“Breezy, fix some scrambled eggs,” Annette told her.
“No prob.” She walked over to the refrigerator and took out the eggs. When she turned around, King was standing in the doorway of the kitchen dressed in all black, looking good enough to eat. She noticed that he’d put on a few pounds in the past seven months and in all the right places. The eggs slipped from her fingers and crashed onto the floor. She hurriedly bent down and picked up the carton and checked to see if any of them were broken. Only one was.
“Are you okay, Breezy?” Annette asked worried that she may be getting sick to her stomach from the smell of the food.
“Yes, ma’am,” Breezy answered glancing at King once more before looking over at Annette.
“Good morning, ma.” King walked over to Annette and kissed her on her cheek.
“Morning, baby,” she responded.
Curtis walked into the kitchen and spoke, “Good morning.”
Everybody spoke it back. Breezy went over to the stove and got started on the eggs. When everything was done, she and Annette served breakfast. She didn’t even attempt to fix herself a plate. She just grabbed a glass of juice.
“Ummm, Ms. Thang, get a plate and fix you something to eat. You are already walking around here looking like a bag of bones,” Annette told Breezy, after taking notice of the fact that she didn’t have a plate.
“I don’t want anything.”
“I didn’t ask you if you wanted anything. You need to eat,” she said sternly giving her a knowing look.
Breezy got a plate and put some eggs on it. She looked across the table and Annette was looking like she might slap her so she put a piece of turkey sausage on the plate also. She hadn’t even taken four bites when she felt it start to come back up. She jumped from the table but didn’t make it to the bathroom. All of what she had eaten came back up all over the kitchen floor.
Annette jumped up, grabbed some paper towels and wet them and handed them to her to wipe her face.
“I’m gonna get that up. I’m sorry,” Breezy apologized still bent at the waist waiting to see if her food was done coming back up.
“I’ll get it, baby. You go and get yourself together. You need some crackers or something to nibble on. Remind me while we are out to get you some.” Annette now felt bad for forcing her to eat.
Breezy went into the living room and lay on the sofa. She heard Curtis tell Annette not to worry about cleaning up my vomit, that he would get it and for her to just make sure that she was okay. She was so thankful for them.
“Yo, ma, what’s up with Breezy?” King asked.
“She’s just a little sick that’s all,” Annette replied. “Why don’t you stop acting foolish and ask her yourself? She has been through a lot and could really use her best friend right now.”
“Ma, don’t start.”
“Don’t start what? Telling you to act your age and not your shoe size? You are mad because she went back and I can understand that but now she is here asking for our help and you are still upset. Why?”
“Yeah, you right, she is here asking for help just like the last time when she made us both look stupid. Well this time she’ll only be making you look stupid.”
“First of all, watch your damn mouth! Secondly, she won’t be making me look like anything. That child needs somebody and I am going to do whatever I can for her! Third, no one has to make your ass look stupid; you are doing a great job of that on your own running around here behind that fast-ass girl Vita. You need to open your eyes and see that her little hot ass ain’t all over you for nothing. You have a chance of playing pro basketball when you finish school. She’s seeing dollar signs! If you are having sex, which I believe that you are, you’d better be using protection!” After saying what she had to say, she walked out of the kitchen and went into the living room to check on Breezy. “Get up and go brush your teeth so I can get you to the doctor.”
On her way to the bathroom, Breezy passed King. He gave her an evil look and kept it moving. She heard the front door slam a few seconds later as she entered the bathroom to brush her teeth.
At the clinic they confirmed what Breezy already knew. She was seven weeks pregnant. She didn’t cry when she received the news because she’d done enough crying. Tears weren’t gonna help her situation. She needed to get on some grown-woman type shit.
After leaving the clinic, Annette asked, “So do you know what you want to do? This is your decision. Curtis and I will help you in any way that we can.”
“I am going to keep my baby and be the mother my mother never was. I know that it won’t be easy but life isn’t easy and so with that being said I am going to do what I have to do. Starting right now. Will you take me back to that salon that you took me to for my birthday?’
Annette looked confused. “Sure. Why are we going there?”
“I have some business that I need to take care of.”
“Okay.” They drove to Angel’s Salon in silence, both consumed by their own thoughts.
When they arrived, Breezy got out of the car and went inside. The same receptionist was at the front desk. “Good morning and welcome to Angel’s. How can I help you?”
“Hello, um, I was looking for Blue.”
“I apologize but she’s not working this week. She’s on vacation. Is there something that I could help you with?” She offered her hand and Breezy shook it. “My name is Kendra Felton and I am co-owner of this salon.”
Breezy took a deep breath. “Yes, ma’am, actually I was wondering if you all needed a shampoo girl?” She prayed silently for her to say yes.
“Well to be honest we really don’t at the moment,” Kendra replied giving her a sympathetic look. “Sorry.”
Breezy couldn’t hide her disappointment. “I understand.” She turned to leave with her head hung low.
Something inside of Kendra urged her to stop the girl. She knew that it had to have taken a lot of courage for her to walk in and ask her for a job. “Hold up, ummm . . .”
