So Gone (14 page)

Blunt knew that he
was busted. He opened his lying mouth, attempting one last time to lie his way
out of the hole that he had dug himself in, but I over-talked him.

“Save
your lies because I'm done listening to them.
You might as well run right back
over there where she is because your ship has sailed over here. Game over!
”
I slapped him across the face as an exclamation.

Blunt picked me up
like a rag doll and tossed me on the bed, straddling me. “My bad, Mo. I fucked
up. I was drunk that night,” he continued to fib. Then he made the mistake of
trying to kiss me.

I socked him dead
in the mouth. “Don't you dare put your nasty lips on me! There's no telling
where your mouth has been, you dog!
”
I yelled
in his face.

“Shawdy,
it ain't even like that.”

“It's not?
” I thundered. “
You’ve been over there eating that
bitch’s worn out coochie, then coming home and kissing me.” The thought made me
want to puke all over myself.

“Mo’, I love you.
Don’t let that hating hoe break up what we got.”

I pushed him off of
me and bounced to my feet. “Fuck you! Go on over there with your rotten pussy
bitch. I’m going to get me a real man who can be faithful and love me.”

The second those
words rolled off my tongue Blunt slung me back on the bed, and I felt a cold
object against my temple.

“
Yo’ mouth is real
fly. Now say what you just said again. You’re gonna do what?” His teeth were
clenched and his finger was on the trigger of his silver Glock.

I closed my eyes
and prayed that Blunt wouldn't shoot me.

“
Bitch, you think I
won’t push ya fuckin’ wig back?” I threatened Mo’ wit’ words that until now had
been reserved for my hoes in the street.

I hadn’t lost
respect for her, but the stress of dealing wit’ all those other bitches and
having to lie about it was causing me to lose my mind.

I stuck the gun to
her dome and challenged her to say that fuck shit again about finding another
nigga. I expected her to curl up in a ball and whimper, but she surprised me
when she got the strength from somewhere to hurl me off her.

“
You’re just gonna have
to kill me then! Because I’m through,
”
she
repeated.

“What?”
I bellowed.

“You wanna hear me
say it again? I’m going to find a man that will treat me good and love me even
better. Now, go ahead and pull the trigger, mothafucker!”

I looked at Shorty
Girl wit’ my mouth wide open. I couldn’t believe she called my bluff.

“And I got ya
bitch, right here!” she said, then drew back and punched me smack in the
grill. 

Before I could
react, she was on my ass like a banshee. I blocked most of the blows while she
swung and cried. “Why would you put a fuckin’ gun to my head?”

Real talk, she was
kickin’ my ass. If she had been any other woman, the paramedics would’ve been
on their way to put her on a stretcher. However, I didn’t smash her because no
matter what it seemed like, I did love her.

When she was tired
of swingin’, she collapsed on the floor and sobbed. Her back was heaving up and
down. When I tried to comfort her, she hissed, “Don’t put your filthy hands on
me, or I’ll give you some pussy and kill your ass when you fall asleep!”

I could see the
hatred that betrayal started in her eyes. It’s a thin line between love and
hate, I was always told. I could see it now, up close and personal.

“Okay, Baby, I’m
out,” I said as I used my shirt’s collar to wipe away the blood from my busted
lip. As I got in my car and drove aimlessly around the city, Deuce hit me on my
cell.

“Sup, Fam? When you
gonna break bread?” He pressed me at the wrong fuckin’ time.

I inhaled a deep
breath and sucked my teeth. “I got that on deck for you right now. Can you meet
me at the liquor store on Boulevard by the railroad tracks?” I suggested.

“Yeah, I can be
there in twenty minutes,” he agreed.

Twenty minutes
later on the dot, Deuce drove up. I was parked with the engine off listening to
a Jeezy Mix tape bobbing my head to the lyrics. When I saw Deuce get out of his
whip and head towards me, I turned off the radio.

“What you got for
me, Homie?” he asked as he opened the door and slid into the passenger seat.

My nine answered
for me. Boc! Boc! Boc!

I leaned over his
bloody body, opened the door, and kicked him out onto the cold ground. I
cranked my whip, put it in reverse, and felt a hard hump. I had backed over his
lifeless body. I put my ride in the wind and got ghost.

Three days had
passed since I finally ended things with Blunt. At times I thought about him,
but those thoughts were not good. I seemed to be ridding my system of him one
day at a time. I simply kept busy and continued to remind myself that I
deserved so much better.

I reclined back in
my office chair and glanced out of the window. The fresh smell of cut grass
drifted up my nose. The school’s maintenance man was on a riding mower giving
the front a badly needed grooming.

Through the open
window, I saw that
it was a beautiful morning, and
the
sun was out in its full glory.

The loud sound of
arguing coming from the hallway drew my attention. I immediately went to
investigate.

“Bitch, if I find
out that you’re talking to my man, I’m gon’ beat the life out ya ass,” a rather
tall, slender girl mouthed to another female student.

They stood toe to
toe ready to rumble. The shorter girl did not look like she would back down.

“
Hoe, please. If
he's your man, why is he always blowing up my phone? And why did he creep
through my bedroom window every night last week, huh?” She wagged her finger in
the other girl's face.

I hurried between
them before any licks were passed. “Ladies, cut out the foolishness and stop
the foul language right now, or you’ll both be sent to in-school suspension.”

My threat fell on
deaf ears. The taller girl slapped spit from the other student’s mouth, and the
crowd that had gathered around let out a collective,
“oooh!”

