14. MJ
MJ
Living on my own still felt strange sometimes.
Not in a bad way, it just felt different.
My apartment is less than ten minutes from Miami-Dade.
It was close enough that I could make it to my morning classes without fighting half of Miami traffic.
Mama was the one who pushed for it. She didn’t want me to make an hour-long commute to and from school every day.
Pops agreed almost immediately. “If we can make it easier on him, we gone make it easier on him.” I could hear my mom’s voice playing in my head, and I wasn’t about to argue. Hell…
I wasn’t about to complain about having my own place. I looked around the apartment as I sipped from my coffee mug. Everything was exactly where I’d left it.
The couch sat against the wall, and on the opposite side of the room, my television was mounted above my entertainment center.
My textbooks were stacked neatly on the kitchen counter.
A framed picture of me, Pops, Mama, Maliah, and Maylee rested beside the coffeemaker.
The place finally felt like home. It hadn’t always. I could still remember moving day…
Pops carried the couch inside by himself like it didn’t weigh anything. Mama fussed because he refused to wait for the movers.
“You know you don’t have to prove you still strong,” she said with a smile on her face.
“I ain’t proving nothing.”
He grunted as he eased the couch into place.
“I’m saving money.”
She rolled her eyes.
“You own multiple businesses,” she reminded him.
“And?”
“You’re still cheap.”
“I prefer financially responsible.”
I laughed after sitting another box on the kitchen counter. Maylee wandered through the apartment, opening cabinets that she had no business opening.
“Ooo… You got snacks.”
“They mine,” I corrected her ass.
“They ours now.”
Before I could argue, she already had a bag of chips tucked under her arm. Maliah walked in behind her, carrying another box.
“I swear she’s been stealing food since she was born.”
“I heard that,” Maylee called from the pantry.
Daddy looked around the apartment one last time before giving a small nod.
“This will do.”
Mama looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“It’ll do?” she questioned.
“I think it looks nice. I just ain’t crazy about my son moving out,” he said with a shrug.
“I’ll still be home all the time,” I said with a smile.
“I know.” He looked at me for a long second. “It still doesn’t mean I gotta like it.”
Mama slipped her hand into his. She always knew how to calm him. He was like The Beast, and she was his Belle.
“I’d rather him be ten minutes from campus than driving an hour here and another hour back every day.”
Pops let out a quiet sigh.
“I know.”
“And besides, he ain’t moving across the country…”
The memory made me smile. A sharp knock at the door pulled me back to the present.
There were three quick knocks. I frowned because I wasn’t expecting anybody.
After sitting my coffee mug on the counter, I walked over and looked through the peephole.
Mrs. Alvarez from across the hall stood outside my apartment with her usual warm smile. I opened the door.
“Hey, Ms. Alvarez.”
“Hey, sweetheart.”
She pointed toward the elevator.
“They dropped off a package for you downstairs.”
“They did?”
She nodded.
“It’s a big one too. I figured I’d let you know before somebody got curious.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to think of what the fuck I could have ordered now.
“Oh…” It instantly came back to me. “The end table.”
She smiled.
“So, you were expecting it?”
“I completely forgot I ordered it.”
“Well, it’s definitely waiting on you,” she laughed.
“I appreciate you,” I thanked her.
“Anytime, baby.”
After she disappeared back into her apartment, I grabbed my keys and headed downstairs.
The resident lounge sat just before the mailroom, so I glanced over out of habit.
When I saw her, that’s when I stopped walking.
She sat tucked into the corner of one of the couches with her laptop resting across her legs.
One earbud hung from her left ear while the other rested against her hoodie.
I wondered what the hell Penelope was doing here.
She hadn’t noticed me. As I looked at her, I couldn’t help but smile.
I walked over until I was standing a few feet away.
“You know…”
She kept typing.
“If you wanted to know where I lived, you could’ve just asked instead of waiting me out.”
She finally looked up, and a small chuckle escaped her.
“Boy… I live here.”
I blinked.
“You do?”
She nodded.
“I have for almost a year.”
I looked around the lounge before pointing toward the elevators.
“So, you’re telling me all this time that we’ve been neighbors?”
“Looks that way.”
I shook my head.
“That’s crazy.”
“It really isn’t.”
“There are over two hundred apartments in this building.”
