Chapter Percy
PERCY
I sat outside Royce’s grandmother’s house all night trying to figure out what to say.
I didn’t know if I had the right to be upset.
What I did know was that her not telling me felt fucked up.
The entire time, I had been trying to think of ways to weave her into my life when I should have been worrying less about her and more about my situation with my daughter and school.
I’d finally mustered up the courage to get out.
I knew by now Breann would be awake, and it would be easier for me to get her and go.
I walked to the door, knocked, and waited for Royce to answer. When she answered, she greeted me with a smile.
“Hey.”
“Sup? Is my daughter up?”
Her face changed. “Yeah, but what’s wrong with you?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you and Jesaiah were cousins?”
Royce’s face changed again, this time with a dumbfounded gaze. “I- I didn’t think it was important.”
That pissed me off, and I snapped. “Fuck you mean not important?” I snapped. “I’ve been pillow talking to your ass, telling you how fucked up the nigga is and all about the shit he’s been doing, and you didn’t think to tell me?”
She tried coming out of the house. “What the fuck was I supposed to do? Go beat his ass because you two don’t get along? Nigga, that’s not my business! Percy, I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
I went to move around her, and she stood in front of me. I pointed inside the house. “I need to get my daughter. Move.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “When were you going to tell me that you and Phoebe were fucking?”
I ran my hand down my face because I knew she had seen the video. My guilty eyes landed on her. “It was before you. I haven’t fucked her in a while.” I paused as something clicked. “Who told you her name?”
She backpeddled.
“Because you just made it seem like you don’t fuck with your cousin like that. He told you?”
The sound of my daughter crying threw me off. I pushed past Royce and went inside. I moved through the house to the room where my daughter was, only to find an iPad sitting on the bed, playing footage from different parts of the campus.
“What the fuck is this?” I shouted as I turned to see Royce standing there. “You a spy or some shit? You’re the one sending the fucking videos, aren’t you?”
She tried to snatch it out of my hand, but I jerked it out of her reach. “Give that to me!” she shouted.
“You know my Nan told me about pretty faces and fat asses. I should have learned with my baby momma, but it seems like all of you are the same. Sneaky and fucked up, and you wonder why you’re lonely.”
I tossed the iPad back on the bed and picked up my daughter. Royce pulled at my shirt. “Wait! It wasn’t supposed to be like that.”
I shook my head. “Royce, save it. The shit you’re doing is going to get somebody hurt.
It’s really no excuse, dog, for real. It’s crazy how we’re all going to a school that’s supposed to house excellent Black people, but we ain’t nothing but a bunch of fucked-up kids going to a hood-ass school.
Even the ones you think aren’t fucked-up are. ”
At this point, it was about making it and getting as far away from Toussaint as I could.
I knew this life wasn’t a way for Breann, and I would’ve been a fool to think that raising her around this was going to be fitting.
I had my mind made up that I was going to let God lead and give my daughter the life she needed when I met up with Dio’s brother, even if it meant her being with a new family.