got up from the table and bolted toward the house. She slid the door aside, almost cracking the glass from slamming it so hard. All Chase did was yell that she had something for her later, but I was sure it wouldn't be her fist because those weren't capable of causing Jada much harm. I happened to look at Jaylin who was leaned back in the chair, resting his index finger along the side of his face. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was smiling. He was, and deep down, so was I.

I wasn't going to sugarcoat anything or beat around the bush. Jada did get the best of me last night and I was fuming inside, as I waited on the opportunity to get revenge. There was no way for me to let something like that go; walking around here with a black-eye was pretty embarrassing. Roc seemed to give me a little sympathy, but Jaylin still hadn't said much to me.

At this point, I really didn't care much about this challenge. I wasn't trying to be the last person standing. All I wanted was revenge and a piece of Roc. His rejecting me made me want him even more. I surely thought getting at him would be much easier, but I was wrong. It was one thing after another and it seemed as if he wasn't with it.

Tonight, I would push harder, to see if I could get us back on the right track. Maybe I could persuade Jaylin, too, but when I saw him kissing Sylvia in the pool, I was through with him. Then, he got in her shit this morning, and from the way he cussed at her, I assumed he was done. Good for him because her actions were way out of line. What kind of woman went through a man's things that she didn't know? What did she expect to learn or gain from going through his stuff? That was a very immature move and she should be embarrassed for coming off as a psycho woman with issues.

I spent most of the day cleaning this house. It was my way of staying away from Jada and not correcting her when she said the wrong thing. I really saw it as me doing her a favor and to hell with her if she thought otherwise. I didn't like her attitude, and I didn't like the way she kept playing around with Jaylin. I kept asking myself if something was there between the two of them because they really seemed chummy around here. There were times when I saw him checking her out, and she couldn't keep his name out of her mouth. I could never imagine him being with a woman like her, and I had to keep the faith that she was on a very different level than he was.

I threw the dirty rag in a bucket and pulled off the rubber gloves to wash my hands. The bathroom wasn't as filthy as I thought it would be, but with so many people using the shower, it had to be cleaned every day. Then, with the men peeing on the toilet and missing, I had to wipe all around it. From all the cooking Jada had done, she had the kitchen in a mess. She half cleaned it, so I went behind her to tidy it up. I made up our beds and straightened the closet. I also straightened the living room, where magazines were all over the place. Somebody left a can of soda on the table and an empty bag of Doritos was stuffed down in the couch. It was probably Prince because I saw him drinking from the soda can earlier.

Other than that, the place was back to normal. I was glad about that. I had to do this all over again tomorrow because my name was on the schedule for the next two days.

“Smelling good around here, ma,” Roc said, referring to the smell of Pine-Sol as he stood in the bathroom's doorway. “I need to take a leak. Do you mind?”

“No,” I said, quickly washing my hands and leaving the bathroom. I went to the kitchen to put the bucket and cleaning items
underneath the sink and then threw away the gloves. I hurried back to the bathroom to catch Roc. As soon as he came out, there I was.

“What's up?” he said, rubbing his waves to flatten the front of them.

“Just wondering what you were up to. Thought we could go to the gym to work out, if you're not too busy.”

“I was hangin' outside by the pool with everybody else and gettin' crunk off some music. If you want to work out, that sounds like a plan to me. Let me go change clothes.”

I followed Roc into the bedroom. We went into the closet to get our workout gear, and then we sat on our beds to change. I stripped down to my lime-green boyshorts that didn't hide much. I didn't have on a bra and had no intentions to put one on. Roc changed into his Nike shorts and a T-shirt. He bent down to tie his tennis shoes, and that was when I stepped up to him. I stood in front of him half-naked and rubbed his waves. He inched his head up and glared at me.

“I thought you said you wanted to go work out,” he said, removing my hands from his hair.

“I do want to, but I thought we could possibly start our workout in here.”

Roc lowered his eyes to my breasts that stared him right in the face. My nipples damn near touched the edge of his lips. When I felt his hand touch my leg, I figured I was in business. I leaned forward, causing him to lie back on the bed. Having his attention, I straddled him and sat directly on top of the steel he was packing. I could already feel it lying long between my coochie lips, and the feel of it had me hyped. His strong hands continued to roam my curves while he looked up at me.

“Riddle me this,” he queried. “Why you sweatin' me? I already
told you that I'm not sure about doin' this with you. And there is no doubt that my woman wouldn't approve of this.”

“Sweetheart, I don't sweat men. I fuck them—well. The question is who's going to tell the woman you say you love? You? I know not me, so what are you so worried about? Plus, even though you're saying you don't want to do this, your actions say otherwise. You've been flip-flopping too much, Roc, and you really need to stop teasing me.”

