Authors: Tina Brooks McKinney

Snapped (Urban Renaissance) (6 page)

Her comment stung, and even though I knew it was her anger talking, it still hurt. I wanted to ask her how that worked for her because she’d been slaving at three jobs just to maintain this raggedy-ass house, and she had her diploma.

“Wipe that damn smirk off your face and go mop the floor, and while you’re down there, wax it, too!”

I rolled out of bed under her watchful glare. Even though I wound up with additional chores, I still made out better than my brother, ’cause he had to clean the bathroom with a toothbrush.

“And you’re going back to school in the morning, mister.” She walked off in a huff toward her bedroom. “Should have had my own damn baby and let Ronald raise his own damn kids.” My face felt tight, and I was afraid one sharp motion could cause it to crack in half.

I gave her the finger behind her back.

“I saw that, you rotten bastard.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

GAVIN MILLS

Moms wasn’t playing about my going back to school. She took off from her day job and personally escorted me. The whole way there, she talked about how she should have never given up her baby for me and my sorry-ass dad.

“You didn’t have to come with me.” I was dragging my feet because I didn’t want anyone to know we were together.

“Like hell I didn’t. You’re going to get a high school education even if I have to sit up in the class with you every damn day.”

I paused midstep. Surely she had to be kidding. I would look like the biggest loser in the world if that were to happen.

“Come on, boy. You don’t want us to be late.”

I felt like crying when she yanked open the front door to the school I’d sworn to never step foot in again.

“Which way to the office?” My mother reached back and yanked me beside her. Her voice was so loud it practically bounced off the walls.

I was so embarrassed I was afraid to look up. “Down this hallway and on the right.” I started walking faster.

The sound of her heels clicked harshly against the ceramic tiled floors. Fortunately, the first bell had already rung, so the hallways were clear of other students. The morning announcements were being read as I held open the office door for my mother. She marched past me and made her way to the secretary’s desk.

“May I help you?” the secretary said.

“Yes, my name is Gina Meadows and I would like to see about getting my son back in school.”

She looked past my mother’s shoulder at me and her eyes narrowed in recognition. “Isn’t he already a student at the school?”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

I prayed the floor would open up and swallow my body.

“Well, uh . . . now that I think about it, it’s been a minute.”

“That’s my point.” My mother looked back at me with a smug expression on her face.

If it was her intent to embarrass the hell out of me, she succeeded.

“Have a seat and someone will be with you.”

My mother grabbed me by the arm and pulled me over to a bench in the corner of the office. Part of me wanted to snatch my arm away and find my own chair, but I was no fool. If I’d have done that, she would not have hesitated to go upside my head.

“Don’t you buck up at me, boy, or I will wear your ass out right here in this office.”

“I didn’t do nothing.” I shoved my hands in my pockets to keep from giving her the finger again.

They kept us waiting for at least half an hour before the principal finally came to meet with us.

Principal Gaynor said, “Ms. Meadows?”

My mother stood up and pulled me to my feet with her. “Yes, that’s me.”

“Come with me.” Principal Gaynor turned and started walking to her office, which I was very familiar with. She held the door open for us, then we took a seat in front of her desk. She closed the door behind us.

I slumped over in my seat.

“Sit up straight,” my mother prodded.

I sat up.

“How may I help you this morning?” Principal Gaynor asked.

“It has come to my attention that my son has not been attending class. I want to see what I need to do to get him back in school.”

“Ms. Meadows, the school year is almost over. Gavin has missed a lot of time.”

I hated that they were discussing me as if I weren’t in the room with them.

“I know, but he has got to get an education.”

“I agree, but we can’t make him come to school.” Principal Gaynor left the comment hanging in the room, but her message was clear.

“Oh, I’ll make him come to school,” my mother threatened.

The air in the room became uncomfortable, and I started to squirm in my chair.

Principal Gaynor cleared her throat. “Ms. Meadows—”

“It’s Mrs.”

