Grown(59)

Chapter 75


Pictures Worth a Thousand Words




There are so many pictures of Korey when he was younger. Every news outlet shows them on repeat.

“Did you know Korey Fields couldn’t read a single sheet’s worth of music? He could just about play any instrument you put in front of him using his ear, like a blind man.”

I scroll through the various feeds. Mom said to stay away from the news, but I can’t help it. Seeing young Korey makes me long for the Korey I thought I knew. The big kid trapped in a man’s body.

I scroll to another picture of Korey, standing next to Richie. Back then, he barely reached Richie’s chest, hair in slick cornrows, dressed in baggy clothes. The caption reads, “Grammy After-party. Luv U 4eva KF!” This was the party he told me about, where he lost his virginity. I flip to the next photo and my jaw hits the floor, at the woman standing next to him, his skinny arm wrapped around her tiny waist, his head just at her breast. Her hair is different, blond finger waves. Her face is different too. But I recognize her.

Jessica.

To anyone else, the photo would seem innocent. But something about the way she leans into his arms, his childlike arms, makes my stomach clench. I click on another link and it brings me to a Facebook post with almost three hundred comments:



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If you mourning him, you’re mourning a pedophile!



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Pedophile? She was a GROWN ass woman.

Bruh, GROWN ain’t SEVENTEEN

She didn’t look seventeen. shrugs

But once you find out she’s 17, you still gonna smash?



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So we just gonna jump and believe this girl?



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He abused other women too!

That wasn’t proven. Just a bunch of settlements.

Children lie when they get caught doing something they not supposed to! That’s what they do!

A group of children who don’t know each other can’t ALL be lying. That’s called a pattern. That should be enough proof!



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You know there are three sides to every story: her side, his side, and the truth.



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There’s also FACT. And FACT is no man should be sleeping with a seventeen-year-old GIRL! PERIOD!

You see her body? Walking around in them tight dresses. She was just tempting him. Another fast ass girl.

Why are we blaming/shaming little black girls/women for being “fast” when they’re simply being themselves? For just BEING.

What a woman wears or doesn’t wear doesn’t give anyone the right to touch them.



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Well, you know he’s had a rough childhood. Abandoned by his mom, didn’t know his father, raised by his grandma who passed.



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We’ve all BEEN through a lot but that don’t give you no excuse to abuse girls.

You know how these groupies do. They was lookin’ for a come up and didn’t get what they wanted now they coming for the brother’s neck. They were about that dolla dolla bill!

Money doesn’t give anyone permission to treat them like an animal.



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You know that girl’s probably from a broken home. Ain’t got no real man in her life to set an example.



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Did you pull a muscle with that reach? She was in Will and Willow and her parents are married.

Just cause a girl from a broken home, don’t mean you get to piss on her. What the fuck is wrong with y’all?



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So why are we not just as angry at the parents who gave permission and took his money is my only question. Isn’t it they job first to protect they daughter? IJS, charge them too they the pimps.



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Why is everyone so busy trying to find ANYONE to blame instead of the person actually responsible for committing a crime?

Everyone that worked for him knew those girls were too young and yet they let them.

If that was my daughter, he’d be six feet under.



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Where was all this outrage when the priest story came out? Or Weinstein? Wake the fuck up people! We rather talk shit about our own people, while you got a white man in the White House that clearly fucked up in the mind.



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I can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time bruh.

Still, how many Black Men are in prison because of something some chick said?

Don’t care. Black white blue orange-haired. LOCK THEM UP.

Yo, don’t all-lives-matter this. We ain’t saying the other shit ain’t wrong either. But we talking about BLACK WOMEN right now. That’s it. FOCUS!

If these were white girls, Korey would be cremated and thrown in the sewer.



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I met my husband at 16 and he was 20. I don’t see the problem with dating an older man.



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Yeah but your husband didn’t abuse you. Didn’t lock you in your room with nothing but a bucket.