.Beauty Is Her Name

The dog days of the summer was winding down, and the young man made up his pallette on his underaged couchbed with a smile on his face, knowing that in just a couple days, he would be off to his university, ready to fulfill his full potential without the distraction of his psychologically abusive stepfather, his drunk, neglectful mother, and his wicked sister.
With music from his laptop blasting in the next to soundproof room, no one could disturb his calm. Not the verbal abuse of his mother's husband, the mental abuse of his sister, and the ignorance of his mother. He replayed the words of his family, wanting to remember every "loser", every "bum", every word of discouragement they presented to his ears, so he could remember who he never wanted to become.
He often had conversations with himself, and found himself having one with his self, with Amel Larrieux serving as the backdrop for his personal one on one. "Just one more day of this bullshit and then it's off to good ol' Tennessee. Lord knows I'm tired of dealing with these people and their limited views on reality, my nigga. Just one more day and I ain't ever looking back, word. I'll be free as a bird."
A smile emerged on his face. A smile that no man could wipe off, that was until he received a phone call that would change his reality not forever, but at least for the next day. He looked at his old phone and laughed to himself, nodding his head, "Yeah, last time I'll have to worry bout this old ass phone. HTC in a week, oh yeah, I can live wit' that." When he looked at the caller ID to see who was calling him, his face formed an expression of surprise. "Yoooo, wassup Sara? You good sweetie?"
Sara was a beautiful Latina whom he met at California. They became very close during his summer spent in Long Beach visiting old friends and family who he hadn't seen in years. They were like brother and sister. Inseperable. He even convinced her to come to the university out in Tennessee with him to escape the madness of Southern California. They were like peas in a pod and it wasn't unusual for her to call him all the time, but this time it just felt different. Something just wasn't right. "I'm sorry, Aciz. I just had to get out of there. I just had to see you."
There. Had. He knew something wasn't right now. "What's goin' on, love? You okay? Talk to me."
She sighed, air leaving her mouth, "My moms is dying on me Aces, and I couldn't stay there and watch her in pain. The only thing she wanted me to do was get out of this crazy environment I was in so I got on a bus and....."
"Where are you exactly, Sara?" Aces asked curiously.
"I'm in a cab on the way to yo' house."
"What?" Aces asked.
"I'm sorry Aces. I just have to see you, I can't be alone right now Aces please....I just....I just have to see you."
Aces sighed and closed his eyes. As if he didn't have enough problems on his mind, he had no idea how he was going to explain this to his grandma. He wasn't worried about his parents. They were easy to persuade when it came to the potential of him having a life similiar to their own, but his grandmother was so used to living alone since the passing of her husband, that Aces didn't know how she would take a beautiful Latina at her front door steps with nothing but her tears in her eyes. He just shook his head and said in his mind, "Fuck it!", and it was then he decided to deal with that problem when it came. "It's cool, love. Just come."
"I'm turning in now."
This caught him by surprise. He at least wanted a few minutes to think on how he was going to approach the situation. Now he was going to have to freestyle the whole thing, but Aces being naturally gifted at improvisation, he was good at taking things as they came and reversing into something positive for him. He knew that Sara coming to his grandmother's house wasn't exactly part of the plan, but he also knew that there was a strong possibility that he could turn this into a beautiful night, especially since he had a crush on Sara. Maybe he could turn this potentially negative situation into a beautiful nightmare.
He shook his head and went outside like he would normally to smoke a cigarette, and when he saw Sara stepping out of that taxi with tears in her eyes, he knew he wanted to be there for her. He knew he wanted to be more than a comforting shoulder to her. He rushed to her side to retriever her bags. He looked down in her teary eyes with gentle rain falling on them and he asked in a deep voice, "Are you okay?"
She smiled for the first time in hours. "I.....I am now."
He smiled and signaled for her to follow him. "C'mon. I'll show you to where I'm sleeping. I'll let you get the big couch okay."
Even though he was at least six inches higher than her slight five foot frame, she found it endearing that he would offer her the bigger of the couches. A true gentleman.
When they walked in, she was greeted by the cozy atomosphere of Aces make shift room. All of his stuff was placed carefully in a corner and to the untrained eye, it would have appeared as though no one lived there. But she knew better. She knew him, and she knew how truly ready he was to leave this environment he was placed in. She looked up into his eyes and wondered how any body could hate such a golden child. She grabbed his face and patted his cheek. She smiled and asked, "So is this where you sleep?"
