Chapter 14
“I’ve never been to the zoo,” Slim admitted as we were leaving. She gushed at every animal and reptile she saw. Her favorite was the giraffes.
Walking with my hands in the pockets of my joggers, I told her, “Well now you can say you have. What else…what else haven’t you done that you want to do?” I quizzed.
“A lot,” she laughed. “I haven’t done a lot of things, Kane.”
“Let’s find something to eat and then figure out what else you want to do,” I told her.
I looked up at the sky. It was midday, but the sky was darkening. It was going to rain in a few. I could smell it.
“You’re going to spend your whole spring break with me, nigga?” Slim smirked.
“Maybe. I ain’t doin’ shit else.”
Right when we hopped in my car, the rain started pouring down.
“What the old folks be saying?” Slim laughed, putting on her seatbelt. “We needed this rain.”
I snickered and started the car. The windshield wipers instantly came on.
“Food?” I queried, looking in Slim’s direction.
She was really a pretty girl. Her locs were longer now and pulled into a half up, half down style. Slim’s body was filling out and I could tell she tried to hide it.
“Stop looking at me, Kane. That’s weird.”
I snapped out of it and my head swung back forward. She’d caught me staring at her. I had to laugh at myself.
“You weird,” I mumbled, pulling out of the spot I was backed into. “You want to eat or starve?”
Slim rolled her eyes with a smile on her face. “You wouldn’t even let me starve if I even asked you to, nigga. I’m down to eat whatever you get.”
We would have to hit the drive thru since the rain wasn’t letting up. We were in an are where food places were up and down the street we were on. I decided on burgers as I drove, and pulled into the drive-thru.
“Can you put on some music or something?” Slim asked.
“Why? You nervous around me or something?” I kidded.
“Boy, please,” countered Slim with a titter.
“Aight,” I said, cutting my eyes to her.
We reached the speaker and gave them our order.
My phone had chimed with a text from my mom, asking when will they be able to spend time with me.
At first, I wasn’t even gonna tell them that I’d come home.
I was going to check into a hotel for the entire week, and tell them I went out of the country or some shit.
I just wanted to spend time with Slim and hoop.
I sent mama a quick message saying that I’ll be home later and placed my phone back on my lap.
When we received our food, I parked in one of the parking spots and pushed my seat back. Slim handed me my bacon and cheese burger and onion rings.
“You going to prom this year?” I asked her.
Slim snorted and tossed her head back. “You already know the answer to that, Kane. Be for real. I’ll be at home in the bed. You were there at your prom for like twenty minutes.”
“Yeah, because…” We looked at each other and I swallowed the words down.
She looked away and bit into her burger. I unwrapped mine and did the same. I couldn’t bring myself to finish my sentence. Slim knew I left prom to be with her when I got the news about Vani. It didn’t need to be said.
We ate in silence. The rain hitting the car drowned out the rap music I ended up putting on. I finished my burger and onion rings before Slim. I sipped on my root beer while I pulled out of the lot, heading towards her place.
“We’re playing tomorrow at two,” Slim said, crumbling her trash. “Will that work for you?”
I bit down on my lip and nodded without hesitation. Anything to keep her safe. All Slim saw was the money. She didn’t see the trouble. She was na?ve. To be from the projects, she was green to a lot of shit….especially danger.
Slim passed the ball to me and I hit a three on a nigga who was a couple of inches taller than me.
She smiled briefly and then her game face reappeared.
The way she moved on the court was like poetry.
It was if she saw plays before they happened, and she wasn’t selfish with the ball.
Instead of wanting to take the shot herself, she was going to pass it to whoever she felt would be able to put it in there.
Jalen stole the ball and shot it to Slim.
In a flash of motion, her locs a blur, she drove hard to the hoop.
I was already moving, setting a screen. The big nigga guarding her lowered his shoulder and put every bit of his weight into pushing Slim.
She went down—hard. I could see the pain in her face when she hit the ground.
“Ahh!” Slim hollered, rolling over to her side. I jogged to her and leaned down.
“Zero to ten?” I asked her.
“Eight,” she gritted. “My butt bone hurts.”
I didn’t remember moving. One moment I was beside Slim, the next I was in that nigga’s space. He was maybe two feet taller than me and a couple pounds heavier, but that didn’t faze me.
“Fuck you do that for?” I quizzed, nostrils flaring.
