My mama laughed before she told me to give her mama her money. “Mama, Grandma, I’m sorry about her. She’s a female that I used to deal with. This conversation was confirmation that I needed to cut her smooth off. Consider it done.”
There was nothing else that needed to be said about the topic because Benjamin Abloy taught me how to be a man of my word. That was all that I knew how to be. When my father died thirteen years ago, I was devastated. To get a call in the morning that your father didn’t wake up was the worst experience of my life. A brain aneurysm during the night took my and my sister’s father from us and my mother’s husband from her. I was fucked up for years behind his death.
There was so much anger in me that I would go off on anyone. All it took was the wrong look and I was on your ass. My mama didn’t know how to handle me, especially since I was a grown man. It was different from when I was younger and had my issues. My father was there, and he was on my ass.Get back on the leash, Son.That was what he would say to me when I was angry.
I was a calm person overall, but when provoked, I was like a rabid dog off a leash. That was why I stayed in the circle that I knew. It was safer for all involved that way. Over the years, I kept busy with the restaurants, farm, and helping my sister raise my nephew Benji.
My phone vibrated on the table.Damn, my sister’s ears must be itching.“What’s up, Sis?”
There was shuffling on the other end for a second.“Bolt, I’m going to kill your nephew if I get to that damn school before you do. Right now, you’re his only fuckin’ hope,” she fussed.
“Man, Sis! Calm down. Now tell me what happened.”
A Boy Fight . . .
My nephew, Benji, was one of the most intelligent, yet dumbest teenagers that I knew. There was no doubt in my mind that he would be something great and impactful when he was older. Right now, as a fifteen-year-old teenager, he struggled with the regulations of his emotions at times. That shit got him into more trouble than it was worth.
His grades were so impeccable that he was invited to a prestigious, private high school.Heritage of Excellence High Schoolwas an award-winning high school right here in country ass Clover, South Carolina. It was something we called our own.
When I pulled up to the guard gate at the campus, I gave them my name. Yeah, it was that serious. If you weren’t supposed to be on campus, then you wouldn’t be. With all the school violence, I loved the security measures that the highschool took to ensure the safety of the students, faculty, and staff.
Bethany was at our Charlotte restaurant location. She called me when she was almost in Clover to come to the school. I was happy that she did because her off-the-leash was ten times worse than my off-the-leash.
“Hi, my nephew was in a fight or something. His name is Benji Abloy,” I told the office secretary when I walked in. She looked up at me with a welcoming smile.
“Oh, yes. He is in the in-school suspension room waiting for you or his mother.” She stood. “I’ll take you there to speak with him. Principal Anderson is currently speaking with the other student’s parent.”
My head tilted. “Principal Anderson? What happened to Principal Carver?”
“Oh, Principal Carver accepted an out-of-state opportunity. Principal Anderson has been the new principal since the beginning of the school year. She is so amazing and smart.” The secretary gushed over the principal.
She opened the door to the in-school suspension room which was a small room with a desk in it. Benji sat at the desk with an open book in front of him and a tablet. His head popped up at the sound of the door opening. A sense of relief covered his expression when he saw me. “Man, Unc, that boy started with me.”
I waited until the secretary left the room to speak. “Benji, you know your ass isn’t supposed to be fighting. We talked about this shit.”
His eyes bucked. “So, I’m just supposed to let some dummy think he can bully me because he thought I was an easy target? I was minding my business, writing notes for my research paper coming up, and his stupid ass poured soda all over my notes, ruining them.”
Ah shit!If there was one thing that my nephew didn’t play about at all was his schoolwork. Benji was an honor student and took that shit serious as fuck. When you saw him, you assumed he was an athlete because of his size, but nah. He was a tech nerd who hung out with other tech nerds. Some of the kids that were deemed the cool or popular kids saw that as a weakness for some reason.
“I’aight, nephew. We’ll get it all sorted out. I’ll talk to ya mama because you know all she heard was that you were in a fight,” I told him before I cupped the back of his head with my hand.
We sat in there for another ten minutes before the secretary came in to get us. She told us that we could wait in the principal’s office. When we walked in, I was surprised at the size of it. It had a conference table toward the back.
My ass was nosy, so I took a moment to look around. On a side table against a wall, there were various frames. I walked over to get a glimpse of this new principal.Damn, she’s fine as hell and thick.I wasn’t surprised that she was a person of color since that was the lineage of the school since it was established. A picture toward the back of the table caught my attention. I recognized the picture.
I picked it up to make sure I wasn’t tripping. Nah, I wasn’t. I pulled my phone out and snapped a picture of the picture, then set the frame back in its rightful place. I moved to the conference table and took a seat.
Me:
*Attached pic* Aye, isn’t this you?
Josh:
Nigga where you get that old ass pic of me and P’Nee from?
I knew it! I was the one who took this picture. Joshua was like thirteen years old in the picture. We all went to the fair together.
Me:
