HBIC: Head Barbie in Charge

10 - Be My Baby

"AHHH!" Tamika cried out. If heaven had a ghetto, she was about to find out. With excruciating pain ripping her apart, she had to have been tasting death. The doctor and his nurses kept shouting commands in her ear, almost deafening her, with bright lights overhead that blinded her. She wanted to tune everything out, but this nightmare would be over much quicker if she just complied. She tried her best to think pleasant thoughts, but couldn't replace the image embedded in her mind of the boy who had done this to her. Her sweetheart—Derrick Lee.

Tamika had always been in love with the idea of love. At the tender age of fourteen, when she first laid eyes on Derrick Lee Stubbs, she knew she was experiencing what would be her first love. Derrick Lee took her everywhere he could in the little town of Petal, Mississippi. They rode horses, talked by the lake, and spent nights underneath the stars in the great outdoors until they both fell asleep. Derrick Lee was everything that she could have ever hoped for. She would have never imagined when she found herself pregnant five months later, he would want nothing to do with her.

She didn't think her parents would ever forgive her for ruining her life. Other girls had babies in their teens, but Tamika was supposed to have been one of the good ones who kept her head in the books. Not only were her parents livid with her but even more livid with Derrick Lee and his folks. Had she known that he was eighteen years old, she would have never entertained the thought of being with him. He, on the other hand, knew that she was only fourteen and that was unforgivable.

They wanted her as far away from him as possible, but Tamika wouldn't have it. He had a baby on the way that was just as much his responsibility as it was hers and he had a hold on her that wouldn't allow him out of her life. It was only when her parents entertained the idea of moving to any place in the country of her choosing, that she agreed. She chose California. Tamika had always dreamed of being a big star but never thought she would have the chance to live in a big city full of glamor and flashing lights. With Ma and Pa agreeing to raise the baby as their own, Tamika could get a fresh start there and possibly make her dreams come true. All she had to do was get through these last few painful moments.

"One...two...three...push!" said the doctor once more. Already a perspiring mess, Tamika pushed with all her might, feeling a painful burst between her legs. With a loud smack, the baby began to cry. She would have never imagined that bringing life into the world could be so painful. It had been painful enough letting go of all of her memories of Derrick Lee.

Within moments, she was holding her newborn daughter in her arms. Ma, Pa, and Timmy surrounded her as the baby's tiny hand wrapped around her index finger. She cried tears of joy and said, "Hello there, Shiloh Brooks." Shiloh cooed in response. Tamika didn't want her daughter to harbor any resemblance to her deadbeat father. Not even his last name. He had made it clear by not being here on the day of his daughter's birth that he wanted nothing to do with her—with them. Well, Tamika and her baby would be fine, and even though her parents were going to raise her as though she were theirs, she made a promise to herself to raise Shiloh on her own one day.

The more time she spent with her daughter, the more that hope of fulfilling her promise dwindled. Baby Shiloh came to receive all of the attention. She found herself fighting her own daughter for the attention of her own parents. She could no longer get new clothes for school because Shiloh was growing out of her own by the months. Not to mention those stinky diapers. If Tamika had to smell one more of those things she was going to pass out.

Shiloh, Shiloh, Shiloh, her bratty little sister-child. Ma and Pa didn't even notice how much she despised her own blood. Even Timmy, who loathed not being the center of attention, had become smitten with their new bundle of joy. Ma and Pa thought they were solving everything by taking her motherly responsibilities off her hands, but what they couldn't do was rid her of the stretch marks she had acquired from carrying that brat around for nine months. Her body had been ruined and no cream or magic oil had been able to get rid of them. At fourteen years old, she had lost her feminine figure before it had even developed. Back then, it didn't matter much because Derrick Lee was the only boy who had ever paid her any mind.