Synergy (15 page)

“
You want
one
?” her mother asked Dee, looking her
way as she watched her daughter fill up a tumbler glass of water
from the tap as Kiki moved over to let her in.

“
Nah, I’m
good
” Dee replied, taking a sip of water
from the glass.

“
No? Not pregnant
are you
?”

The
sentence was a joke, quite clearly. Her mother had said it before,
and she’d say it again, whenever Dee refused something she wasn’t
in the mood for. Usually, Dee used ‘no’ as a quick fire answer
followed by a dirty look, but this time, Dee just stood there
looking at her mother. She wasn’t sure why she didn’t use her usual
answer, but then, what was the point in lying. She figured she’d
planned to tell them tonight anyway so she may as well come out
with it. Monique looked at her daughter as she avoided eye contact
and suddenly her eyes bolted open wide.

“
You
pregnant
?”

Dee managed a quiet ‘
Yeah
’ before her mother set the
glass of wine down on the counter and came toward her with a
frenzied look in her eyes. At the same time, her sister took her
hands out of the washing up dish and turned around to face her
sister, dripping suds onto the floor before she grabbed the nearest
tea towel to dry her hands.

“
Who’s baby is
it
?!” her mother asked, sounding more like
an accusation than a question.

“
Is it
Trey’s?”
 her sister piped up, looking
at her with the same accusatory state her mother
had.

“
No, it’s not
Trey’s
.” Dee replied, giving her sister a
dirty look at the sheer thought of it. She should know she wouldn’t
go there again.

“
Then who girl,
who
?” her mother questioned
again.

“
You don’t know
him. I barely know him
”

“
A one night
stand
?”

“
No. It’s not like
that
.”

“
So you dating
this boy
?”

“
No. We just, met
a couple times. He walked me home once
.”

“
So he’s
interested
?”

“I don’t know mom”
 Dee
answered.

“
You don’t seem to
know a lot do you
?”

“
I just found out,
I’m confused
.”

“
Confused? Like
keeping it confused
?”

“
No, I’m keeping
it. It’s my baby
.”

This
time, Kiki, who had been remaining quiet, spoke up.

 “
Does the
guy know
?”

“
Yeah”

“
What did he
say
?”

“
He was shocked,
but he said he’d be there for us
.”

Monique,
who had now picked up her full wine glass and took a sip, scoffed
at that statement.

“
That’d be a
change
.”

This
time, Dee turned to her mother to try and change her disapproving
attitude.

“
Mom, I don’t think he’s like that,
he’s...not from round here. He’s kind of, businessman
type.”

“
He
rich
?” her mother asked, clutching her
wine glass close.

“
Yeah.  I
guess
.”

“
Well, least he
can provide financially. Maybe I won’t be taking care of another
baby up in my house
.”

Dee and
Kiki were silent for a second. That last comment had hit Dee hard,
like her mother had just used her words to stab her in the stomach.
She knew exactly what it took for her to ask her mother for help,
for her to bring Tushaun to her mom’s with all his things, to tell
people that her son lived with her mother and not her. She didn’t
know why her mother had to be so cold sometimes. It was like she
didn’t even think about things before she said them.

“
Mom, that’s not
fair
!” Kiki exclaimed, looking at Dee with
a sympathetic look.

“
Oh?  I’m not
fair? Don’t I look after you and your brother and sister, and your
nephew? Don’t I hold down three jobs while I do it? And don’t your
brother and sister keep reproducing try’na eat me out of house and
home? Don’t talk to me about what’s fair Kierra
.”

Kiki was
quiet after that. It wasn’t very often that Monique used her
children’s full names, and they knew she was really pissed if she
did. She thought better than to argue back with her, plus it wasn’t
her argument to have. This was her sister’s mess. Monique had moved
back to the table with her glass of wine which she was still
drinking as she walked. As she sat it down on the table in front of
her, she turned to Dee and continued her argument.

“
As for you
Deleisha, I suggest you find out who this dude is. You say he rich
but I don’t be seeing no rich man walking round these streets
unless they doing something illegal, and that never end
well
.”

Dee was
starting to feel pissed off by her mother’s tone. She never asked
for her opinion on the situation, she simply thought it was about
time she told her family what was going on in her life. She hated
the way her mom was trying to take the high and mighty stance when
she had screwed up her life royally all by herself and subsequently
screwed up her kid’s lives. She had been good with Tushaun and she
did love her mom, but she hated the way she tried to act as if she
was a saint now that she was off the drugs. It was like she was
trying to pretend that period in her life never happened, but Dee
didn’t forget that easily.

“
I told
you
!” Dee yelled, raising her voice as she
felt the anger inside her rise up. “
He’s
not from round here! He’s fucking famous!”

Wrong
thing to yell.

Her mom
was weirdly silent. It lasted for all of thirty seconds before she
stood up from her seat.

“
So let me get this straight,” she said with an air of calm in
her voice, though Dee and Kiki both knew it was the calm before the
storm.

“
You got yo’self pregnant by a rich, famous man that you
barely even know and he said he’s gonna stand by you while you have
his baby?” Her mother scoffed once more, and then her voice began
to rise.

