Beautiful Nightmare

by Johnna B

  “Look, baby girl, I see you trying to prove a point. He used to be yours. I get it. If I’m ever done with him, I’ll give you call so you can come get him.” Vee’s eyes turned dark. She snatched the girl out of the seat and pulled her close, so they were eye to eye. Janelle didn’t even have time to react it happened so quickly. “Now beat it, bitch, ’cause it’s about to get real ugly around here real quick.” Everybody looked at Vee. They were shocked because no one expected that kind of reaction. She was normally the one to step back and let Sena take over. Janelle tried to react but, once again, Sena, who was so used to taking care of her friend, came over Vee’s shoulder with that bottle so hard and quick that if you blinked you would have missed the whole thing.

  “Bitch, you need to check out the situation before you step into a bad motherfucking decision ’cause, where I’m from, we beat bitches first, and then ask questions.” Sena, then, turned to Janelle’s friends. “She ain’t worth it. You hoes don’t want these types of problems on your hands ’cause I cause big headaches.” Sena was just as calm as a person could be. You would have thought she was just having an everyday normal conversation with them. She didn’t believe in using unnecessary energy. All that rah-rah shit wasn’t for her. The girls didn’t know whether to help their friend or walk away quickly.

  “Yo, man! You crazy as a muthafucka, man. Get yo’ gal, Mooch.”

  Moochie just sat there laughing. He’d found the yin to his yang. He was so ready to throw Sena on the table and fuck her right there. Sena had pushed Vee in back of her, but Vee was ready to get her shit off too. But she couldn’t get anything in because security was now rushing over.

  “What’s the problem, Kidd?”

  “We cool, man. Just get this bitch away from me.” Kidd looked like he smelled something really stank.

  “Damn, Kidd! I thought you were something like a pimp. I thought you had your hoes in check.” Skillet was laughing hysterically. This was too funny to him. “You know I never liked that bitch anyway. Good going, Ms. Zena,” he joked.

  “Yeah, yeah, we know.” He turned to Vee. “You a’ight, ma?” No answer. “Vee?” Everybody was looking at her now, and no one was laughing anymore. “Vee?” he grabbed her hand. She looked down at it, and then looked back up.

  “Huh? You say something to me? My mind had gone somewhere else.” She laughed it off.

  “We see, you good?” Sena looked at her concerned.

  “Yeah, I’m good, bitch. Is you good? You came back down from that adrenaline high, Bonquisha?”

  “Well, you know me. I’m good. I just wish I had more time to get that bitch, who came over here trying to carry somebody. Like we ain’t us. I ain’t no killa, but push me.” She scrunched her face and made a face like she was appalled.

  “Man, you two chicks is crazy, and three bellies over here done took her shoes and shit off like she finna to do something, knowing damn well if nahn one of them hoes had put their hands on her, they would have gotten they muthafuckin’ noodles knocked.” Skillet was now rubbing her stomach again.

  “Nigga, please, don’t count me out. It was about four of them hoes. It was not going down like that, homeboy. Shit! Push this stomach to the side and slap a bitch real good with a six-inch stiletto.” Everybody was laughing ’cause she was dead-ass serious, when she couldn’t even pull all the way up to the table her stomach was so big.

  “Okay. Can we get back to our night?” Kidd was ready to get this night over with while he still had the nerve.

  “Aww! You mad at me for knocking your girlfriend down? Go get her. I’ll apologize.” Sena was being funny.

  “Whatever, man. Weren’t y’all dancing or some shit?” He couldn’t help but laugh at her too.

  “And next we have ‘Pretty in Pink’!” the DJ announced.

  “Who the hell is that?” everybody looked around to see who had chosen the name.

  “That’s us,” Sena told everybody.

  “That is not the name I chose,” Shay-D stated.

  “I know. I told him to change it. I like this better. This way, if we embarrass ourselves, nobody will know our real names.”

  “Speak for yourself. I can sang, honey,” Vee said while walking up to the microphone. You couldn’t tell them they were not Destiny’s Child. The music started, and the girls started rolling and moving to the beat.

