Chapter 4 #2
I was about to respond to him when my phone vibrated in my hand. I glanced down and saw that it was a message from North. My eyes bulged when I saw what the message said.
North: Come outside.
What the hell did that mean? I swallowed hard, before looking up at my father. There was absolutely no way North knew where I was. No fucking way. Then my phone vibrated again, and I looked at it.
North: Now.
Shit. The last thing I needed was for my father to get on his nosey shit, but I could tell by the way he was looking at me that he was already there.
Lowkey, I had already made up my mind that I was going out there to give him a piece of my mind.
I mean who was he to demand anything from me, or even follow me here?
What the fuck type of game was this man playing?
I glanced up at my father who was looking at me for an answer. “I’ll explain it to you in a few.” I didn’t give the old man a chance to rebuttal or even curse me out, I was already out of the front door.
I don’t know why I was surprised when I opened the massive iron doors, and I spotted North outside the gates leaned against a truck.
“Who are you?” I asked once I unlocked and stepped out of the gate.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“But I asked you first and considering the fact that you not only followed me, but you also demanded I come out here I think you should go first.” With my hand on my hip, I just looked at him.
“You know me. I told you who I was when we first met.”
“You did, didn’t you?” I asked with a tongue laced in pure sarcasm.
“Your turn, Omyia.”
I loved the way he said my name, but that didn’t make me smile at him or even relax my stance. “What do you want to know, North. Unlike yourself I was honest when you first met me.”
“What are you doing out this way?” His dismissiveness toward what I’d just said didn’t go unnoticed. Shit if anything it was just as loud as the cologne that he wore.
“I dropped your sister off.”
“Not there, here.” He knew that much already.
“Why?”
“Because I’m curious how you kn—”
“I hope you didn’t think because you rushed out of the door that I wouldn’t follow you out here and embarrass your ass, Miya.” My father’s voice filled the air.
“Embarrass me? I’m gr—” I started once again but couldn’t finish my sentence.
“North is that you? What are you doing out here with my baby girl?” The familiarity in my father's expression was evident. Now, how the hell did he know North? There was only one way, unfortunately.
“Small world, I didn’t know this was your baby girl.” My father and North dapped up, before creating space and both looking in my direction. Nope, I didn’t like this shit at all.
They made small talk for a while, before my father excused himself and went into the house. That left me and North to stare at one another for a moment before he broke the silence.
“Are you still on childish shit with me or are we speaking again?”
I chuckled. I’m not on childish anything. I just know that you have a girl an—”
“You heard me say that?”
“Nah, I didn’t have to. She introduced herself when she picked up Niema. Usually, women don’t go around introducing themse—”
“But you didn’t hear me say it, did you?”
I smiled because he was trying to check me. “You’re right I didn’t, but again what was I supposed to say?”
“Probably should’ve hit a nigga up and asked. You’re vocal about err’thing else, right? I’on like that childish not talking shit. Talk to me. And nah I ain’t calling you childish at all. I’m saying that shit was childish you pulled.”
I blinked a few times just looking at him.
“It wasn’t childish at all. I simply decided that it was inappropriate for me to be talking to you.
How was I supposed to know that the woman who you’ve yet to say isn’t your woman wasn’t your woman?
To me that sounds like a miscommunication between the two of you. ”
He chuckled, before standing up straight and stepping into my space. “That isn’t my woman, besides if she was, she wouldn’t have felt the need to introduce herself as such. She would’ve given you her name because she felt secure in that instead of listing an attachment to me.”
“Is that right?”
He nodded his head. “Now let me ask again and maybe this time I’ll have some clarity. We're back speaking, or are you still on some childish shit?”
Laughing I took a few steps back because his eye contact was intense.
His entire being was intense and I’m sure he knew that.
I mean how could he not. Even with space between us, North’s six-foot-four stature towered over me.
Then he was nowhere near a scrawny or small man.
He was the complete opposite with the body of an in-shape athlete.
It wasn’t too much muscle like some of the football players you see, but it was that of a soccer player or basketball player.
