Big Girls Drama

by Tresser Henderson

  “I’ll talk about whatever the hell I want to talk about,” I said angrily. “So tell me who the hell she is!”

  “She’s a coworker, Viv!” he yelled.

  “I can’t believe you are lying to my face,” I murmured, looking at him with disdain. “I called your job this afternoon and asked to speak to Nina Alexander, and guess what they told me?”

  His eyes grew as large as billiard balls as I stood across from him on the other side of the island and watched his face become flushed.

  “Guess?” I said again, but Sheldon said nothing. “I was told that a Nina Alexander doesn’t work at your firm.”

  He continued to remain tight-lipped, looking at me blankly.

  “What? You don’t have anything to say now that I caught you in a lie? I was giving you an opportunity to tell me the truth, but you said nothing.”

  “You are checking up on me now?” he muttered.

  “You damn right I’m checking on you. Especially when I could tell both of you were lying to me at that lunch today. I mean, why else would she look to you to see how to answer me.”

  The look of torment covered him as he rubbed his hands down his face in frustration.

  “I can’t believe you would do this to me. I trusted you.”

  “I haven’t done anything,” he defended.

  “Like hell you haven’t. You standing there not saying nothing, but you expect me to believe what you are saying, when you know I’ve caught you in a lie. It explains your change. It explains you not fucking me.”

  “Viv, chill, please.”

  I walked around the island and watched as he looked up to the ceiling. Swiveling his stool around to face me, I poked him in his chest.

  “Viv, please back up off me,” he warned.

  “Or what? What are you doing to do?” I taunted poking him in his chest again.

  He looked down at my hand touching him and chuckled dryly. He pressed his lips together as he brought his eyes up to meet mine, giving me an icy glare. He stood up, but I didn’t move, causing him to push the stool back so he could step back from me. I inched forward, getting close to him again, and he blew an exasperated breath as he grimaced at me.

  “Viv, please, leave this alone. You know how I am.”

  “And that’s supposed to scare me?” I frowned.

  “I don’t want to scare you, but you are pissing me off.”

  “You pissed off? No! I’m pissed off because I caught your ass with another woman, and you have the audacity to not give me an explanation. Do you really think that’s going to fly?” I yelled, pushing him as hard as I could in his chest. I pushed him over and over, letting the hurt of the day come out in a physical altercation.

  Sheldon snatched me by my shoulders and shook me violently, yelling, “Is this what you want?”

  “Sheldon!” I screamed, surprised he’d put his hands on me.

  “You satisfied now? Is this the Sheldon you want?”

  “No!”

  “You want to know who Nina is? She’s my psychiatrist. Are you happy now?”

  She shoved me hard, causing me to fall against the kitchen sink.

  His abrupt outburst scared me more so than him shaking me like he did. He frantically paced back and forth, rubbing his head and breathing erratically as his hands were clinched into a tight fist. I didn’t know what to do. I felt bad I’d pushed him this far, but what else was I supposed to do? I’d already left this alone for way too long. How long did Sheldon expect me to deal with this?

  He jetted toward me, and I raised my arms to block him. With a guarded stance he stared at me with rage in his eyes before he realized I was cowering like he was going to hit me. And as if a switch was flipped within him, Sheldon’s expression suddenly turned sullen. His hardened eyes softened, commanding sympathy for a situation I had no clue about, but how could I? The strong man I knew all of sudden was emaciated and shattered; looking defeated and hurt by whatever happened to him, which was the reason why he had to see a shrink. For the first time, I looked into the eyes of a man who was afraid, and that, alone, made me wonder if I wanted to know why he needed to see this woman.

  A tear rolled down Sheldon’s face as he dropped to the floor and leaned against the kitchen cabinets. He brought his knees up, resting his elbows on them, and lowered his head as he began to sob. I dropped down on my knees beside him and wrapped my arms around him. I’d never seen him like this before. He leaned his head on me, and before I knew it, he pulled me onto his lap and nestled his face in the crook of my neck holding me tight.

