Babygirl

Boxes were everywhere. Every square inch of our new living room was covered with a box. Some of the boxes were unopened while others were torn to pieces. That's what happened when you moved and needed something that may be in one of the boxes before you could go through them and put everything away.

For once, my mom was dealing with my crying little brother. I got to have the task of looking for our plates. This chore is one that I took with no problem. It was time she dealt with the monster she created herself instead of making me do it.

I dug through a few boxes without finding what I was looking for. Finally, box number three, I got a break. The pretty, light green, glass plates were sitting in the bottom of the box just waiting to be pulled out and used. "Found them," I called loud enough that my mom could hear me over the screaming baby she was tending to. I hauled the plates from the box and slowly made my way toward the kitchen, careful not to trip on any of the other boxes that were randomly sitting on the floor, in my way.

Our new apartment wasn't much to look at. But, it was home. It was better than living on the streets. At least, that's what I thought. It had a living room, a bathroom, two bedrooms, and a small kitchen. All connected by a hallway. Each room was a different color, even the hallway. We didn't have much to furnish the apartment so it didn't matter that it was small.

Our dining table fit perfectly into one side of the kitchen. There were bags of groceries propped up on top of it, waiting for me. I set the dishes down and took one bag at a time, placing everything where it needed to go.

My mother walked into the kitchen with the crying baby on her hip. "I was going to say they may be dirty," she laughed lightly. I'm shocked they weren't dirty. As much attention as she gives any of the motherly chores around here. I mean, our old place. I guess it can be considered here too, since we live here now.

She placed a box of something on the table. My little brother decided that would be the perfect time to start crying again. "Here, Papi. No, no, you can have it." My mother placed him into his high chair and handed him something. He instantly quit crying.

I wiped down the plates, not wanting to risk using them before I made sure they were sparkling clean. This is just another day in my life. I already knew what today would bring without it happening yet.

The phone rang. My mom didn't even bother to answer it. She pretended that she couldn't hear it. I'm not sure how she was able to ignore it for that long. The sound was too annoying to ignore.

Someone was pressing our button at the front door. I didn't bother answering the phone either as I made my way to the window to see who it was. "It's him," I called over my shoulder to my mom through a sigh. She always had these random guys coming over for hook ups until she got herself knocked up. Now we had to deal with her "baby daddy" drama. That's the price that I get to pay for being born into this family.

She walked into the room where I was standing, looking out of the window, with my brother wrapped up into her arms. "What are you going to do?" I was curious to know how she'd planned to deal with this guy today. But, she didn't answer me.

I walked down the stairs from our apartment door to the front door where my brother's dad was waiting outside. He was banging on the door and yelling. "Let me in! I'm not trying to make any problems. Come on, let me in."

When I swung open the door, resting it against my side, he was standing there with his head leaning against the door frame. "Hey, George." I dragged his name a tiny bit with annoyance that he would show his face here. He didn't seem to notice.

"Hey, Lena." He had his mouth open almost the whole time. He wasn't skinny nor fat, just chubby. He had a goatee that was neatly trimmed and a shaved head.

"She's not here."

"Kid, I just saw her walk in ten minutes ago." He had a half smile playing on his lips. I was sure he was getting angry because he saw past my lie.

"What? You stalking us now? That's not cool George." I rolled my eyes and looked down to make myself feel braver and pitch my voice higher. "Anyway, she left."

"Okay, but, you tell that bitch I know where she lives." He almost shouted as he was telling me the message to deliver to my mother. "No one walks out on - " He was interrupted by my mom saying something through the speaker that I couldn't make out. I was sure it wasn't good either way. "See, that's my son you got up there!" My mother yelled some more over the speaker. This only made George madder. He slammed his hand into the speaker before he pushed by me to make his way to my mother, shoving me aside.

I'm not really sure what happened from there because I stayed outside. I didn't want to be in the middle of their fight. It wasn't my place. All I know is that the cops were called a couple of hours later and George was escorted out of the building in handcuffs. My mother would learn one day to stop hooking up with every single guy she laid her eyes on. . . or not.

I made my way upstairs to our apartment, finding her in the bathroom in front of the mirror above the sink. "I told that bastard if he kept harassing me, I was calling the cops." She was putting on her mascara as she stated this fact.

"Ma, are you okay?" I stood just inside of the bathroom door against the wall and waited for her response.

She looked back and forth between me and the mirror twice before she would answer me. "Yeah, baby," she gave a short soft laugh before she walked past me, caressing my cheek without stopping and switching the bathroom light off, leaving me in the dark. I stayed there in the dark while I listened to her footsteps fade as she walked down the hall. After I was sure she was gone, I went to my room and got comfortable in my bed. Tomorrow is a new day, maybe it will be better than it was today.

I had to babysit my little brother. Instead of sitting inside all day, I decided to strap him into his stroller and head outside for some fresh air. We went for a stroll around the park until I spotted my friend sitting at a table and decided to join her.

There were several teens playing tennis nearby. I stayed as close to the fence as I could to avoid getting hit by a stray ball until I could reach the table.

"Why so gloomy sis?" My friend spoke out on my obvious expression.

"George found us." I muttered my response.

"So George found where y'all living at, big deal." She responded, not caring to understand how this affected us. "Did he hit her again?" She looked in my direction, waiting for my response.

"No." I muttered while looking down.

