Turned Out by His Hood Mentality 1

by Diamond D Johnson

  “I’m pregnant,” I said, confiding in someone for the first time since I found out.

  There was an awkward silence in the room when I said that. Normani knew bits and pieces of what was going on because I needed to leave my car in her garage and have her drop me off to my mother’s house a few days ago. Of course, she asked a million and one questions about what was going on. I didn’t really go into detail because I didn’t want to sound foolish, so I just told her that Monterius and I had broken up. Of course, it went into one ear and out of the other because we were always breaking up, but I was for real this time.

  “I don’t know if you want me to say congrats or not. Why are you disappointed?” she asked, letting my hair go and then looking down at me.

  I reached up and flushed the toilet then put the toilet seat down. Once I felt slightly stable, I crawled over to the matte black, freestanding tub, which was big enough to fit at least three people and put my back against it. I pulled my knees up to my chest, buried my head in my hands, and burst into tears.

  Before I could get really hysterical, Normani was on the floor with me, and she pulled me into her. She didn’t even understand what was going on, but she just started praying for me. She prayed a good prayer over me, my baby, my mind, my sanity, my thoughts, and my decision. Right now, I really didn’t even know if I was going to keep this baby. By the time she finished, I was still crying, but I wasn’t as bad as I was five minutes ago.

  “Does Monterius know?” she asked, and I just shook my head.

  “Well, are you going to tell him?”

  I shrugged because I honestly didn’t know.

  “I get that it’s your decision, but Twinkle, you should know that I’m not going to sit here and encourage any talks about you having an abortion. I’m not sure what problems you and Monterius are battling right now, but this is a life that we’re talking about. A life that was made between two consenting adults. A life that deserves to live. If you don’t want to keep the baby, that’s fine, but consider adoption before you just terminate a life,” Normani told me as she reached up and wiped my face.

  I honestly didn’t expect anything else from her. When I got my first abortion a couple of years ago, I didn’t know Normani, so she didn’t know about that one, and I didn’t plan to ever tell her. I loved Normani like a big sister, and she gave the best advice, so I often wondered if I would have gone through with the abortion had I known her at the time of my first pregnancy.

  “I don’t want to mess up the day. Let me clean myself up, and we can still go. I think I let it all out for this morning,” I voiced after neither of us said anything for at least five minutes.

  “You sure? I don’t mind ordering breakfast and having it delivered to the house. I’m free until tonight. I’m writing tonight. You know I have my book signing coming up next month, so these days, I’ve been wrapping up the last couple of chapters in my latest book,” she told me, and I smiled.

  “I know. It’s stamped and saved in my calendar. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I’m also sure about going to breakfast. I’ve been cooped up in the house all week. Let’s go out, and I also want to show you the property that I’m thinking about getting for my boutique,” I told her, and she smiled.

  We both stood up from the floor. Normani left first while I stayed behind and cleaned myself up, mainly washing my mouth out. Five minutes later, I walked out of the bathroom. Today I was dressed simply. I wore a black and white YSL shirt with a pair of black skinny jeans, and YSL sandals were on my feet. My black Chanel purse was in Normani’s room, and I had my hair under a full, thirty-inch wig that I stood in front of the mirror for almost an hour this morning, straightening to perfection. I wore only a little bit of make-up because since I wasn’t really feeling myself, I didn’t even try to go all out.

  I took the stairs and found Normani in the kitchen, sitting at the dining room table with the phone glued to her ear. From what she was saying and how she was talking, I knew that her phone call was business-related. I swear, that girl worked even on her day off. Sometimes, I wanted to just snatch that damn phone from her. She worked too hard.

  Normani deserved to be somewhere on an island with her feet kicked up, drinking margaritas like it was water. Her attire for the day was cute, though. Normani was always dressed nicely. She was one of those women who didn’t reveal anything but still looked good. Today, her attire was a pair of light blue skinny jeans with the strings hanging at the bottoms. She wore a fashionable V-neck top with a yellow, dressy blazer and nude red bottom heels on her feet. Her beautiful coils were pulled up in a high ponytail, and like me, she wore light make-up with nude lip gloss on her lips. The yellow Birkin bag that she was carrying with her outfit rested on the dining room table.

