Chapter 23 Arris
Arris
I looked at the large phoenix tattoo I’d done for Lainey and took a few pictures with her cell phone like she’d asked. It looked amazing and was easily one of my favorite tattoos as far as my own work went.
“It’s perfect, Arris. Thank you for taking me tonight for real.”
“No problem. I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it.”
“Good.”
I smiled at how excited she was about her new ink. That was the ultimate compliment.
Lainey paid me what I’d quoted her and gave me a two hundred dollar tip before she left. I walked her to her car then hopped in mine so I could go home and get in bed with my women.
I’d taken Lainey’s appointment later than I usually accepted them just because I somewhat knew who she was and I was excited about trying out the tattoo she wanted.
That meant that Jayme and Dyani were sleeping when I got home but honestly, I was just happy to have them in the same place, both looking calm and peaceful.
I went through my bedtime routine then slid into bed with them and was sleeping in what felt like seconds.
I jerked up in bed the second I realized the annoying ass sound in my dream was my phone vibrating in the real world. I reached over and my eyebrows knitted together when I saw it was Darryl calling me. I looked over at where Dyani and Jayme were cuddled together on the opposite side of the bed.
I slipped out and quietly closed the bedroom door behind me before I picked the call up.
“What’s up?”
Darryl jumped straight in. “I need to break into a spot. You down?”
“Nigga, what?”
I looked at my phone briefly to see how late it was and saw it wasn’t even two in the morning. Our entire household had just been knocked out cold before midnight and I honestly felt like I’d gotten more sleep.
“I need to break into an apartment and I want you to help me.”
“Alright, fine. Where you want me to meet you?”
“I’m outside.”
“Give me ten and I’ll be out there.”
“Alright.”
I hung up and yawned. I checked on Blake then checked on the women. I slid on sweatpants, a T-shirt, tennis shoes, and a black hoodie before snatching up my cell phone and gun and heading out.
Darryl and I had been civil, just like we’d stated we would be, but this was our first real time getting together and doing something after the blowup over Dyani, and honestly, I’d missed this nigga.
There was a time when we did everything together, and outside of my siblings, I’d considered him one of my best friends once upon a time.
I jogged out to his car and hopped in. I didn’t ask any questions. I just settled in for the ride.
We were about fifteen minutes into the ride before he looked over at me.
“You’re not going to ask where we’re going?”’
“Nah. For what? I already hopped in the ride. Shit.”
Darryl chuckled and shook his head.
“Alright.”
“You want to tell me?” I looked at his side profile.
“I spent the night with some chick I’ve been messing around with, went out to my whip, and saw somebody had broken into my shit.”
“What was missing?”
“Money, weed, and a fucking chain.”
“A DP chain?”
“Hell fuck no, but I want my shit back regardless.”
“How’d you find out who snatched it?”
“I have a fucking camera on my car. The lil nigga didn’t even mask up. I sent his pictures to a few people and somebody knew who he was almost immediately. Took the name and got the address.”
“So, what’s the move? We going stomp that nigga out or shoot it out?”
“Which one you ready for?”
“I’m down for whatever the night calls for,” I admitted.
“Let’s do it then.”
Darryl reached into his cup holder and dug out a blunt. Then he lit up and took a long drag while swerving through traffic.
He drove us out to a little hood and hit the lights before he even parked.
“They said that’s the unit,” Darryl announced. He hit his blunt again with one hand and pointed with the other.
“We kicking the door in?”
“Fucking right.”
Darryl pushed his door open and hopped out. I climbed out right behind him. I pulled the strings on my hoodie while we walked toward the building. My phone buzzed and I looked around briefly before I checked it. I opened it to see a message from Darryl, a picture of some nigga. I looked it over.
“That’s who we’re looking for,” Darryl stated.
I nodded. “Cool.”
“Punch that nigga if you see him.”
“Bet.”
We both looked around as we walked to the apartment. When we walked up, Darryl looked up at the building.
I took another glance around and saw two chicks walking by. I whistled and they looked over.
“Ay. Let me holla at you.”
The women looked at each other but walked over.
“I got a band for you if you stand in front of this peephole.”
“Just stand there?” she repeated.
“Yeah. Just stand there while I knock, and when the door opens, you can go.”
“Okay, cool.”
I positioned the cuter one in front of the peephole. Then I reached around her and banged on the door so hard it shook. It was getting late and I wasn’t about to be playing around with Darryl.
I banged on the door consistently, not letting up for a single second.
