Chapter 37
Mimi
After the 1,001 congratulations that I had gotten from the people in the backyard, I went inside in search for Jayden. When I walked into the kitchen, I didn’t see him, so I went to look for him in the garage, thinking he was in there, when I heard a female voice coming from the front of the house. At first, I thought that the person was in the living room, until I got there and saw that there wasn’t anyone in there. When I peeped outside of the door, I had a front-row seat to the show Jayden and his baby mama Shelly were putting on.
I couldn’t believe that out of all the days in this year, she had picked this day to come over here with her bullshit. Today wasn’t a good day, though. I wasn’t in the mood to fuck a bitch up. My man had just proposed to me, and I was happy, but when I stepped outside, the vibe that they were giving off was a muthafucker. I was actually going to try to calm them down, but the bitch said something that pissed me off, which ended up changing my whole mood and made me go ham on her ass. The moment she slapped Jayden in his face, the bitch had made a huge mistake. She already knew that Jayden wasn’t a woman beater, which was why she slapped him in the first place. Jayden told me about the many times that they’d gotten into it, and she’d hit him only because she knew he wasn’t going to hit her ass back. I was here to show that bitch something different. She wasn’t about to hit my man while I was standing there and get away with it. I was about to show that ho just how it felt to be hit on.
When I punched that ho in her mouth, she just stood there in a daze. I wasn’t trying to fight that bitch like that. I wanted her to be aware of that ass whooping I was about to give her.
“Bitch, don’t just stand there. Pick your jaw up and hit me back,” I said to her. I wanted this bitch to pick up her hands and fight me fair so that I could give this ho an ass whooping that she would never forget.
“Bitch, I know damn well you ain’t just hit me,” she finally said.
“From the looks of that busted lip you got, you can see that I did.”
“Ho, you done fucked up now,” she said, trying to run up on me, but Jayden had stopped her. “Nigga, let me go, so I can whoop this bitch’s ass.”
“Shelly, go ’head about your business. I don’t have time for your shit,” he said, walking her to the road. I followed him.
“Yeah, Jayden, please let this bitch go, so she can whoop my ass,” I said, taunting her.
“Mimi, please go back inside the house,” he said to me.
“Nah, I ain’t going nowhere, until I whoop this ho ass,” I told him.
“Bitch, please, the only ass that’s going to be getting whooped is yours,” she said, trying to break away from him.
“Nah, ho, you got me fucked up. I don’t get my ass whooped. I do the whooping,” I replied, letting this ho know.
“Bitch, please. Tell your nigga to let me go and I’ll show you just whose ass is gon’ be whooped, and I can bet my last dollar that it won’t be me.”
“Bitch, please. You’ll be broke, because I can guarantee you that this right here ain’t what you want. Jayden, pleeease, let this ho go. Please,” I said, begging him.
“Mimi, baby, please just go back in the house while I handle this right quick, please,” he said, pleading with me.
“You know what? This ho ain’t even worth it. You got five minutes to get rid of this garbage before I come back out here and do it for you,” I said, and then walked off.
“Yeah, bitch, you know better. Do what your massa say and go back inside the house,” she yelled from behind him.
“Bitch, please, unlike you, ain’t no nigga got shit on me. Yes, he’s my fiancé, and yes, I’m about to listen to him, because I don’t want to have to kick your ass, but don’t get that shit twisted. I’m not anyone’s slave. If I wanted to leave today or tomorrow, I could, because I’m a bitch who has her own shit. Unlike your needy ho ass,” I said, leaving them there. I hurried up to get inside the house, because I know one thing: if this bitch said one more thing that I didn’t like, I was going to bless that ho and Jayden wouldn’t be able to stop me.
When I walked out into the backyard, I frantically looked around for Mark. I spotted him over by the barbeque grill, talking to the rest of the guys. I could still hear Jayden and his baby mama fussing in the front yard. The shit pissed me off even more. I stalked over to Mark as if my ass was on fire.
“What’s going on, Mimi? Why you look so upset?” he asked, once I had reached him.
“Your boy is out front with his baby mama, and he got all of one minute to get that bitch away from here before I go back out there and fuck them up,” I said, walking away and not giving him a chance to respond.
“What’s wrong, Mimi?” Troy asked, walking up to me.
“I’m about to fuck Jayden’s baby mama up. That’s what’s up,” I said, walking inside the house.
