“You ain’t lying. I peeped that shit early on and tried to intervene, but she wasn’t tryna listen to me. Nova has been stressed out lately, so I’ve been helping where I can. She said a white lady showed up at the house looking for Rasheeda, but she made up some lie about her taking care of their sick granny. I have a feeling it was CPS, and if that’s the case, it’s only a matter of time before they come through there and do a sweep.” Logic’s tone reflected how stressed he was. Regardless of his issues with Nova, he was her protector.
“Don’t her momma have a couple of sisters? Why don’t they check on their family?” I wasn’t in a position to judge the next person, given how our family dynamic was set up, but I knew her family was bigger than mine.
“Man, you already know how that is. Folks only care about you when there’s something in it for them. Her aunt Rayvin has five kids, so you know she doesn’t want to take on anyone else’s kids. They have a couple of folks that live out of state, but Nova said her momma has burned bridges with most of the family. Rickhad her stealing from everybody. They used to be at the pawn shop faithfully.”
“Damn, that’s fucked up.” I stared down at my phone, wanting Naiari to text me back. There had been a disconnect between us lately, and it was fucking with me mentally.
“Damn, bro. You can’t even hide the shit anymore. Ari got your head gone,” Logic teased, passing his freshly rolled blunt to me. I accepted it with no hesitation because I needed something to take the edge off.
“Man, I’m tryna be cool with her dating and shit. It was my idea for us to keep our shit strictly platonic, but now I don’t know. On one hand, I want her to be with a good dude that can give her the life she deserves.”
“And on the other?”
“I can’t see a future without her. We might be young and shit, but Naiari is endgame for me. Or at least that was what I want to believe.” I passed the blunt back to him before sitting up.
“Why don’t you tell her how you feel? Shit, I would keep it real with her and let her know that you’re not okay with seeing her with someone else. She might like him, but she loves you. She will be graduating this year, and everything will change. Nova and Ari are planning to go off to college together, so if you’re worried about ol’ boy, just wait until she gets on campus. She’ll be engaged by the end of her sophomore year.” My head whipped in his direction, pissed that he even made that dumb ass statement.
“What the hell? Why would you say some shit like that?”
With the life I lived, I rarely thought about the future. I was too busy trying to make it day by day. The idea of my Cocoa being away, surrounded by a bunch of horny ass lames, set me off.
Naiari was special, and in my mind, there wasn’t another man who could truly appreciate her value the way I would. The problem was that I wanted to wait until I got my shit togetherbefore I made things official with her. She deserved a soft life, and my life was anything but soft.
“You know you’re my brother from another mother, so I’m gonna keep it real with you. You’re sitting around waiting on the perfect moment, but that shit doesn’t exist in our world. You can’t promise her a life where everything is glitter and rainbows, Key. We live in the real world, and in the real world, anything could happen. All she needs to know is that you’ll never stop loving her and that you’re in her corner no matter what. All the other shit will work itself out in its own time.”
I heard what Logic said, and to be honest, he was right.
I wanted to give Cocoa the perfect life where she never had to worry about anything, but I couldn’t promise that. All I could guarantee was that my love for her would never stop. Even if we weren’t together in the end, she would have my loyalty until I took my last breath.
“You’re right, bro. I’ma go talk to her. I found a place, and the landlord offered it to me as soon as the current tenants move out at the end of the month. I already have the bread saved up. Soon as he gives me the green light, Lyric and I are in there. Ma Dukes and Tone have been tearing the house up for weeks, and all she keeps saying is that she loves him. The police have been to our house twice in the last three weeks, but she refuses to press charges on his bitch ass. If I could, I would put his ass out myself, but knowing my momma, she would turn her back on Lyric and me. That shit is toxic as hell.”
“Yeah, the sad part is that even if she pressed charges, it still wouldn’t make a difference. You know they don’t care about domestic violence until there’s a body. If I were you, I would make sure you stay strapped at all times. He might get drunk and decide to take his anger out on you or Lyric.”
“I’ll kill his ass dead before I let him hurt my sister. I’m good, though. I copped a gun from Juke when I first started workingfor Gunna. I knew I would need one since I keep my work at Shamya’s house. Who knows who might all be over there.”
“Don’t even bring that bitch up to me. Her and her raggedy ass friend can go to hell. They’ve been playing on Nova’s phone and talking crazy to her and shit.”
“What happened with that situation? Did she ever go to the doctor?”
“I told the bitch to get an abortion a couple of weeks ago. She gave me the run around, so I paid some bitches to jump her ass and stomp on her stomach. You know that ain’t even my style, but I don’t feel bad about it. Her ass couldn’t wait to post about me being a deadbeat because I wouldn’t buy her some bundles. How the fuck could I be a deadbeat when the baby was only two seconds old in her stomach? Then, when I found out she messed with the condoms, I knew she would only make my life hell. It might sound fucked up, but I wasn’t tryna deal with her ass for eighteen years. Good looking out on that, too. Shamya is still a bobblehead bitch, but I’m happy she ended up being a pillow talking hoe.” I laughed, even though he meant what he said.
Shamya and Janiah were friends, but they were the worst kind of friends. The two of them fell out after a trip to Miami, and when they came home, all hell broke loose. On a drunk night, Shamya was so upset she let it slip that she and her friends poked holes in a box of condoms the night of the kickback. I guess they were on a mission to come up by trapping a rich nigga. I should have cut her ass off right then and there, but I needed her for a while longer. Plus, she was one of those bitches who knew everybody’s business, and it came in handy when I needed to get in on an opp.
“I still can’t believe that shit. I’ve heard of bitches doing that weird shit, but I’ve never seen it before. I haven’t fucked her since she let that shit slip. I get my dick sucked and then dip out of there,” I admitted. Shamya might have forgotten all abouther drunken confessions, but I would never forget. Since her revelation, I had been paranoid to fuck anybody. As far as I was concerned, it was safer to jack my dick than to get trapped by someone I didn’t want to start a family with.
Cocoa Puffs:I’m sorry. Issac took me to this youth event at his church, and the service out there was terrible. I have never been in church that long, and I never want to do that shit again.
I breathed a sigh of relief knowing she wasn’t intentionally ignoring me. It was crazy how panicked I was from just a few hours of not being able to contact her. My chest was tight, and my anxiety was through the roof. If anything, this solidified my decision to make things official. There was no more time for games.
Me:I’m glad to know you’re still in the land of the living. You weren’t answering, so I thought I was gonna have to pull up and snatch your ass up.
Cocoa Puffs:I wish you had. You could have faked a family emergency or anything to rescue me.
Cocoa Puffs:How do people sit in a service that long! I’m hungry, sleepy, and possibly dehydrated.
I chuckled as she continued to send me messages about her experience. It might have been wrong, but I was glad to know she had such a bad experience. Maybe it would be easier than I thought to get her away from Issac.
Cocoa Puffs:Are you coming over tonight? I miss my friend. It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever, even though it’s only been a few days.
