Davonyé
I sit out on my mom's porch to smoke a blunt while I wait for the women of the house to get their asses ready to go eat. My stomach is hurtin’ I'm so damn hungry, and my mood is vile because Ariella still ain't replied to my messages and it's almost twelve.
Clarisha comes outside. She's dressed in dark jeans and a little jacket.
“You not cold?”
“Nah.” she shrugs. “Alaska’s much colder than here.”
“You crazy.”
“And you actin’ different,” she says when she sits beside me.
She couldn't even imagine... “I'm good.”
She kisses her teeth. “You're far from good, Von. Talk to me.”
“I don't wanna talk about it.” She wouldn’t understand, and I promised Ariella... I swear my life is falling apart by the minute. I can’t get hard for my girlfriend, and the woman I wanna be with is half-human and half-wolf. Shit is fucked up.
“Tough.” She slaps my arm hard. “What's going on with you and Carisse?”
I glare at her. “Nothin’.” I pull the blunt again. They’re gonna beat my ass when they find out I’m breakin’ up with Carisse and jumpin’ straight into it with another woman.
She sighs. “Look, you clearly ain't getting on. It's obvious to all of us. Carisse was all bitchin’ to mom in the kitchen before she left earlier. Tell me what's going on and I'll have your back when mom pulls you up on that shit later, cuz you know she will. She loves Carisse.”
Don't I know it.
But that ain't gonna stop me. I know it must sound crazy, throwing away a near two-year relationship for someone I barely know, but deep down, I know that these feelings for Ariella ain’t goin’ nowhere.
“Come on,” she insists. “Vent to me.”
I close my eyes and rest my head back on the wicker chair “I just don't feel the same.”
“Oh, shit, Von. Since when?”
“Since...” Ariella. She’s consumed me. It’s like I need to be with her. And not just for that mind-blowin’ sex, either.
“Is there someone else?” she asks quietly.
I open my eyes and turn to look at her. I nod.
She exhales deeply. “Wow. I thought you and Carr were solid…”
“So did I. Trust me, I didn't go looking for anyone else.” Ariella just appeared and imprinted herself on me like a damn brand iron.
“So, what happened?”
I flick the end of the blunt over the handrail and it hisses when it hits the snow. “She’s at McGill. I seen her a while back. We’d kinda been coppin’ looks at each other but never spoke. There's something about her, sis. There's this pull that draws me to her, whether she's around me or not.”
“A pull?”
“Yeah, as fucked up as it sounds.” I tell her what happened at Harmony’s party but don't tell her I took her virginity. “But the strangest thing about it all is that the more time I spent with her, the more unattractive Carisse became, and now I don't feel anything for Carr.”
“Oh.”
I know it's got something to do with her being a werewolf, but I don't know what exactly.
Tinashe comes outside and leans against the handrail. She’s dressed equally as dumb. How the hell are they not cold? It’s freezing.
“You manage to get it out of him?” she asks Clarisha. She gives me a look and I narrow my eyes at her. These two...
“Yeah. He's checkin’ someone else but—”
“Can you shut the fuck up?” I spit at Clarisha. “It ain't like that so can you stop making it out like I’m some kinda—”
“Hey, I didn’t mean—”
“Shit, Vonyé,” Tinashe says, crossing her arms. “How you gonna do Carisse like that? Mom raised you better.”
“What-fuckin-ever! I already told Clarisha, it ain't like that. I can't fuckin’ help it.” Damn that sounds so lame but it’s the truth.
“What do you mean you can't help it?” Tinashe asks, giving me a look.
I glare up at her. “Exactly what I muthafuckin’ said. We got some crazy connection…” ‘She’s a mythological creature,’I wanna say, but I don’t wanna look even more insane than I’m startin’ to look already.
“You can't help but cheat on your girl?”
“You don't understand,” I say, feeling frustrated as fuck. “I barely even know the girl, but I can't get her out of my dammed mind. Even the way she smells—” I stop talking cuz mom comes out onto the porch.
Clarisha suddenly grabs my arm, hard as fuck, too. “What do you mean ‘the way she smells’?”
I pull my arm out of her grip as I get up.
She's staring at me all serious and shit. “Vonyé, what do you mean?”
I widen my eyes at her. “Why you tryna bait me up for?”
“What are you two arguing about, now?” Mom complains while she’s locking the front door. “You ain't seen each other for almost a damned year and you already fighting amongst yourselves!”
“We ain't fighting, ma.” I say as I walk down the steps towards the car. “Can we go now? Cuz I'm hungry.”
***
We eat at Benihana which is a Japanese steakhouse, and then afterwards, we visit my father’s resting place. Mom says a prayer with all of us here, then me and my sisters go back to the car to give mom some time alone.
