2. Legacy
Legacy
“ W here the fuck have you been?” I glanced to the side where Regal sat on the couch. He was rolling a blunt.
I hung my keys on the hook and walked to the bedroom. I had nothing to say to him after what I witnessed last night. I was tired of him and his shit.
I heard him running behind me, but I didn’t pick up my speed. I stopped in the doorway of our bedroom and froze. Regal grabbed me by the back of my neck and jerked me backward. Putting his face in mine, he growled. “You hear me fucking talking to you?”
“Let me go, Regal.” I tried snatching away, but his hold was too strong, and I only ended up falling backward. He released me, and I fell on the floor.
Rage flooded me, and I crawled away from him to escape his reach. When I got far enough away, I jumped up from the floor, and he stood in the doorway with one hand on the doorframe and one hand on his hip.
“I asked where the fuck you’ve been all night.
How ya ass just getting home and it’s after three in the afternoon?
And don’t bother saying you’ve been by here, because I’ve been here since I left the studio last night.
You never came home. Besides, you’re still wearing that ho dress you wore last night. ”
I scoffed. “I guess you would consider it a ho dress since the ho you were with last night wore a knockoff similar to it. I’m so tired of all your games.
I’m tired of us, Regal. You’ve hurt me too many times.
You cheat repeatedly and lie to me about everything.
You play in my face like I’ve got Parker Brothers written all over it. I’m not your board game.”
“You won’t even let me have sex with you anymore. It’s been four months. The fuck I’m s’posed to do?”
“You figure that shit out. If you refuse to use a condom, you get no booty. Oh, wait. Joke’s on me, because you’ve definitely been getting it, just not with me.”
Because he refused to use a condom to protect me with all the hos he’d been with, I refused to have sex with him.
“Man, I ain’t playing with you, Legacy. You better tell me where the fuck you’ve been all night,” he demanded as he followed me to the walk-in closet of our two-bedroom apartment.
“I was out doing the same thing that you were.”
“What?”
“I was fucking a nigga,” I replied dryly.
I swear I didn’t see it coming. He backhanded the hell out of me, leaving me stunned. The pain was so instant, I felt like my jaw was disconnected, and I was certain that my eye would turn black if it weren’t already hanging out of the socket.
“You hit me. I can’t believe you hit me!” I screeched loudly.
“That ain’t all I’ma do if you don’t stop playing with me. Now, where the fuck were you?”
Angry and hurt, I replied, “I fucking told you where I was.”
He rushed me and started choking me. I kneed him in the nuts and then shoved him out of my way.
Rushing to his drawer, I pulled out his gun and pointed it at him.
Regal had insisted I learn how to shoot when we first became involved.
He wanted to ensure that I could protect myself in the event of an emergency if he weren’t around.
He had recovered in the time it took me to run out of the closet and find his gun. He stopped in his tracks when he saw it aimed at him.
“If you come near me again, I swear on ya grandmammy’s grave, I’m gonna put a bullet in your cold ass heart.”
Regal held his hands up in the air. “Come on, baby. Quit fucking playing with me.”
I held the gun up just above his shoulder and shot the wall behind him. He screamed like a bitch and fell to the floor.
“Legacy, please, baby. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not your regular bitch, Regal. I don’t play about nobody putting their hands on me. My mama and daddy gave me all the whuppings I’m gonna get. If they didn’t beat sense into me, then it’s never gonna happen.”
“Baby, I’m sorry. What you want from me, Legacy?”
“Get your ass out of this apartment right now!”
“Okay. I’m getting off the floor. Please don’t shoot me.”
He slowly stood with his hands still in the air.
I kept the gun on him and remained at a distance, but I followed him until he grabbed his car keys and left the apartment.
I locked the door, put the chain on, rushed back to the bedroom, and grabbed as much as I could.
When I checked out the front window of our apartment, I saw that his car was gone.
After I grabbed as many bags as I could and loaded them into my car, I hid his gun in the trunk and raced out of there. I had no doubt someone might call the police. I didn’t want to be there when they arrived, and I definitely didn’t want to go to jail for shooting in the apartment.
“Thanks for letting me come to stay with you, sis.”
“You should’ve buried his bitch ass,” Zenobia replied, hugging me after I set my last bag on her living room floor.
“I look good as hell in orange, but I’m not interested in anybody’s name on my back. If it ain’t Dior, Versace, Chanel, or Westwood, I don’t want it, boo.”
“Get your crazy ass in here. Bam, Z’s here!” she shouted.
Her boyfriend came from the back, beaming at me as he bit into a grilled cheese sandwich.
“Hey, li’l sis,” he greeted, wrapping one arm around my shoulder and putting the sandwich to his mouth with his other hand.
“Hey, Bam.” I greeted him sweetly. I loved his big ass. He was six-four, 320 pounds, and a big teddy bear. Despite his thuggish ways, he was a good guy who adored my sister and took good care of her family.
When he released me, he frowned. “Where’s the gun?”
“It’s in the trunk in that secret compartment you had installed.”
Bam owned a custom auto shop, MVP Customs, with his best friend, October Patterson, and October’s cousin, Reuben Victor. They specialized in customizations on cars.
“A’ight. Let me go get it now.”
“And you can get rid of it for me without a trace?”
“My name’s Bam, ain’t it?”
“Actually, your name is Bernard Antonio Mack, boy.” My sister teased him with a playful swat to his ass.
He glanced at her and shook his head as he reached for my keys. I handed them to him, and we watched as he left the apartment.
“How are you really feeling, sis?”
“I’m fine. I just can’t believe that we’re here, you know? After two years, it’s over.” I threw my arms up and let them fall and slap the sides of my thighs.
“It was time.”
“I know, but I put so much time into him, . . . into us.” I felt my face scrunch up, and I knew that I couldn’t stop the tears. It didn’t help when Zenobia opened her arms to me either.
“Aww, stinka bear. C’mere.”
I went into my sister’s arms and let her hold me close and rock me. We were still that way a few minutes later when Bam returned.
“Bam, can you please take all her bags to the guest room?”
“Yeah, I gotcha. I’m fucking that bitch nigga up when I see him.”
“Why, Bam?”
“You see my li’l sis’s muthafuckin’ face? Her eyes are black, her jaw is swollen, and he left a handprint on the side of it,” Bam declared.
My shoulders shook when he said it, and I sobbed harder and louder. I looked in the mirror in my car before I headed up here. When I saw how bad I looked, I started to change my mind about coming.
I was so ashamed. I never thought I would be in an abusive relationship.
He’d never laid hands on me, but when I kept looking the other way after all the women he cheated with, I guess he thought the next step was to beat my ass.
The truth was, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship all this time.
“Damn, Bam. Do you always gotta state the obvious?” Zenobia whined and rubbed my back harder.
“My bad, baby. That shit makes me mad though.”
“I know, baby, but damn. I was just getting her calmed down.”
I felt Bam’s large hand rub the back of my head. “Don’t cry, Legacy. It’s gon’ be all right.”