Page 46 of Stand on That

“Fuck is you screaming for?”

“I’ll tell you, but please don’t kill him. Please. Give us a chance. Between the two of us we can get your money back in about a month. I swear.”

“You’re going to give me my money back for sure. But if you think it’s going to be that easy, then crossing me was the dumbest thing you could have ever done. Come take a ride with me.”

Mya’s jaw slacked. “Huh?” she didn’t budge as I stood up.

“You’re really pissing me the fuck off. In a minute, I’m going to forget that I don’t put my hands on women,” I threatened. “Get the fuck up!”

Mya jumped up off the couch at the same time her phone started ringing. She glanced down at the screen, while I did the same. Someone by the name of Mario was calling.

“That your baby daddy?” I inquired.

Briefly, Mya closed her eyes in defeat before opening them and looking straight at me. “Yes.” Maybe she was tired of playing dumb and lying. It for sure wasn’t getting her anywhere. Vani would be pleased because I wasn’t going to kill Mya or Mario. But I was going to strip them down to almost nothing and then on top of that, they were going to pay me back, or then they would die.

When Mya was in my car, I called one of my lil’ homies and gave him the word to do what we had discussed while I was on the way to Mya’s crib. When I was done with the call, I glanced over at her. “Fuck does that nigga live?”

In a voice barely above a whisper, Mya rattled off an address to me. I put it in the GPS and learned that it was seven miles away from where we were.

“Call that nigga. And put it on speaker. Try some dumb shit and watch what happens.” We were sitting at a red light, so I quickly texted Azarius while I spoke to Mya.

Clearing her throat, she unlocked the phone and did as I asked.

“Damn what were you doing that you couldn’t answer the phone?”

“I don’t feel good, Mario. I was throwing up.” I bobbed my head because any nigga with half a brain would be able to tell by Mya’s voice that something was wrong, so the throwing up lie sounded convincing.

“Damn. Word? Try to eat some crackers or something. I’m about to go to Charlotte and get a hotel room. Tomorrow I’m going to hit the mall and shit. I got tickets for a Hornet’s game.”

My grip on the steering wheel tightened. My body grew warm, and I wondered if it was actually possible for a person’s blood to boil. That lame ass nigga had robbed me for enough dope to change his life, and he was focused on the mall and an NBA game. Nothing ass nigga. That also led me to believe that Mya let him take my dope and wait a day or two to tell me. No way did the shit just occur. She really tried to play me for a nigga that obviously didn’t give a fuck about her and what would happen to her if I figured out what really happened.

“Well thanks for all of your concern and for thinking of me,” Mya scoffed. “Are you home? I need my shoes from over there.”

“Shoes? If you throwing up and shit where you going? Did that nigga call you back yet? I’m telling you, Mya. You have to cry and act like you were really traumatized. Tell him the niggas knocked you around and shit. You gotta make him believe it.”

“Yet, you don’t know how he’s going to react to the news, and you’re leaving me to deal with it?”

“What you want me to do? That nigga trusts you. He’s not going to do anything to you. You better be glad I didn’t do anything to him. Nigga got all that dope in your crib while I’m sitting over there chilling, spending the night and shit. What if the police had kicked in the door? I’m never going down for the next nigga.”

All I could do was smirk as I listened to his lame ass. His IQ couldn’t have been higher than a bed bug’s. Mya really let that clown convince her that it was worth it to risk her life. I wasn’t sure why she hadn’t let him know that she told me about the robbery. Mya knew how I moved, and she knew that I usually came to her crib twice a week to get product, and I hadn’t been there in three days. There was no telling when he took the shit, but she knew she had to go ahead and tell me before I came looking for it, and it wasn’t there.

“I’m like two minutes away from the house.” Mya ignored everything he’d said. I could tell by her tone she was disgusted with the nigga, and that’s what her dumb ass got.

“Okay.”

The moment she ended the call, I tossed her a murderous glare. “That’s the nigga you risked your life for? You’s about a dumb ass broad.”

Mya stared down at her lap, but she didn’t respond. It wasn’t like I expected her to because there wasn’t anything she could say. Mario didn’t care about her, and I gathered that from one phone call. When the day came that Mya got a man, I just knew it would be a lawyer, stockbroker, accountant, or something. Despite her dealing with me, I assumed that the straight and narrow type of man was more her type. Had I known Mario was the kind of clown she entertained, my coke would have never touched her attic. That shit was on me. I had made a poor judgment call like a muhfucka.

When I arrived at Mario’s house, I checked my phone and saw that Azarius had responded to my text message. He was three minutes away. Looking around, I peeped that bushes and trees pretty much obscured my view from Mario’s neighbor on the left, and he didn’t have one on the right because his house was located at the end of the street. There was an older model Tahoe parked in the yard beside a Charger that I could see was a rental car. I scoffed because no way was Mario used to having bread. No wonder he was in Mya’s pockets.

“Get the fuck out,” I demanded as I clutched the gun in my hand. It didn’t matter if Mario could see me approaching the house with her or not. I was getting up in there one way or another.

Mya stepped in front of me and attempted to put a key in the lock, but her hands were shaking so badly that she kept missing the hole. “Don’t piss me the fuck off,” I gritted and like magic, her hand steadied, and she was able to open the door.

When she entered the house, Mario barely looked up from the game he was playing. As I stepped in behind her, he inadvertently glanced our way, then he did a wide-eyed double take.

“Fuck is this?” he hopped up and released the controller sending it crashing onto the floor. His eyes darted down to the gun in my hand, and he looked back up at Mya with a stunned expression.