Free Can't Be That Other Woman by Ambria Davis Page B

“Come on, Delaney, let’s just go in this one store and I swear we’re going to leave right after,” she said, looking at me. I looked at her sideways, because she had said that about the last few stores we had previously visited. “I tell you what. I’ll buy you something if you come. Deal?”
    “Deal,” I quickly accepted. Who was I to turn down her offer to buy me something ?
    “That’s a damn shame,” she said, shaking her head. “And here I thought you were my friend.”
    “I am your friend, your best friend at that. I just can’t pass up the opportunity to get something new. You know my money ain’t long like yours.”
    “Delaney, chill out with that, okay? I already told you that as long as I got, you got. So don’t be tripping on all of that shit,” she said, as we made our way into Neiman Marcus.
    After spending twenty minutes in the store and not buying a damn thing, we finally left. Tracy tried going back into a store that she came out of, but I straight up told her no. She even tried bribing me again, but I wasn’t taking that shit. I was tired and ready to go, so we left.
    Before we headed over to her house, we had to stop at my house first. When I opened the door, the house was exceptionally quiet. What surprised me the most was that the house was clean. I mean, I halfway expected to walk into a noisy, dirty living room, but it wasn’t. I then walked to the kitchen to see that it too, was clean, with pots on the stove. Walking over to the stove, I removed the lids off the pots to find food in them. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, so I placed the lid back on them and checked again. Just like before, there was food in them. Which meant that someone had already cooked and cleaned, but the question was who?
    Leaving the kitchen, I headed toward my brothers and sister room. When I passed by Daija’s room, I noticed the light on. Remembering how things went down the last time I stepped in her room, I decided not to go in. Once I made it to the kid’s room, I was surprised to find them already in their pajamas, watching TV.
    “Hey y’all,” I sang from the doorway.
    “Hey Laney,” Dedrick and Derrick both said, running over to me and giving me a hug.
    “Where’s Dallas?” I asked, once I noticed she wasn’t in the room.
    “She’s in the room with Daija.”
    “How was y’all day? Y’all was good at school or what?” I asked them.
    “We had a good day,” Derrick said.
    “Yeah and I had a test today and passed it with flying colors,” Dedrick chimed in.
    “That’s good. I brought y’all something from GameStop today,” I said, holding up the bag that I had hidden behind my back. They immediately started smiling and dancing. I pulled the two video games that I had brought them out of the bag and handed to them.
    “Oh, Laney brought us a new game!” They yelled happily, before they hugged me again. “Thanks sis!”
    “Y’all welcome, but aye, Dallas and I are about to go sleep at Tee Tracy’s house. We’re coming back tomorrow. So I want y’all to be good until then, okay?” I told them.
    “Okay,” they said, not really paying me any mind. They were too busy pulling their PS4 out of the box to go and play it. I walked over to them and stood directly in front of them, so they could hear me.
    “I’m not playing now. Don’t let them tell me that you guys were bad, or I’m going to take them games back, okay?”
    “We won’t, we’re going to be good. We promise,” they told me.
    “Okay,” I said, smiling. I then placed a kiss on their foreheads, before making my way back to the door. “If something goes wrong or y’all need something, don’t hesitate to call my phone.”
    “Okay, bye Delaney.” I told them bye, before I left and made my way to Daija’s room.
    I stood at the door for a good minute, before I finally knocked. A few seconds later, Dallas opened the door. When she saw me, she ran straight in my arms and hugged me as if she hadn’t