Chapter 32: Stop Pressuring Me

A Chapter by Tina Bee

"Cheer up," Langston spoke to me on the ride home.

"How can I do that?" I turned to him.

"Tonight's the dinner, remember?" Langston asked me.

"Oh, I forgot," I replied to him with my eyes going wide.

Tonight mom was hosting her pre-wedding dinner. Her wedding was scheduled for December twenty-first. I hadn't had any contact with my mom since I moved out. After she'd practically chosen Celia over me I found that even thinking about her made me ill.

"We're going so don't try to get out of it," Langston said as he cut around another car and sped up.

"Please don't drive so fast. I get motion sickness," I said, feeling the beginnings of vomit hit the back of my throat.

"I already have my outfit picked out. I know you have something to wear. You bought enough clothes to last you four pregnancies," Langston went on to say, ignoring my plea.

"It would be nice to see Kevin and Mike again," I said thinking about my brothers who seemed lost to me in this sea of confusion.

"Aren't you forgetting?" Langston asked, taking his eyes off the road.

"What?" I asked leaning back and staring at the road which he was neglecting to do.

"We have to announce our engagement. I noticed that you didn't say anything to your attorney. Are you ashamed or what?" Langston asked looking at me with accusatory eyes.

"No, I just didn't think it was the time. Didn't you see what happened back there? Mr. Litfield was practically slaughtered," I answered him.

"From now on you need to let people know about the good things that happen to you. That's your problem, you're always brooding," Langston scolded as he finally looked back to the street.

We were almost home. Since today was a school day there were no children playing in the street just as yet. The sun was beginning to peak out from between the clouds, but it would not heat the day. Women with toddlers walked together hand in hand or hands on strollers. Some walked with men, but most were alone.

"It's just hard to be happy in the situation that I'm in," I said, more to myself than anything.

"Situation? You've got your own house. Most people would be grateful," Langston said, scolding me once again.

"I'm talking about being pregnant," I retorted.

"Don't you ever speak about our child like that. He's not a burden. He didn't ask to be born. We laid down to make him," Langston said.

He sounded like he had recited that little speech, but I said nothing.

We rounded the corner and pulled into the driveway just as the door opened to reveal Sonny standing inside looking very angry.

"Hey!" I said to Sonny, excited to see someone I knew besides Langston for a change.

"You need to tell that b***h, Violetta, to leave me the f**k alone," Sonny said to me instead of returning my greeting.

"Violetta?" I asked faking amnesia.

"Playing stupid now won't win you any favors," Sonny said turning away from me and walking into the kitchen by way of the garage door.

"Ok, sorry. What's she doing?" I asked as I followed him in.

"Does it even matter? Just tell the ho to go away," Sonny said, this time screaming.

"Wow, hold up. What's going on?" Langston asked walking into the kitchen.

"Sonny is mad at his girlfriend," I quipped.

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Sonny shouted in the loudest voice I'd ever heard.

"Dude, calm down," Langston said, moving in front of me.

"Don't tell me to calm down in my own damn house, n***a!" Sonny yelled at Langston.

"We don't have to live here, playa, I take care of mines," Langston said to Sonny in a voice to match his boisterous tenor.

"Who in the f**k do you think you are?" Sonny asked stepping to Langston.

"Stop it!" I yelled.

"You want to know why this b***h n***a wants you to tell Violetta to leave him alone," Langston said to me, but he didn't wait for me to respond, "this fool knocked her up and now he's trying to run."

"What?" I asked feeling the room moved beneath me.

"It's not mine!" Sonny said turning from me and lighting a cigarette.

"Since when do you smoke cigarettes," I asked, "and furthermore is Violetta really pregnant?"

"Hell yea she is, but I think she's pretty early on," Langston said.

"Why didn't anyone tell me?" I asked feeling totally out of the loop.

"It don't matter," Sonny finally spoke, "it ain't mine so tell that s**t to find her real baby daddy and leave me out of it."

"Did you have unprotected sex with her?" I asked, immediately blushing as I heard the words come out of my mouth.

"No he didn't. Sonny likes it naturally. Isn't that what you brag about in gym class, vato?" Langston asked switching to a Mexican style accent.

"Why aren't you at school?" I asked realizing that it was only a little after noon.

"Principal Gellar called me into his office asking me hella questions about Violetta and I had to bounce," Sonny said and now I knew why he was so disturbed.

