When the door opened, the lights came on inside the car, and I could see him wiping his face, as if he had been in the car, sleeping.
“Wake up nigga! Fuck is you sleeping on the job for?” I asked it in a serious way, but I was just messing around with him.
“Chill. A nigga wasn’t sleep. Just resting my eyes a little bit. I didn’t expect you to come back so soon. You good? I’m about to take you to the other spot?” he asked, turning his head around, so that his eyes could be on me.
“No. I’m done for the night. You can take me home,” I let him know.
You saw it in his eyes that he was confused that I was turning in so early. It was only 11 at night. Usually, shit would begin to pick up at this time. Mitch never really got in my business like that, so I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t ask me why I was finished with my workday so soon tonight.
He turned around, and he drove the car in silence. So many things were swarming through my mind right now. Every time I would close my eyes, there would be visions of Rakim’s dead body. It wasn’t that I was scared, but I felt as if I’d looked at his body for too long, and now I couldn’t get that fuckin sight out of my head. That’s why I was upset that Dolo sent me home tonight because at least if I was able to continue working, moving around, I wouldn’t have to think about what just went down in that trap. It was going to linger on my mind all night now.
Mitch eventually pulled up to Ari’s house, and I thanked him for the ride. With the money that I was making now with Dolo, honestly, I was able to move out and get my own spot. I kind of hinted at it the other day to Ari, and that girl damn near threw a fit when I said it. Ari didn’t want me to move. She told me all the time that she enjoyed me living with her. We only saw each other during the day because at night, we would both be away from the house, working. Even on those nights where she was off, I was typically gone.
I knew that it was going to break Amir’s heart the day that I moved out. My little cousin loved that I was living with him,and his mom, and he told me all the time that he never wanted me to move. I was comfortable living with Ari. I had my own room, own bathroom, and everything, but it was time for me to experience living on my own.
I let myself inside the house, disabled the alarm, and locked the door behind me. I stepped out of the tennis shoes that I was wearing, held them in my hands, so that I could take them upstairs, and put them in the closet. I needed to take a shower. I had to wash my hair and everything. Sins were on me, and I needed to scrub them off.
Now that I was in my room, I placed the shoes in the closet, and right when I stood in front of my dresser, for whatever reason, my eyes zeroed in on the small picture frame that was sitting there, that held a picture inside of my brother and I. I picked the picture up, held it with both hands, and I stared at us. I stared at the love, and the bond. The way I was smiling in that picture, as Roman had his arm wrapped around my neck, proved how strong my love for him was. I missed him to pieces.
I knew that if I stared at this picture for too long that I was bound to get in my feelings, so I placed it back down on the dresser, and I pulled out the drawer that held my pajamas, and once I had a set, I tossed it on the bed. I grabbed a pair of panties as well that I dropped on the bed, and I walked into the bathroom, so that I could take a shower.
Before I even started scrubbing my body, I just stood under the water, allowing the steaming hot water to beat against my skin. I was directly under the shower head, so my hair was getting wet, just like I wanted it to. It’s almost like my mind was on overdrive right now. I was thinking about it all. I thought about the doctor’s appointment that Dolo took me to the other day. I was able to get all the information from Ari and book the appointment online. I wasn’t playing with Dolo’s ass. I made that damn appointment on the way to Uzi’s class, right afterhe grabbed the plan b for me. When I booked the appointment online, I made it clear that I wanted the IUD inserted in me the same day that I went in.
I thought that they wouldn’t be able to do it the same day because that’s what Ari told me. She said when she had hers inserted, that her first appointment was more so a consultation, and that they had to schedule another appointment for when they would insert it.
I guess God was on my side when I went because they had the device in stock and was able to do it for me the same day. I really don’t know if I was just dramatic, and I had a very low pain tolerance, but that shit hurt. It was uncomfortable, and painful. I felt pressure, and discomfort. Hours later, that shit brought on cramping that had me in the bed that entire night. I didn’t even work with Dolo that night. We haven’t had sex since the IUD was placed in me because I was too afraid to. Even with him getting ready to pull up on me tonight, I doubt we have sex because I could tell that he was upset about what had gone down tonight.
