by Nicety
“Throw in that Snickers and that Butterfinger, and oh give me some of those Sour Patches right there.”
“You want the big bag or the little bag?”
“The big bag motherfucka, damn. I pointed to those,” Diamond laughed pointing to the biggest bag of candy over the man’s shoulder.
“Okay, okay. Don’t get your t-shirt in a bunch. I’m just trying to help you. That is all,” the cashier said as he whisked a bag out from under his counter and passed it to her, “$11.35.”
“Damn, I didn’t even get shit and you talking about some $11.35 nigga. Is you serious right now?” Diamond’s faced curled in disbelief, “Damn y’all straight rapin’ niggas and shit.”
The man was silent as she slapped a fifty-dollar bill on the counter and bagged her own groceries. She checked out the short stocky woman behind her who was ogling her hard as ever. Diamond was never one to discourage someone from admiring her timeless beauty but she was not in the best of mood. Her eyes cut back at the fair skinned Caucasian woman then back at the cashier as she finished bagging her items.
“Here’s your change Hun,” the cashier said handing the money to her.
“Uh, naw, just keep it and put it on pump six,” Diamond replied waving the man off as she headed for the door.
A part of her wanted to turn to keep going and forget about the lady. On the other hand, she wanted to go back and ask that bitch what her problem was. Instead she continued on to her car attempting to blow off the strange encounter while popping open the bag of Sour Patches she had just paid for.
“Hey! Excuse me!” A voice called from the distance as she approached the back of the car.
She popped the gas door open then twisted the gas cap off without skipping a beat on popping the tiny sugar covered gummy bears in her mouth. Diamond was not even paying attention to her surroundings seeing as though in the hood there were always people around yelling obscenities, so it felt natural to her. She struggled to place the bag of food on the trunk of the car while still maintaining the open bag of candy as she reached for the gas pump. It slowly began to dawn on her that if she followed through with Lexi’s plan to carry the baby to full term that she would undoubtedly become a fat pile of lard in no time, scrimmaging for left overs at the bottom of the refrigerator.
“Bitch I said HEY!” The stocky woman delivered a hefty slap to Diamond’s mouth knocking the bag of candy out of her hand and onto the ground.
“What the fuck? Bitch, are you serious right now? Have you lost your fucking mind?” Diamond was startled by the slap though it did not deter her from bending down to pick up the remainder of the candy still left inside of the bag.
“Naw, I’m not crazy. Your name is Diamond. Isn’t it?” The lady’s breath pounded the air.
The woman’s dark hair fluttered from underneath her thin black cap and her makeup looked as if it were running down her face for days. She was dressed in her pajamas wrapped in a thick brown leather jacket with fur running across the top. Her feet adorned a fresh pair of Air Max’s, which proved to be very sturdy on the slippery slushy snow.
“And if my name is Diamond, then what?”
“Then this!” The woman delivered another hefty blow to her face and even though Diamond was able to combat that one this time she failed to hold onto her bag of candy once more.
“Bitch I swear if you put your hands on me one more time it’s gonna be me and you in these streets,” Diamond warned as she picked up the candy with even fewer pieces inside this time. “Now you look like an older bitch and I respect my elders and shit but you are testing me and that’s gonna get your ass tagged.”
“You want to talk about tagging asses? Huh? Well how about my husband’s ass that you’ve been tagging for some years now. Huh? Talk about that ass!” The woman charged at her again.
“Slow down with your crazy ass!” Diamond yelled as she pushed her back.
“No! No, I will not slow down. You and my husband have been having this glorious affair with him coming home smelling like you and money missing from our bank accounts and then it hit me…” The woman paused to catch her breath, bouncing up and down like a pro boxer with her dukes in the air. “Hire a private investigator.”
“What the fuck? Hoe, I don’t even know your man.”
“Oh I think you know him very well. See I got pictures of you and him together. I know the hotels he takes you to and I know the car he rents just to pick you up,” The woman continued with tears flowing down her golden frosted cheeks.
