A Thin Line between Love and Hate

Chapter 10

Jasmine's POV

When Marcy finally decided to join Jaxon on the beach, I took that as a sign that it was time for me to head inside. I would avoid them as much as possible. Mrs. Robinson informed us that we had a dinner reservation at 7:30 tonight at a local restaurant. So until then, I didn't do much for the rest of the day except nap a little, do some writing, and speak with my mom. I swear I loved my parents but sometimes conversations with them were draining.

"Hey mom. How have you and dad been?"

"We are having the time of our lives. Seriously honey, thank you so much for doing this for us." I smiled. "Anyway, Cindy told me you were spending the weekend at her house. Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Yeah, we just got here today. So far I can't complain."

"That's good honey. How is Darnell? You should've brought him along on your little getaway. You know the Robinson's wouldn't have minded." Of course my mom was itching to talk about Darnell. She knew there was trouble in paradise even if she didn't know the extent of why we were having problems.

"Darnell is.... Darnell." I state dryly.

"I swear Jasmine you need to cut that attitude out. I don't mean to get on your case about this, but nowadays, the attitude of young black women is what is driving our black men into the arms of women outside of their race." I sighed hard and rolled my eyes at the lecture that was about to ensue. When it came to the black family, my parents were borderline hoteps.

"But Darnell isn't what he seems mom. I don't know how much longer I can last in this relationship."

"Jasmine...Listen to me. He is a fine young brother with a lucrative career. What more can a woman ask for? Our society is always tearing down the black man. You, as a black woman, need to be his crutch. He might seem a little harsh, but you can't blame him when society is continuously trying to break black men down."

"But I'm not happy. I haven't been happy for a long while now." There was a long pause.

"I have to go Jas. But just think about what you've been doing wrong in this relationship. Change that and you'll see that things change for the better. But don't give up on such a promising goal oriented black young man. I love you baby girl and I know you'll make the right decisions." I don't say anything as my mom hung up the phone. I sighed heavily as I laid back on my bed. My parents were old school, so they couldn't understand why I wanted to leave Darnell. I felt like if I left him, not only would I be leaving my comfort zone of being in such a long term commitment, but I would also be disappointing my parents completely. Who wants to disappoint their parents? On paper Darnell was it. But behind closed doors, he was a monster that I didn't know if I could tolerate any longer. I ran my hands through my hair and laid there until I dozed off. I really had a lot to think about.

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Around 5:30 I woke up and I was in a foul mood. Every time I had these conversations with my mom, I felt disgusted. My stomach rumbled, indicating that I was starving so I headed to the kitchen to find a light snack to hold me over till dinner. No one was around. I opened up the fridge and found an apple and some oranges. I reached for the apple and right when it was in my grasp, a tattooed arm appeared out of nowhere and snaked past me. The arm plucked it right out of my grasp. I turned around, angry! I knew exactly who the culprit was.

"Give me back the apple, that was the last apple and you knew I was going for it." I stated angrily. I was already in a bad mood and I didn't need Jaxon adding to my problems. I hated that I could see the merriment dancing in Jaxon's blue eyes.

"Come and get it then." He challenged me while holding the apple above his head.

"You play too much." I said while shoving him hard.