Chapter 2 #2
As soon as I finished up in the shower, I wrapped a towel around my body, and I went over to the sink, so that I could brush my teeth, and wash my face.
I’ve already done both those things when I woke up this morning, but after the adult things that I just finished doing with Major, it was only right that I brushed my teeth again.
When I made it back to my bedroom, Major was gone, but Riot was in here.
She was sitting by the window nook, just like she would always do whenever she came into my room.
It was hard to really read her body language.
She had that same nonchalant look in her eyes like she always would, so it was hard to tell the kind of mood that she was in.
“Did Major leave already?” was the first thing that I asked her.
“Yeah. I came up when he left,” she said, and I nodded my head.
“Okay. What happened? Why did you leave Dolo’s parents? I thought that you would be over there for a few hours. Do you like them? Do they like you?” I wanted to know, removing the towel that I was wearing, so that I could apply lotion to my body, and throw on a pair of panties, and a bra.
“The cop that killed my dad, what all did you hear about him after that happened?” she fired at me, not answering any of the questions that I just asked her.
She kind of caught me off guard with her question, so I paused from adding the lotion to my body, so that I could stare at her, trying to follow her, and see where she was going with this.
“I mean, I didn’t keep up with him once they didn’t find him guilty of murdering Grim.
I just know that his ass had retired and moved out of Miami because Grim’s people wanted him dead.
I never heard anything else about him after that.
Why? What happened?” I asked her, stepping into my underwear, and then I quickly placed my bra on as well.
“I saw him at Dolo’s parents’ house,” her confession caught me off guard.
I knew my daughter. Lord knows that I knew my fuckin daughter, and she was every bit of her father, and her brother. Knowing that, I quickly rushed over to her, and I stood in front of her.
“You killed him?” I whispered it, as if there was other people in the room with us, and I didn’t want them to hear what I just asked her.
“No! I actually didn’t. I wanted to. You know that I wanted to.
I’m coming back for his ass though. That shit would have pointed back to me if I did it today, so I had to step down, and this shit is fuckin killing me.
Can you imagine standing face to face with the nigga that killed your daddy, and there wasn’t shit that you could do about it in that moment?
Ma, this man changed his entire identity.
He lost a bunch of weight. He goes by Tom now.
Changed his black hair to brown. Ma, he stays right next door to Dolo’s parents.
Dolo’s dad is cool with him, and Dolo’s mom is cool with Tom’s wife.
This shit is crazy to me,” I could hear the hurt in her voice as she explained it to me.
My robe was sitting at the foot of the bed, so I walked over to it, quickly placed it on, and after I tied it at the front, I sat down next to Riot.
Her eyes weren’t on me because she was too busy with her head down, looking at her socks. Her shoes were off. I’m sure she left them downstairs by the door like she usually did before she came upstairs.
“How did you know it was him?” I wanted to know.
“His voice, ma. He was telling a story. His voice went up an octave, and he sounded just like he did in that video when he killed my dad,” she immediately stopped herself from talking after she said that last part.
She turned to look at me, knowing that she fucked up.
I saw red when she said that shit. I didn’t even know that Riot saw that video because I used to always tell her, and her bother that they shouldn’t go looking their father up online because they were going to see things about him that they didn’t want to see.
I never wanted my kids to see the video of their father getting murdered.
I feared that it would haunt them in the same manner that it haunted me.
When that shit hit the internet years ago, I thought that I could hire lawyers to get the video removed, but it was too late and nothing that any lawyer could do to help me because the video was already up, and on so many sites.
“When the fuck did you even see that? I thought I told you not to ever look Grim up because I didn’t want you to stumble across that video!” my voice went up a little bit, pissed that she had to see that.
“Well, I’m glad that I saw it, or else, I would have been at Dolo’s parents’ house right now, shaking hands and laughing with him.
One day you’re going to understand that you can’t hide and protect me from everything ma.
