Chapter 2 #2
Although I loved my brothers, they were too afraid to speak up about their dislike for the street business.
It was fun when we first started, but as we grew older, our palates began to change, and we were more thirsty for longevity.
As their older brother, I knew they looked up to me and wanted me to take the lead and speak for them.
Eventually, I would, but since Papi was officially retiring, it was going to be hard to convince him to let it go right now with all the other changes happening.
“Poker tonight?” Mike asked.
“I’m down,” Mo replied.
“Can’t. I promised MJ movie night,” I said, heading toward my office.
“Nigga, you lame now. You still playing house with FTS?” Mike asked as Mo chuckled. I smirked and flipped his ass the bird.
Jalea was my son’s mother, and as much as I hated her tacky ass, I couldn’t deny that she was a good mother to my son.
One drunken night had me fucking a stranger, and she wound up pregnant.
I denied my seed for a year because I felt like the broad was lying and trying to trap me.
She did just that, and after the DNA results came back, I immediately took my son from her.
I only kept her around because she was the mother of my seed.
We were not in love; we didn’t cuddle and do date nights, and she slept in the west wing of the house while Messiah Jr. and I slept in the east wing.
If it weren’t for my son wanting her there, her ass would be in her own house and far the hell away from me until I needed her ass.
Mike and Mo always clowned on her, saying she was for the streets; hence the reason he called her FTS.
I didn’t give a fuck, though. She only served two purposes in my life: to take care of my son and give me head or pussy whenever I wanted it.
Since I didn’t go around sticking my dick or tongue in just anybody, she was all I needed until I found someone else more interesting.
Her ugly ass was trying to make magic happen between us, and I immediately shut her down.
She may have a degree and be decent-looking, but I would never put a ring on her finger.
She was smart, but she lacked in other areas where I could never see myself giving her something as sacred as my last name.
I couldn’t see myself marrying anybody, honestly.
All I needed was my son. He was the only person besides my moms, Maddie, and our other little sister, Piper, who got the nice side of me.
Everyone else’s access to my heart was denied.
“You need to go find you somebody and stop worrying about what the fuck I be doing.”
They laughed until Mike said, “Yeah, okay. Tell my nephew I’ll be over tomorrow so we can go play ball.”
“Peace,” I told them, chucking them the deuces. All I wanted to do was take my ass home and relax.
Putting in the security code, I walked inside my home, and my eyes ballooned at the number of kids flopping around in my living room. Anger instantly seared me as I stood in place watching Jalea’s four nephews and two nieces in my living room, running around like it was an amusement park.
“Yooo! Are y’all serious?” I roared. Every last one of their bad asses dropped to the floor like it was a fire drill. MJ hid behind the couch as if I couldn’t see him. “MJ, come here!”
He stood from his hiding spot and begrudgingly made his way to me.
“What’s up with you, man?”
“Nothing. I told them not to come in here, but they didn’t listen to me. I was chasing Devon because he took my Nintendo Switch and wouldn’t give it back,” he explained.
I looked at Devon as he shrank into the couch, covering his face. Turning to my junior, I asked, “What did I tell you about letting people play with you, Messiah?”
“But—”
“But, nothing. What did I say?”
“Don’t let nobody play with me because I ain’t no punk.”
“Exactly. Where your game at?”
“He still got it.”
“I was going to give it back, Uncle Messiah, after I finished my level, but he tried to take it before my time was up.”
“Does it belong to you?” I asked him.
“No, but?—”
“Go get your game from him,” I told my son.
MJ walked over to him, snatched his game from his hand, then sent a fist flying into his face. Devon stood up about to swing, but MJ punched him again, sending him to the floor.
“Messiah Braylen Crawford Jr.! What do you think you’re doing?
” Jalea asked, switching her ass inside the living room with her sister, Malea, behind her.
When she saw me, she stopped in her tracks, seeing the scowl on my face.
“Si, I can explain. They just got here. They weren’t staying long, so I told them to sit in the living room until I was done talking to my sister. ”
“We leaving now, Grinch. Y’all come on and get y’all stuff on,” Malea said, rolling her eyes and gathering her brats.
“I know ya tired ass ain’t got no attitude because you kept opening them gates of hell and pushing these little demons out.”
“Messiah, don’t start with me,” she said, waving me off.
“Then stop bringing the zoo to my house. MJ’s birthday ain’t until August. I’ll book they ass then.”
“Fuck you.”
“Never.”
“Si, stop,” Jalea said. “Bye, auntie babies. I’ll see y’all next time.”
“Bye, Auntie Lea!” They all chimed, walking past me, giving me the death stare. Devon’s face was twisted in a scowl as I chuckled.
“Whenever you ready, lil’ homie.” I wasn’t above beating a kid’s ass for fucking with my son.
