Blackout: Stand Your Ground (7 page)

What the hell is he doing here?
Meesie
wondered. As quietly as possible she looked around the room for something that she could possibly use as a weapon.

“Hey
cuz
, grab that DVD player too. Shit, take everything. I doubt they be back to this muthafucka’,” the neighbor said. “I’m ‘bout to see what they got in the room. They gotta have some jewelry or something up in here.”

Meesie
gasped. She quickly covered her hand with her mouth and then ran over to the bed and slid underneath. She couldn’t believe this shit. Niggas was always looting and robbing from their own when stuff like this happened. Rioting and tearing down their neighborhood instead of taking the drama to places where it mattered. Wasn’t no laws going to get changed because a few hundred black folks decided to burn a few corner stores down or steal a few pairs of sneakers for a come up. That never made any sense to
Meesie
just like it didn’t make any sense for those fools to be robbing her and
Jawan
when they were down.

“Hell yea! A flat screen TV in the bedroom. Bout to get paid!” the neighbor said, and rubbed his hands together. Looking around the room, he spotted a jewelry box on the dresser that he would come back for. He reached behind the TV, pulled the cord from the outlet and picked it up carrying it out of the bedroom with a huge smile on his face. He knew he could get at least a few hundred dollars for a TV like this one if he went to the right spot.

Meesie
breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad that they took what they wanted and didn’t linger around too much longer. She waited a few moments to be sure that they were gone before she slid from underneath the bed and stood to her feet. She held
Jawan’s
clothes and medication tightly against her body and raced out of the bedroom. She couldn’t wait to get back to her fiancé and let him know what had just happened. She knew that he would be livid seeing as how he was pissed at the world right now.

            “Can’t believe these fools come up in here stealing TVs and shit. Dummies!” she yelled and reached for the doorknob. She pulled the door open and was front and center with her neighbor. Everything
Meesie
held in her hands dropped to the floor including the very reason she’d come back to the house. Both of their eyes widened in shock and each of them reached for one another.

           
Meesie
clawed at the neighbor attempting to pull his eyes of his socket. Each time he reached for her she dug her fingernails deep in his skin and forced him to pull back. She was not about to take another beating like she had from the white man in the street. She couldn’t afford to. She knew if he did her anything like the white guy had done, she wouldn’t make it out of there alive.

            “
Helppppppp
!!!!”
Meesie
screamed out. She backed away grabbing the lamp that sat on the end table and tossed it at him. It missed him but it gave her time to run. She ran as fast as she could into the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife she could find out of the drawer.

            “Bitch, come here!” the neighbor said. He grabbed a handful of her hair and went to toss her across the room when she swung on him.  She scraped his arm with the knife’s sharp edge forcing him to release the hold he had on her. “Fuck!”

            “Get back! Stay away from me!”
Meesie
screamed out with the knife out in front for the both of them to see. She huffed out her exhaustion, but her eyes never left his face.
Pathetic!
 She thought.

            “What the hell going on up in here?” the second guy asked as he entered the kitchen.

            “I don’t want any problems. Just take what you already got and leave!”
Meesie
yelled.

            “Bitch, I seen you and your boy on the news. Y’all wanted just as bad as they want the Taliban. Killing all them white folks like that. They gonna fry you and that nigga. What the hell was y’all thinking?” the neighbor asked with a smirk.

            “Leave!”
Meesie
said gripping the knife tighter.

            “Come on
bruh
, let’s get up out of here. I ain’t trying to get caught. You know I’m on parole.”

            “Get caught by who? It ain’t like she gonna call the damn police. Go get that jewelry box out the bedroom that I saw,” the neighbor said. He licked his lips as he ran his eyes over
Meesie’s
thin curves. She really wasn’t his type, but the fact that she was standing there holding her own turned him on.

            “Please just leave. I don’t want any problems. Please I’m begging you!”
Meesie
pleaded with them almost coming to tears. She was undoubtedly scared and just wanted them to leave. She now wish that she had went with her first plan which was to try and rob a Walgreens for
Jawan’s
medicine. The only reason why she didn’t do that was because the pharmacy was all the way at the back of the store and figured by time she got in, got what she needed, and tried to get out, the police would be waiting for her outside. She now regretted that decision.

            “Bruh, let’s go! We got what we need, now let’s go!” the second guy said, and hit his partner on the arm.

            The neighbor dived for
Meesie
and began fighting with her over the knife. He wasn’t about to let
Meesie’s
little ass run him out of there with a kitchen knife when there was more stuff in the house that he wanted to get. The two of them scrambled over the knife for what seemed like an eternity.

“
Aahhh
!”
Meesie
gasped and her eyes shot open in horror. Her mouth dropped and she looked over at the neighbor’s partner who stood by frantically watching. He was kicking himself for even coming up in here knowing that any fuck up could send him back upstate for an automatic ten years.