“Mimi, slow down,” Troy said, following me. I ignored her as I power-walked to the front of the house. When I opened the door to walk outside, they were on the other side of the street still arguing. I walked over to where they were and let their asses have it.
“I told you that you had five minutes to handle this situation right here, but it seems like you can’t do it, so I’m here to help you,” I said, nudging him in his back.
“Bitch, please. He ain’t going to handle shit. What you need to do is get your black ugly ass back over to the house and mind your fucking business,” I heard her say.
“Time’s up,” I said to him. I turned to where she was and charged at her ass. I popped her dead in her mouth, because the bitch was talking too much shit.
“I ain’t know your ass for nothing but a minute and here you wanna come talk shit,” I said, punching her in her face. Grabbing her by her hair, I pulled that bitch in the middle of the street.
“See, bitch, I done been through too much shit already and here you go with more shit. I tried to let that shit slide, but you’re one of those bitches who need to be taught a lesson,” I said, giving her a kick to her face. I then proceeded to fuck that ho up. I threw nothing but powerful punches at her face. With my left hand, I took and gave her two quick licks to her eye. I was trying to leave my ring imprint in her face.
“Ho, let me go,” she said, trying to get at me, but she couldn’t.
“You know what, bitch? Get up and fight me fair. Let me see if your bite as big as your bark,” I said, letting her go. I watched as she picked herself up, and then looked at me.
“Bitch, you done fucked with the wrong one,” she said, rushing me. She gave me a good lick to my face. She then grabbed my hair and tried to pull me on the ground. “I’m about to paint this concrete with your blood, ho,” she said, kneeing me in my face. I had to admit that the shit did hurt, but still, the bitch couldn’t fight at all.
“Nah, bitch, first learn how to fight before you come fucking with me,” I said, giving that ho a lick to her guts, causing her to let me go. She was bent over, trying to catch her breath, when I grabbed her and kicked her again.
“I told you that you can’t fuck with a bitch like me,” I said, upper-cutting her ass. She grabbed a hold of me. Next thing I knew, we were on the ground. I managed to get on top of her, and that’s when I blacked out. I sat on top of her chest and began to merk that face. I was trying to fuck her all the way up. When she went to look in the mirror, she was going to remember me. She was going to think twice before she ever came at me again.
“That’s enough,” Jayden said, grabbing me. “Mark, get Shelly, man.”
“Let me go,” I said, trying to get away from him.
“Nah, ma, that’s enough. You made your point already,” he said, still holding on to me.
“Nah, that bitch asked for that shit. Let me give her some more,” I yelled, trying to go at her again.
“Nah, ma, you need to chill out. Troy, come get you girl and take her into the house,” he yelled to her.
“I’m not a fucking child. You don’t have to call nobody for me,” I said to him.
“Well, you’re surely acting like one now,” he said, letting me go. I was about to say something to him when I spotted Cam running toward us.
“Daddy, what’s going on? What happened to Mommy?” he asked, looking at Mark, who was helping her.
“Go in the house, Cam. Daddy will be there in a minute,” Jayden told him.
He stood there stuck. He looked at me, then to his mother, then back to his father.
“Now, Cam.”
“You don’t have to talk to him like that,” I said, rolling my eyes at him. “Come on, Cam, let’s go inside, baby,” I said, walking over to him. I grabbed his hand as he led the way inside the house.
We headed straight for the kitchen once we were inside.
“Are you hungry?” I asked him.
“No, ma’am,” he replied.
“Well, you’ve been in the pool all day. I didn’t see you eat a thing. Are you sure that you’re not hungry?” I asked, turning around to face him
“I’m sure,” he said, getting quiet. I knew he had a lot of questions flowing through his little mind. I just hoped that he waited to ask them until his father came.
“Ms. Mimi?” he said, taking a seat on one of the barstools.
“Yes, Cam?”
“Can I ask you a question?” he asked with a straight face.
“Sure, you can,” I said, walking over to where he was sitting. I then took a seat on the stool that was next to him as I waited for him to ask whatever it was that he wanted to ask.
“Did my mama do something wrong? Is that why you and her were fighting?” he asked, catching me off guard.
“Um, well, your mother and I had gotten into an argument, and that lead to us putting our hands on each other,” I simply said to him. I wasn’t trying to say too much to him. This was a conversation that he should have been having with his father.
“Okay,” was all he said as my kids came walking through the door.
