Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
MEKAYLA
“ L aTee, get your things, baby. We have to go.”
I checked the time on my phone and realized I was running five minutes behind schedule. I was supposed to have LaTee to my sister’s house in ten minutes in order to make it to work on time. I was more than sure Jivoni would be calling soon. She lived with my other sister, Keonshay, and her husband, Kace. Shay was like a mom to us instead of a sister, though, since she was the oldest and took care of us while our mother did whatever the fuck she wanted to.
Jivoni was twenty-six and had been living with them since she was close to finishing school, nearly five years ago. She watched all my siblings’ kids at their house on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, since she didn’t have class. She was in school to obtain her master’s degree in chemistry. I was proud of her. My brother-in-law Kace was a coach and chemistry teacher, so he had helped her tremendously.
I grabbed my things and headed to the back door. LaTee was eight years old, going on thirty. Besides playing with her cousins while she was with Jivoni, she was mostly with me. I was beyond protective of her. I didn’t want her to endure all the bullshit I did growing up. My siblings and I had it hard until after Keonshay met Kace. When CPS took us away from our mother, twice, it was his parents that took us in… all six of us girls. My brothers stayed with their fathers.
My brother Landon was the oldest, but we didn’t really grow up around him since he lived with his dad. He rarely came over to see us. We later found out that he was the product of a rape, so my mama really didn’t want him around. The man he knew as his father wasn’t his father. My mama was raped by her uncle for years, and her mother knew about it and allowed it to continue. Once we found that out, we could understand her actions better with time.
It took me a little longer than everyone else. My other brother, Zhori, and I had the same father. Watching her deal with him when we were younger, I admired how strong she seemed. Although my dad was her third baby daddy and I was her fourth child, she refused to accept his bullshit. I wanted to be like her, promising myself that I wouldn’t deal with no man’s bullshit. That all came to a screeching halt when Jivoni’s father raped me.
Before that, though, I watched Mercedes run through men like it wasn’t shit and constantly have babies from no-good muthafuckas. After me, she had four more, all girls. The sad part about it was that it left Keonshay to take care of herself and six siblings. She was more of a mother than Mercedes could have ever been. I was grateful for her, because she showed me what it meant to be loved… along with the woman I called Mama, Mrs. Moses.
LaTee finally made her way to me and said, “I’m ready. Sorry I took so long. I couldn’t find my shoe.”
I slightly rolled my eyes and shook my head. “If you would put them where they belonged, you wouldn’t have trouble finding them.”
“I put them in the closet last night and forgot. I’m used to them either ending up under my bed or by my nightstand. So putting them in the closet had me confused.”
I chuckled slightly. This little girl was me made over. She was extremely vocal and had her own mind. Thankfully, she wasn’t as disrespectful as I could be at times. I was simply rebelling for attention though. I didn’t know how to tell anyone what had happened to me after I knew my mama knew and didn’t do anything about it. An eight-year-old shouldn’t have had to go through the things I did.
I paid extra attention to LaTee because of that. I always assured her that she could talk to me about anything. Her dad lived in Nashville and was a whole jackass. I’d gone to school in Nashville and had planned to make it my home until Savage had me fucked up. He was in that street shit, and I let the money and power cloud my judgment. When I found out I was pregnant and that nigga flaked on me and threw me out in the cold, I refused to beg to be somewhere I wasn’t wanted.
After I had LaTee, I moved back to Beaumont. Keonshay and Kace allowed us to live with them until I could find a job as a physical therapist and save enough money to move out. My sister and Kace had a five-bedroom home that they’d… well, basically Kace, purchased when I was a teenager. They purchased a house big enough for us to stay with them. We ended up staying with Mrs. Moses and Dr. Moses, Kace’s parents, to allow Shay to finally live her life without having to constantly worry about us.
We hurried to the car after I locked the door, and when we got inside, I checked to make sure she had on her seat belt then peeled out of the parking lot. I didn’t know why I was in a hurry to get to this nigga since I went out there Wednesday only for him not to be home. Jacob was fine as fuck. However, that was my job, and I couldn’t risk losing it. He was so damn aggressive and said whatever the fuck he wanted to say until I told him I would request another therapist for his ass.
I sat at his house for an entire hour, trying to see if he would come home. I called him only for him not to answer. That shit pissed me all the way off. When I talked to him yesterday, he told me he would be home today and had apologized for not being there Wednesday, saying he would compensate me for my blank trip and my lost time.
He knew I was no-nonsense, so he must’ve had an emergency of sorts. He had a humungous family. Every time I went to his house for his therapy session, there was someone different there. Last week Friday, it was his sister and his mama. I could tell they were extremely protective of him, especially his sister. She reminded me of Keonshay, except she was more aggressive. However, the way she looked out for him was the way Shay looked out for us.
