Coming Soon!!!
...And So The Story's Told -- Izzy Collins is a single mother who can't make a good decision to save her life. What she does know is that if she could just make this music thing work, everthing else would fall right into place. Funny thing about life, she soon finds out, it's filled with many paths with endless possible destinations. So how does she find herself completely and madly in love with the one man she never could stand? Add on the fact that he's far from single, far from sober, and the one person pulling her farther and farther away from her dreams. ...And So The Story's Told lets you into the impressionable mind of a young woman vulnerable to a predator, and how easy it is to lose it all, family, friends, even yourself. It's a story of her various attemps at trying to become her own hero because sometimes you have to save yourself.
Here's a sneak peak:
Chapter 1
I truly have to get my own car. Borrowing my mom’s car is harder than Chinese arithmetic most times. You would think she would be more giving seeing that I need it to transport her first grandchild, her ONLY grandchild, on her second birthday. I kind of think my mom just gets off on giving me a hard time, no matter the occasion.
So that set the mood for what should have been my daughter Delilah’s second birthday “extravaganza”. At least that’s what my boyfriend Danny said it would be. Boyfriend. Now that’s a stretch. Delilah’s sperm donor is more like it. I’m about thisclose to letting his ass go. Yes, I’ve said it before, but this time I mean it. Everyday seemed to be getting worse than the one before it.
My name is Karizma Collins, but most people call me Izzy. My mom named me after her favorite furniture store in the Bronx where we’re from. We rest in Brick, New Jersey now. Talk about culture shock! My name took some getting used to on my part, especially as a kid, but what was I going to do about it? I swore I would be nicer to my own child. Delilah Denise Jacobs. Normal. She won’t have trouble getting a job. My boyfriend Danny and I had been dating for only four months when I got pregnant with her. I had just turned 17 years old and was also just uncovering the truth about Daniel Jacobs, and people, the truth was shocking. I’m ashamed to say that I knew about his problem early on, and I ignored it. I saw the signs, yet looked the other way. I wanted a boyfriend so badly after not having one all through high school. I thought he would change, but I was wrong. He had a disease and so far, I haven’t been able to find the cure.
Danny suffers from chronic I’m-too-lazy-to-get-off-my-ass-and-work-itis. He also has a bad case of I-find-it-hard-to-wash-my-body-and-brush-my-teeth disease. He hid it in the beginning, yes he did. And when the warning signals flashed before me, I was already knocked up. Now, even though everywhere Danny and I went I would become embarrassed by his signature cologne (Musty for Men), I would grin and bare it. I didn’t want to prove everyone who doubted us right. We were going to last, not just mass produce. I wanted my new family and I was determined to make it work. After I had exhausted every thought I had in my young mind to change Danny, I was down, but not out. I would curse him out when we were alone. Cry when we argued about it. I would withhold sex, and that seemed to work for a while, but not too long. He’d shape up for a week or two, but as soon as he got my goodness he’d be back to his old stanky ways.
I was desperate. I had to have been, because I turned to my mom for help. The great Sandra O’Keefe is right about everything, and when she’s wrong, she doesn’t apologize because on some level, she believes she is still right. Everyone else is wrong. I was seven months pregnant and at my wits end with Danny, the dirty bastard. He had a job, which was good. But his job was apparently so exhausting that he had no energy left afterwards to wash. Ever. Oh, he had stamina for getting some booty, but not to wash his booty. I was too through.
“I don’t want to say I told you so Karizma, but I did.” My mom said, and after I had poured my heart out to the woman too.
“Real friends don’t say ‘I told you so’ ma. Come on now!” I said.
“You come on. I’m not your friend, I’m your mother. And if you would have stayed in a teenagers place, you wouldn’t be going through this now. Always thinking 18 years old made you grown. Far as I can see, the only thing grown about you is your mid section.” she says.
We were sitting in her kitchen where we usually have our talks. Me at the table, her at the stove. “Okay, so we got off topic a bit. Help me ma! I’ve tried just about everything I can think of, but nothing works.” I sighed heavily.
“Well, I tell you what. Shower with him. Wash his clothes. Compliment the man more, rather than always fishing for compliments,” she said. Low blow ma, seriously.
