The Fight Within

by Laveen, Tiana

  “What’s up?” the boy stated without looking him in the eye as he toyed with his cell phone, scrolling through various pictures on some social media site.

  “Nothin’ much.” Sean grinned. “What’s up with you?”

  “Just waiting for this damn thing to be over…boring as hell.”

  “Awwww, come on! It’s not every day your Aunt Jasmine gets married!” he teased.

  “Yeah it is. She gets married every other year.” Brian snorted, causing Asia and Sean to laugh right along with him. “Here comes Mama.” The boy looked up to see Treasure approaching, her arms full of crimped, teal ribbon.

  “I don’t know how I always get roped into this!” she blurted gloomily as she plopped down in one of the chairs behind them. The poor woman’s head lulled back while she closed her eyes, seemingly exhausted. “So glad this wedding is over. I should’ve never volunteered to help the wedding coordinator… Now I’ve got to clean all this stuff up.”

  “No, we’ll help you, Mom.” Asia jumped up from her seat, pulling Sean’s hand as if she wanted to slow dance. “We first have to get all these chairs folded and placed up against the wall,” she instructed.

  “You know the drill, huh?” Sean laughed as he started with his own, causing a loud banging noise.

  “All the guests are in the other room eating cake. You guys abandoned me.” Treasure smirked.

  “I told you we’d be right back. Asia said her head was hurting from all the noise so we just walked in here for a breather is all,” he explained while folding another chair.

  “They won’t be in here anymore. We can at least start up so we aren’t here for an eternity. Then, we’ll finish after people begin to leave.” Treasure looked about the place, as if making assessments on time management. “Jasmine wants me to take this ribbon home. She plans to keep it and do some scrapbooking with it… Yeah, right!” Treasure rolled her eyes. “I didn’t have the heart to argue with her. There are literally four or five boxes of this mess.”

  “Look, let’s make this a bit easier. I’ll back my car up so we can put some of this stuff in there,” Sean volunteered. “This door right here, it’s okay to open it, right?” He pointed across the way to a side door with ‘Exit’ written on it in vibrant red letters.

  “Yes, I already saw the coordinator go in and out of it a few times this afternoon, and the caterers, too. Good idea. Thanks, baby.” She grabbed him, brought him close and landed a kiss on his cheek. Out of the corner of his eye, he witnessed Brian rolling his eyes and twisting his lips in faux disgust, but he soon let that go and sported a half smile, revealing the truth of his feelings about the whole display. Pulling away from the woman, he folded another chair, then stacked it against the wall.

  “I’m gonna go ahead and get the car… be back in a sec.” Treasure nodded and gripped the back of a chair, while Brian and Asia followed suit.

  He let himself out of the place. The door slammed abruptly behind him as he headed into the vast parking lot that was filled to capacity. Jasmine had quite the fan club, and it was of no surprise, for the woman happened to be as gorgeous and charismatic as Treasure, and had married a recently retired baseball player from the Yankees. She was Treasure’s ex-husband’s sister, yet she and Treasure remained friends, still quite close after the divorce, much to her ex’s dismay. Sean relished a moment to himself, to sort his thoughts. He released a thankful sigh for the solace and continued his trek. He’d had a damn good time meeting Treasure’s extended family, all of them hospitable and kind, with the exception of one.

  Treasure warned of possible family drama and perhaps an off-putting racially driven comment or two by Jackson’s family, but none of those fears materialized, much to their relief. The cool night air invigorated him as it blew lightly across his face, ruffling his hair just so. He slicked his hand in his pocket and removed his keys, which jangled in his grip and created a special song with each step he took as he drew nearer to his vehicle. Putting pep in his step, he continued to replay the evening in his mind. But, before he could unlock his car door, a deep, low voice boomed from a short distance.

  “Mr. Mahoney!”

  Sean immediately stopped dead in his tracks and looked over his shoulder, squinting just so, trying to make out the man that yelled his name.

  “Yeah?”

  A tall figure drew closer, his steps purposeful. The man kept balling up his fists and unfolding them, over and over, as if itching for a brawl. Sean took a deep breath, got into a fighter stance, prepared for whatever the bastard was trying to serve.

