Around the Way Girls 9 (13 page)

“Ma'am, we understand that but we had to put the cuffs on him. I am going to have to ask you to calm down,” a young black officer told her.

“Don't tell me what I am going to have to do when I come down here and you have my son handcuffed like he's some damn criminal!” Annette continued with her hand on her hip. She was mad as hell seeing her son like that. Not only was she mad at the officers for cuffing him but also mad at him for being in that position. All the way down to the juvenile center she'd been thinking that he'd better have a damn good reason for why he was fighting in the first place. She didn't play when it came to him going to school and staying out of trouble. She was determined to see to it that he finished school, left Boykins, and became a successful man.

The officer walked over to where King sat on the bench, next to the other young men cuffed, and undid his cuffs. “We are going to allow you to go with just a warning this time but the next time you are involved in a fight or anything there will be consequences,” the officer explained to King. “Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” King replied nodding his head.

“Ma'am, I need you to sign a few papers and then you can take him home.”

Annette looked at King and rolled her eyes. “What about Brionna?” she asked, calling Breezy by her government name. “Is there any way that I can take her home too? I mean, her mother has no transportation so it is going to be hard for her to get a way to come down here and pick her up.”

“I understand that, ma'am, I really do but her legal guardian has to pick her up,” he explained.

“I understand,” Annette replied, hating to leave Breezy there but there was nothing she could do about it. She filled out the necessary paperwork required for King to be released and then the two of them left.

After leaving the detention center the two of them went up to the school so that King could be seen by the principal. The principal wanted to know what had happened on the bus so King told him.

“You do understand that I am going to have to suspend your son, don't you, Ms. Collins?” Principal Fenner asked peeking over the rim of his glasses.

“Yes, sir, I understand.” Annette responded calmly but King knew on the inside she was pissed. He knew that she didn't play when it came to school and he also knew that she was going to let his ass have it when they got home.

“Okay then, King, I am giving you five days at home. I will not allow there to be any fighting on the buses or in this school. Do you understand me, son?”

“Yes, sir,” King answered. He hated being suspended but he felt justified in his actions. It wasn't like he'd just been fighting for no reason. He'd been fighting for his friend. There was no way he could've sat back and allowed two girls to jump Breezy and not at least try to break it up, which was what he'd planned on doing before Marko got in his way.

After they were done in the principal's office, Annette got his schoolwork for the next five days from his teachers and they headed home.

They were sitting at the stoplight waiting for the light to change. Annette looked over at King, who was staring out the window looking as if he was in a trace. Without warning she drew back and backhanded him with every ounce of strength that she could muster. The sound of her hand connecting with his face echoed throughout the car.

“Oooooouuuch! What did you do that for?” King yelled holding his face and eyeing Annette like she'd lost her mind.

She slapped him again. The light changed to green before she could hit him again but that didn't stop her from giving him a piece of her mind. As they drove home she went in on him. “This don't make no damn sense! I gotta get off from work because your ass is on the bus fighting over Breezy! I am sick of this shit, King! Do you hear me? I'm sick!”

“But, ma—”

“But, ma, my ass! Shut up until I am done talking!” she demanded without taking her eyes off the road. “You can't save Breezy from everything. You cannot fight all of her battles! Breezy has to start fighting for Breezy! I understand that they were jumping her but what were you going to do, fight some girls? Become a woman beater?”

“Nah, I was going to break it up. I wasn't going to fight them. I wasn't going to fight anybody until dude popped off at me!” he told her.

Annette let out a frustrated breath and shook her head. “Listen, I understand what you were trying to do but as your mother I have to do what is best for you and give you the best advice that I can. Right now my advice to you is step back some and allow Breezy to fight some of her own battles. I hate to see the way that she is being treated and I wish that there was something that I could do to help, but as you saw she doesn't want anyone to get involved. She keeps on protecting her mama and making excuses for the things that are being done to her in that house.”

“Ma, I understand what you are saying but that has nothing to do with what happened on the bus. I am not completely sure why Breezy and those girls were fighting but I am going find out. Breezy couldn't have started it because she doesn't say a word on the bus and I am sure that she ain't hit nobody. I know they had to have hit her first. Those girls are always picking on somebody and bullying people.”

