Chapter 3
First Quarter
“FUCK!” I yelled as I hung up the phone hard as hell and slammed it against the motel bed before pacing across the room. My chest was rising fast, anger eating at me so bad my fucking hands were shaking, ready to do something.
That nigga thought this shit was funny. He thought because he had the money, owned a business, and had my girl in a fucking penthouse, that he won.
But the nigga ain’t win shit.
Islah was still mine. She just needed to realize what used to be is not what it’s gonna be.
I punched the wall hard enough to crack the weak-ass plaster, breathing hard while pain shot through my knuckles. I didn’t even care. My whole fucking body felt hot, tight. Like I was seconds away from crashing out completely.
Love was a fuck nigga! That nigga tried to talk to me like I was some bum-ass nigga, like I didn’t build Islah into the bitch that she was. Like I wasn’t the nigga who took care of her before Atlanta, before him.
I knew her favorite food.
Knew how she looked when I made her upset, and she wanted to cry but didn’t.
Knew what type of music she liked when she was cleaning up.
Knew when she made that four with her legs in bed she was bout to be knocked.
I knew how she looked first thing in the fucking morning when the sun came through the window and hit her with that glow.
That girl sat in the trap house with me and for me! Bagged my work, held guns for me, cried for me each time I went to jail.
I built that bitch from the ground up.
That was my girl and was never gonna be his, and I put that on my mom’s grave.
I grabbed the bottle of Henny off the dresser and took a long swallow straight from it, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand as I set it back down on the table. The liquor burned going down, but it ain’t do shit to calm me down.
Nothing could calm me down… That nigga said he was gonna put a baby in MY WOMAN.
My stomach twisted violently just thinking about that shit.
“She wouldn’t do that shit,” I muttered to myself. “She wouldn’t cross me like that.”
I walked over to the window and peeked through the blinds for at least the third time since I had been in this new room. I wasn’t on edge, I was just tryna stay ready.
I was alone in a city that was put against me, and my niggas wouldn’t take my calls.
That shit was irritating my soul.
Not because I needed saving. I ain’t ever been a helpless ass nigga. But because I knew what it meant when the street niggas started creating distance. They thought I was losing it, and that was never the case.
I sucked my teeth and let the blinds fall back into place before grabbing my burner off the bed and scrolling through the recent calls, giving Bully another call.
It rang twice, then went to voicemail.
I laughed dryly once I heard that beep.
“I never thought you would be a pussy ass nigga!” I said before I hung up.
All my niggas in Cali were acting weird like Kronic and Bully went back and told niggas to ice me out.
That shit made my blood boil.
Cause when niggas were beefing, homeless, broke, hungry, needed a place to sleep, or a stepper beside them, I never switched up, I stuck to the code and held my niggas down.
But now, all of a sudden, niggas have morals and shit.
Them niggas were acting like I was the crazy one when I was standing on principle!
I tossed my burner on the bed and started pacing the room again while twisting one of my locs. A nigga thoughts were all over the place.
One second, I was angry at Islah.
Next second, I was pissed at myself for ever getting caught up.
Then I was mad at my own niggas.
My final thought, and the one that was about to send me over the edge, was about that fuck nigga Love and how he felt like he had the upper hand.
That shit was eating away at me slowly.
I walked over to the small motel sink and splashed cold water on my face before looking up into the mirror.
I looked fucked up.
Eyes low.
Locs unkempt.
Stressed sitting all over my face.
I hardly recognized myself.
But none of this shit would have happened if Islah had just listened to me instead of running away to Atlanta, acting like seven years ain’t mean shit.
I balled my hands up on the sink.
“Nah,” I muttered to myself. “She still loves me… She gotta still love me.”
She had to…
I was her first love, and her first heartbreak, and I know that for a fact. Bitches just don’t forget a pain like that.
That nigga Love didn’t know her like I know her. That nigga can’t make the feeling of me go away in her the way he thinks he can.
Love was just a fucking ex, a rebound nigga who thinks that putting a ring on her finger is gonna make her forget the nigga she really wanted.
My burner rang on the bed and snapped me outta my thoughts. I walked over to get it, looked at the screen, and saw that it was Bully.
“Bout time you picked the fuck up,” I said as I answered the call.
“Nigga, you ain’t dead yet?”
His response made me look at the phone with disgust.
“Who the fuck do you think you talkin’ to, Bully?! Did you forget who the fuck I am?!”
“Mannnn, Gio…what the fuck do you want?”
That nigga sounded too irritated with me.
“Y’all really gonna leave a nigga out back like that? That nigga got the whole ATL lookin’ for me, so he said.”
Bully laughed into the phone. “Damn, Gio, you sound scared.”
“On my mama, nigga, I’m on whatever he’s on.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, listen up, you ain’t really talkin’ bout shit. I got somebody on the line who wants to talk to you.”
“Nigga, who? It bet not be Kronic bitch ass!”
He didn’t respond, then my heart dropped when I heard…
“Gio?”
“Islah?” I responded quickly, my voice shaking and shit.
“Yeah, I want to meet up so we can talk,” she said, her voice soft.
“And just cause I don’t trust yo’ ass, Gio,” Bully said, cutting in. “I’ma fly in to chaperone, because she don’t want HER NIGGA to kill you.”
“Man, shut up!” I muttered, trying not to let my excitement show in my voice. “When you want to do this, baby girl?” I said, responding to Islah.
She sighed. “Bully, when you get in town, hit me. We will do it then.”
“10-4,” Bully responded, and then I didn’t hear her anymore.
“Well, look,” that dumb ass nigga said. “You done scared her off.”
I sucked my teeth. “Nigga, hurry up and get yo’ ass here so I can get my girl back.”