“What the fuck y’all stupid ass niggas doing out there?!” somebody yelled from inside.
I stopped banging.
“Who is it?” he asked.
The girl looked at me and I nudged my head toward the door.
“Crystal,” she said loudly.
“Who the fuck—”
The door opened and I cut ol’ dude’s sentence short as soon as I saw he was the same person from the picture and popped him in his mouth. I didn’t give him a chance to react. I started whooping his ass.
The girls screamed.
“Ay. I got y’all money. Get up out of here,” Darryl said quickly.
“Ay, man! What the fuck?!” The dude in front of me threw his arms up to block my hits and I knocked him on his ass and slid through the door with him. “Get the fuck up and run me my mothafuckin’ chain before I start stomping you out.”
“What chain, man?”
I looked back at Darryl.
“It’s a gold chain, nigga. You ran it up out of my whip outside of Alicia’s house. Don’t play stupid. We got you on camera.”
“Oh shit! That was yo’ car?” He started looking around.
I pulled my gun out. “Who else is in here?”
“Nobody!” His hands flew up. “Nobody, I promise.”
“Oh. Alright. Cool.” I walked further into the house and looked around. “Go get my man’s chain before we have some mothafuckin’ problems.”
“Alright, man.” He stumbled to his feet.
“Watch the door,” I instructed Darryl.
“Walk it.” I cocked my gun.
I followed the dude to the back. He opened a box and started fumbling around, looking for Darryl’s chain. I didn’t say shit. I just reached around and grabbed the entire box. I jerked it from him and tucked it under my arm.
“Man?!”
“You want to die for this box or nah?” I asked simply. He shook his head. “Good.”
I walked him over to his bed, made him get on his knees, and tied his hands behind his back with a pillow case.
Then I headed out with the full box of jewelry.
“Let’s go.” I nudged my head toward the door when I was close enough to Darryl and he nodded.
We headed out and I tossed the box in the back seat. I pulled my hoodie off and settled into my seat.
My eyebrows knitted together when my phone started ringing. I yanked it out quickly, worried that it was one of my women and some shit was wrong.
I was shocked when it was another DP member, but answered anyway.
“What’s up?”
“Ay. I see ol’ girl you were looking for!”
“Reena?” I checked.
“Yeah! She’s in this club I work at on the weekends.”
“Shoot me the address.”
“Bet.”
I hung up and looked at Darryl.
“We taking a detour.”
“Alright.” Darryl didn’t even ask why. “Where we going?”
“I’ll put it in.”
I waited for the address and we headed in that direction.
I checked the chamber of my gun and slipped my safety off.
We got to the club in ten minutes. Darryl parked in the front and we smoked together, chilled, listened to music, and went through the jewelry box, divvying up what we’d gotten. Reena came out of the club pretty quickly and we were able to spot her easily.
Darryl whipped out of his spot and we trailed her to where she was staying, some little rent house. Her friends dropped her off and she waved at them before sticking her key into the door.
I had limited time to get her, so as soon as her friends pulled off, Darryl drove straight through her grass and damn near through her house he got so close.
She took off and I jumped out and ran after her ass. I caught her before she could even leave the yard and jerked her back by her shirt, making her body collide into mine. I put my gun to her head immediately.
“Stop moving,” I warned and she stilled.
I gripped her upper arm and yanked her back with me, forcing her into the backseat of Darryl’s car.
“Drive,” I instructed.
Reena started crying the second the car pulled back on the road.
“Reena, you know I’m not the kind of nigga you just fuck with, right?” I asked.
“Arris—”
I cut her off. “It’s a yes or no question.”
“Yes.” She nodded.
“Then, why the fuck did you think it was a good idea to fuck up the tattoo shop?”
“I didn’t think about it, alright? I just… I was upset that me and Jayme broke up and I heard y’all were back together and I was hurt because she kept fucking telling me there was nothing going on with y’all and I just— I was mad and I wanted to fuck with your life how you fucked with my life.”
“Bitch, ain’t nobody fucked with your life.
You cheated all on your own, stupid ass hoe.
” I nudged her head with my gun. “I understand how devastating it can be to lose a woman like Jayme so I’m going to let you make it this time.
But if you ever fuck with me or my woman again, bitch?
You’re dead. You hear me? And you ain’t hard to get to.
” I nudged her head with the gun again. “You hear me?” I waited for her to nod.
“Good, and if you got a nigga who got a problem, tell them mothafuckas I ain’t hard to find.
But come war ready or keep that bullshit out my face. ” I nudged her head again.
