Mosaic

h e / i s / h e r e

☯

Kingston

I was up all night talking to Lexi, she said she couldn't sleep because she's scared of what's going to happen today. I told her to not come home and just stay with Mercy, but she 's stubborn, so I expect to see her. It's 7 am right now, I'm hyped up on coffee and Mountain Dew.

I have a metal baseball bat, and my hands are wrapped up to fight. My mom came home at 4am and told me that there was a black car with tinted windows out front, but I told her that Lexi sent him. She just nodded her head and went upstairs.

After about two hours my mom had came downstairs. "Baby?" She called for me, but I was in the kitchen, pouring myself a cup of coffee.

"Yeah, ma. I'm in the kitchen" She came in and got her coffee mug from the top cabinet. "I'm sorry, King" She said pouring sugar and creamer in the cup.

"For what?" I put the creamer and sugar in mine.

"I'm sorry for allowing you to see that. I'm sorry for everything that you witnessed. I never should've done that. I should've never sat there and let him do that to me, while my son was at the top of the stairs, watching, being traumatized by the second. When I had y'all twins, I thought I was going to be the best parent.

I thought your father and I were going to raise you two in a big house with a fence, whether it was a picket fence, or a metal fence. We were living so good. Up until your dad lost his job, everything went downhill from there. We were arguing more, over who was going to pay the bills that month. After a while the verbal arguing, turned into physical and sexual.

I didn't want to fight back, because I knew it would only make it worse. I felt so weak. I was never that weak. All of us are weak, in some type of way, but in that way... I was never weak. I always stood up for myself, no matter who I was bucking up at. It's just that.. I don't know. I just feel so bad for allowing him to do that. Especially when I knew my son was upstairs listening to what was going on."

She had her head down crying in between her sentences. I knew my face was blank, but inside I was sympathetic. I set my cup down and walked over to her. She looked up at me and we locked eyes. She had tears streaming down her face, when she saw my face, she cried even harder.

"Ma stop crying" I pressed. She set her cup down and bear hugged my waist. I'm standing at 6'1 and she's 5'3. My dad is taller than me. I hugged her neck and pressed her face more into me. I kissed the top of her head.

"Ma I love you. You made some mistakes, but that's okay. As long as you learned from them. Did you learn from them?" She nodded her head making her big, curly hair go into my mouth.

"Good. Now stop dwelling because we have a problem that will be coming our way soon. I need you to be strong. We can't lose you. Lexi won't know what to do, and neither will I. We love you, okay?" I pushed her off of me, while holding her arms so I could get a good look at her face. She was red, considering how dark she is. And from her eyes down, her face was wet.

I grabbed a paper towel and wiped her face and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I'm so proud of King. You're my favorite twin, don't tell Lexi." She put her index finger over her lips, telling me to be quiet. I smiled and gave her a tight hug before letting her go.

I was about to go back to my coffee, before I heard keys. I poked my head out the kitchen, so I could get a view of the front door. I saw Lexi's pink Ugg boots and Hello Kitty duffel. "It's just Lexi" My mom calmed down.

"Aye! I'm home, y'all" Lexi yelled. "Girl stop with all that damn yelling, we in the kitchen" I heard her shoes scuffing against the ground.

"So right now, you telling me that you didn't see this bright ass light on when you came in the house?" I asked her. She narrowed her eyes at me.