A Hood Chick's Story pt. 3: The Final Chapter

by LaShonda DeVaughn

  “What’s wrong Eb?” I asked.

  She had her arms folded, she was staring into the floor and wasn’t her normal bubbly self.

  “What’s good?” I asked again.

  “Yeah, I know Eb what’s wrong? You were quiet the entire ride here.” Sheena asked as I gave her the shut the fuck up face.

  I was going to have my time with her but Eb was my dog and seeing her looking like she was about to cry pissed me off. I didn’t like seeing people that I cared about hurt. She did too much for me and whatever the issue was, I’d be the first in line to help resolve it.

  “Jonathan is cheating on me.” She said in a whispery cry.

  I was shocked. I knew that pain all too well, and it pissed me off to see her hurting. I was to the point where I wanted to hurt him. They had just got engaged, we were all enthused about her engagement, and now this?

  “How and when did you find this out?” I asked.

  “I know, when?” Sheena asked as I cut my eyes at her and shifted Ebony in my direction.

  Tears fell from Eb’s eyes. “I just found out last night after I got off the phone with you T.” She cried. “I trusted him and I know I didn’t have any business looking through his phone, but I did.” She said.

  At that moment, I noticed Sheena turn her back to us.

  “So what the fuck did you find in his phone?” I asked.

  “Pictures of THIS BITCH naked!” she said turning to point at Sheena. My eyes bucked in shock, I couldn’t believe this shit.

  “How could you do this to me, you’re my best friend?” Ebony cried dramatically.

  Sheena turned to face Ebony but she couldn’t look in her face. She stuttered as she tried to explain herself.

  “We-we didn’t do anything Eb, they were just pictures.”

  “Oh really?” Ebony cried pulling out her phone and scrolling through it. “Well I sent them to my phone and guess what, I could see that you were laying in his bed in the background bitch. I can see the headboard!” she said pushing the picture towards Sheena’s face.

  I pushed through Ebony and punched the fuck out of Sheena.

  “Aaaaahhhhh!!!” she screamed holding her eye. “My fuckin’ eye!!” she cried. She looked at her hand to see if her eye was bleeding and that was my clear shot at her face again. I was throwing combinations like Mayweather. To my surprise, the bitch wasn’t fighting back at first. She just kept screaming about her eye and calling me all kind of hood rats.

  “Oh I’m a hoodrat bitch? Wasn’t you on your Facebook claiming to be the tough bitch from Southeast? Show me the tough bitch. This is the Tiara you wanted to see, you got it bitch.”

  I continued throwing punches and then, “Boom!” I lifted my foot and rocked a kick against her knee and she fell back on the stairs. That’s when she decided to try to defend herself. “I’ll show you the bitch from DC,” she said trying to use her weight to rush me. She got up and went full speed ahead pushing me into the wall. As soon as she lifted herself off me, her face and body was met with my blows and blood was everywhere.

  “Stop!” Ebony cried.

  I threw one last blow and Sheena stumbled to the floor.

  “That’s what a bitch from my hood do bitch.” Sheena breathed heavily, crying from the floor. I noticed Shayonna peeking from the stairs watching and I felt like shit.

  “Go to your room baby.” I said. She ran back up the stairs and I heard her door close.

  “Get out of my house right now hoe!” I pointed to my front door.

  “How the fuck am I gonna get home?” she asked through her tears.

  “Walk, hoe.” Ebony said dismissing her.

  Sheena picked up her purse, looked at us both with the eye that wasn’t puffy and limped out.

  Ebony reclined on my couch and cried so hard that it was even hurting me. I hugged her tight and cried with her. I felt so bad for her. She wasted no time pulling out her phone and telling her family that the engagement was off.

  I washed the blood off my hands and ran up to Shayonna’s room as Ebony continued to call people on her guest list to tell them that the wedding was canceled.

  “You okay baby?” I asked her.

  “Yeah I’m okay, Mommy.” She said snuggled under the covers.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that. Me and Ebony are sorry okay? Sheena did something really bad and we needed her to leave.”

  “Okay Mommy.” She said.

  I rubbed my hand over her ponytail.

  “Mommy?” Shayonna asked.

  “Yes baby?”

  “Can I go back to sleep? I’m still tired.”

  I smiled and tucked her in tighter. “Of course you can baby.” I planted a peck on her cheek. “I love you.” I said.

  “Love you too Mommy.”

  Chapter 13

  Shayonna’s teacher had left several messages on my voicemail. We played phone tag till I was finally able to get her on the phone.

  “Hey Ms. James, I wanted you to stop by the school. Shayonna has still been complaining that Tyrone has been pulling her hair and playing with her a little too rough.”

  I nodded.

  “Yes, she’s told me about him, I wrote you a note telling you to keep them separated since their assigned seats were next to each other.”

  “Well they have since been separated but Tyrone was using some really inappropriate words and I just wanted to get both parents here to address this issue so that you could talk to your kids about it at home.”

