Around the Way Girls 9

by Moore, Ms. Michel

  King got up from where he was sitting and grabbed Breezy by her arm. “I am not my ma and you are not going to get by with only telling me a part of the story! I want to know what happened and I want to know right now! If you don’t tell me then you may as well get your stuff and go right back to your ma’s house because I don’t want anything else to do with you!” Of course he was bluffing but he knew that would make her talk.

  She started bawling. “Please, King. I don’t want anyone to get in trouble.”

  Annette tugged at King’s arm. She too was sick of playing this game with Breezy but she felt like he was going about getting answers the wrong way. “Okay, son, that’s enough. Let her go!”

  King ignored her and kept his eyes on Breezy. “Talk!” he barked. He wasn’t prepared for what she said next.

  “He raped me,” she whispered as she looked at him in his eyes.

  His temper exploded. This was his best friend since he was little. He’d always felt like God places people in your path for a reason and he knew that He’d placed her in his so that he could protect her. Why else had he always been drawn to her? Always wanting to take care of her and protect her? Breezy was the sweetest girl he knew. Hearing her say that she’d been violated in such a way made him want to kill Terry.

  He turned Breezy loose and punched the wall. His fist went through it, leaving a large hole in the wall.

  “Calm down, King!” Annette warned looking at the damage that he’d just done to her wall and knowing that she was going to have to pay for it.

  King went down the hall to his room and got his aluminum bat out of the closet. He could hear Annette yelling for Curtis to get up because she knew that once he got upset there was no calming him down. By the time King made it down the hallway Curtis was in the living room. He was a big guy who kind of resembled Ving Rhames.

  “Give me the bat, boy. I know that you are upset but this isn’t the way to handle it. Come on now, give me the bat.”

  “Man, no disrespect but go ahead on, Curtis, this ain’t got nothing to do with you.” He wasn’t trying to listen to reason at this moment even if he was right.

  “Yeah, it is my concern. I love your ma and I know how it would make her feel if you go out here and get yourself in some trouble. I also love you as if you were my own son and so I refuse to allow you to do something crazy. Tomorrow morning we can get up early and Breezy can go down to the social services and the police station and file a report. That is the best way to handle it. Not only that but it is the right way to handle it.”

  “Please, son, listen to what Curtis is saying to you,” Annette pleaded, standing next to Curtis wearing a worried expression on her face.

  “King, I will press charges. I promise. But I don’t want you to get in any trouble,” Breezy spoke up.

  He looked at her and then looked away. It bothered him to look at her. He gave Curtis the bat and then went into his room and locked the door. He turned on the radio and went over to his weight bench and started to work out.

  He lifted until he was tired and had calmed down. He got up, grabbed some shorts, and went into the bathroom and took a shower. When he was done he went into the kitchen to get a bottled water.

  On his way back through the living room, Breezy stopped him. “Are you okay” she asked sitting up on the sofa.

  “When did it happen?” King asked ignoring her question.

  “It happened the night I left here when you walked me halfway home.”

  “Where was your ma?”

  “Passed out drunk in her bedroom.”

  “Was that the first time?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Has he done it again?”

  “No, he just rubbed his penis on my face the other day and that’s when I told my ma.”

  He got upset all over again but this time kept it under control. Through clenched teeth, he said, “If you don’t do what you said that you were gonna do in the morning I am going to kill that motherfucka, or by the time I am done with him he will wish that he was dead.”

  She nodded her head.

  “Go in my room and get in the bed. I will take the sofa.”

  She got up and hugged him. “I am going to do what needs to be done. I promise,” she told him.

  He hugged her back. “You’d better.” Holding her he felt something, something that he couldn’t describe or explain but something that he knew he shouldn’t be.

  He tried to break their embrace but she held him tighter. “Thank you for being a good friend and being willing to stand up for me when I don’t have the guts to stand up for myself.”

  “Girl, stop it, you know that I’m gonna always have your back.”

