Being Real

CHAPTER ONE-REALITY

TWISTED FATE

The sky is dark, with a small tunnel of light from outside, thunder is striking and with every strike the room lights up. I am terrified by the lightning, and the house seems haunted and I feel so scared. I look at my mother's terrified face as she lies in a pool of blood, with a huge wound on her stomach, not so far from her left lib. she put her hand on it and blood comes out like a river and off to the ground. 

"H- help!" she says breathless as she tries to drag herself on the ground, making the blood spread even more. she lets out a cough which in turn causes a stream of blood come out of her left stomach.

"Real..." with a lot of struggling, she manages to call out.

"C-come here sweetie." she says as she opens her arms wide open, I go to her and she puts her palm on my chick, leaving a blood heart imprint on my chick.

"Sweetie, I don't have m-much time."

"Ma, I'm scared." I tell her almost crying.

"I-It's ok sweetie, mommy's here." She pulls me into a warm hug, I feel a kind of warmth, I have never felt before, I don't wanna lose her. I'm only twelve years old and God knows how much I need her.

"y-you're my strong girl, right?"

"But mom I don't wanna be a strong girl I-"

"Real, please, listen to me...I will always love you and I will never leave you alone, okay, and always know that God loves you. Tell Stormie, True and Tace that I will always love 'em." She said almost running out of breath.

"What you mean I should tell them mama, where you going.... y-you are not leaving me, are you?" I ask with a shaky voice. Mom looks at me and gives me the best smile on her dimply chicks and shakes her head.

"No, dear, I would never leave you.... get me my purse." she says pointing to her bag which was on the floor the other side, I quickly rush to get it and I gently hand it to her.

"You know, you were the friendliest baby." she says digging her hands into the bag.

"Y-you smiled on the first day." She says smiling at me and taking out a small pink diary.

"I want you to always be you and always be Real to others. I named you Reality because you were the best thing that ever happened to me." She smiles as she passes me the diary.

"Take good care of it, baby, I know you will and..." she suddenly starts coughing, there are large spaces in between the coughs. She puts her arm on the other where she is wearing a silver bracelet with a heart engraved on it, she uses the other hand, though shaky and takes the bracelet off.

"Ma!" I scream in horror.

"Gimme your hand." I stretch my arm towards her and she gently takes it and puts it around my arm.

"I- I never met m-my m-mother-this is the only memory I got of her" she says tying the bracelet around my arm.

"G-get me some water." she says almost breathless... I run to the kitchen...I open the cup drawer to get the cup and draw the water from the tap. I can hear my own footsteps and I almost fall as some of the water splashes on the floor. I reach to the living room and I see my mother laying on the floor with my father kneeling next to her.

"W-what are you doing to her?!" I shout with a shaky but demanding voice.

"Real, I-" I ignore his words and kneel next to her and touch her. Her hand is no longer soft, and I can't feel the warmness I felt before. it's like I'm now touching a rock, her eyes are gently closed and she looks calm, just like Te fiti's statue. Her arm swings back and forth.

"S-she gone, Real, I'm sorry."

"Ma!" I let out a scream.

RING! RING! RING!

 * * * * * * 

My eyes though heavy still closed, I force myself to sit up.

Since that incident five years ago, I dream of it at least every week, I'm kinda used to dreaming about it, but who gets used to seeing her mother's murder by her own father every week? I kind of hate myself for taking some of my father's features such as the nose, skin colour and almost hair colour, though mine is a mixture of light and dark brown and curly, though I have the body of a black woman. My mom was black, though I don't know much of her. All I know is that she was from Atlanta, Georgia and that she had a great voice and wanted to do music, only that my dad never supported her dream, so she gave up. She always told me my voice would one day land me successful and that it would take me to places. My siblings spent most of their time at my grandparent's house in Louisiana, they never liked spending time with mom anyway and I could tell they never liked me too.

RING! RING! RING! My phones screen lit up making it move sideways on the small wooden draw next to my single-sized bed.

Who is calling me this early. I push my duvet aside and stretch my hand to the small wooden table and reach out for my phone and disconnect the USB cable and immediately switch off the socket. Ryan's name pops up on my screen. After everything he did to me. I clench my teeth and think of whether to accept or decline.

" I deserve better. "I swipe on decline and immediately block his number and throw the phone to the side.

Ryan is my ex-boyfriend which I met the day I ran away from Louisiana, he was my first ever boyfriend and I loved him. But he had a lot going on, like this one time he was involved in a robbery, was involved in some illegal but I still loved him regardless, only that he was too manipulative. He would mess around with some other girls and would tell me it's for my protection, like who does that. When I finally left him for somebody else, he mysteriously broke up with me and I later found out that he was behind it. Same with the second and third, I had no choice but to go back to him. Everything was okay and I thought we were meant to be, until one of his sidekicks showed up with a pregnancy test, I knew I wouldn't rob a child's right to a father, so I left him, along with him, I left the city.

Los Angeles is everything, for others, New York is the city of dreams, but for me, LA is. Even though I stay in a rusty old trailer and just took up a job at a diner, life is still working for me. And how I ended up in a trailer is a story for another day. I look at the time and it's 08: 55 am. it's getting late, I need to report to work by 09:30.

I jump out of bed, put my phone back on the draw, remove the pink watermelon sheets and carefully put them vertically on my small single-sized bed. I then get my pink duvet and fold it half way on the bed, then my purple pillow. I take some hair clippers and put them in between my lips as I try to pull my big fluffy brown hair and make it into a messy ban using the clippers.

