The Way He Loves Me

© 2016

Published by Leo Sullivan Presents

www.leolsullivan.com

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Unauthorized reproduction, in any manner, is prohibited.

Contents

1. Mackenzie King

2. Mackenzie King

3. Darryon Jordan

4. Mackenzie King

5. Maddison King

6. Mackenzie King

7. Janeiro Armstrong

8. Mackenzie King

9. Darryon Jordan

10. Janeiro Armstrong

11. Mackenzie King

12. Janeiro Armstrong

13. Maddison King

14. Mackenzie King

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Synopsis

1. Sunday

2. Sunday

3. Sunday

4. King

5. King

6. King

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1

Mackenzie King

10 years ago; the past

The year of 2004

"F -I-G-H-T! FIGHT PATRIOTS FIGHT! COME ON!" I screamed at the top of my lungs along with the other cheerleaders. Tonight was a home game at my high school, which was Miramar High, and this game meant a lot to me. For starters, I was finally a senior, and captain of the cheerleading team. Before I graduated, I hoped that I could witness our varsity football team go to Orlando to play in the championship. I have been on the cheerleading team all four years in high school, and our football team has never made it that far. So, tonight, I didn’t care if I went hoarse as I screamed.

We were in the fourth quarter of the football game with only five minutes left, and the other team, which was St. Thomas, had the ball now. I didn’t know that much about football, but St. Thomas was now in the lead with twenty-one points, while our team had fourteen. Clearly, in order for us to win this game, our boys needed to tighten up and score another touchdown. It looked like it was damn near impossible because those St. Thomas niggas did not come to play. I swear, some of the players on that team didn’t even look like regular high school football players; them niggas looked like straight up NFL players.

Y’all need to stop doing all of that damn talking and cheer our boys on! Next person I see playing around, I’m taking you off the field, I turned around and said to my teammates.

I knew these bitches couldn’t stand me, and hell, I didn’t blame them. So, the question might be asked, who exactly is Mackenzie King and what it is about me that causes so many females to hate on me all of the damn time? Well, first things first. I was beautiful as hell, and my man, Darryon, who was walking around somewhere with his niggas made sure to tell me that every day. When I started at Miramar, I was a few shades darker than what is considered red, but having cheerleading practice in the middle of the damn sun after school and on weekends caused my skin to change, but it’s fine because I loved my newly caramel skin. It made my hazel eyes that I had inherited from my mother stand out. My jet black, silky curly hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, where I had my cheerleading bow sitting on top of it. My grade of hair came from my father since he was mixed with Jamaican, and often times people referred to me as a Coolie gyal because of my hair, but mainly my dad. It was something that he had been calling me ever since I was a little girl.

Standing at 5’7" at the age of eighteen, I had the body of a grown woman; tiny ass waist, thick thighs, and a fat ass. The niggas around the school would literally camp out in front of the locker room to see me walk out the doors because it was just something about seeing my sexy body in this cheerleading uniform that they just couldn’t get enough of. I was the shit around campus, and while all of the boys had an infatuation with me, I only had eyes for one person, and that was the love of my life, Darryon Jordan. It was just something about the way he loves me that had me going crazy for his ass.

While I was the pretty, smart, captain of the cheerleading team, I feel like Darryon only came to school so that he could sell weed to whoever was willing to cop anything from him. Darryon wasn’t trying to be a dope boy, well I hope that wasn’t on his list of plans, but you see, he was the type of nigga who was always looking for ways to make money. I loved Darryon with all of my heart, but I’ll be the first to say that I didn’t agree with some of the moves that he was making. I took my education very seriously, but often times, I almost felt like Darryon took everything as a joke. If it weren't for me doing the majority of his homework and shit, his ass wouldn’t even have enough credits to be considered graduation ready.

Earlier in the year, I had applied to the University of California Los Angeles, and any day now, a decision should be coming through in the mail. Darryon was fine with that because he said that the reason he was selling drugs is so that if I do get accepted, he would have enough money to get an apartment out there for us. I mean, I had no reason not to believe him because I just couldn’t see him letting me be thousands of miles away from him, so I trusted that he was going to do what he had to do.

Darryon and I met during my sophomore year in high school. He wasn’t from here; he was from Pompano, but after getting into a fight and using a pocket knife as a weapon, he was expelled from school and kicked out of the district, which is why he had to relocate this way. When my eyes landed on Darryon’s for the first time, it was something about the cockiness in his walk that made me fall in love with him at just one glance.

At fifteen years old, I still really wasn’t into boys like that because I had some strict ass parents, my mother being the strictest. But it was something about Darryon that had me looking at him in a way that I’ve never looked at any other boy before. I mean, I should have shied away from his ass and known that he was trouble because he didn’t even come to school with a book bag; all he did was carry a lead pencil behind his ear. Darryon’s skin tone was the color of milk chocolate and he had the prettiest set of white teeth. His waves were so damn sexy, that if you stared too long, you may fuck around and get seasick. Darryon wasn’t the biggest, he was probably about 145 pounds even, but he did have a little muscle on him, so it was fine with me.