I said, “How do you compliment someone on keeping their hygiene up? What does that conversation sound like? Good job taking a shower this morning! Now keep up that spirit and brush those teeth. I don’t exactly know what to say.”
“Just make him feel like you want him is all,” my mom said. So I tried it out. At first it was cool; he responded well. I almost didn’t tell my mother because her ‘I told you so’s sting like a knife and I couldn’t be so bothered. But then Danny fell off again. I would offer to take a shower with him and he would respond, “I’m gon’ take one later baby. You go ‘head.” And when I would wash his clothes, he would rotate the same two pairs of jeans like that was all he had. I was finished.
Two weeks after the baby was born I stopped giving head. A month after that I would only have sex after smoking a few blunts. A month later I stopped kissing him in the mouth altogether. Danny was fine as long as I stayed with him though. Which brings us to the present.
As I pulled into Danny’s driveway I peeked in my rearview at the best part of Daniel Jacobs: Delilah. She was eating on her fingers, oblivious of any and everything around her. She didn’t know it, but she was the only thing holding me and her daddy together. She looked just like him too. High yellow complexion, big brown eyes, brown hair with blonde highlights. She gave a toothless grin and I smiled back. Delilah was the greatest thing I had going, and I was grateful for that. On our way to Danny’s door, I smothered my baby with kisses. The door was opened so I walked in. I have lived in this house with Danny basically, so I knew I was welcomed. Danny was on the couch watching something on T.V. He’s been out of work for the last three months and I would swear that that was the same spot I left him in yesterday. Same damn outfit too, not surprisingly.
“There’s daddy’s girls! Come over here and give daddy a kiss.” Danny had his arms spread open, so I put his daughter in them. “I was talking to you girl,” he said to me. I ignored him and walked over to the couch.
“What kind of party extravaganza is this Danny? I don’t see not one decoration up, nothing. You said be here by 1pm and we are, so what the hell?” I asked. Danny sat on the couch with Delilah in his lap.
“Girl, you nag more than a little bit. Delilah doesn’t know the difference if we’re late or not. Do you little mama?” Delilah laughed in response to her daddy. Danny kissed one of her fat cheeks and put her on the floor to play. Then he was back into the T.V.
“Where’s Keisha and the girls? Somebody should be here by now. There’s no decorations, no cake, nobody here.” I sat on the couch next to him and glanced at the T.V. “No kiss and no end to your nagging Izzy. Keisha and Hunter went to pick the baby up a cake. I didn’t have the money so they’re looking me out. The girls are with them. Why don’t you sit closer to me babe?” Danny said with a smirk. I wasn’t amused, so I paid him no mind.
Danny lived with his sister Keisha and her husband Hunter. Keisha has two of the prettiest girls, Kaleema and Odette from a previous relationship. Where ever she met Hunter, I personally wished she would have left him there. That man, without a doubt, is the most arrogant thing I have ever met in my entire life. To me, Keisha and Hunter were like day and night, but I guess opposites do really attract.
Lost in my thoughts I hardly noticed Danny had scooted his stink behind next to me. Nowadays, his touch was repulsing to me. “Danny look. The baby’s asleep on the floor. Carry her upstairs and put her on the bed,” I said, sliding over a bit. Danny sucked his teeth and sighed, but got his butt up to get my daughter off the damn floor. I followed them upstairs to make sure he didn’t lay her on a pile of clothes or something. He didn’t, his room was actually decent for a change. I sat at the edge of his bed and flipped on the T.V.
I was so engrossed in the movie we were watching that I didn’t notice Danny taking his pants off. When I did, I jumped up off of the bed. “What in the hell are you doing Danny?” I yelled.
“Girl, quiet down ‘for you wake the baby. Ain’t nobody here and the baby is sleep. How often do we have an opportunity like this?” he said, taking off his shirt. “A lot more if you got up off your ass and got us a place. You might as well stop because I’m not even close to being in the mood.” I sat back down and crossed my legs and arms, turning my head in disgust. I heard him get up and stomp to a corner out of my line of vision. I refused to make eye contact as he passed me.
