Merry Christmas

Tuesday Dec 25th
Christmas Morning

"MERRY CHRISTMAS BABYGIRL! " My dad yells from the hall.

Wow, he’s in a good mood. He didn’t really want to go the mountains either so I guess he’s happy now. We usually go to Church on Christmas Day but since our cabin plans fell through at the last minute and we don’t have a Church home anymore, we slept in for the first time ever.

I look around and find my phone. It’s 12:22pm. Dang we slept late.

I slowly edge out of the bed, nursing my sore body. That old mattress is the worst! I can’t believe I used to sleep so peacefully on it.

I open my door to see my fully dressed dad snapping pictures of me in my ragedy pj’s.

"Merry Christmas daddy." I say grouchily, even though I’m not.

I give him a hug and head to the bathroom to make myself presentable.

My mom was preparing for our family dinner when I finally came downstairs. I was planning to leave in about 2.5 hours and I hadn’t even told her yet. Our dinner was at 3pm. I figured I’d stay until 3:30…get to Usher’s folks house at about 4:05... mingle for an hour…and come on back home. My folks would be good and full and ready to play some games. It could definitely work!


“What?” My mom said all confused. She gets these wrinkles in the middle of her forehead when she frowns. “Why are you going over Usher’s folks house? Ya’ll broke up!”

“I know ma.” How could I explain this when I honestly didn’t have a rational answer myself. “He invited me and…his momma has a gift for me… I’ll be back before you know it. I’m only gonna be there for a minute. Promise!” I plead with her.

I give her my “babygirl” look and she softens.

“Alright. But don’t be staying over there all night. We got all these people coming over here.”

Whew! I continue helping her prepare for the dinner I’m getting ready to miss and time starts to fly. We hadn’t even opened our gifts! I gather my parents downstairs and we do our gift exchange. Everyone was happy! I got everything I wanted. Well almost. My parents couldn’t buy me a good man. Guess I'll have to wait for that one. We finish opening our gifts and realize that it’s 3:15. I should have known my family wouldn’t start on time. Not one person was there! I can’t wait for them. I headed upstairs and changed. By the time I put on my new stretch jeans, winter white sweater with matching winter white boots and applied my makeup, it was 3:34pm. I rush down the stairs and tell my mom that this is even better.

"Since no one is here yet, you guys will start late, which will give me more time to get on back before ya’ll even finish dinner! "

I was happy! I am making this work! I rush out the door to my car and see the first few cars pulling up.

I wave excitedly to my family, wish them a merry Christmas, and zoom off!

When I get out of my parents subdivision, I see that I have a voicemail message.

“Call me when you get this.” Usher said.

I hit him back immediately.

“Hey, I’m on my way to your folks house now.” I breathlessly blurt in to the phone.

“Um…can you stop by and pick me up. I figured that if you have to leave early, that will give me an excuse to leave early too. Plus you gotta pass me to get to her house.”

“Aight, I’ll be there in a few.”

This whole thing is getting way to couple-y for me. I don’t know what to think.

We get to his aunt’s house at the same time his sister and parents do. It’s 4:07pm. We’re all late…but not as late as my family. lol

Just as he said, everyone was so happy to see me. I fought to push back tears, knowing this is probably the last time I’ll see them. I really love his crazy family.

Dinner was nice. A lot of trash talking. A lot of laughs. I really enjoyed myself. Except for the fact that dinner wasn’t served until 6. Yes SIX! I ate and they passed out presents. Before I know it…it’s 8pm.

“Where are you?” My mom screamed in the phone. She was very agitated. “Do you know what time it is? Everybody’s waiting on you?”

“Um…I know. I’m still here. I’ll call you on my way back.” I say cautiously. Everyone in Usher’s family was eavesdropping on my convo.

“You’ve been gone 5 HOURS! You don’t wanna come home?” My mom snapped.

“Not yet.” I said pleasantly. I wasn’t gonna do this with her in front of everybody.

“Aight. Fine.” She hung up with a loud click.

She’ll be aight.

Usher knew I needed to get home, so he started wrapping things up there.

As we were hugging everyone, his mom hugged me tightly and whispered “I love you, Sway. You will always be family to us. You hear me?”

“Thanks” was all I could manage to say without bursting into tears. I really thought I'd be apart of their family one day.

We get in the car and I get ready to call my mom. Usher’s phone is in the place I usually keep my phone and I flip his phone open by mistake.

A half naked woman stared back at me.

“Who is this?” I say shocked. The last thing I expected to see was this.

“Who is who?” He says looking over at me, then seeing that I had his phone flipped open looking at his screensaver.

Usher always remains calm. That’s what makes him a pretty good liar. He scoops his phone out of my hand and looks at his own screensaver as if he had no idea who was on there.

He really thinks I’m dumb huh?

“Sway, she’s no one in particular.” He says casually and puts his phone back in the place where I picked it up from.

“No one in particular?” I repeat back with much skepticism in my voice. I looked at him like he was crazy, then shrugged. I had to remember, I’m not his girlfriend anymore. What does it matter?

We got back to his house about 20 minutes later and he hugged me as I got out of the car to go to the driver’s side.

“Just for the record Sway, I know that I don’t have to tell you this, but it’s not what you think. The girl on my phone is named Tequana Pettiford. We work together. I’m not dating her, I’m not having sex with her, NOTHING. She just asked me to put her pic on my phone and she comes by my desk to check and see if it’s on there. That’s all.” He says.

I MUST look stupid. While remaining calm makes him a good liar, logic makes him a bad one.

You mean to tell me that we dated seriously for almost two years and you wouldn’t even put my pictures up on your nightstand in the privacy of your own home even after me asking you too on many occasions, but this chick whom you’ve known for less than 3 months tells you to put her picture on a phone you flip open 2043280938 times a day and you do it? That’s nothing? She means nothing? Really? And ya’ll aren’t attracted to each other? So your co-worker sends all the men in the office half naked pictures of herself? And they all put her on their screensaver? That’s what co-workers do huh? Riiiiiight.

I smell BS.


I look at him. Smile. And get in my car. In my mind, he just made it very clear to me that we are not together.

I drive off speedily, hoping that my family was still at my house.

I get home around 9. I burst in the door to find everyone laughing and having a good time.

I smile. I should have been here all along. With people who really love me.

My 3 year old cosin Zoe runs to me and gives me the biggest hug.

"I missed you." She says.

I believed her.

I vow to myself to stop believing everything Usher says to me. I vowed to start looking at his actions.
His actions tell me to move on. And I will.

I’ll make sure I’m with my family for New Years.

To be continued...