“Rented?”
“Yes rented.”
“Uh…uh, ‘cause, see all of the niggas who I fucked with is paid okay. None of my niggas ride in shit that ain’t theirs.”
“How would you know? Did you check his registration for the motherfucka?” The woman chuckled. “You simple bitches are all the same, always looking for a handout when you should be looking for a damn job. Well I’ve got one picture you might be interested in seeing.”
“Naw, I’m done with you,” Diamond turned around trying to ignore the lady sticking the pump in her car and pulling the latch so the gas would pump itself.
“Oh but I think you aren’t just yet, Ms. Diamond. See because you weren’t the only one my husband was screwing around on me with behind my back,” she pulled a medium sized photograph from her inside pocket and handed it to her, “Tell me what you see, Ms. Diamond.”
“Naw, I ain’t looking at that,” Diamond refused pushing away the picture and popping another Sour Patch in her mouth.
“Look at the damn picture, bitch!”
Diamond gazed into the woman’s eyes veering through pain and anguish before snatching the photo out of her hands. She was not in the mood for anymore of her meaningless efforts to confront her and was ready to get back on her mission. Feeling as though it was the only way to get rid of her she peered down at the black and white photo and could not believe her eyes.
“Sergeant Sutter’s,” Diamond gasped covering her mouth partially as candy particles flew from her mouth, “What’s he doing?”
“He’s kissing a man in the bushes at Marquette Park bitch. Yeah that’s right your beloved moneybags and my husband are on the down low. He is fucking gay!”
“Oh my God, and I sucked his…” Diamond knew it was not the place to finish her sentence or she feared another ass whooping.
“Well he’s been doing this for years. So you should probably go check out your pussy bitch ‘cause he’s got full blown AIDS,” The woman said calmly as if she did not want anyone else to hear what she was saying. “And I’ve got it too.”
“Oh my God!” Diamond placed her hand on her stomach feeling nauseated and light headed all at the same time.
“Yeah, so now that I’ve destroyed your life allow me to go forth unto the world and destroy the lives of the other bitches he’s slept with.”
“So that means that I’ve been stalking this nigga for shit?” Diamond whispered to herself, “Did you just find out that you had it?”
“I went to the doc— Wait a minute. You knew you had it. Didn’t you?” the woman read Diamond’s face like a blind person reading braille.
“What? I don’t know what you talking about,” Diamond spoke quickly as she unhooked the gas pump from her car shoving it back into its holster than returning the gas cap to her car.
“You knew you had it bitch and you gave it to my man!” the woman screamed at the top of her lungs slapping her in the head with the picture.
She grabbed Diamond’s hair pulling it down to her level before beating her in the head with her other fist. The woman made it a point to hold on tight so that she could not wiggle through her fingertips, wrapping the fibers of her hair around them. Diamond swung up hoping to hit the bitch in her face and startle her enough that she would eventually let go but it appeared to be no use. The more she swung the more the woman treated her like a rag doll, flinging her small stature from left to right.
“Help, help, get this big bitch off of me!”
Diamond screamed grabbing her hands trying to pry through her fingers, “Somebody!”
“You’re gonna die today bitch, today!”
Diamond started acting like a wild bull jerking away without caring for her hair. She was anxious to just get away from the woman’s strong grasp. Diamond dug her fingers as deep as she could into the woman’s arms letting her know that she was not playing anymore games with her. Her nails were dug down so deep that the woman began to scream feeling like Diamond was surely digging for blood. The woman brought Diamond’s head all the way down trying to place it in between her legs and lock her in to beat her back but Diamond was not having it. A weakness was felt within the woman’s grasp as though she was getting tired of the whole ordeal leaving Diamond open for the thrashing. She yanked so hard trying to get free but the woman was smarter and surprisingly quicker than that repositioning her weight to keep a hold on Diamond’s hair.
