Chapter 1 #3
When I made it home my sister was sitting in the living room scrolling through her phone as usual.
My brother could talk his shit all he wanted, but at the end of the day Namari got to go home without the teenage hormones that I dealt with more often than such.
Niema and that damn phone would be the death of me.
“You’re up late. Is there something we need to talk about?” I asked as soon as I bypassed her to the kitchen.
“It’s summer break, Nor.”
“And? That doesn’t mean you don’t need to sleep, right?”
She chuckled. “Probably, but I was actually waiting for you.”
“Which means you want something. What’s up, shorty?
” I grabbed a bottle of water and turned around to look in her direction.
By now she was leaning against the island with a sneaky smirk on her face.
My baby sister was growing up right before my very eyes, and that shit sent palpitations through my chest every time I looked at her.
I was twelve when my mother had Niema. She had already dropped me and Namari off at our grandmother’s house, so I guess it was really nothing for her to do the same with Niema.
My mother had been on drugs since I was seven, so nah she didn’t raise me and my siblings, our grandparents did until they both died a year and a half apart.
They did the best they could to care for us and keep us together, but after they died that was left to me.
My mother didn’t even come to their funeral let alone to be a mother.
Instead, she stayed wherever the fuck she was and that was completely fine with me. I made sure our struggles were over.
“No, I don’t. I just wanted to wait for you.” She smiled sweetly in my direction. I guess raising a teenager wasn’t all that bad. She wasn’t a bad kid at all, shit Niema at some points was more mature than Namari which was sad because he had several years over her.
“Also, I made cupcakes.”
I nodded my head in her direction before I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. “Good looking baby girl. Now you’re really tryna have a nigga hit the gym.” Reaching into my pocket I pulled my phone out only to see that baby girl had indeed texted me that she was home.
She laughed. “It’s in the basement, Nor. It’s not like it’s really that far.”
I cut my attention from my phone to my sister. “Either way. You know I only got that motherfucker because it sounded nice. On another note, are you really serious about getting a job?”
She looked at me for a while before she nodded her head. “Yes. Mari thinks it's because I want to go half with him on the car, but really, I just want to get out of the house.”
“So, you’re getting a job, Ema?”
“I mean why not? I might as well make my own money while I work. Plus, you made me quit my last job because you didn’t want me working during the school year.”
I nodded my head. “I guess. Don’t stay up too late, lil’ mama.”
“I won’t.”
I walked in the direction of my room wondering just what the fuck I would say to shorty.
I mean I wasn’t used to wanting to converse with anybody.
I mean most fucking times I wanted a bitch to leave me the fuck alone, but this one I wanted to bother.
Finally, I settled for some corny shit that I was sure would get a response.
Me: Thought I asked you to hit me up when you got home? I ain’t say shit about texting.
A few seconds later I saw the little gray bubble before she texted me back.
Omyia : Lol! I did.
Me: Texting ain’t hitting me up, ma.
I saw the little bubbles again, but this time I didn’t wait for a response. Instead, I pressed the little camera in the contact details and called her. She answered a few seconds later, smiling into the phone.
“So, this is what you meant by hit you up?”
“For sure lil’ pretty ass woman,” I complimented. Even with that ugly ass scarf on her head she was still fucking gorgeous.
“Maybe you should’ve been a little more specific? Plus, I’m pretty sure it’s la—”
“Why aren't you with your baby father?” Call me nosy, but I believed in asking the right questions.
“How do you know I’m not?” she countered.
“Because you’re laid up in yo’ bed talking to me.”
She giggled. “Keeping it a buck, he and I are two different people. At twenty what I found attractive isn’t what I find attractive now. Four years ago, I didn’t see a problem with the things that I see a problem with now.”
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know what she was talking about. Her kid’s father was probably in the streets. “I hear you.”
“Plus, when you want something different you do something different.” She laughed.
“Yo, you’re wise as fuck. I guess that big ass head you got is s—”
“I really thought we were going to get along, but now you’re coming for my head. That’s crazy because I didn't say anything about your forehead. Shit is more like a freaking five if you ask me.”
“Glad I ain’t asked you. Get off my forehead shorty.” I couldn’t help but chuckle. Most females took those types of jokes to heart instead of dishing some shit out.