He just didn’t excite me like that anymore, and if I wasn’t smoking anything to help me get there, sober sex was just out of the question. Then I heard something coming from his direction. The next thing I saw made me black out people. I mean I just about lost my damn mind ya'll. This nigga was sitting in a chair, not five feet from my sleeping baby girl with his dick in his hands beating off, staring at me. I don’t know when he bumped his head, but he knows I don’t play that with Delilah in the room. I jumped up quick. “What the fuck are you doing Danny? Now you done jumped out the window with this bullshit!”
He didn’t even stop. He said, “I’m showing you that don’t nobody need you girl.” A moan escaped his lips and I threw up a little. “So that’s it? I say no and you beat your shit in front of me and my daughter? You’s a nasty ass Danny.” I started to leave the room, but just that quickly he was behind me, holding me up against the door. I could feel his stiffness rubbing up against my back and for some reason, this just didn’t seem like normal Danny anymore. His breath was hot against my ear and neck and I couldn’t take it. I began to struggle but he pressed me harder.
“Mmmm girl, you smell nice.” He whispered in my ear and topped it off with a lick.
“Nigga you smell like you want to be alone. Now get the fuck off of me.” I was getting a bit pissed off with all the damn grinding on my ass. It was like the more I tried to push him off, the further he was getting turned on. He was all but fucking me through my jeans and I didn’t like it. All the noise we were making had yet to wake the baby and thank God too, because she didn’t need to see this.
“Izzy, just let me get in baby,” Danny said, reaching around me to get to my zipper. “ I only need a minute.” Don’t I already know that, but at this point I didn’t care. He had his hand in my pants and I was pressed so firmly against the door I could hardly breath. He was going to do this. He was going to take it from me because I hadn’t given it up in so long. But so what? It was still mine to give. And right in front of my daughter too! Danny had about 90lbs on me, I could fight, but he wasn’t going to let me win.
Knock! Knock! “Uncle Danny! Open up. Come see the cake mommy bought for Delilah. Uncle Danny!” Odette’s young voice pierced the tension filled air as Danny was peeling my thong off. Thank God someone else was in the house. Then we both froze as a thump hit the floor. Delilah was up and moving toward her cousin Odette’s voice, which was coming from our direction. I knew that Odette’s request wouldn’t stop Danny, seeing as she was on the other side of the door. But his daughter wanting to get out the door he had her mommy pinned up against, would.
Just like that he released his weight off of me and in that same second, I turned around and spit in his face. “You sick motherfucker! What the hell was that?” I yelled. I yanked up my pants and zipped them.
The banging on the door got louder. “Danny,” it was Keisha this time. “What’s going on in there?”
Danny was pulling up his pants and wiping his face with his hands. “Wasn’t nobody trying to hurt you girl! What the hell is your problem?” Delilah started crying just then, and the knocking persisted.
“I told you to get the fuck off of me Danny. What part of that didn’t you understand?” A tear escaped from my eye, but it was more out of anger than anything else.
“We’ve been together for almost two years now Izzy. How was I supposed to know you were serious.?” Delilah’s crying got louder, and so did the knocking. “Just send the baby out Danny.” Keisha said from the other side of the door. “ She don’t need to be in there with all that.” I knew she was right, so I grabbed my baby and said, “It’s over nigga. I’m leaving.” I opened the door so fast Keisha almost fell in.
“Is everything all right Karizma? Here, let me take the baby.” She reached for Delilah, but I pulled away.
“No! I’m fine, but I need to get out of here before I hurt your brother okay.” I was trying to maintain some type of composure for my daughter’s sake, seeing as she hadn’t stopped crying yet, but it wasn’t working.
“You can’t drive like this girl,” Keisha said. She reached for the baby again, and I handed her over. “Come talk with me a minute, okay? Calm down. Nobody’s forcing you to stay longer than that.”
“Karizma, baby,” Danny was on my heels as I followed Keisha down the hall to her room. “This is a misunderstanding. Don’t be like this.”
“I told you about that stuck up girl, man.” I hardly even noticed Hunter standing on the stair landing. “She’s doing you a favor dog. Trust me.”
“Mind your business Hunter!” I spat. I could’ve smacked him. That man had no room to call me stuck up, walking around like his shit don’t stink all the damn time. The only thing Hunter Parker knew about me was that I loved music and the only reason he even knew that was because he was a fake ass, wannabe musician and wanted to eventually use my skills to his benefit, which I wasn’t having. Other than that, he had no right to speak about me. “You don’t even know me.”
