Rumi
“Just lay still, just like that. Ahhhh yeah, you follow directions so good baby girl! You keep this between us and I won’t hurt ya mama.”
All I could do is lie here and wait the usual six minutes for him to be done. This shit is disgusting, but what can I do? If I scream, he hits me. If I tell, nobody believes me, not even my mama. Her alcoholic, abusive, child molester boyfriend does this shit every weekend and I can’t stop it. Somehow, I found the courage to scream this time though, which is odd because I usually stay quiet.
“Not this time! GET OFF OF MEEEEEEE!” I yelled as loud as I could.
We tussled for a few minutes, with me trying to escape from his grips, but he was so strong. Suddenly, I was able to break free and run out of the room into the hallway and through the house. I bolted for the exit, glad I was able to finally get away and go tell somebody what was happening. As soon as I opened the front door, I began to bolt away from that house. It was late and dark outside, and there was no one around. It seemed like the entire neighborhood was deserted right now. I kept running until I saw a person standing at the bus station waiting for the next bus. As I got closer, I began yelling for help, but he ignored me.
“Hey! Help me! Help me, please! Mister, can you call the cops for me?” I asked. But, the man didn’t budge. He just stood there with his hood pulled over his head, looking down at the ground. I could barely see his face.
“Hello! Do you have a phone sir?”
“Why didn’t you just listen, Rumi?” he asked. I frown instantly.
“How—how do you know my name?”
“You didn’t listen.”
“What are you talking about? I need help!” I cried.
“Oh, I’ll help you alright. Help you to HELL!” he spat. He took his hood off his head and grabbed me hard as ever, and that’s when I almost pissed myself.
“No—no, it can’t be! I ran away from you! I tried to get away!”
“Well, now I’ll send you away for good!” he said, pulling out a big ass knife and stabbing me. I died right there, but this wasn’t the first time I died. And it wouldn’t be the last.
“Rumi? Child, wake up; you in here dreaming again, ain’t you?” my granny said.
I jumped up screaming and sweating hard as hell. I looked over at the alarm clock to see that I had overslept by twenty minutes. I was supposed to be on the bus heading to work by now.
“Oh damn, granny, I done overslept!” I said, throwing the covers back and jumping up. She stood in the doorway shaking her head.
“Have you been taking them pills that therapist gave you?”
“No, granny, I told you I can’t take them; they make me feel weird as hell,” I answered, as I rummaged through my closet trying to find my uniform for work.
I finally found it and tossed it on the bed before bolting to the bathroom to quickly brush my teeth and wash up. When I came back out, she was still standing in my room with a twisted look on her face. I already knew she was going to fuss and, right now, I quite frankly didn’t have time for it. Before she could finish her sentence, I stopped her.
“Now, you know what that doctor said—”
“Yes, grandma, I know and I’m telling you how I feel! Look, if I feel like I really need it, I will take it. I don’t have time to talk about it right now though; I’m late for work as it is,” I shot back.
I threw my uniform on and quickly brushed my messy hair into a ponytail. She shook her head as she left my room. I paid her no mind while throwing on my shoes and looking for my bus card, so I could catch the next bus down to my job. I didn’t have a car right now, which was why I had been working overtime, so I could save up to get one. I hated taking this damn bus and I hated taking the midtown train, but I had to do what I had to do until I could get my shit together. I was going on twenty four years old and still struggling to find my place in life.
It’s like ever since my mom died over five years ago, I struggled to understand my place here on earth. Don’t get it confused though; it’s not because I was devastated that she died. I was more devastated because when she passed away, I didn’t get a lot of the closure that I felt I deserved after going through everything I went through growing up. My home life wasn’t exactly the worst, but it wasn’t the best either. It was alright for a while, until my mother let her illness turn her to drugs and the wrong people.
I guess she didn’t know how to cope with having breast cancer. My grandmother and other family members tried their best to be there for her, but she just slowly pushed everyone out and turned into a whole different person over time. Then, the medication and the treatments became too expensive, so she really gave up on herself and her children. Or should I say one of her children; just me.
