Excuse my mistakes. Also, check out my new book Crooked if you haven't already :). Thanks for reading guys.
Chapter 23
Dre
A week later...
Everybody left the church, leaving me in there alone.
I heard footsteps coming towards my direction and I didn't even bother to turn to look at who it was.
I felt the person pat my back before sitting down next to me.
"Dre I kno how you feeling, I'm sorry." Money said. I couldn't even respond.
I was just trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I had lost my baby.
"What you wanna do?" Money asked me as we both looked up at the closed small white casket.
I just shook my head and stared down at my hands, not ready to talk about it.
I was suppose to protect her and I couldn't even do that. Now she was gone and she ain't never coming back.
The guilt was eating me alive and I swore to God that if Patrice had something to do with this, I was gonna kill her, straight up.
The gunman didn't even point the gun towards me, he emptied the bullets into Caramel's body. One hit her head which was why I had to have a close casket because her face was disfigured.
"Dre I'm not letting her or anybody who gotta do with this live. We in the house of The Lord, that's why I ain't do nothin yet, but I swear Dre, if you don't kill her, I will and that's on my mama and Caramel."
The words he said resonated in my head.
"I needa go to the bathroom." I heard Money's footsteps descend away from me.
I got up when the people that got ready to carry Caramel's casket to the hearse came.
"Please be careful.." I told them. They nodded and we started to head out of the church.
Mickie
"You bitch!" Patrice yelled, running up on Dre as soon as he came out of the church. Her palm connected with his cheek and you could hear the loud 'clap' sound.
Onlookers from the funeral looked in shock at the scene that was about to unfold.
"You got my baby killed! YOUU got my baby killed!" Patrice screamed, tears running down her face as she pummeled her fists onto Dre's chest. "I told you! I told you! You ain't wanted to listen!"
By the look of Aubree's face, she wanted to step in, but she already promised me that she would behave especially at my cousin's funeral.
"Get out of my face," Dre said, calmly not even looking at her. I could tell that he was heartbroken. I could see the pain in his eyes even though his face was blank and cold.
I was disappointed in Patrice for acting up because now was not the time. They had both just lost a child and she was acting a fool.
"Naw nigga! I ain't gettin outta shit! I knew I should've let Nikko kill you when the chance was given! I hate you! I hate you!" Patrice started punching, slapping, kicking and even spitting on Dre.
I was about to step in, but Tre did before me.
"Get the fuck off him," Tre pushed her with such force that it landed her on the ground.
I hadn't seen him in so long, that I forgot how long it was.
He had looked much grown from the last time I had seen him and his eyes seemed much darker even though the specks of green were still there.
I felt bad for him on the low because every time he came back to California it was because he had to attend a funeral.
"You got dis nigga hitting on me Dre! You ain't even gonna help? And you got the nerve to bring this hoe to our baby funeral, nigga!" Patrice referred to Aubree as she hopped up from the concrete sidewalk.
I was ashamed to call this girl my cousin.
Auntie Chyna had to run and grab Patrice back because she wasn't giving up.
She was acting like a mother scorned, but the sad part about it was that she never was a mother to Caramel.
"Nah, let her go! She wanna set Dre up and get my goddaughter murdered! Bitch imma see you sooner or later!" Tre threatened.
"I would never set him up! You liar!"
A half of me believed her and a half didn't. I knew Patrice wasn't that grimy, but it just didn't sit well with me that Dre was trying to drop Caramel off to Patrice and that's when the gun man emerged.
Something was definitely fishy, but everything that was done in the dark would soon come to the light and I was just waiting on it.
+++++
On Monday, I was in school and on my way to my second period class. I was emotionally and physically drained.
I didn't know if I could shed anymore tears after last night. I loved Caramel with all my heart.
That was my baby, even when Patrice didn't love her.
I would miss her dearly, but I knew she was in a better place.
I sighed, leaning my head against my open locker. I was so tired of everything and on top of that my hormones were on a high today.
I cursed Money out for no reason in the morning just because he asked me what I wanted for breakfast.
Aubree was in her second period of math class and I didn't see her all morning so that added on to my bad mood.
Out of nowhere a girl screamed. I jumped a little and turned to her, looking at her crazy.
"Sorry! I just got accepted to NYU!" She explained to me, pointing at the letter in her hands.
I mustered up enough strength to give her a small smile. "Congratulations."
"Thank you!" The girl smiled before running off down the hallway.
I felt a twinge of pain in my heart, knowing that most of the kids in my senior year including Aubree would be going off to college or the army, navy or marine and I would be stuck at home barefoot and pregnant-- raising a child.