  She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek and went to bed.

  Long after Breezy had gone to bed, King lay awake thinking about Terry and praying that the law dealt with him before he had to.

  Chapter Seven

  The next morning when King woke up Annette and Breezy were already gone. He called Annette’s cell but got no answer. He went down the hall to her room and saw Curtis sitting on the side of the bed watching TV.

  “Hey, Curtis, where my ma at?”

  “She and Breezy went down to social services.”

  “Oh okay.” He felt like he needed to apologize for the way he’d spoken to him the night before. “Sorry about last night. I was upset. I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

  “Oh you’re good. I understand how you felt. Honestly, I was proud of you for being willing to stand up for Breezy like a man. She is lucky to have a friend like you.” Curtis smiled proudly at King. He was proud to say that he’d had a hand in raising such a smart young man, who didn’t hesitate to stand up for what he knew was right.

  “Yeah, Breezy is good people.”

  “I agree. She’s a good girl, son.”

  King left Curtis to finish watching his TV show and went outside. He stood on the sidewalk looking out across the parking lot of the apartment complex. It was the beginning of May, the weather was nice, and it was warm out. He stood staring off into space thinking about how he’d felt the night before when he and Breezy had hugged. For some reason, it kept crossing his mind. He was deep in thought when he heard a female voice ask, “Is Breezy here?”

  He looked to the left and saw Teresa. “Nah, she ain’t here.” He looked out across the parking lot, feeling annoyed by her presence and her nerve to walk up in his face asking about Breezy after the way she’d treated her the night before.

  “Well do you know where she is?” she snapped not trying to hide the fact that she had an attitude. She knew that the little young punk standing in front of her didn’t care for her and neither did his folks but she didn’t give a damn. Breezy was her daughter and she could do whatever she wanted to her.

  “Didn’t you put her out for that sorry-ass boyfriend of yours?” King asked matter-of-factly. Normally he didn’t disrespect anyone older than him because he’d been raised better than that but to him she didn’t deserve any respect.

  “You need to watch your damn mouth and stay in a child’s place!”

  He looked past her and saw Annette’s car pull up.

  Teresa turned and looked in the direction he was looking in. She saw Breezy sitting on the passenger side of Annette’s car. “Never mind, I found her my damn self,” she snapped.

  Annette and Breezy got out of the car. Breezy walked up the sidewalk behind Annette scared to death.

  “Breezy, baby, take my pocketbook and go on inside,” Annette told her. Breezy was frozen with fear and just stood there. She didn’t know what was about to go down.

  “Go ahead, baby, you don’t have any reason to be scared. She ain’t gon’ do nothing.” Annette looked at Teresa and rolled her eyes. She was waiting for her to get out of line.

  Teresa rolled her eyes right back and smacked her lips. “I came to get Breezy. Thanks for allowing her to stay with you but—”

  “You need to go home because there are some visitors
on the way to your house as we speak, and until the investigation is over I have temporary custody of Breezy.”

  Annette’s words nearly knocked the wind out of Teresa. She didn’t know what to say. “What damn investigation?”

  “Oh don’t play stupid! You been abusing this child and on top of that, you let that sorry man you have lying up in your house rape her! Bitch, that shit stops today! I’m going to ask you nicely to go home before I lose my cool and show my ass out here!” Annette took a step closer to Teresa.

  “You little bitch!” Teresa lunged for Breezy.

  Without thinking twice, when King saw Teresa lunge for Breezy he grabbed her and slung her across the ground. “Nah, not today, bitch! Not this day and not any other day! What the fuck are you mad at her for, because you don’t know how to be a mother?” he barked.

  Annette grabbed King. “That’s enough, son. She’s still a woman and I’m not raising a woman beater. You step back and let me handle this.”