  “Get ’em, baby!” Kidd cheered from the audience because he knew Valencia could sing since she often sang to him. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch the beautiful trio. Sena and Vee had a routine already, but they had Shay, so they had to improvise. They rolled and slow winded so hard all they needed was a stripper pole and a thong. Even Shay got down. People could clearly tell how she had gotten pregnant. When they were done, the crowd was on their feet. The men were whistling, and the ladies were in awe. By the end of the song, they were in their men’s laps and sweating like pigs.

  After catching their breaths, Sena got up to request a song.

  “Ah, ma, I’m sorry about that little situation,” Kidd tried to explain to Vee.

  “No need to explain. I know you have a past. I’m good as long as the past stays in the past.” She kissed his lips and joined Sena at the DJ booth. On their way back, Jaheim’s song “In My Hands” came blasting through the speakers. As they got closer, Kidd stood up and pulled Vee in front of him. Then he went down on one knee.

  She looked around at everyone smiling at her. Her mind went blank as the realization sank in of what was happening. She started shaking, and tears instantly stung her eyes. She thought she would faint for sure.

  Sena was crying. She knew all along. That was why she went to the DJ booth to request the song. Shay-D was clapping and jumping up and down.

  “Valencia Ball, I knew from the first time I saw you that you would be my wife, no matter how much you tried to fight it.” Everybody chuckled. “I love you with all my heart and soul. I never thought I would love this way.” The music got lower. “I want to grow old with you and have a house full of kids. Live out my dreams with you, and turn my dreams into our dreams. You are my smile, my joy, my laughter. When I’m not with you, life doesn’t seem right. You will bring so much joy to my heart if you will be my wife.”

  If the people around him didn’t know any better, they would have thought he was on the verge of tears also. The room was so quiet that you could hear an ant sneeze. Damn near every woman in the room was in tears. A million reasons why she should say no ran through her head, but a million and one reasons also flashed on why she should say yes. The tears were really running down now. It was a good thing she had on waterproof mascara.

  “Yes . . .” she whispered, nodding her head. Everybody jumped and cheered. Kidd picked her up, spinning her in the process.

  “Congratulations!” everyone yelled in unison.

  “I told you, you would be my sister-in-law.” Moochie gave her a big hug and kiss on the cheek.

  “Uh, I hate to ruin this most sentimental moment.”

  Everybody looked down at the disturbed face of Shay-D.

  “This being my first child and all, I don’t think I’m supposed be in a restaurant when a big gush of water burst out of me.”

  Everybody looked down.

  “Her water broke!” Sena yelled, and everybody went into a frenzy.

  Everybody was throwing purses and money. Skillet dropped five big face hundred dollar bills. He was super-excited and couldn’t wait. He didn’t know what the baby was. They wanted to be surprised.

  Everybody stayed at the hospital till the baby was born. After baby Kayla came into the world, everyone went their separate ways.

  Chapter 22

  Till Death Do Us Part

  “You got any Lyfe on this iPod of yours?” Vee asked while she searched through it.

  “What you know about Lyfe Jennings? Not nothing, young grasshopper.”

  “What? Are you crazy? That’s my nigga. He’s the most slept on singer out there. I know every song he’
s ever made and featured in.”

  “Yeah, a’ight. Whatever. What’s his best song?” He turned his mouth up to the right, waiting for her response.

  She found Lyfe on the iPod and pressed play when she got to her favorite song. “I Can’t” came blasting through the speakers.

  “What? That’s my shit too!” He was too excited. “I knew I loved you for a reason, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing you just how much.” He grabbed her hand and kissed it. He was convinced he had found his soul mate. He always thought his soul would burn in hell for the sins he had committed, but Vee gave him hope. She would never know how much that meant to him.

  “You already have. If you couldn’t do anything else for me for the rest of our lives, what you have done so far would be enough.”

  * * *

  “That was the most beautiful thing ever. You should have seen it,” Sena gushed.