  “I think I need a word with you,” the man uttered, staring him down with nothing short of malevolent flames dancing in his eyes…

  *

  “Mom.” Asia grabbed two bulky bags while the wedding coordinator spoke loudly on her phone in the background. “Are you gonna marry Sean?”

  Treasure didn’t miss the smile on the girl’s slightly reddened face. Pausing, she placed her hand on her hip. “What would make you ask me that, baby?”

  The girl shrugged and blushed as she gathered more ribbons that lay here, there and everywhere along the wedding aisle runner. The muted tune of ‘Fantastic Voyage’ from Lakeside played in the background.

  “I dunno,” she said, shrugging once again. “I like him spendin’ time with you…with us. He’s nice.”

  Treasure picked up another few pieces of renegade ribbon and rolled the shimmery things around in her hand, mulling over her daughter’s words.

  “I like him, too.” She smiled. “I love him. And he likes and loves you, too.” She winked at her.

  “Yeah, he’s nice,” the girl repeated, then sighed as she continued on, treating their task like a scavenger hunt.

  “Brian, what time is it?”

  The boy loitered in the corner of the room, almost blending in like some mechanized fixture as he bobbed his head to the music and messed around on his phone.

  “It’s almost twelve…”

  “That late?! It shouldn’t have taken Sean this long to get the car.” She sighed. “He’s been gone a while.”

  “Mama, he might be making room in his hooptie or something. Cut the man some slack.” The boy smirked. Treasure rolled her eyes and bent low, picking up more shimmery pieces of tinsel and ribbon from the carpet. The shit had landed everywhere, as if an industrial fan had been on full blast, swirling it all around in a torrential frenzy. Instead of rice, everyone had thrown the damn things in the air and left it to Jasmine to think that was a good idea. Her mouth kinked in a smirk as she kept on about her duties. Regardless, she was happy for her sister-in-law—for the entire evening, actually. She had divorced Jackson, not his family.

  Sean got to meet some of her friends as well, and no one cracked an ill-suited anecdote or made a lewd remark, not even her mother who had sat stone-faced the majority of the evening. She wasn’t even going to entertain the woman, go down that road. Although she didn’t give a shit the woman was present, she wasn’t surprised she’d come. Still, this was Jasmine’s day, not Mama’s, and she refused to engage with the lady, allow her to ruin it. Sean, as usual, had people cackling and in no time flat. The man knew how to work a crowd that was for damn sure. He was accepted with open arms, and that made the evening all the richer, in fact, even more than that…

  It was picture perfect…

  ‡

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “You know.” Sean paused, seething, and looked off into the dusky distance before settling his fiery gaze back at Jackson, guarding his words just so. He scratched the side of his temple. “When Treasure pointed you out in the crowd to me, she was concerned you’d cause a scene. You didn’t do anything.” He lowered his gaze to his shoes, shook his head, then stared back into the cold eyes of the man before him. “And the night was going good. I should’ve known you’d try to pull some shit like this.”

  “And why should you have known this?” The tall man grimaced as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You don’t know me. Sh
e’s told you a bunch of bullshit about me, right?”

  “She’s told me things, Jackson, but from the way I’ve had to hold her, and kiss her pain away, I highly doubt it’s bullshit.”

  Steely silence stretched between the two, growing and growing, until it burst from the pressure.

  “Let me explain something to you, Mr. Mahoney. You have walked into the lives of my family, for what reason, I’m not sure but I—”

  “It’s not up to you to know or understand. All you need to recognize is that I’m with Treasure now, and I mean your children no harm. Matter of fact, I want what is best for them. Anything outside of Asia and Brian is none of your damn business.”

  “Who tha fuck do you think you are?! I will always be involved, in all aspects! All three of ’em! Brian,” he counted off his fingers, “Asia and Treasure. No matter how much you may wish for it to be different, that’s my family, not yours! They don’t belong to you, Mr. Mahoney. You can’t take my place or even come close. My woman, my children! They never were yours and never will be. You are messing with my wife, my—”

  “Ex-wife, Jackson…ex.” Sean yawned.

