Zeniqua hails a taxi and tries to remember where one of her mother’s family members live. She knows her mother has a sister, Auntie Taiquana, but where she lives Zeniqua has no clue. She hadn’t seen Taiquana since she was knee high when her mother snuck her to see her side of the family. Since Zeniqua was her father’s first daughter he swore that his rivals would kill her just to get him to, but her mother wasn’t hearing that.
She wanted her family to see thee beauty she had made with such a brute. But, when they returned, her father was furious and choked her mother out, but didn’t kill her. She and her mother was confined to the house like prisoners and what made it worse was then they lived in a huge mansion and had on the clock bodyguards looking over Zeniqua and her mother. If her mother wanted to go to the store, they were right behind her. If she needed to go to the bathroom, they were in there waiting. If she wanted to go visit family members, they were there. It was an invasion of privacy to Zeniqua and her mother.
“Ma’am, we are here,” The taxi driver points out.
Zeniqua blinks and looks out the window at the quaint one story brick house.
“Thank you, sir,” she hand him some money along with a tip for being so patient. She gets out with her bag and ambles up the porch stairs. The leaves whirl on the porch as the wind blows lightly and she rings the doorbell and waits. Rocking back and forth on her heels, the door finally opens and she is staring at a young woman with deep brown eyes and youthful brown brown skin.
Zeniqua’s lips part, “I think I have the wrong house.” She begins to slowly back away from the door.
“Zeniqua?” The lady questions as tears fill her eyes, “My little Zenie?”
Zeniqua nods as the lady pulls her into a hug and cries. Zeniqua hugs her back, they let go and her auntie guides her inside the house and closes the door.
“How are you? Are you hungry?” Her auntie questions her. She then eyes Zeniqua, “how did you get here?”
Zeniqua sits on the sofa, “I came from Illinois, auntie. I...I escaped from father. I couldn’t live like that anymore.”
She listens and nods, “Does he know where you are?”
“I doubt it, but I can’t be too careful.” She looks around at the house. “I have nowhere to go, auntie and I don’t know where any of my other mother’s relatives live around here.” She drops her bag on the floor and leans back, making herself comfortable. She rubs her forehead.
“Well, we are spreaded out right now. But, you can stay here for a while,” she stands in front of Zeniqua, “but if you feel as though something isn’t right, you have to keep moving.”
Zeniqua sits up, “I know that. I just need a job and to finish out school. But, doing that is gonna be hard, because...he’ll know where I am.” Zeniqua begins to tremor a little. Her auntie squats down, knees cracking and rubs Zeniqua’s hands to calm her down.
“He won’t find you. We just need to get you a whole new identity and everything will be okay.” She assures her niece. Zeniqua stops tremoring and nods. “Alright,” She stands with a moan, “let me go fix up the guest room. Also, your cousins will be here soon, I am sure they will be happy to see you,” she strolls off down the hallway.
Zeniqua sighs and leans back again. She hadn’t been here since her mother’s funeral when Zeniqua was just ten years old. Her mother was shot and the police couldn’t figure out who did it or why. But, Zeniqua knew her father had something to do with it, but her pleas fall upon deaf ears and nothing was done. The wake was held here at her auntie’s house and there was conflict between her mother’s side of the family and her father’s side. The conflict over who shot her mother soon became a full on war between her father’s side and her mother’s side.
On the day of her funeral, just before they lower her gorgeous blue and pink marble casket into the ground and I laid my head on my other mother’s sister; Auntie Zackeira, guns went off. Bullets were flying everywhere, Zackeira pushed her to the ground and got her under one of the chairs in front of the casket. Zeniqua was paralyzed as guns sounded off at her mother’s funeral. Her auntie pulled a gun from her panty hose and started firing while keeping Zeniqua down. The firing ceased when the police sirens sounded and her father’s side dipped out and her father snatched Zeniqua from Zackeira and swore they were never gonna see Zeniqua again. Zeniqua hung sideways in her father’s arms and looked at all the dead bodies on the ground including the ones that were going to lower her mother’s casket into the ground. Zeniqua cried for weeks on end at the horrific sight and for her mother.
A door slamming causes Zeniqua to flinch and in comes her two cousins, a 16 year old boy name Varrien and a 17 year old girl name Gracine, their eyes land on Zeniqua. Gracine squeals, runs over, and jumps on Zeniqua, hugging her like crazy. Zeniqua hugs her back, giggling. Varrien rolls his eyes but walks over to them.