He apparently was ignoring me. “Come on dog,” he said to Danny. “Come downstairs and have a beer wit ya boy.” I looked back at Danny and sucked my teeth before going in Keisha’s room and slamming the door behind me.
Here's a sneak peak:
Chapter 1
I truly have to get my own car. Borrowing my mom’s car is harder than Chinese arithmetic most times. You would think she would be more giving seeing that I need it to transport her first grandchild, her ONLY grandchild, on her second birthday. I kind of think my mom just gets off on giving me a hard time, no matter the occasion.
So that set the mood for what should have been my daughter Delilah’s second birthday “extravaganza”. At least that’s what my boyfriend Danny said it would be. Boyfriend. Now that’s a stretch. Delilah’s sperm donor is more like it. I’m about thisclose to letting his ass go. Yes, I’ve said it before, but this time I mean it. Everyday seemed to be getting worse than the one before it.
My name is Karizma Collins, but most people call me Izzy. My mom named me after her favorite furniture store in the Bronx where we’re from. We rest in Brick, New Jersey now. Talk about culture shock! My name took some getting used to on my part, especially as a kid, but what was I going to do about it? I swore I would be nicer to my own child. Delilah Denise Jacobs. Normal. She won’t have trouble getting a job. My boyfriend Danny and I had been dating for only four months when I got pregnant with her. I had just turned 17 years old and was also just uncovering the truth about Daniel Jacobs, and people, the truth was shocking. I’m ashamed to say that I knew about his problem early on, and I ignored it. I saw the signs, yet looked the other way. I wanted a boyfriend so badly after not having one all through high school. I thought he would change, but I was wrong. He had a disease and so far, I haven’t been able to find the cure.
Danny suffers from chronic I’m-too-lazy-to-get-off-my-ass-and-work-itis. He also has a bad case of I-find-it-hard-to-wash-my-body-and-brush-my-teeth disease. He hid it in the beginning, yes he did. And when the warning signals flashed before me, I was already knocked up. Now, even though everywhere Danny and I went I would become embarrassed by his signature cologne (Musty for Men), I would grin and bare it. I didn’t want to prove everyone who doubted us right. We were going to last, not just mass produce. I wanted my new family and I was determined to make it work. After I had exhausted every thought I had in my young mind to change Danny, I was down, but not out. I would curse him out when we were alone. Cry when we argued about it. I would withhold sex, and that seemed to work for a while, but not too long. He’d shape up for a week or two, but as soon as he got my goodness he’d be back to his old stanky ways.
I was desperate. I had to have been, because I turned to my mom for help. The great Sandra O’Keefe is right about everything, and when she’s wrong, she doesn’t apologize because on some level, she believes she is still right. Everyone else is wrong. I was seven months pregnant and at my wits end with Danny, the dirty bastard. He had a job, which was good. But his job was apparently so exhausting that he had no energy left afterwards to wash. Ever. Oh, he had stamina for getting some booty, but not to wash his booty. I was too through.
“I don’t want to say I told you so Karizma, but I did.” My mom said, and after I had poured my heart out to the woman too.
“Real friends don’t say ‘I told you so’ ma. Come on now!” I said.
“You come on. I’m not your friend, I’m your mother. And if you would have stayed in a teenagers place, you wouldn’t be going through this now. Always thinking 18 years old made you grown. Far as I can see, the only thing grown about you is your mid section.” she says.
We were sitting in her kitchen where we usually have our talks. Me at the table, her at the stove. “Okay, so we got off topic a bit. Help me ma! I’ve tried just about everything I can think of, but nothing works.” I sighed heavily.
“Well, I tell you what. Shower with him. Wash his clothes. Compliment the man more, rather than always fishing for compliments,” she said. Low blow ma, seriously.
I said, “How do you compliment someone on keeping their hygiene up? What does that conversation sound like? Good job taking a shower this morning! Now keep up that spirit and brush those teeth. I don’t exactly know what to say.”