“Hey! Let her go man! Let her go!” A tall man ran over to break the two women apart.
Chapter 13
“Awe, naw. I’m not trying to kill nobody…yet.”— Lexi
“Are you ready to go home, Ms. Burden?” The nurse said smiling and entering the room with a field of papers.
“Yeah, I guess, as ready as I’ll ever be,” Lexi sighed trying to gather the rest of her belongings and pack them inside of the hospital issued plastic bag.
“Okay now the doctor prescribed some meds for you, which are nothing more than some prenatal pills and iron pills to make the life growing inside of you big and strong,” The nurse was overly happy.
It made Lexi very uncomfortable since she was not the least bit happy about being pregnant or being alone. She had envisioned her life being more luxurious than what it was. Her life was supposed to consist of traveling the world with her dream man and begins with him proposing to her under a French moonlight in Paris. She was supposed to be every woman to her man pleasing him not only in his pants but also in his heart and his mind stimulating his mental every chance she got. Her mother was never around to teach her how to love a man but she was definitely going to do her research to ensure she kept hers happy.
“Thanks,” she replied uninterestedly.
The more she thought about the life she could have had with Kojack the more it began to sadden her that it would never come to pass; at least not while he was indifferent about where he wanted to be. She knew eventually she would have to let him see his kid but she had a whole eight months left before that was going to happen, which also meant he had eight months to get his shit together as well. In the end, after what he had put her through, she felt they would probably never be in a relationship. She would always be the young girl in his life and he would always find a reason to leave.
“Child, you don’t seem happy about being a new mother. This is supposed to be a happy time, a time for celebration.” The nurse hyped as she moved in to pinch Lexi’s cheeks, something she always despised. “If you don’t mind me prying in your business, what’s wrong?”
“I really don’t want to talk about it, ma’am.”
“Hmm, sometimes you youngsters need to talk about your problems. Maybe if more of you talked it out then there would be less killing.”
“Awe, naw, I’m not trying to kill nobody…yet.”
The women laughed. Lexi felt a sense of ease as she took a deep breath exhaling it. It was the first time since her breakup with Kojack that she had smiled. The nurse sat down on the bed and spanked a portion of it next to her urging Lexi to take a break from packing and take a seat. She wanted to resist but thought it best not to as she needed some motherly advice right then. The nurse looked considerably older even though she did not know her true age, she just took her as someone who was wise in her ways and felt the need to listen to what she had to say.
“That man that came in here earlier; he’s the father of my baby,” Lexi breathed as she sat down next to her.
“Oh ok, that’s an awesome thing. Most of the young moms that come up in here have no clue of who they slept with the night before, let alone who the father of their baby is. So consider yourself lucky.”
“But I’m not lucky. He’s an ass. He broke up with me, basically on my birthday and he refuses to talk about it. Now all of a sudden my sister tells him I’m in the hospital and he wants to come and see how I’m doing? I don’t think so.”
“Honey but he came. You are so busy looking at the negative that you can’t accentuate the positive. If he didn’t care about you he wouldn’t have been here and… he wouldn’t be standing in the hall waiting for you either.”
A broad smile filled the nurse’s oval shaped face. She hoped that would make Lexi smile as well and send her racing out the door to find him. Instead Lexi rose from the bed and stood there staring at the door wondering why he was out there. Her breathing sped up as she contemplated her next move. The nurse witnessed her hesitation and rose to block her line of sight to the door.
“See honey, no one can raise a child alone. Now after having a brief conversation with him in the hall, I can see he truly is sorry for whatever it is he’s done,” The nurse said sweetly as she caressed her shoulder lightly. “Just hear the man out. If it sounds like bullshit you know what to do baby.”
“I don’t know. This is the second time he’s abandoned me knowing how we feel about each other. It’s my age and I understand that but the way he’s going about it is wrong.”
