Limitless

Chapter 14

Grandma gets up, goes into the kitchen and I hear her on the phone with someone. I hear them talking about Derek and in moments I hear a knock on the door.
   Grandma opens the door and my mom walks in furious!
   "Gabrielle what's this I hear about you being raped?", she asks with no chill in her tone.
   "Yeah, Derek raped me.. but I already took care of it."
   "Did you go get tested and call the police?"
   "No. He doesn't have anything. He's been obsessed with me since we dated. I'm pretty sure he hasn't touched anybody else. And no... I didn't call them. You and I both know they wouldn't do anything about it. Rape happens EVERYDAY around here. They don't care."
She sits down beside me on the couch.
"You need to get tested! I can't believe this shit! He gone get his, watch! Wait til I tell Jordan! He gone be PISSED!"
She jumps up begins pacing back and forth with her hands on her hips.
"Has he been STALKING you or something, this couldn't have just come out the damn blue?"
"Every since we broke up about 2 months ago... He was blowing up my phone everyday, sending me around 40 unanswered texts before I got tired and messaged back, and he kept popping up where I was! I didn't even know he knows where I live until the night it happened!"
"Why didn't you TELL us this was happening? We could've put a stop to this shit a LONG time ago!"
"I don't want yall going to jail over this. I knew if I told yall, yall would kill him or do something else crazy! You have Kayden to think about. He needs his mommy and daddy.. and his GRANDMA."
I shoot a look over at my grandma Martha, who is now sitting in her chair loading her pistol. She looks up when she hears me refer to her and stops mid load.
My mom stops pacing, looks at her, and then back at me, and begins to speak again with a more placid tone.
" Did you lead him on or something? I mean why is this boy so OBSESSED with you?"
" No I didn't lead him on mama! I broke up with him and he wouldn't take no for an answer!" , I say frustrated now by the somewhat accusation.
" What made you break up with him in the first place, he seemed like he was a good dude? I didn't never get that anyway!"
"Well, because I realized he wasn't good for me."
"Why not?"
"Because I didn't really like him. I just dated him just because. He fell for me, I guess, and I didn't have feelings for him like that, so I broke up with him."
"But why though? He seemed well put together. He's cute. He's smart-"
"Not really."
" You just don't know a good thing when you got it that's what it is. You just-"
"Ma I'm gay!" I say quickly, putting my hands over my face to block any incoming blows.
My grandma who was just watching us go back and forth comes over and sits beside me wrapping her arms around my shoulders.
My mom's face changes about 5 times from frustrated to angry to concerned to disappointed and back to angry in about 1 minute.
She sits beside me and immediately stands back up as if the seat was on fire.
" You want to run that by me again?"
Grandma chimes in. "Now Vanessa, that is not the issue at hand right now. You need to be worried about getting this child some where to get checked out."
"Nah, mama I didn't raise no dike! Now I KNOW you didn't say what I THINK you said so YOU WANNA RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN?"
I stop peeking through my fingers and put my hands down in my lap. I stare her in her eyes as if I was the boldest woman in America and I repeat, "I'm g-"
She slaps me knocking me out of my grandma's arms and on to the floor. I hit my head on the coffee table as I fall. My grandma stands up and pushes my mom down on the couch. Everything is blurry but I can see my grandma smack my mom and hear her yelling over the ringing in my ears.
"VANESSA FRANCINE JACKSON! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU HITTIN' THAT GIRL LIKE THAT! SHE MIGHT HAVE A CONCUSSION OR ANYTHING! THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU! SHE'S GAY, SO WHAT! WHY THE FUCK DOES IT MATTER?"
I've never heard my grandma curse so much. I've never seen her this ANGRY. She helps me up and sits me in her chair. She hurries to the kitchen, comes back with an ice pack in a hand towel, and puts it on the side of my head that hit the table.
My mom gets up and leaves. Grandma puts on some clothes and helps me to her car and she drives to the hospital. Luckily when we get there, there isn't many people in front of us, so I get seen quickly.
The doctor first checks me for a concussion. He says I have a minor one and gives me a prescription for it. I told them I tripped and fell. My grandma tells him that I had been raped two weeks ago and just now told her. He says they'll check me out and run some tests but it's too late to run a rape kit.
   When the test results come back they tell me that I'm okay and hand me my walking papers. Grandma takes me for some ice cream on the way back to her house.