I was the youngest out of three children. I have an older sister and an older brother named Kwame and Jacobi. We were all estranged now, due to living separate lives and getting separated after she got too sick to care for two teenage girls and a college aged son. My brother Jacobi was the oldest; he’s twenty-seven now. Kwame was twenty-five and I was twenty-three turning twenty-four in a couple months.
They said the middle child was usually the one that’s overlooked or done wrong in the family but, in this case, that wasn’t true. Nope, my sister was the favorite middle child. Her and my brother had the same dad while I had a different dad. Or should I say sperm donor. He was barely there for me growing up and he was still barely there for me to this day. Whenever I reached out to him for help, he always had excuses or makes promises that he couldn’t keep.
It always seemed like she loved the two of them more than she ever loved me. I thought my ain’t shit dad had something to do with that. She hated him so bad, it hurt her to look at me. After breaking up with my siblings’ dad, she met him. He became abusive and treated her bad, then left her high and dry. I looked so much like his ass that she reminded me of that all the time. She let me know she hated to see me coming because she saw him. She lost herself behind him thinking he would change. He never did. And after I was born, I was a constant reminder of the pain she endured I guess. Thus me getting the shitty end of the stick growing up.
After she started drinking and doing drugs to cope with her cancer, I felt like she totally gave up on protecting me. Including the sexual abuse I endured from one of her little guy flings she called herself dating. She didn’t believe me when I tried to reach out for her help. Nobody did; everybody said I was just looking for attention, including my older sister. I was 15 and she was 17 at the time, and she had gotten a car for her birthday from her dad and was barely in the house anymore. She was at that almost grown age and all she cared about was her friends, her car, and her boyfriend at the time. The relationship between my sister and I was rocky probably half of the time because she always thought she was better than me. Because that’s the image our mother painted in her head, she ran with it.
We would always fight and argue over the smallest things. And if we were getting along, it was definitely a miracle that day. My brother tried to step up and protect me when he caught wind of the bullshit I was going through, but he was already moved out of the house and in college by that time. He was busy playing sports, so he really didn’t have a lot of time to understand. My mother and sister kept trying to put it in his head that I was crazy and needed attention and it eventually brainwashed him too. It really crushed me because he was the only somebody in that house growing up that I thought loved me.
Our relationship was great until he went to college and forgot all about me. I hated him for it because he always said he would protect me. He would say all the time that our mama did me wrong and would look out for me when he could. But, I guess his new life became more important. He graduated college and started a family with some model girl he got pregnant and never looked back. Don’t get me wrong; we talk occasionally, but I could never forgive him for leaving me out in the cold like that, so we had a weird relationship now. Sometimes, he tried to make it up to me by inviting me to his little family get-togethers, and he told me he had my back, but I didn’t want to hear it now; the damage was done.
Don’t even get me started on me and my sister’s relationship; we still hated each other. Although we were on each other’s social media and had each other’s phone numbers, we really didn’t fuck with each other like that. She was still a bitch to me and I couldn’t be around her. Any chance she got, she tried to throw it in my face how good she was doing compared to how I’m doing. She thought she was the shit because she ended up falling into a better life than I did after mama died. She worked in a hospital and was engaged to some cocky asshole that owned a business and swears she was living her best damn life. I could care less because all this time when I needed her, all she did was turn her back on me.
About six months after the abuse started by her lover, our mother died, which was when we got separated. Even though they were a little older, they still needed guidance and a fresh start. They went with their dad in Oklahoma, and I became a ward of the state because I ran away from my auntie’s house, who took me in like a dummy. I was just turning 17 and so lost, hurt, and mentally a wreck after dealing with everything that I didn’t care. I never even got the courage to tell anybody else or even the police because I just felt scared that nobody would believe me again. So, I buried it.
When the police found me, they labeled me as an endangered runaway and I went to a home for teenage girls for a little while, up until my grandmother convinced them to let me come live with her, even though she barely had the space. She was already dealing with my dying grandfather and three other grandchildren. My three cousins were living with her because my mom’s brother had gotten locked up and his wife could no longer care for her children and needed help too; so, my grandmother already had a lot on her plate.
