by Edwina Fort
Shortly after that, I bought my mother a house. She was a wreck, grieving heavily the loss of what she thought she would have forever. The more she cried, the more I set my father’s ruination into plan.
He was going to pay what he owed one way or the other.
Meanwhile, my mother's constant grieving was making me uncomfortable. I didn't know what to say to make her feel better. I didn’t know how to get her to get up out of her bed and take back control of her life.
What does one say?
By mistake, I found out the cure for her…
In those days, Hitta and I spent a lot of time in Vegas, an atmosphere that’s not all that conducive for a fifteen-year-old girl. We needed to find somewhere to stash Carmen. Sooo… I took her to my mom’s.
I figured having someone to look after may pick up her spirits a bit…
What I didn’t count on was having to bail Carmen and my mom out of jail a week later.
Yeah! I know… Crazy, right?
The brat convinced my mother that she would feel a whole lot better if she went to my father’s place and poured sugar in both his and his new wife, Melissa’s gas tanks. When the alarm went off, Melissa came out of the house and caught them in the act.
What did Carmen do then?
Well, she decided to pull all of Mel’s hair out while my mother stood on the side and cheered her on. By the time the police got there, the ground was littered with enough fake hair to scare the hell out of my father, who apparently thought that was Mel’s real hair. My mother said she will never forget the look of horror on his face when Mel ran out of the house to tell him what happened with only two inches of hair on her head that stuck straight up in the air.
I'd like to tell you that was the last time my mother and Carmen harassed my father and his new wife, but then I'd be lying. Eventually, the bastard got a restraining order against them.
But something amazing was happening, my mom was laughing and cracking jokes again. I came in one day and caught her and Carmen dancing to Al Green in her kitchen. She looked happier than I’d seen her in a long time.
The brat had even managed to convince her that it wasn’t too late for her to start a career in interior designing, something she had gone to school for before she married my dad.
Yeah, I got them two out of a lot of trouble, but I didn’t mind, because although Carmen was trouble with a capital T, she was good for my mom, who began telling anybody who would listen that she was the daughter she’d never had.
So okay…you’re wondering what the hell happened to me and Carmen’s relationship to make us the enemies you know us to be today.
And I’ll admit… It was all my fault.
You see, because Hitta was always busy, Carmen was always underfoot. If she wasn’t at my mom’s place, she was at my place. She’d taken an interest in accounting, so quite naturally, I helped her.
From fourteen to seventeen, everything was cool between us. I hadn’t notice till Maddox pointed it out that I’d become domesticated.
For all of you out there frowning, I completely understand. When he first told me, I frowned too.
But then he started pointing out a few things that everybody seemed to notice but me and Carmen.
My mom had decided to go back to school for an update…her words, which meant that Carmen was back up in the air and somebody had to look after her. So, although I couldn’t really say that I was looking after her, I at least tried to make it back home as much as possible.
In reality, it was she who looked after me.
LOL, allow me to explain…
You see, Carmen is very independent; my mom calls her bossy. I don’t know if it’s because she lost her mom to prison or what, but she fiercely protects those that she considers hers, my mom, Hitta, and me.
A part of that protection is doing all she can to help that person, even if it’s completely taking over their lives and changing things…
For example, she had started helping my mom get her girlish figure back…their words, so she took over preparing meals for all of us because she said we couldn't keep eating restaurant food.
I didn’t see anything wrong with that. She did most of the cooking at my place and my mom normally stopped by to either eat or grab a plate on her way from classes since her school wasn’t too far from my apartment. And if Hitta was in town, he stopped by to grab food as well. We sort of fell into a pattern.
My place was pretty much the center point of everything, so quite naturally, it was where we congregated. On my way home in the evening, I generally called Carmen to see if she needed me to bring anything in.
Until Maddox pointed it out, I didn’t even notice that she’d redecorated…or shall I say, added her touch to my apartment. A piece of furniture here, a painting on the wall there…a rack that better organized my ties because I had hundreds…
Yeah, I was into ties…
I didn’t notice her touches because they all made things more comfortable. However, I did notice that my place was more inviting than it had been before she started coming around. She made it feel like home.
The fridge stayed full of the things that I liked; she’d even made my office perfect for when I put in office time. Before that, I generally worked out of the gym.
Until Maddox had pointed it out, I didn’t even realize that it had been forever since I brought a woman to my place. If I went out, I always went to my date’s place or to a hotel.
And then there was the time shortly after Carmen’s 17th birthday, Maddox, Hitta, and I ended up at dinner with our dates and Carmen… Carmen sat between me and Hitta, on the other side of me was my date for the evening.
When our food came, Carmen took the tomatoes off her burger and put them on mine because she knew I liked extra tomatoes on my sandwiches. I took my pickles off and put them on hers because she loved pickles. She poured half of our sweet tea out and added water because we both agreed a long time ago that restaurants made their tea way too sweet.
When she slowed down to about a bite per minute, I knew she was getting full and when she didn’t take a bite after two minutes, I knew she was done and ate the rest of her burger… This was something that I’ve always done over the years. When she was younger, I used to outright steal her food.