I turned to her, surprised she’d said that as if my dad would actually marry her. Shit, he didn’t fuck with me and my brother. He only came around her when he wanted a piece of ass and needed a place to stay the night without paying while he was in town. Dad might have been into some dark shit, but he was my type of dude.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Meadows, I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

“None taken.”

“As I was saying, the school year is almost over and your son did not do well in the few months that he did attend school this year.”

“I understand, but can he come back?”

“That’s up to him. He’s sixteen years old and still in the tenth grade.”

I could feel my mother staring at me, but I refused to look up.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Gaynor, but this is not up for debate. This boy is going to go to school and he’s going to apply himself. Right, Gavin?” She said this as if I had a choice.

“Yes,”I said between clenched teeth.

“Yes, what?” my mother demanded.

“Yes, ma’am,” I mumbled.

“Fine, but it’s not going to be easy. He may need a tutor.”

“Don’t worry about that. His brother is a good student. I’ll get him to help Gavin.”

“Oh, yes, Merlin is an excellent student and an absolute gem to have around. Our school is lucky to have him on our basketball team.”

I felt like puking. I was sick and tired of living in Merlin’s shadow. I just got no respect. “I don’t need no damn tutor.”

My mother knocked me in the mouth so fast, I didn’t even have time to duck.

Principal Gaynor jumped up from her desk. “Mrs. Meadows, we don’t condone that type of behavior in this school.”

My mother’s face contorted in rage. “I’m sorry, Principal Gaynor. You’re right, but sometimes this boy just pushes all my buttons. He reminds me so much of his father.”

She continued to stand as I rubbed my face. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes but I refused to cry.

“Well, I . . .” The principal seemed to be at a loss for words.

This was the second time my mother mentioned a father who didn’t give a fuck about any of us. I wanted to ask if her dead baby, empty bed, and ringless finger weren’t proof enough, but I didn’t have a death wish. My mother would have opened up a can of whup ass on me right in the principal’s office.

Instead, I said, “I don’t need a tutor. The work is too easy so I stopped going to class.” I slouched down in my seat as all eyes turned on me.

“Is that so? Perhaps we should test your son’s abilities. Principal Gaynor sat back down at her desk and opened the folder that she had been carrying in her hands when she greeted us.

“So what are you saying, you think you’re some type of genius?” My mother’s voice dripped with sarcasm. Her eyes told me that she didn’t believe a word coming out of my mouth.

“I ain’t saying all that. I just said that I can do that stuff they teaching me in them classes in my sleep.”

Ma said, “How would you know what they are teaching if you haven’t been there?” She had me there, but I wasn’t about to admit it.

“I’ve seen Merlin’s homework.” A smile inched up from the corners of my mouth, but I wasn’t out of the woods yet.

“Fine, test him since he thinks he’s so smart.” My mother stood up to leave, and I got to my feet as well. “Where do you think you’re going?”

I was confused. “I thought the meeting was over.” I looked down at my feet.

“It is, but this is a school day and you’ve got a test to take. I’ll see you at the house.” She shook the principal’s hand and walked out of the office with her head held high.

I sat back down.

“Gavin, it’s going to take me a minute to get a proctor to handle the test. Sit out in the waiting area and I’ll have someone come and get you when we’re ready for you.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

MERLIN MILLS

I was leaving my second period class when I heard the news.

“Hey, man, I guess they finally caught up with your brother. I just saw him down in the principal’s office,” Braxton Harris, my best friend, said.

“Huh?” I froze in my tracks.

“Your brother. He’s sitting down in the office.” Braxton pointed. “Go see for yourself.”

“Shit.” Instead of going to my next period, I detoured to the office. “What are you doing here?” I took a seat next to my brother.

“Mom brought me.”

He was pissed, but so was I. My life flowed better when my brother wasn’t in it.

“For what?” I was not happy about this latest development because Gavin was always in trouble, and people tended to lump us into the same category.

“She said I got to finish school.”

I could tell that he wasn’t happy about being here. “So what you going to do?” I secretly hoped he would say fuck it and walk away.

“Finish. She said she would kick me out the house if I didn’t stay in school.”

