A Different Kind Of Love

Intro

Kierra POV
I'm woken up by the sound of our TV playing in the living room and loud talking, I look at the time on my phone to see it's 4 in the morning and I have to be woke in the next two hours to get dressed for school. I attempt to ignore the yelling and go back to sleep knowing it was only my parents and their usual late night arguments and it will pass, but it only gets louder until I hear a scream and a breaking glass; knowing the scream belonged to my mother I hop out of bed to see what the commotion is, being cautious to not wake my younger sisters Jasmine and Kailee, and to not let my father see me because I know the consequences of me being out of bed this late will be jarring. I walk out of my room moving closer to the loud noise that has now became more horrid; I hear more yelling and now my mother weeping.  I peek around the corner at the end of the hall being careful to not let my parents see me witness what is going on. As I look our coffee table that was a gift from grandmother was now broken to pieces and my mother was laying on the floor crying as the glass surrounded her seemingly broken body. My father is standing over her screaming and daring her to move an inch; I can see he's had his usual night at the bar and he's come home on a warpath. It seems as though my father hasn't been the same man since my youngest sister was born and while it startles me I still have faith that he will go back to the man that I know and love.

I begin listening to what my father is saying to my mother. "Bitch! When I tell you to do something you do it! You hear me!" He continues to yell and I continue to listen as I watch my mother laying there crying, at her weakest point. My mother has always been a strong willed person she's a lawyer and the best in her firm; I've always looked up to my mother, she's beautiful; she has long curly hair, nice brown complexion beautiful light brown eyes and a personality that no one could hate and more intelligence than any other person I've ever met. Seeing my mother in this kind of pain broke me; it made me feel as though I was useless because I am supposed to protect my mother the way she's always protected me, but I know even though my father has never laid a hand on me or my sisters, the way he treats my mom he is capable of doing so if we were to ever stand up to him.

I return to my room not being able to take the image of my mother being abused. I lay in my bed with my eyes wide open and my thoughts roaming waiting for the screaming to stop; a half an hour went by before I could hear the pots being taken out of the cabinets and the grease cooking on the stove as if my mother is cooking, which didn't make sense because she usually began cooking around 6 o'clock and it was now only reaching 5 o'clock. I hear our front door slam and I know it's my father leaving, which wouldn't be for long because he had nowhere to go. I never knew where my father went after him and my mother's arguments, but I always knew he would always come back at the same time, like clockwork. As I listened to the cooking grease on the stove the smell of our breakfast filled the household and I wondered to myself how my mother could be so strong to take care of us after the way my father treated her and she still had no one to take care of her.

We had very little family on both my mother and father's side; my mom has an older sister and a younger brother, my aunt Jennifer who has always been beautiful to me, with her light skin complexion, sandy brown hair and her beautiful grey eyes that changed colors whenever the seasons changed, but for some reason she didn't really come around often unless there was a tragedy in the family. My uncle Calvin isn't as distant as my aunt Jennifer, but that's only because him and my mother are like best friends, he has a dark complexion with shining white teeth beautiful hazel eyes and he keeps his attire expensive; he's an accountant and very good one, he usually does accounting for famous people like SZA, Chris Brown, Wale etc. We usually see him every Sunday at our family dinners after church, that we've had since before I was even thought of.

Both my grandmothers on my mother and fathers side passed away, but my mothers father papa Calvin was always around; mainly to see me, Jasmine and Kailee and to check on my mother, she never once has made it known that my father has been abusing her for the past 5 years to anyone. As for my father's father, we never speak about him, while we've met him a few times in our lives, since my father's change he's made it very clear that any mention of my grandfather's name is intolerable and will definitely result in consequences and even though our father has never laid a finger on us we knew not to take his threats lightly. My mother always tells me that my father is a good man and even though he may seem different he is the same man she feel in love with and will always love. I always admired my mothers strength and her wisdom, she has always been the person I looked up to, the one that I aim to be like in my future, while everyone's hero's consist of famous people or fake TV characters, my hero not only lived with me, she brought me into this world.

I grow tired of laying here lost in my depressing thoughts and I decide to get up and go check on my mother; I sit up and realize I have to use the bathroom, as I'm using the bathroom I hear footsteps walking pass I assume their my fathers so I sit quiet and hope he doesn't go into our room to see that I'm not there. Luckily I hear him and my mothers bedroom door close and I sigh of relief. As I'm leaving the bathroom, I no longer hear the grease cooking on the stove, but I can smell our favorite breakfast; I walk into the kitchen and I don't see my mother but I can see the table has been set and our breakfast is set in the middle of it; French Toast, scrambled eggs with cheese, hash browns and sausage and bacon. Although this breakfast looks satisfying I can't pull myself to eat it knowing my mother had to slave over a hot stove after the torment my father put her through. As I turn to walk back into my room to get dressed for school, I bumped into my mother and when my eyes met hers my mouth went agape.