She nodded. “I won’t!”
“Stop the car,” I instructed and Darryl hit the brakes. “Get the fuck out, Reena.”
She looked out of the window.
“I don’t even know where we are.”
“You think I give a fuck?” I adjusted my gun.
Reena fumbled out of the car and I hopped out to get in the front seat. Darryl pulled off as soon as I got his door closed.
“You good?”
“Yeah, man. You can just bring me back home.”
“Alright.”
“Thanks for riding out, nigga,” he said after a little while in silence.
I chuckled and shook my head.
“You know I’ve got you, even when you a stupid ass nigga,” I said simply.
This time it was his turn to chuckle.
“I know we don’t have beef but I thought shit would be awkward.”
“Me too.”
“But it’s not?”
“Nah.”
“Good.” He exhaled. “I know you love Dyani and I want y’all both to be happy.”
“Thanks.” I looked from the window back at Darryl. “We good, but like I said before, shit not gon’ be the same until shit with Jayme is squashed.”
“I hear you.”
“Good.”
He stopped in front of the building and I threw the door open and hopped out. I was damn near to the door when Darryl blew his horn. I looked back at him.
“You know I’ve got y’all if some shit pops off, right?”
“From the cradle to the casket,” I responded.
He nodded once with a grin.
“From the cradle to the casket.”
I headed inside up to the crib where I threw my new jewelry on the dresser, shed my clothes, took a quick shower, then hopped in bed with the women.
A few hours later I was woken up to Jayme pushing me roughly. I slipped my arm around her and yanked her in by her neck. I kissed the side of her head.
“I’m sleeping, baby,” I grumbled.
“Well stop sleeping because I can’t fucking sleep with your phone going off the way it is.”
“Hm?”
“You heard me.” She nudged me again. “Get up and check your fucking phone.”
“Alright. Alright.”
I forced my eyes open and grabbed my phone.
Jayme was right; it was buzzing consistently in my pocket. It took a second for me to realize it was all social media notifications. I sat up to look at it fully and opened my app.
Shit.
The tattoo I’d done for Lainey’s sister had gone viral and was blowing all of my socials up.
I muted my notifications and checked my email. I had over forty messages from people inquiring about tattoos.
Fuck. I was about to make bank.
I responded to as many as I could then removed my email from my bio and hopped up.
“Everything okay?” Jayme asked.
“Yeah. A tattoo I did is making waves on social media and people are loving it.”
“Really?” Jayme hopped up.
“Yeah!” I nodded and she rushed over to me.
I plucked her lil ass off her feet and spun her around. She giggled then grabbed my face in both of her hands and kissed all along it.
“Congratulations.” She gave me a series of little kisses again. “You deserve this, Arris.”
“Thank you, baby.” I set her on her feet and yanked her in. “This could be the start of everything we’ve ever wanted.”
Jayme jumped up and down in my hold.
“It will be,” she said excitedly. “Fuck. You deserve this,” she repeated.
“Thank you.” I squeezed her to me. “Where’s Dyani?”
“Trying to get her life together,” Dyani said as she entered the bedroom.
I grinned as I looked at her little fine ass wrapped in a towel, holding a mug of coffee. I grabbed her and pulled her into me and Jayme and sprinkled kisses all along the top of her head. She leaned her head back and I kissed her mouth.
“As much as I love the love, and trust me, I love it, what’s going on?”
“I did a tattoo for someone who apparently has a big following on social media and now I have so many people trying to make appointments for me to tattoo them that I had to pull my contact off my pages.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep.”
I turned toward Dyani and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I hugged her tightly.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” I buried my face against Dyani and threw my other arm around Jayme to pull her in too.
I hugged both of my women to me and damn near cried tears of fucking joy. I was going to take this wave and ride it to the mothafuckin’ end.
After we came down from our high and got ready for the day, I headed straight to the bank, pulled ten grand out of my savings account in the form of a cashier’s check, and headed to the shop where I handed it to Alex and locked the building down.
He had the paperwork drawn up in three days and I announced it was closing for reconstruction so I could hook it up how I wanted almost immediately.
Due to my social media hype, I was able to get another room out of a different shop pretty quickly to hold me over while mine was under construction. I let go of my old lease so the money I was saving from that would pad my savings account again.
I had a plan and was going to get my shop and be able to give my family the life they fucking deserved even sooner than I thought I would.
That shit blew my mind but Jayme’s words kept echoing in my head.
I’d worked for this and I deserved it.