“She slick hinting! She knows what she’s doing!” I shouted.
“Who? What . . . what happened?”
“Amora!” I snapped. “She posted this picture online of the baby with a caption to my song. She know what the fuck she doing!”
“Oh my God, what?” she replied. “I’m ’bout to go look now. She messy as fuck, for real!”
I wrapped my fingers tighter around the phone as I continued to scroll through the comments. That shit got real, then.
“Ken, I’ll call you back.”
“Zay—”
I hung up before she could protest.
I stared at the post again and felt the anger steam from my head.
Princess hated social media, and she hated mess. She did not like strangers who had opinions about her life as if they paid rent in it.
And here we were. Again.
A text from Kam flashed across my screen. I tapped it and read.
Kam: You need to tell Princess before she sees it.
Me: I know
Then, I spoke out loud. “I know.”
Kam sent another message.
Kam: What you want to do now?
I just stared at it with my fingers hovering like I could press the right button and undo everything. Before I could reply, another message popped up. This time, it was from Amora.
I opened it.
Amora:You ready to talk?
I stared at the words until they blurred.
10
Isat in the driveway with my phone in my hands, my hands on my lap. The engine was off, and the only noise came from the wind that gently blew outside. The porch light cast a warm, yellowish glow over the front door, making it look peaceful.
As if I didn’t have a whole storm in my chest.
Kennedy’s words replayed in my head.Don’t wait too long. Don’t let her find out from somebody else.
I swallowed and forced myself out of the car. Before I even reached the door, it swung open. Princess stood there barefoot with a hoodie pulled over her head. She leaned against the frame with a blank expression.
My heart dropped to my stomach. I justknewthat I had been caught. I wanted to plead and beg, but nothing came out. My face must have twisted because the next thing I knew, her brows furrowed.
“Dang, what’s wrong with you?” she asked. “You lookin’ like you seen a ghost!”
I took a deep breath and paused. I waited for her to scream at me, cry, maybe even cuss me out. Instead, the look on her face let me know she was confused. Did she know? Or was I just paranoid? Maybe it was my guilty conscience.
“You . . . oh, um, I don’t know.” I sounded stupid. I sounded just like a nigga that had been caught up. I cleared my throat and straightened my stance. “You just opened the door; I didn’t expect that.”