“It’s only you and your two siblings?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yup. Mom’s jetted.” I didn’t talk about my mama too much because lowkey I still wasn’t over that shit.
I had ample time and means to get over it, but in true honesty I wasn’t over it for Niema’s sake.
She was growing into a young lady and there was just some shit that I knew she wouldn’t come to me or Mari about.
Shit the time she got her lil’ female time had me thinking I should’ve been taking her to the hospital.
Had Toy not been at the crib we would’ve been at the fucking emergency room.
Lowkey, I guess that’s why I kept shorty around.
“Mine did too. After she had me, she left and never came back. My father raised me and my brother.”
“Damn, you miss her?”
She wrinkled up her face. “You can’t miss something you never had.
From what my father says she was a free spirit and he tried to capture her.
Shit, even until this day he still makes excuses for a woman who didn’t stick around long enough to care for her children.
I mean I don’t know their circumstances fully, but at some point, doesn’t motherhood outweigh outside factors? ”
“Don’t ask me, ma. I ain’t no woman, and my mama chose drugs over all three of her kids.”
“That’s messed up. I’m sorry for bringing it up.” Now she looked uneasy.
“Don’t be, I somewhat made peace with that shit.”
“Why do you say somewhat?” She peered intently into the phone.
“Because I’m raising a fucking teenager…A female at that. Had it been a lil nigga I’d know what he had going on just from a look, but females that’s a whole different type of thang.”
She laughed. “It’s no—Oh shit never mind.”
“Right. You had to think about that shit. It’s a whole other ballgame and me being a man makes that shit no better.”
“Nah it doesn’t, but from the looks of it you’re doing a good job,” she complimented.
“And how do you know that? You only met the seed of chucky one time.”
“She’s sweet. I could see that in the way she approached me. And she’s getting a job at sixteen, right? Which also means she has her priorities together.”
I laughed. “See what I mean. Female shit.”
She joined in laughing as well.
Namari
I probably should’ve taken my ass home, but I ended up on the block.
They had the lil’ basketball tournament earlier so even though it was late as fuck it was also lit out here.
Niggas never went home when the festivities were over.
I missed the tournament, but my nigga Aura was still out here.
Not only that but I had this fine ass female about to pull through.
I met her in Target earlier when I was with Niema.
Shorty assumed that Niema was my girl even though we looked just a fucking like, and she looked young as fuck.
The thing is I didn’t care to explain, and she damn sure didn’t ask me to.
If anything, I found it comical that she waited until Ema went into the changing room to push the cart in my direction and start talking.
When she asked me my name, I just thought she was assertive, but nine times out of ten she was just a ho.
I wasn’t discriminating at all because at the end of the day, pussy had no face.
I mean it had smells and precipitation but that was about it.
A real nigga wasn’t going into shit with a certain PH and if the shit was Sahara dry, I was taking my black ass home.
Bitches had better come correct or not even get undressed because all that extra shit was for the birds.
Once I parked, I sent shorty the area that I’d be in before I hopped out of the car.
I didn’t plan on being out here long, because even though I loved the hood shit I also knew a nigga wouldn’t hesitate to shoot this shit up.
I ain’t no damn cat, so I ain’t got nine lives and I wasn’t about to waste the one I had on some young nigga with poor aim.
“Nigga you’re about late as fuck,” Aura greeted me as soon as I walked up.
“Nigga was probably with a bitch knowing him.” Kasey shook his head seconds before he pulled from the blunt.
“Probably. Shit if y’all would’ve put the word in with y’all’s sister I’d be married with two kids and a fucking dog by now. But nah, y’all niggas wanted to be stingy. Now I’m still out here looking for love and she’s carrying for that thieving ass nigga.”
Kasey shook his head. “Fuck outta here.”
“The games you play and lies you wanna tell.” Aura waved me off.
“How is it out here anyway?” I asked, looking around the heavily populated space.
“Lotta ass and fajas out here. Lord these bitches done collected those fucking PPP loans and invested in new bodies,” Kasey’s stupid ass started his shit. Then he had the nerve to be looking at the fucking sky while he spoke.
I couldn’t help but laugh and neither could his brother.