I eventually finished up in the shower. I was in here for over thirty minutes because I wasted so much time just standing under the water, plus I needed to wash my hair, and that took up majority of the time. Now, I was out, with a towel wrapped around my body, and another one wrapped around my head.
I went over to the sink, so that I could brush my teeth, and wash my face. Once I finished with that, I went out into my bedroom, so that I could add lotion and oil to my body, and I slipped into my pajamas. The next part was the part that I absolutely hated, but I knew that I needed to tend to my hair now because if I didn’t, I was going to regret it in the morning. What I needed to do to my hair wasn’t a long process, but it was tedious and I just hated doing it.
I had to go through it section by section, applying the curly hair products that my mom recommended for me. I detangledmy entire head, and each section that I went through, I put big twist. The curls would just hit better in the morning, once I allowed the twist to sit in overnight.
Once I finished up, I straightened up the room a little bit, the bathroom, and then I got in bed. I really didn’t know if Dolo was coming over tonight. I mean, he said he would, but I wasn’t too sure. I hung the phone up on him, so his ass was probably mad at me about that.
I kept dozing off, trying to stay up for him, just in case he called. I eventually got into a deep sleep, but the sound of my phone vibrating on the bed woke me up. My room was pitched dark, but I could see the clock on my nightstand, seeing that it was after two in the morning.
I looked at my phone, and Dolo’s name was flashing on the screen. Groggy, I went ahead, and answered, putting the call on speaker.
“Hey,” my voice came out raspy.
“Open the door. I’m outside,” he said.
“I’m coming,” and with that, I hung the phone up.
I climbed out of the bed, and I walked over to the light switch on the wall, turning the light on in the room. I slipped on my house shoes, walking through the house, making my way over to the front door. I disabled the alarm, looked out of the peephole, just to make sure that it was him, and it was.
He stood on the other side of the door, dressed in all black, with his hands inside his pockets, waiting on me. I opened the door for him, and he stood there with a look on his face that wasn’t too readable. Any time that Dolo would see me after not being around me for a few hours, you could see the excitement in his eyes. I didn’t get that look from him tonight. Behind his prescription Prada glasses, there were just his normal brown eyes that looked a little tired from running the streets all night.
I stepped back, so that he could walk inside the house. Once he was in, he reached back to look the door. I walked closer to him, and while I looked up at him, he looked down at me. I raised my arms, putting them around his neck, and I jumped up, so that he could carry me. His hands went for my ass, holding me there, and he walked us, knowing his way through the townhouse, taking me to the back, where my room was. He walked with me up the stairs and everything.
Instead of sitting on my bed, he chose to sit down on the ottoman, that was directly in front of the bed. He lowered me into his lap, having me straddle him. His hands were still glued to my ass, as he watched me intensely. We still hadn’t spoken two words to each other. He had his own thoughts, and I had mine. It felt like it was tension though, so I went ahead, and released a sigh, so that I could get down to the problem that I felt we had.
“Why I feel like you’re mad at me for handling a problem that you had within your organization? Did you talk to Leon, and them when you got to the trap? If you did, then they would have told you the reason why I had to kill Rakim. That nigga was on the phone, upset that he didn’t turn you over to the feds when he got the chance! What is it that you like to tell me? A thank you would be nice, right? Well, in this case, a thank you would be nice, nigga!” I snapped, pushing him because the more I talked, the angrier the situation made me.
I hate that feeling of knowing that I did a favor for someone, or I caught something for them before the situation could blow up and feeling like I’d gotten their ass to kiss. That’s how Dolo made me feel in this moment, so I stood up from his lap, wanting to get away from him for a few seconds.
“Chill the fuck out. Did I walk in this bitch and tell you that I was mad at you? No! You on ten right now, Riot. Give a nigga time to process what the fuck happened tonight at the spot.Damn. I was going to thank you for handling it. I ain’t mad at you for how you handled it. I talked to Leon, and they told me why you did what you did. I’m mad at the fact that you even had to do it, feel me? Every other week, I feel like the business is undergoing more bullshit. I got this shit going on with dem 9 boyz, a nigga that was supposed to be like a brother to me was stealing from me, and now this. I hate that things keep happening, and when it does happen, you always get caught right in the middle of it,” he went on, and the last part of his sentence stood out to me, over everything else that he said.
