Page 3 of His Obsession Her Cure

Little did I know that what awaited me was much worse outside of it.

Because Demonica refused to sign the paperwork I needed to go straight to college after I graduated or give me access to any of the money my parents left for me.

I was forced to continue my education at the local community college that offered two years of free tuition to students that graduated from an in-state high school.

Thankfully I enrolled in dual enrollment in my last year of high school and was able to complete my prerequisites for my biological sciences degree at the same community college.

We lived in a small rural town on the eastern shore of Maryland, which was about a forty-five-minute drive from the Bay bridge.

In a community that thought Ocean City was the end all and be all of beach life, a crab feast was a requirement during the summer, scrapple was a breakfast staple and that if you graduated and got a job at one of the local factories you had made something of yourself.

There was no space for a fat orphaned black girl with mental illness in my community. People had their own shit to deal with.

Fortunately for them I had bigger dreams beyond driving across the bridge to visit Baltimore or DC on the weekends and had no interest in staying here.

The first step to being free of all of this was to get the hell out of Federalsburg, Maryland immediately leaving behind the drama that had become my life since I moved in with this wench.

And then maybe my dream of becoming an anesthesiologist and living a life like the ones in my books where the FMC got to live their happily ever after.

The only thing that was holding me back was my irrational fear of planes and the fact I had no money, and the weight of my abusive, cheating boyfriend hanging around my neck like a noose.

Oh, and did I mention the daily threat of being thrown into a mental hospital now that I was too old for a group home for any type of disobedience.

Taye had come into my life when all I needed was someone to love, protect and never leave me and he preyed on that, using it to trick me into believing that he was all the family I needed.

Once I got with my Taye, it was like I became invisible to everyone.

Demonica no longer had to worry about her men wanting me because they knew I was off limits because of him.

And I didn’t have to worry about people saying nasty things about me as long as I was with him.

Taye was handsome, popular and charismatic, everything that I wasn’t, and people looked at him like he was royalty around here.

At first, I didn’t see anything wrong with being with him.

He was a little rough around the edges, but he overlooked all of my flaws and that was what I thought I needed.

I thought his jealousy, controlling ways and possessiveness was love, but I was sadly mistaken.

I learned the hard way that he was manipulating me into being dependent on him.

He used my desire to be loved and have a family to control me.

It kept me from being able to grow and step out on my own.

He trained me to be scared to be out on my own, fearing that people would judge me and treat me poorly because of how I am or how I looked. So, I stayed until it became too much.

My aunt thought he was the best thing since sliced bread, but Demonica wouldn’t know a good man if he fell out of the sky and landed in her bed.

Sometimes I felt that she only wanted me to stay with Taye not just because of the money he provided but because she wanted him too, not to mention he kept me in line, her words not mine.

I saw how she watched us together sometimes and the evil looks she gave me when I was with him.

He was always here keeping an eye on me and that gave her more access to him.

But then again, I never got the sense that he liked her more than just as the mother of his brother.

But Demonica was a money hungry hoe, and you could never put anything past her.

Including fucking someone else’s man. In this case though I kind of wish she had and saved me the years of trouble that I endured.

Taye was the perfect gentleman when I first met him in person two years ago.

I had secretly crushed on him from a distance for years, always wondering if he was the type of man I read about in my books.

He was my cousin Tyron’s half-brother on his dad’s side and I saw him at a few barbeques throughout the years growing up.

He was so handsome, standing at six feet two inches, two hundred and thirty pounds, he had the build of a basketball player with dark brown skin, beautiful brown eyes with lashes that women would kill for, black curly hair, perfectly lined mustache and goatee and the prettiest smile I have ever seen on a man.

He came to the fourth of July BBQ at my aunt’s house, the summer after I turned eighteen.

We stole looks at each other the whole afternoon.

I couldn’t believe someone as fine as him was checking for me.