His mother was sweet. She had long beautiful hair that was completely gray. She didn’t have a wrinkle in sight. Had it not been for her gray hair, I would think she was much younger than she was. She had sent me home with so much food. I nearly killed myself trying to eat it all. It was so damn good. I hadn’t had a home-cooked meal in a while, because I just didn’t have time to cook. I loved cooking, but I was always so busy with work. When I got off, I would be drained.
“Mama, you gon’ get a ticket. You driving fast.”
“Hush, girl. It’s your fault we’re late. Jivoni gon’ be wondering where we are.”
No sooner than I had said it, my phone was ringing. I answered through the Bluetooth. “Hello?”
“Hey, Mekayla. Are you working today?”
“Yeah. I’m running a few minutes late. I should be there in five minutes though.”
“Okay… Come on, Gabby. You know better,” she said before ending the call.
“Oh Lord. She gon’ get on my nerves today.”
I frowned as I glanced at LaTee in the rearview mirror. Gabby was Anika’s daughter. Anika was my sister and right under me in age. Her daughter was autistic and could be a handful. She talked back all the time and would have an entire fit when she couldn’t have her way. I noticed she wasn’t like that with me though. She was autistic, but her ass understood what the fuck was going on. She knew I would tear her ass up.
“Tee, don’t say that. You have to be patient with her. She?—”
“I know, I know. I am patient with her. I’m just telling you how I feel.”
“Okay, Miss Grown. I understand. I get it. She’s a lot for Jivoni. She’s too soft with her and allows her to walk all over her.”
Sometimes I forgot just how grown LaTee was. The girl was always around me. I slowly shook my head as I turned in Keonshay’s driveway. My other sister’s husband was arriving to drop off their six-year-old son. Amari had married a truck driver and male ho. The nigga was fine, but he was a dog. He flirted with me all the time, whenever she wasn’t around, and I hated that shit. I wanted to tell Amari, but I knew she would take it the wrong way. She was twenty-eight and as na?ve as they came.
“Come on, Tee.”
I got out of the car, and I could see him scanning my curves. Although I had on scrubs, nothing hid my ass. I flipped my hair over my shoulder and opened the door for my daughter to get out. I grabbed her hand and quickly went to the door. It was as if Jivoni was keeping watch at the door for when we would arrive because before we got to it, she opened it.
“Hey, y’all! Go ’head and go, Mekayla. We’ll see you later, boo.”
“Okay.”
I blew her a kiss, and she blew one back. When I turned to go back down the stairs, Mario was coming up with their son. I was gonna walk right by his ass without speaking, but he said, “What’s up, Mekayla?”
“Hey,” I said dismissively, heading to my car with the quickness.
While I could be ratchet as hell sometimes, I was about my business. I hated being late. Slowly shaking my head, I pulled out and practically burned rubber when I pulled off. Checking the time, I saw I had fifteen minutes to get to Jacob Henderson’s house. Fuck! It was normally a twenty-minute drive from Shay’s house. I stepped on the gas and didn’t let up until I was in Nome in Henderson Village, turning onto his driveway.
Even with all my efforts, I was a couple of minutes late. I liked to arrive early so I could set up and at least greet the patient and talk about how they’d been since I last saw them. We’d have to talk while I was working on his knee and ankle. At least I wouldn’t have to stare into his eyes for too long.
I hurriedly grabbed my bag and went to the front door and rang the doorbell. When I heard the locks disengage, I got nervous for some reason. An extremely tall man opened the door with a frown on his face. I swallowed hard. “Hello. I’m Mekayla Chatmon. I’m Jacob’s therapist.”
“You kind of late, huh?”
I frowned and was about to apologize, but this nigga wasn’t my patient. I didn’t have to be nice. “Since Mister Henderson had me drive all the way out here last time without a phone call and only a pitiful apology for me making a blank trip, I would say we’re even.”
He smirked at me like he was testing me or something. He stepped aside and allowed me to enter to see Jacob on the couch with the same smirk on his lips. Jackasses. They were fucking with me, and they were going to engage my hood side... a side of me I tried to keep subdued in my professional space.
I walked over to Jacob with a slight scowl on my face. “Hello, Mister Henderson. How have you been feeling?”
“Miss Chatmon, I told you to call me Jacob.”
I glanced at him and nearly rolled my eyes. He said that every time I addressed him, and I told him I would prefer to address him professionally. I refused to allow him to pull me into his personal space. He wouldn’t stop until he had me spread eagle on his kitchen table. I had fucked around enough in my younger years for a lifetime. By the time I was sixteen, I had lost count. Whenever I thought about that shit, it brought me to a horrible mental space.
I ignored him as I sat to write down whatever he had to tell me about his well-being. At this point, I refused to rush simply because I was a couple of minutes late. Fuck them.
