Chapter 13 Trigga #2
The money didn’t matter anymore. I was in a pure state of panic.
When we made it outside, both of our sneakers hit the pavement and started moving.
We walked off where we both parked outside in that pocket of darkness tucked along the side of the shop.
The night air was cooler than it had any right to be.
It slipped under my clothes and pulled at the sweat that was still clinging to my skin from being inside that building.
My Impala sat right there by the curb like a silent witness.
We both still had our ski masks on. Neither one of us had thought to take them off.
Ghost came up on my right side first. He was breathing heavier than usual, and frustration was already written all over the way he moved.
I could feel it before he even spoke. It was that tension that reeked from him that always showed up when he felt like I was messing up something he thought was simple.
He stopped a few feet from me and shook his head like he couldn’t believe what just happened back there.
“Nah, nah, nah,” he started. His voice was low, but I could tell that he was heated. “What was that in there? You just folded for no reason.”
I didn’t even look at him at first. My eyes stayed on the building. on those same walls we just came out of. I was still trying to process how something that should have been a regular lick turned into this.
“We ain’t find the bricks,” he kept going while stepping closer. “We ain’t even finish the job. And you just pulled the plug. What… the fuck… happened?” he asked again, this time with more grit to his tone.
That’s when I finally turned and looked at him. I started shaking my head just thinking about what I had seen.
“In that office, I saw some pictures on the wall. This is Maliah’s father’s shop. He owns MB’s Auto,” I finally let out.
Ghost paused like he was waiting for me to finish the story. Like that alone wasn’t enough to change anything. Then he let out a sharp breath while shaking his head. He was clearly annoyed.
“So what?” he shot back with his voice rising now, “you letting a bitch mess up the play. Nigga you soft as fuck.”
I stepped closer to him without thinking.
Over the years, we would throw little verbal jabs at one another.
That’s what we did because we both had tough skin, and we loved joking around.
But this… wasn’t shit funny about it. Calling my girl a bitch wasn’t humorous to me.
When I got closer to him, he leaned in more, like he wanted me to do something.
So, I did. That’s when I grabbed him. I aggressively put my hands on his hoodie and yanked him forward.
Something in me snapped before I could talk myself out of it.
I was seeing red, and as I was about to take my anger for the disrespect out on Ghost, the only thing I could think about in the back of my mind was Maliah.
Ghost was the furthest thing from a punk.
Growing up, he and I always fought other kids on the basketball court.
Back to back, we would go toe-to-toe with anybody because that’s what brothers do.
That’s what brothers are supposed to do.
He looked me up and down quickly, like he was astonished that I had even placed my hands on him.
“Nigga…” he let slip out before shoving me back instantly.
It was hard enough to make me stagger half a step, and that was all it took for everything between us to break loose.
I came back at him, shoulder first. I drove into his chest, but he caught me and twisted sideways, which threw me off balance.
We hit the side of my Impala with a dull thud.
The metal reacted under pressure, and I knew that there was a dent in my shit now.
Both of us were breathing heavier now. We were going blow for blow, and anger spilled out in the only language we both ever really understood.
When I got tired of the back-and-forth blows. I grabbed him up in a headlock.
“Get off me,” he growled while delivering blows to the side of my ribs.
“It’s not just another lick. G, this is her fucking life.”
I let go of him and then pushed him hard as hell to create some distance between us. We were both breathing deeply while trying to catch our breath. I could feel that my bottom lip was busted.
“You really about to let a bitch get in between the money?” he tilted his head to the side and then looked me up and down, “get in between you and me?”
We stood there staring at one another. We were just two best friends, turning years of trust and loyalty into something ugly in the side alley outside a shop neither of us should’ve been in to begin with.
“Huh?” he growled impatiently, waiting for me to answer.
I just stared at him because in my mind, he had to have some animosity toward Maliah and me.
Maybe he always had, and I just never noticed it.
And even in the middle of it, even while my hands were on him and his hands were on me, all I could see was her face in my head.
I knew Ghost and knew him well, so I knew that he would never see just how big disrespecting Maliah was to me.
He couldn’t understand some shit like that because, honestly, Ghost always put Ghost first. He couldn’t put anyone before himself.
That was a quality that my father instilled in me.
My dad tried to do the same with him, but getting him to care for people how we did was like pulling teeth. The boy was really a lost cause.
Putting people before yourself was a quality that no one ever showed him because he never had a fucking dad.
Men show their sons how to lead and put the family first. Put your loved ones first. He didn’t get that shit.
Fucking bastard, I thought as I looked him up and down with disgust before opening my car door and then getting in.
I left him standing there. I didn’t say anything else, didn’t look back, and I didn’t try to fix what just cracked wide open between us.
He could have whatever was in those two duffel bags that he had taken from the auto shop.
I was walking away empty-handed, and honestly, I didn’t give a fuck.