Faheem Banks
Juniper hadn’t stopped fidgeting since I caught her up on all the shit I’d been dealing with.
Walking up to my parents’ door, they’d just moved out to the compound earlier this year.
They still had their other house in the city, but they were here more times than not.
Before I could even knock on the door, it swung open, and my mama was there ready to take Forrest from me.
Juniper had Ryver in her arms, and I had Forrest. Baby girl hadn’t stopped whimpering for me, but I wanted to ease her onto my Toi.
My mama was gonna lose her shit when she saw Ryver and that’s why I couldn’t pick up baby girl yet.
When everyone first found out about Mixie being pregnant, Toi swore up and down I had another baby on the way. Of course, I thought her ass was losing it. A nigga ain’t pay her naggin’ no mind, but she was finna cuss me the fuck out. My parents didn’t play when it came to being grandparents.
Which is why Forrest reached out for his nanni as soon as the door opened.
“Nanni’s sweet baby, what are you doing here?” Toi didn’t even acknowledge me once she got Forrest in her arms. She left the door open talking to his little ass like he was the only mutha fucka there.
“You forreal, Toi?” I called out behind her, with Ryver now in my arms. As soon as Forrest was out of my arms, she was pulling on my shirt. Since my mama wanted to be rude, I was finna do her the same way.
“Boy, leave me alone unless yo-” Toi stopped talking the second she laid eyes on me and Ryver as we walked into the kitchen with Juni trailing behind us.
“Faheem Rashad fucking Banks,” Toi gritted out through clenched teeth, and her eyes squinted.
If you knew my mama, you knew she didn’t cuss, so for her to be cussing, she was pissed.
“Who are you holding?” She ice grilled me.
Since this wasn’t just my battle I stepped aside.
“Ask her.” I nodded to Juniper whose eyes bulged out of her head. I love the fuck outta Juni, but I wasn’t finna be the only one dealing with Toi’s wrath.
“Hi, Mrs.Banks.” Juni waved at her timidly while sneaking and shooting me a death glare that I snickered at.
My mama placed Forrest on the kitchen counter, holding him in place with one hand and throwing her other hand on her hip, she gave me a hard glare as she said. “Care to explain to me why my knuckle head son is holding a girl version of him and Forrest?”
“Uhh, well…” Juniper looked over to me for help, but I shrugged my shoulders.
Toi was gonna be nicer to her ‘cause she wasn’t her blood.
It was best she heard it from Juni than me.
Toi woulda fucked me up if I was the one telling her.
“R-r-ryver, she’s his daughter,” Juni stuttered, all nervous, blushing. I liked seeing her like this.
“How old is she?” Toi said, walking over to me and Ryver.
“She just turned one.” I decided to give Juniper a break. Her scary ass looked like she was finna pass out.
“And why haven’t I met my granddaughter before today?”
“Ion know, Mama. I just found out about her last week. You gonna have to ask her sneaky ass mama about the rest.” I finished my snitching on Juniper, and she looked like she wanted to fuck my ass up.
“Let me go get my husband so he can see this sh-” My mama started to leave out the kitchen, but I stopped her.
“Nah, let me go get him. You talk with yo daughter-in-law and Ryver,” I said, handing Ryver to Juniper. Of course, she tried to protest, but I didn’t give her little spoiled ass enough time to sucker me in.
I was out the kitchen before anybody could stop me.
I didn’t need some big family confrontation.
I wanted a one on one with Big Frank; it was the only way I’d get straight answers.
I headed to the second floor to his man cave where he spent most of his time at.
Without knocking, I walked in finding Big Frank sitting on his reclining chair watching basketball with a cigar in his hand.
Hearing the door open, Big Frank looked over at me.
“Damn, son, I thought my ass was gonna have to die before you came to see me again,” he said as he put his legs down from the reclining position.
“You know why that is though,” I replied cooly, taking a seat in the reclining chair next to him. “But I found out Juniper had a nigga’s baby. Figured y’all needed to meet y’alls other grandbaby.”
My dad smiled hard as fuck when he heard about Ryver. “Where is she?” he asked excitedly.
