Down With the King of the South

by Diamond Johnson

  As happy as I was about tonight, I wouldn’t say that I wasn’t a little bit nervous about entering the hall where the dance would be held tonight. Taylor would be there tonight, and she and I weren’t on the best of terms. I gave her the money to get the abortion, and her silly ass ended up using the money to pay for her hair, nails, and make-up for tonight.

  I didn’t want to sound heartless, but I wasn’t ready for a baby right now. I was pissed off at myself for having unprotected sex with her, especially since my parents talked to me about that shit damn near every chance they got. Like I said before, in my defense, I thought she was on the pill. I’ve watched her swallow her birth control pills in front of me many times in the past, so there was never really any question on whether or not she was taking them for real.

  I had been avoiding Taylor these days like the fuckin’ plague. I didn’t pick up the phone for her when she called or texted, plus I ignored her in school. I was secretly praying that she didn’t come to my ole girl tonight and tell her that she was pregnant. I just knew that my mama would turn the whole fuckin’ homecoming out. My mama had never taken a belt and beat my ass with it, but something told me that if Taylor ran her mouth tonight about her being pregnant, there was no doubt in my mind that my ole girl would fuck me up in front of everybody.

  “Thank you, handsome,” she called out once she’d reached the bottom of the staircase.

  I held my arms open for an embrace, and once everyone gave out their compliments, letting us know how good we looked, the picture taking began. Maybe I was tripping, but I want to say I saw my great grandmother crying. That was a strong ass woman right there, and I couldn’t remember a time that I’ve ever seen her cry a day in my life, but as she held her iPhone in her hands, I could hear her sniffling, and I saw her wipe her eyes. Maybe it was just tears of happiness. I mean, after all, she did raise my mama, so maybe she was just happy to witness this moment and finally get to see her go to homecoming, even if it wasn’t necessarily hers.

  “Ima be waiting for you when you get back. We need to go out for drinks,” Mahogany’s loud ass screamed out to my mama as I held the door open for her and helped her into the car.

  Mahogany better hope that my mama didn’t find out the news tonight about me having a baby on the way because my ole girl just may go to jail tonight for attempted murder. Once she was inside the car, I came around, got on the driver’s side, and closed the door behind me. Once my seatbelt was on, and my chair was adjusted the way that I liked it, I backed out of the driveway.

  “These days, I feel like you’ve been too quiet. You get home from school and practice, and you shower, do your homework and go straight to sleep. What is it, baby? Let me find out that you have cold feet about taking me tonight with you to homecoming,” she said, and I laughed while playfully waving her off.

  “I got the prettiest girl with me tonight as my date. What I’m having cold feet about? It’s nothing, Ma. If anything, I’m nervous about these next couple of games. We gotta make it to the championship. This my senior year. This means a lot to me,” I said, only telling the partial truth.

  Yes, I was worried about that, but my real worry and what really had me shutting down these last couple of days was the secret that I was keeping from her. I was close with my ole girl, so I pretty much told her everything. The night I lost my virginity, I came home and told her that shit. I didn’t keep secrets from her, but my ole girl was so used to being let down or hurt, and I wasn’t trying to do that to her because that’s what was going to happen once I told her the truth. There was no doubt in my mind that this shit would hurt her.

  “I know how much it means to you, son, but like I’ve been telling you all season long, we’ll be fine. It’s the night of your homecoming. Let’s shift our minds away from anything basketball related, alright? Let’s enjoy ourselves tonight.”

  I nodded and let the conversation go. It took us about fifteen more minutes to pull up to the hall where the homecoming was being held tonight. After making sure that my inhaler for my asthma was in my pocket along with my phone, I turned the car off and got out. The same way that I’d helped her into the car, I’d come around and helped her get out. Like I’d seen in those corny ass romantic movies, I held my arm out, and she draped her arm in mine, so that it was interlocked, and that’s how we walked into the homecoming.

