Synergy (34 page)

“
You feel good
about yourself intimidating girls
?” she
spat, and he looked at her with the same level of confusion that he
had when she told him to stand up.

“
Dee, what are you
talking about
?” Kiki yelled, trying to
pull her sister away from her boyfriend, but failing miserably. Dee
was stubborn in both attitude and strength, and once she had
something in her head, it was hard to stop her.

“
No-one EVER lays
a finger on my family, you understand
?”

“
What’re you
talking about
?” J protested, trying to
slip away to the side, but Dee put her arm out to block him in.
Though he had the physical strength to move her, he decided to stay
where he was; he wasn’t about to fight a woman, a pregnant woman at
that.

“
So you didn’t
have my sister pinned by the neck at Rhea’s engagement
party
?” Dee asked him, and at that,
Monique charged forward with the same look of anger on her face
that Dee was showing, and it was clear to see they were mother and
daughter.

 “
Dee, it
wasn’t like that. Get off him
!” Kiki
protested, still trying to pull her sister away from her
boyfriend.

Angered
now by her sisters words, Dee pulled away from J and turned to her
sister, moving the heat to her.

“So 
how was it Kiki? Did you
ask him to do it? Was it a joke? ‘Cuz Jason didn’t see it that
way
”

“
Jason told
you
?” Kiki asked, surprise in her voice,
though she didn’t know how she would have known any other
way.

“
Yeah, he told me,
‘cuz he was worried it wasn’t a one time thing, so start
talking
”

“
Somebody better
start talking
!” Monique
yelled.

“
Let me
explain
” J piped up, pinching his nose at
the top in an effort to make it stop gushing. He looked utterly
devastated, most likely not from the punch, but what was being said
about him.

“
No, I want to
hear it from my sister first. Was it the first
time
?” Dee asked Kiki, who had now started
crying.

“
It was the only
time, he’s not like that
”

“
But he was like
that
”

“
He didn’t know
what he was doing
”

“
How’s
that
?”

“
He was fucked up
out his mind
”

“
So you doing
drugs now too
?” Dee questioned J, turning
back to him, and he looked like a deer caught in some
headlights.

“
Y’all better get
out of here bringing trouble into my house
” Monique yelled, ushering them out of the room and toward
the front door. “
Come back when y’all sort
your shit out
”

As Kiki
opened the door for them to leave the house, Monique took a final
look at J and told them to wait. Seconds later, she came back armed
with tissues and handed a bunch to him, before looking him dead in
the eye.

“
If I find out you
put hands on my daughter you better get yo’ ass so far away I can’t
find you, ‘cuz so help me God I will cut your motherfucking balls
off
.”

It
wasn’t unusual in their town to see people fighting on their own
porch, or even out on the street, so when Dee, Kiki and J moved
away from the house and down the street, nobody batted an eyelid. J
held a tissue to his nose and did his best to wipe away the mess.
At this point, he didn’t care much what he looked like but he
preferred not to have blood running into his mouth as he
spoke.

“
Dee, I can’t say
I didn’t do it, but I need to explain
”

“
I don’t really
know what you can explain
”

“
Please
” he begged, seeing she wasn’t
going to make this easy.

“
I did do it –and
I know this ain’t no excuse but I don’t remember it at all. Keeks
had to tell me the next day what happened, ‘cuz my brain was
gone
”

“
How long you been
taking drugs
?”

“
I don’t do that
shit no more. Not now we gon have a baby and everything. I just, it
helped me for a lil’ while
”

J looked
emotional as he spoke, yet the tears in his eyes didn’t waver Dee’s
expression, who was still looking at him with her lip curled
up.

“
Things was hard
at home, and I just saw a way out for a lil bit
”

There
was a pause of silence.

“
I never meant to
hurt her
”

At that,
Kiki stood on her tiptoes and threw her arms around him, kissing
his neck as she spoke in his ear.

“
It’s okay
baby
”

Dee
watched her little sister hug her boyfriend, and suddenly she saw
it for what it was. She’d just punched a 16-year old boy in the
face and made her pregnant sister cry. Hell, she was six and a half
months pregnant and was going around punching people in the nose.
She took a step back and reality checked herself, suddenly, she
felt a fool. He made a mistake, but he wasn’t the type to hit
women.

“
Come and clean
yourself up
” Dee told J, as she headed
back toward the house. No apology was going to be given, because
that wasn’t Dee’s style. She saw apologies as a sign of defeat, a
sign that you had something to be sorry for, and while she may have
regretted flying off the handle a little bit, she didn’t regret
trying to protect her sister. She would protect her family till the
very end at all costs. 

Chapter 31 – Painful Memories

It had
been an emotional night, and while they’d hoped that was the end of
it, it seemed Monique had other things in mind. Though Monique had
caused utter chaos and devastation in their lives while they were
growing up, since she’d gotten clean she’d turned into a different
woman; a woman that didn’t want drama in her home, a woman that
wanted an easy life, and she was damned if she was taking shit from
anybody these days, even if it was her own family. Whilst the three
of them had stepped outside to sort out their own problems, Monique
was sorting out some problems of her own, on the phone to Debbie
Banks. Whatever possessed Monique was unknown to the others, but
she’d found it appropriate to phone the worst mother of the century
and tell her about the trouble J had brought into her house.
Monique told Debbie she didn’t appreciate the drama, and asked her
whether she was aware her son was aggressive to girls. Most mothers
would defend their child to the high heavens, even if you’d just
told them they’d committed the worst of crimes, but not Debbie
Banks.

