Disclaimer: I do not own the boondocks
Once Riley had left Jazmine thought about her next course of action concerning her father. She knew that she couldn't just let this slide and be in the air but she had never been this angry at anyone, let alone her father.
In her mind she had two options: she could ignore her father hoping that he would get the hint that she was angry with him or she could confront him about what he had done. Her father was a pretty dense guy so ignoring him probably wouldn't work and being that she was not the confrontational type Jazmine did what most people do when they needed to practice their reactions, she turned to her mirror.
"Daddy, is there something you want to tell me," she asked her reflection then immediately shook her head not liking the way that looked. She had gone through about twenty different ways to say what needed to be said within the past hour and still hadn't figured out exactly what she wanted to say.
"Daddy, is there something you want to tell me," she said more aggressively, flaring her nostrils and placing her hand on her hip. She shook her head again, she did not want to seem out of character because depending on how he responded her facade would fall.
Jazmine took a deep breath, jutted out her lower lip and attempted to make her eyes water. "Daddy," she sniffed at her reflection, "how could you do this to me?" She realized this would be the one she would likely use since the actual thought of what her father had done had caused her to actually cry.
She walked out of her bathroom and into her room and sat down on her bed, trying to compose herself. She sniffled and looked down at her clenched fists. She had no idea how she could go about handling this situation. Her life had been turned upside down by the one man who was only supposed to make it better. When she heard the front door being unlocked downstairs she unclenched her fists and turned her palms face down on her knees. She pushed herself up and headed downstairs stopping at the base of the steps so her face would be the first thing her dad would see when he walked in.
Jazmine breathed a sigh of relief when instead of seeing a bush of curly black, she saw her mom's long golden locks. But, sucked in another deep breath when she saw the aforementioned hairstyle come in right behind her.
Sarah saw Jazmine's tear streaked face first and rushed towards her and took her into her arms.
"Jazmine honey, what's wrong? Did Huey come by and say or do something to you? Do I need to go over and talk to Robert about him."
Jazmine shook her head and hugged her mother back not seeing her father with his arms folded behind them shaking his head.
"I always knew he would end up hurting you," Tom said affirmatively.
Jazmine pulled away from her mother and stepped around her to face her father, wiping her face of her tears.
"How could you know that Daddy, hmm? Huey has never done anything to put me in danger! You're the one who seems to never have my best interests at heart," Jazmine felt her sadness subsiding and felt herself growing more furious by the second.
Tom was taken aback by Jazmine's sudden mood change.
"Honey, what's wrong," Tom's face was the picture of concern as he reached out to Jazmine and when she slapped his hand away he was shocked. He had never seen Jazmine this upset. Sarah was in shock at her daughter's behavior but chalked it up to her still being upset about what had happened with Huey last night.
"Daddy, did you forbid Huey from talking to me? Riley told me about the day that Caesar and Huey had just come from that really bad protest and you came there and you told me to go home," Jazmin sniffed trying to keep her tears at bay, "and you told Huey that he shouldn't talk to me anymore."
Jazmine wiped her eyes and waited for her father to either confirm or deny what Riley had told her. Jazmine didn't believe that Riley would lie about something like this but she did not want to believe that her father would see her in so much pain from losing her best friend for all these years and not say anything at all about it.
Tom stepped toward her warily, "Jazmine, honey I did it for your safety, hear me out, at the time Huey was practically going to protests every weekend. He was always on the news and you didn't see the police always parked outside of his house watching. He was a danger to you and everybody else around him. I was thinking about you when I made the decision."
Both Jazmine and Sarah scoffed at the same time when he said that and Jazmine was grateful that her mom was there because she knew Sarah would have her back. On many of the nights that Huey had turned away from his house with no explanation or had simply not come to the door and let his grandfather answer and lie for him, she would run home to her mother and cry in her lap because she couldn't understand why.
But, now she understood the reason and he was standing in front of her.
"It was not up to you to make that decision for me!"
"As your father, it is one of the main decisions that I have to make. Whether you realize it or not keeping you safe is my top priority!"
"Huey, never put me in danger," as Tom's voice rose so did Jazmine until they began to have an all out screaming match.
