Solé Gardens #2
I left the room before the conversation could turn into another round of the same shit.
The whole walk through her condo, I could feel the weight of what had happened sittin’ on me.
Reni was hurt, Sha’Nelle was mad and I still ain’t know what the hell Sha’Nelle had said besides whatever Reni decided to repeat.
When I got outside, I walked to my truck and climbed behind the wheel. My phone was still sittin’ inside the center console where I left it last night. Soon as I grabbed it, I saw a missed call and voicemail from Sha’Nelle.
I ran my hand down my face before pressin’ play.
Her voice came through loud and pissed from the first word.
She told me not to ever call her again then how I was cryin’ about how much I loved and missed her while I was laid up with another bitch.
She went off about me lyin’ when she asked about Reni, told me I proved why she should‘ve never trusted me.
By the time the voicemail ended, every bit of confusion I had turned into anger. I called her ass.
Sha’Nelle picked up after a couple rings and came through the phone already yellin’. “Don’t call my fuckin’ phone, Renza!”
“I ain’t tryna hear none of that shit,” I told her, startin’ the truck. “How the fuck you think you can do whatever you wanna do, stay with that nigga and leave me sittin’ around waitin’, but the minute I move, now you got a problem?”
“You lied to me!” Sha’Nelle snapped. “I asked you about Reni, and you sat there and told me no.”
I went quiet ‘cause that part was true.
She caught the silence and laughed without nothin’ funny in it. “Exactly. You ain’t shit!”
“I ain’t owe you no explanation while you still with another nigga,” I replied, even though I knew the lie was what had cut her deeper than me bein’ with Reni.
“You owed me the truth after you called my phone tellin’ me you loved me,” she said. “You wanted me to leave my whole life and come be with you while you still runnin’ back to that weird lookin’ ass girl.”
“I ain’t runnin’ back to nobody.”
“Well, you sure woke up in her bed,” she shot back. “It’s cool though. Reni had you first, and she can keep yo’ slow ass.”
I tightened my grip on the wheel. “You done?”
“No, I ain’t done,” she replied. “All you did was prove why I need to be with Couture. He a better nigga than you anyway.”
Every thought in my head stopped on that one line.
I looked through the windshield while somethin’ cold settled in me. “A better nigga, huh?”
“Yes,” Sha’Nelle answered, still pissed enough not to realize what the fuck she had just done. “Couture don’t lie to me. He don’t come with all that bullshit you come with.“
“A’ight,” I said, keepin’ my voice calm.
Sha’Nelle kept talkin’, tellin’ me how much peace this nigga gave her and how I had brought nothin’ but confusion into her life. I let her run through every word while my mind moved somewhere else.
I knew where that nigga stayed. I knew what he drove. I knew where he worked, what airport he used and damn near every place he stopped when he was back in Greystone.
Sha’Nelle had spent all this time protectin’ him from me, tellin’ me the shit between us wasn’t about him. Now she wanted to throw him in my face and call him a better nigga ‘cause she was mad.
“Fuck you, Renza,” she finally said before hangin’ up.
I lowered the phone and stared at the screen.
I could’ve called her back. I could’ve kept arguin’ until both of us said enough shit to destroy whatever was left between us. Instead, I tossed the phone in the passenger seat and pulled away from Reni’s condo.
Sha’Nelle wanted to dig through my life, find Reni and blow up whatever the fuck she thought I had goin’ on. Then she wanted to praise that nigga like he was untouchable ‘cause he played nice and gave her space.
A’ight…
Since she wanted to reach out to people and turn my shit upside down, I was about to show her exactly how this shit was finna go.
A couple days went by and the shit Sha’Nelle said to me was still floatin’ around in my damn head.
I ain’t talked to her since she hung up in my face, and I damn sure ain’t talked to Reni.
Reni had been sendin’ long ass messages since the mornin’ everything blew up, but I ain’t opened none of them. Every time her name came across my screen, I cleared the notification and kept movin’ ‘cause I ain’t have the patience to keep explainin’ the same shit.
Reni was mad ‘cause Sha’Nelle knew about the abortion and ‘cause she thought I had been messin’ with her while we was together.
‘Nelle was mad ‘cause she found me in Reni’s bed after I lied and told her I wasn’t dealin’ with Reni.
