6. Marcel
“What you calling me for now?” I puffed on the half smoked blunt. “The kid was just born and y’all bitches already on a nigga nerves.” I leaned up against my car with Bear.
“Don’t even start your shit. They are releasing the baby tomorrow, and I’m not about to sit here and raise no baby. My days of raising kids are over. This is when my fun kicks in.” I pulled the phone away from my ear, looked at it with disgust before placing it back to my ear.
“Fuck is you telling me for?” I genuinely needed to know.
The test results had come back early this morning, and while I should have been ready to step up and play daddy, I still couldn’t wrap my head around the shit.
Rika’s stupid ass was still unconscious, so there was no way I could get in her ass about her choices, so the next thing I did was beg and plead with Koi, but her ass wasn’t budging either.
Before I got up today, she was gone. I was blocked from calling and texting her, so I got dressed and headed to the hood. A fat blunt and a strong drink was all I had on my mind, so Belinda calling my line before noon with this bullshit, had me ready to go off.
“Marcel, I ain’t got time for your immature ass ways.
Go get your son, now!” Instead of going back and forth with me, she ended the call.
Frustration settled in. The baby was innocent, but getting him from the hospital wasn’t what I was trying to do.
Koi already hated me, so the reality of bringing my illegitimate kid into our home was enough to drive her to drink more than she was.
I had noticed the empty bottles of wine in the trash can from the past four days. Hesitant to ask her about her mental health state, I knew she had started this new therapy shit, but I also knew I didn’t want to be the topic of conversation each visit.
“Yo, I gotta go get the damn baby,” I casually told Bear.
“And do what? Take him home? Your ass looking to end up with a bullet in you, I see.”
“Nigga he’s my kid. As much as I hate admitting that shit, he’s my shorty, and I gotta go get him, or they probably gonna give him to them people.
” I shook my head. That wasn’t something I was gonna allow.
Koi would have to hate me, but leaving a black boy to be raised by the New York foster care system wasn’t happening.
“Aight, but if Koi starts beating your ass, don’t call me. I warned you.” He leaned up off the car. “Let’s go get this kid then.”
Not far from the hospital, I hopped in the car with Bear in tow. We pulled up in five minutes.
“I’m here to bring my son home,” I told the receptionist.
“What’s your son’s name? Where is his mother? I need some ID.” The ghetto bitch rambled off question after question before turning her nose up at me.
“Rika Boyd, she’s in ICU, and I’m waiting on her to wake up to sign his name on the birth certificate.” I slammed my driver’s license on the desk. “Anything else?” I grunted.
“Give me a minute.” She typed some shit on the computer before looking up in disgust. “You got his car seat? You won’t be able to take him home without one.”
“Are you kidding me? We going across the street. So, it looks like I can’t carry his little ass?”
“Protocol. I don’t care if you were going to the corner. You cannot leave this hospital without one.” She stated snidely. “So go on and get one then come back.”
“Ain’t this about a bitch.” I threw my hands up, yelling in Bear’s direction. “They saying shorty needs a car seat.”
“Shit. He needs more than a car seat, but what do I know? I ain’t the one with a kid and no baby moms.” I hit Bear on his arm, mushing him out the door.
As soon as we were out the door, I called Belinda’s number. “What nigga? You not about to be blowing me up.”
“Why you ain’t tell me I needed a car seat? What else I need? Tell me before I get back to this hospital.” My voice was stern. Belinda must have thought what I said was a joke because she began laughing into the line. “Something funny?”
“Hell yea. You were the nigga who my niece raved about, but now knowing what type of useless muthafucka you are, it’s amusing.”
“A new word? You must have just heard that word, congratulations, now keep the smart comments to yourself. What do I need?”
“You the smart one right-.”
“Belinda, not right now. What the fuck do I need to buy!” The vein in my neck popped out. “Hurry up, I’m by Cookies.”
“Not mister money man going to Cookies department store to get my grandson stuff. Why you ain’t at one of those upscale stores? You better not put any of them clothes on him.”
“Don’t you shop there for your kids? Your broke ass ain’t too good for Third Avenue.”
“I ain’t got your money. Koi is dripping in Gucci and gold, so I expect the same treatment for him.” Tired of hearing her voice, I ended the call.
