Chapter 3 Xyleek
Chapter Three
Xyleek
“You back fuckin’ with Drek, huh?” My right hand, Jaheem, asked me as he ran money through the counter.
I cut my eyes at him. “The fuck is her name even coming off yo lips all comfortable and shit like that fo’? You got sumn you wanna tell me? You want my bitch, J?”
He sucked his teeth and shook his head. “Here you go. You act like I ain’t been knowing her just as long as you have.”
That part was true. Jaheem grew up with us, even though he lived in the hood while me and Drek lived in the ‘burbs. His mom and my mom worked together and were really good friends. His mom used our address to get him into the middle school in my neighborhood, and we’d been tight since then.
I knew if I could trust and count on anybody, it was Jah, but I was still overprotective as hell when it came to Dreka. It didn’t matter who it was.
“Difference is, I’ve been knowing everything about her.
You know what I allow you to know,” I cracked a grin after staring at him expressionless for a moment.
“And let me be clear, I ain’t never stopped fuckin’ with Drek.
I let her do her lil’ one two, but that’s gon’ forever be me.
She knows where home is. That’s why she keeps coming back. ”
“And when is home gon’ settle down and stop making her look crazy out here in these streets?”
“If you was any other nigga questioning me, I swear to God, I’d blow your gahdamn brains out,” I smiled, meaning every single word. “Now, J… now. I ain’t doing all that bullshit no more. It’s only her.”
He removed the crisp bills from the machine before feeding another stack into it.
“You saying that, but you better show her, my nigga,” he continued giving his unsolicited advice.
“You and Drek been through too much publicly and behind closed doors just to keep going through the same shit. You wanna make wedding plans or funeral plans? Pick one, ‘cause she’ll fuck around and kill yo ass this time if you fuck her over again.”
His words lingered between us just as heavy as the silence.
When most street niggas got in my presence, they seemed to lose the bass in their voice, but Jah wasn’t one of those niggas.
He called me on my shit and never feared the repercussions because he knew there wouldn’t be any. Jah was my nigga, through and through.
Back in the day, he was a player until Makenna’s waterhead ass swooped in and made him settle down.
Shit, me and J used to hit bitches together, but once Ken domesticated him, that was a wrap.
Now he was Mr. Husband and liked to be in the house before it got dark outside.
Soft ass nigga. I can’t even blame him though because the moment I settled Drek down, I was gon’ be outside a lot less, too.
“Nah, I’m chilling. Almost everybody has been cut off,” I opened the pack of currency straps to help him start banding the money together.
“Almost?” He looked at me like I was crazy as hell. “Yeah, you gon’ be dead by the end of summer. Who you want to handle your arrangements? Metropolitan? Holloman?”
Chuckling, I shook my head at how this nigga was always playing the moral police since he’d been married. “Man, ain’t gon’ be no funerals, only a wedding, mark my words. I’m wrapping shit up with ol’ girl before it gets back to Drek.”
“Aight,” he hummed in that tone that told me he wasn’t convinced, but he was gon’ keep going back and forth with me either.
Gabs: Are you coming over?
Staring at the text for a minute, I decided to ignore it while me and J finished handling business. Thirty minutes later, the money was banded and stacked neatly inside the duffle bag it came in. After separating out his cut from his workers, we did our handshake and left the condo.
I contemplated on returning Gabby’s text, but I knew I needed to dead the shit with me and her, so I chose to just pull up on her.
The sooner we had the conversation, the sooner I could put a ring on Drek’s finger without her looking stupid.
Blasting Pop Smoke all the way to her crib, I smoked a blunt to even me out.
Gabby wasn’t about to take this shit well, and I knew that for a fact.
We’d been fuckin’ around for almost three years, and in her mind, that gave her some type of seniority in my life.
In a way, it did because she’d been around a lot longer than any other of the bitches I fucked with.
At the end of the day, nobody outranked Drek in my life, not even God.
She was always and would forever be number one.
Gabriae was cool. She wasn’t messy, never ran her mouth to bloggers nor did she say shit about me on the Internet.
In exchange for her loyalty, I put her up in a nice lil’ condo and kept her bills paid.
That was the least I could do for allowing me open access to her body and holding it down in the process.
Most bitches I fucked couldn’t wait until I fell asleep to sneak a picture of me and post it to their Instagram to make it more than what it was.
Not her though. Her Instagram was flooded with her photography business, never her personal, and I could respect that.
Hell, I respected her, which was why I knew this conversation was about to be difficult as fuck.
Using the key she’d given me to her place, I walked in and the smell of weed and incense greeted me.
Reggae music was blasting so loud that I’m sure her entire floor was hearing every single lyric.
That was normal for Gabs, and she didn’t give a single fuck either.
That was another thing I liked about her.
She lived her life the way she wanted, no matter who it bothered or offended.