I laughed.
“There you go again.”
“What?” she asked with the raise of an eyebrow.
“Killing the moment with facts.”
“I like facts.”
“I can tell.”
She closed her laptop halfway and looked at me.
“What are you doing down here?” she questioned.
“I came to get a package.”
“What kind?”
“The kind I almost forgot about. It’s an end table.”
She screwed her face up before shaking her head. I knew she had something on her mind.
“Go ahead and say what you’re thinking.”
She smiled before getting her thoughts out.
“I was just wondering how somebody remembers class schedules but forgets they spent money.”
“That’s fair,” I laughed.
The fact of the matter was that I usually didn’t keep track of when I spent money, and that’s simply because it wasn’t my money that I was spending. Pops had given all his children a credit card for our own personal use. She nodded toward the mailroom.
“Well, you should probably go get your table.”
“I probably should.”
I took two steps before stopping.
“You know…”
She raised an eyebrow and looked at me while she waited for me to finish speaking.
“I still think it’s kinda cool we live in the same building.”
“Most students from Dade live here,” she said nonchalantly.
She gathered her things and then headed toward the elevator.
“See you around, neighbor,” she said just as she walked past me.
This girl was a trip. I was shaking my head and smiling as I headed toward the mailroom.
I found my package leaning against the wall just like Mrs. Alvarez said.
The box wasn’t ridiculously heavy, but it was awkward enough to make carrying it a pain.
I wrapped both arms around it, adjusted my grip twice before I was satisfied, and hauled it onto the elevator.
By the time I reached the third floor, my arms were begging me to hurry up.
I could have set it down while I was in the elevator, but I had a good grip on it that I didn’t want to lose.
“I know this little table better look good.”
I laughed to myself as I carefully carried the box down the hallway. When I finally made it to my apartment, I leaned the box against the wall beside my front door and reached into my pocket for my keys.
The second I pulled them free, they slipped through my fingers and bounced against the tile before sliding down the hallway a bit.
“Damn.”
I bent down to grab them, but before I could, I heard a door open behind me. I turned around just in time to see Penelope stepping out of the apartment across the hall. She looked at me and then at the keys, then she quietly walked over and picked them up.
“I think you dropped these.”
I smiled as I took them from her.
“Appreciate it,” I thanked her.
She gave a small nod.
“No problem.”
I glanced toward the apartment she’d just walked out of before looking back at her.
“Wait, you live across the hall?”
A small smile touched her lips.
“I guess I do.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are the odds?”
She shrugged.
“I don’t know. I haven’t done the math.”
That made me laugh a little harder. Using the keys she’d just rescued, I unlocked my apartment and pushed the door open before dragging the box inside.
After setting it just past the doorway, I turned back around.
She was still standing there with one hand resting on her doorknob.
The hallway had gone quiet, and we were just staring at one another.
“Thanks, neighbor,” I said with a smile.
She reached up and absentmindedly pushed her glasses back into place.
“You’re welcome.”
With that, she stepped inside her apartment and closed the door behind her. A second later, I heard a lock turn. Then another and then another. I chuckled to myself as I closed my own door. Something told me that my neighbor wasn’t the trusting type.
GHOST
I sat two houses down with the engine off.
For hours, I had been watching Reemo’s place through the windshield.
It had taken me three days to figure out where the nigga stayed.
Three days I followed him from a distance.
Three days of hoping that he didn’t realize I was tailing him.
I was nervous thinking that one of those days he was leading me into a trap, but he didn’t.
Every night after he would do his runarounds, he would always return to this spot. This was his home. It had to be.
It was a small one-story house tucked away at the end of a quiet street.
I watched Reemo step out onto the porch with a cigarette before disappearing back inside.
He had to be inside by himself, but then I wondered if he wasn’t.
If there were other people inside, then I needed somebody else with me.
I reached for my phone and hit Tahari’s name.
The screen rang twice before he answered.
The first thing I noticed was the smile on his face.
The second… was Maliah. She was curled up against his side on the couch, her head rested on his shoulder while some movie played in the background.
He looked happier than I’d seen him in years.
“Told you she had you whipped,” I muttered.
“Man, what you want?” Trigga said as he laughed.
“I found him.”
“Who?” his smile disappeared.
“Reemo.”