I didn't like the sound of that, so I made a mental note to visit Mrs. Vargas later to talk about my future.
I felt a presence coming up besides me and when I looked to the left of me, I saw Alaysia. I rolled my eyes and closed my locker back, already having my textbook for my Spanish II class in my hands.
"I heard about your cousin." Alaysia said sounding as if she was sad. "I am truly sorry."
I could see straight through this bitch as if she was made out of glass.
I rolled my eyes again and tried to walk around her, but she stepped in front of me, not letting me get by.
"I am not in the mood today." I warned.
"Woah, woah, calm down. I can't talk to you, Mickie mouse?" Alaysia taunted, calling me my nickname Money made for me.
I didn't even know how she knew what he called me. That nickname was between us only.
I pushed her, making her stumble back a few steps. "Get the fuck outta my face!" I snapped.
Alaysia remained her composure. "I just wanted to ask you why do you have such bad luck? It's like everybody in your life dies. First it's your poor daddy, then your sorry excuse of a mommy, then sweet little Caramel. I wouldn't be surprised if Aubree or Money dies next."
I felt my adrenaline rushing and my heart beating 80 miles per minute. All I saw was Alaysia's smiling face and then I saw red.
My Spanish textbook smacked roughly against her face and all I know is then we started fighting.
"Worldstar!" Somebody yelled out once Alaysia dragged my hair, making my head go down as I continued to swing wildly.
She continued pulling my hair to make me fall, to give her an advantage, but it backfired because I landed on top of her.
Alaysia was pulling and holding on to my hair for dear life, but I blacked out as I punched her repeatedly.
I felt arms around my waist and me being lifted off of Alaysia, but I was still angry especially when I saw two of my tracks on the floor.
One of the staff members was holding Alaysia as she yelled, and fought to get out of her grasp, but all the while she had a little smirk on her face.
"Hahaha! Watch and see hoe, just watch and see!" Alaysia shouted. Her face was red as hell and you could visibly see that her lip was busted. "That's why I fucked you up, trick!"
"Fuck you bitch! I'm tired of being nice to people! Fuck you and everybody in this school!" I fumed, kicking my legs to get out of the person's grasp, but he was too strong.
"How that textbook taste bitch!" I yelled. I stopped fighting to get out of the person's grasp, but I couldn't control my mouth.
"Money never wanted you, he said you was a hoe who was only good for the pussy! Bitch, you wish you had my place, you will never be Money's girlfriend stop trying, boo!"
I was satisfied once I saw Alaysia trying twice her hardest to get out of Miss Betsy's hold. The staff member who was holding me pulled me to the guidance counselor's office while Alaysia kept hooting and hollering, yelling out threats.
In there, I could see that my weave was disheveled and I had a long scratch underneath my eye, but otherwise than that, I was good.
"Mickie, what's wrong?" Mrs. Vargas asked, looking at my hair and my scratch.
"I just had a fight with Alaysia." I was gnawing on my lip as if it was some meal and I was bouncing my right leg up and down.
Mrs. Vargas looked at me like she was disappointed. "Mickie, fighting while you're pregnant? What is wrong with you?"
I suddenly felt ashamed of myself. I had forgotten I was pregnant in the heat of the moment because I was so mad.
"Mrs. Vargas, she has been bullying and tormenting me ever since I could remember. I was holding it in for so long. I haven't done anything to her or anybody, I've been nice to everybody I've met and I'm so tired. She just talked about my dead cousin that I had to bury yesterday and when she talked about my father and mother for a second time, I couldn't control myself. This is not the first time she's said something about them."
I held the tears at my waterline back.
Mrs. Vargas looked at me sadly. "Mickie, why haven't you told anybody?"
I just stood there not knowing what to say.
"Don't let anybody ever have that much power over you to let you put your hands on them. I know she pushed you to your breaking point, but kill her with kindness. 'Cause look at her now, she's happy that you finally broke to the point that you felt you had to put your hands on her."
I nodded, taking everything she said in.
I heard my name being called to go to the principal's office over the loud speakers and I just knew I was in trouble.
"Thanks again, Mrs. Vargas." I said, turning around to go to the principal's office.
"Oh, Mickie wait. Take this back." She handed my acceptance letter from Harvard to me. "Plaque it up somewhere, just so you could say you got accepted to Harvard." She had a small smile on her face.
I looked at it. I knew that I wanted to go to college if it was at Harvard or not.
That was something I always wanted to do ever since I was a child. I guess I just would have to go after I had my baby.