  “You’re not married to her, never were and never will be.” He pointed at him, drawing closer, jamming his finger in his face. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you won’t win.”

  “Oh, I see what’s going on here.” Sean smirked as he leaned lazily against his car, crossing his arms and ankles. “Everything was fine as long as Treasure was miserable, right? As long as you believed she was lonely, pining away. Now that she’s moved on, you’re threatened. You’re such a sad little man.”

  “What could you possibly do for her?” The beast looked him up and down, as if he smelled of sulfur and shit.

  “What can I do for her?” Sean raised a brow and pointed to himself. “Apparently, all that you could not…”

  “You low life, sneaky son of a bitch.”

  “Oh, you want to name call? Well why don’t you try these out for size? You’re a cheating, lying, insecure, petty, controlling, scheming, money-obsessed bastard, and you suck as a father, too!”

  Before Sean knew what was coming, the man raised his fist and lunged toward him in record speed. The damn air seemed to sway to the fucker’s movements, and his arm divided the sky as it blasted toward him. Sean caught the orb of knuckles in his palm like a ball in a pitcher’s mitt, and it heated from his touch.

  “You’re fast. But not fast enough…”

  Jackson’s hand trembled in his grip as Sean pressed on, digging into it, fighting the urge to break every one of the fiend’s fucking fingers. It would’ve been easier than slicing through warm butter with a heated knife…

  SNAP.CRACKLE.POP.

  I could mangle his hand so damn easily… Don’t do it, Sean…don’t do it…

  It was almost too difficult to resist. He wrestled with the notion, leaning toward the dark side…

  “Let go!” the man shouted, his mouth his only recourse as he gritted in pain, but refused to relinquish the shred of control he had. After a few moments of suspended anguish, Sean finally released the bastard, throwing his hand down like rubbish.

  “I’m. Not. Going. Anywhere.”

  “I don’t want you with her and my children! Do you understand me?!” the man roared, running his palm over his sore hand, gritting his teeth as the pain no doubt surged through his knuckles and fingertips.

  “Well, lucky fuckin’ me that it isn’t up to you now, is it?!” Sean yelled, tired of the buffoon’s shit. “You shouldn’t have thrown your opportunity away. And if you try to swing on me again, you will buy yourself a one-way trip to the emergency room.”

  “You are fucking with the wrong person. I don’t know what they are teaching you dumb asses in Queens, but don’t let my law degree fool you. You white boys from there really think you can take on the world! I’ve watched jerks like you in court, thinking you can beat a case that you deserved…think you are owed some shit ’cause you grew up poor, right? And now you’re jealous of a black man with some cash, think it should be yours, think you own everything and my black ass has no right to have anything but the shit you give me!”

  “Is that what you tell yourself?” Sean shook his head and offered a half smile. “Your race and financial status is of little importance to me. Treasure and I are the only people who won’t give you center stage, and it just eats you up inside. You just wanna feel important, like a big shot. You can’t stand the fact that she no longer wants you. She doesn’t love you anymore, Jackson! MOVE ON!”

  “You don’t know shit! You don’t know what that woman and I have! You think I should be back on some plantation, don’t you?! You think you run the whole goddamn country. You feel entitled to everything I have, even my leftovers!”

  Sean glanced away indifferently, scratched the back of his head, then turned back in Jackson’s direction. The drum within his chest beat a bit more loudly, the rhythm uneven as his temper flared. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold up, hold on and hold out. A newly erupted hatred was born within him, and it was a fight to keep himself off of the bastard. He needed to defend the woman he loved, their relationship, but grappled with not wanting to use words, but his damn fists…this was an internal fight he just may lose…

  “They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure… I’d have to wholeheartedly agree.” Jackson simply glared at him, hating him more and more no doubt as each second passed. “If you spent this same energy into maintaining your marriage when you had ’er, there would be no ‘Sean’” he said with sarcasm, putting his fingers in quotes. “No man to try to intimidate in the parking lot of your sister’s wedding reception hall.” He looked over his shoulder and casually hit his fab to unlock his car. The customary clicking sound soon followed. “It’s time for you to let go, Jackson.” He slid into the driver’s seat of his car, taking control, dismissing the jerk. “I’m driving now. Your services are no longer needed.” He winked at him.