I hate that I had to see that shit but look where it led me.
It placed me in the same fuckin room with that nigga and not even being around him for two whole minutes, and I was already able to make out who he is.
Before you try to fix your mouth and tell me not to kill him…
don’t. If you give me any kind of advice, the only thing I want to hear is that I better do it smart, and not get caught,” she finished, as she stood up from the nook, and she placed her hands in her pockets.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you not to kill him.
That would be foolish of me because I know you’re going to do what the fuck you want to do.
What I will tell you is that if you plan on killing an ex-cop, you better do it smart and know what the fuck you’re doing.
He might have moved out there to West Palm Beach and retired, but don’t you ever think for a second that he doesn’t have people still in the police field that love and respect him.
Meaning, he’ll have people that will want to get to the bottom of who killed him.
They will tear the whole West Palm apart trying to figure out who killed one of their own.
All that tough shit that you like to do, just make sure that your ass has a good fuckin plan behind it,” I stood up as well because I needed to go into the closet, and find something to throw on.
“Yeah okay. Anything that I do, I have a plan behind it,” she shot back.
“I’m not arguing with you Riot. I said what I said,” I walked away, and I could feel her on my heels, following behind me into my massive walk- in closet.
“You always think that somebody is trying to argue with you. I’m not arguing with you either ma,” she said, hopping up on the island, crossing her legs at the bottom, while her eyes followed me around the room, checking to see what I was doing.
I went over to the section where a lot of my denim was.
I grabbed a long-sleeved denim top, and I tossed it on the island.
Then, I went over to my jeans, looking for a pair that matched the top.
When I made it over here, a few of Major’s clothes were hanging up, that he forgot to take back home with him, and since Riot was following me with her eyes, and she didn’t miss anything, I knew she was going to call me out on it.
“You always talking about that nigga don’t stay here, when he probably does.
Why he got clothes in your closet if he doesn’t live here?
” she asked, and her question made me release an annoyed laugh because I knew that shit was coming out of her mouth next.
She acted just like her fuckin father. They didn’t miss anything.
“Answer me something Riot. You keep shit at your nigga house, don’t you?” I wanted to know.
“I don’t lie to you and tell you that I don’t. You tell me that Major doesn’t live with you,” she said.
“Girl because he doesn’t. He keeps shit over here, just like I keep shit over at his house.
Call your nigga back and tell him to come and get you.
You getting on my fuckin nerves. Better yet, hop in the car with me, and I’ll drop you back off,” I said, and like I was playing with her, she started laughing.
Riot knew when she would get up under my skin, which is why she was so tickled by what was going on.
“Every time I start asking you about you and Major’s living arrangements, you get in your feelings. Where you getting ready to go?” she asked, changing the subject.
“To get my nails done, and probably to the mall. I’m going out with your aunties tonight,” I shared with her.
“Where ya’ll going?” she inquired.
“Lounge hopping. Why? You want to go?” I asked, already knowing that her answer was going to be no.
“I’ll pass. I’ll go with you to the nail salon though. I could use a re-fill, and I need a pedicure as well,” she said, and I walked over to her with a smile on my face.
As if I was standing in front of an imposter, I reached my hand out, so that I could place it on her forehead, just to see how she was feeling. Riot has never, I mean never offered to go with me to the nail salon. It just wasn’t her thing.
“Oh, you’re in a relationship now, and you want to keep up with your girl maintenance? Look at you. Next thing I know, you’re going to be wearing heels to run little errands. I love that for you Riot,” I said, with a smile on my face, and like I was annoying her, she rolled her eyes at me.
I wanted to get in her business a little bit, since she had been getting in mine.
“So, you say that you don’t want kids. I can tell your in love. What are you doing to protect yourself?” I asked her.
“I’m on birth control,” she said, and I looked at her like she was crazy.
“Riot, you can barely remember to call me back whenever you have a missed call from me. How are you going to manage keeping up with taking birth control?” I wanted to know, cocking my head to the side, waiting for an answer from her.