  “I’m sorry, Viv.”

  “Babe, it’s okay,” I told him as I cried with him.

  “I . . . I . . . wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how. I thought you would leave me.”

  His words caused more tears to fall, and I knew in that moment, this man had to love me if he feared I’d leave him.

  “I’m here for you, babe. I’m not leaving you.”

  Sheldon gripped me tighter, if that was possible, and I gladly consoled my husband. I still didn’t know what had him so upset, but I knew I wasn’t going to push now. Whatever it was, it was devastating for him to break down like this. I was going to back off and give him time to come around. We couldn’t have another evening like this one because it might destroy our relationship.

  Sonya

  35

  The first thing I did when I walked through my door was take my church shoes off. My feet were hurting some kind of terrible. As much as I loved heels, my feet hated them. I sat on the couch and rubbed them bad boys, wishing I had a man here to rub them for me. I was concentrating so much on the pain radiating through my feet that the music from Meena’s room didn’t hit me until the pain subsided.

  “I told that girl to keep her music down.”

  Aggravated by Meena’s total disrespect of my rules, I looked up at the ceiling, wishing I could click my heels three times and transport myself to Jamaica. Then Kellie entered my mind, and I calmed myself. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew how I communicated with Meena wasn’t the best. Maybe I could handle it differently this time. I did tend to snap more than talk. This was probably why I had a teen who had so much attitude.

  Standing outside her door, I prayed this girl didn’t give me any attitude because things would go left real quick. It was one thing to try, but it was another to be disrespected.

  I opened her door saying, “Meena, honey, I thought I told you—”

  My words got caught in my throat. There was Meena with some guy drilling her from behind while beside them on the same bed were two females tonguing each other down. All of them were butter ball naked, intertwined like a damn pretzel while August Alsina’s music played in the background.

  “Meena!” I screamed, storming into the room like a raging bull.

  The boy jumped off of her, falling against the wall, causing her curtains to come crashing down over his head. The two girls jumped over Meena to get as far away from me as possible. That’s when I noticed the boy was her drug-dealing friend, Corbin. And the two girls were none other than Asha and Shannon.

  “Mama!” Meena yelped.

  I scurried over to the dresser where the blaring speaker was and swiped everything to the floor. The music stopped as all of them looked at me in panic.

  “What are you doing in my room? You don’t know how to knock?” Meena had the nerve to ask like I was disturbing her.

  I looked around to make sure there was nobody else behind me because I knew she wasn’t talking to me like this.

  When I saw no one else I asked, “Who . . . do you think you are you talking to?”

  “Mom, I’m talking to you,” she snapped.

  I giggled calling Jesus in my mind before I lunged for my daughter. Meena scuffled to the headboard to get away from me, but I snatched her by her hair and yanked her to the floor. The sheet she had covering herself fell from around her naked frame and she shrieked. Asha, Corbin, and Shannon were cowering nearby as they watched me w
hoop Meena’s ass.

  “Mom, stop! You’re hurting me,” she pleaded.

  I couldn’t stop swinging on her I was so pissed. Her screams snapped me back from my rampage as I heard her friends also plead for me to stop. I let her go, stumbling back to observe the scene before me.

  Asha was struggling to put her clothes on as Shannon looked at me fearfully. Corbin stood there cockily with his dick still swinging like he didn’t have a care in the damn world. I couldn’t help but look at it, which was a nice size for someone his age. I actually hated admiring it like I did. Then I realized his dick was not covered by any protection whatsoever.

  “Lord, you better come back now before I commit a murder,” I belted out. The kid’s eyes really bulged when I said that.

  Meena struggled to stand to her feet as she reached for the sheet to wrap around herself.

  “Really, Meena . . . Not only did you disrespect my house, but you disrespect yourself by sleeping with this boy with no condom?” I said in disappointment.

