“Minding my business.” I snaked my neck.
“What?! You must think that I won’t kick your ass, little girl.” he barked, as he lifted off the couch.
“Do what you do. At least then maybe I can lose this bitch ass baby.” I snapped.
“Raven, what’s wrong with you? Why would you say something like that?” Red asked me with tears in her eyes. I didn’t mean for her to be affected by my words. My anger was directed to the sorry ass men in our lives.
“Red, I don’t know how you can put up with this. I’m tired of your son and Ray-Ray. I just wanna move out!” I blurted.
“What? What did I do to you?” Ray-Ray asked, as if I offended him or something.
“You uphold Jahrein.” I clapped my hands. “You let him do fucked up shit to me. Why do you allow him to lay with me, when you know he’s out here fucking other girls? I’ll tell you why! It’s because you do the same thing, so you don’t see nothing wrong with it.”
“That’s a lie, Raven! I don’t let that nigga do shit to you. If you don’t wanna be with him then just tell him. I’ll make sure that he gives you your space.” Ray-Ray alleged.
“It’s too late. You should’ve done that before he knocked me up again. I hate you and him! I just wanna go!” I screamed as I walked towards my room. I went straight to my closet and started throwing shit in my duffel bag. I didn’t know where I was going, but I wasn’t staying there.
“Raven, calm down, mama, before you have a miscarriage. And you don’t want that at this stage. That shit is painful.” Red said, as she came in and stood in front of my closet, preventing me from getting more clothes.
“Red, please move.” I sniffled. “I gotta get out of here.”
“No.” she shook her head. “Even though, you might feel like it most of the time, you are not grown. And you know damn well that your daddy is not about to let you out of this house.”
“Fuck that hoe ass nigga!” I bellowed, as I dropped my clothes on the floor.
“Girl.” was all Red could say, as she started fanning herself.
“Mama, let me talk to her for a minute.” Jahrein told her, as he entered the room.
“I aint got shit to say to you.” I gritted.
“That’s cool. Then you can just listen.” he nodded.
Red eased out of my room and closed the door behind her. They all pissed me off. Why did they give us privacy like we were some married couple or something? I was just fifteen and I think that everybody had long ago forgotten that.
“Baby, I know that you are mad right now. And you have your reasons. But before you say anything I want you to listen….I been in The Dead End for thepast two days trying to get my paper right. I threw away a lot of work the other day running from the laws, so I was trying to mash over there. I was hustling night and day. It was just about the money. I swear on everything I love.” he raised his right hand to the man.“Mama, I was getting this money for our family. We about to have another mouth to feed, and we can’t live here with them forever. My brother is coming home next month, so this house is going to be even more crowded. Two babies in this little bitty room aint gon cut it. Raven, I promise that’s all I’m worried about is you, Junior, and my unborn child.”
I snarled. “You know what? Fuck you and your promises. Why didn’t you include that baby you got with Melissa?”
“Who told you that?” he frowned. “That bitch’s baby aint mine!” he yelled.
“Shut up! It don’t even matter, because I don’t want you no more. I can’t stand you. It’s over. The only thing that you can do for me is take care of your kids.”
“So, you don’t wanna be with me?” he asked, like he was hard of hearing.
“Nope, I sure don’t.” I said with my hands on my hips. “I just want to be by myself. Let me breathe. You aint the only nigga on the planet.”
Jahrein took a long look into in my eyes, to see if I was serious. “It’s like that?”
I simply nodded, as he narrowed his eyes. “What’s that on your neck, Raven?”
I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, so I glanced at my vanity mirror, and saw a red mark on my neck. I don’t know how I missed that when I did an overall inspection, before leaving the room. I didn’teven know how to begin to explain that, so I opted to reverse things around.
“It don’t matter how it got there. You just worry about what all those bitches you fucking got on their neck. It’s over anyway, so stay out of my business.”
The next thing I knew that bastard flipped out and punched a hole in the wall. “Stay out of your business, huh?!” he belted, as he threw a bottle full of milk at me.
Ray-Ray came bursting through the door to see what the hell was going on. Jahrein had lost his damn mind. He was throwing all of the baby’s stuff across the room and flipping over dressers. It took both Red and Ray-Ray to hold him down.
