I rushed down the steps and outside, looking for that boy, but they were all gone. I ran to my car and got in. My gut feeling was telling me something bad was going on. I just didn’t know what.
BEANS
PRESS PLAY
I shifted to an empty spot beside me. My eyes gradually adjusted to the faint light filtering through the skylight. Looking at my clock, I saw it was just past six a.m. The love Piggy had shown left me feeling euphoric, while fear kept me alert. I got up to find her sitting in the dark living room, holding something. I turned on the lights and saw that she was fully dressed, holding a metal pole, and her expression was like that of a screaming demon. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked as I ran my hand down my face.
“I warned your ass,” she spat, pointing the pole at me.
She lifted from the couch as she came closer to me. “How long?” she asked.
I dropped my head. “First, you need to chill the fuck out. Second, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
She laughed, then nodded. “Ok,” she said.
She walked past me down the hall. My eyes followed her, and when she opened that door, I knew it was over. She walked into my office space, and on the screen, it showed not only whatwas happening inside her place and in my car, which she had wrecked, but also Treasure of Doom, the game I had curated around my life and hers. I had been watching Piggy for years. I knew things about her that she didn’t know I knew. It was sadistic, selfish, and dark, yet I had been obsessed with her.
I began walking down the hall, not only scared of the outcome of this but also angry because her ass went snooping around. “I told yo’ ass to stay away from there. You went searching for some shit and found exactly what you were looking for!” I barked.
She rolled the pole in her hand. “Yeah, I was looking, but you wouldn’t have said a single fucking word about it!” she shouted as her hand with that pole went flying up and came down on my shit.
Wham!
“You’ve been this way for years. You knew how I felt about you years ago, and you fucking strung me along!” she shouted again.
Wham!
She slammed the metal pole into one of my screens. “I fucking told you I loved you and you still played with me!” she barked and cried.
Wham!
She smashed up my desk. “Then you had the audacity to tell me I live in a fantasy world on air for everyone to hear. You embarrassed me. You played on my fucking emotions, nigga! You, Braylen, muhfuckin’ Beans!” she shouted as she pointed the pole at me. “You’ve been on bullshit since day one!Fuck you and this game!”
Wham! Wham!
“That’s why Pyran looks like me, Loch Ness Forest, my fucking ass!”
Wham!
She tossed the pole and came back down the hall, brushing past me. I went to grab her, and she swung at me. “Don’t fucking touch me!”
“Paige, listen to me, please, baby,” I begged. “I fucked up. I should have told you. A nigga was scared. I have shit that’s been holding me back and I—"
“Braylen, don’t fucking talk to me. You even used that gamertag. It was you all along. Now it makes sense how you got to Chevy’s without anyone calling you. You’re fucked up in the head and whatever have you this way, you need to fix the shit.”
I ran my hand through my hair as I tried to get my brain to say the right words. I gripped her arm and backed her against the wall. “Fuck!Paige don’t do this shit. We’ve been knowing each other too fucking long. If you walk out that door,I’m going to lose my shit!” I roared this time, scaring her.
She jumped back as her eyes widened. Her panting was heavy. She closed her eyes as she inhaled deeply, releasing a shaky breath. “You wanted what you wanted and didn’t care how it made me feel,” she said as tears streamed down her pretty brown face. “Let me go now.”
I let out a sharp breath because fear gripped me. I didn’t want to lose her. I released her arm, still trying to find the right words. What frustrated me most was that I didn’t know how to handle shit like this. I wasn’t given the chance to experience love and learn how to handle the hard parts. I didn’t have a mother to show me how to be compassionate and to cater to a woman’s feelings. So this was hard for me. “Paige. I mean Piggy.Fuck,just wait!” I shouted as I reached out to her again.
Her voice went from pain to anger, and that shit gutted me. “Don’t fucking touch me. It was me feeling bad, doing things to make you see me. Feeling inadequate because I wanted a nigga like you. It was me catering to your needs while you cried. Those nights I prayed you would pick me, you sat here and watched me cry my heart out. You stood me up. It is you who is the problem, not me. Now, move out my fucking way before I get my brother to beat your ass, nigga!” she snapped and walked out my door.
I stood there, staring down the hallway at the world I had built to be part of her universe, only for it to be shattered along with my heart. The simplest option was to tell her, but I feared her reaction. That pain was intensified when, as I predicted, I confessed my love to her. A man who once had control over everything now felt powerless. I hurriedly dressed to go after her because I couldn’t accept losing the woman I loved.
I had become everything I once said I wouldn’t be. Now it was me jumping to catch love like Mario coins. It was me about to run through the city chasing after love. Love had come to me, but it had me on a fucking leash like a dog, and all I could do was follow. The pain of love being ripped away from me as quickly as I could find it was unbearable. I put on my sweater and headed toward the door. As I swung it open, I was unexpectedly met by two officers. “Are you Mr.,” he paused as he glanced down. “Braylen Laureaux?”
I didn’t have time for this shit. I needed to catch up with my girl, the love of my life. “Yes, that’s me,” I gritted.
