Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Loco.
“Frog said he busted that phone you gave to him, Lord.” Prynce said as he passed me the blunt. We were in the hood at my uncle’s crib, posted, since I hadn’t been through in a minute. “He got the nigga Space’s info. Apparently, him and Slim are brothers as well as the nigga Scooby you hit.”
“Yeah?” my brows lifted. “If that’s the case, I ran into the Slim nigga inside Kiss. That’s who chain I snatched.” I shook my head as I hit the blunt. “No way hoe ass niggas like that runnin’ the camp.”
“Obviously it is a way,” Prynce chuckled. “I’m hot you didn’t tell me and Jay them niggas tried to run down on you. Know we would have blew Atlyn City to pieces about you.”
“I’m knowin’.” I chuckled. “Niggas was light work though. I couldn’t get you and Jay out the bed with ya wives for no small shit like that.”
“We a team, Loc, and we brothers, Lord. I know me and bruh locked down and shit, but we still in this shit ‘til the death, feel me?” he rose to his feet. “We ain’t make the first rule ‘I am my brother’s keeper’ for no reason.
When it’s smoke, hit my line anytime, aight.
I’m married, but I ain’t lost it,” he smirked.
“Nigga, I know yo’ mothafuckin’ ass still bat shit crazy.” I laughed. “I got you though. Anytime I need backup, you know you and Jay my first two calls.”
We dapped one another up and I pulled him into a brotherly hug.
“Safari told me to tell you she wants all the deets when you get done with ya lil’ date night. I don’t know what the fuck deets are, but I assume she wants you to tell her about the shit.” He chuckled.
“Fuck am I? One of her fuckin’ homegirls?” I laughed and he shrugged.
“You know they all nosy as fuck. She had Dior, Des, and Kin through the crib, and told them all yo’ fuckin’ business. They were all excited and shit.”
“The fuck?” I replied amused as hell.
“I don’t know, Lord.” He chuckled. “They were going on and on about how they were losing hope that you’d find love. I checked right the fuck outta that conversation because I wasn’t about to be chit chattin’ with their mothafuckin’ asses.”
“I’m already knowing, Lord.” I laughed. “I’m gon’ go in and holla at Proof before I dip.”
“Wait, I been meanin’ to ask you since you told me about ol’ girl’s situation, you ready for what’s gon’ come with dealin’ with her if y’all go there?
” I’d told him and Jay that Diamond recently got temporary custody of her niece.
I didn’t go into full detail and tell them her sister was an addict or no shit because I felt that shit might’ve been OD, but I told them enough.
My brows furrowed. “What you mean?”
“I mean are you ready to be a pops in a sense? I know it’s her niece, but she’s assumed this maternal role, so if y’all goin’ the distance, you know what that means for you?” he clarified.
“Yeah, I know.” I nodded. The flowers that I sent weren’t much, but it was a small way of letting her know that I knew if I wanted to fuck with her, I had to be all the way in with her niece too.”
“Aight, I just wanted to make sure.” He nodded.
“When I first decided I wanted my wife, I knew she had a son, so I knew I was gon’ have to step behind him too.
The shit was scary too because I never had to think about nobody but my fuckin’ self for real, but steppin’ to Safari meant I had to not only make sure she was good, but Royal was too.
I had to give her breaks when she needed them, I had to sacrifice my free time to spend time with them, when I was ready to do something for myself, I had to do for them first, you feel me?
Nigga had to work overtime to show both of them I was there and was gon’ be present. ”
Shit had me thinking. I knew for sure that I was gon’ have to rock with lil’ Keona if I was gon’ fuck with Diamond without a doubt, but I didn’t think as far as me having to alter my entire life to fit theirs.
“I ain’t even thought that far ahead to be real,” I admitted. “I just know I’m really feeling her and shit. I never wanted to let a woman meet my mama, but as soon as I found out what was going on with her and baby girl, my mama was my first call.”
“You need to think about that before you take her out for real, Lord,” he replied. “Being a parent is a big ass deal. So you really need to make sure this shit what you want since you said you really feeling her.”
“Aight, I got you, Lord.”
“I’m gon’ get up outta here because Royal expecting me to throw the fuckin’ football with his lil’ ass when he get done with tutoring.”
“Tutoring?” I frowned and repeated. “On a Saturday? Nigga only four.”
“Hell yeah. His mama don’t play.” He laughed while shaking his head.
“Clearly.” I laughed with him then dapped him up. “I’ll fuck with you later, Lord. Love.”
