“You need to stop being so disrespectful,” Sage gritted. “Mama made a mistake and she’s back to make it right.”
“Mmmm, I beg to differ.” She frowned. “Running a red light could be a mistake, pulling off at a drive-thru and forgetting to pay can possibly be a mistake-
“But leaving your kids while you run around the world with a man is intentional,” Spice finished Shugg’s sentence.
“Shut up.” Sage jumped at her.
“Don’t tell her to shut up,” Logic warned him. “Just like you’re entitled to get to know your mama, the twins are entitled to feel how they want about her.”
“You always taking their side.”
“They’re your little sisters. You’re supposed to take their side too, and yall leave him alone. If he wants to keep in contact with his mama, then let him. Keep the smart ass remarks to yourselves.”
“Thank you,” Sage sneered. “But Mama said her and John was gone take me out. John been doing good, so we probably gone go to Great Lakes. She wanted to take me the Saturday of my birthday, but I told her we had plans. I started to ask if she wanted to come but I already know how yall feel.”
“Good. As long as you know and don’t tell her shit about what we do. Matter fact, don’t even bring us up,” Logic stated.
“I only told her about you signing with Rahlo. She was happy to hear it.”
“This boy.” Spice slapped her forehead. “You just over there with diarrhea at the mouth.”
“Yall give us a minute.” Logic cleared his throat.
Without hesitation, they hopped up from the couch and nearly ran to their rooms. They could tell from the seriousness in his tone that Logic was pissed. Since Pepper left, Logic had instilled in them that they weren’t supposed to run their mouth about things that happened in their house. The last thing Logic wanted was for CPS to run in his shit, trying to snatch his siblings from his care. He was young at the time and didn’t have a pay stub to prove that he could take care of them. They were older now, but the same rules still applied.
“What else you tell her?” Logic interrogated.
After the first time Sage went with their mother, it became a weekly thing. He left on Friday and Pepper brought him back on Sunday mornings. A couple of times she tried to linger around, and other times Pepper tried to chat with the twins, but they paid her no mind. Logic, however, stayed out the way. He had no interest in spending time with his mother and he was patiently waiting for her to disappear again.
“Nothing really. She just asked if you had a job because we had a lot of nice stuff. I told her you signed with Rah and that was it. I never mentioned the other stuff,” Sage swore. He wasn’t stupid. He’d never air out his brother’s dirty laundry. Logic doing what he did in the streets is what kept them from being hungry and he was too grateful to ever let it slip.
“The next time she tries to pump you for information, tell her to call me.” Logic’s jaw clenched.
“I didn’t mean nothing by it, bro. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry, Sage. She’s your mother, and I know she’s curious, but our business is not her business. When she’s with you she needs to focus on mending the bridge between yall, not me.”
“Ok.”
“Cool, now go find your bum ass friend and tell him to come here. I wanna talk to him before the party.”
“Man, you gone scare him off.”
“I’mma be nice to the ugly lil nigga,” Logic promised. As long as Joey wasn’t on any bullshit then they had nothing to worry about.
???
Darryl listened to the song Dexter played with his eyes closed. He didn’t know who was singing, but the shit sounded horrible. He tried to close his eyes to focus on the lyrics, but the singing was throwing him off. Carla watched intently as he sat stiffly there. She was praying he liked the song because this was their last resort, but things weren’t going how she expected. Darryl wasn’t bobbing his head, he didn’t crack a smile or anything. When the song ended, he opened his eyes and stared at the duo, trying to figure out which one was dumb and which one was dumber.
“What is this?” Darryl asked, massaging his temples. He didn’t have time for Carla’s bullshit, but she swore she had something that would turn his shitty day around. With Tyler leaving the label, Darryl was cashing in every favor he had to get his hands on the best songwriters, and thus far, everyone he encountered was basic at best. None of their music moved him. There was no passion, no pain, no love.
“Who's singing on this?” Darryl questioned.
“Bobbi,” Carla answered.
“Tell her to stick to her day job-whatever that is-because she sounds like a crying cat. She needs her tonsils removed, and even then, she still can’t sing; she’ll just sound less annoying. Who wrote it?”
“Tyler,” Dexter answered.