“She downstairs with mom and Juniper. I wanted to talk to you alone first. I found some shit out that ain’t sit right with me. I wanna give you a chance to explain your side before I figured out how I wanted to handle this situation.”
Big Frank looked at me, nodded his head, then took a pull off his cigar, letting the smoke flow from his mouth. “I’m listening.”
“Cliv-”
“Don’t come in here tellin’ me shit that nigga said. You know he a lying ass snake nigga,” Big Frank cut me off. To me, his immediate defense showed guilt, something he’d taught me as a young nigga.
“I know he fuckin’ Mixie, has been for years.
I know you knew about it, but I can’t make sense of why you wouldn’t tell me that shit.
I’m yo son, right? You always gon’ have my back, but let me lay down with a bitch that got flees?
” I spat, clenching my fist together, trying to keep my emotions under control.
“I knew, son, but shit ain’t that simple. I helped you get revenge.”
“Nigga, Ion give a fuck about revenge when my son always gon’ be tied to a ho ‘cause you helped a nigga get fuckin’ revenge when you could have stopped me from fuckin’ with the bitch in the first place.”
Just knowing Mixie was the type of bitch that would fucking with Clive made my fuckin’ ass itch.
If a bitch would fuck with him they would fuck with anybody.
I get he started fucking with her when she was young,, but that was years ago.
She could have been paid that old nigga dust if she wanted to.
Instead, she kept sneaking behind a nigga’s back fucking that broke ass nigga.
“If it was that simple, son.”
“You know what else I don’t understand? Angelo is Juniper’s real dad, right?”
“Yeah,” Big Frank confirmed with a frown on his face.
“So, the nigga paid off Clive’s debt?”
“He did.”
“So, why you act like Clive paid it off, and why that nigga ain’t said shit?”
“He has a family and a wife of his own; he can't let his affairs bleed into his real family. ”
I don’t know if it was what Big Frank said or how he said it, but it was like a switch went off in my head.
I knew Big Frank, the nigga had been raising me my entire life.
The only thing he would lie to protect was our family.
If he thought he was at risk of losing everything he’d built, the nigga would move funny.
The only reason I could see my mama leaving Big Frank was if he’d had an outside child.
“You got another seed out there.” I was asking but making a statement at the same time.
Silence filled the room as Big Frank stared off into space.
Regret filled his face as he took deep heavy breaths.
“It’s not always about the mistakes you make.
The company you keep can be just as fucked up.
Back in the day, Clive was that nigga. He wasn’t the washed up ass nigga he is now.
Clive, his sister, Deeann, Angel, Angelo, and me ran together.
We was some young dumb niggas. Thought we was finna start a street gang, and turned it into an empire.
Some goofy shit. Angel and Angelo got into the books…
they were never really street niggas. Clive and me, we got our hands dirty.
“Clive and Angelo never got along. They always bumped heads, the shit was annoying. Most of the time, it was Clive trying to antagonize Angelo. Time separated us. When we all reunited, life had changed all of us. Clive allowed the streets to turn him grimey. He was jealous of Angelo because he was living the life he really wanted. Successful with a degree about to open his own private practice. Clive decided if he couldn’t be happy, nobody could.
You know the quickest way to bring a nigga down, son? ”
“His bitch,” I answered easily. Big Frank always preached about the dangers of loving the wrong bitch. I often wondered how he was with my mom, how antilove he was.
“Exactly, Nancy, Juniper’s mom. She was with Angelo first, engaged actually.
Clive saw Nancy’s desire for excitement.
Angelo was too focused on getting his business off the ground.
Clive stole Nancy from right under his nose, but not right away.
She bounced between the two of them for a long time.
Until she got pregnant. Clive really thought Juniper was his.
When he found out she wasn’t…” Big Frank let out an uneasy chuckle.
“That sent the nigga over the edge. He wanted everyone around him to suffer. Deeann and I used to fuck around before I met your mom. She was my first love. Clive knew there were unresolved issues. He set me up. I’m a man, and although I love your mom more than words can say, I fucked up, fell into their little trap.
I thought I was smarter than them wearing a condom.
Nah, that bitch poked all kinds of holes in the condom. ”
“So, let me get this straight. Clive and his sister set you up so she could trap you? She loved you that much?”
