Side Chic 4 (Forever Ratchet)

by La'Tonya West

  I burst into laughter and so did she, both of us wiping our tears.

  “Nisey, you’re a fool!” I shook my head continuing to laugh.

  “Yeah, I know.” She agreed. “I love you girl.”

  “I love you too.” I looked at my friend and realized that our friendship had become something more. She had become my sister…we were family.

  Lala

  Nisey woke me up by calling my name just as we turned into Tre’s driveway. I sat up, stretched and then glanced at the time on the dashboard clock while rubbing the sleep from my eyes. It was a little after noon. I reached up and flipped down the sun visor and looked in the mirror. I rubbed my hair down because it was a little dishevel and applied some gloss to my lips.

  “You good?” Nisey asked running her hands over her hair as well as she looked into the mirror on the driver’s side.

  “Yeah, I’m good.” I replied flipping the sun visor back up. “Thank you so much for driving all the way here. My plan was to let you drive halfway and then take over but obviously I was more tired than I’d thought.”

  “Girl, it’s all good. I didn’t mind.” She said waving me off and then pointing at the three cars parked in the driveway. “Tre has a lot of company doesn’t he?”

  “One of those cars belongs to his parents, one belongs to Mina and the cream colored one is his.” I told her as I opened up the door to get out. As I stepped out of the car the nervous feeling that I’d been feeling earlier returned. “I sure hope Tre doesn’t act stupid and lord knows I hope that his parents haven’t allowed him to brainwash them into thinking that I am an unfit mother.”

  “Girl, don’t let that mess worry you, ain’t nobody thinking about Tre or his parents. Those are your babies and they need to be back with you. Where was everybody for the first few months of their lives when you were doing everything by yourself? You took damn good care of those girls then and nothing happened to them.” She smacked her lips. “Hmph, you are better than me anyways because gun or no gun that nigga wouldn’t have taken my babies no damn where.”

  I saw that she was getting heated and I didn’t want her to go inside with an attitude. So I decided to leave the subject alone. As we approached the porch, I heard what sounded like arguing. We walked up on the porch and I was more than sure that was exactly what I was hearing.

  “Damn, are they arguing?” Nisey asked her eyes going from me to the door.

  “Sounds like it but that ain’t got shit to do with me. I came to get my babies and that’s what I am going to do.” I replied and then rang the doorbell. “They can argue all they want to. That’s on them.”

  “I feel you.”

  We stood there and waited for someone to answer. After a minute of waiting and listening to them argue back and forth, I rang the bell again. Obviously they couldn’t hear for all of the commotion going on in the inside. I heard someone say, “Call their mama if you can’t watch them no better than this! They need to be with their mama anyways.” The voice sounded like Tre’s mama. I rang the bell two more times because it sounded like she was referring to my babies and I wanted to know what in the hell was going on!

  “Fuck that bitch! I am capable of taking care of my own damn kids. If she had been watching them instead of leaving them alone with her pussy ass boyfriend then I wouldn’t have them!” I heard Tre yell!

  “Watch how you come out of your mouth to your mama boy!” That was Mr. Jefferson.

  I started to ring the bell repeatedly. I needed to get inside and find out what in the hell was going on with my babies. Apparently something was very wrong judging by how upset everyone on the other side of the door seemed to be. I knew that I was going to come down here and end up in some bullshit! It never fails! I thought to myself. This entire situation with Tre was like a never ending soap opera.

  “I’m coming gotdamn it! Stop ringing my motherfuckin bell like that?” Tre yelled as he approached the door and then I heard him sliding the chain from the lock. He snatched the door open. “Why in the fuck are you ringing my motherfuckin bell like you’ve lost your motherfuckin mind?” He roared.

  “Because I rung it several times and you didn’t hear it.” I snapped back at him. I was so over his fucked up attitude! At this point I was willing to go toe to toe with his ass!

  “Well if I didn’t hear you then you fuckin’ stand here and wait until I do but don’t be ringing my bell like that!”

  Mr. Jefferson walked up behind him. “Hey, Lala.” He spoke. “Tre, you need to calm down. You were already upset before she came. Don’t take your anger out on her.”

  “Hey, Mr. Jefferson.” I spoke and then focused my attention back on Tre. “Tre, I didn’t come here to argue with you. Where are the girls? I…”

  “I don’t give a fuck what you came for.” He cut me off. “I’m just letting you know…”

  “And I’m letting you know too!” I exploded. “I’m sick of your fucked up attitude! Nigga, I fucked up, okay? I made a bad decision but that shit doesn’t give you any right to talk to me like I ain’t shit because frankly I can remember you making a lot of bad decisions concerning our daughters! So if you feel like I ain’t shit because of one mistake then guess what? You ain’t shit either!” I told him matter-of-factly. I was sick of him coming at me as if his shit didn’t stink. He was on some other shit but it was about time for him to be brought back down to size.

