“Shiddd. You promised me more than that. You told me I could have whatever I wanted, but it’s cool I’ma let you heal all the way up before my twins bust that shit all the way open.”
Her laughter filled the line. She was laughing like I was cracking a joke when I was serious as fuck. Too much was going on and the streets were too big in my life right now for a baby, but when the time came it was up.
We spoke for a while longer before I cut the car off and got out. Right when I was walking up the stairs the front door was opening. I looked up and locked eyes with this nigga Kasey.
“You look aright for a nigga who I thought was a ghost,” he joked.
“Nigga shut up before I go in there and tell grams how you’re still out here dragging her name through the dirt.”
He chuckled. “I ain’t dragging her name through the dirt. That’s her. If she wants to be known as the pool pit ho, I can’t do anything about it. At the end of the day that’s her pussy no matter how old and expired that shit is.”
I joined in on the laughter. Not a day went by when this nigga didn’t talk shit about his grandmother. Then the one time she caught him he still didn’t stop, and she didn’t take offense at all. She just got his ass back and told him that he was just like her. Mrs. Edis wasn’t no joke, and she could crack jokes with the best of them.
“Old ass, but anyway I heard about yo’ moms and I know that’s tough.”
I shook my head because it was no tougher than losing a stray dog. I mean at least that’s what I told myself.
“When my old bird died all I could do was thank God that they didn’t have dope in heaven, that way I knew she was sober at some point in her life even if it was the afterlife.” He said that shit like it was normal and had the fucking audacity to shrug his shoulders afterward.
Then maybe I was fucked up as well because I busted up laughing. I mean literally who thought of some shit like that.
“Anyway, I had to get a smile out of you before I told you the heavy shit. I think I know who hit the block up that day.”
The smile disappeared from my face and immediately I grew serious.
“That nigga Requ and his crew.”
I pulled at the hair on my chin while I took in the scene. “How do you know that?”
“The nigga’s nephew came around the blocks bragging about it. I told Po the next time he came around to snatch his ass.”
I shook my head.
“I just wanted to put you on game and not have you moving without knowing what was going on.
“Good looking out.”
When I made it back to the house, I had already picked up some food and I was dead ass tired. It was something about that drive that had the ability to have me ready to go on the house and knock straight the fuck out. I was fucking exhausted, but for the life of me I didn’t understand why that nigga shot up my whip. I’m from the hood, so I know people do dumb shit for even dumber reasons, but none of that made sense to me. The fact that the nigga went from wanting to cop from me to sending holes through my whip was tragic. I wish I didn’t want to know why, but I did. A nigga needed to know what was up, then it hit me. What if those fucking shots weren’t for me and they did hit their intended target? None of this shit made the least bit of sense to me.
“What has you in here looking crazy?” Surah’s voice and then the feel of her small body wrapping her arms around me interrupted my thoughts.
When she stepped back, she just stood there looking at me for a while. I wasn’t used to sharing my thoughts with anyone, but with her it was something I was working toward getting used to.
“Let me ask you something and don’t get mad at me.”
She nodded about to step out of my embrace, but I caught her wrist.
“That nigga Requ, did you fuck him?” I had to ask because I was trying to put two and two together.
“Um no, why the fuck would you even thi?—”
“No, I don’t think shit. I had to ask. I just heard that he could’ve been the nigga that shot you. I’m just thrown for a fucking loop because he was just trying to cop from me.”
She looked at me for a minute before shaking her head. “It wasn’t him. I saw the eyes, Mari.”
“How do you know, baby? Shit happened so quickly.”
“I notice people’s features for a living. I know eyes, and I know for sure he wasn’t who shot me.”