Roc was quiet—he was in thought, so I started to massage his rock-solid chest that was bulging with muscles. It was carved to near perfection and whoever his woman was, she was damn lucky to have all of him in bed with her every single night. I only had him now, so I intended to take full advantage of the moment.

As I massaged Roc's chest, his eyes fluttered and then closed. I leaned forward, placing the tips of my nipples on his chest while my ass was in midair. His hands were still roaming my backside, and then I felt his finger slide underneath my boyshorts. He found my wet spot and wasted no time sinking his finger inside of me. I had to tighten my lips to muffle my mouth as he went deeper. His touch had already started to make me rain. My inner thighs were wet; so wet that he made mention of it.

“Umph, exactly how I like it. Wet and warm,” he said, inserting another finger for more pleasure.

“Rip them off. My boyshorts, that is.”

Roc wrapped his fingers around the crotch section of my boy-shorts and pulled tight. They ripped apart and he now had a clear path to my goodies. He still seemed a little hesitant, so I made the next move. I went for a kiss. A juicy one that hopefully took his mind off whatever or whoever it was he was thinking about. I sucked his tongue and licked his lips with as much passion as I could. That was when I felt him touch his shorts and slide them
down. But as soon as he did, the bedroom door flew open. Our heads snapped to the side and we saw Jaylin walk into the room. He studied my ass, only for a few seconds, and then kept it moving.

“Didn't mean to interrupt,” he said, going into the closet. He got something from it and then walked by us as if we weren't even there. He closed the door and my attention turned back to Roc. He sat up on his elbows to look me in the eyes.

“I'mma need to pull back on this, all right?”

I was shocked by his words, only because we were so close. This rejection bullshit was driving me nuts, and why did he keep messing with me like this? I hated a man who couldn't make up his mind, and to get me hyped like this was frustrating.

“Why do you want us to pull back? I'll go lock the door; that way no one else will interrupt us.”

“No need to. I don't feel like this is somethin' I want to dig into right now. You bad, ma, fasho got it goin' on, but once I do a reality check, I gotta realize that I didn't come here for this.”

“Neither did I, but since we're here, why not? I'm not going to sweat you, Roc, but why would you get me energized like this and then walk away? Are you okay with that?”

“Not really, but I'm not goin' to keep explainin' myself to you. Get up.”

Okay, now it was a disrespect thing. Did he have to tell me to get up like that? I couldn't help but to think about what would've happened had Jaylin not come into the room. Damn him. I was mad, but sweating a man over his dick was not my style. I had already pushed this situation enough and this was it for me. Roc would have to make the next move.

I eased off him and sat in silence on the other bed to put on my clothes.

“Ay, you still want to work out, don't you?” Roc asked.

I shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

He told me to meet him in the workout area. Five minutes later, I did. We worked out for about an hour, and by that time, it was almost ten o'clock at night. Everybody had talked about turning in early, especially since we hadn't gotten much sleep last night. I was all for it because I was tired as hell.

“I'm gon' finish readin' the last few pages of this book, then I'm callin' it a night,” Jada said.

“Hopefully you're readin' the dictionary,” Prince said out loud.

“No, I'm not. But hopefully your uneducated, missin' tooth tail got one stuck up yo ass for me to borrow. If not, shut up and stop worryin' about what I'm doin'.”

“Dang, girl, I was playin' with you. Why you always gettin' so hot and snippy with people?”

“Because you don't know me that well to be playin' with me. I'm a grown-ass woman, and I will not settle for bein' dissed by little boys who still pee in the bed.” Jada cut her eyes at Prince and turned to Jaylin. “Boo, please keep my spot warm for me, and, Chase, don't forget to keep your mouth zipped tonight or we may have a repeat of yesterday.”

I ignored Jada. She should've been reading every single dictionary in print, instead of a single book. Jaylin ignored her, too. I bet that bitch was a bully growing up, but even bullies got put in their places.

Within the next hour, I was finally ready to shut it down. Prince and Jada were the only two still awake. He was doing something on the computer and she was in the bathroom. I went into the bedroom and turned out the light. Jaylin was knocked completely out, but Roc was tossing and turning. Sylvia's eyes were closed, but she looked to be faking it.

I changed into my negligee and got in bed. Jada came in about
ten minutes later. I kept my eyes opened, waiting for her to make some noise. I was so sure she would.

“Shit, it's cold in here,” she said, putting on her pajamas and then laying down. I could hear her moving around in the bed. A cough followed and she fluffed her pillows. A few minutes later, she called Jaylin's name. “Sweetie, I have no idea what your last name is, but please, please get out of your bed now to see what this is.”