“What you on, nigga?” Rico asked, confused.
“I’m out,” I said, unlocking the truck. “Y’all got the day off.”
“The day off?” James frowned. “From you? Shit must be serious.”
“Yeah,” I said, my hand lingering on the door. “Need to clear my head.”
They stared at me for a moment and then at each other.
“This about that bullshit that lame ass nigga posted on PicsGram?”
I didn’t say anything.
“Aye, Q,… man, fuck them people online,” Rico said, his tone shifting from playful to serious. “They don’t know you. They don’t know shit about living.”
“For real, man.” James chimed in. “You out here being a real nigga, handling yours. Ain’t nothing corny about that shit.”
“That’s real as hell,” Rico added, nodding. “More real than they ever gon’ be.”
I swallowed hard. That hit deeper than I expected.
“Appreciate y’all,” I said, “For real.”
I appreciated how they didn’t press, didn’t ask questions, just dapped me up like nothing was different.
“I’ll let y’all know when we back on,” I added with a half-smile. “Enjoy the paid day off. I know I’m about to.”
“Oh, we know what that mean.” James laughed. “He about to slide on his girl.”
“Tell Teagan fine ass I said hi,” Rico called out as I climbed in the truck. I flipped him off again and shut the door. I didn’t even let the engine warm up before I peeled out of the lot.
As soon as I cleared the gates, I pulled my phone out and texted Noa.
Me:
You good? Anybody come by the house?
Noa:
What? No. I just got in the bath. What’s going on?
Me:
Press outside Northside.
I shot her the screenshot of the tearoom post.
Noa:
OMG! I’m so sorry, Quade. You okay? I’m going to curse his ass out.
Me:
You not. Stay right where you are, baby. On my way.
I dropped the phone on the passenger seat, rolled my shoulders back, and cracked my neck. Then I hit the gas like Ineeded to get back to the one place in the world that hummed the same tune as me.
Turning the key to Noa’s front door without knocking felt a little weird, but I guess we were past the formalities of me using the key unless for early morning work.
