“Solo will help you with whatever you need,” I told her as she handed me my phone back, with her contact info on the screen.
“Okay. You know… you… you didn’t have to?—”
“Don’t mention it. He gon’ hit you in about an hour or something.”
“Okay,” she softly said, the moisture in her eyes building.
From inside, I heard someone whisper, calling her name. It was a dude. She sighed, shook her head and thanked me again. I nodded, told her to listen out for the call and walked off. A couple of seconds later, I heard the door close and right after that, her yelling.
As I jogged down the creaky stairs, my phone went off. I fished it from my pocket and frowned at yet another text message from Jada. It’d been two days since she pulled that goofy shit with her pops and she’d been trying to explain her actions since. She was tiptoeing around the crib too, not recording as much as she used to. That shit threw me off so bad, I hadn’t looked at her the same way since.
Instead of checking the message, I put the phone back into my pocket and continued towards the whip, head on a swivel. Onmy way there, I got looks. Heard whispers. Sent a couple of head nods. Exodus Christ in The Woods was a rare sighting.
I didn’t fuck with The Woods. It was full of hood rats, and a bunch of broke ass niggas looking for either a lick to hit or a handout. Because niggas knew to tread lightly around me, they were never dumb enough to even think about trying me on that lick shit. They didn’t try me at all—on any level. Niggas knew that if they needed a handout their best bet was to hit Solo at the church. Not fuckin around in The Woods was more about the environment than it was about the people. It was dirty. A sad ass sight to take in. There was a baby in a shitty diaper, crackheads smoking or shooting up, fights and rats at damn near every turn. The only time I actually fucked around out here was when I was on some community building shit. Something Solo dragged me into to settle a lifelong debt. Other than that, you would never catch me posted up out this bitch.
“What up Big Dawg” Spoke one of the fiends.
I chucked my chin. “What up, baby? You smooth?”
She scratched at her arm. “Hell naw. Tryin to get a lil somethin’ from Hood but,” she paused and waved me off. “I ain’t got enough and my credit ain’t good wit ‘em.”
In other words, Hood didn’t want head from her disgusting ass. Which shit, I didn’t blame him. She had for sure seen better days. Her light skin was dry and blotchy as hell, covered in dark spots and track marks. Her eyes was jaundiced, lips crusty, and she was skinny as hell. She was a mess. Exactly what you would expect a fiend to look like.
“Straight? Must mean you don’t need shit,” I said, getting ready to get into the car.
She approached me. “You ain’t got ten I can hold?”
“Ten you canholdhuh?” I snorted. “Hell naw.”
“Come on?—
I shot her a look that sent her crackhead ass the other way.
I did a lot of shit but supplying the funds for a mafuckas drug habit was where I drew the line.
When I got into the car, my phone rang. I wasn’t surprised to see that it was Jada. With a deep breath, I dragged my hand down my waves and answered.
“Yo?”
“Now you ignoring me?”
I pressed the start button on the car. “Busy as hell. What up?”
She sucked her teeth. “Too busy to read my messages?”
I didn’t say anything. Sparked fire to the blunt waiting in my ashtray and pulled off.
‘Exodus!”
“Say what you need to say, J,” I said, pulling from the blunt.
“I was just sayin,” she paused, how nervous she was heavy in her tone. “You haven’t let me explain and?—
“You’ve explained. Too many damn times.”
“You ain’t hearin’ me tho’, X. I?—
“You want me to condone and understand good, bird shit?—
