Capone

2. Erin

2

erin

The weekend flew by as quick as it came. I passed up going out with Ryai on Friday night because I wasn’t in the mood, and I couldn’t trust that Jaiden would sit his ass down. With the way he had been rebelling, I would have stumbled into the house after a few drinks to him hosting a damn orgy in the living room. My weekend was spent in the house, making sure he got all of his assignments completed, and escorting him to basketball practice.

I managed to fit in a little laundry and cook Sunday dinner. Jo and Walt had gone on a quick trip to Atlantic City, and Ryai was nursing a hangover for the majority of the weekend. Whenever she went out, I knew to leave her alone and allow her to do her own thing. When she wanted company, she always came downstairs to bum on my couch while swearing she was keeping me company. Now, it was Monday, and I was behind the wheel of my bus ready to clock out.

The one thing I enjoyed about my route was that I was able to pass by my block. There were a few times Jaiden had hopped on my bus, or I saw him at the corner store after school. I enjoyed my route because of the people. I had my usuals that would sit at the front and chat with me during their rides. Every so often I got the assholes that got upset when I ignored them for trying to talk to me. Having a route in Brooklyn meant you were guaranteed to see some wild shit happen.

My shift was over, and I was on my way back to the depot so I could clock out and head to the grocery store. I had punished Jaiden enough over the weekend, so I spared making him push the shopping cart to the market. Since he had basketball practice tonight, I knew he would come in extra hungry. His coach usually dropped him off after every practice, so I never had to worry about him getting home late.

“Little bitch,” I muttered under my breath when I passed by the corner store near my block and saw Timmy standing outside.

Timmy’s ass was on borrowed time with me. I had been wanting to talk to him since I kicked his disrespectful ass out of my house on Friday. Going against my better judgment, I whipped the bus in front of the Maybach that was parked on the corner.

I wished seeing cars like that excited me. Every hustler that was familiar with the area always stopped at this corner store. At any given moment you would see different luxury cars double parked and waiting. It didn’t matter how much money you had, there was nothing like a chopped cheese and bag of chips.

“Timmy!” I hollered when I climbed off the bus, closing the doors behind me.

He looked up from his phone and smirked. “Yo what up, E?”

What pissed me off the most was how he acted like we were fucking friends. I was an elder, and Timmy pretended like I was his peer instead. “Stop smoking with Jaiden. We’ve had this conversation more than once, and I’m not gonna have it with you again.”

“Your brother be the one wanting to smoke. I’m not his fucking daddy,” he barked back, towering over me.

“Timothy, stay the fuck away from him… how about that? He can’t ask you to smoke if you’re not fucking around him, right?” I held my hand on my hip trying desperately not to put my hands on this boy. “You’ve always been jealous of Jaiden. You know he has a future, and, well, you don’t.” I looked up at him.

Timmy laughed. “Shut the fuck up. You mad because you want to make up for your parents popping their to—” Before he could finish his sentence, I reached up and slapped him in the mouth.

“I’m not fucking Jaiden, I’ll beat yo’ ass.” Timmy lunged at me, and was about to hit me but a body got in between us.

A body taller than Timmy’s. “Aye, what the fuck? Don’t ever try to put your hands on a female when I’m in your presence… Matter fact, never.”

That voice.

I looked around the body and all the air had been sucked out my lungs. All the mouth I had seconds before had disappeared as I stared at Naheim.

“Naheim?”

Timmy wasn’t on my radar anymore; it was the man that stood in front of me – protecting me from Timmy’s blows.

Naheim turned around exposing his pearly white teeth, broad smile and that one dimple that I had always loved. His brown skin glistened under the brutal New York sun, and from the wife beater he wore, he knew it was brutal. He had to be around six feet with a medium build. A far cry from the skinny boy that I’d last seen all those years ago in the holding cell.

“E, what’s good?” He held his arms out, and I stepped into them.

He squeezed me tightly as he picked me up from the ground and I squealed, begging him to put me back down. “How is it possible that you still smell the same?”

I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t know how to respond to the question. “W…when did you get out?” I purposely ignored his question.

“Been out for two years now. How have you been? You live in the neighborhood?”

I smiled, pointing at my bus that was parked on the side of the store. “I live in the neighborhood, but I stopped to talk to this stupid ass before getting off from work.”

“You were the one whipping that bus? Oh shit, look at you.” He smirked, eyeing me down.

I was dressed down in my uniform, so I felt slightly self-conscious. Timmy was standing off to the side without all that mouth that he had just had moments before.

“Yeah. Got to pay the bills.” I looked down at my watch, knowing I needed to be heading back. “Timmy, stop fucking smoking with Jaiden, and I mean that shit.”

“Let me walk you to the bus,” Naheim offered.

I opened the doors and stepped in. “It was really good seeing you. Don’t be a stranger… how’s your mom?”

“Moms moved to Georgia a few years ago. You bout to get off? Let me take you out to eat so we can catch up?”

I eyed the wedding band on his hand and knew better. He spotted me looking at the ring on his finger. “You’re married? I can’t go out to eat with you.”

“As friends, E. I haven’t seen you in years… I want to catch up with you. A lot of shit has happened.”

He was right. “Yeah, that’s an understatement.”

“Give me your phone.” I grabbed my phone out my pants and handed it over to him. He programmed his number into my phone, then called his phone so he could have my number. “I’m gonna hit you up later.”

“Okay,” I finally agreed.

He walked backward while licking his lips back to the store. “It was mad good seeing you, E.”

“Likewise.” I smiled, and closed the doors, starting the bus to head back to the depot before my supervisor was on my ass about making an unauthorized stop.

The last time I had seen Naheim, he was in that holding cell and I could barely form any words. Ryai told me that he would write to me, and I never received that letter. I always wondered what happened to him, but I had been so stuck in my own grief that I never cared to follow up. His mother lived in the same neighborhood as my aunt, and I never checked in with her.

Naheim had been my everything at just seventeen years old. I used to believe that we would live happily ever after. I would even go as far as to say he was my first love. It was surreal running into someone that had my heart at one point of time. There was no secret that Naheim was involved in the streets when we were younger. His story wasn’t much different from Timmy’s story, which is why I wanted better for Timmy.

I’ve witnessed what living that life did to you. Naheim was sitting in a holding cell and had probably done some real time upstate behind living that life. My cousin’s father had his life taken because of that life. So, I wanted better for Timmy, and his mother should have wanted the same for her son.

So much has happened since the last time I saw Naheim. I wasn’t the same naive girl that was head over heels for him.

Naheim looked so good. Despite being much older since the last time I’d seen him; he still had that signature one dimpled smile that I had loved so much. I shook it off and pulled off the block to park the bus back at the depot.

The Maybach that I had parked in front of had to be Naheim’s car. Even with me being shocked to see him, I still noticed the jewelry and the designer clothes that he wore. It was far cry from the boy who wore the same sneakers until the soles started to speak. I knew well enough to know that he was still involved in the same things that landed him upstate doing time.