The morning came, and I laid in the bed trying to decide what to do. It was clear that my dad was going to be a bitch the whole time, and it was clear that my mother was not going to defend me. What would be the point in me staying here, just to get bitched at for the rest of my break? I came to make things right with my parents but apparently my dad didn't want to hear anything I have to say.
I went into my bathroom and brushed my teeth and washed my face. Then I threw on my nike tech sweatsuit and some 1's and tied my curly hair in a messy bun.
I grabbed my bags and was making my way downstairs when my parents bedroom door flew open. I was already half way down the steps.
"Cheyenne," I heard my mother's voice from the top of the stairs.
"Yes ma'am," I turned around to face her.
"You're leaving already?" She asked as she made her way down the stairs.
"Yeah mama, I have to go. I can't deal with dad when he's like this."
"I understand it's tense right now but I really think you should stay so we can all talk."
"No, let her go since she thinks she grown." My father appeared at the top of the stairs.
"I am grown." I mumbled under my breath.
"What was that?" My father asked, standing in front of me now.
"I am grown." I repeated myself. "You said I think I'm grown, but I literally am grown. I make sure I'm good and taken care of. I don't ask or depend on y'all for anything. To me, that means I'm grown."
My mom's face looked shocked and my dad looked pissed but I couldn't care less. I said what I had to say and if they didn't have anything else to say I was ready to go.
"Now you're getting smart? You can get out of my house with that nasty ass attitude," My dad said as he walked passed me to the kitchen.
"Dad I came here to make things right with y'all because I know I haven't been talking to y'all as much as we would like. But I don't need to be here, I have somewhere to stay." I tried to remain calm without raising my voice.
My dad chuckled dryly. "We know you have somewhere to stay. We went up to your dorm to surprise you last week, and your roommate informed us that you hadn't slept there in weeks."
I rolled my eyes and made a mental note to cuss her out the next time I saw her.
"You wanna be grown, go be grown. I don't know where your fast ass has been staying, but stay there!" He glared at me from where he stood in the kitchen. "You cannot come back in this house until you're ready to respect us and respect yourself. We didn't send you to school so you could be out there acting like a whore!"
"A whore?!" I threw my hands in the air. "Are you forreal right now?! How can you call me a who're and you know nothing that's going on in my life. You just don't like that you don't have control over me and my decisions."
"You're right, I can't control you. But I can control what I allow in my house, so you need to get out."
"You know what... I was leaving anyway..." I mumbled as I grabbed my bags.
"Right, and I hope that little boy you're staying with loves you more than the parents you have been pushing away for him. I know you, and I know your fast ass is out there running behind some nigga and that's why you're suddenly so busy." He shook his head. "You couldn't wait to get from under our roof so you could do what you wanted. I've tried my best to guide you, but this is your life Cheyenne. Do what you want, I'm done wasting my breath." My dad loved to throw the fact that I was boy crazy in high school in my face. He swears that I'm always being "fast", but calling me a whore? Was he crazy?!
I looked over to my mom for some type of assistance, but of course she wasn't going to help me. She never stood up to my father. She was just standing there looking dumb with her head hanging down. "Baby just go..." She whispered.
I felt my eyes fill up with tears as I opened the front door and walked towards my car. My mom watched me as I put my bags in.
"I love you Cheyenne." I heard her say before walking back in the house. Seeing that front door close felt like watching her literally turn her back on me and choose my father over me, the child that she birthed.
I hadn't planned on leaving so early since I had a few more days left of thanksgiving break but I just couldn't stay in that house. My dad was ready to fight from the second I pulled in the driveway and I did not sign up for that. The stunt he pulled at thanksgiving dinner was ridiculous, and the stuff he had to say to me today is where I drew the line.
I really want my parents to be in my life, but my dad was making it very hard. Just because he doesn't have complete control over my life now, and he thinks he knows what I'm out here doing. The fact that they really tried to pop up at my dorm to surprise me just showed me that they really didn't trust me. The way my dad was acting over a damn apartment was crazy and then to call me a whore? The kicker is he doesn't even know about Clifford yet. It'll be impossible to get through to him about my relationship, and I didn't want to choose between Clifford or my parents.
