"Volleyball tryouts on Monday. Are you gone try out with me?" Namiko asked as she sat in the fluffy bean bag in the corner of Ember's room.
Ember shook her head, "You know that I'm terrible at sports."
"Me too but I have to get into something after school so I won't be home with my trifling ass dad. Besides, they letting anybody on the team. Not many girls want to play volleyball at school, they too busy trying to be these funky ass cheerleaders." Namiko said.
"Why they got to be all that?" Ember asked.
"Because Madison lame ass quit track and now she on the cheerleading team. You know them cheerleaders stick together and anybody that's cool with Madison a funky ass hoe, simple."
Ember giggled, "I guess. Volleyball don't seem too bad. I'll try out with you."
"See, that's why you're my best friend." Namiko said.
"Mhm."
"So are we just gonna sit here all day? It's Saturday. Let's go to the park. I know there's a basketball game going or something. It be some cute boys out there." Namiko said.
"I got to ask my mama. I know she gone send Damien with us." Ember said.
Namiko rolled her eyes, "Damien needs to stay home. He be ruining the fun with all that attitude."
"Tell me about it. I'll be back. I'm going to ask my mom." Ember left the room, leaving Namiko alone.
Traveling down the hall to her mothers room, Ember stopped once she reached the guest room. The sounds that were coming from the bedroom were making her sick to her stomach. She had no clue how he managed to sneak a girl up in his room. Ember continued down the hall to her parents room where Justin laid across the foot of the bed while her mother sat up with her back against the headboard looking through a magazine.
"Mom, can I go to the park with Namiko?" Ember asked.
"You know you're supposed to be on punishment."
"Dad has already taken my phone, my tv and my laptop. The only thing I have to do is sit in my room all day and stare at walls. Can I least go to the park or something?"
Sahara looked up at her daughter for a second, "Better not be going to meet no boys. Be back before dark."
Ember smiled as she made her way back to her room.
"Well?" Namiko asked.
"We can go, just can't be out there all night." Ember said as she put on her sandals.
"Oh thank God." Namiko said with relief.
Since Namiko didn't want to walk, she drove her car to the park.
It was Saturday so the park was the go to hang out spot and it was crowded. Boys were playing basketball and just a few feet away, more boys were playing football. Somewhere on the other side of the park, there was a volleyball game going on. Since Namiko knew it was a girl's game, she didn't want to go on that side.
Namiko and Ember sat on the sidelines watching them play.
"Cameron is so cute." Namiko said.
"Who's Cameron?" Ember asked.
"How do you not know who Cameron is? He doesn't go to our school anymore. He's in college now and plays football."
"Oh." Ember says uninterested. She could see Malik and Trevor out on the court but not Adonis. He wasn't there.
"Ember why do you seem depressed?"
Ember looked over at Namiko, "What do you mean? I'm not depressed."
"Ever since you broke up with Adonis and the whole thing with your father, you don't seem happy anymore."
"Because I'm not." Ember admitted.
"I dump all of my problems on you so it's your turn. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really."
"When you're ready, I'm all ears." Namiko says.
Ember only nodded. It was silence between the two for a few moments. Ember debated on if she wanted to tell Namiko about her relationship. She would find out soon either way and she didn't want to keep this secret from her best friend.
"Adonis and I are kind of seeing each other again." Ember said.
Namiko's eyes widened, "And you weren't going to fill me in? When did this happen?"
"Yesterday. We met up after school and talked about it." Ember says.
"What about what your dad said? What about Damien? You know he's going to go back and snitch."
Ember shook her head, "Honestly, I don't care anymore. I don't want my father trying to run every single thing that I do with my life. I'm old enough to make my own decisions."
"I feel you. Your mom and dad be tripping for no reason at all. Besides, you and Adonis are cute I guess." Namiko said.
"Cute? Why the change of heart? I thought you didn't like him."
"I didn't want to disrespect my man by being cool with someone he didn't like but that's all over now." Namiko said.
Ember didn't get a chance to respond as Malik approached them. Sweat glistening off of his shirtless body.
"What's up Em?" Malik greeted.
"Hey Malik. How'd the game go?" Ember asked.
"We lost because our teammates was trash." Malik shouted across the court. His teammates waved him off making him chuckle. "What y'all doing out here?"
"Just watching the game."
"That's what's up. Namiko you tryin' to come out with me tonight? It's a party at the lounge." Malik said.
Namiko slightly rolled her eyes only causing Ember to nudge her a little. Malik was cool.
"Nope."
Malik chuckled, "Alright. That's coo. Aye Bre, you tryin to hit the lounge with me tonight? It's on me."
"I guess I'll go." Namiko blurted. She felt a bit of jealousy.