“You good, nephew? I need to go check the shop right quick. I’ll be back before she leaves.”
“Yeah, Uncle Storm, I’m good.”
His uncle gave me a smirk again, and I lost my professionalism and rolled my eyes. While I wanted to apologize, I didn’t. Surprisingly, he didn’t say anything, but he gave Jacob a look that he clearly understood. Jacob chuckled as he walked out. I ignored the entire interaction. When he turned his attention to me, the smile fell from his face.
“I apologize for missing last time. I know your time is valuable.” He grabbed a card from the couch next to him, and said, “The flowers back there are yours.”
He extended it to me, so I took it from him. “Thank you, Mister Henderson.”
“I had a setback. I got arrested and had to walk quite a bit without my cane. The way they handled me caused me to walk faster than what I should have been, so I was applying more pressure to it than normal.”
I nodded and immediately went to him and touched his knee to see if I felt anything abnormal, then his ankle. When I didn’t, I slightly massaged it and asked, “What did you get arrested for?”
“For killing a nigga that was about to kill my lil cousin.”
I frowned as I turned to face him. That shit caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting that response. I always thought he was a lil hood, although he lived in the country and did country shit, like baling hay and hunting rabbits. He wore a platinum grill on his bottom row of teeth sometimes, and he was always wearing a piece and chain and diamond studs.
He was country sexy, and I truly couldn’t get enough of him. Not to mention, he was tall as fuck, probably close to six five or so. Just seeing him put me on a high that scared me. I supposed that was why I was fighting so hard against his advances.
“This your first time shooting someone?”
“Yeah. I mean, I’ve seen it… experienced it, but I was never the shooter.”
I glanced at him. His eyes were closed, and his bottom lip was tucked into his mouth. He had some shit to him, just like me. I was surprised he was showing it to me. I’d been seeing him for nearly a month now, so I supposed he felt comfortable bearing his soul. His eyes opened, and they met mine. I didn’t look away this time. It seemed like something inside both of us made us kindred spirits at that moment.
Breaking the silence, I asked, “Is what I’m doing hurting?”
He had winced slightly while staring at me. “Yeah. That gaze… there’s something in it that’s hitting me in the heart, girl. Don’t do that shit.”
I frowned. “Mister Henderson, I’m talking about your ankle.”
He licked his lips and just stared at me. My insides quivered, so I turned away from him. I wasn’t sure what he was doing to me, but I had to reel my emotions back in. The lump in my throat was threatening to choke the hell out of me. I began moving his foot slightly, and I felt him tense up. “Relax, Mister Henderson.”
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder.”
I frowned as I thought about the therapy I went through after sustaining a torn ACL. That woman worked my last nerve, but she got my shit back right. She was tough, and I was attempting to be the same way with Mr. Henderson. The problem was that I wanted to kiss his soft looking lips. I’d been on my celibacy journey for nearly three years, and I found that it made me better. I was able to focus more on myself and the things I wanted out of life.
I could feel him relax under my touch. When he did, I said, “You relaxing is about trusting me as your therapist. I want to get you back to normal, but I can’t do that if you won’t trust me.”
“Shiiiid, you must gon’ work magic. I’m just accepting this shit as my new normal.”
I turned back to him, because I felt like he was talking about more than just the physical. What I saw in his eyes said I was right. He leaned forward slightly as he stared at me. I quickly turned my attention back to his ankle. “Have you thought about seeing a counselor or psychiatrist?”
“I talk to my cousin a lot. She’s in school for psychology. She’s always been able to calm me down and help me see the bigger picture. We haven’t talked in a couple of days though. It was her brother that I was protecting. I feel like that shit was all my fault. I feel like they think that too, although they won’t say.”
“Who is they?”
“My family, mainly Karima, her brothers, and her parents. I fucked up.”
I didn’t mean for him to start talking to me about what his issues were, but since he felt comfortable doing so, I didn’t stop him. He sounded tortured. His voice had gotten softer, and it was like I could feel the emotion in it.
“Why do you think that?” I asked as I lifted his leg and bent it, pushing his knee toward his chest.
“This ho I was involved with started a lot of shit, saying I was the father of her baby. I had to file a restraining order on her ass. She killed herself and left a note saying she killed herself because of my rejection.”
“It’s not your child?”
“No. I hadn’t fucked that girl in almost a year now… eight months when she said she was pregnant with my child.”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Savage had practically done the same shit to me. The only difference was that we were still fucking around when I found out I was pregnant. He left me without a trace when I told him. He said that my baby could have been from anybody since I was the biggest ho in Nashville. Without even realizing it, a tear slid down my cheek.
I blinked rapidly and quickly wiped my cheek with my shoulder, hoping Mr. Henderson didn’t see it. He took a deep breath as I brought his leg down and did the same thing again.