"So, like I said, big deal." She was a little on the cocky side which didn't really help with my current situation.

She looked past me and got an instant smile on her face. Her cheeks turned rosie red and she looked away almost instantly. "Oh shit." That came out with a small laugh.

"What?" I snapped my head up quickly and looked at her in concern.

"That boy over there, drippin' solo, he's totally checkin' me out." She looked up at me again, still smiling and blushing.

"Where?" I tried to look where she was looking.

"Don't look," she shoved me a little. "He's by the railings."

I looked away to try to not look obvious.

She giggled and looked back at him again. "You see, he's so hot."

I glanced in the same direction again and saw an older looking teenage boy standing at the top of the short cement stairs in front of me about 20 feet or so away. He was tall, brown skin, bald head. He was wearing a white shirt with black designs on it, red baggy gym shorts, and black tennis shoes. This boy didn't see me looking at him because he was busy wiping the sweat from his face with a hand towel at that moment.

"You see? You see?" My friend tapped me excitedly while I continued to check the boy out from a distance. "Watch this," she stated as she started to get up from the table.

Are you kidding me? She was leaving me at the table by myself. "Where are you going?" I rushed the words out before she could slip away.

"I think I'm going to go say hello," she said as she walked away.

I watched after her to see if she would actually do it or not. I'm sure she would for the simple fact that she really doesn't let anything stand in the way of what she wants. She walked over to a lady selling street Mexican food next to the stairs. I continued to watch her as she was about to say something to the boy. Then, the unexpected happened. The boy walked down the stairs and didn't even look in her direction. He, instead, was walking straight for me.

He rubbed his hands together like birdman right before he reached where I was at. "Hey," he said to me, causing me to look up again from my baby brother.

"Hey," I responded dryly.

"Is that your kid?" He looked from me to my brother and then back again.

"No." I gave him the look that would have made anyone feel dumb for asking such a dumb question. How could he think that my brother was actually my baby? Do I even look old enough for a baby? Yikes.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, right. Cuz you know, I figured you were too young to have a kid anyways, so." He scratched his head nervously and looked around.

"Then why'd you ask?" I rolled my eyes and looked at my brother before looking back at the boy.

He seemed a little nervous while I was talking. "No, I was just trying to make conversation, that's all."

That kind of made me angry, even though it shouldn't have. "How, by implying that I'm a slut?" I pursed my lips together tightly and glared at him.

"No. No. I just . . ." He gave me a small smile as his words cut off. "So, you live around here, huh?" The boy whirled his finger in the air as he spoke before crossing his arms and not taking his eyes off of me.

I nodded, still pursing my lips together and looking down at my brother. "Yeah."

"That's cool, that's cool, that's cool," he put his hands together again and looked at my baby brother.

"Is it?" I asked, looking back up at him.

He placed one of his hands on his chest, "I think so."

A long moment of silence passed as we stared at each other. It started to get a little awkward so I had to do something about it. Rudely, I stated, "Stop mackin' on me. I'm not interested." I threw my hand up and rolled my eyes again to emphasize what I was saying.

He was taken aback, as if I hurt his feelings. He took a step backwards. "Ok." Another short pause, "Look, I-I ain't mean to bother you or anything. I-I better get back to my game. M-maybe I'll see you around?" The boy pointed behind him as he was talking before lowering his head to get me to look at him.

I shrugged.

He nodded at that and turned to walk away. As he was walking away, I noticed my friend still standing by the woman selling food. She saw the entire thing. I guess he wasn't looking at her as she thought so maybe she would get over herself now. Maybe she would even be mad at me, who knows?

She walked back over to me after watching the boy climb back up the steps. She stopped in front of me and just looked at me.

"What?"

"What do you want?" She rushed out.

"Nothing. Come on, I gotta go." I picked up my brother's diaper bag and got up from the table. Grabbing the stroller, I steered it in the direction I needed to go. The boy stood at the top of the stairs with one of his friends and watched me as I walked away.

My baby brother, asleep in his stroller, myself, and my friend, were strolling along. It was a long sidewalk with trees hanging overhead. This place had to be the nicest area in town because the whole town seemed to be run down. Not this area, though. It was clean, bright, and beautiful here.

My friend interrupted my thoughts. "So, what did you guys talk about?"

"Well, we talked about . . . I don't know . . . you."

"Me? Get out." She seemed overly excited.

"Yeah, he wanted to know why you were acting like such a big slut." I swear if we weren't friends, we would probably be tangled up in a fight right about now. But, I didn't care because I wasn't really in the mood for this anyway.

She started laughing and shoved me playfully. "You bitch," she said through laughter. "You do know why you got men running after you, don't you?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Please, not again."

Putting her hair up, she said, "It's true. Guys are like dogs, they can smell that shit. They go crazy for it."

"Yeah, right."

"I'm serious, Lena. You have to get it in sometime. You can't hold onto it forever."

We walked past a group of guys sitting by a tree. They seemed to enjoy our conversation because one kept staring at us while we were passing.

"I'll do it when I'm ready, Dios Mio! Sex ruined my moms life." I did not want to be having this conversation.

"No, not using a condom ruined your moms life."

"She said they broke."

"Twice?" My friend bent down a little so she could look me in the eye while we were strolling along.

I laughed a little at that. "I don't know."

"So, you want to hang later?"

"No, I got to do something for mami."

We continued walking in silence.