Goon #2
It probably felt like a punch to the gut. On one hand, that was his birth right, to be an Eaton. Then on the other, that same name was responsible for murdering his parents and leaving him and his siblings out to die.
“First thing I did, was getting those gates taken down and destroyed. Commissioned this picture to be painted into this portrait.”
“Zoya been here?”
“Only me and Don. Our parents’ death was hard on all of us but was hardest on Kora. She never admits the shit, but it tore her apart. Made her into someone that she wouldn’t have become had they never been killed.”
“And Boobie?”
“Bean hides her emotions. What would bringing them both here do?”
“Encourage them to stop suppressing their emotions for starters,” Don reentered the room, taking place in the entryway. “Last time we showed emotion, I wanted to be a fucking wrestler.”
Menace never turned around, his eyes remained trained on the portrait. “Like the Staten Island house you couldn’t fucking let go of?”
I didn’t know what house they were referring to.
“Yeah. You sold it like it didn’t mean nothing.”
Menace turned around so fast, he nearly spilled his smoothie. “It didn’t mean nothing.”
His voice was even, laced with pain, but calm.
“It fucking meant something!” Don raised his voice. “That fucking house was my childhood! It fucking meant something to me… that was home!”
“That wasn’t fucking home!” Menace roared. “Home was where they were fucking murdered! Home was under that roof, not the fucking roof they stuck the orphans under because they didn’t know what to do with them.”
Core came down the hall once he heard the commotion. “Chill out.”
Tears threatened to fall from Don’s eyes, but none from Menace, as he stared at his brother.
“That fucking home didn’t mean shit to me!” he continued.
“Nothing ever matters unless it matters to you, right? We were a fucking family in that house… we got billions and then what happened? We fucking separated. Living our own lives like there’s not four of us that exist and share the same blood.”
“I did my job.”
“Heard you, Maverick,” Don turned and headed down the hall, while Core looked at his best friend.
There was so much pain shared between this family. I thought my family had shit with them, but there were so much hesitation, fear, and pain mixed into these siblings. The two people up on that wall dying caused a domino effect that none of them were sure how to fix.
Menace and Core were giving each other this look, so I excused myself. I knew when to give people their space. Pulling my phone out, I continued to find my way back to the bedroom I had slept in last night.
“Hey Goo.” Her voice sounded like a million angels singing a Celine Dion song. It was music to my ears.
“Hey Boobie… what you doing?”
“On the beach reading a book. I think Skyler is trying to get me to join her cult, but I’m not sure.”
“What, Zoya?”
“She keeps telling me about this retreat she’s going to, and I’m bored so I’m playing into it. How would you feel if me and the baby lived off the land?”
I laughed, because she was so damn twisted. “Stop playing with that girl… and I would be pretty fucking upset.”
“You can come, too… men live on the land, too,” she continued to giggle.
I pictured that perfect smile, as the sun shined on her. Her skin was probably glistening like melted chocolate.
“Fuck am I going to do with you?”
The line became quiet. “I ask myself the same thing often. Will you eventually become tired?”
I stared at the phone like she could see me. “Baby, why the fuck would you ask yourself that?”
“People eventually do, Goo. This is the honeymoon phase… what happens when things become real?”
I damn near spit when she mentioned honeymoon phase. “Ain’t shit been honeymoon about trying to love your stubborn ass, Boobie.”
“Well, tell me how you really feel,” she muttered jokingly.
I headed down another hall; almost certain this was where I slept last night. “I’m ‘bout to tell you exactly that. Let me find this room.”
“Where are you staying?”
I couldn’t tell her that I was staying in her father’s anniversary gift to her mother. Shit would have been too confusing to her. Menace needed to tell her, ‘cause all this secret keeping from my baby was about to stop.
She deserved to know shit, too.
“Some house,” I kept it brief.
“A bitch’s house?”
