“If you’re thinkin’ this was when we were together, it was not. I never cheated on you. Ever! Didn’t even entertain a bitch while I was wit’ you. Now did I fuck somethin’ after you wouldn’t apologize? I absolutely did. Fuck that bitch so good, I knocked her period on.”
Before I knew it, I slapped the shit out of Whodie, causing him to drop the blunt off the balcony. I walked back in the condo and started snatching my shit up so I could leave. The biggest mistake I made was falling in love with him. It was causing too much distraction.
“Bring yo’ muthafuckin’ ass back here!” Whodie hopped behind me.
I was moving too fast for him. As soon as my hand hit the door, he was snatching me by my pants. When I turned around, all I saw was blood pooling on his clothes. Letting me know that he had put too much pressure on his leg.
“How would you feel if I slapped the fuck outta you? Hmm?” He grimaced. “Adore, I’ll kill you in this bitch if you ever put yo’ muthafuckin’ hands on me again. Are we understood?”
I stood my ground. He popped his shit, but we both knew his ass wouldn’t harm me. Besides jacking me by my shirt the other night, that’s the most he had ever done.
“Can I go now?” I stared him in his eyes.
“No! No, the fuck you can’t just leave when I say shit you don’t wanna hear. You brought the shit to me, so I told you whatthe fuck happened. Why are y’all wired like that? You want the truth, then a nigga give you the truth, y’all turn violent.”
“No, I slapped you because you went into detail. I don’t give a fuck what you do with your dick, Whodie. You’re not my nigga anymore, remember?”
“You care. ‘Cause if you didn’t, then you wouldn’t be standin’ here fightin’ back tears. The same tears I fought back when you said you went on a date. The same tears I fought back when I realized that I’ll never be more than a thug to you. I have feelins’ too. You tend to forget that though.”
And here I was, sitting here cleaning up the blood from his wound. The stitches didn’t bust this time, but it was inflamed.
“You need to go to the hospital and get this seen about. You might need an antibiotic,” I told him.
“Come here,” Whodie said softly.
“Whodie…”
“Adore, bring yo’ ass here, girl.”
I didn’t argue, I got up and sat next to him. We had been arguing and fussing for days, and I missed him.
“My trust wit’ you is fucked up, but kno’ that I would never hurt you intentionally, bruh. I tell you all the time, I’ll die first before harm comes to you. Just ‘cause we mad, it doesn’t change that. My bad for bein’ an asshole earlier. I wanted to hurt yo’ feelins’.”
“It worked,” I shrugged. “I’m sorry for going on a date. If I ever made you feel like you’ll never be husband material, I apologize.”
“You gotta understand somethin’. The streets is all I’ve ever known. When I met you, I was young as fuck and I’ to the money. Our friendship flourished into somethin’ beautiful. A nigga was shootin’ his shot and you wasn’t bitin’. I kept flippin’ through bitches, but I always knew that I was more than that. Bein’ a nigga that was abandoned at a young age showed me what avoid felt like. When I’m ‘round you, the void be gone like a muthafucka,” he laughed. “I don’t wanna fight wit’ you no more. The shit throwin’ us off our game. Let’s focus on what we need to focus on.”
I heard him, but the way he was sounding like there was still no me and him.
“So, are we friends or what?” I asked to clear the confusion.
“What you wanna be, Adore? I’m not ‘bouta be in an on-and-off-again relationship. That’s exhaustin’. I’m cool wit’ bein’ friends and we see where the shit goes.”
That’s not what I wanted, but I agreed.
“Okay, cool. But can we go to the hospital and get your leg seen about?”
“My leg is fine. Back to business. This morning, I rolled up on two of Mazi’s boys. They run the small trap spot on the north side. Now that I think of it, that was dumb as fuck for me to roll up over there. Nigga could’ve caught me slippin’.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, it was early, and it worked out in my favor. Just expect more heat ‘cause I burned that nigga lil’ shit down to the ground. I’m ready to be on whatever he’s on. When we take this nigga out, we can go back to enjoyin’ the fruits of our fuckin’ labor.”
It was a good thing that kept this shit at the friend level because I was working my own shit on Mazi. One thing I learned from my brother and Love is that nigga fall for a beautiful woman. After speaking with Hollow, he agreed for me and Love to draw the nigga out. Love was absolutely stunning. I’m talking, walk in a room and take your breath away. I knew as soon as Mazi laid eyes on her, he’d fall. So far, no one had seen his face. The city wasn’t all that big, and I just knew that at any moment an unfamiliar face would come from the shadows, and when it did, I would be waiting.
After getting Whodie comfortable, I headed to Hollow’s house to discuss my plans for his wife. He had already warned me that if he had to step in, the whole city would be red about Love. Shit, we all knew that, which is why I wanted to run it by him first. Hollow was waiting for me when I pulled up.
“Heard you a nigga whole I out here,” he greeted.