Once I got settled in the car and made it down the street I called Clifford.
"Hey baby," He answered the phone. I could tell he had a smile on his face, but I was fighting back tears.
"Babe I can't do this shit. I'm on my way back."
"What's wrong?" His voice was now serious. "What happened?"
The tears started to flow from my eyes as soon as he asked me what was wrong. That question always got the water works going for some reason.
"My dad man. He is just so controlling he's been treating me like shit since I got home on Wednesday. Every time he speaks to me he has an attitude. Then today he called me a whore. And my mom just sits there and lets that shit happen like... I'm done." I felt the tears starting to fall down my face.
"It's okay baby, how far away are you?"
"I'm 40 minutes away from your house." I sniffled.
"Okay, calm down so you can drive safely. I will see you when you get here, and we will talk okay?"
"Okay." I answered trying to dry up my tears. I turned on my music full blast, trying to drown out my thoughts.
———
I must have been speeding because I got to Cliffords house quicker than I thought. As I parked in the driveway I saw Cliffords front door open and him come out.
He opened my door for me and I hopped out and threw my arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me, which caused me to instantly started crying again.
"It's okay baby," He rubbed my back. "You're okay." He kissed my forehead.
"Clifford I'm not going back there," I sobbed. The tears were uncontrollable at this point. "I can't deal with them."
"I got you. You don't have to worry about them right now. I promise you everything is going to be okay."
He lifted my head up and wiped the tears that were running down my face. "Come on mama, you know I don't like seeing tears on that pretty face. Look at me."
I looked up at him, and as I looked in his eyes I instantly started to feel better. I felt safe and secure with Clifford and that's what drew me to him.
"I got you baby." He hugged me tightly. "Everything is going to work out."
Once he finally got me in the house, we laid on the couch to watch tv but I wasn't really paying attention because my mind kept drifting to my parents, and Clifford was lightly snoring in my ear.
I must've fallen asleep too eventually because I woke up on the couch by myself, wrapped in a blanket that wasn't there before.
I checked my phone to see a text from Clifford saying that he would be back and that he had to handle something real quick. That was from 45 minutes ago. Then I saw that I had another text from Tati 5 minutes ago, telling me to come to her house ASAP and that it was an emergency.
Instantly my mind began thinking that something happened to Tyreek or Clifford, or both of them. I don't know where Clifford went or what he was doing, but Tati's text had my stomach turned into knots.
I called Tati and it rang twice before she answered frantically. "Chey where are you?" I could hear in her voice that she had been crying.
"I'm at Cliffords what happened?!" I started panicking and searching for my keys.
"I need you to come over here now." She said in between cries.
"What happened?!" I grabbed my purse and made my way to my car.
"Please just come over." Was the only coherent thing I could hear inbetween her sobbing.
"Okay, okay, I'm on my way." I hung up as I started my car. I called Clifford as I backed out of his driveway.
"Are you okay?" I asked him as soon as he answered the phone.
"Yeah, I'm at the club with Tyreek. What's going on?" He asked. His voice didn't show any signs of anything being wrong so I was able to take a deep breath.
"Tati just called me crying. I'm on my way to their house now. I don't know what's going on but y'all might want to come over there when y'all can."
"Okay, we gotta finish up here and then we'll be on our way."
I pulled into Tati and Tyreek's driveway within 15 minutes. When I got in the house it was dark and quiet.
"Tati?" I called her name as I walked up the stairs.
I saw a light coming from the bedroom and when I walked in the room Tati was laying in the bed, tears streaming down her face.
"What's wrong?" I asked sitting on the bed.
"Chey," She cried my name as she pointed into the bathroom.
I walked in the bathroom, but I didn't see anything wrong until I looked on the counter next to the toilet where a row of pregnancy tests laid on top of a paper towel.
"Shit," I whispered as I looked at the two lines on the stick in my hand. I looked from the test to Tati who was looking at me with puppy dog eyes.
"Aww Tati," I pulled her into a hug. "It's gonna be okay boo."
