“Bye, Ma.”
I hang up the phone and see two missed calls. One is a random government number, and the other is from Keyoni, a DP resident who works K9 for Diamond Falls PD. I fall back on the bed and look at the clock before turning to Cori, who’s silently watching me.
“I gotta go. I can take you home or you can stay here and sleep. I’ll be back once I handle this.”
I expect her to have me take her home, but she moves in to kiss me on the lips instead.
“I’ll see you when you get back,” she says, then slides back under the covers.
It takes me less than thirty minutes to get dressed and drive to the Diamond Falls PD, where I find out Jay and Petey were stopped and brought in on possession charges. Then it takes another thirty minutes to get him released. When I see him coming from the back holding area looking way too comfortable, I’m relieved that he’s safe and unharmed but pissed as hell. The only reason I don’t go the fuck off in this lobby is because as I wait for him, I find myself wondering what Toya would do in thissituation and act accordingly. I’ll be quiet for now until we get in the truck.
“What happened, Jay?” I ask before he’s even able to shut the door. And even though I’d already gotten a quick rundown of what happened from Keyoni, I need to hear it from Jay himself. If he’s trying to be about that life, he’s going to have to own that shit to me and anybody else he crosses paths with. But it’s obvious he’s not ready for that shit when he gives me the same played out response.
“Nothing,” he says, shrugging it off, and I’m not prepared for how much that one word pisses me off at the moment.
“Shit, something did happen. Did I not just have to come bail you out in the middle of the night?” I try to keep my eyes on the road and him at the same time, waiting for him to own his shit. This time when he speaks, nothing turns into an explanation of how Petey’s drunk ass had Jay drive him home only to get stopped by police with a whole QP in the car.
“So you’re selling now and playing ball?” I ask, throwing the question out there the same way my mom confronted me when I was his age.
“That wasn’t my shit,” he says and I don’t miss his obvious word choice that’s not a denial of selling himself. As someone who was in his position before, I can’t do shit but accept his answer… for now. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s definitely detrimental to his basketball aspirations if he moves sloppily and riding around with that amount of bud for no reason is sloppy as shit.
“Did you tell the officer it wasn’t yours?” I ask, already knowing the answer but using the question as a way to move to the next issue.
“No.”
“What did Petey say?”
“He ain’t say shit either.”
I nod, mostly for dramatics, because I already know how Petey gets down and so do most of the officers at DFPD. That’s why they released Jay into my custody with just a slap on the wrist. I just have to get my son to understand it won’t always be that easy or safe to get caught out there like that.
“So not only were you driving around for kicks while P was holding, but you’re taking the L for it too.”
“I didn’t know there were drugs in the car,” he says, clapping his hands to emphasize his point until I give him a look that has him toning that shit down.
“You expect me to believe you ain’t get a whiff of nothing? This is Petey we’re talking about, Jay.” It’s all I can do to keep a somber expression and not laugh to keep from crying because ain’t no way. “I know P family and all, but you gotta learn how to fall back from that nigga sometimes. You’ve got to realize he ain’t for you. He’s for himself and that’s it. If anything, he should’ve been taking ownership and protecting you. Not the other way around by y’all both staying silent.”
“I hear what you’re saying, Pop, but I ain’t no snitch,” Jay says, hitting me with those famous last words of anyone who’s ever had something to lose. I just hope he’s the exception.
“Yeah well, you keep fucking around with P and that list of things you’re not will just get longer.”
This time Jay doesn’t come back with commentary, he just stares out the window, quiet as hell, and I focus on the rain soaked road that makes me think of his mom again. She would’ve been angry and in tears right now but would’ve managed to pull her shit together to handle this situation so much better than I’m doing.
When we pass Highland Park he exhales hard and I know he’s thinking about her too, each block between here and home triggering a core memory. She’d sit in that park for hours with me as a teen, then with Jay when he was younger, watching himplay and never complaining once. Always saying if Jay was good, then so was she. It’s for that reason alone that I end up spending the rest of my morning with Jay instead of leaving to have Cori for breakfast.
Chapter 11
Cori
Last night,Vaughn fucked and sucked me within an inch of my life then opened up to me just enough to quench my curiosity. So when I wake up alone, aching in all the right places, I can’t even be mad like I want to. Especially when he has breakfast sent to the room and lets me know there’ll be an iDrive here at eleven to take me home. Am I disappointed? Yes, but I never want to be the type of woman to trip about him being an active and responsible father.
Instead of letting the situation get the best of me, I take my time eating and take pictures of the city from the room’s balcony. Then I gather all my belongings to leave, only to find Vaughn waiting outside where my iDrive is supposed to be. He’s standing by the curb, leaning against his truck like something straight out ofSixteen Candles. Even though I’m a grown-ass woman now, I can’t help but feel some type of way about the small gesture that had the girls going crazy while watching that movie for the first time.
“Jake Ryan, is that you?” I ask as I catch Vaughn distracted, staring off at something down the block before turning my way.
“Who the fuck is Jake Ryan?” he asks with a confused expression on his face.
“Just a character from a movie I was thinking about when I saw you standing here.”
