My jaw muscle flexed, and I tried to contain my annoyance. “I’ll talk to you when you’re sober.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah, I promise.”
“Okay. I love you, Huncho.”
“Yeah, I hear you.”
Ending the call, I tossed the phone in the passenger seat. That had just annoyed the hell out of me. So, it was my fault she was drunk? I knew a little something about addiction, and I knew that she had a real good chance of relapsing and using heroin when she was already under the influence of something. If she did relapse, I was sure my siblings would blame me.
One thing that pissed me off about my mother was that I could never go to her for support or advice. She was worried about me not talking to her, but I had my own shit going on. An autoimmune disorder, the fact that I couldn’t play the sport that I loved, and my pending court cases.
“I knew that shit was too good to be true,” I chuckled angrily. My mother couldn’t even remain sober for six months.
As I approached a red light, I saw that a popular bar to the left of me had a pretty full parking lot. Glancing at the clock on the dash, I saw that I still had at least thirty minutes before they did the last call for alcohol. I pulled into the parking lot and found an empty parking space. After making my way through the crowd, I spoke to a guy that I knew and kept pushing. At the bar, I ordered two double shots and tossed them back. I wasgoing to wait about ten minutes and order two more. I had a short amount of time to take the edge off.
I was originally from Atlanta, but I knew quite a few people in Diamond Cove. I didn’t really like being known as Hymn’s brother because I wasn’t trying to have to kill a nigga for doing some lame shit like trying to rob me. I knew I needed to be on point, but I just wanted to go home and sleep. If I was asleep, I couldn’t stress. I ordered shots three and four. I swallowed the last of shot four just as the DJ made the last call for alcohol announcement.
“Let me get one more,” I told the bartender. She wasn’t cute, but she was blessing me on the drinks. I asked for double shots, and it seemed like she was giving me triple. I was gon’ tip her ass good for looking out.
Shorty placed a hefty amount of tequila in front of me, and I picked the glass up bracing myself for the burn. I needed something to wash that strong shit down, so I ordered a Coke. After I paid my tab and tipped the bartender, I sat in the car and rolled a blunt. I felt like I was on a roller coaster, and that was exactly how I wanted to feel. Shit, I wasn’t sure I was any better than my mother.
My mother didn’t call me back the day after she reached out to me when she was drunk. I didn’t call her either. Hymn nor Divine had said anything about her falling off the wagon, so I was walking around silently hoping that was a one-time thing. I was on my way to one of two rehearsals because the wedding was real close. Brion had planned a wedding fast as hell.
I knew my mother was supposed to be there, so I indulged in a little cognac before I left the house. We rehearsed for an hourthen we had dinner. From the looks of things my mother was sober, and she was avoiding eye contact with me. I wasn’t sure if she was embarrassed or afraid that I would rat her out, but I wasn’t going to do that. Hymn and Divine looked so proud of her. I felt like I’d be a fucked up person to ruin that for the three of them.
Hymn and Brion gave gift bags to everyone in the wedding party. Inside my bag was a miniature bottle of champagne that had their names and wedding date engraved on the label. There was also a small bag of flavored, gourmet popcorn, a leather, toiletry bag with our names engraved in them, shot glasses with Hymn and Brion’s names engraved on them, and a small, clear package with Josie’s name and website engraved on it. Inside the packaging was a large cookie.
Josie was looking good, but that wasn’t anything new. She was bad for sure. Even their mother was bad. I could see where they got it from. I dug seeing Brion’s parents there together. I didn’t know a lot of people that had been married for thirty plus years. That was some dope shit. Of course, I didn’t know everyone at the rehearsal dinner, and there was one nigga that was in Josie’s face the entire time. I couldn’t even get close enough to say hey because that lame nigga was glued to her hip. I wasn’t sure why the fuck the DJ was chilling at the rehearsal dinner anyway. What did he have to do besides stand behind the table and play music?
He even ended up sitting beside Josie at dinner, and I didn’t like that shit. “You good?” Hymn asked as he took the seat beside me that my grandmother had gotten up out of.
“I’m straight,” I lifted my glass and took a sip. “You ready for your big day?” I tried to take the focus off me.
“As ready as I’ll ever be. Can you believe my ass is about to get married?” Hymn chuckled while staring at Brion’s triplets.They were cool as hell, and I could tell my brother loved them already.
“Nope, but being a family man is a good look on you. Dead ass. I love to see it.”
I was starting to feel all the alcohol I’d consumed while taking advantage of the open bar, so I excused myself to go to the bathroom. As I stood at the urinal relieving my bladder, I felt myself swaying slightly. I was fucked up. The rheumatologist told me that alcohol could worsen any inflammation I had in my body along with possibly damaging my liver even more than it would do a person that didn’t have an autoimmune disorder. I gave no fucks about any of that.
When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw Josie walking out of the women’s restroom right across from the men’s.
“Hey, Huncho,” she smiled.
“Oh, now she speaks. The whole time that lame ass nigga with the overbite was in your face, you didn’t have two words for me. It’s his turn tonight, that’s why you were ignoring me? Or did I do something to give you the ick and make you ghost me like you do them other niggas?” My tone wasn’t confrontational even though my words were bold and borderline disrespectful as fuck.
“You for sure just gave me the fucking ick. Are you cool?” she snapped. “It’s his turn tonight? Huncho you got me fucked up,” she frowned looking me up and down. “You really don’t know how stupid I can get.” Josie was seething.
“You the one so deep off in that nigga’s ass that you can’t even speak but just last week, I was good enough to go to Top Golf with you.”
“I’m not sure if you’re slow, drunk, or stressed. The entire time we were rehearsing, you were either across the room from me, or we were at a place in rehearsal where we couldn’t talk.Being in your feelings isn’t an excuse to be an asshole. That will get you cursed out. Maybe even popped in your face.”
“I’ve been cursed out before,” I stated in a flat tone. “And I pop the fuck back.”
“Clearly you haven’t been cursed out good enough. And as for popping back, me, my sister, and my parents will drag your ass all up through here. I’ll be the last thing you ever pop. Dumb ass,” she hissed as she walked off.
Standing in place, I watched Josie’s backside as she stormed off. I probably did handle the situation wrong but fuck it. That nigga had been in her face. I didn’t lie. As I sat back down at the table, I noticed Isaac watching London who was talking to Brion, Josie, and her parents. I could tell by the way her jaw muscles were flexing that Josie was pissed. One thing was for certain though. Isaac was sitting and regretting what he had lost. Homie was sick. No matter how hard he tried to play it off. I was expecting him to cry at any moment.