"You didn't know when you were in danger! You have never known what has been good for you! I have!"
"Huey was my best friend! He was good for me. I was a teenager when you split us apart I think I could figure out who was good for me and who wasn't. I didn't believe in Santa Clause and unicorns by that time. Huey opened my eyes to that which is something you failed to do!"
"No, what Huey did was destroy your childhood with all his talks about a real world you were too young to live in. You didn't need to be exposed to that so soon."
"All Huey did was try to protect me from being upset by someone else who would have intentionally hurt me, he let me down easy compared to what the "real world" was going to do to me. He always kept me safe he never allowed me to go to any of those protests with him."
"That didn't matter the police still followed him home after every protest and you were at his house after every protest. They watched you go in!"
"Did you ever stop to think that maybe they were there for Riley who, at the time, was always committing petty crimes. You never stopped me from hanging out with him or Cindy for that matter."
When Tom didn't respond Jazmine went on.
"I think that you have something personal against him and the only reason you added Caesar into the mix was because he was there. You knew exactly what to say to make Huey stop talking to me but do you know that Caesar never did," Tom still stood still in his spot not making any attempt to move, so Jazmine went on, "Caesar knew what you were saying was bullcrap but, Huey would actually do anything to protect me even that meant not talking to me."
Jazmine stopped for a second to take a deep breath. Though she was understood by both her parents she was still racked with sobs by the stress of the confrontation. The whole family stood on the different levels of the steps just staring at each other until Jazmine broke the silence by huffing and muttering a whatever under her breath as she walked out of the front door.
Jazmine stepped off the front porch but, not before hearing her mother say, 'Tom, how could you?' Which ended any lingering thoughts that Jazmine may have had about her mom knowing about what her dad did.
She must have assumed the same thing Jazmine had.
Jazmine walked around aimlessly for about 20 minutes and when she finally took notice of her surroundings. Jazmine was at the old tree where Huey and her had spent many afternoons in their childhood. Sometimes Huey would talk to her about what was wrong with the world while she half listened. Sometimes she would talk to Huey about her day while he pretended not to listen while reading his newspaper but could always comment randomly about what she was talking about. More often than not they sat in a peaceful silence where Huey would meditate while she watched over the book that she pretended to read.
Jazmine looked up into the lone tree that sat on the hill for a branch strong enough to hold her weight. Thanks to a couple years of gymnastics she was able to jump up grab hold of the branch and then lift herself onto it.
Jazmine sat in the tree just thinking about the events that had unfolded last night and today. She wanted to run to Huey and apologize for her father and everything that had happened between them last night. She wanted to, but she couldn't bring herself to. From what Riley had said she assumed the last thing Huey would want to do is see her.
Jazmine reached into her pocket to check her phone to see if she had any missed calls or messages. She was looking from a call from one of her parents, preferably not her father, or Cindy. When it wasn't in either of her back pockets, she checked her front pockets, when it wasn't there either, she checked her bra as a last result.
She sighed and contemplated heading home now or just staying a little while longer. The sight of the sun slowly setting made her decision for her. She could never turn down a good sunset, and the sight was especially beautiful on the hill. She watch the bright oranges turn into red hues with a hint of pink as all the colors eventually faded into a deep blue, signaling the end of the day.
Ten minutes later Jazmine jumped down the tree and headed for the trail that would lead her home. She stopped when she saw a dark figure walking up the path that she was going down. She looked around for somewhere that she could hide but since the trail was pretty clear all she saw was a bush.
She sprinted behind the bush before the dark figure turned the corner hoping he wouldn't see her and would continue on his path. Unfortunately, the way she hid she could no longer see how far or near the figure was. The anxiety of not knowing exactly where the person was was scarier than actually knowing. When she felt his presence get closer she held her breath and sat as still as possible with her eyes squeezed shut.
She stayed still like that for what seemed like forever. When she could no longer hold her breath she released in the quietest sigh she thought she could release.
"Jazmine," the figure shouted from over the bush. Jazmine fell forward out of the bush with a scream of terror. She flipped over on her backside so she could easily kick at her attacker. He figured that much out quickly because he grabbed her foot before she could aim at his 'bits' and grabbed the other one as well before she could use that one as a counter attack.
