Chapter 26
Niko Freeman
I couldn’t get my mama’s word from my mind.
At first when she mentioned coming to the balloon release I had no intentions of going.
I never went when she did shit for Sonni.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to celebrate Sonni, the shit was hard for me.
I still struggled to look at pictures of him without feeling guilt.
I never felt right celebrating his life when I carried the weight of his death on my shoulders.
That was until my mama said long live King Sonni.
Word for word she’d recited the word from the text that had been sent to my phone repetitively for the last year.
It very well could have been a coincidence but my gut wouldn’t let me let it go.
I had to come show my face because I was feeling like some bullshit was going on with my mama.
She’d been moving real foul for a long time.
I knew she had her ways and she wasn’t the best momma in the world but in my head I always felt like she wouldn’t do certain shit to us because we were her sons.
The more we found out the less I believe she gave a fuck about any of us.
If it wasn’t for Titon’s nigga, A'Milli, a smart ass nigga who knew his way around a computer. He confirmed that our mama was the one stealing from us which we already figured we just wanted the extra proof. What we weren’t expecting was to find out she’d not only been stealing from our business she hadn’t been running them like she was supposed to.
We had to do hella cleaning up behind her to keep our businesses from being closed down.
This last month me and my brothers had been running around fixing all the shit Pricilla had fucked up while trying to keep her from knowing we were on to her.
Whatever my mama was up to had her mind preoccupied she hadn’t noticed anything.
We were trying to give her enough rope to let her hang herself and she was going for it.
After losing Sonni I always told myself I would do everything in my power to keep us all together.
I never thought about the possibility of me cutting ties with one of my people.
Not definitely wouldn’t have thought it would have been my mama but I guess looking back on how she’d been moving the shit inevitable. Since Sonni’s death our mama hadn’t been right.
It was like our mama was trying to take over our lives and when we didn’t fold the way she wanted us too she made it her mission to make our lives hell.
She tried Ya’ when he first got with Frankee, Nakeem felt her wrath when he decided to be with Joi.
Titon never took any bitches serious long enough for our mama to fuck with him.
Even if he did, I doubted Ron he’d care what our mama have to say about anybody he was with.
Now she was on the same shit with me cause I wanted to be with Yanna.
My mama always fucked with Maddison but I never understood why.
I used to think it was cause I had good taste in bitches.
I doubted that though, knowing Pricilla there was motive with everything she did.
I just had to figure out what they were right now.
Which is why I’d convinced my brothers to ride out with me to this balloon release.
Ya’, Nakeem or Titon was trying to come with me cause of all the static surrounding the situation but when I broke it down they agreed with me.
I did want to know who all our mama invited to the balloon release because a lot of niggas didn’t fuck with Sonni.
His name had too much dirt on it in the streets.
Aside from family and his nigga Riker there wasn’t anyone I could think of that would want to come.
“Who she standing next to?” Ya’ asked, nodding his head towards the window. Our mama was standing in a field with a bunch of red and black balloons. There were two figures out there with her.
“I can’t tell, one look like a bitch. I know tittes when I see them,” Nakeem ignorantly answered.
“Yo’ ass ought to be tired of looking at tittes,” Titon spat grilling Nakeem.
“Can’t have enough,” Nakeem said greedily, rubbing his hands together.
“Niggas don’t ever learn to they get their feelings hurt,” Titon shook his head looking off out the window.
When Titon and Nakeem didn’t see eye to eye it meant Nakeem had gotten them into some shit that Tition didn’t agree with.
But since Nakeem is blood he wasn’t going against him.
Titon was the calm to Nakeem’s wildness.
They kept each other balanced to a degree because at the end of the day both of them were with the shit.
Titon was a little more level headed until he got mad, which wasn't hard to piss him off, then he was just as reckless as Nakeem.
“Fuck yo’ goth ass,” Nakeem said with his lip curled up. We knew he wasn’t serious so none of us bothered to intervene. Nakeem always talked shit.
“Let’s get this over with.” I said as I opened my door with my brothers following suit. Shutting the car door we all walked towards the field closing the distance between our mama and whoever she was with.