  All I could think about was the fact that my cousin was a damn fool because Normani was fuckin’ beautiful and would make one hell of a wife. While she finished up her phone call, I went into her refrigerator and grabbed myself a bottle of water.

  “Alright, come on. I’ll drive since you’re feeling... umm, what should I say? Under the weather?” she said, trying to be funny.

  What a lot of people didn’t know was that Normani could be funny too. She wasn’t serious and uptight all the time. You had to actually get to know her to see that side of her, though.

  I laughed at her while I pulled my keys out of my purse because I wanted to drive.

  “I’ll drive. If I start feeling queasy, then I’ll let you drive,” I told her, and she nodded like it was cool.

  We got in the car and agreed to eat at Yardbird down in Miami for brunch. I keyed in the address on the navigation in my Mercedes. During the ride over, we talked about pretty much everything. Normani expressed her excitement about her upcoming book signing, and I talked about how excited I was to possibly be getting my own storefront.

  The nursing business was good, but if everything picked up with my boutique, once I opened the store, I would easily pick my passion over working in a doctor’s office. Don’t get me wrong, my job was cool and everything, but in the beginning, I really just did it because I felt like I had to do something legit if I was trying to be a role model for Dream. We talked a little more, and I even showed my excitement about Dream getting ready to start cheerleading practice next week. It was the weekend, so right now, she was with her father. Before getting to Normani’s house this morning, I’d dropped her off over there.

  I said it before that I really didn’t care too much for Chance, but that nigga made sure I brought Dream to his house every weekend.

  We were about five minutes away from the restaurant when my phone started ringing through the Bluetooth in my car. It was Billion calling, more than likely on behalf of Monterius. I wouldn’t dare tell my cousin where I was because although we were blood, Monterius was his boy, and them niggas were going to stick together. There was no doubt in my mind that he would rat on me the second I dropped him my location. I would still answer the phone for him; I just wasn’t going to tell his ass where I was.

  “Hey,” I answered the phone.

  I didn’t want to go through the hassle of taking the Bluetooth off and talking to him with my phone to my ear, I was just going to talk to him through the car system. Normani was in her own world anyway, looking at something on her phone.

  “Yo, it’s a one hundred thousand dollar bounty on yo’ head right now. I could use those one hundred Gs. Split the shit between my two kids. Drop your location, cuz. Monterius said the first person to send you to him alive, he paying them on sight,” Billion said.

  I rolled my eyes as I continued to drive.

  “I’m not telling you where I’m at. I’m your cousin, nigga! You’ll really rat on me over that nigga?” I spat, annoyed at the thought that he would do that.

  “Hell yeah! Fuck you mean? I would because I know that you just in your feelings, and you’ll be back with the nigga in another week. If I felt like you were serious and really done, then nah, I wouldn’t tell the nigga
where you were. He said he ain’t even do shit to yo’ ass. He said he got home, and you packed your shit and was out of the house. Why you doggin’ bruh like that?” Billion asked me.

  “When in fuckin’ history has a nigga ever confessed to doing anything wrong? You think I’m going to pack my shit up just to get a reaction out of him? No, I’m serious this time!” I voiced.

  “Yeah, whatever. I’ll believe it when I see it,” he shot back.

  “It’s this exit, Twinkle. Merge over,” Normani called out.

  I was so engrossed in the conversation that I wasn’t paying the navigation system any attention.

  “Yo, that’s Normani?” Billion asked.

  I laughed at how excited his voice sounded when he asked about my girl. Normani hit my arm and shook her head, telling me to tell him no, that it wasn’t her. That had me raising an eyebrow. For one, why did my cousin sound all excited at the sound of her voice? For two, why was she telling me to tell him that it wasn’t her? I didn’t even try to put the two of them down with each other anymore because Billion swore that she wasn’t his type. The day after the party, Normani and I talked on the phone. She went on and on about how much she didn’t like my cousin because he was rude.

