“Nikki, just tell me this,” Rhonda said, looking up at the ceiling as she was listening to such foolery that she’d never taken part in through all of her years. “Did you know this Breon guy had a girlfriend when you started messing around with him, as you say?”
Nikki hesitated. After hearing her mother say her name again, she pushed the words out of her mouth once more. “I mean,” she said. “Yeah, I did. But…”
“Oh Lord,” Rhonda said, her words full of disappointment. “You have got to be kidding me, Nikki. You knew he had a girlfriend and you still decided to get involved with this young man and now all of this happened. Girl, I know I raised you betta than that. I know I raised you better than that.”
“Mama, you act like I was the one who wasn’t kidnapped or something,” Nikki said. “I’m the fucking victim, Mama. Them niggas took me out my house in the middle of the night like they was some fuckin’ terrorists or ISIS or something like that. They threw me into the back of a green van and took me over to some house where I couldn’t leave. They forced me to open my phone and stuff, and even knocked me against the wall and stuff. That’s how I hit my head. You so busy try’na figure out what the fuck I did wrong that you not seein’ the bigger picture. Shit, Mama. Everybody can’t be the Miss Church Girl that you was, okay. Everybody ain’t got they head stuck so far up Jesus’ ass that they can read the damn bible in multiple languages like you.” Nikki saw her mother opening her mouth to speak, but she wasn’t going to stop her rant. She needed to let her mother know how she felt, and that her mother was totally out of line after what she’d been through. “Then they took me out of the house to go somewhere else. I tried to run, Mama. Out in the alley behind the house. They caught me and threw me up against a fence like I was some fuckin’ doll or something. Like I was a damn doll, Mama. Then they took me to the basement of this store over on the south side. And now I come over here and look in your fuckin’ holy face and all you wanna fuckin’ talk about is what I did wrong? I’m not the one who kidnapped somebody. I didn’t push nobody down no steps or into a fence or into a bed frame and hold them against they will. Shit, Mama, you really are a piece of work, ain’t you? All you ever did was try to fuckin’ side with the other people. What about me, Mama? Damn!”
“Nikki, listen to me,” Rhonda said, feeling her own anger rise. “You know I love you, Nikki. You know I do. You’re my daughter and I really do love you. But, at the same time, you have to understand that sometimes there are consequences for your actions. Sometimes, you have to be careful who you hang around with and what you are doing because, just like this, you can get caught up in these situations that some nigga, excuse me Lord, is not going to come and get you out of. I talked to you about how men are. I talked to you about that, Nikki. Why didn’t you listen? Why in the world would you even agree to do some dumb stuff like keep guns over there, Nikki? That even sounds like a trap! For all you know, those guns could have been used to kill somebody or something. You just don’t know what you could be getting yourself into.”
“So now it’s all my fault?” Nikki asked. “Huh, Mama? Now you’re trying to say that it’s all my fault? Is that what you’re saying? It’s my fault that I got kidnapped?”
Rhonda shook her head. “Nikki, no,” she said. “It’s not your fault that you got kidnapped. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that, from the sounds of this, some of this could have very well been avoided if you had simply been using your head rather than being a thot as you younger people say nowadays. Plain and simple, Nikki. So much of this could have been avoided. You had me worrying about you over here, riding around and looking for you and calling whoever I knew of that might know you, like your cousins and stuff, to see if any of them had seen you. Nikki, I even had to dig through photos and stuff and look on my computer so the police and the news could have a photo of you to put out there. I was so scared.”
“So, now you gon’ call me a hoe, huh, Mama?” Nikki asked, her mind focusing on the way her mother had used the word thot “So, I should just forgive and forget this bullshit because I was being some chick that just sleeps around?” Nikki stood up, feeling oh so utterly insulted. “Is that it, huh, Miss Holy?” She shrugged her shoulders. “Oh well,” she said sarcastically. “I guess I just deserved the fucking hell that I went through.”
“Girl, you gon’ stop all that cursing you’re doing in my house,” Rhonda said. “I’m sure what you went through was traumatic and all, but that still doesn’t give you the right to come up in my house and do all that cursing.”