“Look all I know is you better not get suspended no damn more,” Annette told him as they pulled up in front of their apartment building. She parked, turned off the ignition, and the two of them got out of the car and went inside.

“Get started on that schoolwork and then I want you to clean your room, the bathroom, and the living room,” Annette instructed. “I am going to go over to Teresa's house. Hopefully she's there and I can let her know what is going on with Breezy.

Damn, all this because I was trying to do the right thing,
King thought as he walked to his room and put his book bag down.
Fuck it. As long as Breezy is good it was all worth it.
She'd always been a good friend to him and he swore to always be a good friend to her for as long as they both lived.

He heard the front door slam, telling him that Annette had left to go to Breezy's house. He got started on his chores and cleaned for most of the afternoon. When he was done he took a shower and lay down. A few hours later, he was awakened by the sound of his cell phone ringing. He looked around the room, realizing that it was now dark. He could smell the aroma of food, which told him that Annette was cooking dinner. He reached over and picked up his cell, which was lying next to him on the bed, and looked at the screen. The number flashing on the screen wasn't a familiar one. He pressed the send button to answer the call. “Yo, who is this?”

“Is that how you answer your phone?” a sexy voice asked on the other end.

“Yeah, I guess,” he replied, confused because he couldn't place her voice. “Who is this?” he repeated.

“It's Davita,” the female voice informed him, giggling. “I hope that you don't mind, Sean gave me your number.”

“Nah, it's cool.” He sat up some in bed, propping a few pillows behind him and getting little bit more comfortable. “So what's good with you, Ms. Davita?”

“Ain't nothing. I was trying to find out what is good with you,” she replied trying to sound extra sexy and smiling like the Cheshire cat on the other end. She'd been trying to get King's attention for a minute and to finally be on the phone with him was a big deal. “I was hoping that I could get to know you better.”

Before King could reply to her last statement, there was a soft knock at the door. “Hold on, Davita.”

“Okay.”

“Come in!” he yelled to whoever was at the door.

Breezy walked in and closed the door behind her. She flipped on the light switch because it was dark in the room and she couldn't see anything. King was sitting propped up in bed, shirtless with his cell pressed against his ear. “Hey,” she spoke.

“What's up?” he spoke, noticing that she had a few scratches on her face and her lip was swollen, but other than that she was straight. “Have a seat. I'm on the phone but I won't be long.”

“Okay, take your time,” she told him assuming that he was on the phone with Jalen or Sean or both. She sat on the edge of the bed, grabbed the remote, and turned on the TV and began watching the show that was on.

“Hello,” he spoke into the phone.

“Yeah, I'm still here,” Davita confirmed, wondering who the female was in the background.

“Good. So I heard you been asking about me.”

“Yeah, I have.”

“Did you find out everything that you were trying to or is there something else you want to know?”

“Well, I still don't know if you have a girl.”

“Oh so, what you trying to be my girl or something?”

“Maybe.”

Overhearing King's conversation was starting to make Breezy feel some kind of way. “Ummm, maybe I should go. I'll talk to you tomorrow.” She stood up to leave.

“Nah, I want to talk to you before you go, hold up,” King told her. “Hey, Vita, I'm going to holla at Breezy real quick and I'll hit you back before I go to bed.”

“All right,” she replied rolling her eyes up in her head. She knew Breezy really well; as a matter of fact the two of them had a class together. She knew that Breezy was King's best friend and that he would act a fool over her at the drop of a hat so she knew not to say anything out of the way about her, at least not until she got her hooks in him the way that she wanted.

King hung up and turned his attention to Breezy. “Dang why you rushing off?”

“I wasn't but I didn't want to sit around while you and Davita play kissy face on the phone,” she said frowning up her face.

“Girl, won't nobody playing no kissy face.” King laughed. “Now sit yo' little boney self down and tell me what happened this morning on the bus. Why was Angie and Kita fighting you?”

Breezy sat back down on the bed. “Because I slapped Angie.” She admitted it like it was nothing.

“You what? Are you serious?” King couldn't believe his ears; she had to be joking.

“I just got fed up, King.” She shrugged looking over at him and then redirected her eyes, trying not to stare at his chest. “They were sitting behind me talking crap about me and I just snapped. I'm tired of people messing with me all the time. I don't bother anybody but still people are always messing with me,” she explained.

