Quarantine

Thanksgiving Disaster

"Unbelievable! What have you been teaching her? I knew it! I always did. You were never going to be a good mother in my eyes."

The words that left Linda's mouth was more of a blow to me than it was to my mother.

"Excuse me? What did you say?" I stood up from my spot.

At this point, I didn't give a shit if I was pregnant or not, because somebody was about to get their ass handed to them. If someone was gonna get the shit beat out of them, then so be it. I was sick and tired of their bullshit.

"I don't need to repeat myself." She said with a sneer.

"I think you do. I think everyone needs to hear what you've got to say." 

"Chill, girlie. Your black side is show-" I smacked the bag of cookies from Ransom's fingers, watching as he cocked up an eyebrow. "Oooookay."

"I've always had my black side, but my parents were worried you white folks wouldn't be able to handle it. And they were right." I spat, shaking off Jackson's hand. I looked over at him with so much determination, he had to take a step back. "I know that you would do anything for me. Anything. But this is my fight and we've dealt with this long enough." I drew my attention back to the rest. "I don't give two shits about your opinions. They never mattered to me! But if you say something about my mother, your own sister...then that's just asking to get your ass beat."

Walt's wife gasps, clenching his arm. "Walt, we need to leave. She's going to cloud our son's head."

I scoffed turning my burning eyes to her. "News flash Donna! Your son's a fucking nazi! His head is already full of shit!"

Walt gets up onto his feet. "Now listen here, young lady-"

"No." I hold him a finger. "You listen to me. You're in my home. You're in my space. You listen to my rules and if you have a problem with that, I suggest you get your racist ass family out of my home!" My eyes roam around the room, taking the silence. "Nothing else to say? Good. Now you listen." I plop myself down back in my seat, getting comfortable. "Am I pregnant? Yes, but shit has nothing to do with either of you. You can say any racial slur you want about my boyfriend and I, but always know that we're the ones above you. This baby is going to live the best life and have the best parents. It must really hurt seeing POC being more successful then you. The only two people that I ever got along with in this family was Meg and Grandpa Harlan. The rest of y'all, as Hugh says it, 'can eat shit'."

"That's my line." Ransom grumbles.

The silence breaks with the sound of a sob and I look over to see my mother hunched over, crying. "This is ridiculous! You guys are so ridiculous!" She yelled, roughly wiping her tears. "I can't stand any single one of you. I can't believe this right now!" Her fist connected with her palm.

"You're getting violent, sweetheart. You're scaring all of us." Richard mumbles under his breath, but my mother's vision zooms in on him in an instance. 

"I'm scaring you? I'm the one scaring you?!" She screeched. "I've been afraid of my family my entire life, and you're scared of me?" She stood there, taken aback for a second, baffled. "Get the hell out of my house." 

"Now honey...we can talk this out." Joni butts in.

"Shut up, Joni. I tried to be civilized. My daughter tried to be civilized. It's obvious that you guys are the ones who don't want be civilized."

Linda tsks. "You're being irrational, little sister."

"I said! Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. Motherfucking. House! Goddamnit! I don't ever want to see you're faces again. You don't get to disown me."

"We're disowning you." I finish her sentence and we both stand there shoulder to shoulder, taking them on. We weren't going down without a fight. My mother and I always had our disagreements, always butted heads, less after dad died, but we were different. But here we were, standing as one person. Fighting together. "I suggest you guys listen to what she says or else it's going to get ugly."

"Are you threatening us?!" Donna gasped.

"Those are fighting words, little girl." Ransom stood in front of me, chest to chest.

Jackson was about to make a move, but my action of stepping up and glaring up at Ransom in challenge, kept him back. "And that's some pretty nice skin you got there. Would be a shame if it got all messed up by a girl." I spat back. "I don't care if you're older, taller, bigger. In the end you're white and my black ass will beat the shit out of you. I won't let my daddy down." 

The silence was strong, violent, and deafening. Whoever broke it first was the first to admit the defeat, but I had already knew who was going to walk out that door with their tails beneath them.

"Let's go." Linda's voice wavered as she stood up straightening herself. "We won't be coming back."

I nearly laughed, but held it in. As if we cared.

"The door's right there." My mom pointed at the exit with her fingers. "Can't miss it." 

"Sister...think about this." Walt walked up to her, trying to get to her, but she didn't budge.

"I did think about it. For the majority of my life. Now get the fuck out." 

Not to brag, but my mom's better than yours.

Jackson stood by my side, a supporting arm wrapped around my waist. Even though I didn't let him speak, his presence meant everything to me. If it wasn't for him, I would've been upstairs crying my eyes out instead. But I needed to show him that I didn't always need him to fight my battles, I just needed him to be there.

As they left one by one, Meg stopped at the doorstep, back still turned to us. "I'm really sorry. I hope that'll I'll be able to meet my niece or nephew one day. If you let me." With that, she followed the rest with her head hung low.

My heart ached, because she was always there for me and she just had to be caught up in everything. She would definitely be seeing her niece or nephew. She had earned the right.

"I'm sorry...mom." I spoke, my voice shaking. I felt like I had just ruined her life. Like everything that just happened was my fault.

She turned to face us, a large smile on her face as tears slid down her cheeks. "Sorry for what, you brat?" She rushed up to us, pulling the both of us into a hug. "Thank you."

"I'm finally free."

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Sorry this was a short one, but I'm full of food and I just want to take a nap.

Go check out Primed for Sin if you haven't and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!