“You thought that because you went to therapy and started going to church, you are a changed man? Kennan you are the same bum you were before. Just like your father you will go back to being the same person you was before. Don’t come back in this house and think you can just walk back into me and my children’s lives and all will be forgotten. All those nights you stumbled home drunk will still be here in your kids mind. All those nights when there was some other woman’s panties between my bedhead, will still have the damn_ smell. No matter what you do, you won’t amount to anything.” I said to him.
And he stared at me and stared and stared. And he stayed quiet and so was our studio apartment. The cries of our 4 year old daughter and 5 year old son was heard as they stood behind my legs. Other than that silence. Kennan let a tear fall, for a 23 year old man, this was pitiful, “Oh so because you are crying I am supposed to drop down on my knees and beg for you to forgive me? I’ll give you a round of applause, for showing me how worthless you are.” I barked at him. I clapped my hands shaking my head, “*Round of applause.*” The words tearing at the corner of my mouth.
He got on one knee and took a ring out of his pocket, “Keisha, will you marry me?” he asked. My breath stopped and I looked into his dark brown eyes. The tear he had dried up quickly and I looked at his soft black hair and fair colored skin. Curse the day I feel for a Puerto Rican guy. I cried, “You put me through so much, and make me cry every day. And at the end of the day…I take you back like a dummy. You played me so many times Kennan.” I said. He slipped the ring on my finger, “But I love you.” he said. He kissed me, “I love you too.” I said.
And for that moment I was happy and my heart was filled with joy. And I thought for a moment that my life would be all good and things were going to get better from here. “And after I marry you…”
POW!
His words stopped and he was still. I looked at his chest and saw a bullet hole and blood. His face was still and he fell to my feet with my kids running around screaming. A bullet flew through the glass and struck him in the chest.
23 year old Kennan Cruz was stricken by a stray bullet that Saturday night, or was it planned?
YOU ARE READING
Round of Applause
RomanceKeisha Cruz is a young, African American woman of 23. Her fast, sweet talking, perfect love making Puerto Rican boyfriend Kennan Cruz was well known in their hood. Dodging jail and bullets, until one night, a stray bullet flew through their studio a...
