Chapter 1 Save me From Myself
I could tell you that everything in my life was in my control. My parents thought I was a saint. I was pretty, somewhat popular amongst my peers, captain of my schools dance team and lived in a beautiful suburban town of Woodcrest. I lived in a neighborhood of tranquility and harmonious neighbors. There was never a need of a neighborhood watch community, and there was almost no need for a housing security system. Notice that everything I say about Woodcrest is past tense because it uses to be.
Some people say that Woodcrest was the most peaceful place on earth until the Freeman's moved in. Now we can't even go month without seeing their faces on the news.
There was Robert Freeman, who was on the news talking about suing a woman he met on the internet for trying to kidnap his grandson Riley. Supposedly Mr. Freeman found her over Facebook in looking to find a relationship between her and him. He says,
"I knew that girl was crazy the moment she stepped in my house!"
"Is it true that your first official date with the woman was her coming to your house and spending the weekend with you?" said the reporter of CNN
"Yeah, well I don't see what that has to do with anything."
"Yes well. Wouldn't it be strange to invite a woman into your home that you've only had contact with through the internet?" "Look! This woman tried to kidnap my grandson. And don't think I'm not coming after Facebook either. Every time I meet a woman on Facebook and I start to actually think they ok, they turn out to be the complete opposite when I meet them in person. So I'm suing Facebook for false advertisement of women."
"You're suing Facebook for false advertisement of women?"
"Yes. Do you even know how much money I've spent on bringing these women out here from who knows where, spending money on champagne and food to keep them comfortable, buying anything their hearts desire? I spent $5,000 on one weekend alone. That money could've gone towards my mortgage."
"Well Mr. Freeman I wish all the best."
Then there was Riley Freeman, a menace to society. He got caught vandalizing the principal's car because apparently to Riley, he accused the principal of wrongly accusing him of sneaking on campus and spray painting "Reezy a Nigga for Life" on the front entrance of the school.
"You have no photographic evidence that, that was me!"
"Aren't you the one that goes by Young Reezy? We also have evidence of you driving your car on school property, and when the police caught you, you had blue spray paint on your hands which is clearly the paint you used throughout your vandalism. Not to mention you also spray painted my car."
"Ok, ok. But let me ask you this. If I was white would you accusing of doing such an act?"
"That's preposterous. I could easily have blamed anyone for this."
"So out of all the white Riley's in this school you wanna blame a nigga for this shit, this is racism!"
"We have evidence against you."
He was only a freshman when that happened. He was almost expelled from the school but they blamed his vandalism as a cry for help and of course they took and ran with it. Still with the evidence he had against him he had to clean of the principal's car and repaint the front entrance of the school.
And you know the one thing I never understood was why so many girls at my school fall over Riley. Girls really do love the bad guys. Thankfully I was smart enough to have some standards. They say its attraction, I say its madness
Then there was Huey Freeman. Some people labeled him as a domestic terrorist. Some labeled him as a revolutionist. I labeled him as an annoyance, a thorn in my side, a pest…anything that had to deal with giving me a migraine was him. The other day he scuffed up my friends new shoes because he said,
"Well if you weren't showing off your knew expensive shoes to your friends I wouldn't have tripped over them."
"Well you could at least apologize for ruining them."
"Sure I'll apologize for the little girls in china who work in the factories to make shoes for ungrateful people like you!"
That's not even the worst of it. He had this huge notion that B.E.T. was evil and that the network was trying to destroy black people. So he goes on the news with this whole "I'm going on a hunger strike until B.E.T is taken of the air." It's obviously a cry for attention. Attention whore I call him.
It's people like that, that puts Woodcrest in a bad light. And you want to know the worst part about it was? I lived right across the street from them.
"Seriously Jazmine I don't know how you do it. Living across the street from them with reporters in your neighborhood every other week, asking you questions about what you've seen and what not. I think I would've moved a long time ago." My friends tell me.
"Of course I've begged and pleaded with my parents a hundred times, but my dad says I just need to get to know the Freemans."
"Your dad actually talks to them?
"Yeah I know right? I think it's because they are the only black people in the neighborhood, but he says it's getting to know your fellow neighbor. You never know, you might need them one day."
"Need them, for what?"
"Well I guess if I ever wanted to rob a bank, sue the white man, or protest against a worldwide corporation then I know who to call." I laughed out loud with my friends as we sat in the club. The club called Blue Moon was clearly a 21 and over club. But my friend somehow all got us fake I.D.'s and we snuck our way out of houses for some Saturday night fun. I told my parents that I was going to be working on my World Geography project all weekend while they were in Spain on their anniversary. In all honesty I felt bad for lying to my parents. They were so good to me in more ways than one. I guess you can say I'm a follower, but being a follower isn't bad when you have fun. My friends somehow think I'm the leader. They look up to me; tell me how pretty I am. Follow every trend that I'm into. They basically worship me. What more can I say? A girl likes her praise.
"Oh my god guys, I got to go. My dad is going to wake up in two hours for work and if I'm not home and pretending I've been sick all this time I'm gettin' it big time."
"Yeah we better go its almost 12 o clock." We all grabbed our purses and headed out the door.
"I don't know Jaz, I don't like the fact of you taking a cab this late by yourself. You sure you don't want to ride with us?"
"Guys I live all the way on the other side of town there is no point in you using up all your gas on me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I've done this plenty of times before I'll be fine."
"OK well call us as soon as you get home."
