Little Miami Girl: Antonia and Jahiem's Love Story

by Diamond Johnson

  Chapter 9: Jahiem

  For some reason, I felt like a nigga would get caught up in some shit if I were to take lil mama down to South Beach or something to chill with a nigga, so I decided just to bring her over to my mom’s spot with me so that we could just chill for a while. Plus, Antonia was still seventeen years old, and I wanted to wait until she turned eighteen to start chilling like that with her more. I’ll admit that Antonia was very beautiful, but I didn’t know if I was ready to jump into all of that so soon. When I told her that I wasn’t ready for a girlfriend yet, I noticed that all of our conversation had ceased. I don’t know if I had made her mad or what, but she hadn’t said anything else to me.

  I pulled up to my mother’s house in Sunny Isles about a good fifteen minutes later. I saw her car as well as Shaniqua’s car in the driveway. Shaniqua didn’t stay with our mom, but like myself, she found herself popping up a lot. I turned the car off and both of us exited.

  “Who’s house is this?” Antonia asked as we neared the door. I could sense her uneasiness.

  “My mom’s. Chill, you’ll be all right,” I said, looking down at her and then going in my pocket to pull out my spare key that I had for my mom’s crib.

  I opened the front door and let the two of us in. Once we were inside, instantly I could smell some of my mother’s famous cooking. I swear that I’m not just saying this because this is my mama and I love her ass to death, but my mom was the best damn cook in town. I mean, her ass could make Kool-Aid taste like some famous drink that you get from one of those five star restaurants. That’s why if I ever got with a woman on some exclusive type shit, her ass needed to know how to cook because a nigga’s standards were very much high.

  We walked in the kitchen and my mom was standing over the island, while my sister sat in front of a stool and the two of them were talking amongst each other, clearly unaware of the fact that I was now in the room.

  “Damn, y’all didn’t hear a nigga come in?” I asked them.

  “Jah, don’t play with me!” my mother said sternly, referring to me cursing.

  No matter how old I get, my mom wouldn’t allow my ass to curse in front of her, but I still did the shit because it was a bad damn habit. I looked at my mother and smiled. While Shaniqua and I were caramel colored with our hazel eyes that we had gotten from our father, my mother was a deep chocolate, and she wasn’t as tall as Shaniqua and I.

  “And no, we didn’t hear you come in. Who is this that you have with you?” my mom asked, smiling at Antonia.

  “Why do you look so familiar?” Shaniqua asked, looking over at Antonia as well.

  “You saw me when you came to Chick-Fil-A the other day,” Antonia said shyly.

  “Oh yeah. You’re right,” Shaniqua said, nodding her head.

  “Well, ma and Shaniqua, this is Antonia. Antonia, this is Shaniqua and my mother,” I said, doing the introduction.

  My mother was looking at me with this smirk on her face because I had never in my life brought a female over to meet my family. I honestly didn’t think anything of it because Antonia was just my friend.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Antonia. How old are you? You look so young,” my mother said, smiling.

  “I’m seventeen, but I’ll be eighteen in two months,” Antonia said, defending herself.

  “Wow, that’s how it was when I met their father. Only I was fifteen and he was twenty,” my mom said, going back in time to when she and my father were together.

  Antonia gave her a smile and then looked at me. I gestured with my hand for her to go sit at the stool next to my sister and she did. I went on over to the oven, so that I could look inside and see what my mama was in there cooking. I noticed that she had bar b q chicken, yellow rice, black eyed peas, and some blueberry cornbread that looked like it would be finished in a few minutes.

  “So what school are you attending, Antonia?” my mother asked her.

  “Northwestern,” she said.

  “You’re a senior right? I’m only assuming because you said you were about to be eighteen,” my mom asked.

  “Yes, I’m a senior,” she told her.

  “So, what next? You have plans on going to college?” my mom asked. Damn, it was like her ass was playing damn twenty-one questions.

  “Yes, ma’am. Hopefully I’ll get into the University of Miami,” Antonia said. For the first time, I could see where she was actually proud of something. Seems like every time I asked her a question, she just had a blank expression on her face.