“
I thought you was a smart girl Dee, why do you believe these
men? Are you stupid? He’s gonna be off with his nice rich wife and
you not gonna see any of that money, let alone a DNA test. You
can’t prove it’s his. You gonna be another washed up woman on these
streets with a baby of each colour.”

The
whole time Monique was talking, she was getting closer to Dee,
pacing up slowly, vindictively. At the end of her sentence, Dee
closed the gap between them and squared up to her mother. Kiki, who
was watching the scene unfold in front of her, was sure Dee was
about to swing for her mom, and so she stood in the middle of them
shouting.

“
Stop it! Both of
you! Just stop it
!” She lightly pushed
them both apart before taking Dee’s arm and leading her away from
the kitchen. Dee couldn’t decide whether she wanted to punch her
mother or burst into tears at her words. Considering she never
cried, she decided she would settle with the feeling of wanting to
punch her, but as her little sister led her away, she realised how
crazy that sounded. Dysfunctional family to the
max. 

Chapter 13 – First Date Nerves

Dee

The next
morning, Dee woke up at her own home, the duvet cover wrapped
around her so tight she could hardly move. She untangled herself
from its Webb, and sighed as she sat up, her back against the
headboard. She had always moved around a lot in her sleep, and
usually found the duvet either off the bed or upside down, but it
was always worse when she was mad.

After
her mother’s harsh words, her sister Kiki had taken Dee home,
staying there all night to listen to her rant and rave about what
she had said. Their mom could be hard on all of her kids, and
sometimes she could be hard to handle, but Kiki found it easier to
distance herself from her mother. She simply didn’t entertain her
when she was in a bad mood; she removed herself from the situation.
Dee and her brother Jarell weren’t like that. Their tempers caused
them to become confrontational, and neither one of them liked to
back down from a fight. Kiki, unbeknownst to Dee, had cancelled her
plans to stay at her boyfriends that night to stay with her sister.
After hearing the news she was pregnant, she knew she was going to
need all the support she could get, especially if her mother’s
attitude didn’t change.

As Dee
sat for a moment, staring into space and allowing her mind to wake
up, there was a small knock at the door before her sister entered
the room, a cup of tea in each hand. Dee looked up at her sister,
who was already dressed for school, makeup and hair done too, and
she smiled.

“
Been up
long
?” Kiki asked, setting a cup of tea
next to her sister’s bedside table and sitting herself on the
bed.

“
Just woke
up
” Dee replied, picking up the tea from
the table and cupping it in her hands.

“
Look at you all
ready this time of morning
!” Dee
commented, watching her sister take small sips of her
tea.

Kiki shrugged. “
Couldn’t sleep that
well
,”

“
Sofa ain’t the comfiest is
it?”

Kiki
shrugged off her comment.

“Sorry Keeks. Thanks for staying last
night
.”

“
It’s Ok. She’ll
come round you know, she’s just shocked
.”

“
Mmhmm
” Dee
murmured.

“
She
will
” Kiki protested. “
You know what she’s like
.”

Indeed,
they both knew exactly what Monique was like.

After
they finished their tea, Kiki announced she would take Tushaun to
pre-school on her way to school. Dee protested, knowing it was her
job to care for her son, but Kiki insisted, knowing it would be
difficult at the moment for Dee to face her mother’s house, given
the pent up hostility. In the end, Dee agreed to let her take him,
but ensured she would pick him up later. Once Kiki had left to pick
him up from their moms, Dee got out of bed and got herself showered
and dressed. She really appreciated having a sister like Kiki,
especially when her brother was inside. She needed somebody to lean
on, and though her friends were amazing, she knew how lucky she was
to have such a good sister. At only sixteen, Kiki was most
definitely the brains of the family. She cared about school, and
wasn’t about to drop out without getting any grades. She didn’t
have the same anger issues as the rest of her family, and she found
it a lot easier to walk away from an argument. She could use her
words to diffuse a situation, rather than her fists. While she was
street-smart, she was also too intelligent to let herself get into
a bad situation. She had never had a real fight, she had never been
excluded from school; the worst thing she did was get a little
drunk or high at the weekends.

It had
been a few days since she had told Jason about her pregnancy. He
was adamant they could make it work, and while he’d text her later
that night to say they should meet up, and get to know each other
better, they hadn’t set anything in stone. While they had been
speaking on and off the last few days, he hadn’t yet brought up the
subject of them meeting. 

It was
Friday, and Trey had organised to have Tushaun for the weekend. Dee
was sad in a way that she had a couple of days without her son; she
really did miss him when she didn’t see him every day. His little
smile, his bright personality; she knew she was bias but he really
was the best kid she had ever met. She thought about her son as she
put on her makeup, wondering what he would make to a new baby
brother or sister. She knew the time would come when she had to
tell him, and she worried about what he would think. Would it
confuse him, having a new sibling from a different father? Would he
wonder why this baby had lighter skin than him? What did she tell
him about the baby’s father? They would probably have to meet,
since he said he wanted to be in the baby’s life. She wondered
whether her son would like Jason, whether Jason would like him. Her
mind was on overdrive thinking about the possibilities and what
conversations she would soon have to have. She had always been a
bit of a procrastinator when it came to things she didn’t want to
do.