"OK I will." I started walking the other way towards the end of the street corner. I had called the cab an hour ahead of time to pick me up, but this time it was 10 minutes late. I didn't like that at all. I clutched on my purse and cell phone twice just to make sure I wouldn't drop them, when I heard an unfamiliar voice.
"Hey pretty lady saw you in the club earlier and wanted to holla at you." It was the really annoying guy that tried to talk to me earlier, but I told him I was clearly not interested.
"Aww come on baby. Why you given a brother no love?"
"Look will you please just go. As you can see you're twice my age."
"From the look of what you're wearing I say you're not." I had forgotten what I was wearing. I was wearing that dress I had borrowed from Samantha. She said it made me look 4 years older than I was. I guess she was right. Damn it Samantha! I thought it my head.
"Look! I'm not interested so you can go find some other bitch to mess with." I started to walk away when he grabbed my wrist.
"Hey, hey pretty lady not so fast. I think you owe me an apology."
"I don't owe you anything! LET GO OF ME!"
"What are you going to do about it slut?" I took my bag, smacked it across his face and ran. Ran as fast as I could in heels, I heard the words "Hey get that bitch!" from behind and before I knew it someone had grabbed me down an alley way and pinned me against the wall.
"Hey, hey, hey boys, lookie what we go here" My eyes were closed shut because I couldn't help to bring myself to look in the eyes of some guy who would rape or murder an 18 year old girl.
"Did you lose your way little lady?"
"No."
"Aw I think you did, but I can help you find it." He took his hand and started to slide his fingers up my dress. I screamed bloody murder for someone, anyone to hear me.
"Shut up you stupid bit-" those were the last words I heard from him before the guy was thrown off me. I heard punches and kicks, grunts and screams of pain. I felt as if I was a child watching a violent action movie. I could not open my eyes, not to see the villain or the hero. Not to see who had won. So overwhelmed by the stress of it all, I started to get light headed. When I could barely open my eyes, I saw some guy run off in the distance. I laid there opening and closing my eyes thinking to myself, If I knew this was the last day I was going to live I would've done so much more. I then heard the words "Are you ok?" I closed my eyes again and spoke the words. "Don't tell my parents," before I blacked out completely.
I woke up to a bright light shining in my face. It was the sun. I rubbed my eyes and looked around the room. There was a huge poster of Malcolm X on the wall next to a giant library of books. I had no clue in hell of knowing where I was. I wanted to call the police, but I remembered last night someone had saved me. I didn't want to call the police on the person who saved my life. I rose up from the bed and grabbed my phone. I saw that I had 13 voicemails 15 text messages, and 18 missed calls all from my friends. I read a couple of them.
"Girl where are you, you never called me last night is everything ok?"
"Jaz please call us, did something happen to you? Where are you?"
"Jaz I'm scared I'm seriously thinking about calling your parents what's going on?"
I then saw a text from me to my friend saying "I'm ok made it home." I clearly don't remember texting any of my friends last night. I blacked out. Who saved me from that guy? I had an idea of who it might've been but I didn't let the thought cross my mind. Clearly he doesn't know I'm awake so maybe if I sneak out of here without him-"
"You're awake." I heard a voice behind me. Now his voice sounded awfully familiar. I took a deep breath and turned around. I guessed it perfectly. Huey Freeman was my hero last night.
"Um…hi." I spoke as I awkwardly rubbed my arm up and down.
"Hi. Here you should drink this."
"Why are you giving me tea?"
"It will help you with your hangover."
"How'd you know I was drinking last night?"
"Well it's kind of hard not to smell the alcohol smell coming off you last night."
"Yeah that was my friends fault she accidently spilled her drink on me last night. " There was an awkward silence between the two of us. I looked at him and he looked at me. My eyes gazed up to his forehead. He had a huge bruise on the side of his right eye, probably from the guy he fought last night.
"That doesn't look so good." I said breaking the silence.
"It's fine."
"No let me see." I lightly touched his left cheek turning his face towards me. Grabbed the napkin from my purse and dipped it into the hot water. When I lightly touched it over his face he grunted. I smiled and told him. "Thank you for saving me." He looked up at me. When I looked into his eyes I didn't see the Huey Freeman that I learned to hate. I saw someone completely different. He seemed so surprised that I thanked him for saving my life. Why wouldn't he be surprised? I didn't like him, and he made it clear he didn't like me. As I looked into those beautiful deep brown eyes I saw a more attractive, more vulnerable Huey Freeman.
"Aye man that bitch out my bed yet? A nigga aint gettin' a good enough sleep on the couch. I still don't see da reason why she had to be in my bed though'. Seemed to me like she should've stayed her ass home if she was gon get drunk and pass out."
"Riley shut your ass up it was only for one night."
"So…she could've stayed in a hotel."
I interrupted the brothers bickering and grabbed my things. "Look I should go anyway my parents will be home soon. Thanks for everything I'll have my people call your people k?" They both looked at me with their eye brows raised. I was also clueless on exactly what I was talking about as well, but I knew I had to get the hell out of there. I grabbed my things and walked out the door. When I had got across the street I took out my phone and called Samantha.
"Girl, you almost had a bitch calling the F.B.I. last night. You crazy?"
"Girl I know I'm so sorry I passed out as soon as I got home. I just woke up."
"What time did you get home last night? Did you end up going somewhere else?"
"I got home around 1 and immediately passed out."
"Hmm…really cause I got a text from you at 2 o clock in the morning saying I'm ok made it home."
"Oh yeah, girl I don't know. You know how some texts can get delayed on depending where you have service."
"Yeah true, true well thank God you made it home safely last night."
God isn't the only person Samantha should be giving her thanks to…