“And that’s why I’m not on the pill. I have an IUD,” she shared, which was news to me.
“Who told you about an IUD?” I inquired.
“Ari,” she said, and I sucked my teeth.
“As you sit right across from a mom that you have that you could have used to learn about a fuckin IUD, yet you chose to go through your cousin. When I’m dead and gone, you’ll regret not coming to me for half the shit that you go through other people for,” I fussed, moving away from her, so that I could grab my clothes.
To some, what Riot did was small, but to me, it annoyed me when she did shit like that.
She was the only child that I had left. Literally, the only daughter that I had, so when she wants to experiment, or even if she had questions about life, I would like to be the person in her life that she could go to.
This girl got her damn period when she was twelve years old, and instead of telling me, she told Ari.
She only ended up telling me because the cramps were kicking her ass, so that’s when she came clean about it.
Riot was secretive as hell. I bet there was shit about my daughter that I probably didn’t even know. Look at the stuff that came out about what she was enduring while she was locked up. If those videos never leaked, she would have never shared that information with me.
“Oh, my Goodddd ma. Why do you do dramatic shit like that? I only went to Ari about the IUD because I remember she was telling me that she had one inserted,” she said, as she hopped down from the island.
“But even if she didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t have reached out to me for it Riot, and you know that,” I yelled at her.
She knew that mess hurt my feelings, which is why she came over to me to wrap her arms around me, placing kisses on my cheek, trying to deescalate the situation.
“My bad, ma. I didn’t know. Its awkward as hell for me to talk about sex, so you know I wasn’t going to find comfort in talking about it with you.
Then, you do this thing where you tell all my business.
Let me would have told you that I lost my virginity, and that I wanted to get on birth control.
You would have told that shit to all your sisters, and you know that.
Just like you did when I got my period. You tell my aunties all my business,” she said, getting a smile out of me because she was telling the truth.
After kissing me on my cheek one last time, she eventually let me go, and I left out of the closet, as she followed behind me.
“You talking to me about birth control, when I should be talking to you about the same thing. You on a pill or anything? That shit would be embarrassing as hell if you got pregnant,” she said to me, as we were back inside the room, and she took her spot back on the window nook.
“Embarrassing to whom, Riot?” I wanted to know, removing the robe, so that I could step into my jeans.
“To me. To you. You have a twenty-one-year-old child. In what world is that okay for you to have another kid?” she asked me.
“I am on birth control Riot, but if I wasn’t, and I got pregnant, that wouldn’t be embarrassing.
Girl, I’m grown. My days of having children are over though.
You and your brother stressed me the fuck out and scarred me.
Now, it’s up to you to give me a grandbaby, and hopefully that baby is the opposite of how you behaved when you were a child,” I said the last part in a joking kind of way, but Lord knows that I was dead serious.
“Keep dreaming. I promise you won’t get a grandbaby out of me,” is always what she had to say whenever conversation was brought up about her having children.
As much as I was acting like she was getting on my nerves, I was happy to have Riot over here with me. This would be our first time going to get our nails done together, and I honestly couldn’t wait for that.
I was glad that she was in good spirits.
When she dropped that bomb on me about seeing the cop that murdered her father, I thought that it would put her in a shitty mood.
I knew my daughter though. With her being calm right now, I knew it wasn’t a good thing.
She was using getting out of the house to go get her nails done as a distraction.
If she wasn’t distracted, make no doubt about it, she would be on her way to West Palm, so that she could handle her business.
If Riot killed that cop, I can say that it wouldn’t make, or break me.
You gotta understand that I became numb to loosing Grim.
I convinced myself to forget about the cop that murdered him, so I wasn’t in a predicament right now to feel his presence.
If Riot wanted to get her revenge for taking out the man that took her father away from her at just two years old, then who the fuck am I to stand in the way of that?