“Love, Lord.”
When he turned to walk off, I went inside to find my uncle.
When I got inside, he was in the kitchen cooking a steak.
That was all his ass ate. He’d cook the shit on the stove and only use salt and pepper to season the shit.
He might make a potato or small ass side salad with it and had his Bud Light to wash the shit down.
If there wasn’t shit else in his fridge, he had a case of beers in that bitch.
“This why Ma be talkin’ shit when she come through here,” I said to make my presence known. “You need to eat something other than steak, Proof.”
He glanced back at me and smiled. “Your mama just bossy as hell and nosy. I’ve been eating the same things all my life, and a nigga still good,” he flexed his muscle. “I’m good, nephew. Believe that.”
“Yeah, but she was talkin’ about ya blood pressure and shit,” my brows dipped. “You takin’ your medicine and shit?”
My pops and my uncle were my heroes. All my life, I thought they were fucking invincible.
I never saw either one of them down and out, weak or no shit like that.
I’d witnessed them both put niggas on their asses and all, so when my mama told me Proof was having issues with his cholesterol and blood pressure, the shit haunted me.
That was why I had to come through and lay eyes on his ass before I got busy for the night.
“Yeah, I’m taking it.” He chuckled as he took a seat at his table, placing his plate in front of him. “Since she can’t be here every day to worry me about the shit, she’s using your cousin,” he said, referring to Porcia. “She’s basically a miniature version of her now.”
“Don’t I know it.” I laughed lowly. “She stay fussin’ and shit.”
“Yeah, with her spoiled ass.” He shook his head then paused briefly to bless his food. Once he was done, he gave me his eyes momentarily. “Porcia told me she wasn’t talking to you.”
I smacked my teeth and waved him off. “She call herself havin’ an attitude, but she’ll be aight.”
“You gotta let her grow up, Loc,” he said and I frowned deeper.
I knew we weren’t kids anymore and my cousin was a grown woman now, but Porcia was still my baby.
I wanted the best for her. I didn’t want her dealing with a street nigga, thinking about whether or not the nigga was gon’ make it home due to getting jammed up or killed, and I damn sure wasn’t going for no nigga having her in no kind of danger. I would for sure crash out for real.
“She’ll be aight,” I repeated then switched it up because I was standing on what I felt. “You good though? I’m ‘bout to be off radar for the night, but I wanted to make sure you were straight before then.”
“Oh yeah, it’s date night, huh?”
I shook my head. “My mama talk too fuckin’ much.”
“James was actually the one that told me.” He chuckled.
“Yeah? That ain’t playa. I’m gon’ have to rough yo’ little brother up.”
“Go barking up that tree if you want,” he teased. “But this is new for you. You usually stick and move.”
“Ain’t shit ‘bout that changed.” I smirked. “I gotta go at Diamond a lil’ differently though. She ain’t the type that’s moved by a nigga’s status or bread. She be makin’ me tighten up a lil’ when I come at her.”
“I like her already.” He chuckled.
“Ma do too.”
“Then you got a winner because that little ass woman doesn’t like anybody.”
“On Lord.” I laughed. “I ain’t ever met a woman I wanted to take home to her before, but if I had I wouldn’t even waste my fuckin’ time. She a tough fuckin’ critic.”
“Shoot yeah!” he agreed while laughing. “But she’s said all good things about this one, so maybe you’ve got a winner.”
“We gon’ see.” I had one of my arms folded across my chest while I pulled at my chin hairs thinking about Diamond’s pretty ass. “She the first woman I’m actually dating as an adult, so if the shit don’t go how I want then I’m gon’ be a bachelor for life.”
“You want to do that anyways. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with living life as a bachelor. You see how big Unc turned out.” He laughed.
“Word, but I don’t want hoes popping out with no kids and shit when I’m an OG,” I jibed. “And a nigga gon’ have to eat more than steak, Lord.”
“Fuck you nephew.”
“Naw, but let me ask you somethin’ Unc, you think I could be a father or a father figure?”
“I don’t see why not,” he shrugged. “Why?”
“Just curious.”
“Naw, you have to give me more than that, nephew. Why do you ask?”
“P asked me some shit about ol’ girl before I came inside,” I admitted.
“He asked if I was ready to assume a paternal role for her niece if me and her go the distance. I ain’t even thought about that shit for real because we in the beginning stages, but now that he brought it up, I can’t stop thinkin’ about the shit. ”