“Let’s just go up in there and ask someone to help me get some shit. Belinda a bird.”
“So is her daughter, but that didn’t stop you from fucking her.
” Bear countered back. “Taj told you to keep playing with fire, and you gonna get burned. Luckily your dick still working fine but now you got a little shorty and a failed fucking relationship. And then you went and knocked up the ghetto cousin.” I cut my eyes at him.
“Shit is wicked. You wild bro,” I didn’t see shit funny, but obviously Bear did.
“Just shut up and help me get this shit so I can go get him from the hospital.”
Two hours later, I was driving to my condo in Yonkers with the baby strapped in the car seat.
His crying had a nigga ready to pull over and put his ass out.
I turned up the music to drown out the wails, but it only became louder.
A few minutes from the house, I pulled over, got in the backseat, and looked at him.
His facial features were that of mine. There was no denying that I had fathered him.
A DNA test was a joke if I knew one, but I still had to be sure.
He looked at me, bottom lip trembling before opening his mouth wide to cry.
I unhooked him, scooping him into my arms. I existed to feel no attachment to him because of the hatred I had for his mother, but that shit was proven to be false.
Although he didn’t stop crying, he did latch on to my finger, gripping it as tight as he could.
“Damn boy. Ima do right by you, I swear,” was all I said. When he was calm enough, I strapped him back in, drove, and parked in my designated spot. I carried him and most of the shit I had brought to the apartment.
Koi was going to lose her mind when she found out I brought him home to our house, but there was literally nowhere else for me to go. Plus, I needed her help. She would probably curse me the fuck out first, but I didn’t doubt that she would turn down an innocent baby.
My mother had moved from The Bronx to Pennsylvania, making it harder to get help from her. Besides, I didn’t even know if I could jump state to state with him, since he was such a fresh newborn. I didn’t know much about babies, but I did know they needed their shots before anything.
I laid him on the bed in the spare bedroom that I had been sleeping in, looking at him, while trying to figure out a name. Rika’s ass didn’t look like she was coming to anytime soon, and he couldn’t just go by the word baby, so a name was gonna have to come sooner or later.
“Amir, Ashton, hmm, MJ?” I squinted, “nah, I can’t name you a junior. What name do you like, my boy?” I was talking to him as if he could respond.
“I know you didn’t bring that damn baby in my fucking house, Marcel!” Koi’s voice boomed from behind me. I hadn’t heard her enter the house nor walk down the hallway. She must have been trying to catch me doing something or wanted to eavesdrop.
The baby started screaming again, pissing me off. I had finally got him settled, and here he was yelling again like he was the one put in a fucked up position.
“Damn Koi. I just got him quiet.”
“I don’t give a fuck, you and him get the fuck out.
You lost your rabbit ass mind if you think you about to play daddy under the same roof as me-” She paced back and forth, “you smoking more than just weed.” The rage plastered on her face quickly turned to hurt.
She scoffed, turned on her heels, and left the bedroom.
Accepting the fact that I was the cause of her pain was making me regret ever stepping foot in that party that night.
Koi didn’t deserve this shit, but right about now, I needed her to be patient with me until her stupid ass cousin pulled through.
I was determined to win her back, whether she was with it or not.
There wasn’t a weak ass bone in my body. And I’d be damned if I let another nigga come in and swoop her off her feet. Niggas loved a damsel in distress. Well, muthafuckas, this wasn’t that. Me and my woman were just having some issues, and that was that.
“I can’t do this. I’m leaving because obviously you won’t.” She stood by the door, eyes puffy and red, her light colored skin flushed from crying. “You win.” She shook her head, swiped at her tears before walking away.
“Koi, don’t leave. I need you.”
“Too bad. You should have thought of that when there were nights where I needed you, but you were slanging dick.” She poked out her chest. “I hate that I ever stayed. I hate that you’re the one who had my heart all these years.
I hate that right now I’m hurting behind such a stupid ass nigga who probably wasn’t even worth me giving a chance to.
” Our eyes met. Silence. “All these years I thought my biggest hater was outside those doors, not knowing I was sleeping beside him every night.”
I couldn’t chase behind her. By the time I was out the bedroom door, the front door was slamming shut.