Page 46 of Grown Folks Confessions: Black Lush

His smile was devilish as he told me he would, my mind already imagining all the things we would do tonight and in the morning when we woke up. Seconds later, my elated bubble was burst when a shadow over Ares’ shoulder caught my attention.

What the—My eyes widened in shock, and I felt beads of sweat drip from my scalp.

Ares turned around, pushing me behind him as my survival instincts kicked in.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” the man said, his malicious voice not disguised by the smirk he wore.

“Is that …” Ares’ voice trailed off, but he knew who it was. As much as I wanted anyone from Detroit to forget Marvin Payne, they rarely did. And the woman standing next to my psychotic father?

She was just as bad in my opinion.

“What the fuck are you both doing here?” I asked, looking between them. “Together at that.”

“What’s wrong, muffin?” the woman questioned. “Not excited to see your dear mother after all this time?”

Time?Time was a few months or years. For me, it had been almost two decades since I’d laid eyes on my sorry excuse of a mother.

For years after I realized that my father would always be in and out of jail, I kept a pistol on me. Until the day I decided that I didn’t want to walk around looking over my shoulder, especially when my life in Chicago was much different than it had been in Detroit.

Now, I wished I still had the piece in my purse.

I was a good shot.

Great even.

And my confession right now?

I was looking into the eyes of the two fuckers who I thought about killing more than I’d ever admit.

Which begged me to ask myself … Why, after everything they’d put me through, was there still a small part of me that wanted this to be a friendly visit? Or maybe an I’m-sorry-I-wasn’t-there-for-you visit. I’d even take an our-bad-for-fucking-up-your-life, but we are who we are conversation.

I knew it wasn’t the case though. There was one reason and one reason only that my parents were standing in front of my home right now, looking at me like I was the answer to their fucked-up dreams.

“Ran out of the money you stole from me already, huh?” I asked, directing the question to my father.

“It was never yours to begin with,” he said. “My sorry-ass sister left it to you by accident.”

I clenched my fists. “She was a better parent than either of you will ever be.”

“Oh, Marv,” my mother said. “You’re right. She’s soft.” She planted her loveless eyes on me. “Where did we go wrong with this child?”

Like I said.

This wasn’t a sociable visit.

But a girl could hope.

Right?

seventeen

Grown Folks Confession #17: Hating someone makes them important. Forgiving someone makes them irrelevant. Killing someone eliminates the problem entirely.

ARES

I would kill for her.

It wasn’t so much a revelation that I had as I stood there staring at people I barely remembered, but rather, a burning desire to hurt the people who had hurtmywoman.

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