Free What A Person Wants by Kris Bell

it was almost as if it was just the two of us in the whole building.
    We didn’t make it back to my place until 3 a.m. Once we got good and settled in, we drank a couple of beers and relaxed on the couch. We talked about everything underneath the sun, including where our newfound friendship was going. Despite me and Kyle’s temporary separation, I knew I did not want anything to come between us, especially now that he was making an effort to communicate with me. I wasn’t about to abandon a relationship that I cherished for someone I barely knew, regardless of how nice he was. Besides, after Richie’s tough breakup with Chloe, he didn’t think it would be wise to get close to another female until she was completely out of his system, which she evidently wasn’t. We decided right before we fell asleep lounging on my sofa that we would just be friends.
    I couldn’t wait to meet up with Richie later. I was definitely going to need some serious “me” time after dealing with this woman and all these phone calls.
    “Mama, maybe this is a sign telling you to leave Petey alone,” I said as my mother ended another call and slammed her cell phone down on the coffee table for the millionth time since I had arrived. Well, actually, it was the twelfth time in the last hour.
    “Look, Izzy,” my mother said to me as though I were five years old, “Petey is my man.  We have had over five years together.  I’m not about to let one of these trifling, ghetto females mess that up!”
    Her voice may have wavered on maternal, but her expression read “I’m about to hurt somebody.” Like a highly pissed off bull, her nostrils flared out, and her mouth was twisted into the deepest frown. When she spoke, it was almost like a snarl. I could not remember ever seeing my mom this livid.
    I rolled my eyes.  “Correction, Mama. They have been five painful years. Why would you want to hold onto something that’s not good for you? This shit ain‘t healthy!”
    My mother whirled around and gave me a stern glower. I may be 27 years old, but I still cast my eyes down when she gave me that look, just like I did when I was little.
    “First of all, Isabel, Petey and I may have had our troubles in the past, but he loves me. Do you understand that? He loves me! That’s not gonna change. You don’t know what it’s like to have a man love you like Petey loves me. I need to hold onto that. So what if he slipped up in the past and slept with another female! She don’t have nothing on me!  He comes home to me. At the end of the day, I'm his woman. That’s what matters!”
    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples, trying to calm myself. Not only was I getting even angrier at my mother’s naivety, but also I started to feel sorry for her. She had been treated like crap for years by so many people that she didn't even realize her potential. She could do so much better than what she settled for. Mama is a smart and beautiful woman. Any man she wanted, she could have. A good man! Petey wasn’t worth the spit in my mouth, and deep down inside, I knew she knew that, but hearing her talk like a love struck 15 -year-old girl just broke my heart.
    The phone rang again. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I reached for her cell to give the bitch on the other end a piece of my mind. I may disagree with my mother on a lot of things, but I'd be damned if I allowed someone to disrespect her in my presence.
    My mother saw me reaching for the phone on the table between us, by she snatched it away before I could grab it. She accepted the call.
    “What is it?” she growled into the phone.
    Even though I was a few feet away from the phone, I could easily hear a female voice leaking through the phone calling my mom every name in the book except "saint."
    The situation was getting out of control. Instead of my silly mother hanging up the phone and ignoring this dumb woman on the other end, she continued to listen