  I felt like maybe they had seen each other after the party, so nah… I wasn’t going to lie for Normani. I wanted to see where this would lead. I was cheesing so hard like a Cheshire cat because I knew that these two would make such a beautiful couple. They were so opposite of each other, which is what made it so unique.

  “Yes, it’s her. How did you recognize her voice, and why you sound so happy to hear her?” I questioned.

  Normani hit me on my leg, making me crack up laughing. She was exposing herself, showing me that it was definitely something she didn’t want me to know. Ooooh, I couldn’t wait until I got off the phone with Billion, and she ran down to me what happened because whatever it was, it sounded juicy.

  “Normani? Yo, you got me on speakerphone, Twink? Can she hear me?” his deep voice barked through the speakers.

  “She hears you. What’s up?” I answered.

  “Normani, you see how you do a nigga? You did that dumb shit and ain’t wanna give a nigga yo’ cell phone number. Okay, cool, I accepted that shit. You gave me the office number, and I been calling for the past three days. I put two and two together the first day and found out that you gave me the direct number to the doctor’s office and not your main office phone number. You think you so fuckin’ slick, yo. I know you told that receptionist not to put my calls through because every time I call, she lying to a nigga, telling me that you're either not in the office or you’re with a patient. You mean to tell me that you don’t get a break all day? Now, if I were to pop my ass up at your office, you woulda been mad. I know the location from googling the office phone number. Children’s Medical, right? Shorty, I will pop the fuck up on you! Why are you playing games with me?” Billion’s deep voice boomed through the phone with his southern accent coming out full force.

  I was in the driver’s seat, cracking up laughing because my cousin was seriously in his feelings and sweating the fuck out of Normani. I’ve never, I mean never seen him chase after a woman like this before, and I was around to witness him and Sidnesha together when they were supposedly in love. It was cute.

  Normani was sitting in the passenger seat, looking unbothered as hell, but I was trying to figure out when the two of them even met up for her to have given him the office phone number.

  “Billionaire, I told you that I would give you the office number. I never specified that it would be my direct office number. My assistant isn’t lying either. If you’re calling and she’s telling you that I’m busy, ten times out of ten, I am busy. If I’m with a patient, it’s her job to make anyone calling aware of that. Same thing applies if I’m at the hospital,” Normani said to my cousin in her proper voice.

  It was her calling him Billionaire that sent me. Nobody called him that, so I knew whatever they had going on was significant.

  “You never specified that it wouldn’t be your direct office number either. What time is your break on Monday? I’m going to pull up,” he said.

  We were pulling up to the restaurant, but I had slowed down my driving because this shit was comical, and I didn’t want our arrival to stop me from being entertained.

  “I’ll just pick up the phone when you call. Call me around noon,” Normani said, smoothly curving him from coming down there on her break.

  “Nah… I gave you three days to pick up the phone when I called. I’m pulling up this time. See you on Monday,” he said and hung up the phone.

  Normani’s leg was bouncing up and down. I knew for a fact that she wasn’t used to a nigga ordering her around like that, which is why she had a shocked ass expression on her face.

  After I stopped laughing, I looked at her, and my girl was shaking. We were in the long ass line now for me to valet park my car, so I was left with plenty of time to grill her.

  “Girl, address the elephant! When the hell did you see my cousin? How did you give him your number?” I asked, really wanting to know.

  “That’s the thing. I didn’t give him my number. I gave him the number to the office. Wednesday night, I was leaving bible study, and my gas light was on, plus my tires were low. I ended up going to the gas station by the church, and he was there,” she said, then stopped like that was it, but I knew there was more.

  “Okay, keep going. I’m sure it’s more,” I said, indicating with my hand for her to finish the story because she was trying to be slick and leave certain things out.

  “He finished gassing up my car for me, and then I showed him that my tires needed air. He proceeded to let me know that I had bad tires, and he had me follow him over to his friend’s car shop. While his friend worked on my tires, we went across the street to eat. That’s it,” she said.