I didn’t understand. Gavin hadn’t been in school in months and it never seemed to bother my mother before. “So when did she become a concerned parent?”

He grinned. “When I threw her toothbrush in the toilet.”

Damn, with one stunt Gavin had managed to fuck me twice.

“That was some foul shit you done. Why you always got to be fucking with me?”

“Man, I don

t feel like hearing your whining right now.”

I wanted to argue with him, but now was not the time. “So what you waiting in here for?”

“They supposed to give me some type of test to find out what grade I belong in.”

I almost told him exactly what I thought, but decided to keep my big mouth shut. The last thing I needed right about now was to get into a fight with my brother and risk being cut from the basketball team. I saw basketball as my ticket out of my mother’s house and to a better education, and if basketball didn’t land me a scholarship, I was headed straight to the military. It wasn’t that I didn’t love Gina for all that she’d done for us, but ever since she let my dad talk her into aborting her baby, she had become such a bitter person. I didn’t want to be around her any longer. “All right then, I’d better get to class before I get into trouble.”

Gavin just nodded. He didn’t look too happy, but then again, neither was I. I went back to class with a heavy heart. Fortunately for me, I made it before the bell. One of the hardest things about being on the basketball team was that the teachers used that shit against you to keep your ass out of trouble. If I missed doing my homework, I sat out a game; if I was late to class, I sat out a game. Because I planned on using basketball as my ticket out, I couldn’t afford to miss shit.

CHAPTER NINE

COJO MILLS

Nine Years Later . . .

Lazily, I stretched my arms over my head and allowed a hearty yawn to follow as I wrapped a towel around my body. Droplets of water dripped from the ends of my hair onto my shoulders, but for the time being, I didn’t care about it. Sexual satisfaction made the small stuff seem trivial, and I was indeed satisfied. My husband, Merlin, made it home safely from his short deployment in Iraq, and he’d just worked his magic on me!

“Umph, umph, umph. There ought to be a law against feeling this good.” I grabbed a washcloth from the cabinet over the toilet and used it to wipe a clean spot on the mirror. My dark brown eyes twinkled back at me. A satisfied smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. While I had managed to cover most of my head with my shower cap, I noticed that the cap was haphazardly skewed in the back, which allowed the ends of my hair to get wet.

“Oh, fucking well.” I giggled as I turned away from the mirror. I wasn’t about to let something as miniscule as wet ends ruin my luxurious mood. I grabbed a bottle of lotion and sat down on the side of the tub to begin my moisturizing ritual. I liked to apply lotion while my body was still damp and my pores were open. I rested my slender leg against the sink as I applied the lotion; I could not get the image of my husband’s face between my thighs out of my mind.

“He ate your pussy like he was starved,” I said to my reflection in the mirror. “I guess that old saying is true: absence does make the heart grow fonder.” Rubbing the lotion between my hands to warm it up, I used long strokes to deeply penetrate my sore muscles.

“You should have taken a bath instead of a shower,” I spoke again to my reflection while shaking my head.

Merlin twisted my body like a pretzel. I was so engrossed in getting mine, I didn’t complain about the complicated positions. In fact, I welcomed the abuse; it had been a long time coming. He fucked the shit out of me.

Merlin had just gotten home from his first active deployment since he joined the Army. He’d enlisted when he got laid off from his job with the state of Georgia. Enlisting in the Army was the last thing either of us wanted, but jobs were difficult to come by. Unemployment was so high, college graduates were competing with high school students for jobs at fast food restaurants.

Although I managed to keep my job with the state, there was no way that I would’ve been able to keep us afloat with my meager salary. The military offered career opportunities for Merlin that he wouldn’t have had without the benefit of a college degree. According to his recruiter, after his mandatory stint of four years, he could attend college for free.

I allowed a small squeal of excitement to escape my lips as I jumped up from the tub. I was about to trapeze over to “what if” land without talking to Merlin to see if anything that we’d be told was actually the truth. With my feet back on the floor, I went into our bedroom to get dressed.

