2. Berlin “Drix” King
BERLIN “DRIX” KING
Ilooked at Rome as he grabbed the bottle from my hand. He took a quick drink then offered it back to me.
“Go ahead and keep it, bitch.” I waved him off. “I don’t want nothing on my lips that’s been on yours.”
“Whatever, nigga.” Rome chuckled and took another drink.
We watched as a woman walked straight toward him. She set a hand on his knee and leaned into him and his weak ass immediately started grinning all in that hoe’s face. I shook my head but didn’t comment. I checked my phone and saw Niecy had texted me three times since I’d put her out of the studio.
Niecy: R u mad?
Niecy: R u fucking one of them?
Niecy: DRIX DON’T FUCKING IGNORE ME.
I put her contact on do not disturb, locked my phone, and slid it back into my pocket.
She was on her way to the club, so I would deal with her when she got here.
I wasn’t about to sit here reading and writing paragraphs.
I hated doing that text message ass shit.
If she wanted to talk in person, cool, but I wasn’t playing these phone games.
“Drix!” somebody barked and I glanced up.
It was Trapp, so I climbed up and walked over to the entrance of my section. I dapped him up and glanced behind him briefly, halfway expecting Niecy to pop up over his damn shoulder.
“Congratulations on the album, lil nigga.”
“Thank you.” He smiled. “I’ve gotta get you on the next one.”
“I don’t know about all that,” I chuckled. “You know I don’t hop on tracks anymore.”
“Man, after this album goes platinum like yo’ shit, I’ll give you an offer you won’t be able to refuse.”
“We’ll see.”
“Trapp!” someone screamed from the crowd.
He looked over his shoulder then back at me. “Ay, if you need anything, let me know. Thanks for coming out.”
“A’ight. Cool.”
We dapped each other and Trapp headed back toward the crowd.
I put in an order for another bottle and a beer then collapsed in my seat. Rome’s best friend and the other half of his group showed up about ten minutes later, and a little after that, my best friend Dashawn and his little brother Alan showed up.
Dashawn was an aspiring rapper and some of his shit was good, but he didn’t have any follow through. He rapped when he felt like it but otherwise stayed in the shadows, ghostwriting shit for the best rappers in the game.
He, Trapp and I had been somewhat of a trio growing up until I’d fucked up and dated Trapp’s younger sister, Niecy. Our bad breakup partnered with the money and fame coming in had drawn a wedge between us but we didn’t have outright beef.
Dashawn had also grown up in the same hood as us.
We’d gotten close after I had to whoop his lil ass for hitting Chandler on the butt and making wild ass comments about her.
We hadn’t looked back since, and after I’d gotten Rome and my family taken care of, of course I’d reached back and dragged both him and Trapp along for the ride.
Trapp and I had grown apart while Dashawn and I had grown closer.
Alan and I weren’t all that close. He was younger than Rome, so there wasn’t much for us to talk about when I was running drugs and he was a fucking kid.
But we were cool now and I considered him damn near family just off the strength of my brotherhood with Dashawn who checked his phone and immediately started typing a paragraph.
It was obvious he and his wife Hazel were arguing like always.
They were high school sweethearts but also toxic as hell and stayed arguing about stupid shit although it was obvious they were never going to let each other go.
Merch brought the two women he’d been with in the studio over. Rome and Alan invited every woman they thought was fine into the section. Dashawn got a bottle and sat on the couch beside me.
I leaned my head back while I listened to the music playing. Trapp’s new shit sounded good so far. I wouldn’t have personally stamped it but I understood it had radio play value.
I picked my head up when I heard screaming and looked over at Alan, Merch, and Rome who were all yelling as they cheered on one of the girls twerking in a damn handstand.
I didn’t understand how they were amused considering the shit they saw at concerts and the fucking strip club.
This shit wasn’t as miraculous as they were acting like it was.
I slid to the edge of my seat and rolled a blunt. I put it to my mouth and paused when I looked down and saw my phone ringing. I declined the call. It rang again only two minutes later. I declined that too and watched it ring a third time.
I lit my blunt, took a hit, then stood. I already knew it was Niecy playing on my phone. If I kept declining her calls, she would keep calling from different numbers until she got me to answer. She was persistent, if nothing else.
