The Roof is on Fire by Brenda Hampton

in my mouth about Chase. I was going to get my apology, along with so much more than that.

See, Roc had slipped, fell, and bumped his head when he brought up Prince’s name like it was a good thing what he had done to me. Didn’t he know that women were sensitive about that shit? I was a bit upset with him, but I was sure my anger would cease.
    As for the argument between him and Chase, that was a first. He got in her ass over a stupid game, but I was happy to see her stand her ground. I guess since we were the only two females in the house, we had to get along better. The fellas showed how they were willing to come together and boot out Sylvia, so we had to watch our backs.
    Now that the tennis game was over, I sat at the computer desk to answer some fan mail that I had gotten. Once I finished replying, I intended to deal with Jaylin and his curls.
    Hi, Jada. I’m Shelly P. from Detroit. I gotta say that I almost came looking for you myself when you kept playing with Kiley’s heart. I didn’t like the way you handled yawl’s relationship and you seemed like a real gold-digger. All you did was bitch, bitch, bitch about him and his friends. Why would you try to stop him from being a father to his son? That was wrong on so many levels and I’m glad he finally found somebody who had his back.
    See, I was in a good mood, but it was stuff like this that pissedme the fuck off. This surely didn’t sound like a fan—more like a hater. I bit into my lip and punched hard on the keyboard to reply.
    First of all, Shelly, the only woman who ever had Kiley’s back was me. Anna was a fake and he knew it. Sorry that you couldn’t see so for yourself. And my heart was the only one being tampered with, because Kiley was trying to live on both sides of the fence. I do, however, regret my childish behavior with his son, but remember that he lied about that too. It was very difficult living with a man and having his friends and family there all the time disrespecting me. You have no idea what that was like, but I put up with it because I loved Kiley to death. His money came in handy, and as a dope-man’s woman, was I supposed to run around looking raggedy and shit? Was I supposed to not have my hair and nails done, and not rock the finest clothes that I could? Uh, no. He wanted me to have the best, and I wasn’t going to argue with him about that. I’mma end it right here, because you done upset me with yo accusations. The bottom line is I know I contributed to fucking up our relationship, and you already know why I can’t change a damn thing that happened. *Tears*
    I had to sit for a minute and chill out. Thoughts of Kiley flooded my mind, but after a while, I took a deep breath and stood up. When I walked over to where Jaylin was, he acted like he had forgotten about those curls. I interrupted a boxing match him and Roc were playing on PlayStation, while Chase was cooking dinner.
    â€œWhat,” Jaylin said as I pushed his shoulder.
    â€œUh, did you forget about your hair? You said I could do anything I wanted to with it.”
    He ignored me while finishing the boxing game with Roc. When Roc knocked out his character, Jaylin fell back on the couch.
    â€œDamn! I want a do-over. Jada interrupted me and I lost focus.”
    Roc laughed and stood to stretch. “No excuse. It’s over. The rematch has to take place after dinner, because I’m hungry.”
    â€œPlease tell me why y’all men are so competitive?” I said. “And you may as well sit back down, Roc, because Chase is takin’ her sweet little time in the kitchen.”
    Roc looked into the kitchen, seeing that there wasn’t much going on. He sat back down and relaxed on the couch.
    â€œWhat is it that you’re trying to do with my hair?” Jaylin questioned.
    â€œI’m not sure yet. I’m thinkin’ like maybe shavin’ some of it off or straightenin’ it. I really