  I swear it felt like every eye in the room had landed on us. I guess it was some cool shit for a boy to bring his ole girl with him to the homecoming because I received so much smiles from the students, the teachers, my teammates, and other boys that I knew from around the school had come and given me dap.

  “Is this homecoming or Tootsies? I feel like I’m at a strip club. Look how these girls are dressed. Here I am, second guessing if the slit in my dress was too high, when this is pretty much nothing compared to these dresses that they have on,” my ole girl said.

  I laughed at the look on her face. Shorties were walking around this bitch in skin-tight dresses like that little shorty on the movie Soul Food who was dancing all up on the groom in that short ass dress. I attended a predominately white school with a handful of people who had skin like me, so the little bunnies that were on the dance floor dancing, or doing what was supposed to be dancing, were the main ones in those too little dresses.

  I found a spot at a table for my mama and me, and we took a seat together. I was scanning the room for Taylor because I didn’t want her to just pop up on me, but I hadn’t seen her yet. Hopefully, she’d decided to stay her ass at home tonight.

  “What the niggas be saying in the movies, Ma? You want some punch or something?” I said right before I laughed.

  My ole girl watched a lot of movies, especially romantic movies. Depending on my mood, I may join her in watching whatever corny shit that she was watching for the night. I’d seen movies where there would be some sort of school dance, and the man would always offer the woman some punch, so I was just repeating shit that I’d heard before. She laughed at my joke, but she did assure me that she would take some punch.

  I quickly stood up from my seat and got the punch for her while I poured some for myself as well.

  “Where’s Taylor?” my ole girl asked me when I made it back to the table.

  “Your guess is better than mine. I haven’t really spoken with her like that,” I let her know.

  She thought I didn’t see that little sly smile that was on her face. She probably was happy that I was making it seem like Taylor was no longer in the picture. For the next two hours, we danced, ate, listened to people come up and give announcements, and we even got to witness the homecoming king and queen be crowned. I was the type of nigga who liked to stay lowkey, so running for something like that wasn’t for me. I was already a king in my eyes.

  “I’m about to run to the restroom really quick, and then we can go, alright?” I asked and stood up from the chair that I was sitting in.

  She nodded with a smile on her face, and I quickly left. Majority of everybody was on the dance floor taking advantage of the last ten minutes or so that we had before homecoming came to an end, so when I made it to the back, where the restrooms were, I was in and out.

  “You and Mommy look beautiful tonight,” a familiar voice said from behind me.

  I turned around, and it was Taylor. She wasn’t dressed up in a beautiful gown with her makeup and stuff all done like the majority of the girls. In fact, she wore a gray hoodie with a pair of gray sweat pants. Her eyes were red and puffy like she’d been crying. This was my first time seeing her all night.

  A week ago, when I questioned her through text on whether she was going to use the money that I’d given her for the abortion, she had assured me that she was going to use it for her nails and shit for tonight, so I assumed that was what she’d gone ahead and done. I wasn’t sure where the money had gone because her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and her nails weren’t even done. Car keys were in her hands, and she must have snuck her ass in the back door or
something in order for her to have been able to get inside.

  “What you want, shorty? Why you popping up on me and shit? That ain’t cool,” I barked.

  She laughed while shaking her head, and a few tears fell in the process.

  “You really want to stand here and talk about something not being cool, Vonte? The way you’ve been treating me these past few weeks since you found out that I was pregnant is not cool! You don’t think I’m scared? I’m seventeen with a baby growing inside me, and you’re already leaving me to fend for my fuckin’ self! I didn’t create this baby on my fuckin’ own, and I wasn’t just some random slut that you had sex with and happened to get pregnant. For crying out loud, I’m your fuckin’ girlfriend. I deserve better than this,” she cried.