Debbie
Banks was not happy to have another mother calling her up on the
evening to tell her what a bad child her son had been. She was not
impressed that it had interrupted a night with her latest boyfriend
and she was not impressed that the mother in question was Monique
Thompson, someone who had looked after Jon a lot when she didn’t.
For Debbie, the phone call wasn’t an innocent excuse to have an
argument as Monique had envisioned it, it was the defining moment
she decided she’d had enough of her son once and for all. She
hadn’t wanted him when she gave birth to him at fourteen, and she
sure as hell didn’t want him at 30 years old, when she was in the
prime of her life. High on drugs and angry at the interruption,
Debbie gave Monique some choice words before she started bagging up
all of J’s belongings and throwing them into the street. Debbie
slurred at Monique that J had better get there quick to collect
them before the homeless set on them.

At that
moment, Debbie Banks became more cold, heartless and ruthless than
she had ever shown herself to be. She was tossing her son aside as
if he had never meant anything to her, and it was questionable
whether he ever had. Monique then had the heartbreaking task of
telling her daughter’s boyfriend what had just happened, and the
look on his face made her decision for her in a heartbeat. She was
going to move him into her home.

“
She’ll probably
change her mind
” J had said, used to
Debbie’s sudden outbursts and overreactions.

“
Honey, she ain’t
changing her mind
” Monique told him, and
the teenager looked as if somebody had stabbed a knife in his gut
as the reality set in. Monique imagined he wasn’t actually too hurt
about not living with her anymore, after all, what child could love
a mother like that, but she could see the rejection on his face. No
child of any colour, sex or age wanted to feel rejection. Rejection
meant you weren’t good enough, you weren’t loveable, and you
weren’t wanted.

As
Monique and Dee watched J and Kiki walk out of the door ready to
collect his things, Dee made a bee-line for the door, shutting it
over before she lay into her mother.

“
Did you see his
face
?” she yelled, furious with her
mother’s actions.

“
Why you yelling
at me
?” Monique retorted
defensively.

“
’Cuz you just
fucking told his mom some shit she didn’t wanna hear and now she
kicking him out
”

“
Oh, so it’s my
fault his momma don’t care about him
?”

“
It’s your fault
that you just called her for nothing, he was sorry! What you expect
her to say
?”

“
I don’t
know
” Monique shrugged, picking up the
glass of wine she was drinking before the nights events kicked off.
Dee watched her mom intently as she took a sip.

“
Damn it mom,
could you put down the wine for five minutes and speak to
me
?”

“
Don’t you speak
to me like that
!” Monique roared, as she
slammed the glass back down onto the table, causing wine to splash
everywhere.

“
Look what you
made me do
!” she practically screamed at
her daughter, her face full of rage. She stood up from her seat and
for a matter of seconds; the women had a visual standoff, until a
small figure appeared in the doorway.

“
Why
shouting
?” Tushaun asked timidly, rubbing
his eyes sleepily as he watched the events
unfold.

Dee’s
heart sunk as she wondered what her son had heard or seen between
them, and quickly, she rushed over to him, scooping him up in her
arms.

“
I’m sorry baby,
were we loud
?”

Tushaun
nodded, staring ahead at Monique. As Dee followed her son’s gaze,
she saw the frosty look Monique was sporting on her face, and she
turned her body away so he couldn’t see it anymore.

“
Come on
baby
” she told him, as she carried him up
the stairs, but instead of putting him back to bed, she sat him
there while she gathered a bunch of his things. She put some shoes
on his feet and put a coat on him over his pyjamas, grabbing his
favourite soft toy he slept with.

“
We’re gonna go
stay at mommy’s tonight
”

“
Why
?” Tushaun
asked.

“
Because mommy
wants big cuddles tonight
”

Tushaun
seemed to accept this excuse, and nodded in understanding, though
Dee knew it must have been confusing for him. Truth be told, she
just wanted out of this drama filled house and she wanted her son
out of it with her. She didn’t want him to be woken up by anything
else that night and she didn’t like the frosty look on her mother’s
face. Dee’s stress levels were elevated, which people always told
her wasn’t good for the baby. She headed back downstairs and told
her mom Tushaun was staying with her tonight. With that, she left,
leaving an angry and confused Monique shouting at the
door.

Dee felt
like the worst mother in the world as she carried her son through
the brisk weather in nothing but his pyjamas and a coat. She looked
at his face to see him struggling to keep his eyes open, every now
and then they would shut over but the coldness in the air and the
movement in his mom’s arms would keep him opening them again. Dee
walked as fast as her baby bump would let her, wanting nothing but
to get back to her house and forget the mess of the
night.