Bacardi's Gift

Chapter 12

After eating three bowls of ice cream and a hotdog, I was in Nevaeh's car and ready for my appointment. I made sure to drink plenty of water so that I'd have a full bladder. According to my doctor, that was best. Unfortunately, the text that Jamari sent me was etched into my mind. I didn't understand why he was acting like this.

I was waiting to see if he decided to change his mind and come to the appointment but he never texted me back.

I got into the car and stared out the window. In the corner of my eye, I noticed that Nevaeh kept glancing at me a couple of times. "What's going on?" She questioned while smoothing down her slick bun.

"Huh? Oh I'm fine." I didn't wanna risk getting her mad while she was driving. I didn't even wanna think about what Jamari said to me anymore.

"Amala, you're my sister. I can tell that something's on your mind. Just tell me girl."

"Can I tell you after the appointment?" She nodded her head yes and continued driving.

A few minutes later, we arrived at Family Health Hospital. Since my parents and I decided that this would be the place that I'd give birth to my baby, we decided that I'd also be getting my checkups here as well.

We walked into the hospital and waited for my name to be called. Dr. Wilder soon called my name and we walked into her room.

"Hello, Amala.How have you been feeling?" She inquired. I proceeded to lie down on the exam table and lift my shirt up to expose my stomach.

"I've been fine I guess. I've been feeling a little nauseous and I think that my feet might be getting a little bit swollen." She applied a very cold jelly-like substance to my stomach and used the transducer to monitor anything that was going on.

"That is very common in pregnancies." She was staring at the medical computer when Nevaeh decided to ask me a question.

"Hey, where's Jamari? Isn't he supposed to be here?" She asked. I was hoping that she wouldn't notice his absence.

"Um...he's not coming." I didn't want to discuss what he said to me during this moment.

"What do you mean he's not coming? He can't just not show up to an appointment. It's not like his ass has anything better to do." She snapped.

This is why I didn't want to tell her anything. I know how Nevaeh is and when she gets upset she can get out of control.

"Can we talk about this later, please?" I turned my attention to what the doctor was doing and Nevaeh decided to do the same.

I was paying attention to my stomach when I heard a faint sound.

"There's the heart beat. You've got a healthy child there, Amala." I immediately turned my head to the computer. I felt a sense of joy. I don't wanna sound cheesy but the sound of my baby's heartbeat made me feel like this was one hundred percent real. I'm really gonna have a living child to take care of. Nevaeh grabbed a hold of my hand and smiled at me.

Even though I tried to stop them, tears came running down my face.

"I'm so sorry, I don't know why I'm so emotional right now. Is this normal?" I chuckled.

"Don't worry Amala. It's completely normal for you to get emotional when you hear your baby's heartbeat. Many other mothers do the same exact thing." She flashed a comforting smile my way.

She handed me the ultrasound pictures after cleaning the gel off of my stomach. She reminded me to come to my next appointment in a couple of weeks.

After we left the clinic, all I wanted to do was go home and take a nice nap. Even though I couldn't see the baby that well in the pictures, it was still so beautiful.

"So are you gonna tell me what happened?" Nevaeh said. God, she really wasn't gonna let this go. I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible because I'm incredibly exhausted.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and showed her the texts that Jamari sent to me. She stared at my phone for a while and handed it back to me.

"Where does he live?" She asked.

"What, why?"

"Mala, just tell me where he lives. I'm not gonna do anything crazy, I just wanna have a talk a with him."

She must think that I'm stupid. Even though I didn't want to cause any drama, I knew that she would keep on pestering me.

I gave her the directions to Jamari's house and we soon pulled into the driveway. There were no other cars in the driveway so I figured that his parents were not home.

"Get out of the car and let's go. If you're not gonna put him in his place, I will." She turned the engine off and got out the car. I sighed and grabbed a picture to give to Jamari. He probably wouldn't care if I gave him one or not but I'd still give him one just in case he might want one.

I knocked on the door with Nevaeh fuming behind me.

About six knocks later, there was still no response. Nevaeh stepped in front of me and knocked on the door with as much force as possible.

The door swung open and for a minute I thought I had the wrong house.

"Can I help you?" A short girl asked. She was wearing a wrinkled sundress and her black hair was in a mess. Only an idiot wouldn't be able to guess what she was just doing.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Can I speak to Jamari?"

"Who is you?" She asked. Dear God. I turned around and headed to the car when I heard Jamari's voice.

"Amala? What you doing here?" The girl who was at the door immediately disappeared and headed upstairs.

Before I could say anything, my beloved sister interrupted. "She came here to ask you why you weren't at her ultrasound bitch." She yelled.

"Aye man don't come to my fucking house and talk to me like that. Real shit cuh. I done told her ass that I don't give a fuck 'bout that baby." He rebuked.

"You're the one who did this shit to her, so it's your job as a parent to fucking be involved." She yelled once again.

Jamari was about to say something when I interrupted him.

"CAN YOU GUYS STOP?! I'm tired of all this! I just want to go home and rest, okay? Jamari, I don't fucking care if you don't want to be in my baby's life, because you probably wouldn't be a good father anyways. I understand that you never wanted to be a teenage father, but I didn't ask to be a teenage mother. I hope you remember that you're the one who wanted to have sex with me while I was drunk. If I was sober, none of this would be happening right now. I know that your parents told you that you have to step up, but trust me, you don't. I'm not gonna force you to do something that you don't want anything to do with. So you can go and fuck anyone you want and do whatever you please. I don't want you to call me, text me, or talk to me unless you decide to be a father to my baby. As for me, I will do what I please. I'm gonna talk to who I want to talk to, and you're not gonna get in the way of that, got it?!" I took a deep breath. He was silent the whole time. I wasnt even sure if he was listening to me. "Can we go now?" I turned to Nevaeh who nodded and began walking towards her car.

"I thought you might want this." I handed him one of the baby pictures.

Before I could even turn around, he ripped the baby picture into shreds and slammed the door in my face.

I don't know what came over me, but as soon as I got into the car, I began crying and I could not stop.

Nevaeh hurriedly hugged me and tried to comfort me as much as she could.

"It's gonna be alright Amala. You don't need him. We're here for you."