“Brionna.” Breezy turned back around. “My name is Brionna.”
“Brionna, let me go and talk to my business partner Tamara and see what she says. Wait right here.” Kendra disappeared for a few minutes and then returned with another woman.
“Hello, Brionna, I hear that you are looking for a job. I am Tamara Byrd,” the woman introduced herself, offering her hand for Breezy to shake. Breezy accepted it and shook her hand. “Now to be honest, we really don’t need anyone but Kendra told me that you looked like you really needed this job.”
Breezy interrupted her. “Yes, ma’am, I really do.” She decided to just lay all of her cards out on the table. “I’ve had it hard all my life and I have never had anything given to me except for a hard time. I need this job more than you know. This job is the first step to me bettering myself, and no longer being anyone’s victim.” She felt like she may have said too much but she thought, oh well I need them to know just how bad I need this.
Kendra had tears in her eyes. “Baby girl, do you go to school?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Okay well, can you work from four to nine?”
“Yes, ma’am!” Breezy replied, unable to hide her excitement.
“Tamara, is that cool with you?” Kendra looked at her business partner and asked.
“It sure is but only under one condition.”
“Anything,” Breezy replied excitedly.
“Well actually two conditions. The first being that you report to work on time every day.”
“Absolutely.”
“The second being that you sit your little butt in one of those chairs and let me do something to that hair. You have to look like an angel to work in here, honey!” she said snapping her fingers.
Kendra and Breezy both laughed. “Okay, let me go tell my ride.”
Breezy ran outside to the car. Annette rolled down her window. “Child, what are you so happy about and why are you not getting your butt in this car?”
Breezy w
as so excited that she was nearly screaming. “I got a job!” She jumped up and down.
“What? You go, girl!” She got out of the car and wrapped her arms around her. “I am so proud of you!”
“Thank you. Ms. Tamara is about to do my hair. She says I have to look like an angel to work here!” Breezy laughed.
“Awwwsnap. Well, I have to run in Walmart and you know that could possibly take hours. How much is she charging for your hair?”
“I think it’s free.”
“Well here take this.” Annette handed Breezy three twenty dollar bills. “Just in case.”
“Thank you.”
She turned to get in the car and then stopped. “I’m really proud of you and just so you’ll know, you are already a better mother than Teresa.” She hugged her again before getting in the car and leaving.
Breezy went back inside and Tamara hooked her hair up. She gave her a perm and then sewed some deep wave hair in. Breezy looked in the mirror and was very pleased with her look. For the second time in her life, she felt beautiful.
She sat and talked with the ladies until Annette returned. When she got in the car it looked like Annette had bought the entire store. “Dag, Ms. Annette, you went crazy didn’t you?” Breezy asked looking in the back seat at all of the bags.
“Nah, but I knew that you were going to need some clothes and so I bought you some things. I also see that you love to write so I got you some notebooks and pens. Just trying to help all that I can.”
“Thank you so much.”
“I also got you some prenatal vitamins and those crackers.” She reached over and touched Breezy’s stomach. “We are going to get through this together. I will be right here by your side, I promise.”
“Thank you, Ms. Annette. I could never thank you enough.”
“There’s no need to. I am just doing what God has put in my heart for me to do. That is all.”
Chapter Eleven
After putting away everything that Annette had bought, Breezy lay down on the sofa to take a nap. A few hours later, she was awakened by King shaking her roughly. “Breezy, wake up! Wake up!” She opened her eyes but closed them back. “Breezy!”
“What?” she whined feeling completely drained. The pregnancy was draining all of her energy.
“What the hell are these?” He was shaking the bottle of prenatal vitamins that he’d found lying in the hallway. They’d fallen out of the bag when Breezy and Annette had put the stuff away but neither of them had noticed. Those pills were telling him something that he didn’t want to believe and something that he didn’t think he could ever accept.
Breezy looked up at him still half asleep. He reached down and pulled her up by her arms. “Answer me, gotdamn! What the fuck are these?” He held them so that she could see.
She wiped sleep from her eyes and focused on the bottle. When she realized what he was holding, her eyes got big as saucers. She hadn’t wanted him to find out so soon. She’d known that she couldn’t hide it forever but things were already bad between them and she knew this information would only make it worse. “T . . . they are p . . . prenatal vitamins,” she stuttered.
King lost it and pushed her back on the sofa. “Are you telling me that you are fucking pregnant?” he screamed down at her. He was so mad he could have literally killed her with his bare hands. There were indescribable emotions running throughout his body at that moment. Emotions that he didn’t even understand. The only thing going through his mind was that this shit could’ve been prevented.
“Calm down, King,” Breezy pleaded. Her eyes filled with tears as she cowered back against the sofa as far as she could go. She’d never seen him this way before and feared that he might hit her. “Please don’t do this.”
He threw the bottle of pills across the room. The bottle crashed against the wall. The top popped off and pills spilled everywhere. Breezy had her head down with her arms covering her head. “Breezy, I am going to ask you one more time before I tear this whole entire room down with your ass! Are you pregnant?”