  Sena still had stars in her eyes from watching the baby being born. She, Skillet, and Vee were in the delivery room. They hadn’t known Shay-D for that long, but they felt like family. Shay asked them to come in with her. She was scared to death and didn’t know what was in store for her. Skillet was driving her crazy and, if she had to listen to him the whole time, surely she would have jumped off the roof.

  “Nah, I’ll pass on that any day, I heard it was gross, but I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, though.” He laughed at her.

  “Yeah, well, you’ll change your mind once you see your own little bundle of joy being born one day.”

  “Well, until then, I’m steering clear of the delivery room.” She was just looking at him kind of strangely.

  “You want something to drink?” she asked, getting up off the couch to go to the kitchen. They were at Kidd’s house. It was practically Moochie’s house because Kidd was always at Vee’s house.

  “Yeah, get me some Kool-Aid!” he yelled out.

  “You act like you so high class but keep a cup of ghetto-ass Kool-Aid in your hand.” She laughed at him.

  “I will not even dignify that with an answer.”

  “You know, if I didn’t know Kidd so well and look at him as family, I would have thought he was a li’l metrosexual or something.” She looked around the house. It was immaculately well kept and had too many womanly features for her taste.

  “Why the fuck would you say some shit like that?” Moochie asked as he rushed into the kitchen not even trying to hide his anger. Sena just laughed at him.

  “Look at you. Running in here with your chest all swollen and shit. Get some of that air out cha chest. What, you ready to fight or something?” She patted him on the chest. He had to laugh too. He had a tendency to overreact when it came to Kidd. “Calm down! I’m just saying it looks a li’l suspect round these parts, that’s all.”

  “Didn’t you come in here to get something to drink?” He folded his arms across his chest.

  “What? I’m on a time schedule on how long I can stay in a certain room or something?” She looked him up and down.

  “Don’t start any dumb shit.” He slapped her on the ass and walked back into the living room.

  “What if I told you I was pregnant?” Sena asked as she sat back down next to him on the couch.

  Moochie damn near dropped his cup. He got that feeling in the pit of his stomach like when the police pull up behind you.

  “Are you?” He prayed she wasn’t. He knew he wasn’t ready to be a daddy. That was Kidd’s dream, not his.

  “You can’t answer a question with a question.” She was looking at him, trying to get a read on him, but he wouldn’t look her in the face.

  “Are you, man?” You could clearly hear the frustration in his voice.

  “What would you say?” She had been trying to find a way to tell him for about a month now. She was almost two-and-a-half-months pregnant. And now she just wished she could crawl under a rock and die. He had this sour look on his face. For the last two months, she had been floating on cloud nine above the heavens. But now she was back to the reality of things that she might be the only one happy about it.

  “Are you pregnant or not?” Sena could see the veins popping out of his neck.

  “You still haven’t answered my question, but you want me to answer yours?”

  “I would ask who the father was. You know what they say—Momma’s baby, daddy’s maybe.” He could tell that stung a little, but she kept her game face.

  “Do you ever plan on having kids?”

  “Yeah, in the future. Not now, but, if it happened, it is what it is.” He hunched his shoulders. “Now are you pregnant or not?” He finally looked at her and could tell something was wrong with her. Her eyes looked a little glossy.

  “No, you can breathe now. I was just feeling you out.” She looked to the ceiling and was fighting so hard not to cry. She wanted him to be happy like she was. She wanted him to smile with joy at the possibility . . . but he didn’t. “Uh, I gotta get going. I just remembered I got something to do early in the morning.”

  “Yo! You gotta be shittin’ me, right? You just all of a sudden got something to do?” He looked at her like, “are you for real?”

  “Yeah, I’ll call you.” She stood up and started getting her things together.

  “Man, you on some bullshit,” he said as watched her putting her shoes back on.

  “How am I on some bullshit because I got something to do?” She was really yelling now and fighting back those tears. “You know what? Don’t answer that. I’ll see you around.”

