2. Riot St. James
Riot St. James
We were pulling up to my mama’s salon, and no lie, I was a little nervous.
Fuckin around with my mama, this shit could go one of two ways.
Me and her were either going to be good, or we were going to be bad.
When my mama and I would be bad, shit could go to hell quickly.
I had a ghetto ass mama, that would black out when it came to me, so we’ve been through our fair share of shit together.
Both had a lot of trauma. She lost her husband and her son.
I lost my daddy and my brother. Both running around with trauma that was unhealed, and we’ve never sat down and got the professional help that we needed.
I said before that I put my mama through a lot.
She used to have me so fucked up, that I would run away, and with that, she would call the cops on me, and once they found me, they would put my ass in juvenile detention.
I knew that my mama loved me, but I also knew that I wasn’t shit like the daughter she would have wanted. I’m sure she thought that she was going to have a prissy daughter that acted just like her, but I was the complete opposite.
“You know how auntie Keyshawn is. Me, and you damn near just went at it, and I don’t feel like I went in as hard as I could, so I can only imagine what your mama going to do when she sees you.
Whatever you do Bean, just try not to argue with her.
You know she loves you, and that she only wants the best for you,” Ari felt the need to make a disclaimer, and I nodded my head towards that, not going to really say too much.
We were finally in the plaza where my mom’s salon was.
Her salon was called ‘Crowned by Key’. My mom has been doing hair all my life.
She specialized in healthy hair. She didn’t do wigs, braids, or all the other extra shit.
She was the silk press killer. You could come to her with the most damaged hair, and she would get you right.
She had growing hands. I’ve never gone to anyone else professionally to do my hair because my mom has always done it for me.
If it wasn’t for her, I know for a fact that my hair would have been damaged and fallen out years ago because I really didn’t keep up with it.
I was known for rocking a bun, a ponytail, or just simply throwing a hat on.
Right there in the owners parking spot, I noticed that there was a matte gray AMG GLE 53 coupe parked. That shit was nice. I was obsessed with the black rims on it. The GLE 53 was one of my favorite cars.
“That’s my mama car? I talk to her every day, and she didn’t say shit about getting a new car,” I voiced, my eyes stuck on the beautiful car that was in the parking lot.
“You know she didn’t like to tell you good news while you were locked up because she didn’t want you to feel like you were missing out on something. She just got it like a month ago. Major got it for her,” she responded.
I groaned at the sound of the man that had gotten my mom a new car.
Major was her boyfriend. They got together like two years ago. I didn’t know him enough to really speak on him, but I just didn’t care for the nigga. Ari knew that I didn’t care for him, and that’s why she started laughing.
From the little bit that I paid attention to, when my mom told me about Major for the first time two years ago, I knew that he had his own private aviation company.
Basically, he owned a private jet charter company, and it was based right out of Opa- Locka.
I knew that he did well financially. Shit, the six-figure car that was parked in the parking lot was proof that he was doing well.
I swear I wasn’t a hater or no shit like that.
If a man was making my mama happy, I fully supported that.
I just never saw my mama with a man before.
Growing up, losing my father really took a toll on her, so she never brought niggas around me, and my brother.
If she was dating, I really wouldn’t know because she kept it private, and away from us.
“Your ass is so fuckin mean. Major is a good dude, Riot. He treats your mama so good. Her ass is spoiled rotten by him too. Wait until you see the inside of her shop. He had it renovated for her, so it looks completely different on the inside. Come on. I know she’s ready to see you,” she finished, shutting the car off.
Instead of letting Ari go around, and grabbing Amir from the back, I was the one to open the back door for my little cousin.
He was quick with taking off his seatbelt, grabbing his iPad, and I held my hand out for him to take it.
Now that he was out, I held his hand in mine, walking towards the door of my mom’s salon.
It was after nine in the morning, so she was opened already.
I was able to walk right in. Just like Ari told me in the car, this salon looked completely different.
