"Get your ass up! Everybody in here needs to earn their keep! This house needs to be cleaned!"
I groaned from the sound of Gena's voice. It was the summertime so I didn't have the option of letting school be my escape from here. I wasn't prepared to live in Brooklyn, so it wasn't like I had a summer job lined up either and I'll be damned if I catch the train back to Long Island to return to my old job at the bodega. I was stuck here. I was stuck listening to sloppy Gena and those needy kids of hers. It took me a while to fall asleep. I was too scared a mouse was going to crawl across my face. And my attitude tends to show more than I like it to when I'm lacking sleep. Gena was the last person that needed to wake me up.
I flung the blanket off me and stuffed my feet into my slippers. I groggily climbed the steps and landed in the kitchen.
"You gotta be shittin' me," I said to myself.
There were dirty dishes stacked in the sink. Boxes full of stuff scattered about the kitchen floor. It smelled stale and I could've sworn I saw a roach crawl behind the fridge from the corner of my eye. It wasn't this messy before I went to bed and I had no idea how three bitches could cause this much mess. I took a deep breath and jogged back down the steps to quickly change out of my pajamas and into more loose-fitting clothing. I looked through one of my smaller bags and found my AirPods and popped them into my ear.
"Hey Siri, play Latto playlist," I said into my pods.
It's Giving by Latto started playing loudly in my ears, making me wiggle my hips some. It was something about her hood sex appeal that always gravitated me towards her music. She didn't give a damn about any of these females out here and she never worried about these niggas out here. That's how I aim to be. Just as soon as I can get from up underneath that moley bitch and her two stooges.
I rang out the dish rag and wiped the inside of the double sinks in the kitchen. It was damn near six in the evening but I had finally managed to clean the entire house spotless. I hated being what these bitches think is a maid but I'd rather lay my head in a house that I've cleaned myself than one that they'd cleaned. I think I've only seen the twins pick up a cleaning chemical once and it was by mistake. I laughed to myself, thinking about how much neither of them were set up to live in the world without their mom. But maybe that was how she wanted it. Gena always wanted somebody to need her. I felt that was how she got into my dad's head. He was so heart broken over my mother passing and she preyed on the fact that he didn't want to be alone. I promised myself that no matter how hurt I was, I'd never let someone think they were going to just swoop in and save me. That way they wouldn't think I owed them. I never wanted to be one of those weak bitches.
I tied the two trash bags I managed to fill in a knot and picked them up to take them to the trash cans next to the front stoop. The cans were small and that instantly annoyed me. As much trash as these three accumulate, the cans would end up overflowing. And no one wants to be the stank house on the block.
"Damn Lish, I know you said your mom had to bring her back with y'all but I ain't know she was your maid too."
I sucked my teeth and looked over my shoulder at Alisha and two other girls that were most likely her friends.
"I'm nobody's fuckin' maid," I said before turning on my heels to go back inside. I was almost up the steps before I felt a sharp pain seering all over my head.
"Where you goin'? The trash belongs on the curb."
Alisha's friends laughed as she dragged me by my hair off of the steps and to the sidewalk. I tried to get up but was met with a first to my mouth. I wasn't a pussy but I wouldn't call myself a fighter either. Alisha and I have tussled a lot over the years but I knew I wasn't going to be able to go toe to toe with her as well as her friends. I knew how these type of bitches worked. They were just waiting for an oppotunity to jump into the fight.
"My mother should have left your ugly black ass in Long Island to be homeless."
Alisha continued to yank my hair and slam her first into my face. At this point I didn't want to fight her. I figured she'd get tired of humiliating me and let me go.
"Get the fuck off of her!" I heard a voice say.
Alisha let go of my hair and I weakly fell to the ground. I spit out the blood that had formed in my house and touched my eye. I knew it was swollen and was going to get bigger overnight. I took the oppotunity to look up at my unknown savior while I could still see out of my eye.
"Here this bitch go," Alisha said rolling her eyes. "Don't you got a snotty nose little boy to tend to."
