Love/Fate by Tracy Brown Page A

trying to turn me against him or something.”
    Jamari frowned, and shook his head. “I ain’t trying to turn you against nobody. I know that y’all got history together, or whatever. But I happen to know the nigga longer than you have, and I know he ain’t the hero you try to make him out to be.”
    â€œWhat happened to make y’all stop being friends? You said you two used to be close.” Jada took the direct approach. She got results, too.
    â€œThe nigga thought I stole from him. He took a loss on five grand, and acted like it was fifty grand.”
    â€œDid you steal it?” Jada looked directly in his eyes, the way that Born had always taught her. She was searching for the truth.
    Jamari shook his head, and diverted his gaze. “I ain’t steal nothing from Born. Fair exchange ain’t robbery. I did a lot of work for that nigga. I took a lot of chances, and made a lot of moves for him. And I never got compensated for those things. I ain’t never complain. The one time he took a loss on my end, he acted like it was the worst thing in the world. The nigga cut me off like we were never close at all. He did it to you, too! So you should know exactly how I feel.”
    â€œHe did, but I deserved that. I never knew him to do nothing to anyone that didn’t deserve it. He’s not that type of guy. And I’m starting to wonder if you really did steal from him. Born’s a smart man—”
    â€œIf he’s so fuckin’ smart, then he must be right about you. You must be just a fuckin’ crackhead who ain’t never gonna change.”
    Jada looked crushed.
    â€œI don’t think that’s what you are,” Jamari clarified. “But that’s what
he
said you are. And if he’s so smart, then that must be true.”
    Jada stared at Jamari, her eyes probing. “There’s more to the story that you’re not telling me. I know there is.”
    Jamari looked at her, and wanted to tell her all of it. But he knew that the truth would make her cringe. He wasn’t sure if she was worthy of knowing. But he reconsidered, realizing that she was about to be the mother of his child. She was entitled to know the truth, for whatever itmeant to her. She needed to know why, as his child’s mother, she had to forget about Born.
    â€œSit down,” Jamari said. Jada obliged, hoping to gain some insight into why he hated Born so much. She wasn’t disappointed.
    â€œI grew up, like, ten minutes away from where Born grew up. We went to different schools until we got to junior high school. That was when we started hanging out, and he would invite me to his hood, and all that. We got to be good friends, but for some reason, my mother didn’t like the idea at all. At first she asked me what his last name was, and what his mother and father’s names were. She pretended not to know them, but she said that she had heard bad things about Born being a troublemaker, and all that. She kept telling me he was nothing but trouble. She told me she had heard all about Born, that he was a bad influence. I didn’t listen to her. I just kept doing what I was doing. My mother had a habit, so I wasn’t sure if she was one of Born’s customers on the low, or some shit like that, you understand?”
    Jada nodded, since Jamari had told her long ago about his mother’s addiction. She understood why he would question what his mother had really had against Born.
    Jamari took a deep breath, and looked at Jada to see what her reaction would be. “I never knew my father. Whenever the subject came up, my moms would tell me that it didn’t matter. The nigga never did shit for me, so what difference did it make what his name was—that’s what she’d tell me. So my mother waited until I was twelve years old to tell me that me and Born had the same father.”
    Jada gasped. “Are you serious?”
    Jamari nodded.