HeartBreaks & Promises

Chapter Thirty-Four

Taj

3 hours later

"Fuck you mean she ain't in her room?!"

"Fuck you mean, fuck I mean? Just like I said, she ain't in there!"

"Maybe you didn't look hard enough." Brandon brushed past me and up the stairs to reach Kammi's room.

I stayed down stairs while he was up there wasting valuable time. "Nigga, I'm not stupid and I'm not blind. The room ain't but so damn big. She's not here!"

"Then where is she at?" He asks me, coming back down the steps.

"How am I supposed to know?" I shrug my jacket back on. "I'm going to look for her though."

"I'm going with you. Let me go grab my piece."

"Nah you good. Stay here."

He looked at me like I was crazy. "You got me fucked up. How about youstay here. You don't even know this neighborhood like that. I got it."

"Hell nah! That's my baby sister out there!" I protest.

"No nigga, that's my baby sister! You lost the right to call any of us family when you went ghost. Actin' like you too good for people." He retorts, stepping closer to me.

"How am I acting like I'm too good? Why you say that? 'Cause I didn't drop out of high school and got a muthafuckin education? 'Cause I don't sell dope like your sorry ass? That's probably why Kam is gone right now, somebody done snatched her up 'cause of you!"

"Oh this is my fault now? Don't even try to blame it on me. If anything, it's your fault. Coming back here all of a sudden, starting shit. Bringing up mom nshit probably fucked her head up so she ran away!"

He really just went there.

"Don't bring her into this!" I yelled.

"Here you go, defending that bitch! She fucking left you. Bitch left all three of us to damn die! Get that shit through your head!"

"SHUT UP!" Suddenly, Kammi appeared next to us, shouting. "Just shut the fuck up! All you guys do is argue all the time and I'm tired of it! Can't even have a damn Thanksgiving 'cause y'all don't get along. Maybe y'all forgot, but we're all we got. And this - this petty, holding grudges shit, is tearing us apart!" She stormed off to her room leaving us there dumbfounded, feeling like shit.

Kammi

"You guys know mommy loves you right?" We nodded in unison. "Well, even though I really don't want to, I have to go away for a while."

"We can go with you?" I was the first to speak up.

She shook her head. "Unfortunately not, baby." My face fell at her words.

"Where are you going mom?" Taj asked.

"I can't say..."

"Well when atr you coming back?"

"I don't know Taj...it'll be a long while." I frowned up at her in utter confusion. This didn't make any sense. She was leaving us? For a whi;e? And she can't even say where she's going?

"So what are we supposed to do momma?" Taj asked her, taking the words right out of my mouth. 

She suddenly took her focus from us and put it on Brandon, who was leaned up against the wall silently with a hard look on his face. "Come over here Brandon." She waved him over. Slowly, he sauntered into our vicinity. "Brandon is going to take care of you guys from now on."

"Until you get back?" I inquired with wide eyes.

She smiled faintly, closing her eyes and nodding. "Yes baby girl until I get back."

"Why can't I do it!?" Taj asked, clearly upset that he wasn't given authority.

"You're a little too young Tank." she chuckled, combing her long, skinny fingers through his hair making a smile plague his face. 

For a couple of seconds she just stared at us. "Ugh, I'm gonna miss you guys." She said pulling all three of us into a hug.

Momma clasped her hands against her thighs, gripping onto them as she stood to her feet. Since we were standing in the foyer it only took a few steps for her to have her hand wrapped around the door handle.

"Momma don't go!" I cried out, hoping that she would turn around seeing the desperation on my face and change her mind.

I lunged forward, attempting to go to her, only to be stopped b an arm wrapped firmly around my tiny waist.

My mom sighed one last time before turning the handle and opening the door. It seemed like she wanted to stay -and I wanted her to, too. But whether that's what she wanted to do or not, she left. In an instant my mother was gone, for Lord knows how long...

"Mom!" Taj screamed as soon as the door closed. Of course he followed her out, chasing after her as she scurried down the walkway. I tried to wiggle out of Brandon's arm but he wouldn't let me go. I watched from inside the house as Taj stood in the middle of the street, left in the dust of a black SUV.

--

Since then - about ten years ago- I have yet to see my "mom."

Le she said, Brandon took care of us from then on. Once he got enough money he moved us out of that house and into a bigger one, the one we now live in. He did everything in regards to us. He made sure we were fed, had the flyest clothing, went to school, everything. He did the shit a father is supposed to do-no scratch that, he did what our mother was supposed to do. He stepped up.

Taj hasn't been the same since that day. He was always depressed and zombie-like, just seemingly unattached from the world. He was undoubtedly the closet to our mother, and probably her favorite, in fact. Her leaving us like she did really took a toll on him; he was heartbroken.

Brandon on the other hand was the complete opposite of that, He quickly established an even more pronounced careless attitude. I allowed my mind to asorb all the notions Brandon had conjured up about our mother. Stuff like she wasn't shit, she never cared about us, she was never coming back, and much more. Taj wasn't buying that shit, though. Brandon constantly talking down on the woman that birthed all three of us drove a wedge between them.

I, however, believed everything he was saying. I mean, he's my older brother, why would he lie? All those words stuck with me and turned into animosity and hatred-and a lot of it.