05/22/2026
My📱went off at 3:14 a.m.
Not one little vibration either.
Back-to-back messages.
The kind that wake you up even when you exhausted from working doubles and arguing with life every damn day.
I rolled over in my tiny apartment on the west side, eyelashes half hanging 😒off from the club earlier, bonnet crooked, TV still playing reruns with the volume low.
I grabbed my phone thinking it was probably my cousin asking for gas money again.
Instead…
It was a picture.
And the second I opened it, my whole chest went cold.
There was my baby daddy.
Marcus.
Laid up in some girl bed wearing the black Nike hoodie I bought him for Christmas.
And sitting right on top of him smiling at the camera like she won a prize?
Keisha.
This loud-mouth girl from around the way that always watched my Instagram stories too fast.
The room looked cheap but staged.
LED lights glowing purple.
Empty Don Julio bottle on the dresser.
Money spread out on the bed that probably wasn’t even theirs.
And Keisha had this smirk on her face like she finally accomplished something.
Under the picture she texted:
“Looks like he with a real woman now😘.”
I stared at the message for a long time.
Then I laughed.🙃
Not sad either.
That dangerous kind of laugh women do when they officially stop caring.
Cause see… Keisha thought she hurt my feelings.
What she really did was remind me who the hell I was.
I wasn’t one of these girls begging for a man to stay.
I helped Marcus survive.
When his lights got cut off, he slept on MY couch.
When he caught that charge, I was the one putting money on his books while Keisha was probably still getting her edges braided for prom.
I held him down while he was broke.
Now he finally touched a little scam money and suddenly he outside acting like Future.
Men really be hilarious.
But what Keisha didn’t know?
Marcus had been using HER car to move stuff he definitely wasn’t supposed to be moving.
And guess who had all the screenshots.
Me.
I sat up slowly, cracked my neck, and opened Facebook.
Marcus loved Facebook.
Always posting fake motivational quotes like he was a street philosopher.
So I uploaded the picture she sent me.
Then added six more screenshots.
CashApp transactions.
Messages.
Pictures of packages in Keisha trunk.
One video of Marcus literally counting money in her kitchen while her kids’ cartoons played in the background.
And my caption?
“Since y’all so happy together, imma let everybody enjoy the relationship. Couples that hustle together stay together ❤️.”
Upload.
Done.
Within seconds my phone started exploding.
Comments.
Laugh reactions.
People tagging people.
His auntie.
His cousins.
His side chicks probably.
Then Marcus called immediately.
I declined it.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Finally I answered.
The first thing I heard was screaming.
“WHY WOULD YOU POST THAT?!”
I leaned back against my headboard chewing ice calmly.
“Why would y’all send me the picture?”
Silence.
Then more yelling.
More panic this time.
Cause he realized it wasn’t about embarrassment anymore.
Now people was asking questions.
Real questions.
The kind that make folks nervous.
I could hear Keisha crying in the background talking about:
“Take it down! Please take it down!”
And honestly?
That almost made me smile.
Cause girls always think being picked by somebody else’s man is cute until real life start knocking at the door.
I hung up.
Blocked both of them.
Then got out the bed and started packing my stuff into trash bags.
Not because I was heartbroken.
Because I already knew how this movie ends.
Police.
Drama.
People turning on each other.
Maybe worse.
And one thing about growing up in the hood?
You learn to leave before the smoke start.
Outside, sirens echoed somewhere down the block.
The city never really slept anyway.
I slipped on my Crocs, grabbed my daughter’s overnight bag, and took one last look around the apartment.
The water stains on the ceiling.
The empty liquor bottles near the sink.
The little life I kept trying to force together with a man that would’ve traded me for attention and a bottle.
Then I turned the lights off and walked out.
By sunrise…
Everybody in the city was talking about Marcus and Keisha.
But me?
I was already gone.
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