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| Available January 4, 2016 |
SNEAK PEEK
Labella “ Bella” Jones
" Labella! Go to the store and get some roach spray. Hattie and Tommy done had babies again."
That was my mother Keisha yelling about the roaches that we been having since before I could even remember. We done had roaches for so long that she even had names for them and their babies. Growing up in the small city of Covington everybody knew everybody, which made it easier for everybody to know everybody's business. I made it my business to make sure I was laid back just so I wouldn't be the talk of town. Don't get me wrong my mother wasn't one of those slouch bitches that lived off welfare or none of that. My mother got up everyday to go to work but because she didn't have a higher education than her GED she settled for minimum wage jobs that had to cover me, her and my eighteen-year-old big sister Moody. Not to mention my sister had a two-year-old son that she had at the tender age of sixteen so here we were cramped up in this two-bedroom apartment stuck. Having to live with roaches didn't make it any better. At the age of sixteen I seen more than your average teenager but because I was so laid back and observant nobody knew. Most people joke that I'm adopted because while my mom and sister were loud, ghetto and always out here fighting somebody I was the complete opposite. I've never had a fight in my life and didn't plan on having one. To be honest I didn’t know if I could even fight, the only person I ever fought was my sister Moody when she would steal the little bit of stuff I had. You see I was real cool with the school counselor and every holiday she would buy me something like some simple shirts or pants from walmart. They weren’t the updated clothing lines that teenagers my age wore but it was better than wearing hand me downs that sagged off of me that came from either one of my mothers many men that came in and out of her life or from Moody. I loved my sister Moody but I vowed that I wouldn’t be anything like her in life; she was what you would call a product of her environment. Mama was so busy working she didn’t see that Moody was already destroyed. From stealing to having sex with every man she came in contact with Moody was considered hood trash before she even turned eighteen. My father was never steady in my life. Although Moody and me had the same daddy she hated him more then I did because she understood more about why he wasn’t in our life than I did. I was only two years younger than Moody but Moody was always in Mama and daddies business so when he left when I was ten Moody knew everything and took it hard. I’m not going to say Daddy leaving was the reason Moody started acting wild but that’s around the time she started acting like she didn’t have any training. Mama was never around to teach me how a lady was suppose to act like or what was wrong and right so if it wasn’t for Moody acting the way she acted and struggling with a baby I wouldn’t know that that’s the life I didn’t want. Going to school everyday with holy clothes or clothes that was too big didn’t make my situation any better. I never asked mom for knew stuff because I would hear her cry every month to a new man about how her checks wasn’t enough to pay the bills. I wanted to help her by getting a job but she would never allow it. She always told me that I needed to be the one that can get her out the hood.
" And make sure you get the family dollar brand. I couldn't get over time this week so the funds are low." I heard her yell right before I walked out of the door.
Available January 4, 2016
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