“What’s wrong with you? Why do you look like you just got into a fight? Were you and Jay fighting? Because he’s making everyone leave and he told us to come inside,” Kailay asked as she and her siblings took a seat at the table.
“No. Don’t worry about that. Are you guys hungry?” I asked, ignoring her questions.
“Yes, I’m starving,” Kayla said, rubbing her belly.
“Me too,” Kayson replied.
“Me three,” followed Kaylon.
“Y’all want some barbeque or y’all want to go and get something else?” I asked them.
“They can eat what we have here,” Jayden said, entering the kitchen. He walked over to Cam and kneeled down in front of him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Dad, I’m fine,” Cam replied.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes,” he said, nodding his head.
“Okay good,” he said, hugging him. “Let me talk to you right quick,” he said, walking up to me. I placed the towel that I was holding down on the stove as I followed him.
“What’s up?” I asked once we were out of the kids’ earshot.
“Are you okay?” he asked, examining the bruise that was on my face.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I said, removing his hand. I still was feeling salty about the way he tried to handle me earlier.
“What’s wrong, ma?” he asked, looking concerned.
“Nothing,” I said dryly.
“Come on, ma. Don’t do this right now. Talk to me please,” he said, looking at me with pleading eyes.
“We’ll talk about it, okay? Let me fix the kids something to eat. I’ll meet you in the bedroom,” I said to him.
“Yeah, a’ight,” he responded. He then looked as if he wanted to say something, but instead, he just left.
I walked back into the kitchen and started to fix the kids a plate of food. When I finished fixing and warming their food, I started to put the rest of the food in containers.
“You need help with that?” Troy asked, scaring the hell out of me. I turned to face her and then rolled my eyes.
“Girl, you scared the shit out of me, but nah, I’m fine, I got it,” I said, turning back to finish what I had started.
“Are you sure?” she asked, walking over to me.
“I just told you that I got it. What’s up with you? Why you acting all strange?”
She folded her arm across her chest before she blew air from out of her mouth. “Mimi, what happened earlier?”
“Troy, you already know that bitch had it coming to her ass—” I started to say, but she cut me off.
“I’m not talking about the stuff that went down between you and Shelly. I’m talking about what you and Mark was talking about earlier in the backyard before that,” she asked, looking scared and confused.
“Oh, it was nothing,” I said as I started loading dishes into the dishwasher. When I turned back around, she was looking at me funny. “Why you looking at me like that?” I asked her, trying to downplay it.
“You know why. I know you’re lying to me,” she said, walking over to me. “What happened?”
“Fine. Mark knows about the shit between you and Weedy. The nigga ain’t dumb. I don’t know why you trying to play on him like that. Your shit is getting real sloppy, and you need to clean it up,” I said, walking off from her. I didn’t have time to play and watch over grown-ass people. She, out of everyone else, should have known better than that.
“Mimi, please,” she said, walking behind me.
“Please nothing, Troy,” I said, turning around, which made me bump straight into her. “Either you clean that shit up and cast Weedy out, or you’re going to lose your man.”
“Is everything okay?” Mark asked, walking in on us. I was pretty sure that he’d heard what we were just talking about.
“Yes, everything’s fine,” I said to him, but I was looking at Troy.
“You ready to go?” he asked her.
“Um, yeah. Let me go get my jacket and we can leave right after,” she said. I knew he wanted to say something, but instead, he turned around and left the room.
“Mimi, you gotta help me. I don’t know what to do,” she said, looking at me with pleading eyes.
“Troy, honestly, there’s nothing I can do. You gotta figure this out on your own. The only thing I am going to tell you, though, is to be careful,” I said, walking to where the kids were sitting at the table eating.
“Are you guys done?” I asked them.
“Almost,” Kailay and Kayla replied. I should’ve known that they weren’t finished. My girls were very prissy. They’d take all day eating if they could.
“We’re done,” Kayson said, referring to him, Kaylon, and Cam.
“All right, why don’t y’all go ahead and wash up. I’ll be back to clean up later.”
“Okay,” they said as they ran up the stairs.
“Hey, hey, hey, stop that running now,” I yelled to them. “I’ll be right back, girls.”
“Okay, Mommy,” they both said at the same time, making me smile. I’d waited a long time to finally be able to be happy with my kids, and it felt damn good. Walking out of the kitchen, I walked over to the front door to make sure that it was locked. Once I had confirmed that it was indeed locked, I made my way up the stairs to my bedroom. On my way to my bedroom, I stopped to check on the boys.
