The "IT" Factor

Chapter 3

       "Ma! Da! Where y'all at?" Iman yelled as she entered her parent's home. "They not here, but hey to you too." said Jase, Iman's younger cousin. "You must love Sandra and Mike more than you love your Mama, because you're never at home." she said with a slight attitude. It irritated Iman that someone else was always hogging her Mother's attention, because it caused a strain in their relationship. Sandra never seemed to have enough time to talk about her daughter's personal life, she was sure to discuss the accomplishments though.

"I see my favorite daughter's car parked in the driveway, where you at girl?", Mike yelled from the garage. "I'm your only daughter Daddy, but I'm in the living room." she responded. "Come give me some love, I miss you. I'm never here when you come anymore." He said. Iman simply gave him a smile and a slight eye roll, thinking "yeah you're never here because you have another woman on the other side of town and Mama just accepts it".

"Well I came here for a reason, I need advice, real advice. From both you and Ma. It's about a man and I don't trust anyone else enough to ask for advice. So kick that boy out or send him to the store so I can talk freely." Iman said with great aggression. "Ummmm okay baby girl, give me one second." Mike said. He proceeded to send Jace to the store to get household items and told Sandra that they had a family meeting.

"So as you guys know I've been friends with Nick for 5 years and the last year or so we've moved past that. I love him, I have feelings for him and I'm pretty sure that if it's not him, I won't be with anyone else. I dream about him at night and his skin tone is so chocolate that I eat chocolate candy when I think about him..." she paused realizing that she had began to recite what she'd written in her diary and let out chuckle.

"Sorry disregard that last part, but HELP ME. I don't want to be the aggressor, but I don't want to allow him to slip away."

*ring ring* "Sorry I have to take this, give me about 10 minutes." Mike said as he scurried out of the room. "Mike I know you ain't answering the phone for that damn woman in me and my child's face." San ran out of the room to confront him. "Forget it, I'm going buy some Hennessy, watch Grace & Frankie, and write. My diary listens more than y'all." Iman screamed as she rushed out of her parent's door.

"Aaron let me tell you about your damn parents!" Iman screamed into the phone to her brother. "Hold on Man, let me call you back in a hour." he said. "Don't even worry about it, whole family screwed up, this is why I'm ready to start my own. Bye!" at that point, she was over everyone.

After stopping at the liquor store and grabbing Hennessy and lemonade, stopping at the grocery store and grabbing ingredients for her famous Cajun pasta, and picking up a few sweet treats from the bakery, Iman finally made it home. She turned on Netflix and watched tv while she cooked, seeing that when she had her house built last year, she specifically wanted a view that would allow her to cook and watch tv (she thought she was a chef).

Halfway into cooking she heard her doorbell ring and immediately grabbed her little 380 that she kept in her kitchen drawer. She was a woman living alone in a 2800 square foot home, she had to be protected. She made her way to the door to look through the peep hole and see none other than Nick standing on the other side of the door....