Christy’s mother was going to come down the basement. Her loud screams and moaning perhaps woke her up from her slumber. Her mother just came from work. She works the morning shift as a nurse at UPENN. Her mom is 65 years of ahe, she’s not really old but the way that she looks and acts, it makes her age seem a lot older than it actually is. Her mother shares many physicality traits with her. She was half white and half Puerto Rican, but she had more Purto Rican in her. Her father was all black, which is why Christy just said that her race is just half Black and half Puerto Rican. Her mother, whose name is Crystal Angela, she has long black hair like Christy. Though her hair was slightly longer, Christy’s hair stretched down to her lower back, while Crystal’s hair stretched all the way down her backside. Her skin was thin, pale, and translucent, and it has large pigmented spots like age spots and many signs of Lentigos was apparent on her skin. Christy only lives with her mother, her father lives elsewhere in the state. Her parents got a divorce about eight years ago, and she was placed under the custody of her mother. She only sees her father during birthdays or when she has a special event at school, he will come to see. But it’s very seldom that she sees him. She didn’t really mind though, she never really had that type of special relationship with her father, it wasn’t a big deal though, she didn’t really care, he just never really knew her, and she never really knew him.

“Just because me and your mother aren’t going to be together anymore doesn’t mean that we can’t still have a relationship and spend time together.” His father would say to Christy as he is dropping her off in his car to now stay permanently with her mother. Christy shook her head and said “okay”.

That was eight years ago and Christy was five back then, now she is 13, and a lot more grown up, her personality has changed. She has gotten more mature now, and now that she’s older she’s able to see and witness a lot of things that she was not able to before.

Yes, her father had told her that they were still going to hang out and spend a lot of time together and the divorce wasn’t going to get in the way of that. Things didn’t go exactly as planned though. Over the years she started seeing her father’s face less frequently. Instead of showing up for birthday celebrations, he would only send a gift and give a call. The gifts were nice, and it was very considerate for him to call. But… it wasn’t enough. Christy needed more. She needed a father. She needed somebody who was going to be there for her and make her feel special. Her father was unable to do that. So Christy would just have to get it from Jason, he could be the man that she always wanted, he could be her daddy.

Her mother wasn’t going to come to the basement directly. She was upstairs, so she would arrive in the downstairs living room first, and when she noticed that Christy wasn’t there, she would then come in the basement and check. Christy didn’t want that. She hadn’t told her mom about Jason. She hadn’t told her that he asked her to marry him, and she agreed! She knew that her mom was not going to take that very lightly. Her mother did not even approve of her having a boyfriend, there was no way that she would approve of her getting married. Christy remembered when she was 11 years old, and she had her first boyfriend “Charles”. She thought that Charles was so cute and she really liked him. He used to have these huge glasses that covered his face, and he had dimples on his cheeks when he smiled that Christy loved to stare at, and she would play with and put her index finger in it every time that Charles would smile. Most importantly, the reason why Christy liked Charles the most, were for two reasons. Both of their names started with “C-H”, and Charles used to have this really corney green sweater. He used to wear that sweater all the time, he said it was his lucky sweater; He even wore it when it wasn’t cold outside.

Christy wanted Charles to come over one day and have dinner at her house, with her and her mom. Charles appeared at Christy’s house and he rang the doorbell twice, and Christy’s mom opened up. Charles was dressed in his long tan pants that he used to wear to school, and he was wearing his green sweater and a tie was over it.

He even went to his local CVS and bought some flowers, a Pink Rose Lily Bouquet. When Christy’s mom, Miss Angela opened the door she immediately saw Charles standing there, holding a bouquet of flowers, and he had this strange green sweater on with a tie over it, but the weather was temperate outside, she wondered as to why he chose to wear that sweater.

Then, she reached over and grabbed the bouquet of flowers and smiled at Charles.

“Christy’s gonna love these, thank you very much, you can come in and have a seat and I’ll just run in her room to give these to her, she’s just getting dressed, she’ll be down shortly.” Crystal Angela said to Charles.