Both of ‘em ain’t have no reason to feel how they felt, but both of ‘em was the shit keepin’ me awake at night.
What had me fucked up, though was Sha’Nelle lookin’ me dead in my soul through that phone and tellin’ me that other nigga was better than me.
She ain’t just say he treated her better.
She ain’t say he was more patient or easier to deal with.
She called him a better man like I was some piece of shit she had finally figured out how to leave behind.
Then she started listin’ all the ways he gave her peace, all the ways he ain’t control her and all the reasons she felt safer with him.
I had been hearin’ that shit in my head for two damn days.
I could’ve killed him. I knew where he stayed, what he drove and enough to find him without askin’ nobody another question. Killin’ him would’ve been easy, but that wasn’t gon’ prove shit to Sha’Nelle except everything she already believed about me.
I needed her to see that the nigga she kept throwin’ in my face wasn’t no better than me.
He was just safer ‘cause he ain’t know what the fuck to do when danger reached his front door.
By the time me and Blaq boarded Pressure’s jet, everything was already in motion.
I ain’t tell Pressure what I had planned ‘cause the nigga had enough shit goin’ on inside his own house, and I wasn’t bringin’ him into no mess that belonged to me.
All I asked for was the jet and a pilot who knew we wasn’t stayin’ in Greystone long.
Pressure looked at me for a minute when I asked, but he ain’t question me.
Blaqson sat across from me while the jet lifted from Trill-Land. I told him enough for him to know I wasn’t flyin’ into Sha’Nelle’s city to talk, and that was all he needed.
He leaned back in his seat, sparked the blunt we brought with us and passed it over once he got it burnin’. “You sure this what you wanna do?” he asked while watchin’ me take the first pull.
“I ain’t dragged yo’ ass on this jet for you to start askin’ me sensible shit now,” I replied before blowin’ smoke toward the ceilin’.
“Nigga, all you gotta do is drive when I tell you to drive and mind yo’ damn business when it’s over.”
Blaqson took another pull and looked out the window. “That part I can do.”
The flight gave me too much time to think, but every thought landed in the same place.
Sha’Nelle was somewhere in her city, probably laid up feelin’ secure ‘cause that nigga was around. She believed he was the type of man who could protect the peace she kept braggin’ about, and I wanted her to see what happened when that peace got tested.
We landed late enough for most of the city to be quiet. A driver picked us up from the private airstrip and dropped us near the car Blaq had arranged before we came. He already knew to be on standby when it was time for us to circle back.
I ain’t care what the damn car looked like as long as it moved and ain’t have nothin’ attached to us.
Blaq handled the exchange while I stayed back and watched the street. Once everything was straight, I got behind the wheel and headed toward the apartment address I had memorized weeks ago.
The whole ride, Blaqson sat in the passenger seat smokin’ while I kept my eyes on the road. He knew when to talk and when to let a nigga sit inside his own head, and tonight wasn’t the night for jokes.
I was sober, but my whole body felt wired. Every light took too long, every car in front of me drove too slow and every minute gave me more time to picture Sha’Nelle sayin’ that nigga’s name like it meant more than mine.
When we reached the apartment complex, I drove through slow enough to find his car before parkin’ right next to that muthafucka. The lights inside his apartment was on, which meant he was home and up. That made the shit easier.
Me and Blaq slid our ski masks on, got out without talkin’ and walked toward the buildin’. By the time we reached his door, everything in me had settled into one thought.
This nigga was about to learn why Sha’Nelle should’ve kept his name out her mouth while she was talkin’ to me.
I knocked and stepped to the side. A few seconds passed before I heard movement inside. Then his voice came through the door.
“Who is it?” the nigga asked.
I ain’t answer. I knocked again and waited.
The lock turned, and the second the door opened, I rushed him before he had time to understand what he was lookin’ at. My gun connected with the side of his head hard enough to throw him off balance, and I shoved him backward inside the apartment while Blaq entered behind me and shut the door.
The nigga stumbled but stayed on his feet. He reached for my arm, so I twisted his shit behind him and forced him toward the wall with the gun pressed against the side of his head.
“What the fuck?” he snapped while strugglin’ against me. “Who the fuck is y’all?”
“Where yo’ keys at?” I asked, pushin’ him harder into the wall.
He tried turnin’ his head like he was gon’ get a look at me. “Man, bruh…Get that gun out my face.”