A Daddy's World (Urban/New Adult)

Chapter 3

Tyshawn drifts in his car down the skinny road that leads to Dreia's house.

He knows Dreia's block like the back of his hand.

Once he realized that Dreia was going to be his family, he familiarized himself with her block like it was apart of a family ritual.

He knew some of the people who lived close by, where their cars are parked, and which houses they'd belong to (some people have a hard time parking where they sleep). He memorized the traffic lights, the speed bumps and even the precise locations of each potholes in the street.

The light turns red at the end of the street and he has to stop his cruising, so he takes the time to unlock his phone. Checking and re-checking his text messages threads, where his baby mother should have at least some responses.

Instead, as he scrolls up the list of blue message bubbles, he sees nothing but the many messages that he'd sent out. He keeps scrolling until message responses pop up in gray on the left side of his screen from Dreia. The last message from her was sent over a week ago, today.

He decided to play it cool at first when he noticed how unresponsive she was being. He thought about it wisely by not giving it much thought at all.

That was until day two, when he started over thinking. It led him to think about all the reasons why she'd be mad at him... a few came to mind.

He knew that she didn't like the fact that he was still hanging around the Hispanics: Angel, Rose, Papi and Price. But they were his boys and his only real black friend was Gaduuh, who was also cool with the Hispanics.

When the light finally turns green, Tyshawn is already speeding again. He took a sharp left that leads to a road about the same size as the last, and begins cruising again. He couldn't see himself letting go of the years of loyalty he'd built with his homeboys all for Dreia's whining, especially when she liked to have her own space from him, like, all the time, anyway.

What did she expect him to do all day, he thought, follow her around like a lost puppy anyway? He knew that she didn't like it when he spent money on his car either, especially when he could be spending it all on her or at least spending it all on a place to live away from his mother house.

The fact that he still doesn't have his own apartment is the biggest reason he can think of, and the only one out of the three that he can't shake from his conscience. Whenever he remembers his age, he starts to worry that his family might see him as a freeloader. m

He even feels like a free loader at this point because none of his homeboys will live at home at twenty-four years old.

That's why they gave him the nickname Momma's Boy.

He thinks about it every now and again and it leads to ill thoughts. Then, he begins to think of himself as less than a man.

Nonetheless, those were the things that he and Dreia argued about the most and they were all his problems.

He never got to complain about his pet peeves of her, but he could count them off on his fingers if he tried.

He doesn't like that her fridge is always empty or the fact that she lets their three-year-old son watch music videos all day long.

He knows he won't remember much about them, but it's the message it gives to him that will still matter later to Tyshawn Sr.

Why can't she make him watch the telly tubbies like they did growing up? It just doesn't ever make sense to him.

He began sending long messages to Dreia that consisted of him apologizing for the way he was behaving and also for not having his shit together for the long run on day two, but then day three and four came. He was getting frustrated and that led him to start calling her out of her name and promising he'd take his son away if she didn't answer her phone or reply to one, or all of his texts atleast to let him know that his son was okay.