Black Wynter 3 "The Final Judgement"

Chapter Sixteen

Tommoi sat in the living room with the twins, eating some canned ravioli. Natasha wasn't yet home to cook and the drugs that Tommoi had been using, always had her hungry. Christian watched his younger sister as she demolished the "Chef Boy R Dee" almost all in one shot.

Christian had been the only one who was noticing weird changes in his sister. He couldn't quite put his finger on what that change was, but he knew that something was going on. First of all, Tommoi was beginning to lose weight rapidly. She had never been a very thick girl in the first place, so it was very noticeable. Tommoi spent a lot of time in her room with the door locked and whenever she came out, she was always jittery.

"Moi, what's up?" Christian asked his sister, in his high pitched voice. He decided that maybe he could weasle it out of her using conversation. He was a Gemini, with an amazing gift of gab after all. Tommoi looked at her brother, licking sauce off of her top lip. "Nothing. Nothing is up," she replied, a little too fast for Christian's likings. She went back to eating.

Christian frowned. He wasn't at all convinced. Something was definitely up with Tommoi. And Christian was now determined to figure out what it was. Just as he had figured out what was going on with Natasha years ago.
*****
Later that night, just as Tommoi was about to sniff some lines, there was a knock at her room door. With a disturbed groan, she got up out of bed and went to go open the door. It was her sister and she looked very bothered. Tasha barged her way inside of Tommoi's room, without waiting to be invited in.

"Don't be just coming up in my room like that," Tommoi said, her face scrunched up. She closed the door back behind her. Natasha ignored her. "We have a problem," she declared. Tommoi tensed up, paranoid. Did her sister know that she was using?

"What's the problem?" Tommoi asked, trying her best to sound casual. "Matthew called me today at work," Natasha started, talking about their family lawyer. Relieved, Tommoi loosened up. "Okay. And?" she waited for her sister to continue. Natasha sighed, pissed off. "He said that he was contacted today. By the Nixon's lawyer. They are fucking suing us Tommoi!" Natasha shouted, angrily.

Tommoi was taken aback. "Suing us? What the fuck for?" she wanted to know. "Apparently, Omar's lawyer contacted the Nixon's. Talking about how Omar wants the baby back because he never signed away his rights as the baby's father and he never signed no adoption papers. He's claiming that he never even knew he was a father. So, now they're suing us," Natasha informed her younger sister. She waited for her sister to say something. When Tommoi did not, Tasha continued.

"They're suing us for causing them distress and wasting the money they upped for your medical bills and all the shit they paid for while you were pregnant. What the fuck, Tommoi? You never told Omar that you were pregnant?!" Natasha demanded to know. Tommoi just bowed her head in shame. This was all spiraling way out of control. She just knew that this was God's way of punishing her for having a baby out of wedlock in the first place.

Tommoi knew her mother was somewhere saying, "I told you so". Bernadette had always stressed to her the importance of being married before having kids. Now look. Tommoi had a baby without being married and now, she was suffering real consequences. She looked back up at Natasha with pleading eyes.

"Sis, you don't understand what I was going through. I didn't think Omar would ever even get out of jail. I figured there was no point in telling him," she responded. Natasha just sucked her teeth. "How much are they suing us for?" Moi then asked. "Fifteen thousand dollars," Tasha said. Tommoi grew silent. She already knew what her sister wanted her to do.

Tommoi still had the money that her mother had left her. She had been saving it, in hopes to open up a salon in the near future. But blessings did come in disguises. At the rate she was going with the sniffing of coke, that money would have probably been blown all on drugs, anyway. Her mother had worked too damned hard for that to happen. Perhaps it was better it be used to pay off a lawsuit, than to sniff the money all up her nose.

Tommoi sighed. "I'll pay it," she said, sadly. There went all her hopes and dreams. It's funny how having a child, sometimes costed you everything that you had planned for your life. She had heard it several times before. "Once you have a baby, it's never just about you anymore."

Apparently, this was very true. Whether you chose to keep the child or not. Somebody still had to pay. "You're damned right you're gonna pay it!" Natasha barked and then she stormed back out of the room.
*****
Tommoi knocked on Omar's door, nonstop. She was banging loudly and very hard, hoping that he was in there. She hadn't called before showing up. The door opened and before her stood a chick in an oversized T-shirt with bed hair. The girl yawned. "Can I help you?" she asked. She wasn't even being rude. But Tommoi was jealous and she wanted to know who this girl was.

"Who are you?" Tommoi asked her. The girl raised an eyebrow and snorted. "Um, who are you? You knocking on this door," she said. "Where's Omar?" Tommoi demanded. With a smirk, the girl turned a little and called into the house. "O-Lok! The door for you!" she yelled.

A couple seconds later, Omar appeared beside shorty at the door. He had on nothing but a pair of "Calvin Klein" underwear, his shirt off. He grimaced when he saw Tommoi standing on his doorstep. "What are you doing here?" he asked her. Then, he turned to shawty. "Ashanti, go inside. I'll be back in a minute," he said in a lowered tone. Taking one last glare at Tommoi, Ashanti did as O-Lok told her to do.

"You've moved on?" Tommoi asked Omar, once the girl was gone. She was shocked at how devasted she was feeling. It wasn't until that moment, that Tommoi realized how much she really did love Omar. And how much she had really taken him for granted before. Even though she had always thought she had been looking out for him by being hard on him, she realized that she hadn't done enough to show him that she genuinely cared about him. Maybe Omar was right that day he accused her of not loving him, the day she had went to visit him upstate.

Omar sighed, rolling his eyes at the same time. "Man, listen. That's not my girl. You know I don't go around just cuffing anybody," he spoke to Moi, through clenched teeth. "Then, who is she?" Tommoi questioned. She had seemed to forget the real reason she had come over. "Man, that's just... She's just..." Omar shook his head. "Wait a minute! Why the fuck am I explaining myself to you? You left me, remember? You hurt me!" Omar reminded Tommoi. He tried to dismiss her.

"Leave, Tommoi. Now. I'm deadass," he said, seriously. Moi wasn't ready to go anywhere. "Why didn't you tell me that you were going to have your lawyer contact the Nixons?" Tommoi questioned. O-Lok gave Tommoi an unfazed look. "I don't gotta tell you shit," he said to her. Tommoi stomped a foot, not liking his responses to her. "Omar!" she shouted his name in frustration.

"Leave, Tommoi," Lok repeated, showing no emotion in his tone. "Omar, we can work past this. Do you still love me?" Tommoi wanted to know. Much to Tommoi's disappointment, O-Lok didn't even bother to respond. He just stepped back into his home and gently closed the door in Tommoi's face. Crushed, Moi turned and walked away from the door. I give up, she thought to herself.

She would no longer try. She would no longer care. Tommoi decided that it was time to just numb herself to everything she was feeling and leave the rest up to God. And she knew just the way to do it. Her guardian angel definitely came in all white. Waiting for her in a bag, right in the underwear drawer of her dresser. If only she had known that these were the exact feelings her mother had felt, before committing suicide.