He patted his pallette and retrieved a couple of covers and placed them on the bigger of the couches. He turned around to face her and he smiled, "No. This is where you gonna sleep. I'll explain everyhing to the 'rents tomorrow. But for now I want you to be comfortable. You at comfortable in here sleeping with me aren't you?"
She smiled and in an apparent sexual advance, she answered, "I never mind sleeping with you." She recovered quickly, but Aces already caught on to her full meaning. "I mean in the same room wit' you, Aces."
They both smiled until Aces mother and stepfather entered the room with a shocked expression on their faces. His mother, with cigarettes in tow, held her hand out, "Hello, honey." Then she looked Aces and asked in a motherly tone, "Jarvis, who is this?"
Aces turned around to face Sara and asked her while passing her a cover, "Hey, Sara, you wouldn't mind meeting my sister and my niece would you?"
Even though she wasn't too anxious to meet the devil child he had made his sister out to be, she was anxious to meet the little sweet, autistic girl she had heard so much about. She looked at his mother, and wondered, "How could a woman who looks so much like her son have so much hatred for the young man?" She had Aces same big, brown eyes. His same angelic smile. His same sun kissed brown skin. His natural beauty. She looked at Aces and smiled, "Sure."
"Cool, I'll show you to where she is, okay."
He took her to one of the back rooms where his sister and her niece slept, and he made her a palette in front of Lifetime and left the room with the promise that he would be back soon. He knew his sister and niece were knocked out cold and they wouldn't wake up to disturb her. One less problem to worry about.
While Aces was walking down that short hallway, his thoughts swirled around his head. He wondered how he was going to explain this. He had hoped that his stepfather's prone to embarassment would help in his favor. His mother was already intoxicated so maybe that played in his favor as well. The variables were unmistakeable, but maybe, just maybe this would turn out better than he thought.
When he reached the door to the patio, he turned the knob relunctantly, knowing that trouble was to come in the form of a violent man and his submissive wife. Aces was ready for the punishment. "Anything to help his friend," he thought. When he took his first step outside to greet the raindrops falling outside of the patio, his mother was the first one to ask the question. "So who is she, Jarvis?"
Aces shook his head and answered with conviction that couldn't be broken, "A friend in need."
"What's her name!?" Aces stepfather rudely interjected.
Aces just smiled, "Her name's Sara."
"Is she your girlfriend?" Aces just smiled, in turn making his stepfather smile. In his stepfather's mind, he was a retired player, and he loved to see his son being a man that resembled his past life before he was tied down. Something that played in Aces' favor.
His stepfather stood up, walked over to Aces, put his arm around his shoulder, and whispered, "Listen boy, I know you like her and it's cool. I don't know what's going on but it's goin' on yo' last day here in ol' Memphis, so enjoy yo' self."
That went surprisingly well. One problem averted, one more to solve, and Aces being Aces he had the perfect herbal medicine to heal Sara's wounds. He shook his head and retrieved Sara from his sister's room. It had only been twenty minutes and she had already been fast asleep. He knelt down, entranced by her sleeping beauty. He stroked her face gently with his fingertips, relishing in her beauty. She stirred at his touch and her sparkling eyes stared at him with a happiness that only a loving best friend could have. Her sleepy voice awoke something beautiful in his heart. "Hey baby. Is everything cool?"
He helped her up with a smile and she pulled herself up with the help of his strong, slender muscles. "Yeah baby, everythings cool. Come outside with me, I got something that might make you feel a lil' better."
She smiled and stood up with her blanket in hand, and they walked out of the room. They caught eyes with his parents, and for the first time in a long time, his stepfather smiled at him. And all he could do was smile back.
They walked through the house and left out of the patio. Life was good for a moment. The blunt was lit almost immediately and they walked through the suburbs with marijuana smoke floating in the air with little conversation passing between them. After she hit the blunt for the first time, her emotional words poured out of her mouth. "I'm sorry if I caused you to get any trouble. I ain't mean to. Just had to get out of Long Beach."
Aces threw his hand in a disregarding manner. "Fuck it, ma, you good. What's going on in Long Beach?"