Annette heard King yelling and came to see what was going on. Lord, if it isn’t one thing, it’s another. She made her way into the living room. She saw Breezy crouched down with her arms over her head and King standing over her. “What in the world is going on in here?” She wiped sleep from her eyes; she’d been taking a nap as well. Curtis was right behind her.
“Well? I’m waiting,” he told Breezy not paying Annette or Curtis any attention. He needed to hear the words from Breezy’s lips to believe what he already knew to be true.
“King, why are you asking me a question that you already know the answer to?”
“Answer me.”
“Yes. Yes, I’m pregnant, King, but it isn’t my—”
He snatched her up off the sofa by her boney arms and began shaking the shit out of her. “Yes, it is your fault! It is, Breezy! You were the one who chose to go back after he’d already raped you once! You made that decision! You! Not your ma! Not Terry but you!”
Curtis grabbed him. “That’s enough! Now take your hands off of her. I’m not playing with you, King.”
Without thinking King snatched away and pushed him causing Curtis to stumble back into the wall. “Get your hands off of me, nigga!”
Curtis got his balance and charged toward King. He was about to put an ass whooping on him that he felt was long overdue. King’s attitude and temper had become too much and there was no way he was going to allow a child he’d raised to disrespect him and be putting his hands on him. He’d done way too much for King to accept that type of treatment.
Annette saw what was about to take place and rushed between them. “Curtis . . .” She placed her hand on his chest. “Baby, calm down, let me handle this.”
“Nah, fuck that.” Curtis knocked her hand off of his. “He got me fucked up. I will beat the brakes off of his little punk ass! Ain’t no child that I raised gon’ be putting their damn hands on me.”
“I understand that but please let me handle this.”
Curtis passed Annette and said to King. “You are lucky that I love your mama as much as I do because if I didn’t somebody would be calling the paramedics in here for your ass today.”
“Man—”
That was the only word that King was able to get out of his mouth before Annette turned around and smacked the rest of them from his memory. She slapped him so hard that it took him a few seconds to realize what had happened.
“Ma!”
She slapped him again and then walked up closer in his face.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, her eyes locked on his daring him to say the wrong thing. “Huh? What are you going to do?” she repeated not giving him the chance to reply. “Boy, have you lost your mind? After all that this man has done for you and me. You have the audacity to stand here and disrespect him?” King looked the other way and Annette reached up and jerked his face back around so that he was looking at her. “No, you look at me when I am talking to you. I don’t know what your problem is and I don’t care but that will never happen again. Do you understand me?
“Yes, ma’am,” he mumbled.
“Now tell Curtis that you are sorry.”
He looked at Curtis. “I apologize.”
“You and I need to talk man to man and then you can apologize. I’ll be outside when you are ready to talk.” He turned to walk away but then stopped. “Let me just say this before I go. I don’t care how upset you get; don’t you ever let me see you put your hands on another woman, because you weren’t raised that way! You have never seen me put my hands on your mother. Do you know why? Because a real man knows that his hands don’t belong on a woman.” He was so upset and disappointed with King that he could barely stand the sight of him. He walked outside to try to cool down some. He felt that the fresh air might help to clear his head some before he spoke to him.
Curtis was sitting on the sidewalk watching two little boys wrestle when King walked outside. King took a seat next t
o him but didn’t say anything. For a few minutes they were both silent just watching the kids play. Both of their minds were in overdrive. King was trying to think of what to say and also thinking about Breezy. Curtis was remembering when King was the size of the two little boys. He realized that he wasn’t a baby anymore and that he’d grown up. He tried to place himself in his shoes and remember how hotheaded he’d been at his age, dealing with puberty, girls, and becoming a man. He knew that a lot of King’s behavior came from the fact that his hormones were all over the place as he made the transition from a boy to a man. He also knew that there were a lot of different emotions consuming him when it came to Breezy. Emotions that he didn’t understand, which caused him to react the way that he did when it came to her. He loved that girl so much that it was nearly driving him crazy and he didn’t even realize it.
Curtis chuckled at his thoughts.
Hearing Curtis chuckle and seeing a slight smirk on his lips confused King but it also gave him the green light to speak. “Listen, Pops, I apologize for pushing you and disrespecting you.”
Just that quickly the smirk disappeared. “Just don’t let that shit happen again because next time I’m busting your ass,” Curtis stated in a tone that told King that he meant business.
“I understand, Pops.” King shook his head and ran his hand over his head. “I don’t know what got into me. I just lost it when Breezy confirmed that she was pregnant.”
“You love her,” Curtis stated, still watching the kids.
King looked at him because he wasn’t sure if he’d just heard him correctly. “Come again?”
Curtis looked at him for the first time since he’d been sitting next to him. “I said you love her. You always have but now it’s different. You may not realize how much you love her but an old head like myself can see it bright as day. As a matter of fact I saw it years ago.”
“Pops, you trippin’. I mean, yes, I do love her, I guess because we were friends for so long; but it’s not like girlfriend-boyfriend type of love.”
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