One of the things that my pops was most proud of when it came to me was the fact that I wasn’t in the streets, and that I didn’t grow up to be a product of my environment. Growing up, I watched my pops, my uncles, and niggas from the neighborhood push drugs. For my dad, it was just a little something for him to do, so that he could have some more money in his pockets. I could have glorified that shit, especially when it came to the niggas that were out here moving weight heavy and making big bank. I chose to go in another direction with life. I put my focus on sports, and for that, my pops was proud of me.
I know that if I told him this deep shit that I was in with Toby, that it would break his heart, and that’s the part that I wasn’t ready for.
“Nigga, you better speak on something. You driving my truck, and you pushing this shit at 100 miles per hour. Tell me what the fuck going on! It’s no longer an option. Motha fucka, I’m demanding you now!” he snapped on me.
I slowed down a little bit, so that I was able to look at him. He was hot. I could tell by the way he was breathing, and the hard-core look that was on his face. I knew that I was going to have to just go ahead and tell him what was going on.
The second I parted my lips to start from the beginning, my phone started buzzing in my lap. It was Toby calling me. I damn near wrecked the car, reaching my hand down, so that I could pick the phone up, and I put it to my ear.
“Yo. Where the fuck my baby mama, and my daughter at?” I answered, getting right to the point. Right after I asked that question, he started laughing like this shit was a joke to him.
“Ay man, that fake tough guy act don’t scare shit over here. You run a ball for a living. I wish the fuck I would fear you, so take some of that bass out of your motha fuckin voice while you talking to me, nigga!” he snapped back.
I didn’t know where this nigga was, and I didn’t want to temp him, set his ass off, and then he does something to harm my baby mama, or my daughter, so I allowed him to feel like he was running the show. I didn’t say anything. I was seething though.
The whole time, I could feel my dad’s eyes on me, so I knew that the second I got off the phone, he was going to want to know who I was talking to.
“Pulling up tonight on your kid, and your baby mama was just a glimpse of how far my reach is. Nigga, I can touch anything or anyone that you love. You played with my money, and within that same fuckin hour, I was already at the location of your baby mama’s shop, ready to put a bullet in her brain, along with your fuckin daughter. One goofy ass fuck up from you, almost had you paying for two funerals. You cost me five bands today. For the stress, and for the running around that you made me do, I’m going to add another ten racks to that. Go ahead and wire me 15 bands. If that shit not in my account by tomorrow morning, remember I know where your grandma stay at. I’ll take her out first. Play with me if you want to, nigga,” and just like that, he hung the phone up, not giving me a chance to respond.
“Who the fuck was that?” my pops demanded, wanting to know.
I ignored him, as I kept my left hand on the steering wheel, and with my right, I used my phone, going to my recent calls, finding Promise’s name, and I dialed her. It rang about three times, and then the phone connected, and when it did, I could hear my daughter in the background, and she was screaming to the top of her lungs.
“Promise!” I called her name out.
“Rico, what the fuck do you have going on? Who the fuck is that nigga that came to my shop looking for you? What the fuck Rico!” Promise screamed at me.
Any other time, if she would have been doing all this yelling, and carrying on, I would have been snapped on her, telling her to shut the fuck up, but I couldn’t even do that shit with her right now. Her anger was warranted. She was put in the middle tonight of some shit that she didn’t have anything to do with, so she had every right to be upset about it.
“Ima tell you when I see you. That nigga did something to ya’ll? Why Romy crying like that?” I asked, my voice literally shaking as I asked her these questions because I didn’t know what her response was going to be, and I was scared, awaiting her answer.
“She’s tired, and hungry, so that’s why she’s screaming. I didn’t get to give her a bottle because I was too busy rushing out of the salon once that crazy ass nigga left. He didn’t do anything. He just took my phone, talked shit, and wouldn’t give it back. I don’t like that, Rico. You blindly put me and your daughter in the middle of some shit that I didn’t know anything about. Had you would have told me something, nigga I could have kept the salon door locked, or I wouldn’t have had my gun so fuckin far away from me. The same way you like to get angry at me and tell me that you regret having a child with me, nigga I feel that same fuckin way about you! No older nigga would have had some shit going on in the streets and not have told me! You move like afuckin child, and if that nigga would have touched my daughter, I would have touched you!” she screamed at me.
She was hot. It was evident in her voice. During her screams, her voice was cracking, and that shocked me because Promise was a mean ass bitch, and the only time I’ve ever saw her shed a tear is when she was giving birth to our daughter. She was too tough of a bitch to cry, so for her voice to be cracking, and hearing her on the verge of tears really fucked me up, making me feel like shit.
“You about to go home? I got like four hours and some change left on the road. I’m going to come straight over there,” I said, not feeding into the rant.
I knew that if I came at her with the same energy that she was giving me, it wouldn’t end well, so I chose not to condone. I couldn’t even condone because this was a situation where I was dead ass wrong, so there wasn’t an argument on my part.
“Come over here for what, Rico? I’m about to take Romy home, give her a bottle, bathe her, and then put her to sleep. Your daughter won’t be up in four hours, and neither will I. Just leave me the fuck alone,” and like that, she hung the phone up on me.
I didn’t even bother calling her back. I also didn’t give a fuck about all that shit she was talking either because I was still going to pull up on her. My daughter could have been taken away from me tonight, so I wanted to go over to her crib, so that I could lay eyes on her.
“I got myself into some deep shit,” I told my pops, slowing down on the gas, now that I knew my baby mama, and my daughter were safe.
He didn’t respond back to what I said because he was too busy waiting for me to offer some kind of follow up to him about what I just revealed.
“That nigga Toby… Pops, I’m going to have to kill him,” that was all that I could get out to him right now. I was running off too many emotions to sit here and tell him everything from top to bottom.
“The nigga that I been telling you that you needed to watch since you were a little boy. The second I saw that bitch ass nigga when you were a kid, I knew that he was up to no good. That was him that just called you? I couldn’t really hear what he was saying to you over the phone, but it sounded like his ass was barking at you. What the fuck ya’ll got going on?” he asked.
As much as I wanted to ignore his question, truth is, we had over four hours left in this car, leaving me with plenty of time to get it out to him. Plus, getting it out to him was really the only way that it was going to make some kind of sense to him.
I told my pops everything. Started from the very beginning, which was the night that I went to that party, saw Tobias, and I got into it with the nigga, which led to me killing him. I then went on to share with my dad how Toby had been blackmailing me since last football season. I told him how I decided to play my best tonight, giving this shit my all, and that’s what set Toby off, and had him going to my baby mama’s salon, pulling up on Promise, and my daughter. The whole time that I was sharing these things with my dad, he was quiet. He never once interrupted me. Never made any kind of sound effects, either. I knew he was livid though. It was evident in the way that he was bouncing his leg up and down.
“Pull the car over for a second,” is what he said after five minutes of silence in the car.
I looked out of the rearview mirror, making sure that there weren’t any cars coming, and once I saw that the coast was clear, I went ahead, and merged over, pulling into the shoulder lane, where I put the car in park, and I turned on the hazard lights.