One day, when I was walking down the halls, he placed a letter in my hands that said, Why you always staring at a nigga? You see something you like or something? I don’t know why, but reading that letter caused my dumb ass to beam with the brightest smile on my face. I couldn’t resist, even if I wanted to. Later on that day, he finally came over and talked to me after school, and the rest has been history ever since. I knew I loved this man because my mother would faithfully take me and my little sister, Maddison, to church, so I knew about saving my virginity until I got married. But about six months into my relationship with Darryon, I had opened my legs to him for the first time, which is another reason why my hips and thighs were spreading the way that they were.

You telling us to cheer, when your ass over there in la-la land. The fuck is you over there thinking about? my best friend since we were five years old asked me.

I didn’t even answer her, I just shook my head and laughed at her silliness. I was always telling the other girls to stop having sidebars while we were on the field, so I felt like I had to follow my own rules. Monica was actually the co-captain of the cheerleading team, and I loved her ass to death. There wasn’t a thing about me that she didn’t know, even things that I was ashamed of coming to her and telling her. She knew everything because I knew that she wasn’t the type of person who would judge me.

Only Monica and Darryon knew about the trip to the clinic that I had made four months ago to get an abortion. My parents would kill me if they knew that I was pregnant, and judging from the look on Darryon’s face when I told him about the pregnancy and how fast he handed me over that money, I knew he wasn’t ready for kids either. When I had to sit a few games out, I told the team that I was just suffering from a cold. Letting them know the truth, which was that me and my boyfriend were careless in using condoms and it resulted in a child’s life being terminated, was not an option.

I asked God for forgiveness every day because killing my baby made me feel like the worst person in the world. While it still bothered me at times, to Darryon it was almost as if he couldn’t care less about the fact that I had to abort our child. That’s just how Darryon was; he didn’t care about much these days.

And that’s game! St Thomas wins with twenty-eight and Miramar fourteen, the announcer said.

I watched as some of the players on our team walked with their heads down, and some were even crying. They had worked so hard, going the whole season undefeated, so I could only imagine how they were feeling. Damn, it just hit me that tonight was my last time ever cheering at a varsity football game. Wow!

I grabbed my cheerleading bag off the gate and Monica and I walked through the crowd. I was mainly looking for Darryon because it was Friday night and Monica would be spending the night at my house, so I needed him to take us home. When I spotted him, he was posted up on the gate with a whole bunch of other dudes, some way older than him, and they were all smoking weed. I’m not going to lie, my man looked so sexy standing there in his red and white Adidas sweat suit, with the matching sneakers. He had the jacket open, showing the white wife beater that he had on underneath. A red scarf rested on his head he wore it the way that Juel Santana used to wear his. Darryon had his pants hanging so low that I could see the print of his dick, and that annoyed the fuck out of me, so I walked over to him and pulled his pants up.

There you go! Always trying to play mommy and shit! Darryon said to me, causing for a few of his lil friends to laugh at his comment. Darryon knew I hated when he sagged his pants so low, yet he still did it. He passed whoever was standing next to him the blunt that he was smoking from and focused his attention on me. He pulled my body closer to his and rested his hands on my ass.

You ready for me to take you home? he asked me. I nodded my head yes. He told his homeboys goodbye and I walked with him, holding his hand the whole time we walked.

Females shot me nasty looks, but I paid it no mind because being with Darryon for two years now, I was used to that shit. I often wondered if Darryon had dealings with these women, which is why they would look at me like that, but it was just something that I wasn’t ready to ask him because I was scared of his answer. The whole walk to Darryon’s 1995 Chevy Caprice with the chrome steel was a quiet one because Monica couldn’t stand Darryon. She felt that he wasn’t the one for me, but her love for me made her tolerate him. Plus, we needed the ride home.

Y’all hungry or some shit? Darryon asked us as soon as we hopped into the car and he took off.

We told him that we wanted McDonald’s, and that’s where he took us. Once we had the food and everything, he took off in the direction of my house. When we entered the development that we stayed in, I reached over and turned down his radio because my parents had fussed at me a thousand times about him coming over there with his music all loud. My parents couldn’t stand Darryon, so anything that they need to say to him, they told me and I would relay the message. I watched as Darryon sucked his teeth and shook his head. In his eyes, I was always trying to play mommy and shit, when all I was trying to do was make my parents like him a little bit.

When we pulled up in front of the house, I handed Monica the key and told her that I would be inside in a few minutes. As soon as she got out of the car and I watched her go into the house, I focused my attention on Darryon.

Where you going after you leave here because I know you not going home? I quizzed. It was Friday night and he was known for doing dumb shit on the weekends, so I just had to ask.

Shit! I’m probably about to hit up the club with some of my niggas and shit, he nonchalantly told me.

Alright, well behave! I told him, then leaned into him and placed a kiss on his lips.

When I tried to pull away, he grabbed me by the front of my uniform and allowed me to taste his tongue, which tasted like the weed that he had been smoking. I didn’t mind because I was used to it. When we pulled apart, I looked at him with those same googly eyes that I had when I first met him two years ago.

Alight, go in the house. I’ll text you when I make it home, he told me.

Okay, I love you.

