Love Yuh Bad

Long Time

***** Few Days Later / Wednesday, January 18th 2023 *****

Noelle's POV

It honestly all feels so surreal.

I would have never imagined my life going this way as a little girl.

I was always someone with a plan, and I always stuck to that plan, never straying even when life would be kicking my ass.

But this was different....this was very unlike me.

"Dwayne hurry up ah come nuh mon, Noelle cyaa miss her flight" my mom calls up the stairs.

We were still at Aunty Shauna and Uncle Stefan's house.

I looked around the living room at my family, all sitting here in front of me and I couldn't help but feel emotional.

I knew it was going to be hard being away from them, especially my mom and my brother.

We've been together like the three musketeers forever, just us.

My father had passed away when I was really young so I didn't really know what it meant to have a relationship with him.

How can you miss something, you've never really had?

Besides, he was really abusive to my mom when they were together.

Call me fucked up but in my opinion, I say good riddance.

The only thing I knew about him was that he was some big Don near Portmore when he was alive.

Now his brothers and nephews control the area, but I don't speak to that side of my family though so I couldn't even tell you if that was still true or not.

Apparently, him ah Dwayne dem daddy did inna war back inna di day, but that is neither here nor there.

When my mom was with Nickoi and Dwayne's dad that was the only time I had any experience in a "two-parent household".

But that was very short-lived, Sheldon gi mi mada some raatid bun.

I tell her all the time how proud of her I am for not staying with him, he's a good father but a horrible partner.

She didn't leave the first time though, she only left him once we moved to the US, and it was only because he had a whole baby wid another woman while she filing for him.

Man a dawg.

Sheldon is the kinda man weh yuh haffi love from a distance, or else him we mek dawg nyam yuh suppa.

He was great to Koi and Dwayne though, and he always treated me like one of his own.

Step-fada.....step-fada.....ah yuh di kids rather!

"Coming Mommy" I hear Dwayne call down the stairs.

"Dah bwoy deh love late enuh, chro man, ah him daddy him get dat from" my mom hisses as she finds a seat on the couch.

"No sah ah unuh side family dat Marcia, cause Stefan eva late" my aunt Shauna says as she turns to face my uncle.

"Nah pay yuh nuh mind yer" my uncle calls back to her, his eyes fixed on the morning news on the TV.

They had been married for at least 25 years now, and they had 3 kids together.

All their kids didn't live at home anymore, so they had a ton of free space and were open to hosting me for the year.

Growing up I thought they had the perfect marriage and family.

As I got older, and mi start hear di mixup an drama weh all ah mi aunty dem did ah talk bout, my opinions have changed.