"Don't worry about my fucking son. It's just like you though to be beating on a bitch who clearly ain't tryna fight."
"And what business is that of yours?"
"Imma make it my business bitch! Don't nobody want all this bull shit in front of they house."
"Girl, fuck outta here. You a pussy and been a pussy. That's why Fatz started fucking with a real bitch like me."
Alisha smirked and crossed her hands across her chest. Her friends giggled behind her, probably boosting her confidence up higher than what it needed to be. At this point, I was putting my money on this mystery woman beating the fuck out of Alisha. At least that's what I wanted to happen.
"You talkin' about the same Fatz that was eatin' my ass last night?"
"Bitch, what?"
Alisha charged at the girl but stopped when the girl pulled a switch blade out.
"Yeah, back the fuck up. You're a bozo and so is his ass. I'm not about to fight you over dick that's been movin' in and out of Brooklyn like the C train. But I will buck fifty ya shit if you think you about to put ya nasty hands on me."
The girl stared her down and I stayed on the ground still, waiting for what was going to happen next. Alisha sucked her teeth and walked off without saying anything else, her two minions followed close behind her.
"You aight, shortie?" The girl asked me whilst helping me up. She touched my swollen eye and I winched from the slight pain.
"Come on, I got a first aid kit in the house."
She grabbed my hand and pulled me inside of her house which so happened to be next door. She swung open the door and pulled me to the living room. There was a little boy playing with cars on the carpeted floor that looked up at me with innocent eyes. I tried to make a silly face to get him to laugh but I think I ended up scaring him instead.
"Why you was just letting Alisha ass put her hands on you like that?" The girl asked. I shrugged.
"I figured it's better to just wait it out than to try and fight her."
"Y'all know each other?"
"She's unfortunelty my step sister."
"Damn, so you probably been dealing with that shit for mad long huh?"
I nodded and looked up at her. She had pity in her eyes, which I hated. It was one of the reasons why I kept my friends away back in Long Island. I didn't want them to feel bad for my situation. That shit does nothing for me. I'm going to get out of this shit on my own. That I knew for a fact.
"What's ya name?" She asked.
"Sinaria. My friends call me Sin."
"I'm Minnie. You can call me that or Squeek."
"Squeek?"
"Bitch, don't ask. You never really have a choice in the nicknames the block gives you.
"Yo, who the fuck is this?"
I turned my head and saw a tall nigga emerging from the kitchen. He had crisp cornrolls in his head with a blunt behind his ear. He had on basketball shorts and a white t shirt, looking really comfortable. This had to be the nigga Fatz they were talking about. Minnie snapped her neck at him.
"Who the fuck are you to question who I bring up in my shit?"
"Come on Squeek, don't start this shit,"Fatz growned.
"Don't start what shit? Seems to be it's a whole lot of shit that needs to be started. Why the fuck you got that crunchy bitch Alisha thinkin' she can just step to me."
"I don't know a fuckin' Alisha, yo!"
"Fatz ... so you just about to lie in my face in front of fuckin' company? So if I snuff you in your shit right now Imma be jutified right?"
"Yo, Squeek-"
Minnie moved from in front of me and got in Fatz's face as they began to argue more. I crawled down to the floor to distract the little boy. I didn't like that they were deciding to argue in front of him but what the fuck was I supposed to say about it? I had just met Minnie and I'm sure I'm the last person she'd want to hear any parenting tips from. The boy seemed unbothered which told me they'd done this in front of him often. But that shit wasn't a new concept in a toxic relationship. I grabbed one of the cars the boy wasn't paying any attention to and started examining it.
"My uncle DahDah got that for me," his little innocent voice said to me.
"It's a cool car. You like playing with cars?"
He nodded. "I wanna drive in Nascar like my PopPop watch on TV."
"You have a long way to go before then, little man."
"Nuh uh! I'm five and a half."
I laughed. "What's your name, shortie?"
"Gerald Junior. My mommy said I'm named after my daddy. But she don't like bein' confused wit da names so she call me GusGus."
"I like that name. I'm Sin, I stay next door."
