Page 12

FORBIDDEN

I was in my room packing for my weekend to go to a festival on Sable Beach.

I was staying at the luxury Sable Hotel on the beach for three days, but I had a suitcase full of new summer clothes.

I was undecided, so I packed everything I bought.

I was dying to be on the beach after an unexpected rainy fall, spring, and winter in Cali.

It was finally my time to chill on the beach.

Therefore, I zipped up my bag and left the house with a huge smile on my face.

As I was leaving out the door, my phone vibrated in the top pocket of my thin, yellow V-neck oversized shirt that I wore as a sundress.

I took my phone out, thinking it was my girls telling me to hurry up, but it was Hurricane.

I rolled my eyes in the air. It was a long story as to why I was irritated with him.

I wasn’t going to answer his call, but if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have heard the end of it.

“Yes, Hurricane?” I rolled my eyes into the air.

“Get your stupid ass to my warehouse, now!”

“I’m on my way to the beach. The girls want to do happy hour. I won’t make it if I come to you.” I puckered my lips on the FaceTime call, but the lines in his forehead let me know that whatever he wanted was serious.

“You think I give a fuck about you and them bitches? Get yo’ ass here now!” he roared and ended our call.

Fifteen minutes later, I was in Hurricane’s dark ass office, deep in Southwave. It was shit going on that I didn’t want no parts of, but I somehow became the main attraction.

“Ain’t no way I’m missing forty grand in product with all these fuckin’ eyes around me.

Which one of y'all backdoored me?” Hurricane asked his workers as he looked at all of us sitting around his conference table in his office at his warehouse.

It was the first day of summer, but here I was watching him lose his mind over some guns and drugs.

Every few months, it was something, and I hoped the meeting wouldn’t last long.

“Somebody did backdoor you, Boss, and it was Yummi,” Sparkle, Hurricane’s female worker, blurted unexpectedly. I snapped my neck quickly.

“What, bitch! Don’t say my name and put me in no bullshit!” I shouted and stood to my feet. I hated this bitch for so many reasons, and she hated me, too.

“You backdoored him, bitch! Your stupid ass left the door unlocked last night with your dumb ass! She had them niggas run up in here!” Sparkle shouted back at me like she knew what she was talking about, and she didn’t.

She just knew if Hurricane thought it was me, he would embarrass me in front of everyone.

I wasn’t trying to have that happen, so I was defensive in my approach.

“You did that, Yummi?” Hurricane’s dark eyes pierced me, causing me to become nervous.

“Yes, she did! I told you to look at the surveillance again!” Sparkle continued to show her ass, and I wanted to slap the dog shit out of her. She stood next to my man, proud that she was being problematic.

“Yo, Wave! Grab that surveillance for the back door. Let me see it again,” Hurricane demanded of Mula. He always called him Wave when he was mad at the world.

“This bitch is weird, and you sitting here letting it happen! You ain’t shit, Hurricane!” I shouted out of anger.

He frowned. “Who you yelling at?” He suddenly grabbed me by the throat, pushing me into the table.

“Bitch, you actin’ real guilty. Was them niggas your opp ass cousins on camera?” he snarled at me. He was so close to me, I almost tasted the mint and Za on his breath.

“No, I would never! My cousins want no smoke with you in the name of Coast!” I pleaded.

“Yes, you would, and that’s why I keep you a step under Sparkle. You always fighting with her when you can learn from her. I knew you was plotting on a nigga.”

“Chill, bro… You ain’t even seen the tape up close yet,” Mula said as he took Hurricane’s hand from my neck.

Hurricane aggressively pushed Mula away from him, and then he forced me to get on my knees in front of everybody. The tears welled in my eyes because he was about to embarrass me, and it wasn’t shit I could do about it.

“Nigga, this is my bitch. Don’t tell me to fuckin’ chill. If I feel like making her suck my dick in front of all y'all pussy ass niggas, I will!” he gritted through clenched teeth.

God, please, I don’t ask for much, but please let this man free me. I’ve had enough! I said a prayer to myself since I was already on my fucking knees looking like a peasant.

“You trippin’, my nigga, but I’ma go get it. You touch me again, tho’, I’ma break ya fingers.” Mula glared at him and then walked off.

Hurricane was always passive-aggressive when Mula checked him, so instead of checking Mula, he took it out on me.