++++
Alaysia and I had gotten suspended for a week. My perfect record of no suspensions had been tarnished and right now I couldn't give a fuck.
I stood outside of my high school, texting Aubree who was in Chemistry class. She had heard I fought Alaysia and now she wanted to fight her too.
Money's white Aston Martin pulled up in front of me. "What's wrong baby? Why I had to come get you from school? You good?"
Money got out of the car to open the door for me and gave me a tender kiss on the lips. "What happened to ya hair?" he questioned, staring at the scratch under my eye.
I was too ashamed to answer as I got in the car. I knew he was gonna kill me.
Money closed the door before getting back in his seat.
"Oh, you still mad from earlier?" Money arched his eyebrows at me, trying not to laugh.
I shook my head no as I looked out the window.
"What happened to ya hair?" Money repeated. "You got a scratch under ya eye."
I didn't say anything.
"You not gon say shit? I'm talking to you."
"I got into a fight.." I said with my head down. I could feel Money's eyes burning a hole into the side of my head.
"The fuck wrong wit you? Whatchu mean you got in a fight?! Wit who?!" Money barked at me aggressively.
By now he had pulled over and his undivided attention was on me.
"Alaysia.."
Money sucked his teeth, shaking his head at me. "You so fuckin' stupid man. Gonna fight a bitch while you pregnant. I can't believe ya dumass. I thought you was better than that."
"But she said something about my parents and Caramel," I tried to justify my actions.
"Who the fuck care about what a bitch gotta say? You gonna fight somebody cause of what they said and you pregnant, now what if you get a miscarriage? I ain't even gonna feel sorry for ya ass, forreal."
By that time, I had started crying because of his harsh words.
I felt ashamed and embarrassed that I had let Alaysia get me to the point that I had to fight her while pregnant.
She knew what she was doing. If I had lost the baby Money and I had created, I knew I would never forgive myself.
15 minutes later, Money pulled up in front of the doctors and didn't even open the door for me.
We entered the building and Money went straight to the receptionist.
"I wanna make a appointment for Dr. Henderson."
"Does she have an appointment?" The receptionist glanced at me, knowing that Dr. Henderson was also an obstetrician.
"I just fuckin said-- Nah." Money was highly aggravated, but he refrained from spazzing out on the lady.
"What's her name?"
"Mickie Thomas."
"Okay, well you can go and take a seat and I'll go see if she'll take you in." The receptionist smiled, trying to be friendly.
Money didn't return the smile. I went to go sit in the waiting room and a few seconds later Money did as well, but he sat on one of the small plastic chairs far away from me.
He was really mad at me, I could tell even though his face was straight.
My name was soon called and we went to the back to Dr. Henderson's office.
"What brings you guys here today?" I didn't want to say I was fighting somebody, so I decided to let Money speak for me.
"We just wanna check up on the baby."
"Alright."
After the impromptu checkout, Dr. Henderson said there was nothing wrong with my baby and I thanked the Lord.
I was very lucky and blessed that she or he wasn't hurt in the process of me fighting.
As Money drove somewhere, it was silent in the car. No music was playing and both of us wasn't talking.
"Money, I'm sorry. I know what I did was stupid, please forgive me." I finally spoke up.
I noticed he pulled up in front of his grandma's house.
"I got somethin to do, so I'll get you later." Money said, blandly.
I stared at him. "Okay."
I tried to lean in and kiss him, but he jerked his face back.
I looked at him defeated. I knew he was mad and there was nothing I could do to change his mind about it.
I wasn't mad about him being mad at me because I endangered our child, knowingly.
"Be careful.." I told him. He just looked at me.
I walked up to the porch and knocked on Tahlia's door. When she opened it up, Money sped off.
"Hey baby!" She greeted me with a hug. Me and Money sometimes went to her house on the weekends and sometimes he would drop me off and come and get me late in the night on school days.
Over that time, I had built a friendship with Tahlia and I was very much close to her.
"Hey..." I dragged off, giving a small smile.
"What's wrong? Money told me about your cousin and I'm so sorry to hear that! What is going on with this world!"
"Thank you and I'm fine." I feigned a smile.
I followed Tahlia to the kitchen, where we always seemed to hang out. I respected Tahlia. She always told me things that Money had never told me himself.
That his mother was a prostitute to take care of him and his brothers and that his father was Money's mom's pimp.
"How's the pregnancy? Everything's going okay, right?"
"It's going fine."
"That's good to hear. I can't wait for my great grandbaby!"
Tahlia and I began talking and I realized I could sit and talk to her all day.
She was that cool and down to earth.