King smiled; he was proud of her. “Well it's about damn time, but next time how about you start out trying to fight one girl, not two.”

She burst into laughter. He loved seeing her smile because she had a really pretty smile but it was something that he didn't get to see a lot of. He sat there looking at her; she was a really sweet girl and she wasn't ugly at all. All she needed was a nice hairdo and some cute clothes. She had pretty brown skin, almond-shaped brown eyes, the cutest dimples, and she was about five feet four inches and probably 110 pounds.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Breezy asked after she noticed that she was the only one laughing and he was just staring at her. She felt a little uncomfortable.

He hadn't realized it but he was indeed staring at her. “My bad, I was just thinking about something. Anyways how did your ma act when you got home last night? Did she try to start with you again?”

The incident with Terry popped in her head. “Nah, she was 'sleep. Can we not talk about her please?”

“Sure. What do you want to talk about?” He picked up on how uneasy she'd become when he mentioned her ma. He figured that Teresa had probably hit on her some more and she didn't want to tell him because she knew that he would be upset. He decided to let it go.

“Let's just watch TV.”

“Okay.”

She picked up the remote and turned to an old Jennifer Lopez movie,
The Wedding Planner.
King got up and turned off the light. The two of them lay across the bed and started watching the movie. Twenty minutes into it, he heard soft snoring. He looked next to him and Breezy was knocked out. He wrapped her up, grabbed his pillow, and then went into the living room and called Davita back.

Breezy woke up the next morning to the smell of bacon and eggs and the sound of laughter. For a minute, she just laid there and listened to King, his mom, and her boyfriend Curtis interact with each other. They all seemed to get along so well. They were like a ghetto version of the Huxtables. They had problems too just like any other family but for the most part they all got along and were happy. Curtis and Annette had been together for over ten years and he was good to her and King. King had even admitted to Breezy that he looked at Curtis as his real dad versus his real own dad because Curtis had always been there for him.

Thinking about King and Curtis made her think about her own dad, who she'd never met. Sometimes she wished that he would come back for her and take her to live with him. She felt that would probably be the answer to all of her problems, too.
If he came back for me and I went to live with him my ma would probably miss me so bad that she would change her ways and beg me to come back,
she thought, figuring their situation was like most relationships, where a person never missed what they had until it's gone.
If I left I am sure my ma would miss all of the things that I do for her and realize how big of a mistake she's made throughout the years.
She lay there smiling at her thoughts. A tap on the door and then King pushing it open and walking in interrupted her train of thought.

“Dang you about to sleep all day ain't you?” he teased showing off that perfect smile of his.

She looked over at the clock, which read 7:22 a.m. “King, are you for real? You know, y'all get up at the crack of dawn around here,” she joked.

“Nah, because once my ma leave I'm going back to sleep but I can't sleep with her keeping all of that noise in the kitchen, banging all of those pots and pans and mess like she's an Iron Chef or somebody.”

Breezy laughed. King was always cracking jokes. “Give me a washcloth and a towel so that I can wash up,” she told him while throwing back the covers and getting out of bed. “I need a shirt and a pair of sweats, too.”

“Damn do you want a pair of boxers too?” he asked as he shuffled over to the dresser dragging his feet.

That got on her nerves. “Boy, pick your dang feet up!” she yelled tossing a pillow at him.

He turned around and tackled her down on the bed and started tickling her. She squealed and yelled at the top of her lungs begging him to stop.

“Nah, you bad, you bad! Say you're sorry! Say you're sorry or else I'm going to tickle you until you piss on yo'self!” he threatened.

“Sike!” She squealed. “I . . . ain't saying . . . jack!”

He continued tickling her and she accidentally kicked over the lamp that was on the nightstand.

They both froze. Then the door flew open.

Now to them it was all innocent but when Annette burst in and saw King sitting on top of Breezy, she wasn't sure of what to make of the situation. “What in the hell is going on in here? King, why are you on top of that girl? Breezy, get your ass up!” she said all of that in one breath.

King jumped up. “Ma, we were just playing,” he said, sounding like a little kid instead of a sixteen-year-old nearly grown man.

“Yeah, we was just playing,” Breezy chimed in.

“I'm sure y'all were but y'all ain't no little kids no more and he don't need to be all on top of you, tickling all over you.” She gave both of them a skeptical look. “I ain't raising no babies!”

