Hoodwinked

  “You lied to me!” I accused with my finger-pointing in his face. “You lied! Where is----?!”

  “She’s with my sister since you act like you can’t let my own family see Violet for----! PIA?! PIA?!”

  “Trouble in lover’s paradise? Y’all take that outside! We not doing that in here!”

  “PIA?!” Homer yelled. Coming after me as I searched for the nearest exit. Coming up on Delilah and Ben who sat together with her arm looped around his neck, looking at me with a small grin.

  “You knew he would be here?! You knew this entire time?!”

  “So you and Homer found each other,” she concluded with a nod as I searched for the nearest glass of whatever was in it with ice, and flung it directly in her face. I could hear the gasps from across the room as her mouth dropped. Eyes closed, unable to speak.

  “MY LIFE IS NOT YOUR PLAYGROUND FOR YOU TO TOY WITH ME!” I screamed. “I don’t want to be with him so stop forcing it! Next time, I will drag your pregnant behind on this floor Delilah!”

  “Hold up, hold up, what the baby got to do with this?” Ben asked as I turned to walk off, leaving a shocked Delilah covered in liquid, and chunks of ice as I pushed past bodies for the door.

  “Pia?!” Homer yelled. “I’m not finna chase you down!”

  “So don’t!” Shoving the door open that led to a quiet hallway of the Underground where everything seemed still. People were not as lively as they are in the front, but more suspicious, and lurking in the darkness.

  “Hold on!” Nevaeh could be heard. “Pia!? I’m coming with you----!”

  “She’s fine! Caroline told me she hasn’t cried since she was there. She did her hair----.”

  I turned around to face Homer, eyes red, body leaning like he was full of alcohol. Well, that makes two of us, but Violet had a hell of a way of sobering me up.

  “You aren’t ready to be a father----.”

  “YOU NEVER GAVE ME A CHANCE! ME OR MY FAMILY A CHANCE! My sisters got every right to see her! They live in the same city as her, and you won’t even let them----!”

  “The same sisters that jumped, and attacked me, now have my daughter----!”

  “Both of you stop it!” Nevaeh screamed, stepping in between us before she turned to glare at her brother. “You have to be honest Homer! Sisters or not. Seeing you here when you made us believe you were with her daughter is not okay!” She turned to me with a roll of her neck. “And despite how crazy my family is, our sisters would never harm your daughter, and I believe she’s in better hands than Homer himself. Clearly!” Looking back at her brother who sucked his teeth.

  “Fuck you Nevaeh. I don’t need yo stamp of approval when you’re married to a hoe ass nigga. I’m going back inside and enjoying my night. Do what y'all finna do. I don’t care. Violet is fine, and you wouldn’t have known shit either way when you came and got her----FUCK YOU PIA!” He shouted after me when I turned off in mid-sentence. I didn’t have time for his soap box speech. I could hear Nevaeh’s heels clicking and scraping against the ground to rush beside me.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  We wasted no time catching an Uber to her sister’s house to grab a sleeping Violet with her hair braided down with tiny shades of purple beads. Didn’t even bother with her sister who apparently didn’t realize that I didn’t know my child was with her and assumed Violet would be spending the night with her.

  “What do you mean she has to leave? She’s fine. Homer said---.”

  “Caroline, Homer didn’t tell Pia you were watching her,” Nevaeh spoke tiredly as she stood in the doorway of her sister’s townhouse. I tried my hardest not to judge the other woman walking around with nothing but a sports bra, and shorts but my patience was wearing thin. Caroline tightened up her robe and glared at the two of us.

  “She hasn’t cried, she ate. She and Mai been watching some kiddie movie with DJ until they fell asleep----.”

  “Caroline,” Nevaeh tried again. “Homer didn’t tell Pia...It doesn’t----.”

  “Okay well I’m telling you, and her,” she reached, voice carrying towards me. “The child is fine. I don’t want to wake her up---.”

  “I want my daughter,” I snapped before lowering my head with my eyes never leaving hers. “Now.”

