His Favorite

Before we begin, I want you to know this story isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. No one falls in love, and there is no happy ending. Shall we begin? Open until the age of eight, everything for me had been a typical eight-year-old childhood. My mother had just finished college. A manager at the local hospital had helped her get into a program, and they paid for her to go back to school. My stepdad worked at a construction company. He was just giving a promotion to a lead. The owner loved him. We spent a few holidays with them. They were elderly with no grandkids. I’m Ivory; child 4 of 5. I have two older sisters and a younger and older brother. None of us belong to my stepfather, Rodney. My mother met Rodney through my grandmother‘s friend from work. Things were going well, and so they bought a new home. My stepfather was a big man. He worked days, and my mother worked nights. This was something new for all of us. Her working nights, that is, it was something unexpected, but we were OK. My mother is a beautiful, hard-working, and kind person, but she was also a fool. Let’s dig deeper we have barely been in the house two months before he started to come for us. I used to wake up to my stepfather standing over me. He would tell me he was checking the room for monsters. He wanted to make sure his favorite girl was safe. I believed him. I had known this man since I was three. I called him Dad. Our father wasn’t around. I didn’t even know what he looked like. He had abandoned us. My mom didn’t add it in the paper, and that’s how the divorce was completed. Rodney was the only father who figured me and my baby brother ever remembered, so Rodney said he was protecting me. Of course, I believed him. Why would he lie? Ronnie will always say I was his favorite. He made sure to always get me dressed since I could remember. He made sure my sisters and I had everything we needed. He said he was showing us how our king will treat us one day. He was the best. One night I woke up and Ronnie was in our room. He was standing by the bunkbed where my two sisters were sleeping. He didn’t realize I was awake. I could see his shoulders and his arms moving, but I couldn’t see what he was doing. I couldn’t hear anything so I went back to sleep the next day. I asked my sister where she and Rodney were doing. She said she was asleep. She didn’t know he was in there, me being a kid I assumed I may have been sleep & dreamed I was awake. The neighborhood we have moved to happens to be one where my mother grew up. A few of her old friends had moved into their parents’ homes and were raising their kids there. This being a typical black family, we were allowed to go play, but we had to be inside by the time the street light came on. My sisters and I were tall boys at heart. Mother dressed us in bows and cute clothes, but we played football, climbed trees, caught snakes, and did everything with our big brother and his friends. My stepfather hated that. He would complain, but mine would tell him to just leave us. Be one weekend in particular that was a little boy, a year older than me, who took a liking to me. He was there for the summer break. He came over to play and he only wanted to play with me. He was missing his front teeth. I was not interested. Boys were nasty. I enjoyed him though. He had been coming over all week, but my dad had not seen him. Joel was soft-spoken and very sure of himself. He followed me everywhere. My stepfather had to have been watching because when I came inside for water, he made a smart remark to me. He said, “ I see you out there with your boyfriend.” I thought it was funny and I laughed while walking back outside. Little did I know I had started my own demise.