Baby Boy

[ Thirteen: Old News ]

"You lost that good girl and now you runnin' me to me like I'm supposed to lie to that girl and try to talk her into gettin' back with you?" Jalen's mom fussed at him on the other end of the line. "I done told you 'bout that shit, boy. A woman can only take so much. You see I left your no good daddy after he kept putting his hands on me. I didn't give a fuck how long we been together, enough is enough and that lil' girl had enough of your games! So what the hell you got to say for yourself now, Jalen?"

"Mama...I ain't mean to cheat on her," he explained as he ran a hand through his curls. "It's like...I don't know, ma. I do love Sierra, I just be makin' mistakes sometimes. I said sorry but she ain't wanna listen."

"Negro, do you hear yourself? You think a woman wants to hear sorry after her heart has been broken? That's the last thing a woman wants to hear and you know why? 'Cause we know you wasn't sorry before you did it. You knew it was gonna hurt her, but you still went ahead and did it anyway. That's the worst thing about sorry," his mother said. She stopped speaking so that she could take a draw from her Newport. Once she blew the smoke out, she started up again. "Your daddy had that same problem though. He couldn't keep his dick in his pants to save his life. And that's why you got 'bout twenty or thirty brothers and sisters running around Columbia. That's nasty though, Jalen. You don't need to be going around fuckin' all these fast ass girls. They don't even know how to wipe their ass right but you willing to drop your little dick in 'em all that. Lord, I hope that girl and her family don't think I raised you to be like that."

"Aight, ma, I gotta go," Jalen said, letting out a sigh as he realized his mother wasn't about to let up on him anytime soon.

He thought that maybe she would be on his side and try to help him out, but instead, she was only telling him how he was no good just like his father. He didn't want to hear any of that bullshit, especially not at a time like this.

"Mhmm, and you better be doing good in school 'cause you not coming back here once that basketball scholarship run out!" his mother said before she hung up the phone.

Jalen rolled his eyes and threw his phone down on the bed beside him. His mother had never really been much of a loving one. She didn't baby him up or tell him sweet words of encouragement. He honestly didn't even remember getting hugs, kisses, bed time stories, or warm milk and cookies as a child. His mother just straight up told him what she expected of him and how she would punish him if he didn't meet those expectations. And when she spoke to him, she spoke to him as if he were just any other person in the streets. Jalen didn't know how to explain it, but he had a weird relationship with his mother. He didn't dislike her...but he didn't really love her that much either.

And he definitely didn't know why she was trippin' so hard about how his father had cheated on her. Jalen remembered having quite a few "uncles" that never came to any of the family reunions when he was growing up. His moms wasn't perfect either. To be honest, both of his parents were some freak hoes who did the damn thang and made a freaky ass son.

Jalen smirked to himself as he grabbed his phone and book bag and headed out the door. He only had one more class for the day and then he could finally just kick it to himself. Medical terminology wasn't a complicated class, it just required lots of memorization. The professor lectured for about an hour and decided to end class early since really...there was nothing to lecture about. On his way out of the lecture hall, a brown skinned girl with faux locs and a tongue ting stopped him. He thought her name was Vicky, Vanessa, Violet...some like that. He couldn't remember her name for sure but he did know that he met her at one of the Q's parties.