Stallion

Chapter Five • Walls

Lareaha Banks

Build up to take down, isn't that the purpose?

Sometimes you don't realize a moment that you haven't anticipated will be a joyous one.

I spent the afternoon into the night watching music videos on Mtv as Stallion sent his fingers to work through my hair. The feeling was igniting and I was absorbed into the comfort he was providing me in this hard time of despair.

I never anticipated my father to arrive back to his home, so when the door knob rattled and turned my heart leaped out of my chest and I arose from laying my head in Stallion's lap. His face grew confused as he stood up to go to the front door, he was bold.

"Lareaha, didn't I say no company? And especially a male-- a black male at that." My father's audacity and tone of voice moved me miles it felt. How could he say that?

"Lareaha?" Stallion spoke as he walked back towards me and collected his shoes and jacket.

"Stall, I'm sorry-"

"Get this gangster out my home! How dare you bring a black person in my home!" My dad's voice rose and I stood up for Stallion.

"Don't disrespect him like that! He's human too' just because his skin has a thicker melanin does not mean he isn't just like you and I! We're all the same if you look at an x-ray." I defend and stand beside Stallion as he looks down at me with sorrowful eyes and a broken smile.

"I'm going home." He said to me.

"Get him out my house, now!" My dad shouted. Reece stepped through the basement door and his mouth dropped when he and dad made eye contact.

"Why are you here?" Reece asked our father who was ready to lose his cool as Stallion still stood in the middle of our living room.

As Reece and him talked I showed Stallion to the door and held my hand over my forehead. I was extremely embarrassed at my father's harsh attitude.

"Thanks, that meant something to me." He gave me a sympathetic smile and gripped my hand before walking out. I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn't find the right words. I felt horrible.

"And didn't I tell you all niggers want is a white woman's money because they're too poor? They aren't successful and never will be! Open your eyes! Now tell me who this boy is!" My father yells approaching  me. His dirty blonde brows furrow and his face red.

Reece shut the door for me as I brushed passed my father and into the kitchen.

"I'm not talking to you, you're racist." I declare and flicker on the large overhead lights. The flowers he bought me sat in the middle of the island in fresh water.

"Get back here, I don't know who you think you are talking to." He argues.

"You! You are racist! He's just my friend and there is no law saying I can't be friends with a black person." I say defensively and open the fridge.

"I am your father and I know what's best for you. Black men just want to get to a white girl for their possessions, nothing has changed! They're all drug dealers and all they care about is sex." He yells to me.

"No, alot has changed but you are still sitting in the past like alot of your white friends are too! Don't feel bad though, you aren't the only person who feels that way. You're too immature to realize black people are no different from us besides the color of their skin." I felt out of character defending someone who wasn't my race. But this isn't my first time doing so, I defended Markell various times. It's something I took pride in.