As I entered our room, my breath got caught in my lungs. Merlin was standing in front of the mirror, flexing his newly defined muscles. He was drop-dead gorgeous, and I felt like the luckiest woman in the world just for being his wife. His bald head glistened in the mirror, and his honey-bronzed skin appeared to glow.

My pussy dripped in anticipation of another go round. His eyes met mine in the mirror and my body seemed to float over to him. The muscles in his chest flexed, drawing my eyes to them. My hand reached out to touch him as I closed my eyes. A shiver passed through my body as my hand touched his warm skin.

“Umm, you ready for round two?” I suggestively said. A sudden arctic blast froze my hand to his chest; the chill caused my lids to snap open.

Merlin’s seductive eyes turned stony as he stepped away from me. “Round two?” His voice seemed to rumble deep within his chest. His nostrils flared, which caused me to take a step back as well.

My fingers sought the edges of my towel that I’d almost flung to the floor only moments before. “What’s the matter?”

Merlin’s whole demeanor was different and it threw me off as well. “You said round two. What do you mean?”

I assumed he was joking and wanted me to reiterate how much I enjoyed our last lovemaking session. I coyly smiled at him and took a step closer. “Oh, you don’t remember ripping off my clothes and fucking my brains out on the living room floor?”

“Cojo.”

There was a warning in his tone that I failed to pay attention to as I continued to taunt him.

“You don’t remember sucking my lips and teasing my clit with your tongue?” I closed my eyes and started twirling my hips to a song that played only in my head. I allowed my towel to fall to the floor as I danced for him.

“Cojo.”

Once again I ignored the warning in his voice. I was caught up in the moment, and I was anxious to feel his hands on my body again. “You said my pussy was the sweetest nectar that you’d ever tasted . . . umm.” My fingers trailed down my body and I finger-fucked myself. “Wanna taste?” My eyes were still closed.

The sound of his fist connecting with my jaw reverberated throughout the room. My arms flailed about helplessly as I sailed through the air. I was so surprised by the blow that I didn’t feel the pain, not until my body collided with our bedroom wall. Stunned, I struggled to get to my feet. My jaw throbbed. I felt a mixture of emotions all at the same time: shock, fear, anger.

“Have you lost your rabbit-ass mind? What the fuck is wrong with you?” I demanded, holding my jaw. Perhaps I should have chosen some gentler words to gauge where all this anger came from, but I was beyond pissed. One thing that I would not tolerate in a relationship was a man putting his hands on me.

“No, what the fuck is wrong with you?” He grabbed a shirt from the dresser and yanked it over his head.

“Is that the shit they taught you in Iraq? ’Cause if it is, then you need to take that shit right back where you got it from.

Merlin started at me as if this was the first time that he’d ever laid eyes on me. The look sent a chill up my spine. And, for a moment, I didn’t even recognize my own husband.

“One hour ago we were making love and now you want to hit me?” I rubbed my jaw for emphasis and winced in pain. My entire body hurt, but my physical pain was nothing compared to the mental anguish I was going through. Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed that Merlin would put his hands on me.

“I’ve only been home ten minutes.”

What the hell did he just say?
“Huh?” Obviously, I was the one suffering from delusions. There was no way he could’ve said what I thought he said.

“I said, I’ve only been home for ten minutes. Who the hell were you fucking an hour ago?” His chest swelled before my eyes as fear replaced the anger in my heart.

Something was very wrong with this picture, and I was having a difficult time trying to figure out what it was. “I, uh . . . I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I. He took a step toward me and I backed up farther into the corner.

I needed a moment to think. One of us had obviously lost his mind, and I was quite sure it wasn’t me. “This isn’t funny, Merlin.”

“Do I look like I’m laughing to you?” His nostrils were flaring again and his hands were balled up in tight fists.

I looked around for a weapon. There was no way I was going to allow him to hit me again. Frantically, my eyes searched my corner of the room. The closest thing to a weapon I could find was a pair of high-heeled shoes. I inched my way closer to the closet as he took a step closer.