Nikki brushed past her mother so that she could grab her coat. “Bitch, fuck you!” she said, glancing back at her mother with scolding eyes. “I’m so damn sick of you and this holy bullshit you be on when you should be more worried about me being okay and trying to get the niggas that kidnapped your fuckin’ daughter.”
Feeling utterly disrespected, Rhonda walked over to Nikki. Just as she approached, standing less than a foot behind her, Nikki turned around. “Listen here, Nikki,” Rhonda said. “I understand what you’ve been through was traumatic and everything. I really do. But young lady, you can’t come in here talking to me just any old kind of way and think that I’m just going to be okay with it.”
“But Mama—” Nikki began.
“But Mama nothing,” Rhonda said, letting Nikki know her place in their relationship. “I’m just letting you know that when you get involved in situations like this, you are only asking for trouble. I swear, little girl, I used to talk to you about stuff like this and you just did not listen. Now, calm down and sit back down.”
Nikki continued with sliding back into her coat, not trying to hear another word that came out of her mother’s mouth. “Mama, I ain’t got time for this shit,” she said, feeling rebellious. “You don’t even care about what happened to me that you’re so busy trying to blame it on me.”
“What did I tell you, Nikki?” Rhonda asked, the curse word echoing in her mind. “What did I tell you about cursing in my house? Do it again and see what happens?”
“What, Mama?” Nikki asked in a very confrontational manner. “What are you going to do if I do it again, huh? Kidnap and beat me too?”
Rhonda looked away for a moment as she deliberated what her reaction would be to her daughter’s attitude. With one quick swoop, Rhonda slapped Nikki across the face. “Shut the hell up!” Rhonda yelled, even surprised at how much her own anger had risen as she rarely raised her voice, let alone uttered a swear word. “Shut the hell up, Nikki. I don’t know what the hell has gotten into you, and I really am sorry, but you can’t just come in here disrespecting me.”
With what Nikki had gone through, she could only breath heavily through her nostrils. Her lips pressed together tightly, she rubbed the side of her face as it stung. Never in her life did she think she’d feel so infuriated with her mother. However, Rhonda’s actions had proven to only be the cherry on top. Nikki, feeling brave and quite frankly as if she had nothing to lose, quickly turned around and pushed her mother. Rhonda fell back into a small wooden table next to her couch, knocking a lamp and some pictures out of the way.
“No, I don’t know what the hell has gotten into you!” Nikki yelled. “Mama, you ain’t have to go that far. Them niggas could have raped me and all you wanna talk about is the fact that I fucked some nigga I know—like you never did it. ‘Cause you really one to talk, ain’t you? I heard that you wasn’t so innocent back in the day and shit, but I guess you done forgot, huh?”
Rhonda’s nostrils flared as she looked up at her daughter. “Oh no,” she said. “You done really lost your mind, young lady.” She began to get up, feeling her elbow throb from the pain. “You done really lost your mind, girl!”
Rhonda got up on her feet and rushed across the room. Within a matter of minutes, the mother and daughter was at one another’s throats. Rhonda pushed Nikki as hard as she could, knocking her into a coat rack. Nikki quickly regained her balance, reaching out and slapping her mother across t
he face. She’d put up with so much abuse and disrespect already that her holy mother was not going to make it any worse. For the next few minutes, the mother and daughter fought as if they were two young girls out on the corner in the hood. They only stopped when they both grew too tired. They looked at one another.
“Get out of my house,” Rhonda said. “Nikki, just go ahead and get the hell out of my house. You just can’t handle me talking to you the way you need to be talked to. Get the hell out of my house.”
Nikki shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Gladly,” she said. “I only came over here ‘cause I thought you would care about my safety and stuff. Boy, was I wrong, huh? I’m out of here. I swear, you and this holy shit just got to stop. All you do is act like you better than everybody just ‘cause you be up in church on Sunday, doing whatever that pastor say. I’m out of here. And Mama,” Nikki paused, looking back at her mother from the front door, “I don’t ever wanna see you again in life. I swear, I don’t.”