  “We both deserve better than this, shorty. I told you weeks ago that neither of us are ready to be parents. I haven’t told this to anyone yet, not even my ole girl, but I made up my mind that I’m going to sign to Duke. I’m going to announce that in a month at signing day. Shorty, that’s in North Carolina, damn near twelve hours away. Don’t put me in a situation where you get to call me a dead-beat dad. Basketball is my focus right now, not being a parent,” I truthfully told her.

  “Is your mom still here?” she wiped her eyes and asked.

  “Fuck you asking about her for? You don’t like her, and you know she doesn’t like you. There ain’t shit that you need to discuss with my ole girl,” I barked, getting closer in her face.

  She released a sigh, and I looked down at her, finally about to ask her something that had been weighing heavily on my mind since I found out that she was pregnant. Something that my ole girl and my ole boy told me could possibly happen one day when it came to these bitches.

  “I have a serious question for you, shorty. Was it really by accident that you weren’t properly taking your pills, or did you purposely do that shit? You’re a smart girl. You know what my future holds. You know about the fuckin’ recruiters knocking on my mama’s door, ready to sell their fuckin’ souls just to get me to sign with them. If everything goes as planned, you, along with everyone else knows that I’ll be in the NBA one day. Is this baby supposed to assign you a seat at the table?” I asked in all honesty.

  She looked at me with pure disgust in her eyes like I’d disrespected the fuck out of her ass.

  “Fuck you, Giovonte, with your arrogant ass. Here, you bastard,” she said, handing me something. “I came here tonight to give you this, maybe this would warm your heart and make you change your decision,” she spat, and then she turned around.

  I stood there watching her as she walked away. When I saw her go out of the door, I looked down at what she’d given me. It was an ultrasound that indicated that Taylor was ten weeks and three days pregnant. I wasn’t moved by the picture. If anything, I was fuckin’ angry! I shoved the picture in my pocket, and I headed back because I was now ready to go.

  “Boy, I was just about to head back there and get your ass! You were taking forever,” my ole girl fussed once I made it back to the table.

  “My bad, Ma. Those meatballs messed up my stomach. Come on,” I lied.

  She quickly stood up, and we walked out of the hall together.

  “Wow, it’s a little chilly out here. Florida and this damn bipolar weather,” she said the second we made it upstairs.

  Without even having to think twice, I removed the tux jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. We walked down the long, circular flight of stairs that were outside together.

  “Thank you again, son, for tonight. I really enjoyed myself. I love you,” she said, turning around and looking at me.

  I pulled her into me and kissed the top of her head like she’d done so many times to me before. If only she knew, we both needed this hug for what was about to come. If I told her now, it would fuck me up in these next few games before the championship so I would wait until after we brought our victory home. It would hurt her like a motha fucka, but she deserved to know what was going on.

  Jashae Johnson

  “Jashae, you still washing that grown man’s clothes? Girl, if you don’t teach Vonte how to wash his own shit! I had you washing your own damn clothes the moment your little ass turned thirteen,” my grandmother fussed per usual.

  It was the night after homecoming, and she’d come over bright and early, waking Vonte and me up because she wanted to cook us breakfast. For whatever reason, my son wasn’t in the mood for her cooking, so she only prepared enough for her and me. Seems like these days, Vonte wasn’t in the mood for much of anything. Last night, he claimed that it was just his nerves, especially with these next couple of games holding so much weight.

  If they lost, then it was no championship for him and his teammates. As his mother, I couldn’t help but feel like it was more to it than that. Vonte had been playing basketball since he was a kid, and games never made him shut down like this, no matter how important they were.

  After my grandmother and I had eaten our breakfast, he came downstairs dressed in his workout gear, letting it be known that he was getting ready to do some laps around the block. That was almost fifteen minutes ago, so knowing my son, he wouldn’t be back for another thirty minutes or so. I didn’t want to start predicting stuff and turn out to be loud and wrong, but whatever had my son quieting down and not acting his usual self, I felt like it had something to do with that damn Taylor.

