He bites into his lip while the cool cup melts in his hand. “Yeah, I’ll sit with her for a few.”
I wait for the who, what, when, and where speech to come like it would’ve back in the day, but I’m being too hopeful.
“A’ight, cool.” I drop my hands at my sides. “Call if you need something, I guess?”
“Mhmm.” He hums, cocking his head to the side. “Get out the way.”
I smack my lips and walk off.
“Fat girl?” he calls out behind me.
“Yeah?”
“Tell that nigga to take it easy today.” He slurps another chunk of ice in his mouth. “I know a few brave dudes that fell before.”
His words make me choke on my tongue until Bryson bursts through the front door, gasping to catch his breath. “C’mon, Mar!”
* * *
Gus talksin grunts on Saturday mornings.
He doesn’t ask why he had to pick me up a block away from my house and he doesn’t get Mama’s permission before I get in his backseat like he promised her. He just grunts a “hello,” a “buckle up,” and curses about therassclatpotholes in the streets.
The ride to Upper Kirby is so quiet I hear the little creaks and thumps the truck makes along the highway. There’s not even jazz playing to drown out the noise from traffic.
I count the grey hairs on his head to pass the time. I think there’s forty-two of them. The last one sneaks out of my eyesight when he whips down Kirby, so I don’t know if there’s forty-two or forty-three grey hairs.
“Here we are, meh dear,” he grunts, pulling to a rough stop in front of Ace’s building.
“Thank—”
I don’t get the rest out before he turns around in the driver’s seat and dangles a key fob in my face.
“Here.” He sucks his teeth. “Junior says stop leaving it in here. He says dat’s how tings get lost.”
“Uh... that’s not my key, Gus.”
“Tell him dat. Meh just relaying his message as requested.”
I frown, curling my hand around the fob and taking it.
“Yuh know how tuh use it?”
“Yeah.” I nod, gripping my backpack and pushing the back door open before he can.
He hops out of the front seat while I stare at the high-rise shooting into the sky.
It’s not like the first day I came here and Ace stood on the curb waiting. The bustling traffic and people walking the sidewalks don’t entice me like they did that day, because I’m too focused on getting up to the fifty-sixth floor by myself. Being grown is lonely.
Gus stands beside the back door. “Phat?”
“Yeah?”
He swipes his hand, motioning for me to get out. “Hold de fob against de box by de door. It’ll unlock it.”
He smiles for the first time since I met him idling in front of a random house in my neighborhood. It’s not a real one though. His eyes aren’t sparkling enough for it to be real.
“Okay,” I croak out, climbing out of the truck with my childish backpack in tow and a stomach full of excited butterflies anticipating Ace to round them up, but my mind isn’t in sync with my body. Those fluttering butterflies don’t understand something isn’t right. Gus didn’t have any stories to tell me about Ace on the ride here and I still didn’t get what Marcus meant back in the living room at home.