For some reason, my date got really pissed and wanted to be taken home. It was later that night when I was talking to Maddox that he pointed out a few things that probably pissed her off. I swear up until then, I hadn’t even noticed that I’d f***ing become domesticated.
So, I put an end to it. I stopped making it home all the time and started being away more often. Yeah, it wasn’t like being at home and yeah, I was missing my place, but I needed to disrupt whatever the hell it was that seemed to have naturally developed between me and my employer’s niece.
My mom was not happy with me, she of course, was worried about Carmen, who was back to staying at the apartment Hitta had gotten for them. Because he was never there, she ended up there by herself a lot.
The tension started rising between us, but then I got word that some pissant boy was sniffing around there when Hitta was away, some boy that word had it, Carmen really liked.
I told myself that what I did was for her protection. She was a seventeen-year-old girl and she didn’t need some guy coming around when she was there by herself. If he meant her any good, he would come around when either I or Hitta was there.
So yeah, I paid him a little visit and told him to back the f*** off. I may or may not have threatened bodily harm. I chalked that up to being around Hitta too long; some of his barbaric ways have rubbed off on me…
I told myself many lies, but the truth was, I couldn’t stand the idea of some guy touching her or trying to take her comfort. No, I couldn’t have it, but I for damn sure didn't want anybody else having it…
Yeah, I know, that’s so f***ed up, right?
Carmen came to see me the next day and the sh*t hit the fan. I’d been in my home gym training with my
sensei when she barged in.
“Master Pai Mei, can you please excuse us?!” she snapped clearly pissed.
I bowed to my teacher and watched as he left the gym. As soon as he was gone, she ripped into me.
“What the f***, Wayne?! What did you tell John? He won’t answer my calls, he canceled our date! When I asked him why, he said to talk to you!”
“Wait! What f***ing date? I don’t remember you talking to me or your uncle about a f***ing date!”
“Are you serious?! I’m getting ready to be eighteen—”
“So f***ing what?!” I paused for a second to try and get control over my anger. She’d been spewing that eighteen sh*t and it was driving me nuts.
“You turning eighteen don’t mean sh*t!”
She was looking at me as if I’d lost my mind. She had pink hair at the time and was so beautiful it hurt to look at her. I told myself that I didn’t desire her and that wasn’t why I ran off that douchebag…I told myself it was for her own safety.
“You expect me to be single for the rest of my life?!”
“Yes!” I didn’t hesitate to give her my answer. Hell yeah, I knew it was unreasonable, but it was how the f*** I felt.
“Can’t you see that’s not fair? You have dates all the time…You and my uncle the biggest hoes I know! That’s so f***ing hypocritical!”
I shrugged. “No worries, sweetheart! I’m going to make sure you never have that problem.”
She was so mad that she was standing there with her little fists balled up, no doubt she wanted to try and take me in a fight. It wouldn’t be the first time…my guess is, it wouldn’t be the last time. I’ve had to show her on a few occasions that her little boxing skills could only take her so far.
“I’m telling my uncle on you…” she growled looking so adorable in her anger.
I shrugged again… “Tell him, I don’t care. He knows I’m just trying to keep you safe. He put you in my charge a long time ago…I’m just doing my job, baby.”
“That’s bullsh*t and you know it!”
I smiled… “Maybe it is…but guess what. When it’s all said and done, my word stands.”
If looks could kill, I would be dead… “I hate you!”
“Don’t say that, brat, it’s not true.”
“I’ll show you how true it is…”
And well, that's when the war began. The environment got so tense, Hitta pulled me to the side to have a little chat with me.
“Aye, Bo, let me holla at you for a minute.”
At the time, I had been arranging for one of his new fighters to have an interview on WYN news.
“Yeah, boss…what’s up?”
“Man, that’s what I want to know. What’s going on with you and Carmen? She came to me begging me to fire you.”
I chuckled as I continued to make the arrangements… “Yeah, I’m not her favorite person.”
“She said you won’t let her talk to her little boyfriend.”
That made me pause and look up at him. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
It was his turn to chuckle. “That’s the problem, she wants one.”
I shook my head. “Look, man, you’re out of town most of the time. I’m the one that’s been handling things with her… Let me do my job. Stay out of it!”
He threw up his hands. “Calm down, buddy… You a little more testy than usual, ain't you?"
I looked away from him going back to what I was doing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure, you do. You’re in love with her, Bo.”
I whipped around to stare at my boss with a frown on my face. “I know speaking your mind is your thing, but this is too much…Why would you say something so horrendous?!”
He chuckled again… “Because it’s true, nigga!”
“It’s not. I’m simply looking out for her. Do you know how many punks would love to get their hands on her just because she’s your niece? I’m doing what’s best for her!”
“You doing what’s best for you. But I ain’t mad at you. I’m not a big fan of her coming home with some random dude. And if I didn’t know she love you just as much as you love her, I wouldn’t be a big fan of you either.”