I mean I’m no slouch in the face department, but sometimes constantly hearing how ugly the scar on your face was starts to dampen a girl's confidence. My parents and all their friends always told me how beautiful I was and how much me and my mother looked alike with my face framed by big natural 4C curls, dark brown skin with reddish undertones, dark brown eyes with a hint of honey in them, a button nose with thick lips and a beauty mark over my lip. But I wasn’t the big booty Instagram model men like Taye went for with the modelesque figures and tons of makeup.

My aunt often told me after she noticed my change to baggy clothes that I needed to stop being a tom boy that dressed like I was looking for a girlfriend and that I was too big not to keep my appearance up.

“You too big to be walking around looking like you just rolled out of bed. At least try to look presentable. Pretty soon people gon start thinking you a stud, damn.” She said all the time.

But I had grown comfortable walking around in ballin’ shorts, T-shirts, and tennis shoes.

Taye smiled and joked as he charmed everyone in attendance.

I watched him occasionally as he made his rounds.

About an hour before the BBQ wrapped up, he approached me with my cousin for our actual introduction.

I looked up from the cup of iced tea I had been sipping and was greeted with his gorgeous smile.

“Pepper, this is my brother Taye. You remember him, right?” Tyron said, formally introducing us.

“Yeah, hi.” I said, looking back down still a little uncomfortable with making eye contact. I noticed how close he was standing next to me, causing a faint buzzing in my ears when I became anxious.

“Hello, baby girl. Can I sit with you?” He asked.

My eyes moved from my book again up to Tyron who nodded and grinned at us before walking off.

“Uh, sure. Do you,” I said.

“Hell no bitch. This nigga got my spidey senses all the way up.”

“You don’t say much, do you?” He asked.

“No, " I said, cutting my eyes at him.

“We don’t say much to predators. Bitch I’m telling you. He ain't right. He is loonier than us. I can feel it in my spirit.”

“I like that, " he said, eyeing me like I was some prize.

I wasn’t sure if I liked it but if I was being honest sitting here with him no matter how awkward, was something I had dreamed about, no matter what Nyx said. So, I tamped down her anxiety and just went with it.

“Would you like to go for a ride with me after this? I’m sure auntie won’t mind.” He said, confidently, looking from me to my aunt who was twerking on the new nigga of the month.

I looked back at him, catching the way his tongue slid across his juicy kissable lips while he spoke. I was so wrapped up in his mouth I hardly heard what else he was saying.

“Uh uh bitch don’t let those lips fool you. This nigga ain’t right.”

“Sorry, what did you say?” I asked, scrunching my brows and ignoring the incessant buzzy Nyx caused in my head when she was agitated.

He smirked knowingly.

“I asked if you wanted to take a ride with me real quick.”

He had that knowing look in his eyes again like he knew I was just checking him out.

I was speechless. I guess it took me too long to answer because he grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him.

He said his goodbyes to a group of my aunt’s people as we exited the backyard and headed to what I assumed was his car.

Tyron smiled at us and hit me with a head nod as we went by, holding up his fingers in the shape of a telephone letting me know to call him later.

Taye led me around the house to a silver BMW 5 series.

Holding out his hand, he helped me into the passenger side, buckling me in and closing my door.

He strolled to the driver’s side, hopped in, turned on the AC and drove away without another word.

“Okay don’t say I didn’t warn your ass.”

“Where are we going?” I asked. In retrospect maybe that should have been a question before I got into the car with a strange man. But in my defense my mind was all over the place from even being in his presence.

“You’ll see," he said, eyes never leaving the road.

I knew my cousin wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me, so I tried my best to chill and not let Nyx’s anxiety make me act too awkward.

Plus, he was the one that should have been anxious.

He may not have known it, but I had my handy dandy box cutter in my back pocket just in case any bullshit jumped off.

We rode for about twenty minutes before he finally broke the awkward silence.

“What do you like to do other than reading and being quiet? Tyron said that you were a homebody.”

“Um, I like music." I told him nervously.