When my cousins, Josh and Joseph, got into the streets and got themselves locked up too, my grandmother didn’t have as much income coming in. Grandpa had died and his pension was all gone. Because they were a little older than me, one was 18 and the other one 20, my cousins were somewhat helping her get by because they had jobs at fast food restaurants. They had been living with her for a few years now. The younger boy was only about nine years old and, by the time the two older ones went to jail, my uncle’s wife came back to get the youngest.
I realized that I had to go out and get a job. My family that I did have, such as aunts and uncles on both parents’ side, were all occupied in their own lives, so I really had no one. My other grandparents lived all the way in Georgia, but we weren’t really as close. I spoke with them maybe a couple times a year, same as my ain’t shit father.
It had come close to the time for me to graduate from high school and I was also supposed to be thinking about college plans, but I had no motivation. My grandmother had now entered retirement stage after I graduated and it was up to me to try and help keep the bills paid with my minimum wage job, just so I could pay her back for taking me in. I tried to show her some type of homage for that. I mean, she was the only one in the family there for me after mama died. Everyone else had washed their hands with the situation because they thought I was ‘damaged’.
I ended up getting a better paying factory job and, although it was hard and tiring work, I busted my ass there. But, then, bad news again. The job closed down and laid me off, and things became really tight to the point where I found myself having to steal to get the things I needed. I was running the streets with my friends trying to be slick and ended up getting caught at my own game last year. I had moved out of grannie’s house and got my own place with a roommate but lost it all due to some risky choices I took.
My home girl and her boyfriend ended up convincing me to get in on this little retail clothing and designer purse stealing scheme. Things were going well until we ended up selling to an undercover and got busted. Then, when I tried to run away, this female cop bitch put her hands on me, and I just snapped and beat her in her shit. They added assault on a public official to my rap sheet, along with larceny and theft of stolen goods. I was looking at up to 7 to 10 years for my crimes.
But, since I was a first-time offender, my public defender somehow talked them into letting me do six months with like two years’ probation. That six months was the hardest six months of my damn life. When I came back home to my grandmother’s house, I came back to her being sick and my cousins had also moved back in bumming off her and not doing shit. They had some petty ass jobs but couldn’t find much work due to their record, and now I was dealing with the same shit. I had a job at a local restaurant and a retail store on the weekends, but I still felt like I was getting paid pennies.
I sat on the bus with my headphones in, music turned up, wondering how the hell my life ended up at a standstill like this. I rode to work frustrated because I desperately needed a change in my life, but it seemed like every time I tried, I get knocked back or disappointed. The jobs that I wanted and needed to be able to get my own place and keep my bills up didn’t want to hire me because of my violent record. My grandmother told me I needed to go back to finish school at the local Community College, but they kept turning me down for financial aid because I had a felony on my record. In this county, you couldn’t receive financial aid if you had been convicted of a crime, so I’d have to pay tuition out of pocket, which I damn sure didn’t have. Every time I tried to find the light, something seemed to turn that damn switch off and make it dark again.
Hasaan
“Damn, I got denied again, fuck!” I blurted out frustrated.
I shook my head while looking at the letter this bougie ass realty company just emailed me. My girl Erika sat on the couch beside me, shaking her head and popping her damn gum. I tossed my phone on the coffee table in front of me and reached for my blunt to relieve stress. My girl been putting the pressure on me to get a bigger place away from the hood, but I couldn’t seem to make it out this bitch.
“Mm, so what are we supposed to do Hassan? I thought you said that was a for sure place!”
“Look, I thought it was ite? I don’t know why they denied me.”
“Probably the same reason the other ones denied you, nigga. Ya credit ain’t shit! Your scores are all under six hundred, ain’t shit we can do with that,” she shot. I looked at her sideways.
“Shit, your shit ain’t no fucking better Erika!”
“Okay, but you know why mine is fucked up. I took a lot of L’s because of my daddy getting sick! I went into debt to pay for his medication and stuff. AND, don’t forget about my student loans nigga. At least mine got messed up for good reasons. Yours, not so much.”
“So, my past wasn’t a good reason?”
“Tuhh. Hell no! You let your ex bitch fuck up your name. That was just plain dumb.”
