Joey sat on his bed, waiting on his mom to pick up the FaceTime. He ran his hand over his head, feeling the absence of his dreads.
Connecting...
The call picked up and his mom dropped her phone as soon as she saw him.
"Ma!?" Joey sat up. "You good?"
She slowly picked up the phone off the floor. Her skeptical look made Joey sort of chuckle as he realized she was looking at his head.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Boy who you?" She had one eye in the camera.
"Ma stop playing." He said. "You like it?"
"I almost ain't recognize my baby." She said now fully showing her face. "What made you cut it?"
"I got tired of it. Plus i only did it cuz i was tryna be like pops so I decided to just let it go."
"Well you look handsome. You look just like Joseph when we first met. You know tomorrow is his birthday."
Ms. Lupita said with a weak smile.
"Yea I know. You okay?"
"Who me? Child I'm fine. It's not like he celebrated them things when he was here anyway." She said, a sad look creeping it's way onto her pretty face.
"Ma it's okay to miss him."
"I know Joey. But it's hard for me to think about him at all. Cuz when i do, it's the good, the bad and the worst wrapped all into one." She said
"You were the one that told me, despite what he did, he was a good man."
"No i said he was a good father."
Joey didn't say anything.
It has been almost 2 years since his dad died and he could tell that it wasn't just him who still had to deal with that lost and the hurt he left behind.
They forgave him, but sometimes it's the forgetting part that beats them.
"Ma i made the decision to cut my hair to detach myself from him. Being like him."
"What you mean baby?"
"Nebula and I been through a lot since she moved out here, and she made me realized the last time we broke up that in some ways i was scared to be like him."
"I'll be damned if i sit by and let you hurt Nebula like that." His mom said firmly as she realized what he meant.
"I know ma. It's because of you that i even confessed my feelings to Neb. I just feared that i would fall into his pattern of behavior."
