Twenty-Eight
When Jasmine entered BJ’s hospital room, she was surprised to see Simone in the hospital room with BJ’s homeboy Ish.
“Hey, BJ.” Jasmine’s smile was mixed with genuine compassion as she walked up to the head of BJ’s hospital bed carrying ten get-well-soon helium balloons and a box of chocolate candy. She bent over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Jasmine, what’s good, baby girl?” BJ replied with a smile.
BJ was slowly getting his strength back with each passing day, but he still wasn’t able to eat on his own and had to be fed through IV. She noticed he had lost a lot of weight, but she didn’t comment on it.
“I know you all hard and stuff,” Jasmine said, “but you better take these balloons and candy.”
BJ chuckled and told her it was all good. He thanked her for the balloons and candy and told her where to put them.
“What’s up, Ish? And, Simone, what the hell you doing here?” Jasmine gave both of them a kiss on the cheek.
“I’m with my baby.”
Jasmine laughed and shook her head. “BJ, I introduced these two at the strip club and, I swear, they been attached at the hip ever since. Every time I call this heifer, she talking about, she’ll call me back, because she’s with Ish.”
“That’s how us Ghetto Mafia muthafuckas do,” BJ replied. “He put it on her the same way Nico put it on you.”
Ish laughed as he walked over to BJ to give him a pound.
“Here we go. See, you ain’t even hurt. Get your ass up and get dressed. We taking you home right now,” Jasmine said.
BJ asked Jasmine, “What’s that shit on your neck?”
“It’s my new tattoo. You like it? And look at the one I got on my hand.”
BJ looked at it and responded in the same manner as everyone else whenever they saw it, repeating what the tattoo said. “Love is cursed.”
“Yup. That shit is hot, right?”
BJ nodded, but it was easy to tell he was reluctant. He asked Simone and Ish to give him a few minutes alone with Jasmine.
Ish and Simone told him they were going to step out and go to Wendy’s on Jamaica Avenue and then come back.
As soon as Ish and Simone were out of the room and out of earshot, Jasmine looked over at BJ like she wanted to cry.
“Oh, BJ, I didn’t want to say nothing, but you sure you okay, boo?”
BJ could see the tears beginning to form in Jasmine’s eyes. “Yo, cut that shit out. There ain’t gonna be no fuckin’ tears up in here.”
“I know, but I don’t like seeing you up in here like this.”
“Jasmine, I’m gonna be all right.”
Jasmine bit down on the inner part of her lip to prevent herself from crying. She really cared about BJ on a human level and loved him like a brother, so her feelings of sadness and concern were genuine. Flashbacks of when she’d almost died added to her sadness.
“So what the hell happened? I mean, I been hearing all kind of shit from the street, but you know how that goes.”
“I don’t wanna talk in here. I’ll be home next week, though. When I get out of here, we’ll talk.”
Jasmine nodded, but at the same time she was hoping that BJ would start talking because she had her recorder going from before she walked into his hospital room.
“Okay, no problem. So you are coming home next week? That’s good.”
“Yeah, but I been fighting with these doctors. They been telling me that it’s a fifty-fifty chance that I’m going to need a colostomy bag for the rest of my life.”