Charles stepped in the house, he gently took off his shoes and he began to head for the couch to sit down.

“I’m glad that you like them Ms. Angela.” Charles said as he began heading for the couch,

“But they’re not for Christy, they’re for you.” Charles said to her with a smile as he sat down.

Crystal Angela placed her hand over her chest. She was amazed. The flowers were so beautiful, she absolutely loved them.

“Why thank you Charles, how sweet and kind of you. I’m gonna put these in the kitchen right now.” Crystal Angela said as she began to head for the kitchen.

She had already cooked. Christy had told her that she was going to have Charles come over for dinner and asked her to cook something special. So she made some string beans, macaroni and cheese, and she cooked some turkey legs and drenched them in gravy. Everything was ready. Ms. Angela placed the bouquet of flowers in a small pot in the kitchen with water inside of it. Then she began to get three plates, for her, Christy, and this boy Charles. She knew that Christy was upstairs getting dressed and ready to come downstairs, so she had to make sure that all the food was ready.

Charles was sitting on the couch in the living room, his left leg was folded up to his right knees. His iPhone was out, and his head was buried on the screen of his phone. Christy began to slowly come down the stairs. Charles didn’t notice her at first, because he was looking on the screen of his phone. Then he heard her footsteps and he began to look. Christy was wearing an all pink long dress, which stretched from her shoulder blades all the way down to the bottom of her knees. The dress was tight, but that was the way that it was designed to be. It covered up most of her body except for her shoulders, her arms, and her upper chest. She had just gotten out the shower, and her long black hair was brushed and curly. She also applied lipstick on, which greatly complemented her black hair. Charles looked at her like he had never seen her before. As she was coming down the stairs he thought that she was the most beautiful girl that he had ever laid his eyes upon.

“You look… beautiful.” He said to her as he got up. Charles started thinking that maybe I should have gotten those flowers for her instead of her mom, now he felt dumb for not getting her any type of gift. Perhaps she would be expecting something? Charles began to worry. All of a sudden his worried disseminated as he looked at Christy and the way that the dress was fitting her body. She looked like a model, she looked like one of those women on the center fold, she looked absolutely stunning. Her pink dress, her long black hair, her black lipstick, Charles wanted to walk over to where he was standing and kiss her, but he knew that her mom was in the kitchen, and if she was to see them kissing than she would maybe feel some type of way about that, he wanted to be on her good side, that’s why he got her the flowers.

Christy looked up at Charles as she landed on the bottom step. “I’m glad you like them Charles, did you meet my…” Christy began to say.

“CHRISTY, COME DOWNSTAIRS TO THE KITCHEN SO WE CAN GET STARTED!” Her mom’s voice erupted from the kitchen.

Quickly Christy took Charles hand in hers and they began to head for the kitchen. Ms. Angel was standing over the sink washing some cups and opening up a gallon of fruit punch. She turned her head slightly to the left as she saw Christy walking in with Charles. She smiled when she saw the dress that Christy had on and how the two children were holding hands. Ms. Angela smiled, but in her heart, she did not like it at all. Why did Christy go through so much trouble and get dressed up for this boy? Why did she want him to come over for dinner? And most importantly… Why were they holding hands? Ms. Angela did not like that scenery at all, but she continued to smile. She didn’t want to stand in the way of her daughter’s happiness and be a party pooper.

She walked over to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair for herself, and she began to put the food on top of the plate.

“Grab a seat honey.” She said to Christy. She walked over to the table with Charles and they both sat down.

As all three of them began eating Ms. Angela continued to look at her daughter. She had really gone all the way. Two weeks ago when she bought that black dress at the mall she thought that maybe she was going to be wearing it for a school dance or something, but it turns out that the only reason she bought it was so that she could wear it today. She also saw the way that Charles keeps looking at Christy. The lascivious stares that he keeps giving her from the corner of his eyes. Christy didn’t notice, but she did, she noticed it all too well. That’s the same look that her second husband used to be giving her. She had four husbands in total, and 13 children. Christy was the youngest amongst them, the oldest lived somewhere in Charlotte with her husband and three children. Christy was all that she had now. She is the only remembrance of who she was when she was younger. She didn’t want Christy to go down the same road as her. Having only gotten married at the age of 17, in Cuba, and she had her first child when she was only 18. It seems like all the female children that she had they all went down the same rope that she did, they all got married early, they left their house at an early age, and settled down with their husbands. She didn’t want Christy to go down that same road, she wanted her to have a different future, to be different, to stay with her longer. Everybody else had left her, Christy was all she had, she didn’t want to lose her too.