“Shit!” she yelled, emerging from the hall wearing booty shorts and a baby tee with her nipples poking through the thin fabric. “Nigga, announce yourself!”
I swirled my index finger in the air. “Would you have heard me?”
Giggling, she snatched her phone from the couch and paused the music. “No but still. I almost had a heart attack,” she walked up on me with her thick, glossed up lips and kissed me. “Wassup, baby?”
She smelled good as hell too, like always, and that had my dick pressing against the fabric of my boxers.
Gabriae was a beautiful woman that men and women were attracted to.
Standing at 5’3”, her skin was the color of a golden sunray, and she was the definition of a brickhouse, naturally.
She had them sleepy, seductive eyes, like Tems, that would make the strongest nigga weak in the knees.
For a second, I almost forgot the reason why I came over in the first place. Staring at her lips and then her body, my mind started sliding off track, and she knew it, too. When her hand reached for my zipper, that’s what snapped me back to get the conversation over with.
“We need to talk, Gabs.”
“Mm…okay,” her expression went from lustful to concerned. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not, but it’s necessary,” I gestured towards the couch. “Have a seat for me, mama.”
With curious eyes, she backed up and plopped down, keeping her gaze set on me. I could tell she was high, so I hoped that helped ease the blow that I was about to deliver.
“Gabriae, you know I fuck with you the long way. You cool as hell, and you never put our business out there for muthafuckas to see. That goes a long way with me, especially considering how public my life is,” I melted into the armchair across from her.
“You been solid and never tried to make this more than what it is.”
“Okay…so what is this? What are you getting at?”
“I appreciate and respect you, dead ass. But I can’t do this with you no more. Ima pay up your rent for the rest of the year, so you don’t have to worry about that. As far as me and you though…”
Her eyebrows raised in slight confusion and disappointment. “Because you’re getting back with Rahdreka?”
Gahdamn, did the whole fuckin’ world know? Stupid question. Of course they did. They knew what I ate for breakfast, so of course they knew who was in my damn bed.
“I am. I don’t wanna drag you along because I can’t have her out here looking stupid, feel me? Ion want that shit for you either, if I’m being honest. I actually do care about you enough to protect you in that way, unlike the rest of these simple-minded bitches.”
She stared at me for so long in silence that I didn’t know what she was thinking.
Mechanically, my hand slid to my waist just in case I had to put a hole in her.
I didn’t wanna do that shit, but I’d protect myself always.
It didn’t matter who was on the receiving end if I felt like my life was being threatened.
And right now, there was a chance that my life was in danger.
“You cool?”
“No,” she whispered as tears welled up in her eyes. “This is fucked up. I knew we were never gonna be in a relationship, Xy. I was okay with that but now you’re saying…you’re saying I can’t have access to you at all?”
Tears typically never bothered me because women cried all the damn time to get their way.
The only women’s tears I cared about was Drek’s, Vani’s, and my mother’s.
Seeing Gabriae cry hit me in my chest though.
Not enough to make me change my mind…I wasn’t stupid, but just enough to make me pause for a minute.
It wasn’t even a loud cry, and maybe that’s why it was pulling at my heart.
“I can’t have you and have her, Gabriae.”
“Why? You’ve been doing that to her!” she spat with the tears steady streaming.
That stung a lil’ bit, but she wasn’t wrong. “You’re right. I have fucked up with her in the past, and that’s why I’m getting it right this time.”
A soft sob seeped out of her mouth before she stood up and rushed back down the hall.
My mind told me to get my ass out of there, but I stood up and followed her to her bedroom.
She was full out crying, and I understood why.
Even though she knew I’d never be hers, she still developed an attachment to me.
“C’mon, Gab,” I grabbed her into a hug and kissed her forehead.
“No, Xy! No. This is so fucked up,” she whined, trying her hardest to stop crying.
“I know.”
I didn’t have it in me to apologize when I wasn’t sorry that I was getting the love of my life back. I held her and allowed her to cry it out. She was entitled to feel hurt and upset because again, outside of Drek, Gab was the next person I’d dealt with the longest.
“Now what, Xyleek?” she mumbled into my chest once she’d calmed down.
“Now you keep living your life. I just won’t be a part of it,” I reiterated so that she fully understood I was done.
“Can I have one more night with you?”
“Pussy ain’t gon make me stay or change my mind.”
She dropped to her knees and stared up at me with those seductive eyes. “I’m not trying to change your mind. I just want one more night,” pulling my gun from my waistband, she placed it on her bed then undid my jeans. “I deserve that, right?”
“Gab,” I groaned her name the moment her warm mouth welcomed me inside. “Shit,” my hand found the back of her head when she started sucking on just the tip. “Fuck, aight, last time, Gabriae.”
Technically, Drek and I weren’t officially back together, so this final night with Gab didn’t count for shit. I’d fuck the lining out of her tonight and act like it never happened in the morning. Tomorrow started a brand-new day and a brand-new life.