  “Mom, please. We don’t have to use condoms because he pulls out,” she said ignorantly.

  “What about herpes, gonorrhea, and AIDS?” I asked.

  “We’re clean,” she argued.

  “How do y’all know? Did you exchange medical records before fucking?” I asked.

  None of them said a word.

  “What about babies?” I asked. “Females get pregnant all the time with the pullout method. Either of you ever heard of precome?”

  Both of them eyed each other as they thought about what I was saying. And then I knew they didn’t care. All they wanted to do was have sex, not really thinking about the consequences of their actions . . . as usual. Damn, I felt like this was a reoccurring thing with her. I knew she wasn’t this stupid.

  “I want all of you to get dressed while I call your parents. And if any of you are confused about what’s getting ready to happen next, I’m calling your parents,” I threatened.

  I heard all of them say no, but I wasn’t going to deal with this by myself. When they made this my problem, they also made it a problem for their parents.

  “For real, Mama, you don’t have to call them.”

  “You know what’s real?” I said walking toward her. “That ass whooping I gave you. That’s real. The fact he’s not wearing a condom . . . That’s real. You all being too young and dumb to be doing anything like this . . . Now that’s real. I’m so about this situation I want to jump on your ass again.”

  When I said that, Meena stepped back cautiously. I shook my head at her as I turned to exit the room.

  “Ms. Gordon, please don’t do that,” Asha pleaded.

  “Does your mother know you are here?” I asked her.

  She shook her head.

  “How did you get here?”

  She looked at Corbin who was pulling his shirt over his head.

  “All y’all’s parents need to know,” I broke down.

  “All my mom is going to do is take my car for a day or two,” Corbin said, unconcerned.

  I could tell from the first time I met this boy he had his parents wrapped around his little finger. It sickened me to see kids play their parents like a string instrument in an orchestra, but I wasn’t that type of parent. Granted, my daughter and I had issues, but I was trying to guide her down the right path.

  I stood here not understanding if I went wrong as a parent for her to do something like this. Then Kellie entered my mind again. Ignoring my thoughts, I asked, “What is your parents’ number?”

  The only number I needed was Corbin’s parents because I had Abigail’s number, and I was going to call Kegan for Asha because Imani wasn’t allowed on my property due to the restraining order I put on her after she destroyed my car.

  Corbin didn’t answer. For somebody who was so nonchalant about not getting much punishment, I couldn’t figure out why he was hesitating at all.

  “Either you tell me or you tell the cops. Either way, I’m calling somebody.”

  That got Corbin’s attention. He was nineteen years old having had sex with a minor. He shifted nervously as I glared at him with disdain.

  “You pick,” I told him.

  And just like that, I had the number.

  Sonya

  36

  All three kids sat in the living room waiting for their parents to arrive. I made Meena be present as well since it was her room she decided to have this little orgy in. I still couldn’t believe her audacity. What in the world was she thinking? I knew we had a great day earlier, but did she take that as her cue to do what she wanted to do? She had to know I wouldn’t condone anything like this. She sat on the sofa with her arms crossed, wearing a tan jogging suit she’d finally managed to put on. None of them were saying a word as I paced the floor awaiting the first knock at my door. Corbin leaned back with his eyes closed, like he was tired. I guess he was. I gawked at him, and then at Meena, who looked at him before hunching him awake. He peered through squinted eyes at her but quickly closed them, to resume his catnap.

  I shook my head as a knock sounded at my door. When I swung the door open, Abigail didn’t bother to speak as she rushed past me into my home and over to Shannon who was sitting on the sofa with the other three guilty culprits.

  “Honey, are you okay?” Abigail asked as she kneeled in front of her daughter.

  “Mom, I’m fine,” Shannon said with embarrassment as she glanced at her crew. This was different than the innocent little girl persona she put on at Macy’s the other day.

