Chapter 34
She’s Mine
After that run-in with her on that rooftop, I kept my distance… but I didn’t stop watching.
I knew her routine by heart now. What time she went to work, what time off, her off days, where she liked to go with her friends.
I had it all mapped out, but I didn’t make a move again—she wasn’t about to look at me the same way she did on that rooftop, making me look like a damn clown.
Instead, I watched from a distance until one day I pulled up to the hospital like I normally did, parking in the same spots I had been in that gave me a good view of the door.
I had my smoke, my snack, everything I needed to chill out there for a bit, but I didn’t see her.
I sat there, watching people go in and out, thinking she might have tried to trick me and taken a later shift and was gonna pop out any second.
But she didn’t.
I left, went to his store—his car wasn’t in front.
I shook my head, trying not to get too worked up, and went back to the hotel.
“Nigga, we need to talk,” Bully blurted out as soon as I walked through the door. I sucked my teeth and went to the fridge, pulling out a water bottle and walking off.
“Nigga, I don’t want to talk right now.” I left it at that and walked off to the room and laid back on the bed.
I couldn’t get Islah off my mind: her smile, the sound of her voice, her laugh, her touch. I missed her—I missed it all.
I didn’t want her back; I needed her back. I wasn’t gonna settle for her claiming another nigga as her man. She was made for me, and I was going to remind her.
I pulled my phone outta my pocket and scrolled through her pages: no pictures, no typed-up status, her pages were dead. I tossed it on the bed, trying to figure out what I could do next when Bully came bussin’ into the room.
“We need to get the fuck outta Atlanta,” he said, lookin’ pissed.
Kronic walked in slowly behind him, nodding his head. “Yeah, you done what you could.”
Them niggas went on talkin’, goin’ on about money, time, how long we been out here, like any of that shit mattered more than what the fuck I was there for.
I got off the bed, walked out to the living room, and like some bitches, them niggas followed behind me still talkin’.
“What the fuck don’t y’all get?” I shouted. I was getting tight, but trying to stay calm. “I’m not leaving here without her.”
“How you gonna get her?” Kronic asked, looking dead at me. “You said she told you to your face she got a man—”
“I don’t give a fuck what she said!” I said, cutting him off quick. “I’m not letting her let us go like that.”
Bully sucked his teeth, lookin’ at Kronic like I lost my mind. “This nigga sounds crazy.” Then he looked back at me. “Nigga, she don’t want you.”
I was up before I even thought about it.
My fist connected with his mouth, snapping his head to the side.
Bully came right back at me, but Kronic jumped between us, pushing him back.
“Nah, move, Kronic,” Bully said, wiping his lips, eyes locked on me. “That nigga needs his ass whopped, that’s his fuckin’ problem.”
“Nigga, fuck you!” I snapped. “You can get the fuck on and let me do what I need to do.”
Kronic turned from him and stepped toward me, closing the space between us.
“What you gotta do?” he asked, voice low but serious, “Go back to jail? Over a bitch that told you to leave her the fuck alone?”
I didn’t say shit. I just stared at him.
“You need to face that shit,” he kept going. “You fucked a good thing up. And now, she got a better nigga.”
That word echoed.
Better.
I let out a laugh, but it was empty.
“A better nigga,” I said, looking at him like he was stupid. “You really believe that?”
Bully wiped the blood from his lip, still ready to crash. “She looked at that nigga like yo ass never existed.”
That did it. Everything inside me was ready to boil over.
“Mannn, fuck y’all. Like I said, y’all can get the fuck.”
“This nigga tryin’ to die behind this girl,” Bully stated.
“I’ll kill behind her,” I shot back.
Kronic and Bully shook their heads at each other.
“Do you think killin’ her nigga is gonna make her come back to you? Actually, use ya head and not ya dick, nigga,” Bully shot back.
I shook my head with a smirk on my face.
“This is the most clear I ever thought.”
They stared at me for a second, then walked outta the room. I smiled to myself and rolled up, happy to finally be alone.
Once the smoke hit the air, I pulled out my phone again, searching her page again, and it was still dry. I slammed the phone on the couch beside me. I smoked that whole blunt while thinking about where Islah was and who she was with, when I had a thought.