We got a few feet from them and I still couldn’t make out the nigga and bitch that was standing with our mama.
A smile spread across her face like she was really happy to see us.
Shit threw me or a loop but I’d go along with her bullshit.
She had on a red shirt with a picture of Sonni with angel wings on it and it had the words Long Live King Sonni at the bottom of the shirt in gold writing.
“I can’t believe all of you really came!
” Our mama squealed hoping up and down. “Lulu and Lamere these are my sons. Niko, Nakeem, Yaro and Titon. Boys this is Sonni’s older brother Lamere and his girlfriend Lulu,” Our mama clasp her hands together in front of her making the balloons flopping around.
”Sup,” The beady eyed light skin nigga said. Lamere looked like Sonni, but an ugly version. His eyes were too far apart and small. His head was shaped weird as fuck. His forehead bulged out slightly of his oval head. The nigga was smacked and his bitch wasn’t any better.
Lulu had bucked teeth and her eyes roamed in opposite directions.
I couldn’t tell who the bitch was looking and that scared me forreal.
What was crazy was Lulu’s face might have been hit but her body was outta this world.
Her tittes were perfectly round melon size, flat stomach, the curve of her hips were sharp and led to her thick meaty thighs.
I couldn’t see her ass but it had to be big from the size of her thighs.
“What’s sup,” I was the first to speak. One by one my brothers spoke.
The beady eyes nigga kept looking at Titon like he had something to get off his chest. If Lamere had any sense he’d stop staring at Titon. The nigga wasn’t one to go for the weird shit.
”You know me?” Titon asked Lamelle scowling at him.
”Nah,” Lamelle answered adverting his eyes to the ground.
“Anyways, Riker and Gretchen were supposed to be coming but I doubt it now,” Our mama spoke looking annoyed.
“Where that nigga Riker been?” Nakeem asked scratching the back of his head.
When Riker saw we weren’t fucking with him after Sonni passed he basically disappeared.
I guess he thought cause he got caught up when we did that made us fuck with him.
While Rike was in jail we made sure his books stayed loaded and he had a few dollars in his pockets once he got out but that was it.
Riker was still the same grimey nigga he was when Sonni was alive.
If we wouldn’t fuck with our own brother cause of the shit they were doing what would make Riker think he was exempt.
I did wonder if he had something to do with our trap house getting robbed months ago but I couldn’t see it.
Riker wasn’t the smartest nigga. He was a follower type of nigga.
Without Sonni to think for him he wouldn’t be on shit.
Our mama shrugged her shoulders, “I can’t say. I hadn’t talked to him in months either. He was acting odd. I meant to tell you that you needed to watch him, Yaro.” She said, looking at me.
I nodded my head at her as I said. “I hear you,” I paused before asking her, “I ain’t know you was still talking to Gretchen?” I curiously asked my mama.
As far as I knew when Gretchen moved she cut all communication with everyone.
I tried to reach out to her just off the strength of my nephews but I wasn’t about to chase behind a bitch I wasn’t fucking.
I had enough shit on my plate. I’d always have my door open when it came to my nephews.
Just like we did with Sunshyne we had money put up for them.
Unfortunately I didn’t have it in me to force her to let us be a part of their life.
“She reached out to me a few weeks ago. I thought we’d come to once accord. I guess I was wrong. Nevertheless, life must go on. I will miss seeing my grandsons. They deserve to know about their father.”
Nakeem glared at our mama with a deep scowl, “What about Sunshyne? She don’t deserve the same thing?”
Our mama used her free hand to pinch her nose, she muttered something under her breath. “Not now Nakeem. Today isn’t about anyone other than Sonni,” She gritted out through a fake smile.
“Let em’ know mama yo’ bitter ass hates other females so much it extends to your grandkids. That’s why you don’t fuck with none of your granddaughters. You ah old weirdo,” Titon replied, hate dripping from all of his words.
Hearing Tition say that made my mind think and I couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t wrong.
All our lives our mama has always had a jealous streak when it came to other bitches.
To the point she couldn’t keep friends longer than a month.
Our mama loved Kamari, SJ, Rylie and Sammy, all of her grandsons she doted on.