  I could feel the seething look Caroline gave before she suddenly turned, and stormed back into the house.

  “Where is my phone DJ?!” She snapped, snatching her phone off a table as we waited by the doorway. “I’m calling Daddy right now! He said I could watch her for the night---.”

  “What’s going on?” DJ asked the girl with long dreads came to the doorway with Nevaeh explaining the situation. Only to shake her head with a suck of her teeth. “You know she tripping because she wants a baby of her own. All of this is because of that,” she muttered, glancing back in the house as Caroline rambled on the phone while gathering my daughter’s things.

  “Yeah but this has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with Homer being selfish, and his lack of communication. Mai can stay here, I’ll get her in the morning.”

  “Oh, I know, but that’s why she’s emotional about it. Baby girl is like a dream daughter for her. Lemme go get her. She’s upstairs in the bed,” turning to walk off.

  “Okay but somebody needs to check Homer before I do! It’s not fair!” She complained on the phone. “Tell your wife to call her mama’s boy, her favorite son and do something about this!”

  Nevaeh just stared at me with an apologetic sigh when out of nowhere, bright headlights and a heavy engine came roaring up behind us as Nevaeh, and I looked back with squinting eyes.

  “Here we go,” she muttered while I turned around completely pissed. Homer shot up from his car and slammed the door shut with his keys still in the car, and high beams flashing directly at me.

  “Go back, and enjoy yourself, Homer! Don’t feel the need to suddenly want to----.”

  “I went to celebrate a birthday Pia! Didn’t abandon my child----.”

  “Don’t have to explain anything to me!” I laughed with my arms folding over my chest, watching him walk up towards me with a wad of spit shooting into the yard. Just the thought of dancing on him made my body coil in disgust.

  “I got Violet still---.”

  “I got Violet,” I mocked. “You don’t have anything but your damn self. She needs to come home anyway---.”

  “Do you like me or something?” Homer asked with a laugh, pulling up his pants as he stood in front of me with his piercing eyes staring me down. “You had to like me or got a crush on me, something----.”

  “Hmmm let’s see? Old man in his thirties approaches young girl minding her own business on a college campus, and preys on her insecurities,” tapping my chin with my pointer finger, actively replaying how we met. “Makes her feel special, or different for a night at the club before deciding to take advantage with the help of alcohol. Gives her the worst sex possible---.”

  “Here you go with that bullshit---.”

  “And leaves her there in the next morning to find another man in the bed with her, door wide open. Things gone...Hmmm, what’s not to like about you Homer? You’re such a damn catch. Surprised you’re not married yet,” I snapped. “Homer despite how attractive you think you are, you’re not even in the ballpark, let alone my league of what I’m used to dating so---.”

  “Can y’all both just stop?” Nevaeh asked in a soft voice. “It’s bad enough----.”

  “Nah, nah, let her keep going Nay,” Homer let out with a smile at his sister before looking at me. “Let’s talk about this real quick. I’m not good enough to date, what? Cuz I don’t come from money? You’on know what I got, and if you think you anywhere near my type Piggly Wiggly----.”

  “Hey?!” Nevaeh yelled as I nearly threw my keys at his face. “Both of y'all stop it! She’s here!”

  We both looked towards the door, seeing DJ walk out with a sleeping toddler on her shoulder sporting small braids with purple beads on the end, and a sma
ll book bag full of the things I gave Homer. Homer started to walk forward as I grabbed his arm to push him back, only to feel the boulder size of his muscles not move an inch to my touch.

  “I got her!” I strained, trying to hold him back. “You don’t need---.”

  “DJ, I got her,” Homer said, pushing me aside. I threw my keys for real this time at his face just so the idiot could catch it just in time with one hand. “Pia?!” He laughed. “Look at what you’re doing! You see how you acting?! Over a damn child!? Let go! I got her!”

  “You don’t have her! I do! Homer?!” I screamed, both of us straining in the driveway to get to a child who was dead to the world. DJ looked at Nevaeh, confused.

  “What’s going on?”