Literally, the expensive marble tile on the floor, the fancy artwork, the salon chairs were all proof that a lot of money was put into these changes.
There were about four stylist here that worked alongside my mom, and they were the first ones to see me, since their booths were closer to the front. There was no secret that I had been locked up, so each of the ladies smiled at me, and welcomed me back home.
My mom’s booth was closer to the back, and right now, it was empty. I didn’t see her, or hear her, and right when I was getting ready to ask where she was, she quickly rounded the corner.
“I just put the hair towels in the dryer. They should be ready in another thirty minutes and—”
She literally stopped talking, and walking once her eyes landed on me.
She knew that I was coming home today, but she just didn’t know the time.
I kept lying to her yesterday, telling her that they hadn’t given me a time yet.
I don’t know if I was tapping in with my emotions, and wanted to find myself surprising my mama, or if I was being mean, lying to her, telling her that I didn’t know the time because I didn’t want her to pick me up.
Either way, I got the reaction from her that I wanted because her hands went over her mouth, she screamed, and ran over to me, wrapping her arms around me.
Remember, I haven’t seen my family in a year because I didn’t want them coming down to the jail seeing me like that.
Seeing my mama break down in tears like this was all the motivation that I needed to try to stay the fuck out of trouble this time because I couldn’t keep hurting her like this.
“Bean, what the fuck girl!” she croaked, pulling away from me, using her hands to wipe her eyes.
My mama was so beautiful, man. Drop dead gorgeous. Just a bad ass bitch all around.
Her skin was damn near bronze. Just a natural glow about her, and I’m sure her relationship had a lot to do with her happiness.
I can’t lie; I was glad to see her glowing like this because if anyone knew about the depression my mom endured after losing my dad, and my brother, it was me.
If it wasn’t hair that she specialized in, she could do something for skin and have women around the world following her routine because just like Ari, her skin was damn near glass.
Full lips just like me, with natural long eyelashes.
Since healthy hair was her thing, of course she was going to have healthy hair of her own.
My mom’s hair was just as long as mine. She liked to wear her hair straight, while I really liked to just let mine be curly.
Since she was working, her honey brown hair was pulled up into a claw clip.
My mom was small just as I was, but she was a little bigger than me.
If I had to guess, she was probably a good 120.
She was taller than me too. She was about 5’4”.
She was dressed down in a polo shirt with her business name branded on the left patch, with denim jeans.
“I got out this morning,” I let her know.
“Why you lied to me, and told me that you didn’t know when you were getting out?
Why the fuck are you so tiny like this? They wasn’t feeding you?
” she asked, staring at me, looking at me like she was ready for me to tell her no, so that she could go down to the jail, and beat everybody’s ass for not feeding me.
When it came to her kids, Keyshawn has always been on go. I didn’t just get my wild side from my daddy. That shit was passed down to me by her as well.
“Then she got the nerve to say that she’s going vegan. I told her that Ima take her to see grandma. Grandma going to put weight on her,” Ari jumped in, letting my mom know.
“Vegan? Riot, please. You took her to get something to eat? Have you eaten anything yet?” she asked, pressing the issue.
“No. I’m not hungry right now. Ma, please,” she was already about to start, and I haven’t been here that long yet.
“Alright. Go sit in my chair. Let me take these braids out and do something with your hair. You walking around here looking like Roman,” she said, referring to my brother.
I walked away, going over to her station.
I quickly took a seat, and from where I sat, I could turn my head, and look at my mom, Ari, and Amir.
My mom loved Amir like he was her son, so she picked him up, and she was planting kisses all over his handsome face.
As bad as his little ass was, you could look in his eyes and tell that he was enjoying everything about it.
She eventually put him down, and he went over to take a seat towards the front of the salon, while my mom and Ari walked over.
“Ima pick some food up and come right back. I’m probably going to go to Waffle House. You sure you don’t want anything?” Ari asked me.
“I’m sure. Go ahead” I let her know.
It was obvious that it wasn’t the answer that she wanted, but she accepted it, and told us that she would be right back.