  “Okay, that’s great. What about your parents? Are they okay with you hanging with my son, since he’s six years older than you? I know when I got with their father, my parents had a fit and almost tried to have him arrested,” my mom said.

  “I don’t stay with my parents. My mom died and I don’t know my dad. I live with my aunt and her four other children,” Antonia said.

  I didn’t even know that because all she had told me was that she didn’t stay with her parents, and I never finished the conversation because I could tell that it was a touchy subject for her.

  My mom stopped with all of the questions, and ten minutes later, we were all at the table eating dinner together. All the women sat, talking amongst themselves, while I just ate my food and listened. I could tell that Antonia was slowly opening up to my family because she really wasn’t acting shy anymore, which was a good sign. After we finished eating, the women went and cleaned up the kitchen, while I went into the den to watch some TV. I guess that I would just chill over here until it was time for me to take Antonia back home. About ten minutes into the show, Antonia came and took a spot next to me on the couch.

  “You’re so lucky,” she said after two minutes of us sitting in silence.

  “Why you say that?” I asked, looking at her.

  “Look around you. Your luck speaks for itself,” she said.

  Her lil ass always talked in code and I always had to guess what the hell it was that she was talking about. I just nodded my head and continued to watch TV with her next to me.

  We were about thirty minutes into the show, Scandal and I looked down and lil mama was knocked out, with her head resting on the back of the couch. She looked uncomfortable as hell, so I picked her up and laid her out on her stomach on the couch. I stood up and went back into the kitchen, so I could get some more of my mother’s cornbread. When I was eating, both my sister and mother walked past me, so I assumed that they were about to go into the living room as well to watch TV.

  I finished up my cornbread and then went and grabbed a bottle of water before I went back into the living room. When I walked back in, Shaniqua and my mom were looking at me with shocked expressions on their faces.

  “Why the hell y’all looking like that? Ma, if you mad about her sleeping on the couch, I’ll take her upstairs,” I said and my mom shook her head no.

  “Jah, look at her back,” my mom said, pointing over to Antonia.

  I set the water bottle down on the table and noticed that Antonia’s shirt had raised up, exposing the bottom of her back. I walked over to her and could see where she had big welts on her body. She was knocked out cold, so I raised her shirt up a little bit more and she had a big, blackish purplish bruise on the upper part of her body, along with other small bruises.

  Both my mom and Shaniqua got a glimpse of it and they covered their mouth with their hands. I quickly pulled down her shirt and I swear I wanted to kill whoever the fuck had done this do her. Antonia was probably about one hundred and ten pounds soaking wet, and it looked like a grown man was beating her ass. How she was able to survive these whoopings was crazy to me. The crazy part is that half of the bruises looked like they were fairly knew. I ain’t the smartest nigga out there, but something told me that when I saw her coming from out of her building today crying and walking with a limp, she had just suffered a whooping.

  “Put her in my room and lay her on the bed,” Shaniqua said, referring to the bedroom that she had over at my mom’s house.


  I picked Antonia up off the couch and carried her up the stairs. She didn’t even flinch. I turned the light on in Shaniqua’s room and laid her on the bed. I grabbed a nearby blanket and placed it over her and then I turned the light out and exited the room. When I came back downstairs, Shaniqua and my mother were still in the same spot that I had left them.

  “I never would have guessed that. I didn’t even think anything of it when I saw the bandage under her eye,” my mom said as I took a seat on the couch.

  “Who you think could be doing that? She said she stayed with her auntie and cousins,” Shaniqua added.

  “I don’t know, but I got a feeling that it could be her aunt. The other night I took her out to dinner and she wouldn’t even let me walk her up the stairs because she was scared that somebody would tell her aunt that she was with me. Like, she wasn’t scared on some ‘I might get grounded’ type of shit. Like, she was looking at me like, ‘if my aunt finds out, I might get the shit beat out of me,’” I confessed because it was the truth.