  I tried wrapping my arm around Homer’s neck like I was nearly climbing the mammoth-sized man who just laughed. I fought enough with my brothers and watched wrestling to know a basic headlock move, but with his size, it was anything but basic.

  “Look at how you acting out here! Like a fucking child Pia!”

  “You don’t have her!” Banging my fist on his back. “I’m taking her home!”

  “Do you see this?! Yall seeing how she acting?!”

  DJ looked at Nevaeh for answers.

  “I really don’t know at this point,” she sighed just as Homer pushed me back, almost causing me to fall on my ass before walking up to DJ to take Violet.

  “You don’t even have a car Pia,” Homer stated in an uppity manner. “What? You was gonna take an Uber back to the place in the middle of the night? Nah, not putting my child in no fucking stranger’s car. I can take her home---.”

  “I’m not riding with you again. You---.”

  “Well then stay yo ass here. I got what I want,” Homer shrugged, taking my daughter to the car as he opened the door. I whipped around for Nevaeh to do something but she was already inside the house with DJ standing in the doorway shrugging.

  “Aye, I mean...I’on know what to tell you. Yo daughter was cool as hell though. Welcomed here any time,” she said before Caroline walked up, and snatched the door closed. I stood in the driveway, looking back at Homer who sat in the driver’s seat comfortably, music playing with his arm hanging out the window, waiting. Thick, probably fake gold watch flashing against the bright headlights. He stuck his head out the window with his smug expression looking at me with a raised brow.

  “What we doing Piggly Wiggly?” He called out, tapping the side of the sports car as I quickly scanned the area for a rock. If I could just get one good crack at his head, I would feel immensely better. Just one good whap! Clonk! Slap! For good measure of course, but here I am instead…

  “Put your seatbelt on,” Homer said cheerfully with a lock of the doors. I looked back at my daughter sleeping peacefully through all the shenanigans, in her car seat.

  “Did you enjoy your freedom?” I asked sarcastically as he hit the road. Homer leaned closer to the door with his hand occasionally shifting gears with ease. Looking sideways at me, he slowly sat up in his seat and shrugged. Size even more apparent in the small sporty car.

  “It was cool. I’ve been there before so it was nothing new. Just out celebrating with family. If I knew you were going, I wouldn’t have gone---.”

  “Clearly.”

  “Clearly,” he retorted, mocking my voice as I rolled my eyes, and kept facing forward. “You was enjoying yo’self, especially that dance.”

  “Not as much as you obviously,” I muttered, looking at my nails as if I couldn’t care less.

  “Nah, I enjoyed it more than I wanted to,” he laughed. “I didn’t realize you could dance like that, but I should have known.”

  Don’t do it Pia...Don’t do it. Don’t even think about it…. It’s a set up.

  “Should have known what?” I asked, against my better judgment.

  “I should have known you could dance like that, move like that,” glancing at me before his eyes focused back on the streets. Dark features almost looked like one of those midnight stalkers or creeps you see between buildings in New York on movies. Always having something stuffed in their jacket, but constantly looking around, trying not to get caught.

  “I feel stupid for not even recognizing you, but then I remember we don’t know each other like that,” he shrugged. “I’m not gonna keep lying like you, and say I didn’t enjoy that. I’m grown at the end of the day with no shame. I enjoyed the dance. In another world or time, and we didn’t have history like the one in the back seat, I would have been on you, hard...Not let you out of my sight after that.”

  “Then what? Have sex, and leave the next morning----.”

  “So you do feel some type of way about that?” He laughed, looking at me with confusion. “You know what a one night stand is? Have you ever…”

  “I know what it is Homer. What I don’t appreciate is how you executed that----.”

  “We fucked, I left. I don’t owe you anything, not even a goodbye.”

  “You can believe that, but what you gave me instead was a nasty message and----.”

  “I was going through something personal---.”

  “I’m sure,” brushing my thighs down free of lint. “I’m not taking it personally. Nothing you do at this point is taken personally.”