Rhonda remained silent as Nikki walked back out into the cold. Nikki headed down the sidewalk, soon hearing her mother slam the front door closed. Walking with all the confidence in the world, Nikki nearly cracked a smile. There was some pride in knowing that she’d shown her mother just where she could get off with that holy stuff. Nikki rushed down the sidewalk and jumped into her car. Once inside, she looked back up at her mother’s house and shook her head. As she started her car, she yelled, “Fuck her! Fuck her!”
Nikki pulled out of the parking spot.
CHAPTER 8
When Nikki left her mother’s house, her anger had turned to sorrow before transforming into rage. Not only was her rage directed at her over-cynical, and often times holier-than-thou mother, it was blazing against Breon. The fact of the matter was that Breon was to blame for getting her caught up in this situation. The more she thought about it, the more she came to grips with her theory – truth, to her – that Breon had hid those guns with her so that she might take the fall. However, she was longing for the moment she got to see him face to face once again. She wasn’t even sure that Breon knew she’d escaped yet.
Nikki was headed back toward her apartment, knowing that she’d rather risk her free night at home than under her mother’s roof, when she couldn’t hold the steering wheel straight. As if her best friend had stolen her man when she was sixteen years old, Nikki wanted to put some hands on Breon. Then, naturally of course, her captor Dante would get it even worse. Nikki, who could be vain at times, found it hard to avoid looking at herself in the rearview mirror. The bruises were healing, but were still there. While yes, she did see a strong chick in her reflection, she also saw a woman that was utterly humiliated and embarrassed with having to beg for a bus ride then to use a phone in a gas station owned by an Arab man.
Nikki remembered that Gracelyn had said she was staying at her cousin Brandy’s house. Nikki had met this cousin a few times and the two of them were cool. Remembering that her phone had been taken by Dante, Nikki changed her route. She headed to Brandy’s place, hoping that Gracelyn had headed there like she’d said. There was no doubt in Nikki’s mind now that she wanted to take Gracelyn up on her offer. She wanted to get in touch with Gracelyn’s cousin Steph. She didn’t want the power, she deserved it. And she was going to use it to make Breon suffer in any way she could.
Gracelyn’s cousin Brandy lived on the southwest side of Chicago, not too far from the Midway Airport. Nikki didn’t really go to that area of the city too much, but she membered that once she passed Orleans Street, all she had to do was turn right on the third neighborhood street and Brandy’s house would be just a few spaces from the corner. Within seconds, Nikki had pulled in behind Gracelyn’s Toyota and parked. She looked up at the house, hating that she was going to show up at someone’s house unannounced. Nikki could only hope that nobody answered the door with an attitude, because today would be the day whoever did such a thing could really get it. She’d been through too much to put up with anybody else’s shit. Plus, getting Breon and making him suffer came with a determination that made her fearless to say the least.
Nikki marched up the walkway and to the front door of the one-story, two-bedroom home. Every so often, she would have to turn her back against the wind. It pulled snow up off of the ground and blew it down the street in a strong, dusting. Nikki knocked on the door and waited, hearing movement inside within seconds.
“Who is it?” a voice asked from the other side of the door.
“Nikki!” Nikki announced. “Gracelyn’s roommate.”
Immediately, the door opened and Nikki was looking into Brandy’s concerned eyes. She moved out of the way so that Nikki could step into the living room. Once Brandy had pushed the door closed, she hugged Nikki and looked her up and down. “Gracelyn was just tellin’ me that you came home safe and stuff,” Brandy said. She then noticed the scratches, deciding that she didn’t want to rub salt on a wound that might be open.
“Yeah,” Nikki said. “Girl, I don’t wanna be rude,” her lips were tight, “but where is Gracelyn?. Them niggas that kidnapped me took my phone and shit, so now I can’t call nobody. Sorry for poppin’ up at your door and stuff like this, but I ain’t have no other choice.”
“Girl, that’s okay,” Brandy said, waving her hand. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
At nearly thirty years old, Brandy was a thinner version of the comedian Monique. Her attitude was spunky, but she knew how to be sweet and sensitive when she needed to be. Although she was thin, she was known for being able to hang with the best of them when it came to going out to a buffet. All in all, Nikki had always liked Brandy, but the two of them never had the chance to really get close.
