“That Corey?” Josie whipped her head in my direction.
“You know it is. That hoe moved fast.”
My sister snatched my phone from my lap and accepted the call. “What bitch ass nigga?! My sister doesn’t have anything to say to you, but I just want you to know you’re a low life piece of shit, and Brion deserves so much better than you. When she finds her soulmate, I hope your chest caves in. I hope you won’t even be able to breathe. Keep fucking little girls with your over thirty ass. Meanwhile, my sis needs a grown man that can handle her and three kids. Bitch.”
Josie ended the call, and I looked over at her with a slack jaw. “Damn tell him how you really feel.”
“I hate him. After seven years he really has been playing in your face, and I don’t like that. I don’t like it at all.”
“Honestly, I’m glad he’s showing me who he is. I think it’s the reason I’m not as sad anymore. Every day he finds a new way to disgust me. I really could have had him back. I dead ass don’t want him. He is so cringe and lame to me now. No way that was the man that I was supposed to be with forever.”
“I’m with you when you’re right.”
My phone rang again, and Josie placed it in my lap. “That man has the IQ of a pretzel.”
“When he doesn’t have the girls, the first time he makes me mad he goes back on the block list. As soon as I stop this car, he’s going to be blocked. He doesn’t have anything to say to me. He needs to be consoling his girlfriend. She was the one that got beat up not me.”
When I made it back to my parents’ house, I put Corey back on the block list, texted Hymn, got ready for bed, and was out like a light.
CHAPTER 13
HYMN
I staredat the doctor while he peered at me. My back teeth were clenched together, and my nostrils were flaring. My irritation had nothing to do with pain.
“It sucks, Hymn I know. Four weeks out of the game is almost the rest of the season but what are you going to do? Play on it and fuck it up worse?”
I had just played in one of my best performing games since the season started. I was damn near untouchable on that field. Until I wasn’t. Out of all my years of playing football the only injuries I’d ever gotten were a dislocated toe, broken finger, and muscle strain. Now, this muhfucka was telling me I had to be sidelined for a month due to a sprained ankle. Yes, I was pissed. At least it wasn’t something that ended my career but still. I had busted my ass because I wanted us to make it to the Super Bowl. If we did make it, I could still possibly play in it, but missing multiple games leading up to it was some bullshit.
My misfortune wasn’t the doctor’s fault, however, so I stopped glaring at him like he’d just called me out of my name. He gave me a few prescriptions, and I stood as best I could on my wrapped ankle to leave. This was the exact reason that I was thinking almost daily about when I’d give the game up. The hitsand strain my body took in my twenties and thirties would cost me for the rest of my life. It wasn’t about the money. My last contract was for sixty-three M’s. It was about my love for the game and the things that I wanted to accomplish before I walked away.
In the car, I checked my phone and saw I had missed calls and text messages from my sister, Huncho, Brion, and a few other women that I’d had sex with and given my phone number to prior to meeting Brion. They could see on live television that I’d gotten an injury if they were watching the game. As I was about to text Divine back, my manager called. Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the seat for a moment and ignored the call. I would text, but I didn’t feel like talking to anybody. I was going to sulk for the rest of the night and hopefully wake up in a better mood the next day.
Usually, after a game I was starving, but I didn’t even have an appetite. Isaac called me, and I added his name to the list of people to text back after I took my medication. The phone rang again and when I saw it was Divine, I kissed my teeth and answered. I had never messaged her like I’d intended.
“I’m good sis. Sprained my ankle. Gonna be out of the game for at least four weeks.”
I was still pouting. What was the point in fronting? During the season, football was my life. I could still work my upper body out, study plays, and all that jazz, but I wanted to be in the trenches with my team. If I wasn’t on the field, I didn’t feel like I was doing shit. Divine knew me, and she knew I wouldn’t be happy about being injured. One thing she knew how to do was read the room. After making sure I was good, she’d leave me be for a minute.
“Well, I’m glad it isn’t something more serious. Let me know if you need anything. Don’t be overusing that ankle trying to be independent. Do you need me to fly there and do anything?”
“No, it’s just a sprain. I didn’t break anything, and I’m not bedridden. You have enough on your plate. Don’t worry about me.”
“Tuh,” she scoffed. “One less thing on my plate is your mother.”
“What you mean?” my brows furrowed.
“I was trying to help her get dressed for the day, and she told me she hated me. That was fine. I’ve been ignoring her because she’s going through it. When that lady fixed her mouth like she was going to spit on me, I looked her dead in the face and told her if she did it, I was gon’ forget she was my mother.”
Closing my eyes and flexing my jaw muscles, I attempted to calm myself down. “I’m looking for facilities for her tomorrow. She’s not going to be in your house acting like that. The other day the doctor told me it’ll be at least another few months before she’ll be done with physical therapy and released from his care.”
“I’m not even going to try and talk you out of it. Funny thing is, when she was about to spit on me, I realized why Huncho hasn’t been by. This lady never nursed us back to health when we were sick. She wasn’t really there for any pivotal moments in our lives but just because she gave birth to me, I stepped up and have been dealing with her around the clock for weeks even when the nurses are here. It’s a physical and mental strain that I was willing to endure until she showed her ass. That’s when it hit me. I don’t have to disturb my peace and be disrespected just because she gave birth to me. She had me then handed me off to whoever would take me. So, I’m done playing nurse. I need my head in the game for this real estate class.”
Divine was indeed fed up, so I could only imagine the things my mother did that Divine never complained or spoke about. By the time our call ended, it was decided that I’d pay for my mother to go into a rehab facility to finish the rest of her treatment. I would worry about where she’d go after, once shewas released. Prior to her being hospitalized, I wasn’t even sure where she lived. More than likely from pillar to post. It was a challenge for me to get my mother a place because if I got her one in a nice, suburban area, she’d have all of her junkie friends coming over and doing Lord knows what probably making the neighbors call the police every other hour.
If I got her a spot too close to the hood, she’d be tempted every day to indulge in the same shit she’d been indulging in, and she wouldn’t have to go far to cop the poison that she was addicted to. The only thing I could do was wait and see if she was going to get it together. After a long, hot shower, I forced myself to eat leftovers that Alonzo made the day before, so I could take my medication. I wasn’t in a lot of pain, and most of the pain I felt only occurred if I put too much pressure on my ankle. I grabbed an ice pack and elevated it.
If it wasn’t practice or a game, I really didn’t have anywhere to be. I was going to sit my ass down, rest my ankle, keep it iced, and do everything I could to ensure that I wasn’t out for the rest of the season.