"Sonny, Violetta really likes you. Why are you treating her like this?" I asked as I took a sit on my sofa.

"She's always running around with dudes. Any of them could have done that," Sonny said finally looking at me.

"Those are just her friends. I used to hang out with them all the time. They're cool," I told Sonny who's face darkened.

"I don't trust no b***h that hangs around dudes that she's not related to," Sonny said and it seemed like he had calmed down a bit.

"Is that what this is about," I asked, " are you jealous that Violetta is hanging around other guys besides you?"

"Man, it's not even about that," Sonny said puffing on his cig.

"I think that's exactly what this is about," I said and Sonny rolled his eyes.

"Are you going to that dinner tonight?" Sonny asked changing the subject.

"Yes, we're going and we have an announcement," Langston answered for me.

In one swift swoop he picked up my left hand and flashed the ring.

"Holy s**t," Sonny said with his eyes going wide.

"Like I said I handle mines. You're a pretty fucked up fellow if you ditch Violetta when she needs your sorry a*s," Langston said.

"No one asked for you opinion, Mr. Rapist turned football legend," Sonny spat and Langston laughed.

"Even through all that I'm doing right by Myra and making her a honest woman," Langston responded, "you're just being a p***y by running away from what you created."

"Mom is making a big deal about this bullshit," Sonny said to me.

"She knows about Violetta?" I asked.

"No, the wedding," Sonny said, "she rented out a recreational hall at some church. That moron Arthur's parents are flying in from Greece or some s**t."

"Italy," I corrected him.

"Yea," Sonny said taking another cigarette from the pack, "anyways that Celia girl is so f*****g annoying. She has that one n***a in the house all the time. Mom won't let them go up to her room alone. I hate seeing his face."

"You mean David?" I asked and Langston cut his eye at me.

"He's always eating up the food," Sonny said and I laughed.

"Myra had a hard time in court this morning," Langston said.

"Oh, s**t, that was today, so what they give, life?" Sonny asked laughing, for a change.

"No, but they're trying to say I did the video thing in the gym at the Homecoming Rally," I answered Sonny who smiled.

"They can't figure that s**t out, huh?" Sonny asked me.

"Apparently not and they're trying to pin it on me so I don't find it funny," I said to Sonny.

"Don't worry about it. The defense is just bullshitting with you trying to get you to say what you know. Unless you got a b***h of a judge you should be fine," Sonny told me.

That did not calm my nerves whatsoever.

"So what's the address to this hall?" Langston asked Sonny who had now taken a seat at the single Laz-E-Boy I'd bought not too long ago.

Sonny pulled out an invite from his pants pocket and gave it to Langston.

"Maybe it's not a church hall, but it's somewhere fancy," Sonny said to us.

"Damn, Emerald Plaza, that is swanky," Langston said, reading the invite.

"That's not swanky, that f*****g hoity toity rich b***h s**t," Sonny said and now I laughed.

"You know how mom does it," I answered him as I silently retracted my mind to almost a month prior when Langston and I had taken a quick ride around the city one bored night.

We were just heading into my old neighborhood when I screamed for Langston to stop the car. Once I had my seatbelt off I got out and looked up at the big billboard in front of me.

"I'll be damned," Langston said looking up at what I was seeing.

In front of us was a billboard with mom's face. The name, 'Celia's Baskets,' stretched right above her head. A picture of a basket and then some more text of what her business actually did read underneath it.

"She did it," I murmured to myself as I read the name.

"Why'd they name it Celia?" Langston asked me.

"Must have been Arthur's idea," I answered.

I couldn't help, but be overwhelmed. On the way home I saw two more billboards that mom had obviously paid for. True to her word she had started her own business and it was budding quickly into a major corporation.

"How are the baskets?" I asked Sonny as he lit yet another cigarette.

"Mom moved all that junk to some shop she's renting out and she has some old ladies helping her run it. She's making bank though," Sonny answered.

"That's good. I'll be getting my football scholarship in June so we'll be moving out of here and into our own place by next fall," Langston announced and this was news to me.

"Good s**t," Sonny said standing up, "let me leave before school get's out. I have stuff to handle."

"Please, Sonny, don't hurt Violetta. She's probably scared out of her mind," I pleaded with him.

"If the b***h don't leave me alone she'll have other things to be scared about," Sonny answered me as he went out the front door.

"How does he be getting around?" Langston asked me.

"Sonny has friends in some not so nice places," I answered and that sent a chill down my spine.

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