“You are so childish,” Jalea said, walking them to the door.
“MJ, go up to your room. I’ll be up there in a minute to kick it with you.”
He nodded and grabbed his game, hurrying up the stairs. I waited until Jalea came back into the living room before I spoke.
“Si—”
“Shut up. I told ya ass a million times to stop inviting them to my house. They’re disrespectful as fuck, and don’t have any home training.”
“Why can’t my family come over? I live here too!”
“Did you not just hear what I said? You keep thinking that this is your shit when it’s not. You’re only here because of my son, and you’re on borrowed time. You know them badass kids are jealous of my son, and you keep bringing them around here!”
“That’s his family! You can’t stop them from forming a bond with him. Boys fight, Si. I’m trying to get him to stop being selfish with his things, and you keep undoing everything I’m teaching him.”
“He ain’t being raised to be no sucka, Lea.
They are bigger than him and always trying to punk my son because you keep trying to make him soft.
Every time them wild animals think they can come for him, I’m gon’ make him beat they asses every time.
You bring them in my house again, and I promise you, you walking ya ass right out that door with them. ”
“Fuck you, Messiah! You can’t keep my family away from me.”
“I’m not trying to keep anything away from you. I care nothing about you being with them at all. As a matter of fact, go ahead and pack ya shit. We don’t need you here. MJ will get over you not being around. He’s old enough to understand now.”
“No.”
“No?”
She rolled her neck. “I said no. I’m not leaving without my son.”
I chuckled lightly. “You be really thinking you have pull or something. I’ll stuff ya ass in a suitcase and ship you right back to the hood you came from. Don’t play with me, Lea. Now, if you can’t respect my home and my rules, you can leave. Go live with your sister in her shoe house.”
“You must need your dick sucked. That’s why you’re so fucking cranky and mean. Is that what you want?” She ran her hand over the bulge in my slacks.
I pushed her back slightly and laughed at her. “Stop playing with me, Lea. You think giving me head is going to make me not stand on what I said. I don’t want your sister and her kids in my home.”
“Why, Si? Sh-she doesn’t have anywhere to go.”
“Not my problem.”
“I was wondering?—”
I shot her a look that told her not to cross the line with me.
I was being nice by letting her live here.
There was only so much I could take before I exploded.
“You’re treading on thin ice, Jalea. I don’t know why I suggested that you live here.
MJ was only a year old. I could’ve had you pumping milk every three days and left you right on the Eastside where you belong. ”
“You are such an asshole! Like, how do you have such loveable parents and siblings, and you act the way that you do? I was crazy as hell to have a baby by you. I should have fucked your brother instead!”
I chuckled. “Newsflash. You already did, with your trick ass. I was just the one you happened to get pregnant by. If it wasn’t for my son, I wouldn’t have paid ya ass a second glance.”
“Nigga, please. This pussy got you stuck. That’s why I’m up in this bitch. You can front all you want to your people, telling them you hate me, but we both know the truth.” She laughed.
“I won’t deny you got some good pussy, but not good enough to give you the one thing you keep trying to attack me for. That pussy ain’t good enough to claim my soul, lil’ mama.”
“You swear you’re God’s gift to women. One day, a woman is going to come into your life and wreak so much havoc on you, you gon’ be in the corner crying and hugging ya knees.”
“You funny. Too bad it won’t be you.” I smirked.
“Whatever, Si. But can I ask for a favor?”
“If you’re about to ask me if your sister can stay here, then the answer is fuck no. All those baby daddies she got… she better go figure something out.”
“I wasn’t going to ask you that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “My check was short this week, so I can’t help her get the hotel for a week. Do you think you can spare a property just for a month?”
“Hell no.”
“Messiah, please. She’s my sister. Think about the kids.”
“I thought we already established that it’s ‘fuck them kids’ for me. She better go find they damn daddies. The fuck you think this is?”
“You can’t be that heartless, Messiah.”
“But I am.”
“I swear you get on my nerves!”
She stormed away as I shook my head and headed up the stairs to check on my son.
I wasn’t trying to be a dick because I actually did like kids—just not Malea’s kids.
She let those little gangsta’s do whatever they wanted to do, and then when they went out in public, they acted out, and she wondered why.
She didn’t properly train her kids how to take care of other people’s property, and that’s why she couldn’t stay here.
My house was not the homeless shelter. Jalea was lucky her ass had my seed, or her ho ass would be in the same struggle boat as her sister.
As much as I didn’t give a fuck about Malea’s situation, I knew Jalea was going to go behind my back and call my moms. I didn’t care if she did, but I also didn’t have the patience to sit through Ashlyn’s scolding and lectures about showing humility and giving grace to people who were undeserving in my eyes.
Fuck my life!