Page 209 of 4 Corinthians

She sighed, "Fine." She unwrapped her burger. "Have you found the information I asked you about?"

"Take another bite before you ask me about killing niggas," Nine chuckled. There was silence, then he grunted. "I did. Wasn't hard to find once I knew I was looking for it."

"Meaning?" She asked. I could hear her softly chewing.

"Robert didn't have shit to his name, but SP," Nine answered. "Now I'm not saying he's broke, but he doesn't run too much of anything."

"So the shit we dealt with as kids, it wasn’t his to run?" She asked.

"No," Nine replied. "That was funded by someone else. Robert was the face and possibly even the name, but that was it."

"Who ran it then?"

"Still trying to figure that out," Nine said. "And as soon as I do, I'm going to handle it."

"No, you're not," Cori disagreed.

"He's my cousin-"

"And he will be my husband," she stated matter-of-factly. No lie, hearing her say that shit made me smile. Even if my mouth didn't move, my soul did. I'd been waiting for her to come to terms with the fact that we were destined to be together. No lie, I would've rather not gotten shot for her to realize it, but I wasn't going to complain. "We dealt with this together. It's our story, not yours. If Uri doesn't wake up, then it'll just be me ending it. Not you. Not anyone else."

"I'm just here to help."

"You did, you got me to eat," she laughed softly. "Now I just need him to wake up."

***

I don’t know how much time passed as I listened to Cori, Nine, and eventually Cross talk. My body would only allow me to listen for so long before everything went dark.

"Uri," Cori softly said into my ear. "I need you to wake up. I'm begging you at this point to wake up. I need you." She moved her face, then kissed me. The incubation tube was gone. "Wake up."

"That nigga is not Sleeping Beauty," I heard Krude say. "You can't just kiss him, and he's gonna wake up."

"He could," I heard Ex chuckle.

"If that dramatic ass nigga wakes up from that shit, I swear I'm punching him in his shit," Krude fussed.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ex asked.

I felt the bed shift, and then Cori sighed. I only knew it was her because she laughed softly after.

"Krude," Cori laughed. "What are you doing?"

"Kiss that nigga again," he said. His voice was closer now, which meant he was probably the reason I felt the bed shift.

"Why?" Cori asked him

Krude sucked his teeth, then grunted. "Girl, kiss that dramatic ass stuttering nigga again so I can see something," he said. "We just seen you kissing on his ass when we walked in. The man can't consent, and you in here slobbing him down. You lucky I didn't call the people on you."

"I wasn't slobbing him down," Cori replied. "I just kissed him." She laughed. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nigga ain't even brushed his teeth in a few days. Had a tube down his throat and you kissing on him?" He asked her in surprise. "Yeah, you legit love that nigga because I would never. I love Megan, but I'd wipe her mouth out or something first. I can't do morning breath like that."

"I highly doubt that's her concern," Ex said.

"You know what, you probably right. That nigga light skin, I know he nasty. He probably eat ass," Krude said. "He stuttered until her. I know they do freaky shit. That's the only way that stutter stopped like it did."

"How many times did Madea drop you as a baby?" Ex laughed.