"Chey I can't believe this shit. Me and Reek are not ready to be parents."
"Well, you do have other options that you can consider." I rubbed her back.
She nodded her head as she sat on the edge of her bed. "I don't know how to tell Reek."
"You have about 10 minutes to figure it out. I kind of called Clifford on my way here... he and Reek are probably already on their way."
"Fuck." She sighed. "Okay. Well I'm glad you and Cliff are gonna be here. I don't know how this nigga is gonna take it."
"I think Tyreek will be okay. He loves you Tati."
She took a deep breath and made her way downstairs. We sat on the couch and waited for Tyreek and Clifford to get here.
"Yo what's going on?" Tyreek entered the house with a worried look on his face.
"I need to talk to you." Tati said as she walked up to their bedroom, Tyreek following behind her.
Clifford came and sat next to me on the couch. "What's going on?" He asked me.
"She's pregnant." I sighed. Cliffords eyes got wide for a second and then he nodded his head.
"Yeah," I sighed. "I hope Reek takes it well."
Clifford shrugged. "He'll be cool." For Tati's sake I hoped Clifford was right.
We sat on the couch for about half an hour before Tati and Tyreek came downstairs. Tyreek had a big ass grin on his face even though his eyes looked like he had been crying. "I'm about to be a dad Unc."
Clifford stood up and hugged Tyreek and Tati. "Congratulations!"
I got up from the couch and hugged Tyreek. "Not you boutta be somebody's father." I pushed him playfully. "Now you can stop trying to boss me around!"
"Nah, Imma always do that." He grinned.
I pulled Tati into a hug, "I told you it would be okay!" I whispered in her ear. She smiled at me with tears in her eyes.
"This is so crazy." Tati sighed as she rubbed her stomach.
"I'm about to be an auntie," I put my hand on top of hers. "And you're about to be spoiled." I bent down and whispered to her stomach.
"Okay stop being weird now!" She pushed me away. "Y'all want to go get something to eat?"
We all agreed and hopped in Cliffords truck.
———
"Can we get a bottle of Moscato. She'll have a lemonade." Tyreek gestured to Tati which caused her to roll her eyes.
"So how far along do you think you are?" I asked her.
She shrugged as she put butter on her bread. "I think maybe like 6 or 7 weeks. I'll have to make an appointment to be sure. I missed my period last month but I thought it was because of the stress of the club opening, but when it was late this month too I knew something was wrong."
"That's crazy you ain't tell me." Tyreek shook his head.
"Baby, I was scared... I didn't even think I was pregnant for real I just took the tests as a precaution."
"Girl you took five pregnancy tests as a precaution?" I raised my eyebrow with a chuckle.
"You know I'm dramatic." She blushed.
"We know." Clifford and Tyreek said in unison causing me to laugh. Tati was definitely a drama queen.
"Yeah y'all can shut up." Tati rolled her eyes.
The waiter brought out the wine and we all ordered our food. Tati and Tyreek were deep in their own conversation when Clifford looked over at me. "How are you doing?"
"I'm... okay," I shrugged. "Which is weird. But being with y'all has taken my mind off my parents."
The people sitting with me at the table were like my family too. And even though things weren't right with my parents, having Tati, Tyreek and Clifford by my side made me still feel like everything was okay.
Clifford grabbed my hand. "I don't know the whole situation with your parents, but I'm here for you. Whatever you need."
"I appreciate that." I rubbed his face.
He sighed and took a deep breath before he spoke again. "Cheyenne, I love you."
I was caught off guard at first. I was not expecting to hear those three words tonight, but it felt right.
"I love you too." I grabbed his chin and pulled him into a kiss. For a moment it felt like we were the only two people in the room.
"Aww..." I heard Tati sigh. I looked over at her to see her staring at us with tears in her eyes. "I love love."
"Your hormones cutting up already." Tyreek shook his head.
Clifford chuckled and put his arm around me and took a sip of his wine. I leaned my head on his shoulder. I could cry at how nice this moment felt.
In this moment it felt like Clifford and I were meant to be together, and I didn't give a fuck what anybody had to say.