I stared at the phone again; certain I was sprouting gray hair. “Yeah… I’m in her fucking bathroom.”
“Don’t curse at me.”
“Stop disrespecting where I put my dick.”
“What?”
“You accusing me of being at another bitch’s house is disrespecting my dick. I only put that in you, right?”
“I do—”
“Say something other than what the fuck I know is right and we gonna have a problem, Zoya.”
“Boobie.”
“Trying to love you hasn’t been a walk in the park in case you noticed. You’re stubborn and always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even now, carrying my baby, you probably over there thinking of all the ways shit can go wrong.”
“Well—”
“I fucking love you, Zoya… you are my fucking heart, and I’m gonna spend the rest of my life proving that shit to you because I know you need that reassurance. The fuck niggas that came before me forced you to need that reassurance, and that’s not your fault, baby. I need something from you, too.”
“What’s that, Goo?” her voice was softer.
I smiled, counting down the hours until I was with her. “I need you to reassure me, too. Let me know that I’m not in this alone, let your walls down some more. I like that soft side, baby. Save that big dawg shit for the courtroom. Be Boobie with your Goo, ight?”
She giggled. “I can try to do that. I just be feeling like a sucker when I try and be soft… it’s weird.”
“Nah, you were with suckers, so you couldn’t be soft. There’s a difference. We gonna table this conversation though. I wanna have this with you in person.”
With everything tonight, I needed something to hold onto. I would make it to have that conversation with Boobie.
“When are you going to get here?”
“Soon.” I refused to tell her when I was coming because I would never break a promise to her.
“Okay… I’ll continue to bake here in the sun while preparing for my life in the cult.”
I chuckled. “Save a spot on the beach for me, ight?”
“I don’t like the way you sound.”
A nigga was getting all choked up thinking about what could have happened. I was someone who always looked at the brighter side of shit. Even when I was locked up, I always looked forward to the good shit, never letting my circumstances get to me.
The last time I was locked up, I remember Zoya coming to visit me. She came alone that time, and was talking all this legal bullshit that I wasn’t interested in. While it was easy to lose my shit because I was back behind bars, I smiled.
I smiled because I knew she was who I would come home to. That was my future sitting across from me, and even if she hadn’t known it then, I always did.
“I’m good, Boo.”
I could tell from the way she sounded that she was sitting up.
“Listen to me, Gerald. I love you and I know you need to hear me say it more often. I need you, Goo… like literally can’t breathe because you’re not with me.
You made all these plans for our future against my will. You gonna let me down?”
I couldn’t help but to let out a loud ass laugh. “When I had you up against that bed in Ashbourne, didn’t seem like it was against anybody’s will.”
“That’s exactly when that crotch gobbling got in here.”
She sounded so sure. “Yeah?”
“Alaia went with me to the maternal clinic on the main island. I was driving myself crazy not knowing anything… we made this baby in Ashbourne.” She paused, as if she was trying to pace herself. “I heard the heartbeat.”
My heart raced because I felt like I failed her. “Damn, Baby.”
“Not your fault, so don’t sound like that. I know you and you’ll never miss another one.”
The line grew quiet again before I heard a loud thumping noise come through the other end. My heart slammed against my chest, matching the same rhythm that I was listening to.
“Never, Boobie… that’s me in there?”
I could picture her smile on her face. “All you, Gerald. Doctor says the heartbeat is very strong.”
“Has no choice but to be… have you met his mother?”
She giggled. “You are so sure.”
“Never been surer of anything in my life, Zoya Wraithe.”
I heard a sniffle.
My baby was becoming so damn emotional, and I loved every moment of it. She couldn’t stand to cry or show emotion, but I knew she felt safe, because she wouldn’t have if she didn’t.
“Have you met his father? Mr. Fuck You Meaaan?”
I laughed as I leaned on the door. “Can you send that to me, Boobie?”
“Of course. Be safe, Pumpkin.”
“I got y’all.”