Not too long after that, I could hear footsteps walking in the hallway. I thought that it was going to be my grandma walking in the room, but it was my brother. He had his phone on the nightstand that he grabbed, and he picked up a pillow from the head of the bed, grabbed it, and he was about to try and walk out. His eyes were red, just like mine were, so I knew that our pops must have got in his ass too. Legend looked angry. He had every right to be because I got him involved in my shit, and now he was in trouble right along with me.
“My bad, bruh. I’m sorry,” was all that I could offer him.
“Man don’t say shit to me,” was all he said. I nodded, having no choice but to take, and accept that.
I threw my body back into the bed, grabbing a pillow, and I put that shit over my face. I felt like shit. I fucked up big time. Everybody was upset with me, and I didn’t know how to get myself out of this one. Man, if I could go back into time, when Vivian had walked up on me at the skating rink, I would have told her to get the fuck out of my face. If I had done that, I probably wouldn’t be in this fucked up predicament.
Chapter Three
VIVIAN STERLING
“Vivy, wake up!” the sound of my little brother’s voice awakened me from the deep sleep that I had been in.
I could feel his hand on my shoulder, as he was shaking me, putting in overtime to wake me up. The second my eyes fluttered open, there was a pain in my head. I immediately questioned where the pain might have come from. Not only that, but I woke up confused. I woke up, knowing that something was wrong, but I didn’t quite know what it was. My covers had been over my head, but the second I pulled it back, and the sunlight that was in my room, coming from my blinds being opened, caused me to look over at my wall, and I could see the big hole that was there. Seeing that hole and knowing that my father was the one to put it there last night because he’d gotten so angry, caused the confusion to leave me, and last night’s events started flooding my mind, causing my head to hurt even more.
I glanced over at the digital clock that was on my nightstand, and I saw that it was just a little after nine in the morning. I remember finally closing my eyes around six, so I’d only got three hours of sleep, which explained why I was tired the way that I was. My eyes left the clock, and they went over to my little brother, who was now sitting on the side of my bed. Hewas in his pajamas, which was just a black shirt, and some plaid pajama bottoms. My little brother’s name was Allen, and he was only two years younger than me, making him thirteen. Although he was thirteen, Allen thought that he was a grown man, so he acted twice his age. He secretly would smoke weed with a few of his friends that stayed in the same neighborhood as us. When our parents weren’t home, he would sneak into our dad’s bar area, and take shots, thinking that it made him cool. Allen played basketball at our school, and he was a cute kid, so all the girls wanted him. For his age, he was super tall. He was honestly the tallest one in the house, and he didn’t miss a day on reminding us. He had white skin just as I did, with the same blue eyes that we’d inherited from our father. Short, blonde hair, that he would often keep gelled up, and all the little girls his age loved his perfect hair.
Allen rarely came in my room though. There was literally a sign outside of my door that said, ‘No boys allowed’. My own father would respect my rule, and wouldn’t come into my room, which is why I was still in complete shock that he’d barged in here the way that he did, catching me, and Creed in the bed with one another.
“What happened?” I asked Allen, my eyes on him. For him to have come into my bedroom, this had to have been important.
“Dad’s downstairs on the phone. I heard him say detective Stevenson’s name, so I think that’s who he’s talking to. He sounds pretty upset. I heard him screaming, saying something about the case getting tossed out. Something about they were doing illegal stuff yesterday to Creed,” Allen said to me.
Hearing Creed’s name, it saddened me. He didn’t deserve this. These past few weeks, with the two of us getting to know each other, I learned that Creed was really a good kid. He had an extremely big heart, and I felt like I was almost getting to a point where he was opening up to me, and I could see that soft sideof him. It may seem like it was no big deal, but just yesterday morning, when he sent me a good morning message, he sent it with a kissy face, and a heart, and that’s something that he’s never done. Two days before that, we’d got on the subject about his little sister Sarai, and he’d sent a picture of her to me. He was telling me how he was missing her. Right when I felt like we were getting somewhere, it was stripped from us, and I felt so bad because it was me that had gotten him into this mess.
From what I knew about Creed, I knew that he was a homebody. Every weekend that we would talk, he would always have some kind of plans with his brother, and his dad. Before meeting me, he told me that he never had to sneak out of the house before. I made him do that, and I’d gotten him in trouble. It was me that put him in a position to have handcuffs on him, and he was put into the back of a police car, as if he was a criminal. I knew that whatever it was that we were working towards building was over. He was never going to talk to me again after this, and that’s what was hurting me terribly this morning.