Niecy was my high school sweetheart. We started dating when we were sixteen and she’d been beside me while I was just on the corner selling dime bags, when I’d come up with my music at nineteen, and everything between.
While I prided myself on not changing for the fame, Niecy hadn’t had that same issue and we split up at twenty-two when not only had she thrown my name around for perks and respect but had taken advantage of me by spending thousands of dollars from an account we’d created for our future children.
I found out when she overdrafted the account.
Twenty thousand dollars were gone seemingly overnight.
I probably wouldn’t have been as mad if she had something besides shoes and designer bags to show for the cash, but the quick spike in money switched up her priorities.
I partially blamed myself for her acting materialistic because I spoiled her when I’d gotten my first advance and gave her everything she wanted at the beginning before I was financially literate.
I just wanted to give her heart’s desire for staying down with me.
After getting an accountant, it had become real to me that we’d blown through hundreds of thousands of dollars in three years. I cut my spending significantly and asked Niecy to do so with me.
She’d agreed… to my face.
That part bothered me. The fuck was she lying and hiding for? Her grown ass could have been real with me about what she wanted, but instead she lied, hid, and stole money from me that she could have asked for.
That shit wasn’t forgivable; so I’d let her go.
Unfortunately, because she’d been with me when I had nothing, I still fucked with her sometimes.
Yeah. She’d turned out to be an opportunist but she wasn’t trying to get my head blown off.
She pulled up when I called and cooked, cleaned, fucked, and sucked like her life depended on it when the occasion demanded.
I liked that.
We weren’t getting back together because I couldn’t see myself spending the rest of my life with a woman I had to pay to fuck or give her ditzy ass access to my accounts.
That wasn’t what I wanted for the rest of my life. I wanted a woman who could be my partner and the mother of my children. I didn’t see that with Niecy anymore and I was honest about that. But as long as she wanted me to knock her down, I would do that shit.
We were both single, despite what her looney ass thought.
I slid out of the section and the club to get somewhere where I could hear her crybaby ass. I hit my blunt and exhaled as I slid through the crowd gathered outside the entrance.
“Drix!” somebody screamed and I looked back and paused.
It was Retta. She stood near one of the bouncers with Charm and Myome beside her.
“They aren’t letting us in!” she yelled.
I cursed under my breath but headed toward them.
Rome was the one who’d invited them out but I wasn’t surprised that his unorganized ass hadn’t actually followed through on putting them on the list.
I walked over and dapped security.
“They’re with Rome,” I said. “Trapp knows they’re coming through.”
“How many?” He looked at the line in front of him and several women nearby waved at me or lifted their arms like they were supposed to be included in my count.
“Just the three.” I tapped all three of them lightly on the head with my hand and the bouncer nodded.
“Alright, cool.” He gestured for them to enter. “Go ahead, ladies.”
“Oh! This is what we’re doing? This is why you can’t answer my fucking calls?” Niecy’s loud ass voice came from somewhere behind me and I let my head fall forward, knowing it was about to be dumb shit immediately. “I knew you were fucking one of those bitches!” she screeched.
“Who are you calling a bitch, bitch?” Myome snapped.
“I’m calling you a bitch and you need to keep your hands off my man, bitch!”
“Fuck you and this nigga. Don’t nobody want him but you!” Myome shot back.
I looked at Myome crazy for a second before I realized I didn’t know her ass or care if she didn’t want me. I turned to face Niecy and immediately got met with a fist to my chest.
I grabbed Niecy by her throat and she froze. I walked her a few steps from everyone, squeezed a little harder around her airway, and leaned into her.
“Ay. Calm down with all that mothafuckin’ screaming in my ear, Niecy. I told you I wasn’t fucking one of them girls.”
She slapped my hand away.
“Nigga, you said that same weak ass shit when you were fucking around with Monica.”
“Besides the fact that I wasn’t fucking Monica when you asked, I’m single and can fuck whoever I want.
Are you stupid?” I looked her in the face.
“That’s a real ass question, Niecy. Are you dumb or what?
Because I’m not understanding why you can’t understand that I don’t mothafuckin’ answer to you. ”