“Your age, girl you’re pregnant now? What other harm can be done at this point?” The nurse shrugged, “Truth be told, you need to figure out what you’re going to do because raising a baby alone is no joke. You either need its daddy or an abortion.”
She walked to the door peeping carefully out of the small rectangular shaped window noticing a nervous Kojack pacing the floor, “You decide.”
The nurse toddled out of the door leaving Lexi with her thoughts. There was not much to think about when it came down to Kojack, in her mind. She knew that gut punching him where it hurt was all that would whip him into shape. The one thing in the world she desired, she was denied, so she was not about to be a fool and keep handing him her heart on a platter for him to feast a little then discard the rest. She headed towards the door opening it forcefully, unafraid of facing him.
“Get in here, Kojack,” she said heading back towards the bed to finish packing without looking up at him.
“Lexi, I know what you said about leaving you alone but I need to talk to you. We need to talk this out,” Kojack walked up to her grabbing the bag from her hands and slamming it down on the bed.
“Don’t fucking touch me, I just don’t get why you wanna talk to me now. You never wanted to talk before. Cowards don’t talk they run. Remember?”
“Alright I deserve that,” Kojack replied massaging his chin, “But things have obviously changed.”
“Why, ‘cause I’m carrying a baby?” Lexi squinted, folding her arms. “You know I thought about gut punching you and telling you that it wasn’t yours but then I said you know what, that’s too easy for you. You’ve had life too easy up ‘til now and that’s why you always run away from your problems.”
“I don’t run away, I just need time to think,”
“No, be a man and call it what it is, running!” Lexi rubbed her head for stress relief, “You know what amazes me is that even though I’m only seventeen, I’m more of an adult than you’ll ever be.”
“I…okay. I can’t take this anymore,” Kojack said grabbing Lexi’s arm pulling her close to him.
SLAP!
“Stop! No!” Lexi pushed and shoved trying to get him off of her.
Kojack let go gently hoping she did not run out the door and scream rape. He was fucked up in the head that his plan backfired realizing at that moment that she was indeed more of an adult than she really is. She is stronger and more level headed than both of her sisters and when she is sober she appears to be on her game one hundred percent. He knew his typical lines and fetching looks were not going to b
e enough to convince her to take him back; underestimating her intelligence was his first downfall.
“Lex, I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to alienate me from your life or the baby’s life.”
“Just answer me this, was my age that hard for you to accept when you were planting your face in between my legs tasting me? Was your dick worried about my age when I was riding it in the front seat of your car? Or when you were banging me from the back pulling my hair tightly making me squirm?” Lexi ran her fingers across his zipped up black leather jacket.
Her fingers tapped against his jacket yet in his mind they felt like feathers on his chest. It was hard to explain the way she made him feel when she was around him. It was a feeling that no other woman has ever been able to make him feel and that was the number one reason why he left her alone. Kojack knew if he did not jolt out of her grasp he would never be able to leave her and do the right thing in the eyes of the law of Illinois. In that state, sex with a seventeen year old who was considered a minor was illegal but he could not help who he painfully desired. Granted she played games to get him but her game worked and he was definitely hooked, unable to fight the temptation any longer. The fact that she was carrying his baby was icing on the cake.
“Baby, I…”
“Naw, don’t baby me. Your ass is worthless. Know that me and you are over, Kojack.”
“How you gonna leave me with my seed in your stomach, girl? You ain’t got no money and no place to go. Diamond ain’t gonna take care of your ass. So you might as well come be with me and quit playing damn it,” Kojack advised firmly.
“See your smug ass still can’t see past your money. I don’t want your stupid, fucking money. I want you to be a damn man, get your shit together and realize that you were an asshole for punishing me for our love.”
“I’m not punishing you,” Kojack paused turning towards the door,” I’m punishing me and you’re getting hurt in the process. I’m just having a hard time dealing with this shit, Lex. I mean, have you ever taken a second out to think about me in all of this?”