We started talking about Money and I really did love him. We had a child on the way and I was confused that he never said I love you to me before. I knew that he wasn't good with his feelings, but still it would be nice to hear. When I expressed this to Tahlia, she responded:
"Mickie, actions speaks louder than words and with the things Jayceon does for you, I can very much tell that he loves you, sweetheart. I can tell by the way he looks at you, the way he always talks about you even when you're not here. He may not say it, but he loves you. I can see you two being together for a very long time."
Dre
I turned the headlights of my Range Rover off as I sat back in the drivers seat, lurking.
I was waiting for Money to show up at the spot that we planned to meet up at before we were gonna come at Nikko's last and only trap house that he had left in California. Tre was coming along too.
Money was convinced that Patrice had one of Nikko's men kill Caramel. After we hit the trap up, we would be on our way to kill Patrice.
I couldn't do nothing but shake my head. Don't trust these bitches.
I watched the house intently and it seemed like nobody was in it, but I knew better.
Looking at my dashboard, I saw that it was 9:17 p.m., I sucked my teeth, getting impatient. I turned around and started looking for my phone in the backseat.
My heart sank to the pit of my stomach once I saw a Doc McStuffins doll sitting on one of the seats in the back.
I broke down as tears fell down my face like rain. I was just mad and angry at the world. Why couldn't the man kill me instead?
My head jerked to the left once I heard somebody knocking on my tinted window.
I saw Tre dressed in all black and I opened the passengers side for him once I suck it up like a man and wiped my tears.
A few minutes Money came and he just looked annoyed and aggy.
"Tell me why another one of our traps been hit up."
I sucked my teeth rubbing my hand over my face.
"How much missin'? I'll pay it for y'all," Tre spoke up.
"Nah I'm not even worried bout the money." Money said and he shouldn't be because he owned traps all through out the state of California, but it was just the fact that somebody knew where we kept our shit at.
"I heard it's gettin dangerous down here." Tre said.
"Yeah."
"Y'all niggas can always come down to New York, I got shit on lock over there."
"I'll consider your offer." Money replied and he looked like he was really thinking about that shit.
Minutes later, we got ready to invade the trap house. As soon as we came in, we started shooting.
There was hardly anybody in there, so we came over prepared for no reason.
"Check up stairs," Money told me as he looked around the small trap. I did, my gun drawn just in case somebody popped out.
I ain't even see nobody and I thought nobody was up here, until I heard low moaning. I followed the sound to a room with the door cracked open.
When I opened it all the way, I was shocked at what I saw.
Patrice was on her knees sucking some man's, who I assumed was a worker, dick.
The man put his hands up in surrender once he saw I had a gun in my hand. "Oh shit fam, don't shoot, man. Don't shoot."
Patrice turned around and looked at me. That bitch was clearly high off something. Her pupils looked dilated and her dark purple lipstick was smeared.
Her hair was all fucked up.
"Hey dadddyy," She slurred.
The man's eyes widen as he looked back and forth between me and Patrice.
I let off a shot. The bullet hit the man in the chest as he fell back and slid downwards against the wall, his blood leaving a trail as he did.
Patrice didn't even looked shocked or startled. She just glared at me with hatred.
"F-fuck you, you no good low down dirty ass muthafucka! Killin people like you somebody, f-fuck you." Patrice spat, highly intoxicated.
POW!
The bullet pierced Patrice's left shoulder as she let out a scream and I could hear cop sirens off in the distance.
"So you gonna kill me now?" Patrice stared up at me as she pressed her hand against her bullet wound.
She pulled it away, crimson red blood staining her hand. I felt hatred and rage consume my body. I lifted my leg and kicked her in the face.
Her head snapped back as her body fell onto the floor.
"Any last words?" I said, standing over her limp body.
Patrice mustered up whatever strength she had left to spit blood on my shoe. A tooth came out of her mouth along with it.
"Yeah... she wasn't yours anyways, nigga!"
POW!
POW!
POW!
Bullets flew from my caliber as I shot into Patrice's corpse multiple times.
"Dre, nigga let's go!" Money emerged at the door, but I didn't stop shooting.
POW!
POW!
POW!
POW!
POW!
"Aight nigga you got it, you got it," Money said, but I didn't stop. He had to wrestle the gun out of my hands.
We both looked at Patrice's body that was riddled with about 40 bullet holes, blood pouring out of each one.
Money shook his head. "Tsss, let's go man. Fuck that bitch, we ain't going to jail over her."
We exited the traphouse just as stealthily as we came in. Patrice was dead, but it didn't help the aching feeling in my chest nor would it bring Caramel back.