  “Wow. My motherly instincts are kicking in, making me want to handle the situation for her. I just can’t imagine somebody going through shit like that at home. What you think we should do about it? Do we say something to her about it?” my mom asked.

  “Don’t say nothing to her because from being around her, I know that she gets embarrassed really easily. She was supposed to be at work tonight but they sent her home because of the bandage. Something about the manager didn’t want to take that risk or something,” I said, and they nodded their heads.

  For the remainder of the time, we sat there and watched TV. I couldn’t even focus on the TV because I couldn’t help but to think about Antonia. I could tell that she tried to be so hard body, and she wouldn’t want us having any sympathy for her, but it was something in me that just wouldn’t allow me to turn a blind eye. It was after eleven now, so I went and upstairs and got Antonia, so that I could take her back home. She was knocked out in the bed so peacefully, almost making me not want to wake her up, but I knew I had to.

  I walked over to her on the bed and shook her shoulder. Her eyes popped open and she looked around the room and then her eyes landed on me.

  “Oh my God! What time is it?” she asked and panic was written all over her face as she jumped out of the bed.

  “Chill, it’s only eleven. I’m going to take you home now,” I said, and she calmed down a little bit.

  I watched as she fixed up the bed and then folded the blanket and placed it back on top of the bed. When she was finished, we walked out of the room and took the stairs.

  “Where is your mom and Shaniqua?” she asked once we walked past the kitchen and she didn’t see them anymore.

  “Shaniqua went home and my mom went upstairs to her room. She’s probably asleep,” I told her, opening the front door for us.

  “Well, whenever you talk to them again, let them know that I enjoyed myself and I wouldn’t mind coming over to spend time with them again,” she said with hopeful eyes.

  “I got you,” I said and opened the car door for her then went and got in on my side.

  The car ride was quiet, except for the air that was blowing. I wanted to so badly just get her to open up with a nigga, but damn, I didn’t want the shit to feel like it was being forced.

  We pulled up into her apartment complex and I parked the car in the middle of the parking lot, like I always did. I looked over at Antonia when she grabbed the door handle and I stopped her.

  “You need anything? You good?” I asked her. I wasn’t even going to get out because I knew that she wouldn’t want me to.

  “No, I don’t need anything, I’m fine. Thank you for letting me meet your family tonight, Jah,” she said.

  “No problem,” I told her and she got out of the car.

  I watched as she took the stairs up to her floor, and once she rounded the corner, I didn’t see her anymore. I leaned my head back in the seat and the sound of my phone ringing, snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked down at the screen and noticed that it was Tynesha. I knew what she was calling for, and all of this wrecking my brain, trying to figure out what the hell has been going on with Antonia was stressing a nigga the fuck out. So, getting a nut or two off would most likely ease my stress.

  “What’s good?” I asked Tynesha once I answered the phone.

  “I’m trying to see what’s up with you. Can you come see me? I miss you, Jah,” she said sexily into the phone. I leaned my head back in the seat and imagined her giving a nigga some good, toe curling head.

  “Where you at?” I asked her.

  “I’m at my mama’s house,” she told me.

  “And who all over there?” I asked her because if I was coming over to fuck, I wanted to fuck in peace.

  “It’s just me and my little sister, Meccah, but she’s in her room sleep,” she said.

  “Alright, I’m on my way,” I said and ended the phone call.

  Damn, a nigga really needed this nut.

  Chapter 10: Antonia

  “Okay, Antonia. Your turn,” Mrs. Williams said, calling me up to the podium so that I could share my essay with the class.

  I slowly stood and made my way to the front of the classroom. I looked around the class and everybody was staring at me, waiting for me to begin. I was a little bit nervous because my essay was different from the others that had gone up to read theirs.

  I cleared my throat and then I began. “A few day ago, in this very same classroom, I was asked to give a scenario to the class on what love means to me. It was kind of funny to me because I watched many of my classmates express to the class so easily of the last encounter they had when they had received loved. It was so easy for them to just take that scenario from the back of their head and quickly recite it to the class. Sadly, I couldn’t do the same.