He stood. “But let me leave you with this. After while, you gon’ stop lying to yourself about your feelings for her. I don’t want to have to break your arms, so make sure she’s past eighteen when you do.”
He patted me on my back none to gently. Big bastard nearly made me tip over. “You don’t have that long to wait. She’ll be eighteen in a few months.”
I shook my head. “You got it all wrong.”
“Sure, I do.” Chuckling, he walked away.
He had it all wrong…
At least that’s what I told myself…
Mean Tucker
The Prologue
Mean Tucker: The Bully
Free
It was almost over. I was almost free from this hell known as high school. No…I take that back. I was almost free from this hell known as Aldshore Michigan, my house, my so-called family, high school, and most importantly, Naphtali Tucker Pelletier, who was a real-life sociopath that everybody called Tucker, but I called Mean Tuck.
I looked up the name Tucker once because that's what I did. I stayed hidden in the library most times with my nose stuck in a book. It was the only safe place, the only place the Beautiful Ones will never travel.
Anyway, I looked up the name Tucker and would you guys believe it is derived from an old English word in the 7th century that meant tormenter?
What’s the irony? That’s exactly what he was, my tormenter.
And no matter what I did to try and avoid him, he always found me because he was psychotic and tormented me to the cheers and encouragement of his posse, that the whole school referred to as the Beautiful Ones because there was not an unattractive one to be found in their midst…and he, the most beautiful of them all was their king.
He was not only their king, he was king of the whole damn school, the golden boy of the small beach town, captain of the football team, adopted son of the Mayor and if you let everybody in this town tell it, the next best thing from the Second Coming.
Now me…
Well, I was nobody. I was born in Detroit. My mom was a black Hippie who loved life. She loved it so much she named me Free, but she also loved drugs and ended up overdosing when I was in eighth grade. Her death almost killed me. She was the best mom in the whole world and now she was gone.
Anyway, my estranged father, who I hadn’t seen since I was a baby, showed up to the funeral and informed me that I was moving to Aldshore, a small beach town off Lake Michigan, known for its wealth, to live with him and his new wife, who had two twin daughters from a previous marriage that were my age. Apparently, my dad had married up. Neither he nor my mom was from money, but my dad’s new wife surely was.
Although they lived in a huge mansion, they’d given me a small room in the basement. Angie, my dad’s wife, was not happy with the fact that he’d shown up with a strange kid to tarnish her pristine reputation.
I was her charity case and she never let me forget it. And because my dad in all sense and purpose was also a charity case, there wasn’t much he could do to help me.
I mean don’t get me wrong, he was a well-known psychiatrist in the area, in fact, that was how he and Angie met, he was her doctor, but his notoriety was nothing compared to hers. She was what was known as Black royalty. She came from old money.
This whole town was full of Black royalty. And like I told you, sitting at the very top was the Pelletier family. Word is, Mayor Pelletier and his wife had tried to have a baby for many years, but couldn’t. So they’d sent a scout out to find them the very best specimen to adopt and they’d found Tucker.
LOL… I don’t know how true that is, but Tucker is a very fine specimen. Every girl at school fancied themselves in love with him. And for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why someone so gorgeous and so popular always
went out of their way to hunt me down and then torture me.
You know what…scratch that. I do know why. It’s because he’s a psychotic sociopath… who I was sure suffered from multiple personality disorder. Something about me had triggered something in his brain and now he didn’t feel complete unless he was causing me misery.
And although I’ve spent many hours wondering what I could have possibly done to gain the attention of someone like him, I’m still at a complete loss.
It’s not that I thought I was ugly, I wasn’t. It’s just that I wasn’t perfect like the beautiful ones. I wore glasses that I had to tape up because I didn’t have the funds to replace them. Angie won’t buy me another pair, and she won't let me get a job so that I can buy myself another pair, because God forbid anybody sees any of her daughters, including her little charity case working a real job.
So, I walked around with thick duct tape holding the left side of my frames together. I didn’t have long straight hair like my stepsisters. Both Layla and Laureen spent hours at the beauty salon every week.
Not me, Angie was already paying a fortune to house me and send me to this fancy school. There was nothing left for amenities like clothes and beauty salon appointments. All my clothes were Layla and Laureen’s hand-me-downs.
But I didn’t mind not going to the beauty salon, because I actually loved my hair. In fact, I thought it was my best feature. It was my mama’s hair, thick and curly. I fought with it each morning to get it in a ponytail. And by noon each day, most of it was escaping my ponytail to frame my face, making me look like my mom.
Like I told you guys, my clothes were Layla and Laureen’s hand-me-downs and they made sure everybody in school knew it. So yeah, I couldn’t figure out why Tucker made it his mission to seek me out and torture me every day. There was nothing special about me.
And trust me, I did my very best to avoid him.
The two classes he and I had together were the two classes I was doing the worst in, I always came late, because it wasn’t safe to be early. And I always made up an excuse to leave early, because it wasn’t safe to leave later.
