Knowing that she’d told me that several of her girls back in 5thWard were into setting niggas up, I read between the lines. If Tae didn’t like TP, then he was susceptible to getting robbed.
“Aye, there go them Scott Block Boys.” TP tapped my shoulder, as he pointed out a local rap group from the south side. They were strolling through the lot, putting Kush in the air.
Personally, I’d gone to school with a few of the cats, and they were just a few years older than me. Their latest single was getting radio play around the city, and their video had premiered on BET, which was supposedly a huge deal.
“What it do, Jahrein?” The leader of the group, Paper, spoke. “’Sup, TP?”
“Hey.” A dude with wire glasses on his face tapped Paper’s shoulder, before speaking in his ear.
Paper was seemingly listening intently, before his eyes landed on Raven, who was still standing between my legs.
“Say, lil’ mama, my producer said that you look perfect to star in our next video. You wanna make some easy money?”
I frowned, before tapping Raven’s thigh. “Watch out, baby.”
Raven stepped aside, allowing me to hop off the hood of my car.
“Say.” I tugged at my sagging shorts. “That aint how a real nigga is supposed to move,” I addressed Paper, looking square in his eyes. “You see her standing here with me. And you just asked her to be in a video. Like I aint standing here. Thisme, nigga.” I pointed at my chest. “And she aint finna pretend to be with nah one of you niggas for some peanuts. Shit, if y’all are really having it, then you should have a bad bitch of your own to be in ya video. Cause you aint finna put on, and pretend with mine, nigga.”
“Jahrein.” Raven gripped my arm. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Paper stood there with a snarl on his face, but didn’t utter a word. He was from the hood, for sure. But he’d been into rapping. Me, on the other hand, I balled on the court, hustled in the streets, and packed that heat. So, he knew exactly how I was coming, if he tried to step out of line.
“Yeah, let’s roll out.” TP coaxed.
I nodded, before spitting on the ground, a few inches away from Paper’s foot.
Untouched, we hopped back into the Cutlass, before I skirted out of the parking lot.
“Say, you got that nigga heated,” TP acknowledged from the backseat. “But he aint say shit, cause he know that he was out of line. Nigga thought cause they buzzing around the city that he aint gotta respect the code. Like that shit was finna fly. These dick riders around here must got his head inflated.”
“So, if he’d asked you first, then I could’ve been in the video?” Raven questioned.
I cut my eyes at her. “You must wanna be in the video.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “I mean, not pretending to be somebody’s girlfriend or nothing. I guess it just depends on what they wanted me to do.”
I shook my head. “It don’t matter what it is. You aint finna be in nobody’s video. Fuck that.”
“Why?” She wanted to know.
“Cause. Then it wouldn’t just be these niggas around the hood, Raven. The whole world could see you. And then what? I gotta fight the whole world to prove my love?”
“What?” She giggled.
“Man, you fucking heard me. I can’t share you with the world like that.”
She kept laughing. “Whatever, Jahrein.” She glanced around the car. “Wait, where are those pictures we took at Tutu’s party?”
“Right here.” I tapped the dashboard.
She leaned over. “So, you got both of the pictures. Let me have one.”
“Nope.”
“Really, nigga? Why can’t I just have one?”
“You do have one. You act like I’m finna drop you off to some separate life you live. We together. If it’s on the dash, then you do have it. It’s in the car, where everybody can see.”
