Brianna Devereaux: The Mambo (Completed)

The Decision That Started It All

Brianna Jones was awake even though they thought she was asleep. But her cousins had made sure to make Brianna as uncomfortable as possible so she couldn’t. Her Uncle Ray, a truck driver, had come home after being gone a week. And to his surprise, found his fifteen-year-old niece was asleep in his daughters’ room.

His wife Pam had quickly pulled him into their bedroom, and both had started to whisper.

Neither had said it loud enough, but Brianna knew what was being said. How Brianna’s Aunt Georgia had dropped her off three days ago with attitude. Saying how Brianna had been “making eyes” at her new twenty-something-year-old boyfriend.

But it was the young thug covered in tats that had been trying to get at the young seventeen-year-old. And trying to put his hands where they weren’t wanted. But no one seemed to be getting what they wanted lately.

Uncle Ray wanted her to go, Pam thought they were obligated to want her to stay, and Brianna’s cousins Jordan and Taylor just wanted their room back. So, lying awake on the mattress on the floor, Brianna could hear her uncle saying how it wasn’t his fault.

“Look I loved my brother, but we can’t afford his kid. She’s going to have to go to someone else.” Uncle Ray was saying. He was a big beefy man; he had spent his entire life in his truck instead of at college. And at first, they struggled and knew their repo man by his first name. But now making a decent amount of money, Ray was finally ahead.

And his older brother’s untimely death, wouldn’t ruin that for his family.

Laying on a twin mattress on the floor, Brianna felt hurt to her soul. Uncle Ray and Aunt Pam had been her favorite relatives growing up. The ones she’d seen the most and had expected to have her back until she went to college.

But from the moment Terrance Jones had died, Raymond Jones had feared what that would mean for Rays two kids. And with one out on the streets, the other was being bounced around, he hadn’t raised his hand.

And yet here Brianna was, yet again with being faced with not being wanted. As tears began to fall, she heard them making plans to call other family members to take her.

Brianna listened all night, until she couldn’t stand it and fell asleep crying to herself. And then the next day came, and her uncle played like he was happy to see her.

But for three days, Brianna waited with bated breath. She needed to know who they were going to send her to next. And then on the fourth day, she finally heard the decision.

A group home.

And even though she tried to convince herself she’d be alright, Brianna felt it in her bones. This was not going to end well for her.