“Ma!” King yelled embarrassed that she would imply such a thing about him and Breezy.

“What? Tickling leads to other stuff!” Annette told him point blank. Something had been telling her for a while that there was something more between her son and Breezy. The way that he was over Breezy was more than just a friendship. She saw something more between the two of them, whether they realized it or not.

“Ma, Breezy is like my sister! I don't look at her like that!” he responded.

Breezy wasn't sure if it was the way that he said it or if she was just being sensitive but his words kind of stung.

“Yeah, well, I still don't like you tickling all over her so y'all cut it out,” Annette told King and then turned her attention to Breezy. “Breezy, go on and get washed up so that you can eat something before you leave here.” She looked back at King again. “I'm about to leave for work in a few. I don't want you leaving this house today. You are grounded for the next two weeks.”

“Two weeks?”

“Yes, two weeks,” she repeated. “Do you want to make it three?”

He smacked his lips and mumbled something before brushing past her and disappearing down the hall.

“A month damn it! Now smack your damn lips again in my damn house so I can take them off of your face!” she yelled after him before going behind him still talking trash.

Annette didn't play but it was clear that all her fussing came from a good place. She loved her son and there was nothing wrong with that.

Breezy looked in King's drawer and got her own tee and sweats. She had underwear in her pocketbook that she'd brought with her because she hadn't ever planned on going home the night before. She just didn't feel right staying there with the lights out and Terry there. She was afraid that he might try to touch her again.

She gathered the clothes and went into the bathroom, undressed, set the water in the shower, and then stepped inside under the warm water. It felt so good to be taking a nice, hot shower. She stayed in until the water started to turn cold and then got out and got dressed. King's clothes swallowed her and she had to draw the string really tight in the waist just to keep them on but it didn't matter, she wasn't trying to impress anybody. She went back into King's room and got her brush out of her pocketbook and brushed her hair back into a ponytail before going into the kitchen. It was quiet; she took it that Annette had already left for work. She looked on the stove and saw that there was a lot of food left from breakfast. She fixed her a plate and sat down at the table. After eating two plates of sausage, eggs, and biscuits, she washed her plate and then got something to drink. Feeling nice and stuffed she went back into the living room. King was laid back on the sofa with his eyes closed. “You asleep?” she asked.

“Nah, just resting my eyes,” he responded still not opening them.

She took a seat down the other end of the sofa. “How many days did you get?”

“Five. How about you?”

“I got five too. Angie and Kita got ten, since they started everything and since it wasn't the first time that they had been in trouble for the same thing.” Breezy looked around, her eyes landing on the clock that hung over the electric fireplace. It was a little after eight. She knew that she needed to be getting home but was in no rush to get there. “Do you have some paper?”

“Yeah, go look in my book bag.”

She went down the hall and got some paper from his bag and then sat down on the floor and started to write. She wrote two poems and then folded them both and put them in her purse. She got up and gathered her things and went back down the hall. King had fallen asleep on the sofa. She tapped him. “I'm about to go.”

“A'ight. Lock the door and holla at me later.”

“Okay.”

She left out locking the door behind her. When she got home nobody was in the front part of the house but she could hear laughter and talking coming from her ma's room down the hall. She walked down the hall to her room noticing on the way that her ma's door was half open. She didn't even bother looking in the room; instead she went in her room and started cleaning up.

Breezy was in her own world, humming and cleaning when she heard noises coming from Teresa's room. They were erotic noises, moaning and groaning. Then there was the sound of the bed springs and Terry moaning as well. She knew then that the two of them were having sex. Hearing the two of them made her sick to her stomach and she literally threw up a little in her mouth. She ran down the hall to the bathroom and threw up.

The commotion in Teresa's bedroom stopped and a few seconds later Breezy heard her yell. “Breezy, is that you?”

“Yes!” she managed to respond between puking up her breakfast.

“Oh, well get in the kitchen and wash them damn dishes! It better be done when I come in there, too,” Teresa ordered with no shame that her daughter had overheard her having sex. She and Terry started right back up as if Breezy wasn't even there.

After getting herself together, she went down the hall and got started on the dishes. The water was cold because the lights were off and it was damn near impossible to remove the dirty food that was stuck on the dishes and the grease that was on them but she did. The entire time that she stood at the sink, Terry and Teresa were going at it like rabbits in the bedroom. She hummed louder in an attempt to drown them out but it didn't do much good because they were extremely loud.