"Nah, I'll take Bre instead." Malik climbed to his feet and traveled over to the girl that he had been talking to.
"He didn't have to do me dirty like that though." Namiko said.
Ember looked over at her friend before they each bursted out laughing.
"You're the one that turned him down." Ember laughed.
"Whatever. Malik knows what's up."
"What does that mean?" Ember questioned.
"Nothing." Namiko said.
"Okay girl."
Ember and Namiko spent a couple more hours at the court before Ember had to leave.
_
Adonis sat on the edge of Paisley's bed while she held Jr in her lap. He clicked through the channels of her TV not knowing what she wanted to watch because she had always been so picky.
Today, Adonis decided to spend the day home with his family. His parents were down in the living room watching the news.
"Pais, I don't know what you want to watch. So here." Adonis gave her the remote. She took it and began to browse through the channels. Jr climbed from Paisleys lap and made his way across the room and out into the hall.
"Jr, come back." Adonis said. He gave it a few minutes but he didn't. Sighing, Adonis climbed to his feet to search for him.
He found him downstairs sitting with his parents. Jr loved his grandparents dearly. He'd been staying with Adonis since Friday night and he would not leave his grandparents side.
"Adonis, we need to talk to you about something." Katrina said.
"Why do you insist on jumping in his business?" Ricky asked his wife.
"We talked about this already, Rick. I just want him to be sure."
"Alright." Ricky held his hands up as if to surrender. He would never win an argument with his wife so each time, he let her have it.
Adonis took a seat on the sofa beside his son and his mother, "What's this about?"
Katrina sighed as she placed a hand on her son's shoulder, "Well, you're a really really good father to Jr and I know that you love him dearly."
"Ma, please get to what you saying. I hate when you beat around the bush like that."
"Have you ever thought to get a paternity test for him? I mean, Sasha is..." Katrina paused as she thought of the right words to say, "Well, Sasha is out there and you can never be too sure."
Adonis looked at his mother and then over at his father with his brow raised, "Are you serious right now? Jr is my son."
"You have to be sure. He only looks like his mother if you want me to be honest with you." Katrina said.
"Pops." Adonis called.
Ricky didn't say anything, he only looked away.
"He has her everything, Adonis. Nothing of ours. I know that he could just look like her but still. I want you to be sure that this is your son."
"So you want me to take the test? Aight I will." Adonis mumbled. He looked over at Jr who stared quietly across the room.
Without another word, he lifted Jr into his arms and carried him upstairs to his room. He placed him on the bed and sat beside him. Adonis studied him for a moment.
His mother was right, but he was so sure that Jr was his. There was no way that he couldn't be. Sasha and Adonis were together for so long and he didn't think that she would step out and get pregnant by someone else.
Staring at jr, while his mother's words repeated through his mind, he was starting to have doubts. Maybe he was tripping and usually he didn't let people put stuff inside of his head. Adonis picked up his phone, searching through his contacts for Sasha's number. Once he found it, he called her. It took her a while to answer.
"Adonis, what you calling my phone for?" Sasha asked.
"Where you at? What's all that noise in the background?" Adonis questioned.
Sasha kissed her teeth, " It's none of your business okay? Why you calling me? I'm not coming to pick Jr up either. It's your weekend."
"I ain't calling for that so chill out. We need to talk."
"About what? Is it about jr?"
"Yeah."
"Okay..."
"Before you got pregnant, have you been sleeping around on me?"
Sasha frowned, "Okay first of all, I know this is not going where I think it's going."
"Just answer the question, Sash."
"No, I wasn't sleeping around on you. Were you sleeping around on me?"
"Nah."
"I don't believe it."
Adonis sucked his teeth, "Shit, I don't believe you either."
"Then if you don't we can go take a test right now but that is your son."
"Aight we'll see."
Before Sasha could continue with her slick comments, Adonis hung up in her ear. He didn't want to hear anything else from her until they made an appointment.
Adonis looked behind him where Jr had crawled under the covers.
"You sleepy lil man?" Adonis asked him.
Jr nodded, and fake yawned, "I'm tired."
"Alright, you want the light off?"
Jr nodded again. Adonis turned the light off and laid beside him. He couldn't imagine not being in Jr's life.
Within minutes, Jr was fast asleep. Adonis knew that letting him nap so late in the day would result in Jr. being awake playing with his toys all night. Adonis climbed out of the bad and traveled down the hall to his sisters room.
Paisley's room door was cracked a bit and her sniffles could be heard. Pushing the door further open, he stepped inside.
"Paisley?" He asked.
She was sitting in the middle of her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest. Paisley's tears fell, as she brought her hands up to her fast trying to hide them. She hated to cry, especially in front of her brother because he would never let it go and if she didn't talk to him, he'd go get their parents.
