As I drove to Justice’s house we talked about everything under the sun. It felt good having her by my side and I was done fighting love. I wanted that life with her.
When we got to his home, we knocked and he answered after a couple of minutes.
“Yo, come get yo’ niece before I lock her in her room forever,” he laughed as he dapped me up.
“Baby girl givin’you a headache?”
“Baby girl ain’t no baby. She fourteen going on twenty-four. Wsup, MeMe, how you feelin’?” Justice asked her as he gave her a deacon side hug. Nigga knew not to put his chest against my girl’s titties.
“I’m better. Where’s my brother?” She asked.
“In the basement.” She ran off to him, greeting my nieces Storie and Dream on the way.
I looked at Storie. “Fourteen?! When did you turn fourteen…? I thought you was like eleven, twelve?” I laughed.
Sassily she rolled her eyes at me. “See, you all treat me like a child. Iusedto be twelve and you have not acknowledged that I’ve gotten older. I want to be treated like an adult.”
“Girl, get the fuck out of here,” I laughed.
“You see what I mean?”
“Awww, stop cussing!” Dream chastised me as she ran over to give me a hug.
“My bad, sweetie.”
“Anyways, Daddy, I’m just saying, I’m not a baby anymore. So what if I posted a picture of me in a bikini on SnapChat. It’s my body, my choice.”
So that’s what was up. The room grew silent as I watched the rage play across Justice’s face. I was beyond perturbed about hearing that Storie posted sexy pictures online, but I wasn’t her father. He got first reign at disciplining her.
“Give me your phone,” he demanded.
“Ugh, here!” Storie tossed it on the table.
“Lil girl, you done lost your mind,” Justice picked up the phone and then dropped it down the garbage disposal with a menacing glare burning in his eyes.
“What the hell, Daddy!?”
“You don’t talk that way to me or throw shit at me! Go to your goddamn room!”
She stood there with her arms crossed and her eyebrow cocked as if to say,I wish you would.
“I ain’t gon’ say it again. I will drag your ass up there and lock you the fuck away until 2030.”
“I hate it here!” She whined as she stomped away and marched upstairs.
“Yoooo… What the fuck was that?”
“She’s been acting like this for a couple of weeks. I’m about to send her to that all-girls boarding school where Serenity went,” Justice said, rubbing his temples. “I swear to God.”
“Nah,” I said. “Serenity ain’t been right since then.”
“Something gotta change. I might homeschool her and have her sit in the office with me if she don’t turn that bullshit attitude around.”
Justice led us downstairs to the finished basement where Bryce was set up. Justice had given the kid a pullout couch, a TV, a mini fridge stocked with drinks and snacks, and a bathroom with a shower. It was comfortable. More comfortable than whatever apartment he’d been living in off Georgia Ave, and definitely more comfortable than the chair he’d been zip-tied to in Mekhi’s basement.
“You good?” Mehar asked.
“I’m good, sis. They been treating me right.” He glanced at me and Justice. “Your people are solid.”
