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July 7th, 2013 Manhattan, NY
DOVANI CARVER
The melodies and soft lyrics from Beyoncé's song, 'Mine' played through the AirPods that were secure in Dovani's ears, as loud as it can be. She needed to feel the song in her soul and since she is only sixteen and couldn't get a tattoo, this was the only way.
She swung her head and hummed the lyrics as she scribbled on the chemistry homework in front of her on the desk table. The faint sweet smell of vanilla sugar candle burning on the nightstand made the room feel cozy and wasn't causing the sixteen year old to leave anytime soon. Until the door flung wide open, her head swinging to the side and seeing her drunk stepfather enter.
It was only about 8:30PM, the sun goes down way earlier so the darkness surrounding her made it feel she was up past her bedtime. She quickly removed her headphones and turned toward him. But, before she could say anything he had gotten uncomfortably close at this point, where she could smell the weed and liquor pouring out of his pores. The smell of weed made her gag, which led her stepfather, Damion get defensive.
"You tryna say I stink, little girl?" He raised his voice.
She shook her head, "No. I don't like the smell of weed. You know this." She explained. She was being very careful with her words. Knowing he can get physically with anyone wasn't a situation that she wanted to deal with on a Friday night. The room was silent for some long uncomfortable minutes, the only thing you could really hear was the fire popping from the candle burning and the faint singing of Beyoncé's voice through her AirPods.
"Whatever," He looked around, lingering over her white desk. "What are you doing?" He stared at the paper before snatching it off the desk. She tried to snatch it back but he was already reading it by the time she reached for it.
"Homework? What are you— a nerd? On a Friday night?" He laughed deeply. She crossed her arms over her chest and pushed her glasses higher on the bridge of her nose. She never felt insecure about focusing on her grades more than she did in this moment. The man always picked on her because she wasn't like his other kids. They were all around the same age but she was more into her studies and her step-siblings were into hanging out with friends. Not saying hanging out with her favorite people wasn't something she liked to do, she just made sure she was getting to college when the time came.
With that, he laughed, throwing the paper to the ground and left the room, slamming the door. She carefully got from the chair and picked up the paper and placed it in her folder to take it to school on Monday. Climbing into her fuzzy blankets and slightly cold sheets, she heard her mother and stepfather going at it for the seventh time tonight. Her phone vibrated between the sheets, scrambling around to see who it was she realized it was one of her closest friends, Envee. She clicked the green answer button.