“Just make him feel like you want him is all,” my mom said. So I tried it out. At first it was cool; he responded well. I almost didn’t tell my mother because her ‘I told you so’s sting like a knife and I couldn’t be so bothered. But then Danny fell off again. I would offer to take a shower with him and he would respond, “I’m gon’ take one later baby. You go ‘head.” And when I would wash his clothes, he would rotate the same two pairs of jeans like that was all he had. I was finished.
Two weeks after the baby was born I stopped giving head. A month after that I would only have sex after smoking a few blunts. A month later I stopped kissing him in the mouth altogether. Danny was fine as long as I stayed with him though. Which brings us to the present.
As I pulled into Danny’s driveway I peeked in my rearview at the best part of Daniel Jacobs: Delilah. She was eating on her fingers, oblivious of any and everything around her. She didn’t know it, but she was the only thing holding me and her daddy together. She looked just like him too. High yellow complexion, big brown eyes, brown hair with blonde highlights. She gave a toothless grin and I smiled back. Delilah was the greatest thing I had going, and I was grateful for that. On our way to Danny’s door, I smothered my baby with kisses. The door was opened so I walked in. I have lived in this house with Danny basically, so I knew I was welcomed. Danny was on the couch watching something on T.V. He’s been out of work for the last three months and I would swear that that was the same spot I left him in yesterday. Same damn outfit too, not surprisingly.
“There’s daddy’s girls! Come over here and give daddy a kiss.” Danny had his arms spread open, so I put his daughter in them. “I was talking to you girl,” he said to me. I ignored him and walked over to the couch.
“What kind of party extravaganza is this Danny? I don’t see not one decoration up, nothing. You said be here by 1pm and we are, so what the hell?” I asked. Danny sat on the couch with Delilah in his lap.
“Girl, you nag more than a little bit. Delilah doesn’t know the difference if we’re late or not. Do you little mama?” Delilah laughed in response to her daddy. Danny kissed one of her fat cheeks and put her on the floor to play. Then he was back into the T.V.
“Where’s Keisha and the girls? Somebody should be here by now. There’s no decorations, no cake, nobody here.” I sat on the couch next to him and glanced at the T.V. “No kiss and no end to your nagging Izzy. Keisha and Hunter went to pick the baby up a cake. I didn’t have the money so they’re looking me out. The girls are with them. Why don’t you sit closer to me babe?” Danny said with a smirk. I wasn’t amused, so I paid him no mind.
Danny lived with his sister Keisha and her husband Hunter. Keisha has two of the prettiest girls, Kaleema and Odette from a previous relationship. Where ever she met Hunter, I personally wished she would have left him there. That man, without a doubt, is the most arrogant thing I have ever met in my entire life. To me, Keisha and Hunter were like day and night, but I guess opposites do really attract.
Lost in my thoughts I hardly noticed Danny had scooted his stink behind next to me. Nowadays, his touch was repulsing to me. “Danny look. The baby’s asleep on the floor. Carry her upstairs and put her on the bed,” I said, sliding over a bit. Danny sucked his teeth and sighed, but got his butt up to get my daughter off the damn floor. I followed them upstairs to make sure he didn’t lay her on a pile of clothes or something. He didn’t, his room was actually decent for a change. I sat at the edge of his bed and flipped on the T.V.
I was so engrossed in the movie we were watching that I didn’t notice Danny taking his pants off. When I did, I jumped up off of the bed. “What in the hell are you doing Danny?” I yelled.
“Girl, quiet down ‘for you wake the baby. Ain’t nobody here and the baby is sleep. How often do we have an opportunity like this?” he said, taking off his shirt. “A lot more if you got up off your ass and got us a place. You might as well stop because I’m not even close to being in the mood.” I sat back down and crossed my legs and arms, turning my head in disgust. I heard him get up and stomp to a corner out of my line of vision. I refused to make eye contact as he passed me.
He just didn’t excite me like that anymore, and if I wasn’t smoking anything to help me get there, sober sex was just out of the question. Then I heard something coming from his direction. The next thing I saw made me black out people. I mean I just about lost my damn mind ya'll. This nigga was sitting in a chair, not five feet from my sleeping baby girl with his dick in his hands beating off, staring at me. I don’t know when he bumped his head, but he knows I don’t play that with Delilah in the room. I jumped up quick. “What the fuck are you doing Danny? Now you done jumped out the window with this bullshit!”
