June 10th, 2022
12:54 am
Ayariah Chanel Jackson-Anthony
"Yaya ma in the hospital"
Instantly sobering up, I pushed Maj from over me. "What?"
"Ma in the hospital" Amari repeated.
He sounded like he had been crying. Ignoring his tone, I grabbed my phone. I'm only worried about my mother right now.
"What happened?"
"She started coughing up blood and-" Amari started but was cut off.
"Yo, why you not looking at yo messages and where the fuck you at?" Assiah yelled.
A tear falling down my face, I hung up. My phone began ringing again, but I declined it. I don't have time to be getting yelled at for not looking at my phone. Assiah almost always flips out when I don't answer the phone when he calls. Only because he be thinking something probably happened to me when I don't respond. But he has my location so I don't know why he doesn't check it.
"Can you get me some clothes please?" I asked Maj.
He handed me a warm rag and placed another sweat suit and a pair of boxers next to me. Looking up at him, I held back the tears that were trying to come out. I noticed he was already fully dressed. This nigga is already a step ahead of me.
"I'll be in the kitchen" he walked out of the room closing the door behind him.
As soon as the door closed, tears flowed down my face. Between my mom being in the hospital right now and Assiah yelling at me, I don't which is hurting me more. I hated being yelled at and I hated how my mom had been in and out of the hospital these past few months.
A few months ago, she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. When she went to the hospital last month, we were told it went up to stage four. The doctor warned us that it may continue to spread. These past couple of months have been hard for her, but the way she handles it all you wouldn't even know she was battling cancer.
After crying for a minute, I wiped myself with the rag and put on the clothes Maj had given me. Throwing the rag in his dirty clothes basket, I walked into the bathroom to wash my face.
****
Walking into the hospital, I headed straight to the desk. My heart now racing, I'm scared to find out what's going on. I had left Amari home with her after I said I would come back. But I never went back home.
"What you need love?" The guy behind the desk asked me.
"I'm here for Angela Jackson-Anthony. Can you tell me what room she's in?"
"They still running a couple of tests with her. I can always get your number & call when she ready" he leaned forward with a grin on his face.
Feeling uncomfortable, I placed my hands in the pocket of the hoodie. Almost immediately, I felt someone press themselves against me. As they placed their hands on my waist, I knew who it was. In all honesty, I thought he left.
"She good" Maj pulled me closer to him.
Relaxing my body, I looked to my right. Assiah paced back and forth with Lyrix in his arms, as he mugged me. Amari is on his phone.
Not wanting to deal with Assiah, I know I still have to for the time being. Taking a deep breath, I slowly walked towards my brothers. Maj keeping a hand on my waist, followed behind me.
"You bringing niggas round now?" Siah turned his attention to Maj.
Ignoring him, I sat next to Mari. "Hey Afro"
"Wassup, who he?"
"My bodyguard" I whispered.
He shook his head. "I think that shit spread. I was looking at symptoms of other types of cancer-"
His voice cracked and his eyes started to water. I held his hand and leaned my head on his shoulder. He is just as emotional as I am, but he hides it for the most part. The only time his feelings show is when our mom is involved.
"She gone be okay" I mumbled.
Maj rested his hand on my leg. Closing my eyes, I placed my hand on his. I slowly drifted away as sleep took over while we waited.
****
"-yariah"
"Hmm," I fluttered my eyes open.
Uzziah and Eryss rushed towards us. Uzziah dapped up Assiah, then came over to do the same with Maj and Mari. The doctor reading from his clipboard, made his way towards us.
"You know this nigga?" Assiah asked.
"Yea, but wassup with Tanti?" Jo hugged me.
Jo grew up in the house with us, so he's pretty close to my mom. He moved in a little before my dad got locked up. He just ended up moving out around the same time as Siah.
"Is this the family for Angela Jackson-Anthony"
"Yea, can we see her?" I sat up.
"I can only take immediate family members at the moment"
Mari, Siah, and I followed the doctor down through glass doors. He lead us down the hall, to a room. Getting anxious, my hands started shaking. Walking into the room, I sighed in relief. My mom is hooked up to the IV machine, but I can tell she's just sleeping.
I'm upset that they took her wig off her head. Even though I didn't glue it to her head, they could have left it on her. Her hair has been thinning out so she let me start putting lace fronts on her. Sometimes I glued them down, other times I didn't.
"She gotta stay here?" Siah asked.
"Unfortunately she does due to the cancer spreading to her lungs..."
Standing by the hospital bed, I listened to the doctor explain why she's been coughing up blood and having trouble breathing. Although we had been in and out of the hospital for the past six months with her, something felt different about this time. Things were about to change and it was just a matter of time.
****
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