Crazy Twist
2099 Words
I laughed.
I don’t even know why. It just got out of me.
My mother blinked at me.
“Sasha, what is wrong with you?”
I laughed harder. Bent over. Hands on my knees. Tears starting to mix with the leftover adrenaline in my eyes.
“What’s wrong with me?” I wheezed, wiping my face. “Lady, you just watched me catch your other daughter getting dicked down by my boyfriend in my bed… and your response was ‘okay and so?’”
I stood up straight and stared at her, still giggling like I had lost my mind.
“‘Okay and so?’ That’s what we’re doing? That’s the parenting we’re going with tonight?”
She folded her arms, robe tightening around her.
“Don’t take that tone with me. You’re acting crazy.”
“Oh I’m acting crazy?” I pointed at Zoey’s busted lip. “I just rearranged your favorite child’s face and you’re worried about my tone?”
Derek made a little wounded noise from the bed and I shot him a look so deadly he shut up immediately.
My mother sighed like she was already exhausted with me.
“Sasha. Enough. You’re overreacting.”
And just like that, the laugh died in my throat.
And just like that, the laugh died in my throat.
I stared at her.
This woman.
This same woman who used to whoop my ass for talking back. This same woman who made me apologize for things I didn’t even do just to keep the peace. This same woman was standing in front of me, looking at my bleeding sister and my cheating boyfriend, and telling me I was overreacting.
“Overreacting,” I repeated, real slow.
“Yes,” she said, like it was obvious. “You walked in on something you weren’t supposed to see and now you’re acting brand new. Zoey made a mistake. Derek made a mistake. People make mistakes, Sasha.”
I let out a short, dry laugh.
“A mistake? She didn’t step on my shoes, Mum. She sat on my man’s d**k. In my bed. On my sheets. While I was out buying him a cake. That’s not a mistake. That’s a whole planned performance.”
Zoey sniffled from the floor.
“Sasha… I’m sorry, okay? It just happened.”
I turned my head so slow it should’ve made a creaking sound.
“It just happened?” I said. “b***h, you mean your legs just happened to fall open and his d**k just happened to land inside you? That’s the story we’re going with?”
Derek finally found his voice again.
“Sasha, baby, can we all just calm down and talk..”
“Call me baby one more time,” I said without even looking at him. “I dare you.”
He shut up.
My mother rubbed her temples like I was giving her a migraine.
“This is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re always so dramatic. Everything has to be a big scene with you. Zoey is pregnant, Sasha. Pregnant. And instead of supporting your sister, you’re in here putting your hands on her.”
Pregnant.
I looked down at Zoey on the floor. Her hand was resting on her stomach now, real gentle, like she was already protecting something. Her face was swollen, lip busted,… but there was this tiny little smirk under all the damage.
Like she knew that one word had just flipped the whole room.
My mother kept going, her voice was calm like she was discussing the weather.
“She’s pregnant, Sasha. With Derek’s baby. So whatever attitude you have right now, you need to put it to the side. Family comes first.”
I blinked.
Then I laughed.
It started small and then got bigger, uglier, louder. I actually had to bend over and put my hands on my knees because the laugh was shaking my whole body.
“Wait.”
I held up one finger, still laughing.
“Wait.”
I stood up straight, wiped under my eyes, and looked between the three of them.
“Wait. Wait. Wait!”
“Zoey’s pregnant. With my man’s child.”
Nobody said anything.
I laughed again, clapping my hands together once like I had just heard the funniest joke of my life.
“Oh my god. Oh my f*****g god. You’re standing here telling me that the same d**k I was sucking last week just got my sister pregnant… and I’m supposed to calm down and be supportive?”
I pointed at Zoey’s stomach, still grinning like a maniac.
“That baby is probably going to come out looking confused as hell. Like ‘why does Auntie Sasha look so familiar?’”
Derek opened his mouth.
I snapped my head toward him.
“If you say one word, I swear I will finish what I started with your d**k and this time I won’t let go.”
He closed his mouth so fast his teeth clicked.
My mother rubbed her forehead.
“Sasha, you’re being dramatic again..”
“Dramatic?!” I spun on her. “Lady, your daughter just turned my life into a Maury episode and you’re calling me dramatic? What next? You gon’ tell me we should all raise the baby together? Have Sunday dinners? Pass the child between us like a joint?”
Zoey sniffled.
“It wasn’t planned…”
I looked at her and laughed even harder.
“Oh it wasn’t planned? That’s crazy, because from the way you were bouncing on him when I walked in, it looked like you were trying to win an award for Most Committed Homewrecker.”
I shook my head, still smiling, but my eyes were cold.
“Y’all really thought I was about to stand here and take this. Like I was just going to nod and say ‘congratulations’ while my sister carries my boyfriend’s baby.”
I dragged both hands down my face and let out one last crazy little laugh.
“This family is toxic as hell.”
I started pacing.
