Chapter 23 #4
“Okay, well, Jahrein, you know exactly what I mean. Just treat her right, and y’all will be alright. Do that, and she’ll never go nowhere.”
I smirked. “Alright, Tae. I’ma remember that.”
“You better.” She pointed, before stepping back over to her friends.
“Damn, her lil’ ass is sexy,” TP chattered.
Raven shook her head. “She’s too young for you. Then she’s wild.” She bucked her eyes.
Knowing that she’d told me that several of her girls back in 5th Ward were into setting niggas up, I read between the lines. If Tae didn’t like TP, then he was susceptible to getting robbed.
“Aye, there go them Scott Block Boys.” TP tapped my shoulder, as he pointed out a local rap group from the south side. They were strolling through the lot, putting Kush in the air.
Personally, I’d gone to school with a few of the cats, and they were just a few years older than me. Their latest single was getting radio play around the city, and their video had premiered on BET, which was supposedly a huge deal.
“What it do, Jahrein?” The leader of the group, Paper, spoke. “’Sup, TP?”
“Hey.” A dude with wire glasses on his face tapped Paper’s shoulder, before speaking in his ear.
Paper was seemingly listening intently, before his eyes landed on Raven, who was still standing between my legs.
“Say, lil’ mama, my producer said that you look perfect to star in our next video. You wanna make some easy money?”
I frowned, before tapping Raven’s thigh. “Watch out, baby.”
Raven stepped aside, allowing me to hop off the hood of my car.
“Say.” I tugged at my sagging shorts. “That aint how a real nigga is supposed to move,” I addressed Paper, looking square in his eyes.
“You see her standing here with me. And you just asked her to be in a video. Like I aint standing here. This me, nigga.” I pointed at my chest. “And she aint finna pretend to be with nah one of you niggas for some peanuts. Shit, if y’all are really having it, then you should have a bad bitch of your own to be in ya video.
Cause you aint finna put on, and pretend with mine, nigga. ”
“Jahrein.” Raven gripped my arm. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Paper stood there with a snarl on his face, but didn’t utter a word. He was from the hood, for sure. But he’d been into rapping. Me, on the other hand, I balled on the court, hustled in the streets, and packed that heat. So, he knew exactly how I was coming, if he tried to step out of line.
“Yeah, let’s roll out.” TP coaxed.
I nodded, before spitting on the ground, a few inches away from Paper’s foot.
Untouched, we hopped back into the Cutlass, before I skirted out of the parking lot.
“Say, you got that nigga heated,” TP acknowledged from the backseat.
“But he aint say shit, cause he know that he was out of line. Nigga thought cause they buzzing around the city that he aint gotta respect the code. Like that shit was finna fly. These dick riders around here must got his head inflated.”
“So, if he’d asked you first, then I could’ve been in the video?” Raven questioned.
I cut my eyes at her. “You must wanna be in the video.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “I mean, not pretending to be somebody’s girlfriend or nothing. I guess it just depends on what they wanted me to do.”
I shook my head. “It don’t matter what it is. You aint finna be in nobody’s video. Fuck that.”
“Why?” She wanted to know.
“Cause. Then it wouldn’t just be these niggas around the hood, Raven. The whole world could see you. And then what? I gotta fight the whole world to prove my love?”
“What?” She giggled.
“Man, you fucking heard me. I can’t share you with the world like that.”
She kept laughing. “Whatever, Jahrein.” She glanced around the car. “Wait, where are those pictures we took at Tutu’s party?”
“Right here.” I tapped the dashboard.
She leaned over. “So, you got both of the pictures. Let me have one.”
“Nope.”
“Really, nigga? Why can’t I just have one?”
“You do have one. You act like I’m finna drop you off to some separate life you live. We together. If it’s on the dash, then you do have it. It’s in the car, where everybody can see.”
“Whatever.” She waved me off.
I know she probably thought that I was unnecessarily giving her a hard time about those polaroid pictures, but she looked so damn good in those pictures. We looked good. And I wanted that to be the first thing people saw when they got in my car.
“I just know that you’re weird,” she grumbled.
“How is that?”
“Cause. Like, you never let me have a picture of myself. You hoard everything.”
“No, I don’t,” I denied. “I just rotate them on the dash.”
“Why?”
“Cause.” I gulped. “When shit get hectic in the streets, I look at the dash and remember what I’m doing it for. And it helps me to remember why I gotta make it home every night.”
“Aww,” TP playfully cooed, after I’d completely forgotten that he was back there.
Raven giggled. “You love to sweet talk me, with your bullshit ass.”
“My bullshit ass?”
“Yeah.”
“That was from the heart, girl.” I palmed my chest. “I put that on everything I love.”
“So, that’s how deep it is, huh?” She arched a brow.
“Deeper than you know.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “If it’s so deep, then tell that to that car full of freaks, right there.” She pointed at a Honda Accord packed with several girls, as we pulled up to a light.
“Alright.” I rolled my window down. “Say!” I shouted, as my head hung out of the window, capturing all the girls’ attention. “How y’all doing?”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Okay.”
“Cool.”
“Alright.”
“Good.”
They all spoke at once.
“That’s good.” I nodded. “Well, I just wanted y’all to know…you see this girl in my passenger’s seat? I love her. And I’ma marry her ass.”
“Aww,” most of the girls cooed.
“Well, if she fucks up, give me a call,” the driver shouted, before the light changed, and they skated off.
“No, she didn’t.” Raven laughed uncontrollably.
I pulled past the light, while she slickly reached over the console, and grabbed my hand. Gazing out of the window, she interlocked our fingers.
Knowing exactly how she was, I accepted the gesture. Raven shied away from verbally expressing herself, but she definitely had a love language to show me what was on her heart.
About fifteen minutes later, I pulled up in front of TP’s mama’s house.
“Alright, y’all.” He opened the back door, preparing to slide out of the car.
“Jah, man, I appreciate you coming through to pick me up. A nigga was depressed in this house. Gotta start all the way over. Get my money up. Get my kids new shoes. All types of shit. But I legitimately had a nice time today.”
I nodded, understanding where he was coming from.
Him and my brother Jaylen had caught a case together, but he’d gotten out of prison first. My brother was basically in the same boat.
He didn’t have no money to come home to.
However, unlike TP, Jaylen had me as a little brother, so he was straight.
Come hell or highwater, I was gonna put my brother back on his feet to make sure that he felt like a man.
In the meantime, I had TP’s back, and would do whatever I could to help him out, as well.
“Call me anytime, my nigga,” I offered.
“Bet. And it was nice to meet you, Raven.”
Raven nodded, as she glanced back. “Like wise.”
“Yeah, and remember what I said, Jah. Lock that down, nigga.”
I nodded with a smirk. “I got you.”
With that, TP eased out of the car, and sauntered up the driveway.
I think that night stood out to me, because…that was the last time I got to kick it with TP like that. Two weeks later, he was locked up again. This time for armed robbery, and attempted murder. The judge gave him twenty-five.
Still, every blue moon, I’d hear from him, and he’d ask me if I’d married Raven yet. Of course, weeks after she turned eighteen, I was able to do just that.