I love you more, he said, and then I got out and headed into the house.

I walked inside and went upstairs to my bedroom. Monica was already in the shower that was in my room, and I noticed that there was a letter from UCLA on the bed. I quickly dropped my cheerleading bag on the floor, said a silent prayer, asking that the school that I had been dreaming about attending ever since I was in the fifth grade would grant me an acceptance letter. I sat down on the bed and quickly opened the envelope.

I read, Dear Mackenzie King. Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you of your admission to the University of California, Los Angeles. There was nothing else for me to read because all of a sudden, I started screaming at the top of my lungs with excitement. Not even a whole minute later, both of my parents walked into my room with crazy looks on their faces. I’m not going to lie, the sight before me was comical as hell because my mom stood there with a bat in her hand, while my father held two guns in his.

Coolie Gyal! Fuck you making all of that noise for? my dad asked, lowering the gun and looking at me crazy.

My dad was so handsome, and I was the spitting image of him. The only thing I inherited from my mother was her eyes. My father had the same long, jet black hair as I did, but he often kept it going back in one long braid that either me or my mother did for him. My mother was beautiful as well, I’m not going to lie. Her bright skin was so beautiful, and she rocked her hair in a short cut, making her look way younger than she really was. I swear, my mom and I could go for sisters instead of mother and daughter. Overall, I believed that I had great parents. I mean, I didn’t have the type of parents that could afford to buy me unnecessary expensive shit to go to school in, but I didn’t want for anything either. Not that being able to shower your kids with expensive things made you a better parent anyway.

My father worked as a mechanic at a shop over in Miramar, and I already knew that one day he was going to own that place because he has been working there for as long as I could remember. The guy who currently owned the place was old as hell, so I’m pretty sure that he would be retiring soon. My mom, on the other hand, worked as a registered nurse, and she’s been working at the same hospital for as long as I could remember as well. So, with two hard working parents, I had no choice but to go off to school so that one day I could get me a good ass career and my parents would never have to work again.

I didn’t even answer my parents, I just handed both of them the acceptance letter. Once they finished reading it, they both pulled me in for a hug, kissing me on my forehead and telling my how proud they were of me. Once they left the room, I sat on the floor and ate my food because I wouldn’t dare sit in my California queen sized bed, all sweaty from cheering all night.

About ten minutes later, Monica came from out of the bathroom with her pajamas on and a scarf wrapped around her head.

The hell was you screaming for? she asked me, taking a seat on my bed and pulling food out of the bag.

Bitch, suppose somebody came in here with a gun and that’s why I was screaming! How would your ass have known because you didn’t even bother to get out of the shower! I said to her, causing her to burst out laughing.

Bitch, your daddy got all of these damn guns in here like he still in Jamaica or some shit, so I wasn’t worried about somebody coming in here. What happened, though? she asked me, taking a bite into her sandwich.

Monica’s meal consisted of two double cheeseburgers, some French fries, and a Coke. Monica was one of those skinny people who could eat all day and not gain a pound.

I got into UCLA, I told her with a smile still on my face.

Whaaatttt? Congrats, girl, I see why your ass was screaming. That’s what’s up! Now, the question is, how is Darryon’s bitch ass going to take this news? she asked me.

He’s cool with it, Monica. I already told you what he had planned for us, I told her, taking a sip from my soda.

Yeah, but Kenzie, that nigga says a lot of shit and never comes through. I’m telling you this because you’re my best friend… fuck that, no, you’re my sister! Stop being so damn gullible when it comes to that nigga! His ass can barely find time to take you out on the weekends, but you think he gon’ move thousands of miles away to California just because you got accepted into the college of your dreams? I’m not trying to sound heartless, I’m just being honest. That nigga don’t give a fuck about school or bettering himself, so moving to California is not in that nigga’s plans. Knowing him, he told you he was saving up, just so you could shut up. He probably didn’t even think you would get in, sis. This nigga comes to school every day in new clothes, jewelry, and shoes. Do you really think he saving up for an apartment in California? Monica asked me.

I let her words marinate in my head for a little bit. I only hoped that she was wrong.

The next day

After spending the majority of the day with Monica since my mom had let me borrow her car, I dropped Monica off at home, and now I was on the way to Darryon’s house. I wanted to share this news with him because I needed to make sure that he and I were still on the same page. It took forty-five minutes to get to where Darryon lived because like I mentioned, he was from Pompano, so it was a little drive. I pulled up to the house where he resided with only his mother, and I got out of the car.

Darryon’s mother was one of those young mothers who would rather be friends with her son first before she was a parent, which is why she allowed this nigga to do whatever the hell he wanted to do. I mean, he was the only person from school that I knew who didn’t have a curfew. There have been countless times when he has called me in the wee hours of the night, asking me if I could come outside. My parents didn’t play that, so of course I couldn’t come out.

After getting out of the car, I went up and knocked on the door. A few minutes later, Darryon’s mother came to the door, looking like I had just woke her up from her sleep. She still had cold in her eyes, and there was dried up drool on her face. Don’t get me wrong, Darryon’s mother was pretty, but she was just the total opposite of what I was used