Heavy Nights Like This

ch, 9

"Even if Petey did something crazy, did he have to shoot him that many times?" Gabby rolled her eyes and threw a dart and the board as hard as she could. "I'm just so mad! I want to punch something! I want to punch the cop that shot my friend!" She was yelling now and flipped the rest of the darts onto the floor.

          Barbie frowned and picked the darts up without saying a word. "I'm going crazy just sitting around like this didn't just happen." She covered her hot face and sat down on Barbie's couch. "Writing helps. I write songs, but you could try poems or stories. My mom used to make me passion flower tea with honey. It helps you sleep at night, too." Barbie suggested, putting the darts away and checking her phone.

She walked downstairs to the door and pressed the button to unlock the gate. She opened the door and after a minute, her mom walked in with her suitcase. "Hi, baby. Come here." She said, pulling Barbie into a tight hug. She laid her head on her mom's shoulder and sighed, "I missed you so much." Her mom let her go after a while and closed the front door, "I missed you too and I would've been here yesterday but all flights were booked."

"It's ok, mama. I'm just happy you're here now. Gabby's upstairs." She's said pointing to the second floor. Her mom nodded and began to walk up the stairs. When she got up there, she saw Gabby laying on the couch, "Gabrielle, how are you?" She asked. Gabby got up to give her a hug, "Hey, mama Barb. I'm ok. It's good to see you."

"Mama, I'm going to put your things in guest room you stayed in last time, ok." Barbie said, grabbing her mom's luggage. "Alright. Thank you, BJ." Barbara washed her hands and cooked the girls a meal. Barbie only had ingredients for spaghetti in her kitchen so that's what she made. They gathered around the dining table to eat.

"Bird came by. He was here when I got here yesterday." Barbie said, twirling her fork around. "That's nice, I suppose." Her mom replied. Gabby raised an eyebrow, "Did he stay here?" Barbie sucked in her cheek and sighed deeply, "Yea." Gabby chuckled and nodded her head, "You're something else, Barb. You know that?" "What was I supposed to do, Gabby? He wanted to make sure I was ok."

          "So you let him stay?" She asked. Barbie rolled her eyes, "We don't need to argue about this. He's gone now." She shrugged. "For now, but he'll be back." Gabby replied. "Girls, this is nonsense." Barbara chimed in. "You know, Gab, you act like he wasn't my boyfriend, like I'm supposed to not have any feelings for him just because—"

"Just because? That was my mine first, Barbie." Barbie scoffed, "He was never your man, for one. And two, I didn't know. You always acting like he did me like he did you." Gabby laughed, "Then why did you break up with him, since y'all were so great?" "Because I cared about your feelings." Barbie replied.

"So you don't care about them anymore?" Barbie sighed, "Gab—" Gabby rose from the table, "I'm going to go. Nice seeing you, mama Barb. The food was good." She said before leaving the dining area. Barbie groaned and got up from the table, "I'm going to go lay down." Her mom just let her go and cleaned up the dinner mess.

The next day, Barbie got ready to meet up with Petey's parents. They never really liked her because they thought she encouraged him to drop out of college. Really, she just told him to follow his heart and do what he wanted. She was nervous because they wanted to meet with alone, not anyone else who was there.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" Barbara asked. Barbie nodded, "I'm a big girl. I can handle it." Barbara fixed her daughter's collar and smiled, "I know you can. I raised you." Barbie laughed and kissed her mom before walking out of her front door.

          When she got in her car, her phone rang and she answered. She soon realized it was a call from federal prison and waited to hear her dad's voice. "Baby girl?" His voice came through the phone. "Hey, daddy." She replied, started her car up. "I been seeing you all over the news, I'm sorry about your friend."

"Thanks. I'm about to go talk to his parents now, actually." She told him. "What are you going to talk about?" She sighed, "I don't know, but I'm nervous. I already feel like it's my fault for us being there in the first place." "So now a successful musician can't celebrate releasing her music? White folks do it all the time and no one dies. It's nobody's fault but the coward who pulled the trigger."

"I guess, daddy..." she said, driving down her street. "You don't think I blame myself for Curtis being killed? My only son, my blood. It ate me alive, but at the end of the day, was I the one who shot through a window into a dark room? No, it wasn't me. And if I could go back, I would've never touched a drug, never had it anywhere near my wife and kids but I can't go back, and neither can you."

Barbie's eyes filled with water and she took a deep breath, "I love you, daddy." "I love you too, baby girl." She ended the call with her dad and drove to Petey's parents' house, trying to prepare herself for whatever they had to say.