Page 52 of Just Like Summer

Ekho laughed as a lopsided smile formed over his face. “I tried to rob this nigga at a stop light.”

“Tried?” Cairo posed, a joke in his tone. “He an easy mark.”

“Yeah but then he looks at you and says some shit like, how long you gon’ be doing this gang shit? You wanna die in this shit?”

Cairo laughed, remembering Fahaad’s mini speech. “Yeah, heard that shit.”

“While he was trying to figure out if he was robbing my ass or not,” Fahaad rumbled, looking back at Kamilla. “He didn’t rob me, though. Good man you got.”

She smiled faintly. “Yeah, he is.”

Ekho barely looked over his shoulder and gave a half nod of approval. Kamilla spotted that glint – longing. There was something back in Port East he left behind. “It’s gettin’ sweet as hell in here. Let’s finish this shit up. Aye, tomorrow night we’re going to test this out at HiWay. You and your crew should come through.”

Cairo hadn’t been in a crowd like that since the last time he was in a crowd like that. “Let’s see how this shit turns out first, nigga. It might be trash.”

Whether he knew it or not, Kamilla was studying everything about him, the way he’d done her. She caught a glimpse of the shyness he hid with a joke. The fear he disguised with his temper. Her lens would be the only thing to keep him on course.

Ekho laughed and shook his head. “Aight, you right. You right. Run that shit back.”

Once Ekho roamed back into the booth and Fahaad stepped out to take a call, Cairo turned to Kamilla. “You good?”

“You good?” she countered.

He offered a weary smile for the strength of her safety.

Kamilla formed her fingers like an arrow. “The stars but take the moon.”

nineteen

“Mm mm, don’t walk away from me,” Dania quietly buzzed. “I can tell y’all did it.”

Kamilla rolled her eyes and pulled the bag of trash from the trash can. Fredo called her earlier this morning asking if she and Dania wanted to make some extra money. The answer was immediately yes, especially after seeing the breakdown in tuition for the following semester sent by OSU’s financial aid. She hadn’t even stepped foot on campus and they were sending her futuristic bills. In a world that encouraged people to get a higher education, it was, without question, turning out to be a luxury. Almost like clean air, cleaner water, housing and untainted food was. The basic necessities of life were ridiculously costly.

“First of all,” Kamilla spoke, just above a whisper. “There’s someone here.”

Fredo owned a few spots throughout Los Oceania, besides the studio, that were essentially used for money laundering. The breakdown from the street hustle, stickups, and heists were taken to Volts, then handed to Fredo to distribute and funnel back into the gang. Kamilla knew how it worked off the game her father was adamant about telling her. He protected her and taught her how to protect herself. He loved her and showed her how to love herself. He provided until he couldn’t but made sure his baby girl knew how to drive, knew how to manage her money, knew how to get through life in the event life flipped upside down.

The only things he left out were how to handle grief in the tsunami that Kamilla was trying to survive, and how to love a man like him. Loving him was automatic but what was she to do when she’d been raptured up by someone just like him. Kamilla could only mimic what she was blindly taught through his actions. When encountering a man that would disturb the earth and petition the heavens for you, yield and let it take its course.

Love. It was too early to even add that word to the conversation but dare she say out loud that it had interrupted the flow of conversation. It came in like a balm to soothe all the stinging, itching, painful wounds of loss. Kamilla was on a journey of her own now – outside of what she saw from her parents. Love, when done with pure intention and space to flourish, could be healing. But then again, first experiences always felt like love to the freshly-kissed.

“Girl, they aren’t listening to us. Plus, look how big this lounge is,” Dania pointed out. “Now tell me.”

Kamilla looked around the small lounge and laughed. “You’re so nosey it has to be studied.”

“You call it nosy, I call it investment and if it’s gossip in the hood, it’s current events. Now spill it. How was it?” Dania pushed.

Drawing in a deep breath, Kamilla tied the bag of trash and placed it by the others before moving over the set of tables that needed to be wiped down. “Whatever you say, girl. Put that cleaning mask on and I’ll tell you.”

“Oh, you and C4 are made for each other. So damn demanding,” Dania huffed, pulling the mask back over her face and sassed. “Happy?”

“Immensely,” Kamilla graciously responded. “I’m not cleaning this nasty place up by myself.”

“I took something, I’ll be fine. Now tell me,” Dania practically begged for the details of Kamilla’s first time with her friend.

“It wasn’t bad. Not like all the horror stories I’ve heard. He was gentle and considerate and-” Kamilla stopped to slightly nip her lip.

“You want to do it again?” Dania cooed. “Did you finish?”