Dark Beauty

C H A P T E R 1 : The Beginning.

Thursday

May 21st, 1995

11:45 p.m.

"I'm not taking this shit anymore Jeremiah, you're acting crazy, and I'm not about to put up with it!" Kodeniˊ yelled as she descended the stairs. When her feet reached the last step, she made a right and headed down the hall and into the kitchen.

Not far behind her was her husband, Jeremiah. He stopped and stood at the entrance of the kitchen, prepared to continue the argument. "Nah, yo' ass gon' stay right here and finish!" he yelled at her.

"I'm a grown woman; you will not tell me what I am and will not do, okay?" Kodeniˊ clarified as she examined the mess on the table made by her daughter. "Layla, I thought I told you to come in here and clean up this mess!" she lashed out toward her daughter. Kodeniˊ was trying her best to ignore Jeremiah; as he carried on, she began to pick up some of the scattered papers.

Seeing his wife pay more attention to the flimsy pieces of paper instead of him sent him off the edge. "Would you forget the mess, Kodeniˊ?" he barked. "I'm tryna talk to you, and all you can do is blow me off." he bitched. Jeremiah snatched the paper from out of Kodeni's hands. "Stop fucking playing with me and quit changing the subject dude," he warned in a stern voice. Just as he finished his sentence, their daughter, Layla, walked into the kitchen.

The couple watched as their daughter cleaned up her mess. After a few more moments of silence, Kodeniˊ said, "You're acting crazy over nothing." Her relaxed attitude bought out a whole 'notha level of crazy in Jeremiah. He watched as she moved over to the cabinet and pulled out a tall glass. She opened the refrigerator and poured a cup of cold water.

"Oh," he said. "So since it's you who's been caught cheating, I'm actin' crazy, but let it had been me it would be world war three!" he yelled.

Being a smart-aleck, Kodeniˊ casually replied, "Yep," she continued. "You're damn right, Jeremiah because unlike you I don't cheat, I'm accused of cheating because you're the cheater!"

He sarcastically laughed. "Oh, really?" he questioned, shocked by Kodeni's answer. "So tell me this," he started. "So what were you doing at the club with some other nigga then?" he asked. Seconds after he asked the question, her eyes matched a deer in headlights. She cleared her throat and kept her cool. She put on a calm front, but deep down, she was nervous. She turned her head to the side and sized her 6 foot, 4 man, up and down. She met his question with an eye roll and then looked away. She knew that her body language was doing the most, but she ain't care. She was just tryna figure out rather or not she wanted to come clean about his accusations. She thought about fabricating the details a lil' to make it seem as if it wasn't, but no matter how she tried to flip it, she knew that Jeremiah would see right through it. "I'm waiting." he reminded as he folded his arms.

Kodeniˊ huffed and puffed. 'Now that he knows ain't no sense of hiding it.' she thought to herself. 'this is why he startin' shit wit' me.' Now that she was caught, she was ready to get the argument over, and confessing Kodeniˊ asked, "How did you find out?"

Jeremiah chuckled at her rhetorical question. "The block talks, ma," he told her. "You out of all people should know that," Jeremiah told her. He then began to reach into his back pocket located on his left butt cheek; Kodeniˊ watched his actions intensely. Within seconds Jeremiah pulled out whatever it was that had been resting in his back pocket. Throughout their argument, Jeremiah had stayed a distance away from his wife. Still, as he glanced down at the photos, he smirked and slowly moved closer to where she stood. Kodeniˊ watched Jeremiah like a hawk watching its prey. As he grew closer, she noticed that the items in his hands were Polaroid photos. By this point, the marble island inside the kitchen was the only thing that separated them.