  “I thought I told you to stay away from these people. They are nothing but trouble.”

  “Abigail, please, don’t start. Not here. Not now. And not in my house,” I warned.

  “You will not tell me how to talk to my daughter. I’m trying to find out what happened.”

  “Then talk to me. I’m the parent.”

  “An unfit one, if you ask me,” Abigail shot back.

  I stepped toward her saying, “You don’t have a police officer here to keep me off your ass this time. So stop with your insults and let’s try to talk about this situation like adults.”

  “You can put your hands on me if you want to, but I promise you, I will have your ghetto behind placed in jail.”

  “Mom, will you stop!” Shannon urged.

  “I told you to stay away from them. Do you see why? As soon as you get with them, I get a call that something else has gone wrong.”

  “Are you going to tell her, Shannon, or am I?” I said, looking at her sternly.

  Shannon gaped at me as her mother asked, “What is she talking about?”

  “Ms. Gordon caught all of us in a compromising position.”

  “What does that mean, a ‘compromising position’?” Abigail asked.

  “We were all having sex,” Shannon admitted.

  Abigail whirled around and unleashed her fury onto me saying, “You told my daughter to say this horrible thing.”

  “Excuse me? I didn’t tell her to say or do anything. I caught them all having sex in Meena’s bedroom.”

  “Stop lying on my child. She wouldn’t do such a thing.” Turning to Shannon she asked, “Honey, who made you do this? Did they rape you?”

  “Rape?” I belted along with Meena and Asha.

  Abigail continued her dramatics saying, “Honey, we can go to the police station and file a report on these people.”

  “Mom, I was not raped.”

  “I know you are scared, but you don’t have to be anymore. Mommy is here to protect you,” Abigail pushed.

  “Mom, I said there’s nothing to report,” Shannon asserted.

  There was another knock at the door. When I opened it this time, it was Officer Damon Ward. I didn’t want to call him after last night’s fiasco, but I figured I needed a police officer here to make sure things went according to plan. Especially with this bunch. Abigail was already screaming rape, and I knew with Asha being here, Imani was going to show. There was no restraining order big enough to keep her
from her daughter. Plus, I would be able to have her behind arrested again for trespassing.

  “Corbin,” Damon called out.

  I looked as the arrogant young man scuffled to his feet like he was in the army and his sergeant just called him out. The sight of Damon put the fear of God in this boy. His eyes bulged as he put his hands in his pocket before he answered.

  “Da . . . Dad. What are you doing here?”

  “Dad?” I repeated, looking at the two of them in shock.

  “Yes, Corbin is my son.”

  I honestly didn’t think this situation could get any worse, but it did at the mention of him making this declaration.

  “What are you doing here in Ms. Gordon’s house?”

  Corbin’s mouth opened and closed like he wanted to explain, but he knew if he did, the man standing before him would probably whoop his ass like I did Meena’s earlier.

  “Answer me, boy!” Damon roared.

  “I don’t know,” he muttered with terror dripping from his answer.

  “Did you forget who I was and what I represent?”

  “No.”

  “No what?”

  “No, sir,” Corbin corrected.

  “You thought your mother was going to show up, huh?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Don’t worry. She’s on her way. Not that it matters.”

  I looked on in astonishment as Damon scolded his son. You could have never convinced me Corbin belonged to him. But looking at them standing across from each other, I could see the resemblance now. Corbin looked just like his father.

  “Oh my goodness, what has the world come to? Now the police has a criminal for a son,” Abigail assumed.

  “Abigail, please,” I chided.

  With her nose heisted high in the air, she said, “Please what? This young man had sex with all these young ladies, and I know he’s too old to be doing so with them.”

  Hearing Abigail say this made me nervous now. I know I threatened Corbin with the cops, but I figured Damon would help this situation. I never figured Abigail would try to use this against the young man.

  “Abigail, Shannon didn’t have sex with this boy,” I advised her.