  “What you mean you’ll see me around? What the fuck is wrong with you? I ain’t even did nothing. Now it sounds like you ready to stop fuckin’ with a nigga. What’s really good?” He could feel his heart about to stop. She couldn’t be serious. No, she couldn’t leave him. For what? What had he done in the last ten minutes to make that happen? He tried to replay their conversation again in his head so he could see where he may have gone wrong.

  “Ain’t nothing wrong with me. I’m good. I just got something to do.”

  “Are you fuckin’ pregnant, man?” If she was, he would gladly take on the daddy role, even though he knew he wasn’t ready.

  Sena had already made up her mind that she was getting an abortion. She didn’t want to bring a child into the world without two loving parents. No, she wouldn’t put a child through a childhood like her own. She never had a father. She was never daddy’s girl or little princess, and she wanted that for her unborn child.

  “I told you no. It was just a question.” She stopped moving and looked at him.

  “What you got to do that’s so important that’ll make you get up and leave in the middle of the night? What, you got a nigga at home waiting on you?” He knew she didn’t because she was loyal to the bone. He just couldn’t find anything else to say.

  “Why? It wouldn’t matter to you. I’m not your woman so you couldn’t give two shits about me. I’m just a fuck buddy, ain’t I?” It hurt her to her core to even think he felt that way about her.

  “If that’s what you think, then you are as dumb as you sound right now.” He couldn’t believe what she was saying. He thought he had shown her every damn day how much he loved her. He did everything for her, no questions asked. He would give her his last if that’s what she requested. Only thing was, he had never flat-out told her that he loved her.

  “Well, how do you feel about me? What are we? I mean, let me know.” She had gone all the way into left field and didn’t know why. She was just fine with their relationship, or, at least, that was what she thought. The baby really had her emotions in an uproar.

  “What? Because yo’ girl got proposed to, you want me to propose to you too?” He regretted those words the moment they left his lips. He knew what she was saying.

  She just looked at him like he had a bag of dog shit sitting on his face as the tears began to fall. Then, she chuckled a little bit. She had to laugh to keep the floodgates from opening up. Her heart was being shattered with every word he spoke.
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  “You still haven’t told me shit!” She held up her hand to take a deep breath. “You know what? I don’t want you to do a muthafuckin’ thing but stand there and shut the fuck up while I walk out this door.” She walked to the door. “Like I said, I got something to do in the morning.” But, before she walked out the door, she turned back around. “If, and when, my man proposes to me, it won’t be because I suggested it. It will be because he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. I’m not into keeping up with the Joneses. I asked a question and never got an answer. But you know what? I did get an answer.” And, with that, she slammed the door. But Moochie wasn’t letting it go down like that. He still didn’t know what the hell had happened to make her go off the deep end. He rushed out the door. He had to stop her from walking out of his life.

  “What’s wrong?” he yelled as he ran after her. Confusion couldn’t even begin to describe how he was feeling. What happened? was all he could think.

  “Don’t worry about it. Just go back to your life.” She was crying and running to her car.

  “Wait a minute! Don’t leave like this! Please tell me what happened. What did I do?” He grabbed hold of her arm, turning her to make her face him and saw that she was crying.

  “You didn’t do anything. It’s me. I’m going through something right now, and I don’t need any extra luggage. Just go on back to your life.” She tried to walk away.

  “So I’m extra luggage?” He was totally outdone by that remark. “You say you going through something, so, instead of going through it with me, you’d rather go through it alone? How the fuck is we supposed to be together and you won’t let me in? This shit is new to me, and even I know that don’t sound right.” He threw his hands up in the air.

  “Why are you doing this to me? I understand you’re young and want to live your life. I’m not trying to tie you down.” She didn’t know what she was doing. She just knew she had to get away.

  “Tie me down with what? Why would you say that? If I didn’t want you in my life, you wouldn’t be here.” It broke his heart to even think of her leaving. Now here she was standing in tears, and he didn’t even know why. “Tell me what happened. I don’t even know what I did.”