Tears welled up in my eyes as I walked around to look at the damage. Peachtree wasn’t in the greatest area, but nobody’d ever said anything about break-ins. Plus, I wasn’t stupid—I didn’t keep anything in my car worth stealing.
This felt intentional.
I dug through my bag for my phone and called Monica.
“Hey, boo!” she answered cheerfully.
I sniffled. “You at Southside today?”
“Yeah, why? What’s up?”
“Somebody slashed my tires,” I said, feeling a lump rise in my throat. “And they broke my back window too.”
“Jesus. Where you at?”
“I literally just got off. I’m in the garage.”
“You want me to call Jelani? He could come up there and?—”
“No,” I said quickly. “I don’t need Cash finding out.”
“You sure?” she asked. “You know he’d pull up.”
“I know,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “But I’m not tryna deal with him right now.”
“Okay… You got AAA?”
“I let it lapse,” I muttered. “Forgot to update it after my card expired.”
She sucked her teeth. “Want me to see if I can get out of here early?”
“Nah,” I sighed. “It’s fine—you’re all the way on the other side of the city. I’ll figure something out.”
We hung up, and I leaned against one of the concrete columns, breathing hard, trying not to cry. But I could already hear my daddy’s disappointed voice in my head.
This is why I told you to make sure your AAA was updated before you left.
I tried Rochelle, but her phone went straight to voicemail.
Calling Cash felt pointless—he probably wouldn’t pick up. But on the off chance that he did, I knew he’d be here in a heartbeat, ready to go to war.
But then at some point we’d have to havethatconversation, and I wasn’t in the headspace to do all that.
I looked around the empty garage.
“Ugh!” I let out a frustrated scream and stomped my foot.
I scrolled through my contacts and hit send.
“‘Sup, Juicy,” Marcus answered on the first ring. I heard the TV on in the background.
“Hey… you busy?”
“Not really. Why you sound like that? You good?”
The first tear fell as I stared at my ruined car.
“Jasmine… talk to me. What happened?” I could hear him mute the TV.