“Not love… money. By then, I was that nigga. My money was longer. Your mom had just had Frankee. Life was good for us. I didn’t think nothing of it when Deeanna disappeared.
Clive acted like he didn’t know where she went.
Whole time, the nigga hidin’ her out. Until she came back with my son, threatening to tell Toi about my son unless I paid her and Clive to keep my secret. ”
“Nigga, how you let a bum nigga and his sister run the okie doke on you?” I shook my head at him. The Big Frank I knew would never fall for no shit like that.
“Life happened to me. I wasn’t prepared for tha-”
“I wanna make sure I got this right. Clive and his sister was blackmailing you. You and Angelo some bitch ass niggas hiddin’ y’alls seeds from y’alls wives.
You set me and Juni up as some kind of childish ass revenge for Clive and Mixie, that a nigga ain’t give a fuck to have?
Y’all too fuckin’ old to be playin’ these bullshit ass games.
” I was annoyed sitting here listening to that wack ass story.
Them niggas was beefin’ about a bunch of nothing, playing petty games over shit that should have been left in the past. Nothing my dad said was worth the drama.
No money or lives were lost, then the shit was for the birds.
“I’m still yo dad. Watch how you talk to me, Faheem.” Big Frank tried to get buck with me.
Waving him off, I had lost hella respect for him.
Knowing I had a brother out there didn’t sit right with me.
For a nigga that claimed family was so important, but you hiding a kid.
Seemed hypocritical to me, and I didn’t fuck with it.
“You should have just told mom that shit of-” A thought ran across my mind as shit started adding up.
“I saw him. The day after my party, you was outside Floppy’s with Clive and a little young nigga. That was ya son?”
“Jaquwell, that’s my boy.”
“You said he was your cousin.” Toi’s eerily calm voice caught both of us off guard. Big Frank jumped from his seat.
“Baby, let me explain.”
“I knew you were lying. I swear I did. He looked so much like Faheem…” My mama had a far off look in her eyes.
Biting her lip, she threw her head back laughing hysterically.
Forrest was still in her arms, and my little nigga was looking at her like she was crazy.
“You brought him around me. All these years, I told myself that you love m-”
“I do love you, Toi, you know that. Don’t do this.” My dad had dropped the cigar and was slowly moving towards my mom. I’m sure he thought he was safe because she was holding Forrest.
Taking a deep breath, she finished speaking.
“Because of how you were raised, I empathized with you knowing it was hard for you to show it. I made excuses for all the shit you’ve done.
But this… Fuck you, Franklin. I’m done. Deeanna, my best fucking friend.
I always wondered why she just stopped talking to me.
Or better yet, why she hated you as soon as I started dating you, but now I know.
Faheem, I’m going to stay with you and my grandbabies for a while.
If that’s okay.” My mom turned towards me.
Ion even know why she asked that shit. She was always welcome wherever I laid my head.
“Toi, stop playing with me. You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Listen to me very good, Franklin. I’m not leaving here because I want to. I’m leaving here to keep myself out of prison. If I stay under the same roof as you tonight, I promise you won’t wake up in the morning.”
If there was ever a moment to fear my mama, it was now. The passion in her voice let you know she meant every single word out of her mouth. My dad fucked up, and he deserved to lose my mom, but not his life. Even with my dislike for Big Frank, I didn’t want the nigga to end up dead.
“I’ll let you go for the night, but we aren’t over, Toi. We can fix this.” Big Frank, or should I call him Franklin ‘cause his fucking voice sounded like it was cracking and shit I would say he sounded like a bitch if I didn’t know him any better.
“Bitch, fuck you,” Toi hatefully said to Big Frank before tossing her wedding ring at him. “I’m ready to go, Faheem,” my mom sternly said, walking out the room.
Looking over at my dad, his shoulders slumped with defeat. I wanted to feel bad for the nigga, but he brought this shit on himself, running around playing childish ass games with a nigga who barely had two pennies to rub together.
“Ion know how I feel about all that other shit, but I wanna meet my brother.” I meant that. Big Frank might have not held onto the values he instilled in us, but I believed in family above all else. If I had a younger brother out there, I wanted to meet him.