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Tanya

Today, I was at Grandma Angela's house. I would've much preferred to be home with my boys but once Grandma processed everything that happened at the repast two days ago, she called me, Tariq, and Ty and told our 'narrow behinds' to be at her house at 12 pm sharp. It was now 12:30 and we were waiting on Tyrell. About five minutes later, the door opened and he came in. I immediately rolled my eyes.

"Sup y'all." He said to me and Tariq.

Tariq gave him a head nod but I just full blown ignored him. I wasn't mad at him anymore per se but his presence still annoyed me.

"Damn, Tanya, you still mad at me?"

"You still cuddled up with the bottle?"

He sucked his teeth and stood up. "Fuck this."

"Boy, sit yo ass back down." Grandma said, coming out the kitchen. "You get here late and you cussing up in my house."

"Sorry." He mumbled, sitting back down.

"Now, we're gonna skip the small talk and go straight to the elephant in the room. Tyrell, not only did you steal my Jack Daniels but you had the audacity to put your hands on your little brother. I outta ship you off to rehab. You wanna end up like ya mama?"

"Don't bring up my mama."

"Or what? I'm not ya siblings. I won't hesitate to hit your ass over the head with this switch." She said, pointing the switch at him that I just realized was in her hand.

Tyrell stayed silent. All of us were silent. Dad used to tell us that when he was younger, the switch was the worse punishment he ever got. He said nowadays kids are immune to belts but that switch was a different type of whooping.

"Tanya, say what you have to say."

"I don't have much to say, to be honest." I said. "We were all trying to look out for you seeing as though our mother just died due to an addiction. I understand everybody copes differently but you took it too far. You punched Tariq, you disrespected me and Dave, and then had the audacity to drag my kids into it. Then you wanna come in here like 'hey, everybody' as if shit's sweet when it's not. I don't think you understand how bad I wanted to hurt you two days ago. To answer your question-no, I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at whoever that was at the repast."

Ty still remained silent. He knew I was right.

"Tariq." Grandma said.

"I'm just gonna piggyback off of what Tanya said about you taking it too far. We understand that you were around mama the most growing up so it hit you differently. We never denied it but you was pissed off like you was her only child. You tried to fight Dave over some liquor that didn't even belong to you and then you hit me. Yeah, we used to play fight all the time but you deadass knocked me out. I can forgive, bro, but that's some shit I just can't forget."

Ty still didn't say anything. I could tell that he felt bad. Grandma looked at him and shook her head.

"Tyrell, is there anything you wanna say?"

"Yeah, uh, Grandma I'm sorry for stealing your liquor and acting a fool in your house. Tanya, I'm sorry for disrespecting you and Dave and for dragging the kids into the argument. Tariq, I shouldn't have hit you. I feel like shit and I'm so sorry."

Tariq shrugged. "We good."

He slapped hands with Ty and then looked at me. I didn't wanna stay salty but I knew what he said hurt Dave. It wasn't my battle to fight though.

"It's all good." I said.

"Can I have a hug?"

"Promise you'll stop or at least try to stop."