15. Royal #3
“You better find that shit quickly!” my dad added.
When Crew saw me and Asad standing on the porch, his lip twitched.
I wasn’t intimidated. “You got some shit on your mind? Say it. You at my fucking house but have the fucking audacity to come here and act a fucking fool. You could have stayed where you were with that shit. I have no desire to kiss your ass. We were so cool at one point, like brothers should be, but you wildin’, bruh. ”
Kingsley had come out of his house and so had Seven and Iesha. I didn’t realize how loud we were.
“Oh, you a kiss ass, nigga. You kiss their asses,” he said, pointing to Mama and Dad. “And you kiss Aaliyah’s ass for sure.”
“Hold the fuck up!” Mama said. “He respects us. That’s some shit you obviously didn’t grasp. You smelling your fucking self.”
“Man, fuck y’all.”
I couldn’t contain my anger any longer. I dove on his ass and just started swinging. “Oh, fuck us? Fuck Mama and Daddy? You done fucked up now.”
Seven and Kingsley apparently ran over, because they pulled me off him.
I was huffing and still trying to get at his ass.
Mama was crying, and Dad was holding her in his arms. It was killing him to see her cry.
It always did. I was pretty sure that knowing Crew caused those tears only made it worse.
“Since it’s fuck us, go pack yo’ shit and get the fuck outta my house. Find your own way. Buy yo’ own shit. Since we don’t give a fuck about you, let me show you how we treat people we don’t give a fuck about. Get your ass on. We’ll make sure Kambel gets home.”
My dad was holding my mama tightly. I knew this was breaking their hearts.
Asad slowly shook his head while Crew shifted his jaw.
I probably broke that shit. His lip was swollen and bleeding and so was his nose.
Seven looked like he was ready to cause more damage.
That wasn’t unusual though. That nigga had a temper.
He was loyal, though, and I was sure Crew’s disloyalty was grinding his gears.
That nigga went to his truck and struggled to get inside and peeled out of my fucking driveway, leaving tire marks on the cement.
My face was twitching something serious.
I wanted to get at him some more. I jerked away from Seven and Kingsley and went to my mama.
I grabbed her hand and led her back inside.
“I love you, Mama. This ain’t on y’all. You spoiled all of us. You taught us respect and love. You taught us how to be productive adults. This is on him. He grown as fuck and can make his own decisions.”
“That doesn’t stop it from breaking my heart, Royal. He’s my baby. I want to see all of you do well. We provided the tools for you to do exactly that. I just . . . I don’t know what happened with him.”
“I’m sorry, Mama. Go sit down.”
I went back outside as Asad went back inside to the couch. Seven and Kingsley were still out there talking to Dad. Mythic had joined them. Kingsley’s arm was around him, and he was talking to him. I could tell my dad was still angry, although his face was no longer red.
When I got to him, he said, “I need to go to the house. If he in there fucking up my house, I’m gon’ fuck him up.”
“Naw, stay here. Call someone to change the locks and deal with it once he’s gone.
If you go there while he’s there and he’s tearing shit up, you might kill him.
We can’t have that shit, despite how crazy he’s acting.
I don’t know what’s up with him, but unfortunately, it’s not our responsibility to figure it out.
That’s on him. He’s taking this shit way too far. ”
He nodded, and Seven and Kingsley did as well.
“What happened?” Mythic asked.
“Too much, man,” I said.
I was pretty sure Seven would fill him in. When Kambel came outside, Mythic stared at her. “What’chu doin’ here, lil mama?”
She rolled her eyes. “I came here with Crew. We started talking a couple of weeks ago. Had I known he was playing games, I would have ignored his ass.”
“Where did y’all meet?” I asked.
“He was in Liberty.”
“Why in the fuck would a Henderson be in Liberty for no fucking reason?” Seven asked.
That shit was suspect as hell.
“He said he was out there handling business. When I saw him, he was over by Mythic’s old house. I was at one of my friends’ houses, and we were outside. He stopped to speak. I remembered who he was, so we started talking, and he asked for my number.”
I was frowning, along with every other Henderson standing here. My brother had to be working with the opps.
“We need to talk to Kane and Ryder J about this shit. I feel like those muthafuckas know something. They gon’ spit that shit out,” Kingsley said.
I agreed. He did something on his phone as my dad headed inside. He looked defeated. I hated that shit. How could one of the most laid-back Hendersons produce a rogue muthafucka like Crew? We would have to get to the bottom of this shit, but it wouldn’t be today.
Ashanni came running outside. “I just called Bali. We need to get Aaliyah to the hospital.”
Fuck.