“Mama, one pepperoni missing won’t be noticed. I’m hungry as shit.” She grabbed another pepperoni from the double pepperoni pizza on the stove.
“You shouldn’t be hungry child, didn’t you just leave a funeral. Did they not have food after?”
“I’m sure they did, but Jasmine wanted to get away from there. We left early because of how people were staring at us.”
“Oh, well I am sure they were just looking to see how hard you were taking it, Jasmine. It’s not your fault; you guys were robbed. Shit, people get robbed every day in this city, and unfortunately, sometimes it ends in death.”
“You’re right, and I keep trying to tell myself that.”
I replied, and Miss Keisha touched me on my shoulder.
That was one of the hardest parts about what I was going through. Having to pretend that I was a victim of a robbery with Trey, which never actually happened. I’d even had to lie to the police on several occasions, making them search for a white male perpetrator that did not exist.
“I’m glad you two girls are here because I now have someone to taste test this oxtail pizza I just came up with.”
“Oxtail Pizza?” Maleka questioned her as soon as those words left her mouth.
“Yes, oxtail pizza. I had a few oxtails left from dinner two days ago and decided to thaw them and put them on a pizza with two types of cheese, bell pepper, a little brown gravy, and onion. I think it’s going to be good.”
“I don’t know, Mama, it may be doing too much. But give me two slices.” She and I laughed because she was so full of shit. I was, however, proud of my girl for all the weight she’d lost since last summer. She was walking to work, not eating sweets,and staying away from carbs. It seemed to have paid off, too. She was getting finer and finer every time I saw her.
When the buzzer on the timer went off, Miss Keshia pulled out the pizza, sliced it into four squares since it was a square pizza, and served it to us with a cold glass of her grape Kool-Aid. I don’t know if I was just hungry or if this pizza was that good, but I tore my slice up and went for a second one. To me, this was the recipe to get them out of the hood.I can’t wait to tell Crew he needs to order one of these.
After I finished the pizza, Rj started tugging on my shirt.
“Mama, can I go outside and play?”
“Rj, we are about to go soon and it's chilly out today baby.”
“Bitch, let my nephew go and play for a minute. He has on a coat, he will be fine. We can step into my room and partake while he’s out there with the other kids.” She motioned like she had a blunt up to her mouth. Maleka smoked way more than I did. I actually wasn’t a big fan of smoking weed these days since I smoked a blunt with Crew and he had hell getting me out of the corner of his house one night. He knew I was scared of birds, and he told me one had landed on my shoulder after smoking one of the biggest blunts ever. It took me an hour and two cold showers to calm down. All I remember was feeling feathers on my neck and hearing Crew laugh uncontrollably like a jack ass.
Maleka and I went into her bedroom, sat on the bed, and lit the blunt. I only took two hits before I was already done with this shit.
“Bitch you tap out like me when I’m getting too much dick from the back.” Maleka exhaled a cloud of smoke.
“See you, different from me. I would never tap out from too much dick. But I don’t even want to think about dick right now. I know I won’t be getting any for a long fuckin time.”
“Girl, don’t say that,” Maleka replied, waving a flame over the end of the blunt to relight it.
“I’m sure you will find someone as soon as you take your ass in the fuckin grocery store.”
“No, I won’t because I am not looking for anyone. I think I am going to be single for a very long time.”
“Well, girl, I don’t blame you on that one,” she replied, exhaling the blunt smoke.
The room door opened, and Maleka’s mama stuck her head in. “Jasmine, RJ’s daddy, Reggie is out there.”
I rolled my eyes and stood up from the bed, walking out towards the front door. When I came out, Reggie had our son in his arms, holding him like a baby.
“Jasmine, why the fuck do you got him out here by hisself? Oh, I can smell why. You been in there getting high?” he snapped before I could get one word out. This was typical of Reggie, who was a bitter baby daddy. Always ready to argue because he couldn’t control me. That was one thing he made me not like years ago, before I even met Trey. I’m way too strongminded for a nigga like him, and that’s why we didn’t work out.
“First of all, he was out here playing with the kids in the neighborhood. He’s only been out here for about two minutes. What the fuck are you doing over here anyway?”
“You know my fuckin aunt lives three houses down from here. That’s how I met your ass in the first place, remember.”
He reminded me of something I honestly didn’t even think about. That summer, I was really getting busy and just doing shitwith any nigga that I found semi-attractive. Back then, Reggie had dreads, a job at the cleaners, and a car he took Meleka and me everywhere in at the time. I gave him some coochie, and his ass went crazy. He was the prime example of why you can’t give a lame nigga no play.
“And why does my son have on church clothes? Don’t tell me you took him to that nigga funeral today?”
