point of view - marianna ortez
"Awww shit how many shots did we take, this whole bottle is gone!" Laysia laughed as she held up the empty bottle of E&J.
"Ain't no fucking way," I laughed as I slowly walked over to the couch. "Imma text Jah so we can get another one."
"That man would hand you the world in your hands if you asked for it," she teased as she sat across from me, resting her feet in my lap.
"No he wouldn't." I rolled my eyes.
I picked up my phone from the coffee table and unlocked it, FaceTiming Jah.
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"Hello?"
"Hey, mamas. What are you doing?" He smiled as his dreads dangled in front of the camera.
"Well we wanted to drink, but we're out of liquor." I told him.
"What kind you want mama?" He asked me.
"E&J." I answered.
"Ouuu and some Hennessy,"Laysia yelled to me.
"And some Hennessy," I told jahseh.
"That's all you want baby? Did you eat dinner yet?" He asked.
"Uhm no," I answered.
"What do you wanna eat?" I asked.
"Uhm I don't know," I shrugged.
"We should make a YouTube video, or a TikTok getting drunk and cooking," Laysia suggested.
"Yeah let's do that," I agreed. "We got dinner covered it's okay." I told jahseh.
He nodded his head for a few seconds and then his screen said pause.
I could hear him typing a little bit and then his face popped back up.
"Alright Zeke finna go to the store for y'all text him a list," he told me.
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Jahseh and I talked for about ten more minutes before saying our goodbyes and getting off the phone.
Zeke walked into the living room looking hella annoyed, "are you okay?" I asked.
"I was supposed to be getting my daughter from the airport, she's movin with me but now I can't," he told me.
"I didn't know you had a daughter. How old is she?" I asked him.
"She's sixteen," he explained.
"Well you can pick her up first," I told him.
"That's not the problem, the problem is I have to work all night and she's gonna be by herself the first night," he explained.
"So bring her here," I pointed out the obvious solution.
"Would you be okay with that?" He asked.
"I don't care really, she can just hang out with us. We're all around the same age im seventeen and laysia is eighteen." I explained.
"She can't drink though, she's only allowed to smoke," he told me.
"Whatever you say pops," I joked.
He shook his head at me and smiled, "thank you so much this means a lot."
"Anytime she's always welcome here," I explained. "Do you think Jahseh would be upset?"
"Probably not but if he is leave him to me," I explained.
"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can." He smiled and hurried out the door.
"Aww you just made his day," Laysia smiled at me.
"Hey.. I just wish I had a dad to pick me up from the airport," I sighed.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"Well when I was fourteen, my dad started like went crazy or something and he murdered my mom... right in front of me." Talking about this just made my skin crawl.
"He uhm.... He raped me and he tried to kill me too but the police came.. one of the neighbors called the police because of all the commotion. I was put into Forster care and I was in like six home already. I got raped in four of them... the last one was the worse one ever. He used violently rape me. And he would beat me ass like every day.."
"Oh my god! Why wouldn't your case manager do something?" She asked.
"They don't care about us," I answered. "But that's how I met Jah.. I ran away from my foster home and I ran into him and he brought me here... I've been here since, he saved my life."
"You didn't have any family to go to?" She asked.
"No my mom didn't have anyone and my dad... well turns out he wasn't even my real dad.. but he didn't have any family either... so that's how I ended up in the system."
"Wow." She sighed. "I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that."
"It's okay... I'm alive," I shrugged it off and changed the subject. "What do we want to cook so I can text Z the list."
