When I arrived home my mama was nowhere in sight. The old man Curtis even made it back home, before she did. He walked into the house, trying to kiss my ass.
“Raven, you need a few dollars?” he asked me, as he sat on the couch right next to me. He licked his lips, and threw his arm on the back of the couch. Right then, I knew that he was guilty, because he had never offered me anything before.
“Naw.” I told his old perverted ass as I scooted away from him. He was a little too close for comfort.
“You know I saw you today.” he said in a tone, as if he had some dirt on me.
“Yeah, I saw you too.” I pursed my lips.
“Well, if you like, I won’t tell your mama what I seen.” he smiled.
“What?” I asked in disbelief. “You didn’t see me doing nothing other than walking with my friend to the store.” I sassed at his lying ass.
“Yeah, well your mama said that you can’t have boyfriends, but you was sure as hell with a boy kissing and holding hands.”
“You’s a lie!” I snapped, and right then my mama's a-day-late-and-a-dollar-short ass walked through the door.
“Why are you screaming at Mr. Curtis like that?” my mama wasted no time. The one thing she hated was a disrespectful child.
Immediately, I went into to defense mode, because all I knew was that he was wrong. I didn't really stop to think about how things may have seemed. “He’s in here lying, talking about he seen me with a boy, because I saw him riding with Ester the prostitute.” I tried to explain hurriedly, in an effort to get my side of the story out first.
“Oh, my Lord, this little girl is lying, baby. I saw her riding with a grown ass man. I came to let you know, but she beat me here.”
“What!” I screamed, outraged. “Your old ass is lying!”
I know that I was being disrespectful, but considering the circumstances I just knew that my mama was going to back me up.
Whap!Before I knew what was what I felt a hand go across my face. My mama had slapped the cowboy shit out of me. The blows continued to come, and I was so pissed that I began to fight her ass back. How could the woman that birthed me take some stranger’s side over her own child’s? Now, she was no mother of mine.
As we fought like two women on the street, old ass Curtis did nothing to stop it. Eventually, we both became exhausted and I had to move around. So, I dashed for the door, and didn't stop running, until I was at least four blocks away from my home. I didn’t know where I was going, but I was not going back to that woman’s house. I came across a payphone, and called my grandma with my last quarter.
“Hello.”
“MoMo, I need somebody to come get me.” I told her, on the verge of tears.
“What happened?” she asked with concern.
I ran everything down to her, and she too was pissed. She got to talking about sending my uncles over to handle Curtis’s dog ass. Then she called my sorry ass daddy on three-way. Personally, I didn’t want to talk to him. He paid his child support every week, but I hadn't seen him in two months. He was too busy playing house with the next bitch, and frankly I was tired of my feelings getting hurt. My mama said that he was too busy chasing pussy to be a daddy to me.
“That bitch ass man put his hands on you?!” my loser of a daddy asked me.
“No, mama just attacked me, when he started lying on me.” I told him, while my lips quivered.
“Well, stay where you at. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” he said before hanging up. I stayed on thephone with my grandma, until Ray-Ray showed up on the scene.
My daddy was just thirty years old, and people had trouble believing that he had a child my age. Shit, girls just a few years older than me were ready to give him the booty. I hate to say it, but he is handsome, and I looked just like his sorry ass.
He hopped his 6’2 frame out of his Expedition, and examined me. “You sure that nigga didn’t touch you?” he asked me again.
“No, just mama.” I repeated for the umpteenth time, as I stared at him.
He was the same complexion as me, with the same dimples, eyes, and hair texture. It was crazy looking at my father with an ocean of waves in his hair that could make any chick seasick, and he possessed so many ripples in his chest that it looked like someone could climb them. He was thugged out, for real. He was tatted up and even had teardrops in his face. He was so ghetto. The dude even hadRaventatted across his neck. I don’t know why he was repping a child that he rarely saw.
“Come on. Get in.” He finally told me, so I did. Instead of heading for the freeway or something, this asshole heads back to my mama’s house.
“I’m not going back over there. I’ll run away.” I told him, meaning every word.
“I’m not leaving you there with that man, and I wish your asswouldtry to run away. Don’t make me hurt you, Raven.” my daddy threatened, and I knew that he meant it. He would let me get away with more than my mama would, but when he did come down on me, I caught hell.
