Ma placed the platter of half-eaten birthday cake on the kitchen counter, while Uncle Ray-Ray started washing aluminum pans and silverware. Neither one of them uttered a word.
“I’m sorry, Ma.”
She looked at me with contempt in her blood-shot, teary eyes, as if she wanted to rip my tongue out of my head. “Is that why you came back here, to stir up trouble?”
“Me? What about Kashawn? I came here to see my family. He’s the one who started in with me. I’m sorry I told him. It’s just that he’s always comin’ off like he’s holier than thou.”
“How do you know how he acts? You’ve been gone for three years.”
“Jesus, not you, too.”
“It was not your call, boy, to tell Kashawn nothin’.”
“Come on, Ma, you were never going to tell him. You should have—”
Before another word came out of my mouth, Ma slapped me across the face.
“Don’t you ever…ever tell me what I should and should not do in my own house, boy. You understand me?”
“Just like old times.”
“If that’s an apology, you can get out of my face right now.”
I looked at Uncle Ray-Ray who didn’t say a word like Ma slapping me was what I deserved. “Believe it or not, I didn’t come back here to start anything, but you know how Kashawn is always pushing buttons. I came back here because I missed my family, like I said.”
“Well, this is one hell of a homecoming.”
There was nothing else I could say. Ma was pissed. I thought about going to Kashawn to apologize, but fuck that. I thought about it, realizing that I had nothing to feel sorry for. The truth was finally out. No matter how it came out or who told it, it was out. If it’s one thing I have learned, a lie can never last. He started that shit. I was sick of Bree playing Barbie to his phony-ass Ken. He was a bigger fool than I have always thought him to be if he thought he could please a woman like Bree. I stormed out of the door.
“Where are you going?” Ma asked.
“I need to get some air if that’s okay with you.”