  “You’ll always have to deal with me, Mr. Mahoney and I hope it’s worth it to you.” The man sneered, still holding tight to his slippery position, and still rubbing his sore hand, too.

  Sean burst out laughing—simply couldn’t help himself.

  “Hot damn! I thought I was a funny guy, but you are crackin’ me the hell up!” He looked the guy up and down, a half grin on his face, fighting the urge to burst out laughing real hard.

  “I will destroy you.” Jackson’s tiny thread of dignity waved in the damn wind like a piece of toilet paper stuck in the back of some bastard’s pants.

  “Destroy me?” Sean chuckled. “What is this? X-Men or some shit? You’re such a fuckin’ clown, so silly, ya know that?” He rolled his eyes. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. If you ever try to come up on me again, intimidate me or mess with Treasure, the next time I won’t be so nice. Lawyer or not, I will fuck you up in a millisecond and please believe me when I tell ya that I’m always on motherfucking time.”

  “That’s the third time you’ve done that! You have a lot of nerve threatening a lawyer! You must feel like a big man now that you’re fuckin’ my ex-wife, huh?! A little sugar mama for you to toy with… She’s too stupid to see what you’re up to!”

  “And to think she actually was with the likes of you ever?” Sean glared at the man, trying to understand what she’d seen in him. “Let’s move on to more important topics, shall we? Let me ask you something, Jackson.” He clicked his tongue against his inner cheek. “What is the song Asia will be dancing to in her next recital? She’s been practicing for weeks, day in and day out, playing it over and over again, trying to get everything just perfect. You know it, right?”

  The man’s face drew tight and tense like a raisin in the damn sun.

  “Oh.” Sean grinned. “You don’t know? Surprise, surprise. Okay, let’s try a different one.” He sucked his teeth, trying to regain his composure lest he knock the bastard clear across the damn parking lot onto the hood of somet
hing expensive and lavish. “What’s Brian’s girlfriend’s name? They’re pretty serious, you know. Surely, you’d know this.” He waited a couple of seconds. “I can see from your facial expression that you don’t. Damn.” He smirked and shook his head. “Okay, let me give you an easy one!” he taunted, raising a finger in the air as if trying to gauge wind direction. “What did Asia and Brian get on their report cards this last semester in, say, English?”

  SILENCE.

  “What?! Come on, take a stab at it…nothing?! You got nothin’ man?!” Sean frowned, utterly disgusted.

  “I love my children!” the man blurted, forcing the words out, and looking for all intents and purposes like he didn’t know what to do with himself.

  He’d been placed on the spot.

  “Then fucking show it! You want to stand here and try to argue with me about Treasure, and the hell with your damn kids, right?! You don’t know shit about them! I bet you can tell me all the details of your last three cases, and you know every damn thing about me, too, but you can’t even tell me what Asia’s favorite color is or Brian’s preferred video game… Get tha fuck outta my face, man.”

  “Oh, so now you wanna leave? You were just talking a lot of shit a second ago. Don’t stop on my behalf!”

  “Jackson, get the hell away from me and my car. I mean it. I will drag your ass around this parking lot by the goddamn ears so you can hear me clearly since you’re obviously unable to understand what the hell I’m sayin’ to you! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some ribbon wands ’nd shit to help cart away.”

  “Yeah, garbage man!” Jackson laughed loudly, so much it echoed. “That’s what you do… clean up shit, haul off trash!” he hooted, as if the words he spewed were the wittiest thing ever.

  Feeling the Devil creep inside him, Sean tapped on his steering wheel as he peered out the window before him, sinking his teeth into his lower lip.

  “You know what?” He looked back at the man, turning on a dime. “You’re right…I clean up shit, messes. I haul away trash, just like you said. I clean up the shit no one wants, the shit people throw away, discard, take for granted…like you did to your goddamn family.”