“I’m waiting.” He beat his fists against his thighs as his eyes narrowed. Gone were the lust and longing I had seen in his eyes when he was beating the breaks off my pussy.

“Merlin, stop. Something is wrong.”

“Ha, ain’t that the understatement of the year. I come home after getting my ass kicked for six months to find my wife acting like a fucking tramp!”

“Merlin, please.” Tears began to flow down my face. I felt like I’d stepped onto the set of some horrible movie, and I wanted to wake the fuck up.

“Please, my ass. I ought to kill your trifling ass. Who was it?”

I dove for the closet, but he swooped me up before I could hit the floor. I’d never been so afraid in my entire life. My body trembled uncontrollably as his fingers tightened around my arms. He lifted me over his head as I screamed.

“Hey, bro, what’s up?”

My head jerked toward the door at a man who looked like the spitting image of my husband. Merlin paused as his fingers dug into my skin.

“Gavin?” Merlin asked, stunned to be looking at his brother.

I felt the floor rush up to greet me as Merlin dropped me like a useless dumbbell he had tired of.

“Yeah, man, what’s up with you?” The stranger took a step into the room with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“How did you get in here?”

I sat up, wincing in pain.

“You’re still leaving the key under the mat just like you did when we were kids.”

“Merlin, who is this man?” I was reaching for my towel to cover my nakedness. I knew it was a stupid question even before it had left my lips, but rational thinking wasn’t something I was capable of at the moment. Both men stared at me like I’d just stepped off the short yellow bus.

Merlin’s shoulders slumped. “Man, please tell me you didn’t just fuck my wife.” The fire had gone out of Merlin’s body as my eyes bucked at the implication of his words.

“Wife? When the fuck did you get married?” The stranger laughed, as if he had told a joke.

“Aw, man . . . shit.” Merlin’s face was pinched, and for a moment, I forgot about how I was feeling and my heart went out to him.

“Hell, man, I didn’t know. She came through the door looking all good and shit; it just happened. She ran up on me, wrapped those chocolate legs around my waist—it was a wrap.” He shook his head as if he was sorry, but he was smiling.

A feeling of dread came down on me. Merlin had a twin brother?
How come he didn’t tell me? Where the fuck has he been all this time?
Too many questions and too few answers were racing through my mind. I stood up, but the room was spinning. I stumbled over to the bed to sit down, but Merlin pushed me to the floor. Venom spewed from his eyes as he glared at me.

“She was my wife, dammit,” Merlin yelled as he pounded the mattress for emphasis.

“Was? Did he just say was?
I thought This nightmare I was living was dramatic. “Wait just a fucking minute,” I said as I angrily got to my feet. I marched over to the evil twin and slapped him across the face. I was hoping to wipe away the smile, but it didn’t work.

His grin turned into a menacing leer. “Come on, baby, you weren’t acting like that a little while ago.” He mocked me and it took all my strength not to head-butt that motherfucker.

“You bastard,” I spat.

“True that; Dad never got around to marrying our moms.” He chuckled and that just made me madder.

I wanted Merlin to come over there and punch him like he’d punched me, but he just sat on the bed and stared at his feet. I whirled back around and faced his brother. “How come you didn’t tell me who you were?” Outraged, I placed my hands on my hips for want of a better place to put them. Although I wanted to hit him again, my fingers were still stinging from the first slap.

“How come you didn’t know my dick from his?”

I reared back as if he struck me. His words pierced me like a knife.

“I . . . uh.” I heard the wail come from my husband’s mouth seconds before his body collided with mine.

He rushed me like a linebacker. “You bitch,” he yelled as his fingers found their way around my throat.

I struggled to get him off of me as his grip got tighter. He was going to kill me, and I was powerless to do anything about it. My eyes sought to convey how sorry I was, but Merlin wasn’t looking at me. It was as if he were lost in the past.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped as Merlin abruptly let loose.

Hot tears streamed down his face and dripped into my open mouth as I struggled to breathe.

I said, “I’m so sorry.”

He pushed me one final time before he rolled off of me.

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