“Is everything ok with your brother?” Tyler asked, turning in her seat.
“Why you ask that?”
“You know damn well you live in a shoe box and the walls are thin.” She pursed her lips. “Yall have deep voices and they travel.”
“So, you just gone keep talking shit about my place?” Logic feigned offense, cocking his head to the side.
“I like your shoebox.”
“Yea, ok,” he snorted, focusing on the road. “Pepper was supposed to come get him and she didn’t show up.”
“Oh, hell no. She stood him up?”
“Basically. She called when we were leaving, but I doubt she’s coming to get that lil nigga, and I know he’s in his feelings.”
“That’s really sad…craving the love of an absent parent. Those voids are hard to fill.” Tyler shook her head. “I don’t even know that woman and I want to slap her.”
“It’s just fucking with me that Sage is caught in the middle. Since she came back around, he been on bullshit. Grades slipping and I think he be trying to challenge me. I’mma fuck around and knock that nigga out.”
“I mean he is sixteen though, bullshit comes with sixteen. Mood swings and that whole‘I know it all' attitude,” Tyler reasoned.
“He sixteen, but he’s a good sixteen. When I was his age, I was smoking, drinking, fucking, and hustling. Sage not like me. He’s a straight-A student, respectful, and his head is on straight.”
“Well, you also have to think about the people he’s hanging with. He might see them running the streets and it probably looks exciting. He’s curious and that’s normal.”
“I guess,” Logic sighed, peering down at the text from Sage.
Bro
She on her way. Enjoy ya lil date, I’ll be back Sunday.
“This nigga,” Logic exhaled, reaching for the blunt in his visor. “Now the real question is are you going to let me play in your throat?”
“Boy,” Tyler giggled. “Are you going to lick me again?”
“Girl, I’m about to lick that thang from the roota to the toota.”
???
Sage waited until he saw Logic’s truck pull off before exiting his room. Going into the kitchen, he pulled the bills folder off the refrigerator and searched for the envelope with his name scribbled across the top. He flipped through the bills and decided to just take it all. Feeling bold, he grabbed a couple of extra dollars that didn’t belong to him.
“Uh, what do you think you’re doing?” Spice questioned, leaning against the doorway.
“I’m about to go out,” Sage mumbled, stuffing the envelopes back into the folder.
“Yo mama on her way?”
“Nah.”
“Then what are you doing? Where are you about to go?” She narrowed her eyes.
“Damn, can you chill with the twenty-one questions?” he snapped. “I could have sworn I was the oldest.”
“And the slowest if you in here yelling at me. You been a lil moody and I don’t like it. Now just because yo mama-
“Stop bringing that bitch up!” Sage roared.
“Whoa.” Spice backed up, putting space between them.