He didn’t even stop. He said, “I’m showing you that don’t nobody need you girl.” A moan escaped his lips and I threw up a little. “So that’s it? I say no and you beat your shit in front of me and my daughter? You’s a nasty ass Danny.” I started to leave the room, but just that quickly he was behind me, holding me up against the door. I could feel his stiffness rubbing up against my back and for some reason, this just didn’t seem like normal Danny anymore. His breath was hot against my ear and neck and I couldn’t take it. I began to struggle but he pressed me harder.
“Mmmm girl, you smell nice.” He whispered in my ear and topped it off with a lick.
“Nigga you smell like you want to be alone. Now get the fuck off of me.” I was getting a bit pissed off with all the damn grinding on my ass. It was like the more I tried to push him off, the further he was getting turned on. He was all but fucking me through my jeans and I didn’t like it. All the noise we were making had yet to wake the baby and thank God too, because she didn’t need to see this.
“Izzy, just let me get in baby,” Danny said, reaching around me to get to my zipper. “ I only need a minute.” Don’t I already know that, but at this point I didn’t care. He had his hand in my pants and I was pressed so firmly against the door I could hardly breath. He was going to do this. He was going to take it from me because I hadn’t given it up in so long. But so what? It was still mine to give. And right in front of my daughter too! Danny had about 90lbs on me, I could fight, but he wasn’t going to let me win.
Knock! Knock! “Uncle Danny! Open up. Come see the cake mommy bought for Delilah. Uncle Danny!” Odette’s young voice pierced the tension filled air as Danny was peeling my thong off. Thank God someone else was in the house. Then we both froze as a thump hit the floor. Delilah was up and moving toward her cousin Odette’s voice, which was coming from our direction. I knew that Odette’s request wouldn’t stop Danny, seeing as she was on the other side of the door. But his daughter wanting to get out the door he had her mommy pinned up against, would.
Just like that he released his weight off of me and in that same second, I turned around and spit in his face. “You sick motherfucker! What the hell was that?” I yelled. I yanked up my pants and zipped them.
The banging on the door got louder. “Danny,” it was Keisha this time. “What’s going on in there?”
Danny was pulling up his pants and wiping his face with his hands. “Wasn’t nobody trying to hurt you girl! What the hell is your problem?” Delilah started crying just then, and the knocking persisted.
“I told you to get the fuck off of me Danny. What part of that didn’t you understand?” A tear escaped from my eye, but it was more out of anger than anything else.
“We’ve been together for almost two years now Izzy. How was I supposed to know you were serious.?” Delilah’s crying got louder, and so did the knocking. “Just send the baby out Danny.” Keisha said from the other side of the door. “ She don’t need to be in there with all that.” I knew she was right, so I grabbed my baby and said, “It’s over nigga. I’m leaving.” I opened the door so fast Keisha almost fell in.
“Is everything all right Karizma? Here, let me take the baby.” She reached for Delilah, but I pulled away.
“No! I’m fine, but I need to get out of here before I hurt your brother okay.” I was trying to maintain some type of composure for my daughter’s sake, seeing as she hadn’t stopped crying yet, but it wasn’t working.
“You can’t drive like this girl,” Keisha said. She reached for the baby again, and I handed her over. “Come talk with me a minute, okay? Calm down. Nobody’s forcing you to stay longer than that.”
“Karizma, baby,” Danny was on my heels as I followed Keisha down the hall to her room. “This is a misunderstanding. Don’t be like this.”
“I told you about that stuck up girl, man.” I hardly even noticed Hunter standing on the stair landing. “She’s doing you a favor dog. Trust me.”
“Mind your business Hunter!” I spat. I could’ve smacked him. That man had no room to call me stuck up, walking around like his shit don’t stink all the damn time. The only thing Hunter Parker knew about me was that I loved music and the only reason he even knew that was because he was a fake ass, wannabe musician and wanted to eventually use my skills to his benefit, which I wasn’t having. Other than that, he had no right to speak about me. “You don’t even know me.”
He apparently was ignoring me. “Come on dog,” he said to Danny. “Come downstairs and have a beer wit ya boy.” I looked back at Danny and sucked my teeth before going in Keisha’s room and slamming the door behind me.