  By now people were gathering around and starting to come out of their apartments to try to see what was going on. Teresa jumped up off the ground and went charging toward King with her fist drawn back. “You put your hands on the wrong bitch!” she screamed. She swung and hit him. The blow landed in his chest. Annette swung and hit her in the head and they started getting it in. Teresa had Annette down and was getting the best of her. Cheeks, the girl from next door, came out of nowhere and started fighting Teresa.

  “Get off of her!” Breezy yelled. Regardless of what Teresa had done to her, she was still her mama and there was no way she was about to stand back and watch two people fight her at once. She started pushing her way through the crowd trying to get to her mama.

  King grabbed her by her arm. “Yo, what the fuck is you doing? Why are you trying to defend that bitch? She needs to get her ass dragged!”

  She snatched away from him and looked him dead in his eyes and screamed, “She’s still my ma! What would you do if that was your ma?”

  “Let them beat her motherfuckin’ ass! That’s what the fuck I would do!” he replied truthfully, growing angry at how dumb Breezy seemed to be.

  She didn’t respond. She ran over and started trying to break up the fight.

  Cheeks pushed her so hard that she slid across the ground on her ass. “Move the fuck back, Breezy!”

  “No, that’s my ma you fighting!” She jumped back up and went back over to where they were. She was trying to untangle Annette’s fingers from Teresa’s hair. “Stop, Ms. Annette! You are hurting her!”

  “Bitch, I told you to move!” Cheeks yelled at Breezy before grabbing her by her shirt and pulling her out of the way.

  Breezy reacted without thinking and slapped the piss out of Cheeks. The lick sounded off so loud that everyone who was watching let out a gasp and Cheeks looked stunned, but that was only momentary. She snapped out of the daze that she was in and punched Breezy in her face. Blood shot everywhere.

  “Oh shit!” somebody yelled. Breezy shocked everyone because, instead of cowardly backing down like she normally did, she was actually fighting back; and she wasn’t no slouch with her hand either. She was giving Cheeks a run for her money.

  Curtis came out of the apartment and started pushing his way through the crowd. He’d looked out the window and seen Annette fighting. When he reached the fight he reached down and grabbed Annette and began dragging her toward the apartment. “Bring yo’ ass on here, woman. You are too old to be out here showing your ass fighting in the damn parking lot like some damn teenager.” He huffed as they headed toward the house.

  “She had no business putting her damn hands on my son!”

  “Bitch, this ain’t over!” Teresa yelled to Annette. One of the guys in the complex was holding on to her to prevent her from going after her.

  “I ain’t moving nowhere no time soon! Trust me, I ain’t hard to find,” Annette yelled back as Curtis continued to pull her toward the house.

  “Come on in here.” Curtis was beyond pissed because he felt like there was always a mature way to handle any situation. He was completely against two grown-ass women out in the parking lot fighting. To him that shit was for kids.

  King and another guy broke Breezy and Cheeks apart.

  “What the hell is going on out here this morning?” Teresa overhead a bystander in the crowd ask.

  “Motherfuckers want to try to tell people how to raise their fucking kids!” Teresa snapped. “That’s what’s going on.”

  “You ain’t raising her! You beating the fuck out of her and letting niggas do foul shit to her!” King corrected her.

  “You need to mind your damn business and stay in a child’s place because you don’t know what Teresa Lee be doing!” She stated her first and last name like she was somebody important. “You just want her down here so you can lie up with her whenever you want to. Thinking somebody stupid! Talkin’ about some gotdamn best friends! Best friends my ass! Bet she is your best friend when she down on her knees sucking your little dick!”

  “You know you ain’t shit out here degrading your own daughter in front of all these people.” King looked down at Breezy. “And then you have the nerve to defend her ass! I’m done! You got me and my ma out here fighting over you because of how her and her punk-ass boyfriend have been treating you and then you turn around and fight for her. You won’t even fight for your damn self. I have to fight for you!” he said beating on his chest to emphasize his point.

