Chapter 1: Rashard
I know for a fact that Imani wasn’t crazy enough to go behind my back and abort my seed without even telling me. I’m standing here in the middle of the bedroom shocked as fuck. I had to say a quick prayer so that I didn’t choke the shit out of this girl once she came from out of the shower. I swear to God, if Imani killed my baby, I’m fuckin done with her ass. Imani and I were best friends before we were anything else, so if she was having thoughts about killing a nigga’s baby, all she had to do was talk to me. Of course, I wasn’t going to agree with the idea; I would have given her all the pros of us having a baby together. When Imani first told me she was pregnant, I could tell that she wasn’t happy about the situation but later on down the line, she wasn’t showing me any signs that she wasn’t trying to have my baby, so I’m confused as hell on why this pamphlet to an abortion clinic is in her damn purse!
Imani walked out of the bathroom with her red terrycloth towel wrapped around her body, and her hair pulled up into a high bun. She was sporting a smile on her face, as if she didn’t have a care in the world, but as soon as she noticed the scowl on my face, she stopped smiling and walked over to me.
“Baby, what’s wrong, why you looking like that?” she asked, wrapping her damp arms around my neck. I gently pushed her off me, and she looked at me with confused eyes.
“Shard baby, what’s wrong?” she asked after noticing the death look that I was giving her ass.
I reached down in her purse and threw her the pamphlet to the women’s clinic. She bent down to pick it up and when she stood completely up, I grabbed her by the front of her towel and slammed her roughly into the wall.
“Tell me you ain’t go and do some fucked up shit like that!” I barked at her.
She looked at me with tears falling from her eyes, and I hoped that those tears didn’t confirm what I was hoping wasn’t true. I hope those tears weren’t about to be justified by her telling me that she went and did the unthinkable.
“No baby, I didn’t,” she cried.
“So what the fuck you got that shit in your purse for then if you didn’t go and do the shit?” I barked, making the grip that I had on her towel even tighter.
She didn’t answer me; she just stood there with tears dropping down her face. For some reason, I didn’t know whether or not I believed her, so we were about to go take a trip. She wasn’t explaining her self or anything, so that had me feeling that she went ahead and did it, and the only reason why she wasn’t saying anything was because she was scared.
“Put on some clothes, let’s go,” I said, walking away from her.
“Go where?” she asked me, wiping the tears from her face.
“Until I find out what’s going on, don’t ask me shit, Imani. Now hurry the fuck up,” I said.
I walked inside my closet and threw on my gray Nike joggers and a white V-neck, with my white and gray Nike slides. I grabbed my keys and wallet from off my dresser and jogged downstairs to my white 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. I waited in the car for about another fifteen minutes, and Imani came strolling out of the house. She had on her big frame Tom Ford sunshades, and I knew it was to hide them bullshit ass crocodile tears she was shedding. She got in the car, and I sped off to Memorial hospital. The whole drive there, there wasn’t any conversation between the two of us because I had the radio on full blast, basically letting her ass know that I didn’t want to talk to her.
Ten minutes later, we were pulling into the parking garage and once I found a place to park, I shut the car off.
“Why are we here Rashard?” she asked me, turning in her seat to face me.
“Didn’t I tell you don’t ask me shit?” I asked, grilling her.
She sucked her teeth and got out of the car, and slammed the door. I walked ahead of her into the main entrance of the hospital and walked over to the hospital map hanging on the wall. I found that the women’s health care clinic was on the 5th floor. We got on the elevator and rode it up in complete silence. When the doors eventually opened, I walked all the way down to suite number 506, with Imani right on my heels. I opened the door and there was a few patients in the waiting room. Imani sat down while I walked over to the lady at the front desk.
“Hello, sir, how may I help you today?” she asked me.
“Hey, my girl doesn’t have an appointment or anything, but I was wondering if she could come and get a checkup. She’s pregnant,” I told her. Shit, I honestly didn’t know if her ass was pregnant or not.
“Well sir, we operate by appointment only. Is she having pain, spotting, or anything? It has to be an emergency,” she said.
“She’s having pain,” I lied. She damn sure was going to be experiencing some pain though, if my seed wasn’t still in there.
“Okay sir and what’s her name?” she asked, typing into the computer.
“Imani Jones,” I told her. She typed it up on the computer and stared at me.
“Okay, I see her. Imani’s been here before with us a few times, so she doesn’t need to fill out paperwork or anything. You can go have a seat, and the doctor should be with you soon,” she told me.
I walked over and sat next to Imani. I was thinking to myself, what the fuck did that bitch mean when she said Imani has been here a few times. I put my hand on her thigh and squeezed it. I couldn’t act a fool in this white ass doctor’s office, because they would take my black ass to jail,
but God knows I wanted to reach across and strangle Imani’s ass up. Fuckin secret after secret.
“Why I went up there and the lady told me you been here before? You got a baby that I don’t know about? It’s just surprise after surprise with your ass today, huh?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“First of all Rashard, this is where I came when I got my pap smear done and the birth control pills that I was taking that clearly didn’t fuckin work! Also, I came here to get checked out for any diseases. I saw the dirty bitches you used to fuck with, so that’s why the fuck I came here. Don’t ask me no stupid ass question, taking about do I have a kid. Only fuckin kid I have right now is you, because that’s exactly what the fuck you’re acting like right now. I don’t even know why the fuck you brought me here, I told your ass I didn’t get a fuckin abortion,” she said real bold. She was talking all that shit now because we were out in public.
“Imani Jones,” the tall blonde nurse called out.
I swear to God, that was Jesus that just saved her because I was about to slap the shit out of this girl. Imani stood up, and I stood up with her.
“Sir, I just need Imani for right now. I’m just going to check her blood, and then she’ll be right back,” the nurse informed me.
I sat back down and picked up one of the magazines that were sitting in front of me on the table. Five minutes later, Imani came back out and took her place back next to me.
“What happened?” I asked, looking up from the magazine.
“Rashard, just leave me alone,” she whined.
I didn’t say shit back to her ass, because I didn’t want to embarrass her in front of all these people. We sat in silence for another twenty minutes, and eventually the nurse called Imani to the back, and I was able to go inside with her this time. We walked down to the end of the hallway and the nurse showed us our room.
“Imani, you can go ahead and hop up there,” she said, pointing to the chair. “The doctor will be with you shortly,” she said, and then closed the door behind her.