“No, Baby, I think I know where he is. Sit right here so we can talk.”Oh shit.She pat the little piece of her bed that was clear right beside her. “How’s everything going with you and Brooklyn?”
“I don’t know right now, but Mrs. Smith, you said you needed help finding him and seemed distraught but now you seem ok. What’s going on?”
“Baby, I just want to know how things are with you and my baby. I also said I think I know where he is, so since I’m calm now, I can talk about you two.”
“There’s nothing much to say, really. Brooklyn made things clear a few days ago. I’ve been through a lot already, and I just don’t want to go through the same cycle of feeling like I'm the reason things went left when they were going so right. I like Brooklyn a lot. Let me correct that, I love Brooklyn. Probably too much, Mrs. Smith, but for him to blame me for all of this stuff is crazy. When he knows that’s far from the truth. If he’s hurt because his cousin got shot instead him, then I get that but this misplaced aggression isn’t working for me.”
“I’m going to let him do what’s best for him. I’ll step back and let someone else deal with that before I allow him to hurt my feelings like that again. He never said I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, or nothing Mrs. Smith. He just let me go. Didn’t put up a fight then, so I'm over it now.”
“No, you aren’t, Baby. If you were you wouldn’t have come when I said I couldn't find him. You would have wished his ass well and went on ‘bout yo’ business. You can love someone from a distance so something still has you here and holding on. The fact that you came to help me find him shows that you still careabout my baby. He still cares about you, too, and knows that he made a mistake. A mistake that if you leave him for good, he will spend forever trying to get you back and not trying to forget you. I haven’t seen my son this happy prior to you and now, I haven’t seen him this sad in a long time. When he talked to me this morning to confirm the plan I had to get you here, I could hear it in his voice how nervous he was.”
My head dipped to the side while I stared at her, allowing her words to register to me. “So, all of this—”
“Was all my idea,” she finished. “And I’m not ashamed to say that I lied to get you here but I'll do anything for him.” Mrs. Smith pointed behind me, making me briskly turn around to see Brooklyn sitting in a chair in the corner. When my eyes landed on him, tears immediately clouded my visions. I wasn’t trying to let him think this was all he had to do to win me back over, so I stood to my feet and picked my purse up.
“It was good seeing you again, Mrs. Smith. I’m glad you found your baby, meanwhile I lost mine.” I glanced back at him. “I’ll make sure I come by one day soon to check on you.” I didn’t give her a chance to reply before I was rushing out of the room and down the stairs before my tears had a chance to fall in front of him.
“BRONX, WAIT!” I didn’t think about stopping after Brooklyn called out for me. Getting away from him was what I needed to do, so I tried my best to get to my truck.
To my surprise, I couldn’t even get inside of it if I tried. “Are you serious!” I threw my hands in the air and shouted. Hearing giggles come from the other side of my truck, I walked around to see Jersey, Austyn, and their friends all with empty saran wrap containers in their hands.
“Mama said whatever we do, don’t let you leave before talking to our brother, sooo, yea. Go talk.” Jersey pointed towards Brooklyn, who stood there trying to seem unamused by myRange Rover being wrapped tighter than a too little waist trainer.
“You know what, I don’t even care. Fuck that truck. I can go buy another one.” I started walking down the street while calling my sister to pick me up and didn’t care how loud Brooklyn shouted my name. That only fueled me to start power walking harder than Richard Simmons.
BROOKLYN
“You know I’m crazy, I don’t know why you keep walking away from me.”
“I don’t want to talk to you, Brooklyn. I told you this already and yo’ mama.” Her hands dropped to her sides to form clenched fists of tension. She was upset but damn, now she wanted to knock my head between the sidewalk and the curb.
“Bronx, I’m sorry for real. I ain’t even mean that shit. I was just talking, trying to figure out the shit that’s going on in my head. My mama got me signed up for counseling and everything.”
“Boy, bye! Every nigga in the world that fucks up wanna scream, ‘I’m going to counseling.’ Well, I hope they help you enough for the next woman.” She wagged her finger at me. I stopped walking ‘cause the fuck she was talking about.
I started to speak but huffed out a breath, first. “Baby, I ain’t doing this for nobody else but you. You are the right now woman, the next woman, and my afterlife woman. You’re all I want. Fuck, Bronx stop walking, shit. Got a nigga tired.”
“See, it’s yo’ fault you ain’t catch Teddy, not mine. Ole’ out of shape ass.” When she said that, I yanked her up, threw her over my shoulder, and started walking back to the house. She beat my back in while screaming for me to put her down. That last punch had me dropping her ass in the grass and taking the shoes off her feet. I thought that would make her stop and calm down.
“Boy, I’m country, I stayed walking outside with no shoes on as a kid. You ain’t stopping shit. I’m still leaving.” Getting off the ground, she started walking off again.
“WILLLLMAAA!” I called out when her feet hit the pavement like Fred Flintstone’s wife. She turned around and I could tell that she wanted to laugh so bad but a car pulled up beside her and she tried to jump inside but I caught her.
“Hey, Baby.” Her little sister, Brixie, waved at me, forgetting the whole reason why she was even over there.
“Go head on, Sis, she’s good.”
“Brix, you better not leave me.” Bri was doing her best to get out of my hold, including trying to bite me.
“Brixie, what’s ya Cashapp? I got something for you if you leave and let me talk to yo’ sister.”
“Dolla sign BeBrixie!” she shouted. “Don’t send less than a stack or I'm coming back.”
“Sis, really?” Bri blurted out while still tussling to get away from me. Instead of Brixie replying, she pulled off.
“Bronx just calm down, Baby. I said that I was sorry. I go to counseling tomorrow, how I’m supposed to explain to her what happened today?”
“Tell her you fucked up and yo’ girl no longer gives a flying fuc—” Pulling her close, I pressed my lips against hers while allowing my arms to wrap around her waist. When she stopped fighting me, I knew she was calming down. I didn’t pull back until I felt the tears that rolled down her face, hit my cheeks.