“Gracelyn, girl, it’s Nikki!” Brandy announced.
Nikki looked beyond Brandy, across her decked out, but hood, living room. To the left of it was a hallway that led back to the bedroom; to the right was a kitchen and dining area to its side. Nikki watched as Gracelyn came walking down the hallway with a concerned face. She’d been in the back bedroom, chilling and playing around with Brandy’s two little daughters as they were waiting on their father to stop by and take them to visit their grandmother.
“Nikki?” Gracelyn said, walking up. “What’s up?”
Nikki looked at Brandy, slanting her eyes in such a way that let Gracelyn know she was a bit concerned about whether or not the two could talk freely in front of her. Gracelyn nodded, letting Nikki know that Brandy being in on their conversation was nothing to worry about. Nikki went on, deciding that she probably didn’t care one way or the other.
“I wanna take you up on your offer,” Nikki said. “I’m for real. I been thinkin’ ‘bout that shit since me and you was talkin’ and you won’t believe what the fuck just happened between me and my mama when I went over there to see her and let her know that her daughter is okay and stuff.” She shook her head, having to fight back the tears. “I swear, girl, you just won’t believe this shit. My own mama basically tried to slut shame me and make it sound like I got into this shit myself and stuff, like I did this shit on purpose.”
“Girl, is you serious?” Gracelyn asked. “Naw, girl,” she paused, “I think you musta misunderstood. Your mama is like the nicest lady I done ever met. I mean, I just know that she wouldn’t blame you for anything like that.”
Nikki took the next few minutes to describe how it had all gone down with her mother. Judging by the looks on Gracelyn’s face, she was genuinely surprised at the diction her mother had chosen, especially considering the idea that any mother should simply be thrilled to see her daughter after such a terrifying thing has happened to her. Rather, it seemed, to Gracelyn at least, that Nikki’s mother just couldn’t be that mean spirited. It just wasn’t in her soul.
“So now I’m pissed as shit, girl,” Nikki said, finishing up the story in the middle of Brandy’s living room floor. “That nigga Breon gon’ have to suffer too. Once I get his ass, then I’ll go to the police and tell them that I’m okay and st
uff, so they ain’t gotta keep blastin’ my face on the news. Shit, now that I think about it… The more I think about it, the more I wish I woulda never went over to my mama’s house. That way, if I hadn’t, I could let everybody think that my black ass is still missin’ and stuff, especially since I bet Breon still think that them niggas that lookin’ for his ass still got me locked up in they hiding spot and stuff.”
“Girl, I am so sorry,” Brandy said. “Excuse me, I mean, I don’t mean to interrupt, but that shit just sound so fuckin’ horrible. You strong, though, for being able to get through something like that. I can tell that it’s made you stronger ‘cause you ain’t never been this emotional, I mean, not at least when I seen you and stuff.”
“You just can’t imagine how I feel,” Nikki said, shaking her head with her nostrils flared. “But don’t you worry, though, that nigga Breon gon’ feel how I feel too. I wanna take you up on your offer, Gracelyn. You said back at the apartment that you could get me in touch with your cousin Steph and shit, right? Well, I wanna do that shit.”
“All right,” Gracelyn said. “That’s coo. I can get in touch with him ASAP.”
“Awe, shit, girl,” Brandy said, putting her hand over her mouth. “You can’t be serious. You really gon’ take her over to Steph’s place and shit, Gracelyn? You know how that nigga is. He a real wild boy and don’t never stop.”
“I ain’t scared,” Nikki said, shaking her head. “Swear to God, I ain’t. After what I just been through, ain’t nothin’ worse than that shit. I swear, girl, ain’t nothin’. And I mean nothin’.”
Gracelyn dug her phone out of her pocket. “So, when you try’na go?” she asked.
“Tonight,” Nikki said, twisting her neck. “Tell that nigga that I can come as soon as he want me to. But I need to know what he wantin’ for a gun and shit. I need to know that first, and see what I can do. I got some money, but you know how shit can be.”
Wrath of a Side Chick 4 (Side Chick's Wrath) Page 10