Adonis sat on the bed beside her, and looked at her with concern, "Paisley? What's wrong with you? You got to speak up."
Paisley didn't respond, the lump in her throat was blocking her words. He let her cry, until he couldn't cry anymore. The room had become silent.
The lump in her throat was gone, but she didn't know what to say. She hadn't said a word to anyone ever since she returned home. It's not that she was ignoring them, she just couldn't figure out the right words.
Paisley turned to her brother, who fiddled with his fingers, "I can't keep holding this on."
Adonis looked at her, a bit shocked that she had spoken for the first time. Seeing Paisley broken, and crying hurt his heart.
"I'm ready." Paisley says lowly.
She was ready, ready to tell it all. The things that she had been through, nobody deserved it. If she kept it all in, then no one could help her. The things that she's been feeling inside were terrible. The images haunted her mind daily and her thoughts were becoming suicidal.
_
Paisley stood nervously in the middle of the living room. It had been weeks and here she was, finally about to speak her truth. She knew that people were going to wonder why she didn't speak up sooner.
Truth be told, she was afraid. Afraid that they would accuse her of lying like they did everyone else who came forward. The thing is, the man that held her hostage was known.
Very known.
"Paisley, please, take your time. There's no rush, we got all day." Detective Judith said.
Paisley looked at her parents, her brother and then at the detective. She wanted all of them present because after talking about once, she didn't think that she could stomach talking about it again.
It was sick.
"I'll start from the beginning." Paisley said. She took a seat on the soft chair. The room was silent and all eyes were on her. She could see the look of anger in Adonis's face. Telling this story would only make him angrier but Paisley continued not leaving out a single part.
"I was just going to my friends house, Kayla. I've never had a problem walking her road. It was safe, or so I thought. There was a black car, that followed me. I'm not sure if he followed me from my house. I don't know how long that I've been getting watched. On that day, I realized that the car was following me so I ran. I ran as fast as my feet would take me. I even screamed out for help but then I got exhausted and tripped. I knew that I wasn't going to get away from this person."
Paisley paused. She could feel herself tearing up. Katrina climbed to her feet and traveled over to her daughter, placing a hand on her back to comfort her.
Paisley continued, "When he got out, he wore a suit and a mask so I couldn't see him, his skin tone or anything. I remember pleading for my life but he ignored that. He hit me, twice, making me lose consciousness. I don't know where he drove me, but I do know that he kept me in an empty dark room."
"So you have no clue where he took you?"
Paisley shook her head, "No, I didn't. He kept me chained to a floor. My hands and ankles. He'd only let me out so that I could use the bathroom. He fed me himself every other day just so I could have a little energy to stay alive. It gets worse."
Katrina rubbed her back again.
"One day he was being extremely nice to me. I didn't know why but I thought that he was going to let me go. He removed those chains, and let me out of the room."
"Can you describe his house?" Detective Judith asked.
"It was empty, no furniture or anything. The windows were boarded up so I couldn't see the outside."
Detective Judith nodded as she scribbled across her notepad, "What did he do when you were out of that room."
"I tried to fight him off, but I was too weak. He forced me upstairs to another bedroom except, it wasn't empty. There was only a bed in the middle of the room." Paisley became quiet.
"What happened there?"
Paisley's tears started to fall again, "He raped me."
Paisley felt so disgusting that no amount of showers could make her feel any different. He touched her more than once. It had become an everyday thing. It was as if he enjoyed seeing her pain, seeing her cry because when she pleaded for him to stop, he went harder. She couldn't wait for him to stop. She wanted anyone to come save her from something so painful. The only thing that she could do was shut her eyes and pray that it would all be over.
Each day felt worse than the next. She'd even asked him to take her life already so that she wouldn't have to continue to live through this misery for the rest of her life. He only laughed at her as if something was as funny.
"I can't take this." Adonis leaned forward and placed his head in his hands, forcing his tears back but they fell anyway. He quickly wiped his face. He wasn't the only one in the room, crying, so was their mother. None of them knew what Paisley had really went through until now.
"How often did this happen?" Detective Judith went on to ask.
"Everyday." Paisley said.
"Can you describe to me what he looks like? His clothes? Did you see his car or anything?" Detective Judith ask.
Paisley nodded, "He gave me his name and I knew of him because people talk about him and not in a good way."
"So, you're saying that you knew him personally? Why would he give you his name?"
Paisley shrugged, "No, I don't know him personally but everyone knows of him. He's a dangerous man."
"Who did this to you, Paisley?" Adonis asked beating the detective to the punch. He was up on his feet now. He was tired of waiting, tired of her beating around the bush. Ricky looked over at his son, wanting him to calm down. When something upset him, there was no calming him down.
"Ezra. Ezra Young."