I pick out my hot pink crop top and black skinny jeans. I bend over and try to reach out for my black and white sneakers under the bed. I take out everything I need and gently leave them folded on my bed, except the sneakers LOL :).

* * * * * * 

09: 15AM

I look on the floor and there's water dripping all over from my knee heel and arms. I wear my tissue oil, water melon lip gross, I put on my undies, skinny jeans and pink crop top. I apply the mascara through my broken mirror and wear a bit of fantasy perfume. I pack up all the necessary things into my black beach bag: small pink diary, lip gross, mascara, charger and everything I need.

I reach out for my phone and the screen goes pink, showing me the time; 09: 25. Oh damn, I'll be late! I carry my beach bag on one side of my arm and quickly switch off the lights walk out the door and lock it with a small lock. 

The sky is blue with a golden eye burning sun on the east. The street is busy: people rushing to work; late as I am, kids playing on the sprinkler; enjoying both the water and the sun, filling the air with their joyous laughter, people walking their dogs to the park and a group of people running to the bus. I follow suit and find a place on the window side, as soon as the bus is loaded, the driver just starts driving living a lot of people. Guess today was my lucky day, I smile as a ray of sunshine kisses my face as look at the trees in the park. I turn up to work five minutes later and turns out I'm fired, the question as to how and why is the story for another day.

* * * * *

"Real! Real! Real! wake up!" I hear a voice call out.

I move my hand to my face and try to clear out my eyes just to see Sneak and Trig, I quickly get up and my eyes go wide. They're clearly here for the money.

"Give us the money, or we give Ryan your location." Trig says looking at me with a smirk.

"Nah Bruh, Ryan said get him the girl or the money." Sneak says and they look at each other laughing.

"Look, I ain't got the money right now." I sincerely tell them; they look at each other and look at me wide-eyed.

"What you mean?"

"Someone stole it."

"Who?" Trig says.

"Give us the name and location, we know how to get it."

Realizing they might use their weapons and end up murdering someone, I decide not to tell them the whole truth. The money is with my boss and it would be risky to tell them the whole truth. I look sideways and see the cops as the train comes to a stop.

"Look over there!" I say pointing at the cops. Knowing this is my only way out, I hastily carry my bag and flee the scene, leaving them behind me.

Could this day get any worse? Firstly, I almost lost my job, then I lost Ryan's money and now they're after me, dang I hate my life!

As the day succumbs to the whispers of the twilight, the sky turns dark-blue, with stars shinning like diamonds in the sky. People walking around the subway from work to their loving homes, lights shining across the streets and some kids on a corner with a tin where people are putting in some change. The two kids, a girl who looks like she's ten or eleven and a seven- to eight-year-old boy with arms around each other's shoulder, and then there's me, alone with no one to lean on. I walk closer to them, looking back in curiosity to see if Trig and Sneak are still following me, all I can see is more and more people across the street, but non look like Sneak or Trig. I open my backpack half way and reach out for my purse, I take out a $10 bank note.

"Here." I say putting in the little rusty tin.

The kids look at me, joy written all over their faces as the older one folds her hands and put them together to her chest as a way of saying thank you, the younger one follows suit.

"Thank you so much." The older one says, I just smile at her and put my palm on her face and to her chick.

I keep running and get into doors I don't even remember. I am welcomed by a dark room with peach dim lights which are not even enough to light up the whole room. I take a few steps forward, looking around and every step making a loud sound. This room is creepy I swear. I spot a dark shadow in front of me, smoke winding out of the dimly lit room, curling and uncurling across the room like ghosts. The smoke itself seems heavy, casting a grey shadow across the room like the belly of a stormy sea. The smoke goes straight to my mouth and off to my lungs, arresting the air I'm breathing in with nicotine. I let out a cough to try and let out the smoke, but the scene is disturbed by a male voice across the room.

"You okay?" A male, not so deep, but charming voice says.

I look up to the figure of a Hispanic boy with dark brown eyes with a hazel line around them like the eyes of an angel, pink lips and a long but perfect nose, making a beautiful but cool appearance like the guys in magazines, tall masculine body like a Roman god. A lit cigarette in between his fingers and two black bangles made out of black precious stones dangling with every move of his arm. And he has the kind of braids A$AP rocky and Travis Scott braids half way and a shade. He's wearing a black hoodie and black skinny jeans ripped at the knee calf and black air Jordan. He looks like a movie star and I'm nothing, maybe in a certain life we would be together, definitely not this. I mean, look at me.

"Umm... I was just on my way out." I say scanning the room and heading toward the left side, pretending to know the room. I can feel him staring at me. Could he be interested in me? I think to myself, then for him I would have to change my entire persona and we'd have a fairytale wedding, I smile to myself, but I'm brought back to reality when he says something.

"The exit's that way." He says pointing at a the right side and I quickly spot a wooden door. I feel stupid for not asking earlier, I mean, what will he think of me. I look at him only to notice that his focus is on the cigarette in his hand and not me. Embarrassed, I walk to the door, twisting the door handle, I gently open it and I'm welcomed by fresh air, hugging my face. I gently close my eyes to enjoy nature's embrace, right before I hear heavy footsteps and quickly recognize Sneak and Trig, without looking back, I start running. Could this be the end of my freedom? We all know I can't run forever, without thinking twice, I come to a stop, my heart beating so much that a person next to me can hear it and legs shaking.

"Come on Real, you can do this." I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

Can't wait for the next Chapter, will the beautiful guy she saw inside come to her rescue and become the ultimate love story or will she fight or allow to go back to Ryan?

See y'all in chapter two...thanks for reaching this far.