“So tell me about yourself Charles, do you live with your family, do you have siblings?” Ms. Angela said to Charles.

Charles quickly stopped staring at Christy from the corner of his eyes and he looked at Ms. Angela.

“I was born in Florida, I do live with my mother and father, and no, I do not have any siblings.” Charles said in response to Ms. Angela’s question.

Ms. Angela noticed how fast Charles took his gaze from looking at Christy to looking at her when she asked him that question, and immediately she knew, she knew the type of person that Charles was. He was just like every other black adolescent boy that would be driven to the hospital in an ambulance after a night of heavy drinking and partying, and then driving and getting involved in a car crash. Raging with hormones, these boys are all the same, he’s just like the rest of them, he’s just like her second husband.

“Oh… it must be hard being an only child…” Ms. Angela said.

“Yes…” Charles said, as he began dropping his gaze and looking down on his plate of food. Charles now had a frown in his face.

Ms. Angela saw him frowning, and immediately she knew that this was the perfect opportunity. She knew a lot about Charles, though Charles or Christy didn’t know. She went in Christy’s phone one day when she was in the shower and she viewed all the messages that she and Charles had, and she went on his Facebook profile and learned much about him. Charles was born in Florida. He does live at home with his mom and dad, and he does not have any siblings. Because they all died. He had four siblings in total, and they all died about three years ago. He had two older brothers in their 20’s and two older sisters who were also in their 20’s. The two brothers got into a car crash and died, and the two older sisters were both walking home one day from the movie theatres, and they were mugged and somebody shot them and they both died. Everybody in the school knew about it, even the teachers. They also knew that Charles does not like to talk about it, because of the sadness that it brings on him, so everyone chose not to bring up the matter

Christy kept her face down on her plate and she didn’t say anything as her mother was talking to Charles.

Ms. Angela kept looking at Charles as his head was down on his plate. She began to despise him. Who does he think he is to come in here and try to steal my daughter? Now way was that going to happen. She knew exactly what to say to Charles.

“Christy has quite a few siblings, but they’re all older and they don’t quite visit her that much. But they’re all alive and well.” Ms. Angela said to Charles as she closed her eyes and smiled at him.

Charles got up from the table and put back on his shoe and walked out the front door.

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Christy began to fix her hair and shirt to make sure that it wasn’t rough or crumpled. Then when everything was all fixed up she began to climb up the stairs to go to the second floor living room.

As soon as she arrived in the living room that is when she saw her mother. Dressed in her all gray sleeping gown and long black hair. Her skin also had more black spots and Lentigos then before when she last saw her, she looked as if she had aged over a decade.

“Honey are you okay? I heard screaming.” Ms. Angela said as she placed her hands on Christy’s face.

“Yes mom I’m okay, I was just watching a movie that’s all.” Christy replied to her mother.

“Oh, okay. Did you eat something?” Ms. Angela asked her.

“Yeah I just ate, go back upstairs and get some sleep mom, you just got off work.” Christy said to her mom.

Ms. Angela removed her hands from Christy’s face and nodded her head up and down.

“Okay honey, if you need anything come to my room and tell me okay.” Ms. Angela said.

“Yeah mom, I will.” Christy said to her mom.

Ms. Angela then began to tread back upstairs. Christy followed her with her eyes until she was sure that her mother was upstairs. She went in the kitchen and pulled out a water bottle from the refrigerator and began to drink. Her phone then vibrated from her back pocket. She just received a new notification. She turned on her screen, it was a new message alert from Jason.

“I’m home baby, I miss you. ” The text read.

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