“After that letter, about ten of those muthafuckas in her family jumped me. That’s why my leg and ribs fucked up. My cousins all live by me. Most of the houses here in Henderson Village are owned by my cousins. They heard the commotion and came to help me. I guess that pissed them off. So, they came back a little while ago and shot one of my cousins… one of the most innocent of my male cousins. He wasn’t even there that night they jumped me.”
“That’s usually how it works. The person that has nothing to do with the situation is the one that gets hurt the most, simply by being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
I closed my eyes as I thought about how Jivoni’s dad had his way with me for nearly three years. Mercedes allowed the shit by ignoring the signs and my cries for help. My own mother sacrificed my innocence simply because that was what happened to her. Mr. Henderson’s words were triggering the fuck out of me.
“Well, I hate that it happened. I wish I would have never fucked with that bitch.”
I remained silent and retreated within my own thoughts for a moment, trying to talk myself out of what I was feeling. I couldn’t imagine killing someone, but to protect my daughter or any of my siblings, especially Keonshay, I would do it in a heartbeat. The way Keonshay gave of herself to protect me was like having superwoman powers. She sacrificed herself time and time again. The day she gave herself to that man to save me was always at the back of my mind, along with the night she and Kace rescued me from his frat brother. That nigga drugged and raped me when I was fifteen.
When I moved to his upper torso, he lay back, and I could feel him staring at me as I leaned over him, feeling the bruises on his ribs. As I massaged, he grabbed my hand. I turned to look at him as he brought my hand to his chest. His heart was beating extremely fast, and his skin looked somewhat clammy.
“You okay?” I asked, clearly concerned about his well-being.
He nodded as I frowned. “Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yeah. I just… have these slight anxiety attacks. They come out the fucking blue. Your touch is soothing though. I feel like you see me for who I am. I’m not a thug, but I will quickly adopt the mentality to protect my family. I work hard repairing farm equipment and shit. Why can’t people just leave… me the fuck alone?”
His question wasn’t meant for me to answer. I stared in his eyes and before I could even think clearly, I brought my hand to his face, stroking his cheek with my thumb. He licked his lips and closed his eyes. I quickly cleared my throat and pulled away from him, seeing his erection. This was torture. I wanted him so bad, but I refused to just fuck him when I knew I didn’t want a relationship.
After finishing our routine stretches and exercises in silence, I began gathering my things. I walked over to where the flowers were and sniffed them. They were beautiful. It was red roses along with baby’s breath, white and yellow lilies, and a couple of purple tulips. I smiled slightly, needing the solace this bouquet of flowers was providing me with. The only flowers I’d received in my life were from relatives… my siblings or my brother-in-law Kace.
I grabbed them from the countertop and walked back over to where Mr. Henderson was seated. He stood from his seat and said, “Let me help you with those. It’s kind of big.”
“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
He bit his bottom lip then gave me a slight smile. When I saw him limping behind me, I said, “You need to be icing your knee and ankle. It hasn’t been twenty minutes.”
He grabbed the flowers from me. “I’ll ice it after you leave.”
I slowly shook my head and walked toward the door. When his uncle walked through it, I took a deep breath. This nigga was an entire problem. From our short interaction earlier, I could tell he and I would have words eventually. He smiled and said, “You leaving already?” Glancing at his phone, he continued. “You should be staying an extra ten minutes to make up for being late.”
I looked at Mr. Henderson then said, “You wanna get your guard dog before he see how we handle dogs in the hood?”
When I looked back up at the man in front of me, he had a deep frown on his face, almost intimidating. It would be to someone that hadn’t endured the shit I did. He was fucking with the wrong one. I wasn’t in the mood either. My emotions were all fucked up, listening to Mr. Henderson’s issues.
“Hol’ on. You don’t know who the fuck I am. Put some respect in your tone.”
“Respect is earned. You ain’t earned shit on my end.” I turned back to Mr. Henderson. “If you want me to come back, let me know.”
I took the flowers from him and headed to my car, feeling the tears that were threatening to fall. My heart was heavy, and I hated feeling this way, especially around people. Usually, I was in the privacy of my home and bedroom when my feelings attacked me. I couldn’t continue having him as a patient like this. I wasn’t a fucking counselor. Even after all my years of going through counseling, I still found myself in this space sometimes.
“Miss Chatmon! Wait!”
I turned to see Mr. Henderson headed my way. He was limping bad. “You should be in the house.”
“I’m sorry about Uncle Storm. He’s like that with everybody. He was just fucking wit’chu. You okay? I mean, I ain’t never seen you like this.”
“I’m cool. Thanks.”
I got in my car as he stood there watching, looking like he wanted to say more. I couldn’t handle any more of today. I was done.