She swung and I ducked that reckless ass shit before I slapped the shit out of her. I called myself studying her, but it didn’t take long because she was leaving her face open trying to land hits that only would’ve landed had she had a grip on my hair. She was a cat fight type of girl while I grew up fighting niggas. No hair to pull, just fists and knowing not to let one of them catch me.
She swung again. This time I followed up, making sure to put nothing but weight behind the jab I connected with the center of her face. She fell instantly.
“You’re still putting too much weight behind that punch.” Reminisce’s tone indicated he was standing no more than three feet from me.
“I think that shit is on purpose. You know she’s little as fuck,” Rennix called out, making me side eye him as he walked up.
“Well, she’s gonna fuck her shoulder up throwing that motherfucker one day.”
“Maybe, but yo’ bitch ass is gonna take care of her when she does. I’m about to call the law. I’on feel like seeing this bitch get laid out again.” G’s voice now had me looking in his direction.
These niggas were comical. I was about to speak, but Reminisce grabbed my hand and inspected my knuckles before bringing them to his lips and kissing them. “You’re gonna need some ice.”
“Probably, but I’m good.” I pulled my hand from his and began walking back toward the house. Regardless of the fade I had just handed out, it was still cold as hell.
It took the police all of three minutes to get there and about an hour to have her car towed out of Rennix’s property. She’d crashed it into a tree on the way in.
“Before we go back to the city, we need to stop by and see what Jason is talking about.” Reminisce spoke into my ear then kissed it.
“Okay.”
“Now that’s over, and Karim you have peas on your hand. Let’s talk about the family vacation…. Well, the family holiday trip.” Jade’s voice cut through the room, grabbing everybody’s attention.
“How you tryna take a vacation and you’re pregnant, Jade? Make that shit make sense,” G responded.
“Good question, because I know for a fac?—”
“We’re going to Michigan. I found a massive beachfront estate. It happens to be available for New Year's Eve and Christmas, so it’s up to you all to pick which holiday.”
I listened to them talking back and forth for a while before they agreed on New Year’s Eve. Though I didn’t give much input, I was glad because that worked for me. The last thing I needed to be doing was telling my mother I wouldn’t be spending Christmas with her. That lady would probably decapitate me. Hell, Aroyal was married with four kids and he didn’t even test her on that. Holidays with my mother were non-negotiable, but New Year’s Eve I could finagle because I never spent New Year’s Eve anywhere but in my own house.
“You’ve been quiet as fuck. You good?” Reminisce asked after we had been in the car for about ten minutes.
“Yeah, I’m just tired. I have been since I woke up earlier.” I turned my head, glancing back at lil mama in the back. Romance had played her heart out with her cousins so now she was tired as hell too. She was knocked out like I wished I could be.
“We’ll be back in a minute. On some other shit though, I don’t want you fighting bitches over me, Rim. Motherfuckers ain’t worth it.”
I chuckled, my hand finding its way to the side of his head like always when we were in the car. “Good, because I wasn’t fighting over you. I did that shit for Ro.”
I continued to look ahead, in my peripheral vision seeing him cut his head in my direction before back on the road.
“Oh, for real?” His tone had me looking in his direction.
“What am I fighting over you for when I already got you? You ain’t going nowhere.”
“And Ro ain’t going nowhere either. So, you didn?—”
“Nah, it’s different. Ro is my lil baby. I know she ain’t going nowhere but she tried to use her like a pawn in a sick ass game. Not to mention, I had some tension I needed to get off.”
“From what?” His eyes were on me again.
“I saw my sister at my mother’s house today. Hoe got outta there before I could lay hands.”
He laughed. “Lil angry ass.”
“Not angry at all. Certain bitches just grind my gears.” I shook my head.
For the duration of the ride, he listened to me vent about my frustrations with my sister and my mother babying her grown ass. Though he acted as a soundboard wonderfully, he also helped me see that in my mother’s babying of Ariya she blamed herself. Though Ariya was a grown ass woman like all of us, my mother internalized Ariya’s issues as though they were her own.I got what he was saying, but I still wanted to beat her ass. I just needed one good time. I was convinced I could knock some sort of sense into her.
