Heartbeat Read Online Free Page A

tasted so bitter as I thought about my situation. When I was in the eleventh grade, I’d gotten my heart broken so bad that I never seriously got involved with another guy afterwards. Yeah, I know it was a high school relationship, but I thought Zodrick Matthews was going to be my husband. Trouble was, so did three other chicks. I’d confronted one during lunch and we’d gotten into a fight. I beat that bitch’s ass so bad that I got suspended from school.
    My parents were so pissed about me getting suspended, that they sent me away for the rest of the school year. I wasn’t even allowed to talk to Charlie! The time away from school and all my friends, left a sour taste in my mouth toward dudes. I dated here and there, but I wouldn’t allow myself to take them seriously…until Greg.
    My cell phone rang and I nearly jumped out of my skin in order to answer it. The number flashing on my screen wasn’t Greg, but Mama.
    “Hello?”
    “Hey baby. How are you and my granddaughter doing?” She asked.
    I smiled at my mother’s mention of my daughter. I knew my mother loved Destiny no matter how she felt about my pregnancy. “She’s good. Waking me up all through the night.”
    “That’s a newborn for you,” Mama laughed. “But you have help. How is Greg adjusting?”
    I didn’t know how to respond to my mother. I’d been lying so much it was starting to make my stomach hurt. I was tired of putting up a front like we were just one big happy family when I was confined to my small ass apartment raising my child on my own.
    “It’s hard for him too, Ma. But we’re adjusting.”
    My mother started laughing and then sighed, “Yes, it was hard on your father too when we first brought your brother home. It was even harder when we brought you home cause’ you stayed up all night justa’ hollerin’ and screamin’.”
    “So, you mean to tell me I was a difficult baby?”
    “Were you? Yes! So I know Destiny can’t be any worse.” The playfulness in Mama’s voice left and I knew it was coming before she even said it. “But lemme ask you this, have you and Greg been discussing a wedding? Destiny needs a solid foundation. She don’t need parents that are shacking up. God isn’t pleased with that.”
    I was really hoping she’d let me slide this conversation, but I should have known better. “No, Ma, we haven’t discussed details. We’re just really trying to figure out if we can even afford a wedding.”
    “Nonsense girl! You don’t need to put on a big showcase. Just gon’ down there to the courthouse and make it right by God,” Mama’s voice was rising so I knew she was getting upset. “If you must go through a formal ceremony, you know your father and I will take care of everything.”
    I smiled at my mother’s gesture but I knew that day would never come. Til’ death do us part was looking bleaker and bleaker by the second for Greg and me.
    “I gotta go, Ma. It’s time to feed Destiny,”
    “Ok, baby. But you think about what I said, ok.”
    When I got off the phone with Ma, it took everything in me not to burst into tears. I was a disappointment to my parents, but holding on to a cheating, lying man hurt even more.
    I tried calling Greg’s phone again just for the hell of it. It didn’t shock me when my call went straight to voicemail. I didn’t have time to get frustrated because there was a knock on my door.
    When I looked out the peephole I saw it was one of my neighbors, Denise. I opened the door for her, ready for the latest neighborhood gossip. I’d befriended Denise a few months ago. I wasn’t a very social person and didn’t go out of my way to make friends, but for some reason, I was drawn to Denise. She was very different from Charlie and Kesha and I found it easier to talk to her without the judgement and shit.
    “Hey, Denise.”
    “Hey, girl.” She walked inside my apartment and directly to Destiny. “Lemme see that beautiful baby girl.” She picked Destiny up and cooed as