I looked over my shoulder and saw based off of Minnie's body language that she was about to kick that arguement up a notch. I turned back to Gus and smiled slightly.
"If you ever need me, just come knock on my door, okay?"
Gus grinned and picked up his cars and ran towards the back of the house. I got up off the floor and walked towards the front door to leave. I'm sure the aid Minnie was about to do to my face was no longer on her mind.
The sun had set and the street lights were shining bright on the street. I looked over and saw the same lady from yesterday on her stoop smoking a ciggeratte. I waved to her shyly and she waved back, blowing out a big cloud of smoke. She held her hand out as if to offer me one. I shook my head.
"I'm only seventeen," I said loud enough for her to hear me from across the street.
"Girl, that shit don't mean much lately. I heard all the commotion earlier and figured your ass was stressed and needed a smoke."
I chuckled. "Stressed ain't even the word."
"Mmhm, Gena your step mother right?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Ma'am? Do I look that old?"
Honestly, no she didn't. The only thing that would possibly show aging was her full head of grey head. However, she didn't have wrinkles and she damn sure didn't dress like an elderly lady.
"I guess not when you put it like that," I finally said.
"They call me Miss Taylor around here. You might as well call me that too."
"Thank you, Miss Taylor. Have a good night."
"You too, love! Come knock on my door if you decide you want that smoke."
I rolled my eyes and walked through my gate. The last thing I wanted was one of that lady's bowgees. I jogged lightly up the steps and walked into the house. All the lights were on and music was playing loudly upstairs. The bitches were home. I made a beeline to the basement door to avoid them entirely.
"Where the hell you been at?"
I stopped in front of the basement and swallowed hard. I could smell the liquor all the way from where I stood. Gena was drunk. It was rare that she let herself get fucked up when my father was alive. It seemed it only happened when he was gone on a work trip or working late. Those were the times I dreaded the most. I never said anything to my father about the things Gena would say and do while she was drunk. A part of me felt like he was going to dismiss it like he did everything else. The other part of me was too scared to talk about it, not knowing what Gena would do if I did. I swallowed hard and turned around. Gena took a swig out of the flask she had in her hand and wobbled closer to me.
"I said ... where the hell you been at?"
"I-I was at the nieghbor's house."
"What the fuck happened to your face?"
I didn't want to tell her that Alisha had hit me. I tried that once before and it did nothing but make Alisha fight me more and make Gena pissed at me. She always told me a girl like me just needs to take whatever happened to me. That the fact that Alisha was even giving me enough attention to fight me should be enough for me. Eventually, I started keeping my mouse closed and dealing with the wounds of our scrapping on my own.
"I got into with some girls around the way," I lied.
"Mm, I should've left your trifflin' ass back on the island. I ain't bring you all the way out here to start trouble. Somethin' happen to you I ain't helpin' you. You understand me?"
"Yes ma'am," I mumbled.
"What was that?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Mmhm, that's what I thought."
She put the flask to her mouth again then took a couple steps closer to where we were eye to eye. Her gaze trailed my face and down my body. I could feel my heart beating in my throat as she reached for the strap of the tank top I was wearing. I had been through this with her so many times, I knew not to move. It only made everything worse. I figured out quickly that if I let her do what she wanted to me, the quicker she'd get done.
"Ma! I need help puttin' my lashes on!" Allyson yelled from upstairs.
Gena's hand froze on my strap. She looked up at me with lazy eyes and then smirked.
"Better luck next time," she slurred and then wobbled away.
My chest heaved as the tears began to flood my eyes. I quickly opened the basement door and closed it behind me. I ran down the steps went over to the banged up recliner that was in the corner of the room. There was a small window above it and I could hear the busyness of the city through the thin glass.
"In my own little corner ... in my own little chair ... I could be whatever I want to be," I sang silently as the tears fell down my face. It was a make believe song my mother and I used to sing when I was a kid. Every time Gena would abuse me, I would always sing it to myself until I fell asleep. Although this time, I don't think it's going to work.
"All alone ... in my own ... little chair."