Before I could even respond back to my brother, I could hear loud footsteps, that sounded like one of a giant, and moments later, my bedroom door pushed open, and it was my dad coming in. The way he barged into my bedroom, and the rage that I could see in his eyes, it reminded me of what just happened early this morning, when he barged in, and he caught Creed in my bedroom.
“Allen, get out! I need to talk to your sister!” his voice held authority, and a strong bass to it.
My dad was average height, standing anywhere between 5’8 and 5’9. He had a medium build. He wasn’t ripped in any muscles, with a six pack that he could show off, while prancing around the house with his shirt off, as he stood outside on the patio, flipping burgers on the grill. Same skin complexion as mybrother and I, those same blue eyes, and blonde hair that we had as well. He was still in his clothes that he had on early this morning, which was a white polo shirt from the brandBrooks Brothers, and without having to ask, I knew that his khaki slacks were fromJ. Crewbecause that was one of his favorite stores to shop at for bottoms. His shoes weren’t on his feet. He was just in socks.
Allen walked out of the room, and once he was out, my dad closed the door behind him, and he aggressively walked over to me, stood by the side of the bed, and he looked down at me with so much disappointment in his eyes.
“Your my daughter, so I’m really trying to watch my delivery with you, but there is no way on God’s green earth that you possibly thought that it was okay for you to bring that trash into my home?—”
“Dad, he’s not trash! He’s no different from me, and Allen! The only thing that makes him different is his skin tone. Creed is not a bad kid. He goes to school, and he gets good grades, just like I do. We’ve taken the same honors classes since we were small kids, and he’s just as smart as me; if not, smarter. Your trying to paint him out to be some kind of thug, and criminal, when he’s not. Creed wasn’t the only person that was here last night for the get together. There were others. Why are you doing all of this? I understand that I was wrong inviting people over to the house while you and mom were away, but if you’re going to be mad about the people that were here, you need to be mad at everybody. Not just Creed!” my voice went up an octave because he was making me so angry.
“You had that boy in the room with you?—”
“A room that I invited him into! Your trying to make this a case of me failing to consent, and something where I was taken advantage of, when that’s not the case! I showed you proof. I showed you my call log, where I was the one to callCreed, and asked him to come over last night! I showed you the text messages, where I texted him over the address, giving him instructions on getting through the gate, just like I did with everyone else. Your anger right now, and the personal vendetta that you have right now isn’t about me. You’re not worried about me! You don’t genuinely feel pain in your heart, thinking that a boy came into my room to sexually assault me. You know that’s not what happened. You know that’s what you can say though to bring him down. All of this right now is about your ego! Creed’s dad has been embarrassing you in court, coming out with a victory each time, so as a form of payback, your trying to get back to him through his son. The one thing that you know will hurt him. You’re not looking to get some kind of so-called justice for me. This is revenge dad, and you know it! Your trying to drag me through this with you, wanting me to lie, paint some picture that didn’t happen, and I won’t do it! Allen told me that they are planning on throwing the case out. Good! It needs to stay that way! Because nothing happened,” I screamed, tears falling down my face, my emotions all over the place.
“Obviously before I barged into your bedroom, you and him had to have been pillow talking with each other, and he fed you that bullshit. Do you really think that I go around, living my life, worried about what the fuck his dad has done to me in the courtroom? As a prosecutor, I’m going to win, and lose some. It just so happens that whenever I go up against Crawford, I lose. I walk out of that courtroom with my head held high. Me, not liking Crawford doesn’t have anything to do with our business in the courtroom. I don’t like him because he’s an arrogant son of a bitch! My anger doesn’t have anything to do with that right now. My anger stems from me as a father, needing to protect you. Right now, your judgement is being clouded by lust, so you aren’t seeing it from my perspective. A boy gets to come into my house, get in bed with my daughter, and I just got word fromdetective Steveson that they have no choice but to toss the case out because they didn’t follow proper protocol! You damn right I’m angry, but it isn’t for the silly reason that you think I’m angry about. This won’t stop here though. I’m going to make sure that this touches the news, so that the world can rid themselves of that theory that they have about Crawford being this perfect man, with a perfect family. I’m going to make sure that the world knows the truth!” he finished, and I scoffed.