“We broke up and she left me with the debt. Fuck was I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know but this ain’t it. Now, I gotta suffer because of your past mistakes. Bad enough I gotta deal with your average paying job and your average ass car! You lucky you got good dick or else—”
“Or else what huh? Go ahead, say it!” I shot, ready to smack her ass. Before she could speak, there was a knock at my door. I got up to answer it, the whole time grilling her ass. I opened the door to my homie standing there with a big ass grin and a McDonald’s bag in his hand.
“Hasaan, wassup dummy? You gonna let a nigga in?”
“Wassup Monte? Come in fool,” I said, waving him in. He followed me to the living room where Erika still sat with an attitude. She rolled her eyes when we came back around the corner.
“And then, here go your average ass friends too!” she spat.
“What? Oh, I must’ve walked in on one of y’all arguments huh?” he laughed.
“Whatever Montez, what do you need?”
“Shit, I came to see my nigga; that’s cool with you?”
“Ain’t like y’all talking about anything money related or worthwhile.”
“Aye! Take your ass in the back with that attitude girl. Go head!” I fussed.
She sucked her teeth and jumped up to do as I told her, pulling her Victoria’s Secret night shorts out her crouch before storming to the bedroom. I shook my head, as I sat down looking for another bag of weed to roll. Monte sat beside me and pulled out a Big Mac and started smashing it.
“Trouble in paradise huh?” he joked.
“Man, you have no idea. She getting on my nerves for real. I was about to smack her up before you came in here.”
“She has been tripping for the past few weeks; what’s going on with her, bruh?”
“I don’t even know, to tell you the truth. She has an attitude because she’s ready to move out the hood, but I just can’t seem to get shit straight, but it’s not my fault. She act like I’m not out here working 12 hour shifts doing my best trying to get us out of here. She only goes to work three days a week but wants to complain that we don’t have the money or the credit to move. She act like some kind of hood Princess. I don’t understand it!” I vented.
“How the hell is she going to be a Princess living over here in the hood? Where they do that at?” he laughed.
“Exactly my point. She wants to get treated like a Princess but doesn’t put in the work man. She wants me to do and think of everything around this mothafucka.”
“Damn. I told you she probably would do this man. I could tell when you first introduced me to shorty that she was on some high maintenance wanting to be kept type of shit. You told me she was laid back and wasn’t like that, but I knew it was only a matter of time before her true colors started coming out. I can spot them type of females a mile away,” he stated.
“To be honest, I don’t think it’s her fault. Her daddy had her spoiled like that and whoever her last nigga was had one up on me, money wise. But, he kept breaking her heart, so she left him. Ran into me and I treated her right but shit still not enough. Now, she expecting me to be something I’m not; at least not yet anyway.” I shrugged.
“Yeah, when you come up, she gonna be all on your dick, though. Watch what I tell you, homie.”
“Yeah, I guess. Anyway, what’s up with you? You must be off today since you sitting on my couch smashing a big ass burger and shit. It’s three o’clock, you usually at work.”
“Oh yeah, I got the day off. Somebody started a fire in the stock room, so we had to leave for the day.”
“They what! What kinda shit!”
“Yeah man, shit wild. Management doesn’t know who to point the finger at, so now we all under investigation but me and a couple of my coworkers already know who it is. It’s that crazy ass white boy Zachary. They wrote him up yesterday and he said he was going to come back and do some crazy shit. Now, all of a sudden, our work area catches fire? That has his name written all over it. But, of course I’m not no snitch, so I’m just going to stay out of it, as long as they don’t try to pin this shit on me!”
“Damn, only at the hood Walmart,” I said, laughing.
“Exactly! So, what you getting into today nigga?”
“Shit man, I’m supposed to be off today myself, but I’m doing an extra shift at five o’clock. So, I’m chilling until then, I guess.”
“Oh damn, you ain’t got long then, huh?”
“Hell nah. I really don’t feel like going in that bitch, but I need the cash so fuck it.” I shrugged and passed him the blunt.
“I know that’s always the case, huh? I keep telling you, man; we need to get in on that lil job Mario been talking about.”
“Man, I been thinking about it for this time. A nigga need to come up and quick.”
“I know, me too, nigga. That’s why I’m saying we need to get in on that shit! It’s easy money.”
“I don’t know man. I ain’t really no drug dealer bruh.”
