Page 14 of Turned Out by His Hood Mentality 2

When my mama came over, I had no plans to tell her what happened because I knew she would act exactly how she was acting now. She would do nothing but further stress me out, which is what she was doing. Billion’s handprint was still around my neck, though, and I had a cut over my eyebrow from when he made me hit my head on the trunk of my car. When she saw those bruises, she demanded to know what happened. She was ready to ride down and beat Billionaire’s ass for putting his hands on me, but once she realized why he had done it, she no longer gave a fuck that the nigga almost tried to kill me two times.

“What’s your plan, Denim?” she asked, standing in my bedroom with her arms folded.

My mother was beautiful, just like me; I was literally her twin. We were damn near the same height, weight, everything. The only thing that set us apart was the dreads I had. My mom had shoulder-length, full hair that she always rocked in a bob. For years, she wore her natural color, jet black, but two years ago, she got it dyed a honey blonde color. It actually fits her so perfectly.

My mama was in her forties, but she moved around like she was in her twenties. The niggas loved my mama. She fucked around with niggas my age. The absence of my father gave her a male mentality toward dating. For years, my mom told me she didn’t have a desire to get married, neither did she ever want to have any more children. I think it was all just a façade, and it was her way of protecting her heart, so she would never get hurt again. She never really got deep into it, but she let me know how my dad (whoever the fuck that was), was the second guy to hurt her. The first was her dad because, just like my father was nonexistent in my life, so was hers.

It was Friday morning, and she was dressed in her work clothes, more than likely stopping by before she headed into the office. My mama would give anybody the business with her quick tongue, she drank Henny straight like a nigga, and she would sit up with me and puff a few blunts, but she was an educated woman. She worked as a regulatory affairs manager. My mom has always kept a job, but when I got in high school, she went back to college and got a degree. My mama and I always had a good relationship, although she was a strict ass parent and wouldn’t spare me an ass whipping whenever I needed one.

“I’m pregnant,” I blurted out.

She laughed and then took a seat at the foot of the bed.

“This shit just keeps getting worse. Pregnant by who, Denim?” she asked.

“Reggie. Ma, I have only been messing with Reggie. Billion ain’t touched me since he’s been home. I took a test yesterday morning, and that’s when I found out. I get that you’re disappointed in me. I’m disappointed in me too, but I don’t need you beating me up more when I’m already down. I’m already going through enough shit as is. Ever since Reggie and Billion were up in here fighting, Reggie done ran off with Rylo, and he doesn’t even let me see my damn daughter anymore. Billion took Khari, and I can’t see her either. I’m stressing, missing my kids, and now I just found out about another baby that I’m carrying. Spare me the tongue lashing,” I told her as I used the back of my hand to wipe my face.

I lay back down in the bed, pulling the covers over my body. Lying in bed was the only thing that I had been doing these days. I thought the pain of Billionaire finding out the truth about Khari had me depressed and low on energy like this, but it was the growing fetus inside of me that had me feeling this way the whole time.

“I’m going to call Billionaire on my way into the office. I’ll be the middle person because I’m sure he doesn’t want to talk to you. The baby. What’s your plan? Are you keeping it or what?” she asked.

“Yeah. You know I ain’t never aborted no child, Ma,” I told her.

“Alright. I’m about to head out before you make me late for work with your drama. You need to get your ass out of bed, take a shower, and eat something. Call the doctor and make an appointment, so you can see how far along you are and get started on taking your vitamins. This is not your first child, so you know what you gotta do. I want to get in your ass so much more, but I won’t. It can’t possibly feel good to get heat from so many different directions, and for that, I’ll spare you. I’ll call you once I take my break, and I expect you to be out of bed by then,” she said.

Before she left the room, my mama came over and kissed me on my forehead, and then she left. She had her own key to my apartment, so I knew she would lock the door. I probably should have gotten up, showered, and ate something, especially since I couldn’t even remember the last time I had a meal. But lying in bed and feeling sorry for myself just felt so much better. I just wanted to sleep, and when I woke up, I wanted all this to be over.

Two hours later

A dip in the bed woke me up from my sleep. My eyes popped open, and I saw Reggie sitting at the foot of the bed. His eyes were bloodshot red, and I knew it was because he was high. I smelled the weed on his clothes. Any other time, I loved the smell of some good trees, but that shit had my stomach turning. I hadn’t seen this nigga in weeks. I tried to listen and see if I could hear Rylo in the front room, but it was silent. I stared down at Reggie for a few seconds, and that’s when I saw the gun resting on his lap. That instantly made me gasp and sit up in the bed.

The second I t

ried to back away from him, he grabbed me by my leg and dragged my ass out of bed. My head hit the bottom of the bedpost, and then it hit the carpeted floor. I started to scream, but he put his body on top of mine, and what silenced me was him sticking the gun in my mouth the second I opened it to scream. Tears flooded my eyes, and because I couldn’t talk with a gun shoved in my mouth, I pointed to my stomach, trying to let him know that I was pregnant without verbally saying it.

“If you trying to tell me that you pregnant, I don’t give a fuck! For all I know, that baby can be any nigga walking around this bitch with a dick! I always knew that when it came to that nigga, you would choose him over me. I always knew that you fucked with that nigga a little bit more because he had more money than me. I knew about you going down to the prison and fuckin’ the nigga, but I never said shit about it. I ain’t say shit because I knew the nigga wasn’t going to even look your slut ass way the second he stepped foot out of that prison. The only thing that would happen was your black ass was going to get your heart broken, so I let you be stupid for that nigga. Plus, I was fuckin’ hoes too, so I ain’t care to check you about you and yo’ hot ass pussy!

“I can take you choosing the nigga with more money because I never planned on making your ass my fuckin’ wife no way! You got good pussy, and you suck dick fuckin’ marvelous, so of course, I kept you around for my own personal reasons. What I ain’t going to tolerate is motha fuckas telling me that you got your ass fucked up by that nigga for pinning a baby that’s supposed to be mine on him! Look me in my motha fuckin’ eyes and tell me that you didn’t do no fucked-up shit like that to me, Denim!” he barked.

I was scared. So scared that I was not only crying, but I peed on myself too. The scared I was right now differed from how I felt last weekend when Billion was choking me. I knew how bad Billion wanted to kill me that night, but I also knew he wouldn’t do it because he was fresh home from prison, and he didn’t want to go back. With Reggie, it was different. The fool had nothing to lose. Yes, he had kids, and he had his mama, but I knew how heartless and hateful this man was because I’d listened to some of the crazy shit he spit out of his mouth.

When I didn’t answer him fast enough, he took the gun out of my mouth and slapped me across my face with it.

“Answer my motha fuckin’ question, Denim! Come on, shorty! I’m itching to blow your fuckin’ brains out!” he said.

“Baby… baby, don’t do this. Please... I’m pregnant. I’m pregnant with your baby,” I cried.

Blood ran from my mouth as I talked to him because of the injury from him hitting me with the gun.

“That’s good, baby, but what about Khari? I want to know about her. That’s my baby that you been letting another nigga claim? Answer me, ma,” he said in a gentle tone, but I knew that nothing gentle would come once I told him the truth.

I tried to kick off me, but he grabbed my foot and twisted it.

“Arrrghhhhh!” I screamed. I literally heard the bones in my leg crack from the way he twisted it, breaking it within a second.

“I’m giving you one more chance to answer me,” he threatened, and this time, he cocked the gun, letting me know that he was no longer playing with me.

“Tell both of my daughters that I love them. Tell Khari that I’m sorry for lying,” I told said, not answering the question how he wanted me to, but telling him everything he needed to know.

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