Oakland's Greatest

Chapter 12

Oakland's Greatest: The Final Chapter

~1 Month Later~

I woke up to the loud screams coming from Nicole's room. Wasn't Heather already up? She usually tends to Nicole in the morning so I could get some shut eye for school.

I crawled out of bed and walked right down to her room. I flicked on the light and walked up to her crib.

"Morning Nicole." I yawned as I picked her up and carried her to my bathroom. I set her down on the counter while I started to draw the bath for her. It was a lot easier to bathe her in the tub than in the sink. "I wonder where Mommy went?" I said as I rolled up my sleeves and slipped her out of her pj's and diaper.

***

I finished bathing her and brought her back to her room, where I noticed a letter. I set Nicole on her changing table and picked it up, carefully infolding it.

-Arlie-

...I'm done with all of this bullshit we keep going through. You're nothing but a terrible boyfriend and I regret that I have a daughter with you. I can't deal with this anymore, so I've made my decision to leave. Don't try to contact me, I've changed my number and made myself scarce...

-Heather-

I just stood there looking down at that one paragraph, at that one sentence out of the entire 3 page letter. "I regret having a daughter with you." How the fuck can she sit there and say she regrets having Nicole? That's our daughter, who hasn't done a damn thing. Fuck this shit.

I got Nicole dressed and just called over Gabriel to come and help me pack all of Nicole and I's stuff.

***

"So why are you packing?" He asked as we started to finish on the last box of Nicole's stuff. Thankfully there wasn't a whole lot of stuff in this house. Just the key pieces of furniture and appliances.

"Because I want to start over my life. I don't want to be in a house that has memories. I want to be in a new one where I can start fresh."

"Ohh alright. Where are you going to move?"

"There's a house on the corner of a main intersection on the East side. It's hella nice, so that's where I'm going." It's time to leave this hood. I'm tired of dumb shit going down all the time, it's time to just chill out.

"I'll probably never see you around then if you move to the East Side."

"I'll be coming by to drop off Nicole with Mom when I have to go to school or do a job. So don't trip over it." He nodded his head as we continued to pack. "I wanted to move into that house with Heather and Nicole so she'd be closer to her family but I guess Heather had other plans in mind."

"I saw her walking down the street this morning. She walked into Joey's house."

"I'm not even the slightest bit surprised." So we continued to pack and all that shit. We loaded up my car and I left Gabriel at the house so he could watch Nicole, while I drove over to the new house to drop off the first round of furniture. I was glad Mom gave me her suburban just for this reason. Otherwise; I hated large cars like this. I wanted a fast whip like a Lamborghini. That was my dream car.

***

"Where the fuck you been? My ass been bored as fuck out here." Varo complained as I walked up to the corner store. Nicole was with my Mom so I had some free time.

"I've been layin' low, what the fuck have you been up to?" I leaned up against the wall of the corner store with my hands in the pockets of my shorts.