Page 41 of Beacon Grove Chronicles 1: Hassan & Sylvia

“They threw food at the bitch, not knives.” I located my target again and fired off another round.

“You wanted my advice, right?”

I scoffed and he had the nerve to look offended. “Yeah. Don’t know what the fuck I was thinking.”

“Go ask JJ’s ass. You know me and Sweets don’t do normal gifts. Hell, who in our crew does anything normal, ’San?”

I could only nod because Smoke was right. I was much lower in the order than he was.

“I’ll figure something out. The last thing I want to do is come off as a fuck boy ‘cause she just dealt with one. I’m not trying to buy her either despite the fact that I want to spoil her. With everything that’s going on I want her to know I’m in this shit for real.”

“Okay so tell her just like you told me.”

“Coming on too strong probably ain’t the move.”

“Nigga, what the fuck you want me to do? You are sitting here going back and forth for no reason. Damn, let me go find Sweets so she can sit on my face. I ain’t have to do none of this shit when I met her. We just worked. Why y’all so busy making shit complicated? Just fucking be and be done with it.” His face was blank but his annoyance with me and Sylvia having emotions was clear.

I looked at this anti-social nigga and had to admit he had a point. I was going to overthink this shit and fuck it up completely.

“I needed to hear that ‘cause I was really going to fuck this up.”

“See, you wanted advice and now you got it.”

“Thank you for that.”

“No problem. So what are you going to do?” We both started packing up all our equipment ready to head out.

“Follow my heart and shit I guess. I keep telling myself shit is going too fast but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like I’m right where I want to be. And making things official and permanent with Sylvia feels right.”

“Cool. When you ready to get the steps started with adopting her kids just let me know.”

“Her people are lawyers so I wouldn’t need your help with that.” We looked at each other and my suspicions grew the longer I watched the mild humor dance on his face. “My nigga, how were you going to help with me adopting her kids when they got a daddy?”

“You must’ve gotten soft since you been back. Did you forget what I said about kidnapping his ass and putting him on a cross? He get out of hand and we can put his ass in a ditch or feed him to some hogs.”

“I couldn’t do that to them. That’s still their father.”

Smoke huffed which was about as expressive as he got. “And he acting like a bitch. You don’t need that to rub off on them kids. Have the boy emulating that shit or the lil girl trying to find a nigga like that right?”

I be damned if his crazy ass wasn’t making sense. I had to wonder if I hated Dave this much or if Smoke’s ass was raising valid points.

“Let me beat his ass first to see if he’s even redeemable. If not then we’ll handle it your way.”

I could tell from the way one corner of his mouth lifted he was hoping Dave continued to fuck up. “Anyway I’m out. I got a special lady I gotta see before I get home to my family. I’ll get up with you later.”

“Grandma!”

I walked into her front door off the wide front porch. As usual, the screen door was unlocked despite how many times we’d all begged her to stop doing it. My grandma didn’t give a fuck about intruders because despite her age she was still a damn good shot. Our family’s house was one of the bigger ones downtown once the original Beacons got too plentiful to stay on the hotel’s property. We’d spanned out into multiple generations but this place was always considered home. Many generations of my family had been raised within these walls and my fondest memories of my childhood were playing around with my cousins outside before coming in to sit down for Sunday dinner.

“Hassan, I know your Black ass ain’t walking up in my house hollerin’, boy!”

The irony of my grandma yelling at me about yelling was lost as she rounded the corner from the kitchen with a wooden spoon in her hands. “You ain’t too big for me to pop your ass.”

“Granny, I was just letting you know I was here.”

“Your big ass is hard to miss, boy. Now come give me some sugar and tell me what’s wrong.”

“Why does something have to be wrong.”