“So jumpy, Luna. Are you good?” Cole’s voice made me look directly at him.
He had a smirk on his face like he knew something that I didn’t. Instead of taking a seat at the table near the door today he opted for the counter. Slowly but surely something about him wasn’t sitting well with me.
“The usual, Cole?” I asked.
“No, I’d like to try something different. How about a mango-banana smoothie?” His voice had an odd tone to it.
“Coming right up.” The thing is something in me refused to turn my back on him. His vibe was off. I mean it had never been on, but something about him was unlike any other moment I had ever encountered him.
“Let me ask you something,” he spoke again. His voice filled the space that was void of anybody other than he and I.
“Ask away.” He usually didn’t talk this much.What the fuck was his deal?
“When is the last time you’ve talked to your father?”
The moment he said father I dropped the utensils in my hand, and I had my gun aimed in his direction.
“Woah! No need to get so jumpy, Lunarius. I hope you really didn’t believe that you were under the radar.” He didn’t move, instead his dark eyes stared into mine.
I pushed the nose of the gun into his forehead. “Who sent you?”
“Why? Are you afraid that there are more sleepers in your life waiting for activation?”
“Who the fuck sent you?” I loaded one into the chamber ready to send it through his head.
“You wo?—”
The sound of the door opening filled the space. I couldn’t risk taking my eyes or gun off Cole, so I hoped to hell whoever walked in saw the scene but decided to turn around and mind their business.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Knoxx's voice filled the storefront.
Fuck!
Chapter Ten
North
Life always has a way of going on…
I don’t think I ever experienced a November quite like this one. Instead of the cold and polarizing temperatures it was mid-seventies with a slight breeze. Too bad my reasoning for being outside was as sad as it was. Too bad life was dangling loss right before a nigga’s eyes and all I could do was witness it. Too bad life insisted on being so fucked up right now. Depression stained the air and the raw emotion sullied everything else. I glanced around the burial site once more before my eyes rested on Namari’s back. He stood near the rose gold casket with his arms at his sides. I know he was attempting to be strong, and the stillness in his posture was his way of trying to hide his anguish. I couldn’t imagine the pain that lived in his bones. The devastation that he exhaled was contagious. No matter how many times I reminded myself that death was a part of life, it just never felt real. It never felt like a regular occurrence no matter how often it happened. I always tried to remind myself that one day we’d all die, but that didn’t make this any better, nothing could make this better.
I glanced up at the sky, before I shook my head and decided this was enough. I couldn’t control the grief of the people around me, but I could protect them from themselves and not allow them to stand in this spot and continue to torture themselves with the heavy what ifs. I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel because I always knew this day would come. Life wasn’t forever for any of us, so this was no surprise. When I got the call that my mother was laid up on a metal slab in the basement of a hospital in Arkansas, first, I wondered what the hell she was doing there, but then again drugs would drag a person to the North Pole if they could get there. I mean she couldn’t have died at a worse time if you asked me. Plus I don’t think it was possible for a nigga to send a request up to the big homie above. Not only was my brother going through some shit with what happened to Surah, but Niema was in that weird ass teenage phase. Then I was here fucked up trying to find myself with the woman next to me. I mean we’re together, but we’re not together. Sometimes it just felt like we were existing in the same space and experiencing the same highs and lows.
“Baby.”Omyia’s voice broke my intense thoughts.
I glanced down at her seconds before my mind registered her hand on my back.
“Are you good over here?”
I nodded. “Why wouldn’t I be? Death is unavoidable. She made a choice.”
I felt Ommy’s eyes on me before she offered me a dejected okay, then she informed me that she was about to go check on Niema. Before she could fully walk away, I caught her arm and pulled her into me. I leaned down and pecked her lips, before pulling back. “I’m good mama. Let her know we’re about to head out.”
She looked at me and nodded her head. Then she walked away leaving me to stare at my brother’s back. He was feelingthis more than any of us. I know that because he felt her abandonment more than either of us. Her longest stint sober was during his childhood. He bonded with her the longest, before he looked up and she chose the drugs over him too.
By the time we made it back to the car my brother seemed to pull it together. I spoke with him briefly, before he got into his truck and left. It didn’t take long for us to be pulling off behind him. I gave the graveyard one last look before I focused on getting my ass out of here. It was probably fucked up, but I didn’t plan on ever visiting this graveyard again. It wasn’t because I had some deep ass problem with her, but because I was used to not seeing her. When they asked me to fly out to see her body, I refused because why waste a flight? She had died without me seeing her, so why did I have to see her later? I was perfectly fine with the last image of her that I had.
“What are you thinking about?” Ommy’s voice broke through the heaviness of my thoughts once again.