I smiled and hopped up, grabbed my phone and the keys, and walked out of the hotel. When I got to the car, I saw Kronic sitting on the hood and Bully leaning against the car, eating a sub.
“Y’all can either hop inside or call y’all a ride.”
Bully stood up and walked to the back door.
“Might as well ride so we know where the fuck he’s locked at,” he said as he hopped in.
I got in, started the car while Kronic was still sitting on the hood. He looked back at me, like he was waiting for me to change my mind, but that wasn’t happening.
Finally, he got up and got his ass in the car, and I pulled off.
The drive was quiet; them niggas didn’t ask me shit, and I didn’t offer to tell them anything. We pulled back up to the hospital.
“This nigga here,” Bully said as I parked. “I’ma stand outside the car. I don’t know what the fuck I’m about to get caught up in.”
Kronic stayed in the car with me and didn’t say shit, while I scrolled on my phone and found Islah’s friend’s page.
Twenty… thirty… forty-five minutes passed.
Kronic and Bully were getting tired of sitting, but I didn’t give a fuck.
We sat out there all day until it was dark, then I saw a girl walk out.
I looked at my phone and back at her, and it was one of her friends, Kenya.
She walked out on her phone, talking, laughing, not paying attention.
I hopped out of my car and walked behind her slowly.
“Aye, miss,” I said, but she didn’t respond, kept talking on the phone. “Miss,” I shouted.
She turned around, and when she saw me, you would have thought she saw a ghost.
“Oh hell no!” she shouted, hung up her phone, and tried to walk fast.
I sped up a lil’ bit while hearing Bully and Kronic behind me telling me to leave her alone.
“KENYA!” I yelled.
That made her stop.
She turned around, and the look on her face shifted… like it finally hit her I wasn’t some random ass nigga.
“Oh hell no,” she said under her breath, already backing up lil’ by lil’.
I closed the space between us.
“I just want to talk,” I said.
“I don’t got shit to say to you, you don’t even know me—”
“But you know my girl,” I fired back before she could finish her sentence.
Kenya sucked her teeth with a smile. “You know what?” she said, stepping closer to me. “Everything Islah said about you, she was right. You are a clown, and this is pathetic. She don’t want you. Leave my girl alone.”
I watched her for a second, reading her face; she wasn’t the slightest bit scared of me.
That pissed me the fuck off.
“Where the fuck is Islah?” I bluntly asked her.
She looked me up and down, sucked her teeth again, and turned to walk off.
I snatched her ass up quick.
“Ayo, get the fuck off her!” Kronic yelled.
Kenya didn’t make a sound; she just smiled at me.
“Yanking up a bitch make you feel good?” she asked me.
“Listen, you don’t have shit to do with anything. I just want to know where she at.”
Kenya laughed and leaned into me. “She’s with her man.”
I let go of her arm, and she stumbled back as I stood there.
“Get out of our city, you don’t belong here,” she said as she walked off.
I ran my tongue across my teeth as I watched Kenya walk to her car, and I headed back to mine.
“Nigga just want to get locked up out here,” Bully said.
I didn’t respond. I opened the door and got in the car.
Kronic looked over at me for a second, then looked back out the window. “That shit didn’t get you anywhere.”
I gripped the wheel as I pulled off. “That bitch lying.”
“Nigga, ain’t nobody lying to you!” Bully and Kronic said at the same time.
“You just not hearing what you want to.”
I smirked a lil’, but it wasn’t real. “She said she with her man like that’s supposed to mean somethin.”
“That means everything, Gio,” Bully said.
I didn’t say shit after that and just moved through traffic.
She’s with her man.
That shit kept replaying in my head. It didn’t sit right, didn’t feel right.
We got back to the hotel; them niggas hopped out, while I stayed in the car.
I pulled up her page again—still nothing.
No posts, no stories, no fuckin’ tags.
“What the fuck is she on?” I muttered to myself.
I backed out and went to her friends’ pages again.
Scrolling.
Refreshing.
Scrolling again.
Minutes passed.
Then more.
Then, a new post popped up.
My thumb paused for a second before I clicked it.
The picture loaded…
And my whole fuckin’ body went still.
There was my baby—my Islah.
