Page 36 of June: When Gangstas Collide

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I wasn’t expecting a loving family when I came here, but Tania was a piece of work. I intended to run after Indigo because, although I understood why she ran, that shit Tania said probably triggered her.

I flicked my nose, “Fuck is wrong with you. You damn sure aren’t no sister of mine doing that shit you just did. I find it funny that when the pressure is applied to you, somehow you flip it on someone else. That’s your fucking twin, the girl you grew up with. You're supposed to have her back, not shit on her. You're taking for granted something a nigga like me wished he had. I had to hand-pick my friends because of people like you. As long as you act like that, sweetheart, you will always be lonely and bitter. You’re a fucked up—”

“Nigga ease up, how you talk to my sister.”

My head swung to see that same goofy nigga standing in the house that day. I sucked my teeth as only my eyes landed on his ass.

“No nigga my sister,”

I spat.

“Fuck you gone do about it? Run to Clark.”

He came around the table and stood next to Tania like a fucking savior.

“Tavaris, what are you doing here?”

Clark asked.

When he turned his head, I could see a scar on the side of his face. I didn’t know who the nigga was other than seeing him twice, but seeing that scar let me know something happened and maybe that’s why he was fucked up in the head. My eyes watched his every move.

“I wasn’t invited to the party. I’m a part of this family,”

he slurred.

I ran my hand over my head.

“Grace had three kids after me?”

I asked, trying to keep my cool, but with no answers, my patience was running thin.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I wanted to pull it out, but I held off. I pointed to Clark, “Speak nigga!” I barked.

Clark’s head slowly turned my way. I could see he was just as frustrated as I was, but I was not letting up on his ass. He wanted me here, so I was here and muhfuckin present. His jaws tightened. He leaned back in his chair and so did I. He began to loosen his tie.

“You know, when I invited you all here. It was simply to try to find peace and somehow I ended up in the hot seat.”

“And that bitch is boiling too,” I added.

He cut his eyes at me. A light growl escaped my lips, “I said, speak, nigga.”

“I wish you had never come here,”

he paused as he pulled paperwork from his pocket.

Cynthia stood. “Clark,”

she called out.

He waved her off.

“No, Cyn, he wants a nigga to speak, so I will. All you muthfuckas are ungrateful. The twins had a life just as their mother had handed to them on a gold platter, but they chose to mess around with people who didn’t serve them any purpose. One has a baby, and the other is an addict. Tavaris, you were given a second chance with Grace. You were supposed to fill her life with good to replace the fucking tyrant.”

I laughed. I laughed so loud the shit echoed outside.

“A tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny when the oppressor intends to be unjust. Sounds like you, not me. Your words don’t hurt me.”

He stood, “That’s where you’re wrong. See, I thought when I did get to meet you and showed you that Cynthia and I had a trust fund for you, something that would take care of you for the rest of your life, you would be grateful, but instead I got a ghetto, thug’s ass grandson who chooses to be a statistic rather than prestigious.”

I slowly stood as he continued.

“Things were good, or so I thought, but I knew when Grace said her final words to me, things were going to change.”

My lips disappeared between my teeth because my gut was telling me he was getting ready to say some off-the-wall shit. I was trying to brace my emotions. I needed to protect my heart because no matter how much my chin was up, deep down, that little boy who craved a family was still swimming inside me. He was ready to bust out in tears for a love he knew he would never get from this side. It took a lot for me to regret things in my life, but this shit was coming in strong.

Cynthia walked over because she seemed confused.

“What do you mean by her last words to you?”

I could see Cynthia wasn’t as heartless as she seemed. She cared for my mother deeply.

“I thought she died on her way to the hospital? You told me—”

He looked at her, “They called me while you were at church. When I got there, she was still alive.”

“Grandpa!”

Tania shouted.

“You lied.”

It was as if nobody in the room mattered but me. Clark looked at me in my eyes as he came closer, damn near nose to fucking nose.

“Her words were: He shot me. Vari shot me, and all I want to do is see my son. He called me, Daddy. June called me.”

My lips trembled. My heart raced because she wanted to see me just as much as I wanted to see her. I didn’t care how much of a bad person she was. It was the small things, like a hello or an I love you. I let out a sharp breath. The tears began to well, but I was fighting them to stay in.

Clark’s eyes narrowed in on me.

“I said June? And for a minute, I was truly lost. Then I remembered it was I who named you June Calloway. I didn’t want you to find your way back to Grace because I knew that with her having a son, he would become what you are now.”

I could see Cynthia’s eyes grow wide.

“Did you kill Grace?”

Vari banged his hand on the table.

“Grace was fucked up!”

he shouted.

“She was fucked up, and y’all destroyed her, and she destroyed me. She put me against my brother, Bishop.”

The more her name was mentioned, the more I fought with my tears.

“You knew nigga?”

I gritted.

“You are the reason I don’t know who I am. You are the reason I’m about to lose everything, muhfucka!” I barked.

I launched at his ass, and the screams of Cynthia stopped me.

“You killed my baby!”

she shouted at Clark.

“You destroyed everyone. I trusted you. Clark, I allowed you to let my child give up her baby. I let you talk me into walking out of that house, leaving him behind. I let you,”

she paused.

“I trusted you and you slept with my daughter’s best friend. You think I don’t know that it was you who slept with a seventeen-year-old Angela.”

She cried. Cynthia let out a loud sob.

“You are the reason Grace and Angela hated each other. Then you kill your only child? You killed my baby, you son of a bitch!”

I launched over Cynthia and hit his ass.

“You’re a bitch!”

I shouted.

Pound for pound.

I was angry, I was hurt, I was a nigga with a fake name, a nigga with a fucked up family, and a nigga who had been given the ultimate betrayal.

Pound for pound.

I was losing everything because of this muhfucka. I didn’t even know if Clark was my name. I could feel them trying to pull me off his ass, but I yanked back.

“Fuck off me!”

I roared.

“Is my name fucking Clark!”

I barked in his face.

Clark was trying to get himself together, but I didn’t give a single fuck as my foot stomped on his stomach.

“I told you to do your homework on me nigga.”

Stomp!

“What’s my fucking name!”

“You don’t have one,”

he groaned.

Right then, I knew my life was crumbling. This family had destroyed me in the worst way. I wiped the sweat from the top of my head and backed away. I wanted to kill Clark, bad. I had glanced at Tania, Vari, and then Cynthia. This entire shit was fucked up, and I was simply giving the fuck up.