Page 20 of Stand on That

I gave a nod, and he got out of the car. When I first started hustling, my parents didn’t exactly make it easy. They didn’t want me in the streets, and they didn’t hide it. But taking my dope, stealing my money, shit like that wouldn’t even have been a thought for them. Even if he wasn’t doing it the right way, Travis was just trying to survive. His mother was his biggest enemy. She didn’t nurture, provide, or protect him, and she was keeping him from doing it for himself. Not out of love for him but love for the glass dick. Most of my dope I sold soft, but I also cooked some up and sold crack.

Travis bought his soft and cooked it up himself. When a person cooked their own dope, they could stretch it a little if that was what they chose to do but stretching it often meant watering down the potency. Fiends didn’t want stepped on dope. It was almost time for me to reup. I had been moving almost nonstop since I got back from Antigua. Sundays were my chill days where I stayed in the crib with my lady. Rested my body, ate good food, and slid up in her pussy a few times. But every other day of the week was straight go mode. If I wanted to get on Purpose’s level, I had to be focused. I spent a lot of money, but I saved a lot too. I was ready to step my game up.

I needed to go visit my parents, and my brother, Kyle. Kyle was seventeen and about to be a senior in high school. He was nice on the football field. So nice that my parents already knew he was going to get a full scholarship to whichever college he chose. There was a seven-year age difference between me and Kyle, so we weren’t super close. I was ahead of my time and jumped off the porch early. When I was fifteen, he was eight. I was smoking weed, having sex, and sneaking out of the house. There wasn’t too much time to bond with my little brother.

I tried to make most of his games, however. It was funny ‘cus my nigga was fly and popular. He could get pussy on his own but when females found out he was my brother, he got extra play. The one thing I didn’t like about going to his games were the number of chicks under the age of twenty that tried to flirt with me. I didn’t give a damn what other men did. I liked my women grown grown not just legal in the eyes of the law.

At this point in Kyle’s life, football was more than a past time or a hobby for him. He put his all into it, so my parents didn’t want him to work. My pops was a truck driver, and my mother was an event planner. They could afford to get him J’s and other nice things, but they weren’t OD with it. Three pairs of sneakers and enough new outfits for the first two weeks of school were good as far as they were concerned. That was where big bro came in. For Christmas, I took Kyle shopping and got him six pairs of sneakers, nine pairs of jeans, twelve shirts, two bottles of cologne, and a watch.

I wasn’t ashamed of my life or how I made my money, but I also never hesitated to tell my brother not to be like me. He was doing the right thing. If he didn’t make it to the NFL, at least he would have a degree that would take him farther than the dope game would probably ever take me. Freedom was priceless, but I gambled with mine every day for the sake of a dollar. I thought about it every day but also knew at the moment there wasn’t shit I was going to do to change it.

I walked into Vani’s section and observed her twerking on Hailey. A thin layer of sweat covered my forehead because it was hot in the club, but it was mostly because I had popped an E pill. I didn’t do it often, but every now and then I let loose and tossed back a bean. It was after one in the morning, and I was just getting to the club. Vani, Hailey, and Lo had already been partying for about an hour.

I stood in front of Vani, and she stopped twerking with a lustful gleam in her eyes. “Took you long enough.”

“I was waiting on Azarius’ slow ass.” My orbs roamed over the short, white halter dress that she wore. My baby was getting thick as fuck. I hoped she could handle me on a pill because I was gon’ toss her ass around that room for hours.

“You rolling?” she angled her head to the left and studied me.

“Bitch, I might be.” Vani knew the Gucci Mane song I was quoting, so she didn’t get offended. Instead, she laughed.

“Aight Gucci.”

I placed my hands around her waist. The bottle of water in my hand was a dead giveaway. When I was on a bean, I didn’t drink alcohol. Only water. I had to bend down just to whisper in her ear with her short ass. “I want to fuck you so bad. Let’s go out to the car,” I whispered.

“Man, this section was $700. We can fuck at home,” she giggled, but I gave her a serious look.

“I know how much it cost ‘cus I paid for it. That ain’t nothing to yo’ nigga. I just put $50,000 in the safe before I came here. Don’t play with me.”

“Okay daddy. My bad,” she purred.

I was about to snake my tongue in Vani’s mouth when a frown covered her face. Following her gaze, I saw Bree approaching, and I straightened up. She had never been the type to be on bullshit, and I hoped she wasn’t about to start. She flashed a fake smile at Vani before looking at me.

“I hate to interrupt the love fest, but the car payment is due tomorrow. You haven’t given me the money in almost two months.” Bree had an obvious attitude.

“Damn my bad.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a knot. I counted out enough to cover three months and placed it in her hand. “My bad I’ve been busy.”

“Yeah,” she clicked her tongue and stormed off.

“Fuck was that?” Vani stepped back, and I shook my head.

“My car is in Bree’s name.”

“Excuse me?” Vani drew back and glared at me like I was stupid.

“Bro, I sell drugs for a living. I don’t put shit in my name. Shorty has good credit and a good job. She got my car in her name a year ago. I make the payments every month. That’s it. I honestly forgot to give her the money because we haven’t been talking.”

Vani stared at me and more than likely, she was trying to figure out whether or not she believed me.

“So, until your car is paid off you have to deal with her?” she folded her arms across her chest.

“Pretty much,” I mumbled. “But bae, I don’t deal with her. That’s why I forgot and that’s why she has an attitude.” Even though Bree was upset I appreciated her not being vindictive and causing a scene.

“Yeah aight.” Vani attempted to walk off, but I stopped her.

“This about to fuck up our night?” I asked perplexed. “You heard her say she didn’t get the money. You think she didn’t get it because I don’t have it or because I truly don’t talk to her, and I forgot?”

“I said aight,” Vani looked at me with wide eyes like I was the one tripping. Shit, I was high, but I was far from stupid.