Smiling like life was good, on a fuckin’ beach, with that nigga’s hand wrapped around her waist as if it belonged there.
My eyes dropped to her hand; it was a ring, a different ring than the other last ring I saw on her finger. It was bigger.
I then looked at the caption and realized that he tagged her in the post, and it read:
She said yes.
For a second, I didn’t feel shit.
I just sat there.
Then it hit me all at once.
That tight feeling in my chest came back, even heavier this time.
She wasn’t hiding; she wasn’t playin’.
She really chose that nigga over me. I zoomed in on her face.
That was the happiest I had ever seen her—that pissed me off.
Like I never existed, like I never loved her. I let out a slow breath, nodding to myself.
“Iight… bet—"
My eyes shot to the right. I was so in my head that I didn’t even see Kronic walk back up to the car. He opened the door, and before he could say anything, I tossed him my phone.
“Nigga, what the fuck is this?” he asked before he looked.
“He proposed to her.”
“Good for her, let’s go home,” he said.
I tilted my head at him, sucked my teeth, snatched my phone away, and pulled outta the parking lot with the car door still open, Kronic hardly in the car.
“Mann, nigga, what the fuck is wrong with you?” he snapped, grabbin’ the handle, slamming the door shut.
I didn’t answer; I couldn’t.
My jaw was tight, hands locked on the wheel, knuckles damn near white while I pushed the car harder than I needed to. Every light, every turn, every car in front of me felt like it was in my way.
That picture was still burned in my head.
Her, that smile, that nigga—the ring, that fuckin’ caption.
And she said fuckin’ yes to him.
That shit kept echoing louder than anything Kronic was saying.
“She said yes,” I muttered under my breath again, like if I kept saying it, it would make it make sense.
Kronic looked over at me, already knowing where this was going.
“Aye, brah,” he said calmly. “Don’t do nothing stupid, brah.”
I laughed. Low, dry.
It was too late for that.
I pulled up to that nigga’s store; it was dark, no cars out front, and no lights on inside. I hopped out and opened my door, went to my trunk, and grabbed my crowbar.
Kronic hopped outta the car quick. “Think before you do anything, Gio, don’t go out weak over a female.”
I shook my head with the crowbar in my hand, staring at that nigga’s store. I’ve done enough thinking, and now it’s time to act. That nigga took my heart, and now it’s time we talked.
I swung the crowbar, and the glass shattered loud as hell in the quiet of the night. Pieces dropping everywhere as I stepped through like it wasn’t shit.
The alarm was blaring, and I didn’t care. I walked inside. Kronic slowly followed behind me, watching me walk around that nigga’s store, seeing what he had.
Jewelry was everywhere; shit looked clean, organized, perfect.
I grabbed the first display I saw and slammed it to the ground. Glass cracked, diamonds scattering across the floor.
“Fuck it!” I snapped, flipping another case over.
Chains hit the ground.
Rings rolled.
Everything that looked valuable, I made sure it wasn’t no more. I knocked over chairs, swept shit off counters, tore through the place like I was tryna erase that nigga outta his own city.
My chest was heavy as fuck; sweat was building, hand shaking. I peeped at the cameras in every corner of the ceiling and kept going. She fucked up our life, our everything. She was throwing it away for some nigga that wasn’t me.
I couldn’t stop fuckin’ that nigga’s store up. That picture kept flashing, that ring—the thought of her leaving me in the fuckin’ pen.
I stopped once the whole store was fucked up, glass, diamonds, and jewelry everywhere, sirens getting closer, but I still had one more thing to do. I walked over to a door that was locked and kicked it in. When I got inside, I realized it was his office.
I kicked in his office door, knocked everything over in there, grabbed a piece of paper and a red marker.
I wrote on the paper, picked a camera, and held it up with a smile on my face.
Kronic saw the lights getting closer and dragged me out. He jumped in the driver’s seat and pulled off.
I leaned back, running my tongue across my teeth, staring at the mess that I had made.
That nigga didn’t just take my girl…
He put a ring on her.
“Nigga, what the fuck are you tryna start out here?”
I smirked.
“A war,” I responded bluntly. Kronic looked at me like he didn’t know who I was anymore. “That nigga took my girl for keeps… he gonna see me.”