  I looked back at my daughter, hearing that familiar heaving sound she does when she’s starting to run hot. Reaching in the back seat, I tried to grab her shirt. Just around her neck, having to nearly turn on my side in the seat with half of me pressing up against Homer’s shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” He asked, seeing him looking at my thighs with no shame. “What’s----.”

  “She’s running hot,” I said, pulling at her shirt. Small wet rings of sweat circled her neck in the crease lines as I sat back in a small panic. “She’s running hot again.”

  Homer looked up through the windshield before staring at his dashboard.

  “I gotta get gas anyway,” he said with a suck of his teeth. “I’ma keep the windows down so she can get some air---.”

  “I need water or something cool---.”

  “She just needs air,” Homer said calmly, turning into an empty gas station. “All she needs---.”

  “I’ve been dealing with this for----.”

  “I’ve been dealing with it my whole life. Water don’t do shit, she needs air,” he cut in. “Go on, get yo lil water. All she needs is some fresh air. It’s a full moon tonight. She’s tryna shift----.”

  “I don’t wanna hear that nonsense,” putting my hand up before snatching the car door open to get out.

  “I’m telling you!” Homer yelled as two other cars pulled up. “Water isn’t going to work!”

  “Why are you so loud?!” I snapped, turning back around to see he found this funny. Embarrassing me was funny to him. One red car that was parked across from us at another pump was a white family of four looking like they were on a road trip when the father got out and reached in his back pocket for his wallet. The other car was simply a woman getting off from work, looking tired from her late shift.

  “She never really turns into one you know,” he said calmly, opening the gas cap. “Her body wants to shift, but it never really happens. She’s running hot because that’s the normal temperature for a---.”

  “Stop it, Homer!” I yelled, turning back to walk into the store.

  “I’m telling you, you buying water isn’t gonna help for our child! She doesn’t bite or bark! When we dream, we dream on four legs! That’s all that is! She’s sleeping in her natural state, and her body is tryna change! Energy from the moon will do that sometimes, that or fucking with a wild dawg!”

  The door closed on his laughter, thankfully blocking out the werewolf tales from Homer. Freaking everyone out around the gas station as I bought two bottles of water, and a small treat before walking back out. Homer stood, looking at me over the hood of his car with daring, intense dark brown eyes only to look away when I rolled my own eyes.

  “She needs to get out of those
clothes,” Homer said as I went on his side of the car to look at Violet. She was still deep in her sleep with her hands clenching, and mouth gently chewing but the sweat was getting worse. I bent down to reach in for her. Unsnapping her car seat while Homer continued to stand beside to pump the gas.

  “I don’t want her to get sick either, she’s soaked through her clothes right now,” I let out, hesitant to strip her down. “It’s chilly out here---.”

  “She needs air Pia. Only way to cool her down. Trust me, this ain’t cold to her---.”

  “She will get sick---.”

  “She won’t. You know how to drive a stick?” He asked, replacing the pump back into its slot. “I’ll hold her, and you drive.”

  I almost bumped my head when I pulled out of the car to see him standing over me. Sweat lines around his neck apparent. Along with the sides of his head, and face.

  “She’ll be in good hands with me. I promise,” he said. “I got her. Not tryna argue or fuss about it. Lemme get her.”

  “Fine,” pulling back all the way as I took the keys to his car.

  “You know how to drive----.”

  “Yes I know how to drive stick Homer,” I flipped before getting in the car. Watching his every move, making sure he didn’t bump her head as he gently pulled her out of her car seat.

  “Ah ah aht,” he cooed. Clicking his tongue to calm her down, he began to pull her shirt and jeans off. Shoes and socks came off as well until she was down to her overnight pampers. Homer himself slipped his shirt off until he walked around the car, and got inside with her laying on his bare chest. I reached over to fuss over her face. Getting any sleep out of her eyes, and boogies out of her nose while he leaned the seat back. The window was rolled all the way down, disappearing within the car as her face laid flat against the center of his chest.

  “Tell Mama to drive, and stop picking at yo face,” he said softly, only to pinch her nostril to clean any last-minute boogers and snot hanging.