  Shayonna and I rushed into the school halls. I was running late because I had some late appointments to show apartments. At our arrival, I peeped Tyrone and his mom walking hand and hand into Ms. Cannon’s classroom so I knew they hadn’t started the meeting without me. Ms. Cannon was sitting at her desk with her hands folded, waiting for us to be seated. Her glasses sat at the bridge of her nose and she tilted her head to talk to us looking over her glasses.

  “Well, Tyrone told Shayonna that he wanted to ‘hit it from the back’.” She said forming her fingers in quotations.

  “What!” I shot out peering into the face of this fresh mouth little boy. Then I looked at his high yellow mom like she was crazy.

  His mom seemed uncomfortable and flashed Ms. Cannon and I a look as if her son would never say anything like that.

  “Now I’m unsure if Tyrone knows what that means but it’s not something that we usually hear coming from a first grader.” Ms. Cannon chanted.

  Tyrone’s mom immediately grew defensive. “He probably heard that from TV. I’m quite sure he doesn’t even know what it means.” She defended.

  “Shayonna go over to your desk and draw a picture.” I instructed. Her desk was in the back of the classroom, I didn’t want her to hear any more of this crazy conversation.

  “Do you know what that means?” Tyrone’s mom asked him.

  “Yes, it’s when a man bends a woman over and sticks his thing in her, like how I saw Daddy doing to you in the living room Saturday.” His mom’s eyes bucked in embarrassment and it wasn’t funny to me at all. This bitch was sloppy and her bad ass son needed to be in another classroom. I couldn’t have him anywhere near Shayonna.

  Ms. Cannon appeared taken aback. She had her hand over her chest in shock and choked on her words. She cleared her throat. “Wow, I didn’t expect that.” She said. Tyrone’s mom continued to be in extreme defense mode.

  “Well your daughter ain’t innocent either. She told my son that her mommy would whoop my ass. And she said it in them exact words.” She peered into my eyes. I took two steps closer to her never losing eye contact and I said. “And she was right.”

  I could see her trembling. Fear grew massively in her eyes as she snatched her son’s hand and told Ms. Cannon that she was having her son transferred to another classroom immediately.

  I had a heart to heart with Shayonna on the ride home about using profanity. I usually tried to avoid ever cussing around her and I still couldn’t believe she told that little boy that I would whoop his
mommy’s ass.

  “Shayonna, you never heard me talk like that around you. Why did you tell that little boy that I would do that to his mom?”

  “Because you would Mommy, just like you beat up Sheena.” She said innocently. “Tyrone kept messing with me and I knew if you beat up his mommy then he would leave me alone.”

  My heart melted, this wasn’t the example that I was trying to set. I didn’t want my baby to think that violence was the way to make people back off. I totally regretted her seeing the fight between me and Sheena. I wanted her to know that I was her protector, but not that way.

  “Listen to me baby, sometimes mommies make mistakes. We are not always perfect, but we have to set examples for our children. I don’t want to ever hear about you using words like that. And I don’t want you thinking that Mommy just goes around beating people up okay?”

  “Okay.” She said.

  “I don’t want you to be like me, I want you to be better than me.” I explained. I couldn’t believe I was using the same words my mom used with me. I suddenly began to miss my mom like crazy. These were the times that I needed her advice. I had no clue how to raise a child. I was winging it, doing the best that I could. At the end of the day, I was also still raising myself.

  __________

  I had been feeling really nauseous for the past month. I went out on a limb and stopped by CVS and purchased a pregnancy test. I hadn’t seen my period for the two months since the incident with K.D and at first I thought it was due to stress. But I couldn’t shake the sick feeling that kept occurring.

  I went into the bathroom at home and took the test. I folded up a napkin and sat the test on top of the bathroom sink until the results showed up. I hoped that I was good because pregnancy was something that wasn’t needed at this time in my life.

  I lay up on the couch with Shayonna watching TV. We watched one of her favorite shows together and I forced myself to get up and go check the test.

  I slowly entered the bathroom and picked up the test off the napkin. Two pink lines appeared stating that the test was positive. I placed my hand over my chest. I was in shock but I couldn’t cry. I didn’t know how to feel. I had been having sex with Jeff raw almost our entire relationship and K.D had just nutted in me two months ago as well. The test had me devastated.

  A knock sounded at the door, shaking me out of my shocked state.

  I unlocked the door and it was as if I’d seen a ghost.

  “Tony, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  I couldn’t believe it was actually him. His wounds appeared to be healed and he was back to his normal self. He looked healthy and strong. His baggy blue jeans, white tee and a blue B hat reminded me of old times. His face looked cocky and confident which was Tony’s signature swag.

  “I followed you from Shayonna’s school, and I got lost. I got stuck at a red light, but I saw you pull into these townhouses so I rolled around this bitch until I found your car. Ebony wouldn’t give me your address but I made her tell me what school Shayonna went to and I went up there.”

