Score: The Catch

Chapter Eleven

It's four in the morning and here I gwas, outside, running before class. Last night's call had me up all night and when I woke up, running was the only thing on my mind. Well, that and this paper I had to present in a few hours.

I stepped back into our house and headed for our bedroom. Erica was up, finalizing her homework for her classes. "Hey babe," she kissed me and gave me a hug. She looked tired and her eyes had bags under them.

"Wassup, boo. What's wrong?" I asked as I rubbed her stomach. It was still slightly flat. She hasn't started showing yet, but I just like touching it to be honest.

"I haven't been sleeping for the past couple of days."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I just been thinking about everything: the baby, what and how everything happened to my mom, all that. Damn man, I shot someone and then went home to study for law, trying to be a judge."

"Don't think like that, a'ight?"

"Yeah, alright. But, how does that look? A future judge shooting at somebody, trying to rob a house?"

"To be honest with you shorty, it ain't a big difference between the one shooting and the one judging them in the courtroom. We both made some fucked up mistakes, ya know? It's too late to change it. All we can do right now is grow." I kissed her forehead and went to go take a shower.

"What time is it?" I asked when I came into the room Erica was in. She said 5:30. "You done with all the homework and stuff?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Go put some clothes on and come ride with a nigga." She asked why. "Let's go get something to eat, go put some clothes on." She walked towards her dresser and I did the same. We left once we got dressed. I locked the door behind me and since I was the last one out.

She turned the radio up louder and danced her in her seat when she heard her favorite song. I just laughed. "What you know about this?"

"Boy, this is my song!" We laughed and rapped to the lyrics until it was time to get out of the truck and go eat. I got us a table and the waiter showed us the way.

"May I get you two something to drink?"

"Let me get a water," I answer.

"And-"
"She'll have the same," I interrupt.

"You ordering for me?"

"Well, yeah. We pregnant now. When we come from class later on, we can go to the gym for cardio," I said as we looked over the menu.

The waiter came back with our drinks and asked if we wanted to order. We ordered and he walked away. The food came and it was a peaceful silence as we ate. The waiter came back with the check after I asked for it. We paid and left.

The apartment was dark when we entered it. Erica and I walked to our bedroom to get a few hours of sleep before class.

My alarm clock beeped until I hit it, making it stop. "Erica, wake up. It's time to go." She opened her eyes and went to shower. I had to make sure I was prepared for this speech today.

"You can go in now," Erica told me once she came near me. I caressed her cheek with my thumb. "You're beautiful, give me a kiss." She put her arms around my waist and kissed me. When I tried to walk out of the room, she grabbed my arm and kissed me again. Somehow, we ended up on the bed. "Boo, I gotta go now," I laughed, "you gone get something started." I got off top of her and went to the bathroom.

When I walked in the room, Erica already had my clothes laid out across the bed. "Thanks, babygirl," I kissed her and started getting dressed. "Let's go because I need to get some gas." She said we could drive hers, so we left after I got dressed.

She pulled up to the school and parked. I got out and went to open her Door. "I appreciate that baby. I'll see you in a little while, alright? I love you and good luck on your speech," she said before we split. I walked through the doors and headed straight for class. Like always, everybody was in the class. Well, everybody except the professor.

He entered the room ten minutes later and took his seat. He didn't waste anytime started the presentations. "Mr. Myers, be ready to present after Ms. Moore," Dr. Michael said to me before he stood up and closed the door shut. I was ready to get this over with.

"Thank you, ms. Moore. That was very touching, sincerely. Mr. Royal, you're up. I walked to the front of the class and cleared my throat.

"The black people has gone and still going through many obstacles to make it in America. From being taken away from their home and being manipulated and lied to for centuries to come, and more.

The obstacles the black man must overcome seem to be never ending. It seems that way because America's system continues to prove that notion or idea to be factual and true. They made it that way. First, they chain us up and throw us on boats to be relocated to a new land where some would spend the rest of their lives. Then, they torture the body and corrupt the mind. By not allowing most slave to read allowed the slave owners to exercise absolute power. Considering how controlling people of the human race can be at times, giving somebody this much power could only get worse for the oppressed, the enslaved.

To wish for someone who held real power or to do anything about seemed to be pointless. It seemed to be pointless simply because the people who held power acquiesced this for what it was. Even Mr. Jefferson, the man who preached about freedom and equality went home to slaves and he obviously was against abolishing it.

Finally, Abraham released the emancipation proclamation on the first day of January in 1863. Forty acres and a mile was promised to us, too, but we were deprived of that. So, now we're free but broke in a country that we built."

"Wrap it up, sir," the professor told right before I was about to stop. I came to a conclusion. "We need to realize our worth. We are like African royalty; we are negus. Let's act like it. Let's grow." I walked back to my seat and waited for the next person to go up.

When class ended, Erica and I went to the gym and headed home to get some sleep. Thirty minutes later, I popped up from my position in the bed and sat up, sweating. "Brandon, what's wrong?"

"I had the craziest dream. Well, it was like a nightmare."

"About?"

"Chris. He was just...looking dead at me."