“
Wha
—
Wh
—“ the second guy brought his hands to his head when his partner fell to the floor. His partner’s face was contorted and tight with pain and the knife was stuck in his chest. He dropped down to the floor next to him to survey the damages. “Oh shit! You stabbed him!”

“I didn’t mean to—he came at me! I didn’t have a choice!”
Meesie
explained. She slowly tipped her way towards the exit and when she had a clear pathway, she took off running toward the front door.

“Hey, come back here! Help me with him!” the second guy yelled out to
Meesie
, but it was too late. She had grabbed
Jawan’s
clothes and medication for the floor where she dropped them and rushed out of the door. Her shoes pounded against the pavement as she ran down the block to where she’d parked Nay-Nay’s car.

“
Meesie
!”

Meesie
damn near jumped out of her skin as her hands flew up in the air. Her heart was racing so fast and so hard. She eyed
Jawan
strangely and wondered why the hell he was jumping from behind Nay-Nay’s car.

“
Jawan
, what the hell are you doing hiding behind Nay-Nay’s car? How long you been out here?” she asked. She reached down to pick up
Jawan’s
things that she had once again dropped.

“I just walked up. Hell I been looking for your ass, girl. Why the hell would you leave me at Nay-Nay’s house passed the hell out like that? You know I don’t like that damn girl!”
Jawan
fussed. It took him a minute to figure out where
Meesie
would have gone, but he knew his baby girl.

“You might not like her, but if it wasn’t for her then I wouldn’t have been able to get this. Here! Take it now!”
Meesie
said, and handed
Jawan
his medication. “I can’t believe you were out here hiding when I was in there fighting for my life. Why didn’t you come in there and check on me?”

“Fighting for your life?”
Jawan
stopped in the middle of taking his medication and looked
Meesie
over. For the first time he noticed the blood on her hands and the blood that transferred onto the medicine bottle. He instantly felt sick to his stomach and the bottle dropped to the ground with all the pills scattering all over the place.

“Oh my God
Jawan
!”
Meesie
yelled and immediately dropped down to the ground.

“What happened? Are you okay? Who hurt you?”
Jawan
was panicky. He hated that he was stuck with that damn seizure disorder. Twice
Meesie
had been hurt and it was all because of his problem.

“I’m fine now
Jawan
. It’s nothing. Help me get up this damn medicine and let’s get out of here. I know somebody done called the cops by now. I’m just so sick of all of this and I don’t know how much more I can take. You know I will ride for you all day long, but we need to find somewhere safe to settle down. We gotta think about the future.”

Jawan
hadn’t heard a word that
Meesie
said. A frown crossed his face and he grabbed at the flesh wound on his arm. He was utterly confused when he spotted a guy whom he didn’t recognize running out of his house and jumping in a truck.

“
Meesie
, where the pistol at?” he asked.

The hell is he doing coming out of my house? Who is this clown?
Jawan
wondered as he watched the guy look around before jumping inside of the truck.

“
Meesie
, where the pistol at? Hurry up and give it to me.”

“Damn it
Jawan
, it’s in the car,” she pointed without looking up. She gathered up the last of the pills that she was able to find and placed the top back on the medicine bottle.

POW! POW!

           
Meesie
covered her head and crawled across the rough pavement. She was trying to get behind the car before she got hit by a stray bullet.

           
What the hell is going on now?
Meesie
thought as she peeked around the car just in time to see a truck jumping the curb and crashing into one of the neighbor’s house.

           
This whole time I’ve been stuck in a nightmare that I just cannot wake up from. That’s what it is. It’s one of those that you can’t wake up from until it’s over. This shit just can’t be real.
Meesie
thought. She watched in disbelief as
Jawan
approached the truck and opened the driver’s side door.

            “Does he not realize that we are wanted? And that I stabbed somebody that is possibly dead by now? And that we need to get away from here as soon as possible? What the hell is wrong with this boy?”
Meesie
said through gritted teeth. She jumped up from her hiding spot and ran over to
Jawan
. He pulled the guy out of the truck and now had the gun held to his head screaming all kind of threats and obscenities.

            “What the hell were you doing in my house?”
Jawan
asked, and shoved the gun into the guy’s temple. “Motherfucker you better pray I don’t blow your brains out! The hell was you doing! Answer me now!”

            “
Jawan
, what the hell are
you
doing? Baby, we are wanted! You’re not thinking!”
Meesie
yelled and looked around. Neighbors were beginning to come out of their houses and she could swear that she heard sirens in the distant. She blinked her eyes profusely and just wanted to lay down and give up. She preached to
Jawan
about standing his ground, not giving up, and not laying down for the law, but this is not what she meant. She wanted him to think smarter and not make things harder for them.

            “Is this my TV?”
Jawan
asked upon noticing some of his items in the backseat of the truck. “
Meesie
, that’s the damn TV I got you for your birthday. You see this shit!”
Jawan
was pissed. He had saved up for months to get
Meesie
that TV and here somebody was trying to take what he’d worked hard for.