Sitting on Zeniqua’s lap, Gracine begins, “Little cousin, how are you doing? What'cha doing here?”
Her New York accent is thick. Zeniqua sighs, “I am here to stay for a while.” Her eyes avert to Varrien. “Sup?”
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“Nothing much, you know. Life and shit.” He shrugs his shoulders and looks down at the rug.
Gracine waves her brother off, “Don’t worry about him. He is just sulking because his girlfriend dumped him again.”
Varrien’s nut brown eyes snap at Gracine, “That is not true. I am not sulking! You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, Grace!” he points at her.
“Mama! Varrien’s yelling at me again,” she sticks her tongue out at him.
His eyes widen and he hurries and goes outside before his mama comes down that hallway. She does and Varrien is gone, “Who is doing all that yelling in here?”
“No one, mama. I was just so glad to see Zeniqua, I squealed.” Gracine changes her story with a convincing, big smile showing her pink braces.
Taiquana arches her brow, “Y’all need to behave while I am setting this room up. I mean it.” She starts back down the hallway then turns back, “I thought your brother came in. Where’d he go?”
Gracine shrugs her shoulders and gets off Zeniqua. “I don’t know. He probably went back outside or something.”
She goes back down the hallway. Gracine looks at Zeniqua, “So, what’s going on? We have so much to catch up on.” She helps her off the sofa and they go outside.
Zeniqua shields her eyes from the sun as they walk down the driveway and turn the corner, staying on the sidewalk. “Nothing much. I am just here for a little while.”
Gracine moans, “I hope long enough for us to hang out. It gets boring around here with all the boys,” she eyes her brother on the basketball court with other boys.
Zeniqua looks over at the court and blushes at the sexiness of the teen boys playing shirtless.
Gracine catches her blushing, “Wanna meet them? They are real chill.”
“Uh,” she stammers, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea right now.”
“Of course it is.” Gracine pulls her to the court. “You aren’t going to be all cooped up in the house while you are here.”
Zeniqua blinks, “Uuhh.”
“Hey, fellas.” They stop playing ball and turn to Gracine and Zeniqua. Zeniqua’s eyes widen as they line up along the fence, sweat running down their bodies. Zeniqua looks away blushing. “
“Sup, Gracine?” An Olive complexion boy smiles. His soft brown eyes and smile made Zeniqua blush even more. He has light brown dreads with red tips.
Gracine straightens Zeniqua up, “This is my cousin, Zeniqua.”
“Hi,” Zeniqua waves with a shy smile.
“Hey,” The olive complexion boy says. “I’m Eliyah Pearson.” He looks for someone and grabs a golden bronze colored boy with hazel eyes and low brown hair cut, and a crooked smile. “This knucklehead is Mahlik Benjamin.”
Mahlik throws the ball up once more and waves at Zeniqua, “Sup?”
Zeniqua waves back as Eliyah pulls one more boy. He has a expressor brown complexion with sublime hues and curly auburn hair that stops at his earlobes. “This one is Contrelle ‘Phoenix' Townsend.”
Phoenix smiles and comes out of the court. “Hi.”
Zeniqua stares into his eyes with her own butterscotch eyes her inherited from her mother. “Hi.”
He takes her hand gently and kisses the top of it. The blood rushes to her face and she looks away.
“Alright, alright, Phoenix. That’s enough, bruh.” Eliyah warns. “Get over here and get your ass beat.”
Phoenix smiles at Zeniqua and turns to Eliyah, “Boy, please. Don’t talk shit cause we got company.” He goes back on the court.
Gracine looks at Zeniqua, “Yeah, he is a hard cookie to crack. But, he likes you.”579Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtjqC4cjqy5
Zeniqua eyes Gracine as they continue their walk around the neighborhood. “How can you be so sure?”579Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3JdOEaRdw5
Gracine rolls her eyes and scoffs, “Are you being serious right now? He kissed your hand. What boy has done that to you?” She puts her hand on her hip.579Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ7axG5hxf7
“None.”579Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlAU5iJ8Jxn
“Fucking right.” She snaps her fingers. 579Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW83HtNIXGH
Zeniqua has had a lot of crushes on boys but knew they would end up dead if they broke her heart. So, she kept them at arm's length and warned them. Some thought it was a joke that she was a gangster's daughter or a mob princess while others treaded lightly. The ones that didn’t believe her soon realized how true it was when they started teasing her about it.
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