Color Me Broken
Prologue
Tasha stopped breathing for a second. Her eyes instantly filled with tears as a shaky laugh broke from her chest. After all the disappointment, all the negative tests stuffed deep into the bathroom trash cans, she finally had her miracle.
“Oh my goodness,” she whispered to herself. Seeing the double lines on the stick was unreal to her.
Rushing out of the bathroom, she headed upstairs, calling for Juelz. “Jue…” she called out, almost out of breath, but he didn’t answer. Juelz was laid out, one arm stretched across the bed like he was still holding her.
“Jue… Jueee.”
She moved closer, nudging him. “Juelz, wake up. C’mon now.”
He groaned, rolling over. “Tash… whaddup? It’s early as hell…”
She placed the pregnancy test in his line of sight. “Wake up, and look.”
He cracked one eye open, as the other eye was shut with crust around it. He was irritated that she had woken him up. Everybody knew his ass was not a morning person. “Whatchu holdin’?” he asked, sitting up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Tasha just sat on the bed with her legs folded under her, smiling. She let out a shaky breath, quoting playfully. “We did it, Joe!”
“Tasha, stop playin’ with me. Whatchu ‘talmbout?”
She threw the test to him and bounced up and down on the bed. “I’m pregnant.” She fell back on the bed, kicking her feet in the air. “We finally fuckin’ pregnant, baby.”
That woke him all the way up. He reached down to grab the test to see the positive results himself.
His eyes widened. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Aw, shit…” he finally spoke. “The muthafucka got two lines… wait!” He brought his fist to his mouth, thinking. “Two lines is good, right, T?”
She snatched the test from his grasp, laughing. “Yes! We're pregnant, Juelz.” He pulled her into his arms as he rocked and kissed her slowly. They stayed like that for a minute. Just holding each other because this was a dream come true.
Now, in the present, she was happier than ever. She grabbed her cell out of her chocolate Curves tote bag and pressed the button to call Juelz. Her heart was thumping with a rhythm of pure joy.
“Whaddup, mama? You done?” Juelz’s voice came through the radio speaker loud and clear.
He leaned against the side of the house where he was working, tool belt hanging low on his hips, wires exposed in the panel in front of him.
He hated missing her appointment, but he’d gotten called out to do an electrical installation job.
Every few seconds, he glanced at his phone as if he could somehow see through it.
“What’d the doc say ‘bout my li’l nigga? ”
“You and this nigga word, I swear,” Tasha said as she turned onto the highway. “Everythin’ is just fine, Jue. He is growing perfectly in line with the chart.”
She could hear Juelz clapping his hands. “That’s whaddup, bae. I can’t wait to hold my li’l man.”
“That’s much better than you callin’ him li’l nigga.”
They shared a laugh. “I’m ‘gon always be me, girl,” he said, flipping the light switch on and off to test his work. “You know you my peace, right?”
“Yeah, and you my chaos,” she said, heart fluttering wildly. “I love you, Jue.”
“That’s whaddup.” He tightened the last wire in place on the panel box. “I’m finishin’ up now. I should be back at the house by the time you pull up.”
The road ahead stretched long beneath the fading evening sun, lined with big ass oak trees and crowded with steady traffic. The sun cast long, dancing shadows, making it difficult to track the few cars approaching from the opposite direction.
“Can you have my bath ready for me? I just wanna soak and go to sleep,” said Tasha.
“As long as you have that pussy ready for me,” Juelz shot back.
Tasha rolled her eyes, rubbing her belly, but the smile faded as she reached the top of a steep rise in the road.
Something felt off to her. The sunlight suddenly looked too bright and too harsh.
Then she saw it. A dark pickup truck was barreling straight toward her.
Fast as hell. The truck swerved violently across the fading yellow lines, drifting fully into her lane. Directly at her.
“Oh…oh Gawd. What the hell?” she whispered, the casual joy draining instantly from her face, replaced by a cold, metallic fear.
“Tash?” Juelz’s voice sharpened. “What is it? What's goin’ on?”
Her grip tightened around the steering wheel. She slammed on the horn. Once. Twice. Again, but the truck kept coming.
“They comin’ right at me, Juelz! They—on my damn side of the road!”
“Tasha, PULL the fuck OVER!” Juelz shouted through the phone. “Get off the road! Fuckkk!” His voice was a panicked roar.
“I can’t!” she cried. “It’s a guardrail—I can't get over!”
Her foot mashed the brake pedal to the floor as the seatbelt dug painfully across her swollen stomach. The distance between them disappeared in seconds.
Then—
She could see the dark, grimacing silhouette of the driver, a sudden, sick grin flashing in the low sun.
She squinted her eyes, trying to see who it was, as she started whispering a prayer to the child within her. Recognition hit her like cold ass water. Her eyes widened.
“Jue! It’s—it’s her! SHE’S COMIN’ TOWARDS ME! OH MY GAWD! WHAT DO I DO? Ahhhhhhh!”
Her final, guttural scream was swallowed by the world dissolving into a maelstrom of violent noise: the thunder of tearing, twisting metal, the final, agonizing sound of the phone skittering across the dashboard, and the deafening, crystalline SHATTERING OF GLASS.