“It’s not really drug dealing though. We won’t be standing on the street corners making sales and shit. All he needs us to do is transport the shit from point A to point B and sometimes do a few out-of-state transactions. He said he has enough soldiers out here on the streets; he needs more transporters. And he needs some unfamiliar faces to do the job because it’s less of a risk of getting caught. Nobody has ever seen us associating with him out in the streets like that,” he explained.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Look man, let’s just do a few jobs at least. Enough to come up like ten or fifteen grand,” he urged.
“I just can’t deal with getting caught up in any bullshit dog.”
“We won’t man, we’ll be good! Let me hit him back with the okay and we in there!”
“Ehh—fuck it, set it up,” I agreed.
“My nigga! Hell yeah, I’ma hit his line soon as I leave here and see what he got for us then.”
“Yeah ite, bet.”
“Ite then, homie, I’ma head out so you can get ready for work and shit. I’ll keep you posted and shit,” he said, heading for the front door.
“Yeah, do that. Be safe my nigga,” I said, ushering him out.
I walked back to the living room and plopped down on the couch, pondering on the idea we were just speaking on. See, Mario was a big time drug dealer in our city and he was cool with my homeboy, Montez. I think both of their moms used to work together and be best friends back in the day. He moved away and they lost contact, until he moved back a couple of years ago on some take over the city type shit. People say it’s crazy because he used to be a little nerd back in the day, but now he running things.
Tez been trying to get me to get on with him and his team for the past couple of months, but I had been saying no, until now. With me needing to get another car and my girl putting pressure on me about moving, I could definitely use the extra cash, quick. I found some houses that would approve me with bad credit, but I had to put a lot of money down, which I didn’t have. It seemed like as soon as I got a paycheck, it’s gone. I had never been the type of guy who dealt with street money, and it’s not that I was afraid to. It’s just that prison wasn’t for me. I’d watched my uncles and friends around me go down behind dumb shit and I always tried to stay on the straight and narrow path.
My mother wouldn’t be able to take it knowing that her only son was locked up, so I tried to stay away from shit. I also had two younger sisters who would be disappointed in me as well. One was 15 and the other one was 19, so I had to try to be here for them too. They depended on me a lot nowadays, from simple advice about what to wear, all the way up to relationship problems and college choices. We had different dads but none of them had been there for any of us, so I pretty much been the male role model in their life. I tried to think about my family before I did anything that could be life changing but, in this instance, all I could do was pray that this shit wouldn’t catch up to me.
***
“Babe, I’m back! I got off early!” I shouted as I walked through the crib.
It’s eerily quiet in here, which was unusual for Erika because she usually had the TV blasting some type of reality show around this time. It’s 8 o’clock and I had no idea where she was. She had been acting very distant the past couple of weeks, but I just chalked it up to her getting used to the fact that I been out of the house working my 9 to 5 and doing odd jobs on the side. Plus, they did pick up on her hours at her job too, so we hadn’t had a lot of time to kick it. We been together a little over two years now and, to be honest, my friends or family couldn’t understand why I loved this girl. To be honest, it’s not something that I could really explain myself. When we first met, it seemed like the sparks flew and we had everything under the sun in common. Even down to the small weird things that other people would find odd, we agreed on.
We shared a special connection that I hadn’t quite felt before with any of my ex-girlfriends or past situationships. I mean, I thought I was in love with my first love when I was about 19 or 20 years old but, a year or two later, she ended up fucking with another bitch and then came home telling me she was gay and had an epiphany and shit. We had been together since we graduated high school and I thought we were getting married, but it turned out the bitch didn’t know what the hell she wanted I guess until later.
She broke my heart, but I ended up moving on and getting tougher skin. But, the females I dated and fucked with after that were mostly just for fun or temporary flings that only lasted no more than six months. I was going through my prime 20’s and I really was just out there having fun until I met Erika. I was living with a roommate, which was one of my other homies that I met on the job, not giving a fuck about anything. When I met her, she caused me to want to grow up a little bit and ended up convincing me that we should move in together and try to start something. Here we were a couple years later, still rocking.
