Balancing Acts

Chapter 16: Always Weigh Your Battles

            Two weeks had gone by since Izzy was released from the hospital; yet me, Myron and Andre were still doing everything for him. I cooked meals for him while Myron made sure his bills were taken care of, and Andre cleaned up his apartment and helped around at the salon when he could since Izzy couldn't go back to work just yet. He was ready to start doing things on his own again but we weren't ready to let him. The truth was we were all still feeling guilty for cutting him out of our lives. We were also afraid of him getting hurt again or worse.

            "What do you want for dinner?" I asked him as I handed him the remote in his bedroom.

            "I could have anything I want?" he asked back.

            "Yep."

            "I want you and the other two bitches that keep helping out around here to go home to your significant others and let my man take care of me."

            "Izzy, I already told you..."

            "For the umpteenth time, J; I'm good. I'll be going back to work later this week and my last physical therapy session is tomorrow. My bruises are healing and pretty soon it'll be like the attack never even happened. Y'all have been all up in here ever since I came home and while I do appreciate it, I need to start doing stuff on my own again."

             "We're just worried about you, Izzy. We don't want you to get hurt again."

            "I won't. Lance got me a taser and some pepper spray to carry around in my cute bags and totes. The next crusty nigga or group of crusty ass niggas is gonna get let up if they lay a finger on me."

            "That does nothing to make me feel better about all of this. Izzy, I don't know what I'd do if something like that happens to you again or worse."

            "Bitch, please. You know you'd be happy getting your back blown out by Brandon even if I wasn't here!" He laughed and sat up in bed. "But seriously, nothing is going to happen to me. I've had restraining orders put on damn near everybody related to those fuckboys and since none of the fuckboys were granted bail, I have nothing to worry about. The trial date is set for this September and the prosecutor told me today he's confident that he'll get a conviction with new evidence he has."

            "New evidence?"

            "Yeah. It turns out that one of the buildings next to where they attacked me has a camera with clear night vision that caught everything. The prosecutor told me the footage corroborates my statement about what happened and discredits the homophobes' defense. The smoking gun of it all: the camera records video and sound. It proves that I didn't say a word to them until they approached me and began beating me. The homophobes and their families know nothing about that footage so they're in for a big surprise at the trial."

            "With that kind of damning evidence, a jury should have no problem convicting them."

            "Exactly. So you, Myron and Dre can stop worrying so much. Everything is going to be okay." He was about to say something else, but the sound of his front door opening and closing caught his attention. "Lance, is that you?"

            "Yeah," said Lance from the living room. "I brought you some dinner from that Greek place across from my job." He stepped into the bedroom and noticed me in there with Izzy. "Oh, hey Julani."

            "Hi Lance," I said back.

            He took the food over to Izzy and asked him, "You hungry, baby?"