"Jazmine, it's me," her attacker said pulling off his hood and letting his abnormally large afro bounce free.
"Huey," Jazmine sighed as he released her feet and reached out to grab her hand to help her off the ground. When her were firmly planted she began to brush dirt and debris from off of her clothes.
"What are you doing out this late at night Jazmine," Huey asked pulling some twigs from the bush she was in out of her his efforts, he had consequently stepped closer to her which distracted her for only a second as she got a good, strong whiff of his masculine scent. The heat radiating off of his body wasn't helping either.
"I-I wa-was just, wait what are you doing out here, and why are you sneaking around in a hoodie? Do you not know what country we are living? If black people were getting shot by cops when Obama was president, we damn sure got targets on our back now!"
Huey stood blank faced as she finished with her rant. Mentally, he was shocked. Jazmine had to sneak watch the news at his house when they were younger, either Tom had let up on his control of her or she had found someone else to let her watch the news. His attention was drawn back by a tugging on his hoodie sleeve.
"Huey Freeman, are you even listening to me," Jazmine asked once she realized she finally had his attention again.
Ignoring her most recent question he proceeded to answer her previous questions, "I was going up to the hill to do some Tai-Chi. I had a… stressful day at school and wanted to relax. Can you answer my question now?"
"I was out here because I had a… stressful day too," Jazmine didn't exactly want to tell him that she knew what happened all those years ago until she knew how she wanted to handle it. As hard as it was to address her father about his part in their split, that had been the easy part.
Addressing Huey about it would mean talking about possible feelings that he might have had for her and while they had not talked for many years, she still only harbored feelings for him. Which meant that she hadn't really had a boyfriend in all those years, in fact, no one had ever even approached her about liking her. All the guys who Cindy would tell her had a crush on her would come to school the next day after she found out about their crush with a black eye. That is until, Emmanuel.
"Well, we should probably head home it is really late."
"What about your Tai-Chi?"
"I don't feel like doing it anymore," Huey angled his body in the direction of their neighborhood and turned his head back to look at her, "you coming?"
Jazmine nodded her head and fell into step beside him easily. One would assume they would be walking in awkward silence but it was actually kind of peaceful. It was almost as if the fight that had happened last night never happened. Almost.
Jazmine felt herself about to get lost in thought when suddenly Huey put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. Jazmine was about to question what he was doing until she spotted a guy that looked about their age, maybe older, nod to Huey and walk past them.
Once Huey felt that he was gone he removed his arm from her shoulder in a way that felt reluctant. But, maybe she was just imagining it.
"You said you had a stressful day," he said shrugging, "I'm sure getting hit on at night when it's dark outside would just add to your stress."
"Thanks," Jazmine blushed and looked down in an attempt to hide it in the darkness. *Just like she had told her Dad, Huey was always protecting her in the little ways.
Once they had reached her front yard. They both turned to each other and started talking at the same time.
"Huey, about last night-"
"Jazmine, I think we should-"
They both stopped waiting for other to finish their sentence.
"What were you saying," they both asked in unison.
Huey sighed and went on, "Look Jazmine, obviously we have a lot to talk about so, how about we meet up tomorrow for lunch and we can discuss things then. I'll pick you up at 12."
"Okay, that sounds great. I'll see you tomorrow then," Jazmine reached out her arms for a hug and was about to put her arms back down and just run into the house at the look of shock on Huey's face. Before she put them all the way down Huey pulled Jazmine into a tight brief embrace before turning and walking off towards the direction of his house.
"Bye Huey!" Jazmine giggled when Huey just threw his hand up at her without turning around.
Jazmine walked into her house, closed the front door and then leaned against it. She held both hand up to her chest and hoped for only good things to happen tomorrow.
A/N: Okurrt, I'm back. School has been kicking my ass and it still is but I have been writing while I've been at work because I have nothing better to do there… besides my job. I hope this one was better than the other chapter that I deleted. If you didn't get a chance to read it consider it a gift from me to you.
*I wanted to say okay this the shit i was talking about at that point but I thought that would have been out of character of Jazmine
Please Review I love to read them they make me happy. Even the negative ones lol.