But, as she grew older, she seemed to want and need more things and I was trying hard to give them to her. I was 28 and she’s a year younger than I was but a little more needy these days. To be honest, I did miss the times when she was more laid back and easy to please. The past few years, she made a couple new friends who were some bougie bitches who seemed to only want to use their body and looks to get ahead in life. She had maybe one solid friend who didn’t rely on a sugar daddy to trick off on them. She even had one friend who made her come up off of YouTube videos and another who stripped at a famous club here. I was not knocking anyone’s hustle, but all that shit seemed to be clouding her judgement of what a normal life was. Shit, she had me thinking I needed to do these jobs to get fast money, so we could keep up with everyone else living good.
Tez and I did our first two jobs for Mario last week, and we got another one to do tonight. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it still had me a little on edge. I even went and bought a gun, just in case some shit popped off with one of the clients or something. This street shit could be tricky, but I was learning.
I walked to the back of the dark apartment and flipped on some light switches, then turned on the lamp in our bedroom to find it empty in there as well. I tried calling her a couple times but to no avail; she didn’t answer. She said she was off work today, so I figured maybe she went out to the store or something. I was trying to come and kick it with her before I had to go out and meet Tez to do this job, but I might as well go ahead and get it over with now. I hit his line and told him to meet me in about thirty minutes so we could go meet with this customer who wanted to buy some shit in bulk from out of town. He was about an hour away from here and we planned to go meet him, then drive back to the city.
A couple hours later, around ten forty-five, we arrived back in town a little earlier than we expected to. I got Tez to shoot a text to Mario and ask him where he was at an hour ago, so we could meet up. We were heading that way now, even though we were a little early to show Mario how good we could do the job. When we pulled up to the spot, we looked around to make sure nobody was watching us as usual.
“Mario gonna be shocked that we got this shit done so fast boy! The fact that we were able to get them to meet closer was a good move. That way, we wouldn’t have to worry about cops at night and shit,” Tez beamed.
“Hell yeah, I’m glad too. I hate riding around with that shit in the car at night, just seems riskier. Let’s get this money to him and get outta here,” I said.
We walked up and knocked on the door three times slow, to let the block boys know it was someone on the inside. It was their code knock or some shit. When one of the guys let us in, we stood and waited in the living room for him to come out. There were a few other guys playing 2K and shooting pool on the other side of the room, so we stood around, casually making conversation with them. A few moments later, I couldn’t help but hear a familiar voice coming down the hallway towards us. I started to brush it off, until I turned around and saw her.
Our eyes met and she froze up quick as hell. As soon as Tez turned around, he too became froze with a screwed up look on his face. She was half ass dressed in leggings and a small ass shirt that exposed her stomach and breasts, which seemed to be disheveled after whatever the fuck just happened in that back room. I felt my blood boiling and couldn’t even speak at first.
“Oh shit, you niggas back already! Damn, that was a fast job huh?” Mario spat as he grinned and walked from behind her. He whispered something that sounded like, ‘I’ll catch up with you later’ or some shit, and I instantly became enraged.
“Ayo, Erika, what the fuck you doing over here?” I shot. She stood there looking dumb as fuck at first, and Mario looked confused.
“What you doing here Hasaan? I thought you were working!” she replied.
“So, when I’m working, that mean you come lay up with other niggas and shit!” I yelled. The room got quiet as the others watched this soap opera shit unfold.
“Hold up—this ya bitch or something?”
“Yeah, that’s his bitch! Or she was supposed to be!” Tez chimed in.
“Oh, damn nigga, for real? Shit, I can see why though—now! She is sexy, caramel body on point and the pus—well, you know the rest!” Mario laughed. A couple other niggas joined in on the laughter and she shot him a look and crossed her arms.
“Yo Tez, give him the money and get my cut. I’m out this bitch. I gotta go before I lose it!” I shouted, tossing the bag to Tez. I didn’t want to flip out too much, considering I was surrounded by a bunch of his niggas with guns ready to shoot at any time.
“Aye bruh, come on, be a team player! She enough woman for us to share, trust me!” he joked, as I left the house.
I stormed down the steps and headed back to my car and, as soon as I got ready to get inside, I heard Erika calling out after me. I turned around and saw her running over to me and grilled her ass something mean.