A tear dropped from her face and she couldn't hide the pain any longer. "Mi madre dying, Aces. She told me she didn't have too long to live anymore." She cried some more as she passed Aces the blunt and he waved it down again, in his own way telling her to hold the blunt. "I told her not to talk like that but she just kept telling me to be strong, and I was like how could I be strong with her gone?" She sniffled. "She told me she was proud of me, Aces."
Aces smiled, "I'm proud of you too baby."
She turned to him with those spectacular eyes and her wide smile was outlined by her beautiful pink apricot lips. It was the first time in a long time she smiled. "You know I was going to stay in Long Beach?"
Aces inhaled the smoke, and it looked as though the smoke hesitated to leave his lungs. He looked down on her and said simply, "That's understandable.....What made you decide against mama?" He asked as he hit the blunt once more, passing it back to her.
She took it and hit it once before answering, "She made me leave, Aces. She was like she didn't want me to watch her die and be sucked back into the lifestyle of Long Beach."
Aces nodded his head and replied, "That's understandable."
The smoke left her mouth slowly. "Yeah, I thought so too. You know my moms was so proud of me when I got accepted into the university. She said it was the proudest day of her life and that I made her so happy that even if she did die, she would pass with a smile on her face....." Sara shook her head, tears gushing from her sparkling eyes. "You know she died on my way here huh?"
Aces was shocked by the news. He knew Sara's mother well. She called him an angel for somewhat delivering her only child out of the hellish life that was Long Beach, California. He remembered the short, middle aged woman offering him a kiss on his cheek and a loving embrace everytime she saw him. He loved that woman with all of his heart and it hurted him deeply that a woman that he considered a mother to him had passed away, but at the same time he felt like she was the mother who placed her child on the river to float to a better life and that he was that queen who found the babe floating in that river in a straw basket. He wanted to cry, but he knew he couldn't allow a moment of weakness to overcome him, not in front of Sara. He walked closer to her and put his arm around her shoulder in an effort to comfort her, "Damn shorty..... I am so sorry."
She cried in his chest and through sobs, she exclaimed, "You're all I have now Aces."
"I know and I will always be here for you, Sara baby, always. Don't worry about nothing I got you. I'm gon' do my best to make sure we make mamacita proud okay."
She laughed through her sobs and patted Aces on his developing chest, "Oh Aces, I have come to the conclusion that we are already making her proud." She threw the roach on the ground and buried her face into his torso. "I know in my heart that I made the right decision in coming here. Mami knew if I had known she was going to die, I wouldn't have left, ever.... She didn't want me to be trapped, huh Aces?"
Aces looked down into her eyes and smiled, "It's not that she thought you would be trapped; she simply knew the potential that rested in the heart of this beautiful Hispanic woman who she had a large impact upon." He used his index finger to trace the center line of her neck, falling over her breast until it stopped on her heart. He felt her heartbeat through his finger, and he looked deep into her eyes in a seductive manner. The line of their friendship had just been crossed unknowingly by the two. He stopped himself from exploring their feelings further. "Hey let's get back to the house. You hungry? I got some pizza in the house if you want some." She nodded her head and the two went back to his grandmother's house.
Their walk was brief and by the time they reached the patio, both of their stomachs were growling. Aces opened the door and walked into the house and they made a beeline straight to the kitchen. He placed the whole box of pizza he had ordered a couple of hours ago on the dining room and they dug into the pizza, both remaining silent as they stuffed their faces with Italian deliciousness. She smiled as she took the last piece of pizza into her mouth. Aces walked up and took a couple of sodas from the refrigerator and handed her one and she took it with a smile. He smiled back and offered his hand to the beauty in front of him. "You wanna watch some TV?"
She smiled and took his hand. He lead her to his room in the den and grabbed the remote control to turn on the television. He grabbed her hand again and she accepted it with a smile. He led her to the couch that would serve as her bed and they sat and watched cartoons with Sara snuggling against his arm. This moment resonated in his mind. He remembered a moment that happened just like this one back in his freshman days. It all started just like this, lights low, TV playing, a girl snuggling real close, and the feeling of nostalgia made him want to return to that moment with Sara. He whisered in her ear, "Come here."
She snuggled closer to him and climbed on his lap. Their eyes formed a link, a bond that was unbreakable. Their lips formed that same bond. He pushed her long, straight hair back and their kisses became that much more sultry, that much more passionate.
As their clothes fell to the ground and their passion sealed in an act, their love for each grew ten fold that night, and in that moment, with their bodies, they made a pledge to each other that they would remain forever in each other.