Page 2 of U + Me

“Hey, Darius, I thought you was playing ball?”

“I’m headed to the park now. You coming?”

“Yep. I gotta get out this house before I go crazy. Ion want no parts of what they got going on in there.” I huffed as I rolled my eyes, hearing the front door slam so loud that my bedroom window rattled.

“They at it again, huh?”

“You already know.”

“You straight tho?”

“Yeah, I’m good. I’ll meet you up at the park in a few.”

“I’ma come scoop you.”

“Nah, you good,” I interrupted him. “I gotta get ready first. These cramps kicking my ass, got me moving slow as hell. I still need to get dressed and do my hair.”

“I’ll be waitin’ in front of yo crib. Hurry yo slow ass up,” Darius rebutted then hung up before I could protest.

I laid his card on the corner of my desk so that it could dry then went to my closet to find something to change into. Darius and I met in junior high when he transferred in the middle of the first semester of his sixth-grade year. We became friends because we had study hall and gym together, even though he was a grade higher than me, and we have been thick as thieves ever since.

All day I had lowkey been in a funk thinking about and missing my dad and the fact that my period started wasn’t helping me keep my emotions in check. I was normally more emotional around the time of my cycle; my hormones just be all over the damn place. I hated when I got like this emotionally, but I missed my dad and couldn’t help it and couldn’t wait to graduate high school so I could move out and find somewhere as far away from my mom and Todd as I could find.

Since it was nice outside, I decided on a pair of black and white Adidas biking shorts, an all-black Adidas tank, and a pair of Oreo Yeezy Boost. Going to the park to watch Darius and his homeboys play basketball was one of my favorite things to do. All the neighborhood kids would be there; the girls jumping double Dutch, the boys playing ball, and the littles running amuck on the playground was always a vibe and a good time. Couldn’t nobody see me jumping rope, but today, I didn’t plan on jumping because the way these cramps was set up, I wasn’t on any of that. I just planned on cooling it and watching the guys which was always entertaining. Hell, truthfully, anything to get out of the house was my favorite thing to do and entertaining.

I went into the kitchen to get a water bottle so that I could take a couple of Midol’s before I left, and just as I turned to go back into my room to grab my keys and cell phone, I bumped into Todd. He was standing there with a stupid smirk on his face. I really prayed that it was him that had left when I heard the door slam but lately, God wasn’t always on my side, and this moment had just proven that yet again.

“Where you finna go?”

“To the park.”

“You ain’t ask nobody shit?” Todd rebutted as I rolled my eyes and smacked my lips. “You think you so fuckin’ grown, don’t you?”

Doing my best to ignore him I tried to step around him, but he stepped in front of me, blocking my path.

Lately Todd was starting to get beside himself and had been coming at me on some other level type shit. He was a pothead and drunk who liked to snap out and put hands on my mom, and he even hit on me a few times. He didn’t whoop on me as much as he did her, and the last time I threatened to call the law, so he chilled out on that with me; but now he had started coming at me in a whole different creepy sort of way.

Taking one of his fingers, he tugged on the front of my top, exposing the top of my cleavage and out of reflex, I snatched my shirt from his grasp.

“Excuse you! Don’t touch on me like that!” I huffed, feeling violated yet slightly scared at the same time.

“Keep prancing around this muthafucka like you grown and I’ma treat you like you grown.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked, not sure what he was implying. Was he saying he was going to make me leave the house ’cause I’m grown, or what? There were a handful of times I’d heard him and my mom arguing about me and Todd would say things like he couldn’t wait til I was grown enough to leave so he could put me out if I pissed him off.

Grabbing his crotch, as much as I tried to avoid looking, I couldn’t help but to quickly glance down, and I could see the large print of his manhood in his hand. He looked like he had a hard-on, which instantly put into perspective exactly what he meant by acting grown.

“Come find out.”

My stomach turned and my heart dropped. Was this man about to try me like that? Nah, not the Todd that had been around me since I was a little kid. I knew that it was just he and I home alone and I didn’t know what to do. All this weird touching was getting out of hand and terrifying the shit out of me. He had never taken things to this extent, and I would hate to have to jab a knife through his heart for violating me.

“The hell goin’ on in here?” My mom smirked as she brushed past me and Todd then went to the kitchen sink to wash her hands. Whenever she came in from outside, she always washed her hands at the kitchen sink.

“Shit, yo jit think she grown. Talkin’ ’bout she goin’ to the park!” Todd jeered. “Ain’t heard her ask shit but gon’ tell me what she gon’ gotdamn do up in my house.” Todd fussed.

“Don’t start in on her cause you mad at me. You really need to get outcho feelings.” My mom rebutted and that was my cue to get the hell out of dodge.

“I ain’t in my muthafuckin’ feelings! This my house, and I run this muthafucka. Ion know who she think she is tellin’ me what she gon’ do. She think she grown, I’d be wrong to treat her like she grown.” Todd rebutted.

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