“Oh, now I’m ‘bout
to kill ya ass, bitch,
”
screamed
the smaller one
. She threw her book bag down and
pushed the girl into a row of lockers. Then she reached up, yanked her to the
floor by her weave, and was beating her down.

“Stop it!” I
yelled.

I snatched the
smaller one by her arm and made her release the girl’s tracks from her hand.
“Get in my office now! You two have no respect for authority!” I fussed.

The other student
slowly got off the floor. My male assistant principal and a stocky male science
teacher came down the hall and escorted them into my office. I readjusted my
red Christian Dior pencil skirt with the matching short-sleeved jacket and
ordered all students to get to their classrooms immediately.

Once we were inside
my office, I asked my assistant principal to call both of the eleventh graders’
parents to let them know that their daughters were being suspended for three
days and needed to be picked up from school immediately.

When
everything settled down
,
I used the office phone to call Leesha.

“What’s up, Chick?”
she answered, sounding as cheerful as always.

“
Not a lot. But I'm
excited about coming up to see the family this weekend.
”
I perked up.

“
Are you coming
alone?
”

“Of course.” I
rubbed my tired eyes and blinked twice before leaning my head back, staring up
at the ceiling.

“Good because I
have someone that I want you to meet,” she revealed. “Is it okay for me to give
him your number?”

“Who is it,
Leesha?” I asked with skepticism.

“
A guy named
Vincent.
”

“Is he
one of your rejects? Because I'm not
that
desperate,” I said seriously.

“No,
Vincent is a new co-worker of mine. He's single, finer than old ass Keith
Sweat, and get this --- he's thirty years old and has no children.”

“Hold
up, Cuzzo. Before we go any further, you're going to have to take back what you
said about Keith Sweat. I love me some him, and you do too. Don't even try to
front because somebody threw their panties at him,” I reminded her.

“Oh,
Keith can get it any way he wants it.” We both laughed.

“Girl,
you're a mess,” I remarked. “You can go ahead and give your friend my number, but
please make it clear that I've just come out of a relationship, and I'm not
looking to jump into another one anytime soon.”

“Will
do,” promised Leesha.

“Toodles.”

“Muah.”

I pulled my
keyboard closer to me and began going over the school's budget for the upcoming
semester. I was busy crunching numbers when my cell phone began to vibrate with
an incoming call.

The photo that I
had saved of Blunt standing by his ride in his superstar attire showed up
identifying the caller. I pressed ignore and sent him to voicemail. Seconds
later a text came through that read:
Baby a nigga missing you. Can we move
pass this.

I ignored the text
and started back working.

Towards the end of
the day, as I was wrapping up my work, my secretary knocked on my office door
and informed me that I had a special delivery. I stood up, stretched, and then
followed her out into the outer office. The delivery guy stood there holding a
teddy bear and a bouquet of yellow, white, and pink flowers.

“Hello,” I spoke,
smiling at him pleasantly.

“Are you Molaysia
Alexander?” he asked.

“Yes, I am.”

He handed me the
gift and asked me to sign for it. I smiled as I signed my name, while wondering
who had thought enough of me to make my day.

I pranced back into
my office, reading the attached card as I closed the door behind me.
Baby,
please forgive my transgressions. They are mistakes of the mind, not of the
heart. In matters of love, you are my one and only. Love and kisses, Blunt.

I placed the
flowers on my desk. They were beautiful, but they could not make me forget
about what had happened. I doubted if an Iyanla Vanzant session could fix our
broken relationship.

Driving through my
neighborhood on
my way home,
I noticed that
the “for sale” sign was gone from my elderly neighbor's yard. He had put his
bricked three-bedroom home up for sale six months ago and moved into an
assistant living apartment. I wondered who my new neighbors would be, and made
a mental note to get them a present welcoming them to the community.

I pulled into my
garage anticipating a nice long bubble bath with soft music playing in the
background. After a trying day at the school, it always felt good to come home
and pamper myself. And that's exactly what I did.

Later,
sometime after six,
I was in the kitchen preparing a supper of spaghetti, salad,
sweet peas, and garlic bread when my doorbell rang.

I moved
away from the stove, washed my hands, and dried them on a paper towel, before I
answered the door. “Who's there?” I asked.

“Rocco,
I'm your new neighbor.” The voice was deep and masculine, but not scary.

I stood
on my tippy-toes and looked through the peephole. A tall, handsome man stood
there with a child at his side. I unlocked the door and opened it.

“Hi, I
hope I'm not interrupting you. I saw you pull in a while ago, and I wanted to
come over and introduce myself and give you one of my business cards. Maybe my
services will come in handy.”

I saw his lips
moving, but I didn’t hear one word come from his mouth. He was gorgeous. He
appeared to be at least 6’2, chocolate as a Snickers bar, well built, with a
shaven head. I was in a zone.

Once I came out of
my trance, I looked down at the little girl who was standing beside him. Her
hair was in two ponytails, and she had a dimpled smile. I guessed that she was
two, maybe three years old. Looking over her head, I noticed a woman across the
street stepping to a u-haul. I presumed that the woman was the child's mother
and Rocco's wife.

“I’m sorry. What
did you say?” I asked, embarrassed that I had gotten lost in my thoughts.

He smiled with
perfect white teeth. “I came over to give you my business card. I’m a licensed
contractor. I wanted you to know that if you ever need any house work, I’ll
gladly come over.”

“
Thanks,” I replied
accepting his card.
“
And I welcome you and
your wife to the neighborhood.
” I forced a smile.