North America / Illinois / South Side Chicago (Robert's Apartment): January 9th, 1984.
(Robert's POV)
Pain.
That was the first thing I felt.
Pain in my arms.
Pain in my legs.
Pain in my back.
Pain in places I did not know had rent due.
The room was silent.
My eyes slowly opened as I stared at the cracked ceiling above me with a blank look on my face.
"God help me already." I said hoarsely underneath my breath.
I tried to sit up.
My body said no.
I tried again.
My body said fuck you.
The room was absolutely silent.
I turned my head slowly and saw ashley sitting on the edge of the bed with a book in her hand, already dressed in a loose shirt and some pants.
She looked calm.
Too calm.
That meant danger.
I stared at her.
Ashley turned the page.
The room was silent.
"You awake." Said ashley calmly without looking at me.
"No." I said with a dry voice.
Ashley turned another page.
"You sure was awake when you stomped that man between his legs yesterday." Said ashley calmly.
The room went silent. I stared at the ceiling.
"Here we go" I thought with dead eyes.
Ashley closed her book slowly.
*Tap*
She placed it on her lap and turned her head towards me.
Her face was not amused.
Not playful.
Not joking.
Just serious.
"You scared me yesterday." Said ashley lowly.
I looked at her. The room was silent.
"I protected you." I said calmly with a very honest tone.
"No." Said ashley sharply.
The room became colder.
"You embarrassed me, scared me and made everybody in that gym look at me like I was with a crazy man." Said ashley while pointing at me.
I stared at her.
Ashley stood up and said with her arms folded under her chest "That man asked for my number. I did not give it to him. I did not flirt with him. I did not even finish opening my mouth before you came over there acting like one of those street niggas with not a goddamn damn life and it made me feel like absolute shit."
The room was absolutely silent.
I blinked.
"Wow, feel like shitis crazy, this is definitely not about just the gym, it must be her time of month so I'll just tread carefully" I thought calmly.
Ashley stared at me.
"You laughing in your head ain't you." Asked ashley with narrowed eyes.
"No." I said calmly.
"You are." Said ashley with even more narrowed eyes.
"I am." I said calmly with a nod and sigh.
Ashley grabbed a pillow and threw it at me.
*SMACK*
The pillow hit my face.
Pain ran through my neck.
"GAH." I groaned while grabbing my shoulder.
Ashley paused. Then sighed.
"See. Now look at you. Can't even dodge a pillow." Said ashley with a bored look on her face.
"I am recovering from war. I need some love, I swear us men have it more rough than you think." I said calmly with my knack still bent weirdly in pain.
"You fought machines and lost. It is not the same thing making a man incompetent robert." Said ashley with a snicker and sigh.
The room was silent.
I slowly removed the pillow from my face and looked at her.
Ashley looked back.
For a second, neither of us said anything.
Then her face became serious again.
"Robert." Said ashley lowly.
I stopped joking.
The room was quiet.
"You can't do that again." Said ashley with a serious look on her face.
I stared at her.
Ashley sighed and said "Not like that. Not over me. Not in front of people. Not because somebody looked at me, talked to me, or wanted me."
The room was silent.
I stared at her.
"I am with you because I want to be with you. Not because you beat every single man that walks near me." Said ashley softly with a sigh and serious look on her face.
My jaw tightened slightly.
"That ain't what it was." I said calmly with a serious look on my face.
"Then what was it." Asked ashley with a look of confusion.
The room went silent.
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
Ashley raised a brow.
I looked away.
The window was foggy from the cold outside.
Chicago sat beyond it, gray, ugly and waiting for somebody to make a mistake.
"I don't like people touching what is mine." I said calmly.
The room was silent.
I closed my eyes for a moment and thought as air left my nose roughly "I guess habits don't change. I had this issue in my previously with my relationships"
Ashley went absolutely silent.
I looked back at her.
Her face changed.
Not angry.
Not hurt.
Worse.
Disappointed.
"I am not property." Said ashley calmly.
The room was silent.
I looked back at her.
The words hit harder than I wanted them to.
Because I knew that.
I knew that.
But some ugly part of me did not like the idea of someone else trying to take what made my life feel steady.
Ashley picked up her book and purse from the bed.
I slowly sat up, pain stabbing through my ribs and shoulders.
"Where you going." I asked calmly.
"Work." Said ashley calmly with a sigh.
"We don't go in until later." I said with with a confused look on my face.
"I know. I just need some space for now, I'm not mad at you or anything, just overwhelmed" Said ashley while putting her purse on her shoulder.
The room was silent.
Ashley looked at me and said "I need air before I say something that makes you say something stupid and then I hit you again."
I stared at her.
"Fair." I said calmly while closing my eyes.
Ashley walked to the door.
I watched her.
Before she opened it, she stopped.
The room was silent.
"I love you, rob." Said ashley without looking back.
My eyes moved to her.
"But don't ever make me feel like I gotta be scared of you." Said ashley lowly while leaving.
*Click*
The room went absolutely silent.
The apartment became quiet.
I sat there on the bed.
Sore.
Hungry.
Annoyed.
And for the first time in a while, actually thinking.
"Don't make her scared" I thought with narrowed eyes.
I leaned back against the wall and rubbed my face while thinking as my eyes peered through my fingers "This body. This name. This future. This fucking temper"
The room was silent.
I looked down at my hands.
Same hands that grabbed theresa's wrist.
Same hands that ran a mcdonald's.