  “She is my mama, King! I can’t just stand here and see two people fighting her and not do anything about it!” Breezy defended her actions. She understood that he was upset but felt he should understand that no matter what Teresa did she would always be her mama. Nothing could change that.

  King wasn’t trying to hear what she was saying because, to him, her defending Teresa was stupid as hell. “If she saw two people fighting you, she wouldn’t do shit!”

  Breezy dropped her head because she knew in her heart that he was right.

  “You don’t know what the fuck I would do!” Teresa spoke up.

  Annette came back out on the sidewalk. She’d calmed down now. “Breezy, from here on out, I am done and my son is done. Whatever goes on with you and your mama that is you all’s business! Situations like this is how people end up hurt and all for nothing. I hate it for you because what really makes this shit so sad is that you love her unconditionally while she couldn’t care less about you. I hope and pray one day she can return the love that you have for her but, again, that is you all’s problem. Come in and get your things because I can’t continue to try to help someone who is obviously confused as to whether they really want help.” She looked at King holding on to Breezy. “King, turn her loose and come on in the house.”

  He let go of Breezy and walked down the sidewalk and stood in front of his apartment. He didn’t feel like going inside. Breezy walked past him and went inside to gather the few things that she had there. King shook his head unable to believe how messed up in the head his best friend was. She couldn’t have good sense to stand up for someone who treated her the way that Teresa had and would no doubt continue to.

  Teresa stood down the sidewalk smoking on a Newport while she waited for Breezy to get her things. Truth was she wasn’t that concerned about Breezy; she just wanted her at home so that no one would notice that she wasn’t there and report it to social services. She couldn’t risk her assistance getting cut off.

  Breezy came back outside carrying the bags with her birthday gifts in them. She felt like she had just lost her best friend. She stopped in front King and tried explaining one last time but he held his hand up to stop her.

  “I don’t even want to hear it. Save that shit because I am done with you and I mean that!”

  “What do you mean you are done?”

  He could hear the hurt in her voice but he didn’t care anything about that because he was hurt too. “Breezy, get out of my face. Better yet I’ll get out of yours!” He turned and walked inside the h
ouse, slamming the door behind him.

  Chapter Eight

  Seven months later ...

  Breezy stood over the sink washing the dishes with tears streaming down her face falling onto her water. Her life had gone from bad to worse over the past few months and she only had herself to blame for it. After everything that Teresa had done to her, she’d lied for her when social services came out to their house to investigate the things that she’d told them. She told them that she’d lied about everything. Then, not even two weeks later, Terry raped her again. He knew that no one, not even her, was going to do anything about it. So he started taking it whenever he wanted.

  She stood over the sink crying now because her period hadn’t come that month and she’d been throwing up for the past three weeks. She was scared and alone with no one to turn to. King still wasn’t talking to her. He wouldn’t even look at her. He and Vita were walking around school like they were fuckin’ Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Nothing hurt her more than not having King in her life because he’d always been there. She missed being able to talk to him and having him there to help her through the rough times. Sometimes he didn’t have to say anything at all; just having him there made it all better. She dried her hands and grabbed a paper towel to wipe her face, but it was no use because the tears just kept coming.

  Teresa walked into the kitchen carrying two grocery bags. She tossed them on the counter. “Cook those pork chops, and make some gravy and mashed potatoes and corn,” she ordered, noticing that Breezy was crying. She rolled her eyes and smacked her lips, not bothering to ask her what was wrong because she really didn’t care to know. “Hurry up because I’m hungry.” With that she walked out of the kitchen.

  Breezy went to her room and got the MP3 player that King had given her a few years back. She put her earbuds in, went back into the kitchen and started to cook. Jennifer Hudson’s “Where You At” poured from her earbuds and the words tugged at her heart. All she could think about was King because he’d always been there for her and she’d pushed him away. With that song on repeat, she moved around the kitchen singing and wiping down the counter. When she was done wiping the counters, she scrubbed the floor and then went into the living room to wait for the floor to dry.