East and I were both laughing as they all took their seats and made a toast. Noodle no longer cared about us being on the phone as she was living it up with a mouth full of donut.
“Alright, y’all are interrupting our date. We picked her up from Mom’s house so she could take care of some business. We’ll more than likely have her when y’all get back home,” Aunt Pam informed us.
“Is everything okay? I know she didn’t pass my daughter off so she could run around with the deacon.” East scoffed.
“Umm, no. She—uhh needed to go check on a family member. I—umm, I’m gonna call y’all later. Can’t keep my girls waiting.” She hung up the phone before we could say anything else.
“Did she seem off to you?” I asked to make sure I wasn’t tripping.
“Yeah, they’re hiding something, but I’m not gonna worry about it. If she wanted me to know, she’d tell me. You ready to hit the mall?” he whispered in my ear, letting his lips trail down my neck. I stood there frozen, relishing the moment. East wasn’t the PDA type, so it caught me off guard.
“Hell yeah. I need to know what my limit is, so I know where I want to spend it.”
“Limit? What type of lame ass niggas are you used to? We don’t do limits over here, baby. I work too fuckin’ hard to be on a budget. If you want it, get that shit.”
I shifted my body so we were facing each other. He leaned down and kissed my forehead, then rested his against mine.
“Thank you for the flowers and my Stitch plushie. I’m telling you now, I’m not sharing it with your daughter. I don’t care how much her little butt cries,” I warned.
“It’s all good. You already know if my baby wants something I’ma go get it. Both of my babies.” The smirk on his face made me blush.
“You spoil us too much. Nobody else is gonna want to put up with us.”
East pulled back with a deep frown on his face. “Good, because y’all are mine. Nobody has to deal with y’all except me,” he declared coolly.
There was something on my mind, but I wasn’t sure how to express it. On one hand, I wanted to know the truth, but there was a part of me that feared what the truth meant for us.
“Valor showed me an interesting article in the paper. There was a really bad accident this morning, and three NFL players died.” Our eyes were locked on one another as I tried to read his body language.
“Oh, yeah? How do you feel about it?” His face was emotionless as he observed me.
“I feel sorry for their families, but people die every day.”
He nodded, allowing his eyes to linger on me a while longer as if he was waiting for something else.
“You never know when it’s gonna be your last day. One minute you could be living it up, and the next you’re on a T-shirt. It’s the circle of life, I suppose. Hopefully, there’s a heaven for bitch ass niggas.” He shrugged. “I may not always agree with the decisionsyou make, but I’m always gonna show up when you need me. Believe that.”
I wrapped my arms around him, taking in his scent. I never thought I would have someone in my life who cared for me the way my big brother had, but for the first time in a long time, I felt protected.
One Year Later
“Earth to East!” Zenia snapped her fingers in front of my face while I sat on the hood of my homie Lips’ Camaro. They were having a car show and a festival in Jonah Hills, so we all decided to slide through.
The weather was nice as hell, and there were people everywhere. I wasn’t too keen on being around large groups of people, but I liked to enjoy myself from time to time. My plan was to bring Lyric and Noodle, but her little ass decided to ride with her funky ass friends. Before I left the house, I told her ass not to wear nothing too crazy, but there I was watching her dancing with her friends, wearing some short ass coochie cutter shorts. I didn’t like to show my ass in public, but shorty wanted to test my gangsta.
“What’s up, Zen?” I blew smoke in her direction as she stood between my legs. We fucked around from time to time, but I had slowed down with my communications with her and all the other bitches I normally fucked with. This shit was old, and I was ready to lock in with my girl.
“You haven’t called me in weeks, and then when I text you, your responses are always dry. You don’t fuck with me anymore?” she questioned with her lip poked out. I took a moment to observe her thick frame. I always fucked with bad bitches, and Zenia was no different. She was a pretty bitch, and she knew it. Her fat ass made her jeans look as if they were painted on, and I almost considered going back on my word. It wasn’t worth it, though. I loved having peace in my home, and it was time to get it right.
“My bad. I’ve been traveling and shit, tryna get these businesses up and runnin’,” I explained, taking another pull from my blunt.
I had a habit of peeping at my surroundings in the middle of a conversation due to my paranoia. Twelve was all over the place, but I wasn’t tripping because I knew better than to act a fool in public. I couldn’t say the same for the rest of these niggas.
“Yeah, tell me anything. You don’t have enough time for me, but I’ve seen you all over that young bitch’s IG page. You swear you’re single, but it doesn’t seem like she’s putting a gun to your head when y’all are posing for those family pictures. You act like more than a baby daddy to me.”
I chuckled, listening to Zenia ramble out her insecurities. In the time we had been messing around, she had questioned me about Lyric more than once. I never gave her a straight answer simply because there wasn’t anything going on at the time. I didn’t understand why women could never be satisfied with their position in a nigga’s life. When we first started fucking around, I made it clear I wasn’t interested in anything outside offucking, and she told me that was all she wanted as well. Now all of a sudden, she was blowing my phone up and questioning me about every bitch she heard I was messing around with, as if it was her place.
“Why would I have an issue with her posting pictures of me spending time with my daughter? Do I look like a deadbeat ass nigga to you?”
