Past Love

Chapter 15: Coping

Friday July 22nd, 2005

8:30pm

Jahmelle

Me and Damon stayed the entire day and night with Tyrone yesterday. Damon ended up going back to the house early this morning but I stayed behind again. Both of us were genuinely worried about him because he was really not himself. I've never seen him like that ever in my life. That was not the Tyrone that I knew. I told Kash what was going on as well as Tyrone's mother and she came back to see him for a while yesterday. Kash stopped by to check on him this morning as well. Tyrone slept almost all day yesterday and I didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone so that's why I stayed and I know he said he wanted his distance in his space but I cannot give that to him right now. I feel like there is more going on in his head than this. I stayed nearby Tyrone, we put him in his room in his bed and he slept for almost 24 hours off and on. I stayed right by his side too, sitting on a chair nearby. Around 7:45 a.m. he started mumbling a little bit.

"W-W-W- What's going on? Where am I? How long was it out for? Jahmelle what are you and Damon doing here?"

"You don't remember anything from yesterday?"

"Wait, what happened yesterday? I've been out of it. Were you here? What's happening?"

"Me and Damon came here yesterday morning to check on you, there were beer bottles all over the living room floor, burn marks on the rug in the living room and you had a blunt hanging out of your mouth. Me and him got you up and put you into the shower. You were drifting in and out all day. Your mom came back to visit you as well as Kash. I also had to have a close friend of mine who was a nurse come over here and check on you because I was so worried. You can't be doing this, you are going to self-destruct and that is not a good thing. You don't want that to happen to you, you have so many people here who love you and who care about you and we don't want you to go down this path of destruction."

"But you don't understand what it's like to have something taken away from you like I do....."

"Hold on Tyrone before you even start let me stop you right there because that is absolutely bull and you know it, or do you not remember me tearing my mcl and acl. I can never play basketball at a professional level. And that was my dream and my goals but when that did happen for me did you see me fall and crumble and do what you're doing? Hell no!" I was pissed. I felt like I could slap fire out of him. "I know it's like to start from the ground up again, I know what it's like to struggle. But I bounced back and it ended up doing something that I love just as equally and that's helping kids better themselves, their bodies, their health, as well as giving them an outlet by teaching P.E."

"But look at you Jahmelle look at you!! That is not what I want for my life. You're just a glorified physical education teacher. You're a has been, no actually you were a never was."

"Wow you smug, self-centered, egotistical, asshole. That was messed up. You know what though? hurt people, hurt people. I would never expect that from you though, I would have never! You know what though it's all good. Just remember who was here for you when nobody else was. Now you know you mad wrong for coming out of pocket like that with me, you know you are." He got quiet because he knew I was right. "Look man you speaking out of anger right now, what you need to do is get yourself together and I'll talk to you later on."

I got up and left the room because to be honest I could not stand to look at him at this moment. He made me feel like hurting him more than he already was.

"Jahmelle wait man, wait....I'm sorry." He said getting up, stumbling over to me as I was about to leave the room. "I'm just not in my right mental mind frame right now. Now I'm sorry, I had no right to call you out the way I did because I was in the wrong and I acknowledged that I'm just hurting man I'm hurting. Not being able to do what I love to do for the foreseeable future is really really taking a toll on my mental state right now. It is taking me a minute to process all of it in all honesty, it is taking me a minute so please, please baby just be patient with me."

I stayed there for a second, just thinking in my thoughts, not knowing what to do or what to say next in all honesty and then I thought about what he said in his last sentence. "Wait.... Did you just call me baby?" I stood there almost Frozen not knowing what to say again.

"Yeah I did." He said, grabbing both of my hands and looking into my eyes.

We looked at each other for a couple of minutes, the tension in the room was so thick that you could hear a pin drop and hit the floor. I put my face to his and I kissed him on the lips.

"Tyrone it's going to be okay, it is going to be okay. Trust me, things will work out for you. You just have to find something that you enjoy doing and you will." I told him. "You've always been a smart guy, so finding something that you can do it'll come easy, not at first but over time it will, trust me. Now look I have to go before this goes any further because when we finally decide to take that next step I want you to be in your right frame of mind. I will call you later on."

I gave Tyrone a hug and I gave him another kiss before I left. Once I did leave I hopped into my car and went back to the house. When I turned on the street that the house was on I saw a car in front of my house that was not familiar to me. I parked at the end of the Street and got out of the car and I walked over to the house. When I got to the house I tiptoed to one of the nearby windows and I could hear two people talking on the inside. All I could think to myself is I hope I was not getting robbed.

"Now Lee, I told you to leave me alone. Why do you keep messing with me and harassing me? You need to stop 'cause me and you aren't friends anymore. You screwed me over more than once and when I wanted to leave you and your boys beat me down. I don't want anything to do with you at all so quit messing with me or else......"

"Hold on, Do you know who I am? Nobody around here makes threats in my presence because they don't get away with it. Now look, you need to watch yourself. People who usually talk to me like that get beat down and in some cases they get beat down worse than you did in all honesty. You know to the point where they don't speak any more if you catch my drift."

"You are not intimidating me if you think you are then you have another thing coming brother."

"Well why don't you think about your family. You don't want anything to happen to your little brothers or your mother would you?"

"You damn snake in the grass, you bet not go near my family."

"What you going to do, what are you going to do you little punk? Exactly so just stand there and be quiet because you're not going to do nothing there you pussy ass nigga."

I saw Lee turn around to leave the house and as he was leaving Damon picked up a lamp that was on there by the table and cracked him in the back of the head with it. I couldn't believe what I just saw, my eyes got wide and I duck down so nobody can see me and I went behind the house and then I went down the street through people's backyards and got back into my car.

"Oh my god!! Did I just witness a murder?" I said with my palms in my face.

End of chapter 15

That ending definitely took a surprise turn. What did y'all think? Also what do y'all think will happen next?