  “Yesterday, when I got home from school, I went to the library and I researched what the word love actually means. I came to the conclusion that love is an intense feeling of deep affection. Things like, fondness, tenderness, and warmth. Now that I had that part, it was time for me to think of the scenario that I could use and share with the class. Funny how all the examples that I’ve heard thus far have been scenarios of love that each and all of you are receiving from your families.

  “Two days ago, I went home and I cleaned up my aunt’s house spotless for her. I’m talking from the kitchen, the living room, and the bathrooms. I had her house so spotless because I knew that in a few hours she would be coming home from out of town and I wanted her to have something clean to come home to. Later on, I asked myself, why did I go out my way like that? Couldn’t I have just cleaned the kitchen and been done with it like I usually do? Well, the answer to that question is I did it because of love. I lost my mother when I was only six years old and my aunt stepped up to the plate and took me in. If she never would have done that, Lord knows where I would be right now. Even though I love her, it doesn’t mean that I love the situation that I’m in.

  “While at the library, I also learned that love can turn around, and just because you give a person love, doesn’t mean that they will hand that same love over to you. I say that to say, there’s a thin line between love and hate. In closing, you can love someone so much and as time goes on and you finally accept it in your heart that that person doesn’t equally love you as much as you love them, it can turn into hate. I’m hating myself for loving my aunt too much and I’m hating my mother for leaving me with her to raise me,” I said and the whole class looked at me shocked as I ended my paper.

  I looked at Mrs. Williams and watched as she wiped a lone tear from her eye. I didn’t flat out say that I was getting my ass beat on a daily basis. However, a smart person could easily read between the lines and take from my speech that I was going through some hardcore shit. The bell rang, dismissing us from the classroom. I packed up my book bag and headed out of the class. My next three classes went by pretty fast, and before I knew it, it was time for lunch.

  I w
alked into the cafeteria with this heavy ass book bag on my back and made my way to the lunch line. I stood in line for about ten minutes, and once I had my food in my hands, I walked out and spotted Tacarra sitting at the table with her friends. I didn’t know what type of mindset Tacarra was in today, and I was a little apprehensive about going over to the table and joining them. Fuck it. It was a free damn country, and I was tired of sitting by myself during lunch.

  I shouldn’t have to come to school and feel isolated, especially when I have someone here that I considered a friend. So, with my tray in hand, I walked over to the table and took a seat next to Tacarra. I watched as her friends sized me up and down, and Tacarra wasn’t even going to speak, if I hadn’t spoken first. She gave me a dry wave and I just scooted over because I guess she wasn’t fuckin’ with me today.

  “Girl, Wednesday night Jah came over to the house and him and Tynesha was in the room fuckin so loud, a bitch couldn’t even get any sleep,” one of Tacarra’s friends said. I believed her name was Meccah or something like that.

  I don’t know why she felt the need to say that shit out loud or why she felt like she had to look at me when she said it. I knew when a bitch was trying to throw shade, and I wondered if Tacarra had told her friends about me going out to dinner with Jah. I doubt it. Hearing her say that Jah and her sister were having sex really put a dent in my heart, but I tried my best to play it off and act like what she said didn’t bother me, even though it did because Jah was with me Wednesday night. Which left me to believe that maybe after he dropped me off, he went to go be with this Tynesha girl, whom I assume is the same chick from Red Lobster.

  “Your sister is so lucky to be fuckin’ Jah. That nigga is so fine, plus I heard that he has a big dick too,” one of the other girls said. Kelsey was her name.

  Only reason why I knew that was because Tacarra had pictures of all three of them hanging in her room, with their names underneath. I watched as Tacarra gave Kelsey a high five at the statement that she had just made and I just continued to eat my lunch in silence, since they weren’t paying me any attention anyways. I kind of felt like whenever Tacarra got around these girls, she would sort of become embarrassed by me. I didn’t have the nice jewelry and latest shoes and things like they had, so I felt like that alone made her ashamed of me.