  “Bitch…” He charged towards me but didn’t have a chance to touch me because Mr. Jefferson grabbed him and pulled him back.

  “Boy if you don’t get your ass in here and sit down somewhere!” He said pulling Tre back into the house and pushing him up against the wall in the hallway. “I am so sick of your shit! You are twenty-five years old! Act like it because right about now you are acting like a damn child.”

  “It ain’t me it’s that bitch!”

  “Bitch? She is the mother of your kids! I didn’t raise you this way, to be so disrespectful. What kind of example are you setting for your kids by acting the way that you are?” He asked. Tre didn’t respond instead he turned his head the other way. “I understand that you are upset by what has happened but this is no way to handle it. As parents when something goes wrong with your children the two of you are supposed to come together and come up with a solution. Not fight each other and one of you snatch the children from the other one. That is not good for them. You are walking around here swollen up with your chest poked out like you are the only one who has been affected by this situation. That woman was the one who laid down and gave birth to those children. So what makes you think that she isn’t hurting? You are running around here placing blame and pointing fingers but maybe you should take some time to evaluate your part in all of this.”

  “My part?” Tre’s head snapped around and he looked like he was shocked by what his daddy had just said. “What do you mean my part? They were with her! If they had been with me nothing like that would’ve ever happened.”

  “My point exactly!” Mr. Jefferson told him poking him in the chest with his finger. “If you would grow up and stop hopping from bed to bed and woman to woman, maybe you would’ve been there with her helping her raise your kids instead of another man and this may not have happened.”

  “So you’re saying this is my fault?”

  “You’re saying that it’s her fault, right?”

  “It is!” Tre pointed at me spittle, flying from his mouth! I didn’t say anything. I just stood there with my arms folded waiting to hear what would come out of his ignorant ass mouth next. “Her stupid ass is the one who left the kids with his pedophile ass! All because she was so desperate for a fucking man!”

  “I ain’t never been desperate behind no nigga except you triflin’ ass and I’m regretting the hell out of that now!”

  “Bitch the feeling is mutual!” He shot back. “I should’ve made you swallow my babies like all of the rest of them, they probably would’ve been better off!” His last statement left me speechless. I didn’t know
how to respond because I was too embarrassed.

  Mr. Jefferson must’ve picked up on the look of embarrassment on my face, he shook his head. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, Mrs. Jefferson came down the hallway with Laila in her arms.

  “That’s enough!” She told Tre. She was holding Laila on her hip. “I’ve heard enough of this foolishness. The way that you are standing out here disrespecting this girl, doesn’t make any sense. What you need to be doing is answering my question about how these bruises got on this here baby’s leg!”

  “Bruises? What bruises?” I asked rushing over and taking Laila from her arms and examining both of her legs. On her left thigh there were three small bluish black bruises. “What happened to her leg?” I asked looking at Tre and waiting for a reply.

  “Yo, for real you can’t ask me shit!” He told me and rolled his eyes.

  “Oh well, I’m asking you!” I shot back! “Now what happened to my baby’s leg?”

  “Bitch fuck you!”

  “I’ll be a bitch and whatever else you want to call me but somebody is going to tell me what happened to Laila’s leg.”

  He chuckled sarcastically. “Yo, you are real funny.”

  “I don’t see anything funny. I am dead serious.” I told him shifting my weight from one leg to the other while balancing Laila on my hip. “What happened to her leg?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “Well, we are waiting? Stop standing there like your mouth is stuck together!” Mrs. Jefferson snapped.

  “I told you that Mina said she fell.” He answered. “Why are you making such a big deal out of it?”

  “I’m not making a big deal out of anything.” She corrected him. “I just wanted to know where these bruises came from on my grandbaby.”

  “How did she fall? Did she land on something when she fell because these bruises are spread out in spots?” I said examining her leg again. This time I noticed another small bruise a little further down her leg from the rest of them.

  “I don’t know how she fell or what she fell on.” He replied. “Mina said she went to the bathroom and on her way back down the hall she heard her crying. When she got in the living room she was lying beside the sofa crying.”

  Mrs. Jefferson shook her head. “Something doesn’t sound right.”

  “What do you mean something doesn’t sound right?” Tre asked.

  “Exactly what I said.” She replied. “What I am not understanding is how this baby ended up with not one bruise but several bruises and Mina says she only fell on the floor next to the sofa. Mind you, there is carpet on the floor.”

  “So again, what are you trying to say?” Tre asked again. “Are you implying that Mina did something to her?”

  I was tired of listening to the back and for between Tre and his mama. I decided to go straight to the source. “Excuse me. Let me get past you.” I told Mrs. Jefferson. She stepped back out of the way and I walked past her into the house.

  “Hold up. Where in the fuck do you think you are going?” Tre called after me. I ignored him and kept on walking down the hallway towards the living room. “Lala come the fuck up out of my crib!” He continued but I didn’t pay what he was saying any mind. When I walked into the living room Mina was sitting on the arm of the sofa, her child-like face held a frightened expression. She rubbed her hands nervously up and the down the pair of faded grey jeans that she was wearing.