“Yeen gave me no answer, but you feel the need to create space between us.”
“Because you’re too close.”
“Nah, I ain’t close enough.” He stepped forward again. “I fuck with your personal space. Smells good and feels even better.”
Again, I was laughing. “How is it personal if you’re all in it?”
He had to laugh as well. “But on some real shit, I like you and this, don’t fuck it up on no overthinking shit. I’m not tryna play you, Omyia. I’m trying to get to know you and see what’s in this space. Can I do that?”
“Mhmm answer me something, though.”
He nodded his head for me to ask my question.
“How do you know my father?” I peered at him hoping the answer differed from that in my mind. No matter how attracted I was to North, I couldn’t entertain that street shit too.
“I used to cop from him when I was in the streets.”
I nodded. I got the past tense in his explanation, but I needed to be sure. I didn’t work well off assumptions. “So, you’re no longer in the streets.”
“Nope. I did my time with them.”
I looked him over for a while, then I nodded my head.
He and I spoke for a few more minutes, then he had to leave, and I knew I was about to go in the house and have to hear Bernard be Bernard. The moment I walked in the house I heard him clear his throat from the kitchen. That meant bring your ass here.
The moment I entered his eyes were on me and I could hear his thoughts before he even opened his mouth.
“No, I don’t know him like that. No, I am not dating him. And no, I’m not fucking him.” It might’ve sounded vulgar, but that’s how you had to talk to my father. He needed definite answers, with no hesitation.
He chuckled. “I haven’t even asked.”
“But you were about to. You were about to ask me every question that I just answered, right?”
“Maybe, but you’re grown, and I realize you can handle yourself. Good to know who I’d be killing if things did go left.”
“Things with he and I aren’t like that, so there is no—”
“Yet. I do admit it shocks me a bit.”
“And why does it shock you, Bernard?” I asked. I normally called my father by his first name when I was being sarcastic.
“Given his background an—”
“You mean the streets.”
My father nodded.
“He isn’t in the streets anymore.”
My father nodded again. “When you were in the position he was in, you can’t just walk away like a normal nigga. Everybody still has some sort of ties.”
I just looked at my father because I didn’t doubt a word he said.
I believed him because he still had ties to those very streets.
His ties included my brother among various other things.
All of that alone was enough for me to tell myself that I really needed to stay away from North.
I couldn’t do the street ties no matter how minimal they were.
Maybe I liked North, but not enough to deal with what he came with…
Surah
I probably should’ve stayed in the house tonight, but when my girl Bobby called me and said that it would be lit on her block I just had to get out.
I could feel the walls closing in on me and I didn’t like that feeling.
I didn’t fuck with the idea that I had no control over a situation, especially not a situation that I started out having all the control in.
I knew I shouldn’t have taken it there with Namari, but I wanted to.
I wanted him at that moment, and I was never the type to not get exactly what I wanted.
In no way did I regret what happened, but I didn’t like the fact that he hadn’t hit me up since.
Most niggas were begging to be chose, shit everything about me made niggas fold, but Namari had sampled the goods and seemingly went about his day.
I can’t say my feelings weren’t hurt, but at the end of the day I was taught to keep it player about every situation.
A nigga was going to be a nigga at all points, so who was I to expect anything different from him?
Anything I expected from a nigga like Mari was my fault and never his because he not only told me who he was, but he showed me.
Instead of staying in the house thinking about a nigga who wasn’t thinking about me I had to get out and feel myself again.
My cousin came and got Ssiah this morning which gave me time to get myself together and run my errands before I hit these streets.
Now I was putting the finishing touches on my look for the night and waiting for Bobby to call and let me know she was downstairs.
It was Bobby’s cousin Requ’s release day, so the whole block was supposed to be lit for him.
I didn’t know anything about him, besides the fact that he was coming home from doing five years upstate.
Unlike my cousin I love me a good hood nigga.
It was something about them that excited me, and I couldn’t stay my ass away from them.
Hood niggas did it better and I knew that for a fact.