“Dad, you just don’t get it, do you? If anyone is living in their truth, it’s the Crawfords! Creed’s parents went through a tough patch in their marriage, and they decided to call it quits. They didn’t care what the world had to say about them. They still divorced, unlike you and mom! You two front in front of the world, like you both have this perfect marriage, when me, and Allen both know that you hate each other. Mom doesn’t even sleep in the same room as you. You won’t even eat the food that she prepares because you believe that she’s trying to kill you. You two show up to me, and Allen’s school functions, prancing around like the poster board couple, when it’s all a lie! It’s a lie!” I screamed at him, very emotional right now.
I could tell that he was taken back by my choice of words. I really didn’t give my parents any problems. I did what I was supposed to do as a kid, and for the most part, I would make the best decisions often. I’ve never spoken on the problems with my parents that I knew they were having in their marriage. That’s something that Allen and I would discuss together. We wanted them to separate. We hated the dynamic of our home. It was always awkward. Having to relay a message to my dad from my mom, when they would just be a few feet away from each other is crazy. I think things would be a little better if the two of them just went their separate ways, but like I said, it was their image that they both cared about, so I knew that they wouldn’t allow the world to know that they had marital issue.
My dad didn’t say anything else, so he ended up walking out of my room. He slammed the door behind him, and I sat up in bed for about five minutes more, until I laid back down, pulling the cover over me, and I grabbed my phone.
The first thing that I did was go to social media. A lot of my friends that were at the party last night, I saw that they had posts in their Instagram stories that I hadn’t seen yet, so I watched them. At first, it started out with them just posting footage of the fun stuff from the party, but then it turned into them posting footage of Creed being escorted out of the house in handcuffs. I went through at least ten of my friends stories that were here, and they all were posting footage of Creed getting arrested. Seeing that, my heart immediately started pounding, so I maneuvered my way over to this page on Instagram that was titled,MessyConfessions.Our school had a social media account, that was created by someone at the school, that many of us still didn’t know who it was that was running the page. That page was brutal, and if you didn’t have thick skin, you would let it ruin you. The thing is whoever was running the page wouldn’t even post things that would be true. They would literally just be so miserable within their own lives, make up a rumor about someone that they probably had issues with, and whatever rumor they made up, the entire school will run with it. I’ve been posted on that page multiple times, and everything that was ever posted about me were lies.
The second that I made my way to the page; I saw that Creed had been posted. It was the same video that was in everyone’s story, with him being in handcuffs, and getting in the back of a police vehicle. People who didn’t even attend our school had access to the page, so here it was, the video had only been posted for two hours, and it already had 1.2 million views, and over fifty thousand comments. The amount of shares that it had was crazy too. I went through the comments, trying to see what peoplewere saying. A lot of people were in the comments, wanting to know what he did. So many people knew Creed, so there was more positivity in the comments, than there was negativity. I saw lies. The rape accusations had already started. My name had been brought up plenty. As I was scrolling, reading what people were saying, a tear hit my arm, and I hadn’t even realized that I had been crying.
I went over to Creed’s page, and he wasn’t active. I knew that I was the last person that he wanted to hear from, but I wanted him to know that I had his back in all of this, so I ended up calling him, only for my call to go straight to voicemail. Before I had time to process that that’s what happened, a facetime call came in from my mom. I wanted to so badly decline her call, but I was hurting right now, and I needed to talk to her. My mom wasn’t like my dad. She wasn’t an asshole like him. She wasn’t going to see something, and became delusional, and started making up what she thought happened. She would get the story from me, and we would go from there.
I answered the facetime call, propping the phone up on a nearby pillow, allowing her to have full access of my face. I could tell that she was in her hotel room. She was dressed in a black robe, and she was sitting down, doing her make-up. My mom was a beautiful woman. She was beautiful to the point that I didn’t have any understanding why she wouldn’t just walk away from my dad because I knew that if guys found out that she was single, that they would be breaking their necks to get a chance at her. She was about 5’9, and just like me, she was slim. We were practically the same size, so a lot of times, I would go shopping in her closet. She used to have this permanent glow about her, where she always looked happy, and like everything in her life was going well, but the problems that she was having with my dad had taken away that glow, so these days, she always looked drained, tired, and sad. She had the same ash blond hair that Idid, and right now, she had it pinned up. She wouldn’t take her hair down until she was finished with her make-up. Her eyes were a light brown color, and because my mom had big, vibrant eyes, they stood out, so the hurt, and her heavy emotions were right there.