  “Hey Mina.” I spoke stopping directly in front of her.

  “Hey Lala.” She replied looking everywhere but in my face, which to me was a sign of guilt but I didn’t want to jump the gun and accuse her of anything without giving her a chance to explain what had happened. I knew that there was a strong possibility that Laila may have just fallen because it was normal for a child her age to pull up on things and fall but the bruises on her leg didn’t look like bruises from a fall. To be honest I couldn’t explain what they looked like. What I did know was that normally when someone fell hard enough to bruise themselves it was just one bruise not several small ones. “What happened to Laila’s leg?” I asked getting straight to the point.

  “I was watching the girls yesterday along with my daughter. They were in here on the floor playing. I had to pee really bad so I left them in here playing while I went to the bathroom.” She explained, her eyes roaming back and forth between everyone in the room. Tre, his parents, and Nisey had come inside after me and were listening to her explain as well. “I was on my way back down the hall when I heard Laila start wailing really loudly. I ran in here and saw her lying on the floor. She must’ve pulled herself up by the sofa and fallen.”

  “Did you see anything that she may have fallen on?” I asked because that still didn’t make any sense to me. That part about her pulling up by the sofa and falling did but the bruises didn’t.

  “Ummm…uh…ummm…I think there may have been some little wooden blocks that they’d been playing with that she may have fallen on. I assume because she’s so light that’s why she bruised like that…I guess.” I stood there studying her body language. Now she was fidgeting with her hair. I may have been more inclined to believe her story if she wasn’t acting so guilty. Something about the shit that she was spitting to me wasn’t right but I decided to let it go because I couldn’t prove that she was lying.

  “Hmph, I see…” I replied shaking my head.

  She stood up. “Lala, I swear to you that’s what happened. Do you think that I did it or something?” She asked with a wrinkled brow.

  “I’m not saying that you did or you didn’t but that story doesn’t sound right to me.” I answered truthfully. “However, I wasn’t here and so I can’t say what happened.”

  “I swear on everything, I love that I didn’t do nothing to that baby!” She raised her right hand. She looked at Tre. “See this is why I didn’t want to be keeping somebody else’s kids because of situations like this. Why would I do something to hurt a baby?”

  “I didn’t say that you did anything to her.” I snapped feeling myself become upset because I was trying to let it go and here she was going on and on about it. “I was done with it.”

  “Yeah but I could tell by your expression and the little remark that you made that you think I did something to her.” She accused with tears in her eyes, which didn’t make me believe her any more than I did before. My gut was telling me that there was something that she wasn’t telling. “I’m not that type of person. I have a child of my own and I would have a fit if someone did something to her. So why would I hurt someone else’s baby?”

  “Man, don’t worry about that bullshit.” Tre interjected. He reached over and wiped her tears. “I know that you ain’t do shit to Laila. If I thought that you would do something to my kids, I wouldn’t have left them here with you.”

  “You can say whatever you want but I still say she wasn’t watching them like she should’ve been.” Mrs. Jefferson said folding her arms. “If she was going to leave the room then she should’ve put them in the playpen because they could put something in their mouths and swallowed it and choked to death while she was in the bathroom. Luckily it was only a few bruises but it could’ve been something worse.”

  “Yeah it could’ve been worse like having a grown ass man touching on them.” Tre said giving me a nasty look.

  I’d had enough of all of the drama and going back and forth. That wasn’t what I’d come for so I decided to be the bigger person and give the bullshit a rest. It was evident that Tre and I wasn’t going to be able to be civilized towards one another anytime soon and I was fine with that. Frankly I didn’t give a fuck if he never said anything else to me as long as he was black. I wouldn’t try to keep him from his kids but the two of us never had to speak again. “Mina, don’t worry about it. Whatever happened, happened. You said she fell while you were in the bathroom, accidents happen.” I told her and then turned to Tre. “With that being said. I am done arguing and fussing back and forth. I came here to get my babies and hopefully sit and try
to talk with you about how we can co-parent without all of the extra shit.”

  “Co-parent? You aren’t taking my daughters anywhere.”

  I let out a frustrated sigh. “Tre, I am trying my best to act like an adult here. Can you please try and meet me halfway?” I pleaded with him. “I’m not leaving here without my babies.”

  “Yeah, you are leaving up out of here and you can bet your last dollar that you won’t be taking Laila and Lola with you.”

  “Will you please act your damn age instead of your shoe size?” Mr. Jefferson exploded throwing up his hands. “This mess right here isn’t making any sense. Those babies need both of their parents, not one. You can’t just snatch those kids from their mama boy! What is wrong with you?”

  “No disrespect pops but this ain’t none of your business.” Tre told his dad and walked over to me and attempted to take Laila from my arms but she started squealing and crying. “Come on to daddy Lil’ Mama.”