Avery Jordan
My speech therapist has been helping me with my words for about about a week now, and it's already as good as new.
Aug noticed that it only slurs now when I'm sad or upset.
He's been here with me for about two months and some weeks. I was finally signed out to be released in two days.
"Avery, who will you be staying with?" Doctor Rucker asked me.
"Wit--"
"She a' be stayin' wit me." August intruded.
I looked at him and shook my head.
"No August. I don't want to be a burden. Jerrion wouldn't mind it if--"
"You wouldn't be a' burden. I just got a new house not long ago and I want ya ta be thea' wit me."
He spoke.
"I want ya wit me, Ave."
I smiled at him. "Ok, August. I will."
"Well, alright then." My doctor said. "I just have a few papers for you to sign, Mr. Alsina. Come with me."
"I'll be back, Avery." He said before following Doctor Rucker out of the room.
I grabbed my crutches and tried to walk to the bathroom. I could walk fairly well, but the pain I felt every time I took a step was excruciating.
I held back my tears as I used the bathroom and washed my hands afterwards.
"Avery?"
I heard August outside the bathroom door. I took a breath then opened it.
"Wat's wrong, beybeh?" He asked me and wiped a single tear that fell.
I raised my shirt and showed him my bruised purple, blue, and black ribs.
He dropped his head.
He lowered my shirt and helped me walk back to the bed.
He looked at me as I laid there.
"Why he do dis ta ya?" He asked sincerely.
--
August Alsina
"Why he do dis ta ya?" I asked ha, trying ta think of a' reason, but none came ta mind.
"He always did things like this." She said ta me. I looked at ha, signalin' fa ha ta continue.
"I remember one time, it was about a week after he let me move in. I went out looking for a job. I'd been been out all day. I didn't have a car. My feet were killing me. The dress I had worn to my interviews that day was beautiful. One of the prettiest dresses I think I'd ever owned." She said. A few tears started ta roll down the side of ha face.
"I came home at around 10, or something like that. Apparently Brice thought I was doing something I wasn't supposed to. He lit his blunt, then asked me where I'd been. I told him I was looking for a job. He said to me "Nobody goes out looking for a job in a slutty ass dress like the one you got on." I laughed and told him that I wear whatever I want to wear." She stopped and wiped ha tears.
"He grabbed me and told me that I wear what the fuck he told me to. I pushed him off of me and told him I wasn't his child. He grabbed me again and lit my face with the burning end if his blunt. I screamed as loud as my voice would let me. Obviously that made him angrier. He threw me on the floor, then grabbed an extension cord and beat me. He tied it around my neck until I called him 'daddy'. He told me he would beat me like he was my father and I would treat him as such. Meaning when he gave me a time to be home, I couldn't be late because that was my curfew. When I acknowledged him, I called him "daddy", "sir", or "papi" because he was my father. I said yes to marrying so I could get the ring, pawn it, and use the money to give me a jump start on my own apartment. I couldn't say no. Disobey him, you get beaten. Been living like that for four-- well five years. Now, I just hope that part of my life is over."
