Bry and Aroyal looked at one another. “Yo, you sure?” Aro asked.
“Bet. Let me know when you do and don’t be on no short-tempered shit. You know when people don’t understand you the first time you be ready to swing.” Brysheer’s words had me looking in his direction.
“You got us mixed up. I’m levelheaded.” I pointed to my chest. “And he’s the lunatic.”
“Nah. Even though y’all aren’t the same age, y’all are just as fucking lethal as them niggas in that movie, the Smokestacktwins. Where you think you have patience, you don’t. The moment somebody says what you don’t like, you’re putting a motherfucker down, just like him.”
I shook my head. “Not even.”
“Denial.”
I spoke with them for a while longer before they left. Then as soon as I got rid of them, my mother was calling.
“You’re moping, mi hija.” She spoke into the speaker of my phone as I moved through my kitchen to the back patio with a blunt to my lips, my favorite torch, and my piece. I wasn’t stupid enough to ever get caught lacking.
“I’m not, Mama. My brain is just tired. I’m not sleeping well.” I half told the truth knowing she’d see through any lie I told.
Once I had the wintergreen, thick, knitted blanket around my half-clothed body, I took a seat in the chair and set my things down.
“Why?”
I shrugged as if she could see me. Then I torched the end of my blunt to light it. “If I knew, Mama, I wouldn’t be awake so often.” I didn’t mean to be so curt.
“Don’t sass me. Come home and I’ll make you sleepy time tea before I knock your ass out for that smart ass mouth of yours.”
I cackled. “Nah, I’m okay, seeing about something a little stronger, Ma.” I pulled from the blunt and allowed my head to fall back against the headrest. I was indeed exhausted, but not sleepy. My mind raced too much for me to rest.
“Sure. I know what that means. Come see me tomorrow and we’ll talk.”
“Okay, Mama. I love you.” Unease filled my body, like this sudden bout of anxiousness came over me before we could even hang up the phone. It wasn’t until I saw the headlights pulling into my driveway that I knew why I felt this way out of nowhere.Why in the hell was I so in tune with a man who wasn’t mine?Shit, he was no one’s man.
The sound of my wooden gate being unlocked from the outside, then his voice, filled my eardrums. “What I tell you ’bout this shit, Rim?” His weighted voice destroyed my peace, creating a frenzy of obsession and need through me.
“I don’t know. What did you tell me?”
He sucked his teeth at the same time the wind decided to blow, forcing the aroma of him closer to me than his frame. “Sitting your ass out here half clothed in the dark.”
“Sitting in my peace, Reminisce. Now, why are you here?” I didn’t bother looking at him because I knew he looked good. When did he not? Something about those heavy eyes, that broody existence, and those tattoos on the side of his face ingrained on his chocolate skin always did it for me. It had since the first day I laid eyes on his moody ass.
“’Cause I wanted to sit in your peace too, can I do that?” Him asking clashed with the way he took my blunt from my lips without asking. When I finally opened my eyes, he was pulling from it and looking directly at me.
“Where is Romance?”
“With her people. Now get up and bring your ass in this house. Sitting out here like you won’t fuck around and get sick.”
I got up and grabbed my cover, tightening it around my body before I moved into the house. I knew he’d grab what I left, so I didn’t trip. It wasn’t until we were in my house that his rude ass snatched the cover from me.
“Reminisce.”
“What? You wanna be half clothed. Don’t half do it on my account.”
I sucked my teeth, turning to face him in just my underwear and a tank top. “Why are you here, Reminisce?”
“I can’t just come see you?” he asked, eyes glossing my figure before finding my eyes again. Of course, his smug ass licked his lips.
“Come see me? Had I not seen your ass in the store, then you wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t see you.”
He chuckled. “Not true, ’cause I saw you. Had I not wanted to see you, then I would’ve just walked off. But I wanted to see you, Karim.”