  “What else happened? Damn, Normani. I feel like I’m pulling damn teeth,” I told her.

  She slouched in her seat and rolled her eyes at me.

  “The first half of dinner with him was a complete disaster. His mouth… I just can’t with his mouth. We were going at it like an old, married couple. You know I don’t even curse, but a few times, he was just pushing me there, and I almost let a few curse words slip out. I just couldn’t stand the idea of being around him anymore, so I was getting ready to leave. He’s so smooth. Twinkle, he had me livid, but it’s like his whole demeanor changed when he saw that I was getting ready to leave him,” she went on to say and then stopped.

  I watched as Normani ran her hands down her pants leg. Her eyes were on everything except me.

  “We kissed,” she blurted out, shocking the hell out of me.

  My eyes grew big because I really didn’t expect her to say that.

  “I know. I know. I’m still shocked that it took place. Don’t laugh at me, but do you know I never even kissed a guy before? That was my first time, and it happened right in the middle of a restaurant. I don’t know what it was, but in those three, maybe four minutes, I allowed this man to make me lose my self-control. I was kissing him like we were lovers. It wasn’t until he pulled me down on his lap that I found my common sense.

  “Twinkle, for real, I have to leave him alone because he took me away in those little moments, and it’s like nothing mattered during that time. If I allow him to make me feel like that, I’ll be losing my virginity before marriage. I didn’t give him the number to the office to be funny. I did it because I need to stay clear of him. I will lose my sanity behind dealing with Billion. Then, the sexual thoughts that I had that night when I made it home. I know they were so sinful. I’m still asking God for forgiveness, and it’s been days. No. I’m steering clear of him,” Normani said.

  I was cracking up in laughter because my cousin was going to break her ass the fuck down. I knew Billion. If he wanted something, he was going to go after it… period. I gave it a few months, and I’m telling you; he was going to turn her ass the fuck out.
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  “So, what you going to do when he pops up at the office on Monday? You know he’s coming for your ass, right? He’s not going to just say that and not mean it,” I said.

  “I’ll come up with something by tomorrow night,” she let me know, and I laughed.

  Normani made it seem like it was going to be so easy, but it really wasn’t.

  Almost two hours later, we finally left the restaurant after having brunch. For one, we had to wait for like thirty minutes when we arrived, and when we were finally seated, the service wasn’t fast because there were so many people dining.

  Normani and I were standing in front of the restaurant, waiting for the valet to bring my car around. We expected to wait for at least another ten minutes or so because there were so many people waiting for their cars to come around as well. Off to the right of us, there was a big commotion, and judging from the way people had their phones out and stuff, I assumed that it had to have been someone famous standing over there. We were not far from Miami beach, so it wouldn’t be a shock because celebrities were often on Lincoln Road.

  The crowd finally calmed down, and when I looked up and saw who it was, I rolled my eyes in disgust. Last time I saw him in person, I was crying my eyes out like a dummy and begging him not to leave me. It was my ex-boyfriend, Truth. You know... the one I gave my virginity and my heart to, only for him to stomp and kick all over that shit. I turned my back, but Normani was standing in front of me, still looking that way, so she could still see him.

  “Who is that? Like a rapper or something? He’s coming in our direction,” she said.

  I could feel his presence as he got closer. My phone was in my back pocket, so I pulled it out and pretended to be engrossed in it, so I wouldn’t have to pay attention to the fine piece of man who was making his way over to me. The man who I could almost smell before I even saw him. Because Truth was famous, there was paparazzi out, and they were snapping picture after picture of him.

  “I saw you from behind, and I knew it was you before I even saw your face. There’s only one woman I know with these pretty ass bowlegs like yours and who stands like this. You threw me off a little bit with the long hair and shit. The last time I saw you, you were rocking your own hair. I loved that look back then, but I’m fuckin’ with this one too. You’re beautiful, Twinkle. God, I’m a fool.”