“Hey, guys, what are y’all doing?” I asked them.
“We’re about to take a bath, then we’re going to play video games for a little while before we go to bed,” Kaylon said, going through his drawer.
“Yup, Mama Mimi, I’m going to whoop Kayson’s and Kaylon’s butts in the game,” Cam said, smiling. He too had a deep set of dimples just like his father.
“No, you’re not. I’ll be the one doing the whooping,” Kayson threw in. I stood there smiling at the three of them. We were now staying in a three-bedroom house until we found something bigger, which meant that they had to share rooms. At first I thought that it was going to be a problem, but they quickly proved me wrong. I absolutely loved the way that they were getting along. Since day one, they’d had a great relationship, as if they were blood brothers.
“Okay, well, I don’t want you guys to stay up all night, because we have somewhere to go in the morning.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they said in unison.
“All right, I’ll be back in here later to check on y’all,” I said and left.
When I walked into the room, Jayden was sitting on the bed watching TV.
“What’s up?” I asked as I sat on the bed beside him. He sat up, turned the television off, and turned to me.
“Ma, I just want to say that I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to go off like that. I was just in a zone, and I was trying to get control of everything, but I couldn’t,” he said sincerely.
“It’s okay, Jayden. I’m not worrying about none of that. I just want your baby mama to know that she can’t continue to come over here and do as she pleases. Her time is over, it’s my time, and I want her to respect me, or else shit will not be all right for her, and that’s a promise.”
“You won’t have to worry about that, ma. After that ass whooping that you gave her, I am more than sure that she won’t try to no shit,” he said, placing his lips over mine.
“Well she better not, because I’m not gon’ take shit easy on her anymore,” I replied.
“Okay. I got you,” he said. “I’m ’bout to go check on the kids, because I know you tired.”
“Yes, I am,” I said as I lay back on the bed. Lately, I’d been feeling sluggish, and right now, all I wanted to do was sleep.
“I already told you why. I don’t know why you ain’t trying to hear me,” he said, laughing.
“Boy, bye, I’m not pregnant. So I ain’t even trying to hear that shit.”
“Uh-huh. You can deny it all you want, but watch when you go to the doctor next week.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I told him. “Now get out. I’m about to get some rest.”
“All right, I’ll be back to check on you later,” he said and left.
I sat there, thinking about my life before and how it was now. I was very happy and if I was pregnant by Jayden, then so be it. He’d been a wonderful father to my kids, and I’d have no regrets if I was having his baby.
“Yo, Mimi,” Jayden said, walking back into the room.
“Didn’t I tell you that I was tired? Why are you bothering me?” I asked him, but he didn’t answer me. When I looked at him, he was standing there with a duck look on his face, holding something in his hand. “What’s that?”
Again, he didn’t say anything, so I got up and walked over to him. “What you got in your hand?” I asked, stopping in front of him. He still didn’t say anything. He just stood there staring at me, so I took the shit out of his hand.
“What the fuck is this shit?” I asked. “Where the fuck did this shit come from?”
“Ma, I have no idea. When I went downstairs, someone knocked on the door. When I opened it, there was no one there. Instead, this was sitting on the welcome mat.”
“Well, what are we going to do about this then?” I asked him.
“To be honest, I don’t know,” he said, then walked out of the room, leaving me standing there.
As I stood there with pictures of Stacy’s, Julius’s, Kaylin’s, and Marie’s bodies in my hand, I couldn’t help but to think that I was born just to go through some shit. After all I’d been through, I still found myself in some shit. I guessed I would never have my happy ending.
I was still standing there when my phone chimed, telling me that I had a new text message. Throwing the papers on the nightstand, I grabbed the phone.
When I opened the message, I was confused at first, but after a minute or two, I got what she was saying. I replied to her message, then took the paper and walked out of the room. I found Jayden in his office sitting behind the desk. I walked over to him and gave him the papers.
“You can trash that,” I said as I walked back over to the door.
“Why? We still don’t know who is behind all of this,” he said, getting up.
“Actually we do, but she won’t be able to come for us anymore,” I replied.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, walking over to me.
“Your baby mama,” I said and walked out of the room. This time I had a smile on my face, because I knew for sure that right this minute, no one could hurt me anymore.