  Usually, when he was at home, that damn phone was glued to his ear with him on the phone with her ass. I hadn’t seen him conversing with her lately. She wasn’t even at the homecoming dance last night. I hoped Vonte wasn’t shutting down like this because of a breakup because there would be plenty of Taylors for him to run across in his lifetime.

  “That is not a grown man, Ma. That’s my baby. I don’t mind washing his clothes,” I shot back.

  She was in my bedroom sitting at the ottoman when I’d come back inside the room carrying a laundry basket in my hands that were filled with Vonte’s clean clothes that I’d just finished washing. I dumped them out on the bed so I could fold them.

  “You need a man. I bet you’ll mind then,” she snapped back at me.

  “I have a man, Ma. He just happens to be in prison,” I let her know.

  “That’s what you call Trip? What about Miami? I heard you and Mahogany talking about him the other day,” she said and set the magazine down that she was reading, so she could focus her attention on me.

  “What about Miami? He and I are friends. On top of that, he used to be friends with Trip. I can’t jump from dick to dick, Ma. Who doesn’t know that rule?” I asked.

  “Who said you’ll be jumping from dick to dick? Jump on Miami’s and stay your ass right there! Oh please, these trifling niggas fuck behind friends, sisters, cousins all the damn time. Besides, Miami and Trip fell out years ago. Miami is a good man. I love what he does for the community. Now, that’s a man. That Trip that you’re dealing with, he’s a lot of things, but a man isn’t one! That’s his prison sentence, Jashae, not yours. The hell are you punishing yourself for too? You didn’t do a damn thing wrong,” she went on to say.

  This was beginning to sound like a broken record. It was always the same song and dance whenever she got some alone time with me.

  “Miami is a good man. Too good of a man if you ask me, but I can’t do it, Ma. Somebody will get hurt in that situation. Trip is crazy, with nothing to lose. His little gang, Miami Boyz, is still very much in motion, so once word gets out that I’m dealing with Miami, somebody will die. I’m not about to tamper with that man’s livelihood, and I’m not doing it to myself either. I have a son who I need to be here for. I’ll just continue to lust after Miami from a distance,” I said, followed by a laugh.

  I’d seen him on television a couple nights ago. They were interviewing him at one of the rec centers that he owned. I played with my toy that night, and when I came, I promised I had called out for Miami at least three times. We couldn’t take it there because we would be too dangerous for e
ach other.

  After talking with my grandmother for another ten minutes or so and after I finished folding up all of Vonte’s clothes, I went up the stairs to take them into his room. His bed was made up, but he had clothes lying all around. My son knew how OCD I could be, yet he still chose to keep his room a mess.

  “I paid almost seven hundred dollars to rent this tux, and his ass is just going to throw it on the damn floor like that!” I talked to myself out loud after seeing the tux that he wore last night on the floor next to his dirty clothes hamper.

  I finished putting the clean clothes away in his drawer, and then I walked over to the tux to pick it up off the floor. When I picked up the bottoms, something fell out of it. I quickly dropped the pants back on the floor and picked up what had just dropped out of it. Ten weeks and three days, with the name Taylor Davidson is what caught my eye.

  “No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” I kept saying over and over.

  “Nooooooo!” I screamed, getting so mad that I’d kicked the bottom of the dresser with my foot.

  In the midst of me screaming, I heard the front door chime, indicating that Vonte was back in the house. Like my ass was on fire, I ran out of the room and down the stairs.

  “GIOVONTE!” I screamed his name as I ran down the stairs.

  “What’s up, Ma? Ima wash your car in a second. I just have to get the stuff out of the garage,” he said.

  At the same time, he eased toward the kitchen because that’s where my grandma was now. Vonte knew what he was doing because he looked up and saw the ultrasound picture inside my hands. I ran for his ass, but he ran to the kitchen, almost knocking my grandma out the way.

  “Jashae, what the hell is going on?” my grandma asked.

  The whole time, I was trying to get to Vonte, but he was running away.

  “Giovonte, stop fuckin’ playing with me! Come here!” I yelled.