“Stay your ass down there until he comes back. If you fucked up, I’ma fuck you up.”

I closed my eyes and continued to pray. I knew for sure I’d locked the door.

I made sure by going back twice because something in my soul already told me that some shit was going to happen.

Hurricane had accumulated so many enemies after my brother died because nobody could control his treacherous ways.

Shit, Mula could barely control him, and I could tell he was slowly giving up on the empire.

I couldn’t help but to think back to when I told him he could be my nigga and let him slice my damn hand, talking about blood ties. I was young, high, and stupid as hell back then.

At the time, he felt so right. Now, I wasn’t so sure anymore. Especially after the position he had put me in as time went by.

I snapped out of my thoughts and opened my eyes when I heard footsteps.

I looked up, and Mula was putting a memory card in the back of the flatscreen on the wall.

My heart raced as the colored video started playing.

Hurricane zoomed in and rewound the part where I was walking to the door.

He froze the video and squinted his eyes at the screen.

After looking at it for a few seconds, I felt the grip he had on my ponytail loosen.

“Today was your lucky damn day. Get up and take your ass home. I got some shit to handle.”

“But I’m supposed to be meeting the girls on the beach for the weekend. You said I could go last night,” I whined as I stood to my feet.

“Do what the fuck I said before I get on my bullshit for real with you. You think I got time to be worried about you while I got shit going on?” he raged.

I was over it all, so I left quietly because Hurricane had broken me down completely.

After the way he treated me, I wasn’t going to enjoy my beach weekend anyway, and my friends hated it when I was a Debbie Downer.

I had to call my best friend to break the news. This was the sixth link-up I blew off.

As I left out, I heard Hurricane raging at Sparkle, and I was glad. The bitch lied on me, and she knew that shit was wrong. But what pissed me off is he never embarrassed the bitch in front of me like he did me in front of her.

I felt like I was going to have a panic attack, so I rushed out of the building in my Bottega Veneta stilettos and headed to my brand new 6 Series BMW.

I loved my new Summer whip. It was cocaine white with dark tint and black rims, but it wasn’t bought out of the kindness of Hurricane’s heart; it was one of his many “I’m sorry” gifts.

He’d done so much dirt on me, I didn’t even know what the car was for.

When I let Hurricane into my life, I never thought he would live up to his name when it came to me.

After I made him my nigga, I realized deep into the relationship that I’d signed my life to the devil.

Hurricane was supposed to help me heal, protect me in the name of Coast, and build me up.

He did all those things, but as fast as he built me up, he knocked me off my square ten times worse.

He showed his true self, starting with his mental health.

I got in my driver seat and called my bestie, Solace. She was the only person I could vent to. Everyone else reported every word I said back to Hurricane, so I kept it short with the people around me. I drove out of the warehouse parking lot and got Solace on the phone.

“Hey, friend… I got some bad news,” I said bitterly.

“What, you can’t go to the beach? And let me guess, the devil is blocking your blessings again? Yumila Coast, how many times do I tell you to leave that nigga?” she scolded me.

“A million times, and you know it’s not that easy to get away. Where I’ma go? He will find me like he has in the past. Then, there’s so much going on in the streets. I need him for protection, and I ain’t got nobody. My brother’s team is my protection. You know my family is small.” I sighed.

“You don’t need him, and you’ve got Mula.”

There was a brief silence as I thought about Mula. He stepped in between me and Hurricane, which was something he hardly did.

“Mula has barely looked my way since Coast died.”

“That’s because you let Hurricane turn you into Satan’s damn wife. It was always supposed to be you and Mula.”

“It was always supposed to be me and none of Coast’s friends. My poor brother is probably rolling over in his grave. I plan to pack up and move away soon. Maybe to Starlight Hills, in the snow, like my original plan.”

“Bitch, don’t let that piece of shit run you out of Southwave or The Cove.

This is your city more than it is his, if you want to get technical.

If anything, get his ass outta here. Better bring out your inner Coast. But anyway, I ain’t mad that you ain’t going to the festival because I had to drop out last minute, too. Riley has the stomach flu.”

“Awww, I’ll come hang with you, then I’m going to the house.”

“Okay, boo. Stop at the store and get some crackers for your niece.”

I went to hang with my bestie, but when I got home, I was reminded of my everyday nightmare…

$$$$$