  “Yeah, but how did you know I would be up there this late? It just so happened, I had a meeting up there today.”

  “Well shit I just went up there on a whim. I didn’t know what time schools close out in this boring ass city. But obviously it was meant for me to see you.” He chewed his gum and stood there staring at me.

  “So, you gonna let me in or what?” he asked.

  I opened the door and he stepped inside.

  “Daddyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!” Shayonna shouted running off the couch and hopping into her daddy’s arms. They both yearned for this reunion and I was actually happy that he was there. A face from back home who I knew genuinely cared about me was exactly what I needed. A spiritual uplifting.

  Tony spread kisses all over Shayonna’s face and then went straight into the fridge.

  “Damn, I see some things haven’t changed.”

  “Shut up.” He teased.

  He had bent to grab the orange juice deep in the fridge, when I spotted a new tattoo on his neck.

  I stepped back. “Hold up. Wait, wait, wait, I know that’s not what I think it is.”

  “What?” He asked drinking the orange juice straight out the carton.

  “Tony you got my name on your neck, are you serious?” I asked.

  He smiled, “You my bitch.”

  I looked over at Shayonna who was back on the couch. I hoped she didn’t hear her daddy’s crazy verbiage.

  “Tony you’re crazy.” I said as I nodded. I couldn’t believe the lengths he was taking to get me back. This nigga was relentless.

  “When you getting mine on your neck?” he asked.

  I laughed, “boy bye! I didn’t tell you to get that shit. You did that on your own.”

  “Yeah whatever.” he said.

  Suddenly I remembered the pregnancy test was still on the bathroom sink and I ran in and covered it in tissue and placed it in the trash. If it wasn’t one thing it was another and I didn’t even know how the fuck I was going to deal with the whole pregnancy situation.

  As Shayonna and Tony played on the couch, I went outside to check the mailbox. There were some bills and a plain white envelope with no name or anything else on it but it was sealed. I peeled it open and it read: I found you…Paul. I was scared as shit. It was like Tony had come at the perfect time. Maybe he was right, it was meant for him to find us. I threw the letter into my purse on the counter and went back over to sit with Tony and the baby.

  I wanted to tell him so bad about all the shit that I been through. He was once my best friend, my confidant, but it was too hard to open up and tell him all the shit that I had been through. Besides, I didn’t want him to know that I left one bad situation for one much worse. I decided to put everything aside and just be cordial until I was ready to open up.

  Tony’s stay had extended for over two weeks. We got to know each other all over again. Every day for about a week, he took Shayonna and me out to eat. We took long walks at the National Harbor and just got to know each other again.

  “I really missed you Tiara.” He said as we stopped at the water view on the harbor. Shayonna was picking up rocks throwing and them into the water affording us a chance to talk.

  I blushed and looked away. He took my hands and gazed into my eyes. “Tiara, I never stopped loving you.” He kissed my left hand. “I hope that you can see my change and let me back in.”

  “Tony, you used to tell me you changed every time I took you back. I’ll always love you too, but I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to where we were.”

  “Why can’t we boo? This is a new city. I don’t know anyone out here. We can start out fresh, let’s do it T. You and the baby are my world.” He said trying his hardest to convince his way back into my heart.

  I thought about what he was proposing but he had hurt me so much. I didn’t know if going backwards would be the best thing. I loved him with all my heart but I wasn’t sure if that was the route I wanted to take.

  “We’ll see Tony. I really can’t give you an answer right now.” I said.

  “Aiight, I’m going to stay out here for two more weeks. I mean, you already see that I’ve been sleeping on the couch, respecting your space. I didn’t even ask you for no pussy and you know how much I want to taste you.”

  I smiled at him and nodded. I loved his light brown puppy eyes and I had never seen them look so fragile and desperate. “What am I gonna do with you Tony?”

  “Love me again.” He said. I already did love him. As a matter of fact, I truly loved him with everything inside of me. But the fear of getting hurt was still there and I didn’t want to feel like a fool. Not to mention this pregnancy situation that I had to confront. Shit was a mess. I knew that I had to tell him.

  The night was romantic and calming and when we got home, Tony broke his asking me for no pussy rule. He hadn’t tried to have sex with me since he’d been there but I guess he figured that we could end the romantic night making
love.

  Shayonna was sleeping and he carried her into her bedroom and told me not to come upstairs until he finished preparing a surprise. Moments later he called me up. Music was playing low in the background and red rose petals filled the bed. I cried immediately. Not only did the pregnancy have me ultra-sensitive, but I was just impressed with Tony’s persistence.

  He came over to me and took me by the hand. “Don’t cry baby. I’m trying to show you that I’ve changed. We are made for each other, T.”

  “You don’t understand Tony.” I was bawling at that point. I stopped trying to fight the tears and I just let them fall.