Same hands that shook a man's hand before kneeing his face into god's waiting room.
I clicked my teeth.
"Violence works." I said muttering underneath my breath.
The room was silent.
"But it also leaves witnesses." I said with a sigh.
…
North America / Illinois / South Side Chicago (McDonald's): January 9th, 1984.
The store was loud.
Grease popped.
Workers talked.
Customers complained like complaining came free with fries.
I stood behind the counter with my uniform on, my arms sore as hell and my legs feeling like they were filed under a different owner.
Diamond walked past me with a mop bucket and stopped.
She stared at me.
I stared back.
The lobby was silent around us.
"Why are you walking like somebody broke your definition of what a man should be." Asked diamond with a serious look on her face.
"I worked out." I said calmly with a sigh.
Diamond blinked with confusion.
"Right. That was yesterday…uhh, yeah, right…congratulations I guess." Said diamond with a power fist raised in the air.
"Your point." I asked calmly with squinted eyes.
Diamond stared at me.Then smiled.
"You got beat up by weights." Said diamond whike bursting out into laughter.
I stared at her.
"Go mop something." I said calmly with the middle finger.
Diamond laughed and walked away.
Benjamin came out the kitchen with a tray and looked me up and down.
"Rob, why you standing like your balls are empty and sore." Asked benjamin with his eyes worried.
"I will fire you." I said calmly.
Benjamin lifted both hands and backed away.
"Abusing power again I see" Said benjamin with a sigh.
"Yes. Keep this up and I will do a drive by at your house." I said calmly with a dangerous smile.
The store was loud again.
Ashley had not said much to me since she came in.
She worked.
I worked.
We moved around each other like two people who knew how to be close but were pretending we did not.
Every now and then I looked at her.
Every now and then she ignored me on purpose.
Annoying.
Very annoying.
I was making a burger when the front door opened.
*Ding*
A cold breeze slipped in.
A skinny dark chocolate skinned boy with a red hoodie walked inside.
He did not look like he came to order.
My eyes narrowed slightly.
He looked around the store.
Then his eyes found me.
The kitchen went silent in my ears.
He walked to the counter slowly.
Ashley looked over.
Diamond stopped mopping.
I wiped my hands on a towel and stepped forward.
"Can I help you." I asked calmly.
The boy stared at me.
"You rob." Asked the boy calmly.
The store was loud.
I smiled lightly and said "No. I'm bernie mac."
The boy did not smile back.
"My cousin said you jumped somebody at big fist gym." Said the boy calmly.
The lobby went silent.
Ashley slowly turned her head towards me.
I stared at the boy.
"Your cousin lied. I have epilepsy so how can I possibly do such a thing, you wanna see the proof." I asked calmly with a long tired estranged sigh.
The boy's eyes narrowed.
"He said you kneed marcus in the face and stomped on his shit." Said the boy calmly with even more narrowed eyes.
A customer near the soda machine choked.
Diamond's eyes widened.
Benjamin whispered from the back "Damn."
I looked over my shoulder.
Benjamin disappeared.
I looked back at the boy and said calmly while shaking my head with confusion "He tripped. I'm being framed just to say his own prude as a man."
The boy stared at me.
The lobby was silent.
"You funny." Said the boy calmly .
"I try." I said calmly with squinted eyes as my peripheral caught his hands in his hoodie pocket.
The boy leaned closer and said lowly "Marcus know people."
The air changed.
Ashley stopped moving.
I stared down at the boy without blinking.
"What kind of people." I asked calmly while leaning closer with both of my veiny hands on the counter.
The boy looked around the store and then back at me.
"People who don't like hearing their people got embarrassed in front of everybody." Said the boy lowly.
The lobby was silent.
I smiled.
Not wide.
Not happy.
Just enough.
"Tell marcus if he wanted privacy, he shouldn't have tried to take someone else's old lady and screamed like a bitch in public. If he wants to settle something he can catch me in the block" I said calmly with both of my eyes staring straight into the boys.
The boy's face twitched.
Ashley said sharply from the back "Robert."
I did not look at her.
The boy stared at me for a long moment and said calmly "Nigga, You better watch yourself, you don't know this street."
"I always do now get the fuck out of my store little kid before I show you what the project looks like underneath the rot during night." I said calmly.
The boy backed away from the counter.
Then he turned and walked out.
*Ding*
The door closed behind him.
The store stayed silent.
Customers stared.
Workers stared.
Ashley stared the hardest.
I looked around and clapped my hands once.
*CLAP*
"Back to work. This ain't a movie. I don't do this shit for fun. I like my shit wet and squirmy." I said calmly with a dangerous glare in my slanted eyes.
Everybody slowly started moving again.
But the air was different now.
The grease still popped.
The customers still ordered.
The workers still whispered.
But something had followed me from that gym.
Something with a name.
Marcus.
People.
Street people.
I stood there behind the counter and stared at the front glass doors.
Outside, the boy in the red hoodie stood across the street for a moment.
Watching.
Then he walked away.
My jaw tightened.
Ashley walked past me slowly and whispered low enough only I could hear.
"You see what I mean now." Said ashley witt a shakey tone.
I did not answer.
The lobby was loud.
But inside my head, it was quiet. Very quiet.
Because for the first time since I woke up in this body, I realized something simple.
One man could be dropped.
One city could not.
I looked down at my veiny calloused hands again.
Then at ashley.
Then at the street outside.
"Fuck" I thought calmly.
…
THE END…