𝙰𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚖 - 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐬. 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑂𝑛𝑒

Tᕼᖇᗴᗴ

POV ƤƛƬƦƖƇЄ & ƤЄƬƦƖƇЄ 💕

Petrice Walters Swaby was the older voluptuous and more audacious version of me. She was the mother I never knew, the best friend that would be there to the very end and she came with no filter.

A well-arched brow raised itself dramatically as the other stood in place over almost raven colour eyes that boasted a thick casing of well applied that glared at me.

"Look paah mi good if mi a none a di reporter dem a TVJ?" she questioned and then hiss her teeth very much like I would before returning to the braiding hair to continue her effortless mixing of it.

"Like seriously Pet?!" I said a little too loudly but I would rather she had said something to prepare me for the fact OD was back other than me coming eye to eye with him so unbeknownst.

She made a loose knot with the braid placed it with the others she had already done then turn her full attention to me.

"Mi look like mi waah seh nothing bou Odean Davis to yuh?"

The question was rhetoric I know but I still open my mouth to reply but she was not through talking.

"Likkle gal mi seh fi tek dem people deh out a yuh head. Him deh yah wid e cousin dem fra Wednesday and wateva dem a duh yah it nuh flipping concern mi!"

I knew the reason for her animosity. Those who were old enough and were still in the community knew the reason well. Odenia and I were smack dab in the middle of it.

"Bwoy lef yah fi eight years a nuh even tun d white a e yey paah yuh nor---"

"That a nuh wah mi chat bou," I said cutting her off. I was not looking forward to hearing the details of the past that were now up in my face like a stone wall.

"Yuh," she said pointing colourful artistically designed coffin-tipped nails at me, "Naah guh come in a mi shop a nyam peanut cake a nuh gi mi none."

I did not know if I was to curse her out or just persist with my cause for coming here. I roll my eyes and push the peanut cake to her before walking to the mini-fridge she had packed with juice and taking out a Pepsi bubbla.

"Yuh a guh pay fah," she stated before returning the peanut cake and stretching her hand out for some of the soda.

I reluctantly smile as I hand the bottle to her and walk over to one of the plastic chairs she had placed in a small row opposite the door for waiting customers.

"Mi seh mi almost ketch heart attack in a Clarkey taxi," I told her "All along mi siddung in deh e did roun a d back a d taxi."

"Hhhmm," she mumbled clearly not interested but still looking at me.

"If yuh did seh suhm mi wouldn't so surprised."

"So wait deh, mi did inna d taxi wid yuh?" she both questioned and belched in one.

I glared at her standing there in her customary work black jeans, a green black and white jacket over a black cami. Her small feet despite her tall height were encased in a pair of Payless shoe store green, black, white, and grey plaid American Eagle women's Beck Boat shoes.

"Sometimes mi cyaah stan yuh," I told her but she only smile because she knew my words held no resentment. "Mi a tell yuh wah happen and yuh affi start wid yuh foolishness."

I guess there was something in my voice that caused her to pause and take notice because she sat upright wipe her palms across her forehead then ask.

"If mi did tell yuh seh OD deh yah Pat waah difference it would mek e?"