When she was done with the dishes, she grabbed the book that she'd laid down on the coffee table the week before and sat down on the sofa. She was so wrapped up in the book that she didn't see Terry enter the room. She felt something wet and slimy on the side of her face and jumped. He was rubbing his nasty, wet penis on the side of her face. She tried to jump up but he grabbed her by the hair and pushed her back down. “Sit your ass down! It ain't nothing but your mama's pussy so stop acting like you ain't never smelled it before. Didn't she push you out of it?” He laughed while stroking himself.

“Please leave me alone,” she whispered.

“Terry, bring me a cigarette!” Teresa yelled from the bathroom. “I don't know why but I can't take a good shit unless I have a Newport. Hurry up!”

Ignoring Teresa, Terry leaned down and fondled Breezy's left breast. “Your ma got some good pussy but yours is better,” he said before going back down the hall. “I'm coming, baby,” he yelled to Teresa.

Breezy got up and went in her room. She grabbed a shirt from the pile of clothes that lay in the corner of her room and wiped her face. She paced back and forth across her floor, with her arms wrapped around herself. She couldn't deal with this situation with Terry much longer. Something had to give. She had to try to tell her ma what was going on whether she believed her or not. She had to at least try. She sat on the edge of her bed and waited for Teresa to come out of the bathroom before she went where she was.

Breezy tapped on Teresa's door, which was still cracked open. Teresa was lying on the bed buck-naked along with Terry, who had slipped on a pair of boxers. The room smelled like sweaty ass but she ignored that and focused on the task at hand. She really needed to talk to her mama. “Ma, can I talk to you?” Breezy asked just above a whisper as she entered the room.

“About?” Teresa asked glancing in her daughter's direction. “Does it have to do with why your ass ain't in school? I'll tell you one thing, social services better not show up at my door asking why you ain't in school! I'll tell you that damn much! Now what is it that you want to talk to me about?”

After listening to all of that she wasn't sure if she still wanted to talk to her but she knew she had to at least try. “No, it's about Terry.”

“Terry?” Teresa asked sitting up in the bed, her saggy breasts flopping as she sat up.

“About me?” Terry asked trying to sound like he had no idea what Breezy was in there for. He laughed and sat up as well. Reaching over on the nightstand he grabbed the pack of cigarettes and shook one out. After lighting it he took a long drag. “This should be interesting. Come on with it.”

“Well spit it out,” Teresa snapped, growing impatient. “You come in here talking about you have something that you want to tell me about my man so I want to hear it!”

“He raped me the other night!” Breezy blurted. “And when you were in the bathroom he put his thing in my face!”

Teresa's initial reaction was shock. Her mouth was open but nothing was coming out and her hand was over her chest like she was about to have a heart attack.

“That little bitch is lying, Teresa! I ain't touch that damn lying-ass bitch!” Terry roared jumping to his feet screaming.

Breezy didn't back down though. “Yes, you did! The other night when I came home and Ma was back here 'sleep. You did it to me on the sofa and you told me that if I told Ma, she wouldn't believe me and you also said that you would break my neck!”

“Why the fuck is you lying?” Terry asked like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Breezy could see it in his eyes that he wanted to do some serious damage to her at that moment and even though she was scared she didn't let it show. “Teresa, I swear to you, baby, that I ain't touch her!”

“Yes, he did, Ma, he's lying!” Breezy yelled loud enough for the neighbors to hear.

“Shut up! Both of you!” Teresa jumped up off of the bed and started swinging on Terry.

Breezy stood in the middle of the floor paralyzed by shock, unable to believe what her eyes were witnessing. That was the happiest moment that she could remember in her entire life. Her mama was finally fighting for her, acting like a mother. All she could do was stand there in awe with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“You sorry motherfucker, you fucked my daughter? How could you do some shit like this to me? That's my child!”

“Baby, she is lying! I never touched her!” Terry stuck to his story, thinking what he was going to do to Breezy once all of this was over. He too was shocked by Teresa's reaction. Normally she acted as if she didn't give two fucks about Breezy but now she was acting like a totally different woman. Like she actually did give a damn about her daughter.