“What Erika?” I asked, annoyed.
“Listen, I can explain all of this—”
“What are you going to explain, huh? How you fucked him exactly because I don’t understand what there is to explain!”
“There is a lot to explain, but I just didn’t want this to come out this way!”
“Well, how was it supposed to come out Erika?”
“Not like this! Listen, I didn’t know you were going to do business with him, I swear. We just ran into each other at that party me and Shanay went to last month and things got further than I expected. I am sorry!”
“No, you not, shut up! Yo ass is only sorry you got caught. How could you do this to me and embarrass me like this?”
“Like I said, none of this was planned; it’s just that I haven’t been happy, ok! You got way too comfortable and you aren’t meeting my expectations anymore. When I started conversing with him, he started showing me that there was more to life and I like it.” She shrugged.
A few moments later, Tez and Mario came outside and I didn’t even want to face old boy, how angry I was; but, he didn’t know she was mine. Tez walked up with an awkward look on his face and stood beside me. Meanwhile, Mario posted up beside Erika with a smug ass smile on his face.
“So, this ya boy huh? This who you was telling me about?” he asked. She nodded.
“What? You knew about me then?” I probed.
“Nah. I mean, I knew she had a nigga at home that she wasn’t happy with, but I never knew it was you per se. Damn, small world huh?”
“Small isn’t the word,” Tez muttered.
“So, did you tell him?” he asked her.
“Tell me what?”
“Listen, I don’t love you anymore and Mario is who I want to be with. He can take care of me in ways that you can’t,” she said. I frowned up at her and shook my head in disbelief.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now? I work my ass off to try to get us ahead and I even started doing jobs for this nigga to make more money, and you turn around and run off with him?” I yelled.
“I know, but your work isn’t good enough and, even though you might be making six or seven hundred extra dollars a month doing jobs for him, that’s still not enough for me, baby. I decided I need a real boss and I guess you weren’t it. He won’t have jobs like that all the time, so it’s still not always a guarantee, and I just be needing more.”
“Wow. Ite, cool, run off and be a thot if that’s what you want. Don’t call me when this nigga start breaking your heart bitch!” I spat. Mario laughed like something was funny, and she got in my face.
“Hasaan please, he loves me, alright? We get each other. Don’t worry about us okay, boo? You just go back to your boring life and work your boring job and drive your boring car around. Meanwhile, I’ll be taking trips out of the country and buying whatever I need, whenever I want it. Because I’m a queen and that’s what I really deserve! I’m tired of begging you to take me places and do more shit with me!”
“Tuhh. I can’t believe you, man. Make sure you come and get your shit out of the house too and come stay with him then!”
“Oh, don’t worry, he’s going to get me my own apartment. I will be there to get the rest of my things!”
“That’s right baby, don’t worry about him. Aye man, no hard feelings but it’s what the lady wants, right?”
“Whatever dog, the fuck outta here,” I said.
“Oh, you got some anger you wanna work out nigga?” he asked, running up on me. I pushed him, and he quickly pulled his gun on me. Tez got in between us to calm the situation down.
“Aye man, this shit ain’t necessary ite! Hasaan, man, fuck this broad. I told you she wasn’t your type anyway! Let’s just go.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Get your boy before I put one in his chest! If he was a boss, he wouldn’t have to worry about another nigga taking his bitch!” he laughed.
He grabbed her by the waist and kissed her right in front of me, in hopes of pissing me off more, but I just let the shit go at this point. Obviously, she wasn’t even worth getting killed over, so I just hopped in the car with Tez. The passenger side window was open and he yelled out before we sped off.
“Hey, let me know if you need money, I can get you another job buddy!” he teased.
“Yeah, now get outta here with yo broke ass!” she laughed.
I burned tires speeding off, which I never did, but I had to get outta here and away from that bitch before I strangled her hoe ass. I knew I was not perfect and I knew I was not the richest guy out here, but I tried. I never thought in a million years she would do me like this, but I guess that’s what happened when you didn’t listen to your friends and family. They tried to warn me about her, but I stayed blinded by her attempts to keep me around. I should have saw all the signs and red flags, but I didn’t and now this happened. Damn, what the hell was I thinking?