Back and forth across the bedroom like a crazy person, hands in my hair, heart slamming so hard I could feel it in my throat.
“f**k… you’re pregnant?” I said, my voice was rising.
“You’re actually pregnant?”
Nobody answered.
I stopped and stared at Zoey on the floor, then at Derek still holding his d**k like it was a wounded animal.
“How long have y’all been f*****g, huh?!” I yelled. “How long?!”
I let out a short laugh and started pacing again.
“Don’t get quiet now. Y’all wasn’t quiet when you was moaning in my bed. Speak up. How long has this nasty s**t been going on?”
Derek looked at the floor.
Zoey wiped blood from her lip and mumbled, “A couple months…”
I stopped walking.
“A couple months?”
“A couple months?!”
I turned and kicked the side of the dresser so hard one of the drawers popped open.
“So while I was cooking for this man… while I was washing his dirty draws… while I was letting him c*m in me raw… y’all was already creating a whole human behind my back?”
I pointed at Zoey’s stomach, hands shaking.
“That baby is older than some of the lies y’all told me this week.”
My mother tried to step forward.
“Sasha, lower your voice..”
“No!” I spun on her. “Don’t you dare tell me to lower my voice. You knew, didn’t you?”
Her face tightened.
I laughed again.
“Oh my god. You knew. That’s why you’re so calm. That’s why it’s ‘okay and so.’ You been knowing your favorite child was f*****g my man and you just let me walk around looking stupid.”
I dragged both hands down my face and kept pacing, muttering to myself like I had lost it.
“A couple months. A whole couple months. I was buying this man cologne for his birthday. I was planning a cute little dinner. And the whole time my sister was walking around with his baby in her stomach.”
I stopped in front of Derek and stared down at him.
“You let me suck your d**k last week knowing my sister was already pregnant for you?”
His eyes went wide.
“Answer me.”
Derek’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
I tilted my head.
“I said answer me.”
He swallowed so hard I saw his Adam’s apple jump.
“Sasha… it wasn’t like that. I—I didn’t mean for it to..”
“You didn’t mean for it to what?” I cut in. “You didn’t mean for your d**k to fall into my sister? You didn’t mean to keep f*****g me while she was already carrying your baby? Which part was the accident, Derek?”
He looked at Zoey for help.
She looked at the floor.
My mother tried again.
“Sasha, that’s enough. You’re embarrassing yourself..”
I spun around.
“Embarrassing myself? Lady, your daughter is pregnant by my boyfriend and you’re worried about me being embarrassed? The only person who should be embarrassed is the grown man on that bed who can’t keep his d**k in one sister.”
I turned back to Derek and took one step closer. He flinched.
“Last week,” I said, real slow. “You had my hair wrapped around your hand. You told me I was the only one who knew how to take care of you. You came so hard you almost cried. And the whole time… my sister was already pregnant.”
My voice cracked on the last word, but I swallowed it down and kept going.
“So I’m going to ask you one more time. And if you lie, I swear to God I will make what I did to your d**k earlier look like a massage.”
I leaned down until we were eye level.
“Did you know she was pregnant when you let me suck your d**k last week?”
The silence that followed was so heavy I could hear the fridge humming in the kitchen.
Derek’s eyes got shiny.
Then he whispered.
“…Yes.”
I straightened up slowly.
Nodded once.
And smiled.
“Okay,” I said quietly. “That’s all I needed to know.”
“You know what. I’m done.”
“I’m done cooking for a man who was f*****g my sister. I’m done washing clothes for a man who got my sister pregnant. I’m done biting my tongue in this house so nobody feels uncomfortable. I’m done being the strong one, the quiet one, the one who always has to understand while everybody else does whatever the f**k they want.”
I pointed at my mother.
“And f**k you, Mum. f**k you for knowing and not saying s**t. f**k you for standing there watching me get played in my own bed and still choosing them. f**k you for every time you made me feel like I was too much, too loud, too dramatic, when the real problem was that y’all were nasty and I was just the only one with a backbone.”
Then her hand flew.
The slap cracked across my face so hard my head snapped to the side. My ear started ringing.
“You ungrateful little b***h!” she spat.
I turned my head back real slow.
Touched my cheek.
Tasted blood where my tooth had cut the inside of my mouth.
And then I slapped her back.
Harder.
The sound was louder than hers. Her rollers shifted. Her whole body stumbled a step to the side. For a second she just stood there, hand on her face, eyes wide like she couldn’t believe I actually did it.
I didn’t give her time to recover.
“Don’t you ever in your life put your hands on me again. I don’t care if you pushed me out. I don’t care if you raised me. You just watched your daughter f**k my man, got her pregnant, and then hit me for speaking on it.”
I grabbed my duffel bag off the floor and slung it over my shoulder.
“I’m done. With all of you.”
My mother was still holding her cheek, breathing hard.
“Sasha… you better not walk out that door.”
I looked her dead in the eye.
“Watch me you b***h”
And I did.
- Writer