I reach between the front seats to turn on the radio, but Tinashe turns it back off. She turns away from the steering wheel to look at me.
I frown. “Why you tri—”
“What does that girl smell like, Davonyé?” Clarisha asks, all serious.
I turn to face her. “Look, I'm over this shit now. Can you back up off me?”
“Not till you answer the question! What does she smell like?”
“I dunno, good. She says she wears a perfume called ware, but I don't know it.”
My sisters look at one another.
“What?”
“Ware, yeah? Pronounced were?”
I frown, cuz all of a sudden shit has clicked. Werewolf... That girl. She thinks she’s got jokes. “Yeah,” I say slowly. Do they know about this shit?
“What's her name?” Tinashe asks.
I get an anxious feeling in my gut like they know what the fuck is up. “Why?”
“Just tell us what her fuckin’ name is, Von!” Clarisha shouts.
“Ariella—”
They both gasp.
“What the fuck is with you two?” I look between them. “Do you know?”
“Know what?” Clarisha asks curiously.
“About… Werewolves.”
“Oh, yeah, we know,” Tinashe says quickly. “We are wares.”
“What! You're both one of them? The fuck? Why the hell didn't you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” Mom asks when she gets in the front passenger seat.
My sisters both look away from me. I'm fuckin’ reeling! How the hell can they be werewolves and I didn’t even know?
“Davonyé knows, mom,” Tinashe says.
I feel my eyes tryna escape from their sockets. “What? Mom knows, too? Fuckin’ hell! How have I not known this shit?”
“Boy, don’t make me come back there and whoop your ass!” Mom admonishes me.
“Sorry, mom, but how? And why ain’t your eyes different, then?”
Clarisha shrugs. “Lenses. We didn't know how to tell you.” She rests a hand on my arm briefly.
“Are you for real? How about, ‘by the way bro, we’re animals’.
“Hey! Less of the animal.”
“So are you one, too, mom?”
“No. And I don't wanna be. Your sisters offered to change me but I just wanna grow old gracefully and then when my time comes, be with your father.”
I stare at them in silence while Tinashe starts driving. “I can't believe this.”
“Sorry, Von,” Tinashe says, looking at me in the review mirror. “But we can't be too careful, y’know.”
“But I’m your brother! How long have you known?”
“Not long before we got married,” she replies. “More importantly, how long have you known?”
“Only a couple days. That girl, well, she's…”
“One, too,” Clarisha finishes. “Yeah, we know.”
I frown. “How? Do you know her?”
She shakes her head. “Not personally, no. But every ware knows who she is, and more importantly, who her parents are.”
Mister and Misses James? “Abriya and Clarence? Yeah. I've met them. Why? Who are they?”
“You've met them?”
“Yeah. I had lunch with them Tuesday.”
“Wow. What are they like?” Both my sisters look intrigued now.
“They’re cool. Just like normal people apart from the fact they can turn into monsters.”
Clarisha’s eyes almost pop out of her head. “I wouldn’t say that to them, little bro. That’s like a serious insult, considering who they are.”
“Who are they?”
“Hasn't Ariella told you?”
“No. We ain’t really spoken about what she is or anything. I told you, it's been complicated. I kinda freaked out after I found out what they were.”
“Oh, I see.”
“See what?” I’m getting vex, now. “Can you just tell me what’s goin’ on? Do you know why I feel a crazy attraction to someone I don't even know?”
“It's not our place, Von. If she was just any ware then we’d fill you in on all the details, but the James’ aren't just average wares and I don't wanna get into any trouble for sticking our noses into their busine—”
“Hold on,” mom says, interrupting. “You messin’ with someone behind Carisse’s back?” She turns in her seat to look at me.
“He can't help it, mom,” Tinashe answers. “A particular ware has found him.”
“Oh, Lord,” she cries as if she understands. “That’s all three of you, now.”
I frown. “Huh?”
“Yeah,” Clarisha says, eyeing me. “And it’s not just any ware, either. It’s the daughter of Abriya James.”
“Oh, good Lord!” she cries again.
“What is that supposed to mean?” They're pissing me off now. “Just tell me something!”
“Calm down, Von,” Tinashe says, giving me another look in the mirror. “It's nothing bad. But you should end things with Carisse because those feelings you have for Ariella are only gonna get stronger now. She had her change this week, didn't she?”
“Yeah, Thursday. Why?”
“And when did she wake up?”
“Today.”
She laughs. “No wonder you’re in such a foul mood.”
I glare at the back of her head.
“You wanna be there with her, don't you?” Clarisha says.
“Yo, listen, if you ain't gonna tell me nothin’ useful, don't say nothin’ aight? I ain’t got time for this.”
“It's not that we don't want to, Von, we just can't.”
I look out the window. “Whatever.”