He laughed ugly. “She wanna run wit’ the niggas, she can take a hit like one,” he spat.
Slim called out, “Chill, Kane. I’m good.”
I wasn’t trying to hear that shit. the blood was rushing to my ears at a fast pace. The smirk on this nigga’s face showed how he dismissed the way Slim was in pain irritated me even more. My fists balled up to my sides.
“Say that shit again,” I dared him, my voice low.
The nigga looked at me, his brows furrowing.
“I ain’t stutter, boy. She wanna run with niggas…she can take a hit li—”
“Kane!” Slim screeched. My eyes flew to hers. She shook her head slowly. Her eyes were pleading with me to remember where the fuck we were.
The nigga pointed at me. “You better listen to her. You ain’t from around here, pussy. We know who you are and where you from.”
“I’m far from pussy,” I chuckled obnoxiously.
“Oh yeah?” he asked, taking a step to me. Jalen jumped between us, and pushed me back toward the rest of the crew.
“Shake it off, Kane. He’s trying to bate you. He want a reason to pull out his heat,” he mumbled.
I shook Jalen’s hand off me and sauntered back over to Slim who was finally standing back up, but holding her butt bone.
“You need to go to the hospital?” Martin, one of the guys playing us asked her.
Slim shook her head. “We need to win this game.”
I snorted. “You can’t play hurting like that,” I told her.
“I’m okay,” she assured me.
I looked away, jaw tight. “He do that shit one more time…”
“We all gone whoop that nigga’s ass,” Jalen spoke.
“Will,” Dex, the other chipped in.
“Break time ova wit’,” a nigga on the other team called out. “Y’all goin’ home or what?”
“Fuck no,” Jalen responded, spitting on the concrete.
“Let’s go,” Slim added.
The fool who pushed her, smirked and wagged his fingers at us. “Oh, y’all got heart for real.”
I smacked my lips. Slim walked over to me and slapped me on the chest.
“We got this, Kane. I’m good,” she said, slowly nodding her head. “I’ll be better once we win.”
The game started back up. them niggas continued trying to get under our skin, but there wasn’t any more of that rough, shoving shit. I still wanted to punch that nigga down. I had to listen to Slim and Jalen. We were in Dreamview and these niggas here didn’t give a damn about a murder charge.
We were up by two after Slim and I both hit a three.
They had the ball. Their point guard moved to the basket, doing moves that were uncalled for.
Moves that had Jalen easily reaching in and stealing.
He attempted to pass to me but it was an ugly one.
The big nigga on the team snatched it up and before Slim could react, he sunk it in.
The big dude started clapping slowly and loudly, his eyes on Slim. He was taunting her.
“That’s fucked up!” she hollered. Her chest was rising and falling quickly. I was already walking toward Slim when she launched toward him. Swiftly, I intervened and picked her up with one arm. “Put me down, Kane! That was three thousand on the line!” she continued to holler.
Like bad sports, we left without saying another word to the other team. Big dude wasn’t doing shit but taunting and it wasn’t going to end good if we stayed another minute.
“They won, Slim. Chill out,” I told her.
I was trying to breathe. Not because she was heavy because she wasn’t. It was because her body was pressed against mine. My hand was right across her ass.
“Put me theeeee fuck down, Kane! Damn!” she screamed, now beating on my back. The licks hurt, but I was eating them up until we reached my car and I popped the doors and pushed Slim inside. She folded her arms aggressively over her chest, pissed.
The rest of us piled in the car. I blasted the AC as soon as I sat behind the wheel.
“I needed that money,” Slim fussed softly. “They were playing foul the whole time!”
“I can get you the…”
“I don’t want your money, Kane,” she cried out in a high pitched voice.
“We’re not goin’ to win every damn game, Slim,” Jalen sighed.
“We put fifteen hundred up!” she screamed back.
I just peered at Jalen in the rearview mirror. Our eyes met and I silently told him to let it go. He blew out a raspberry and leaned back into the seat, closing his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Jalen,” Slim said after a beat, turning sideways in her seat. “I’m just irritated.”
“Don’t sweat it,” he replied, still with his eyes closed.
I headed in the direction of Love Grove. One hand on the wheel the other pulling at the hair on my chin while deep in thought. Slim was in her own world too, looking forward with her arms still across her chest.
Once I pulled up to Jalen’s house, he hopped out. I’d dropped the other two off first. When I pulled up to Slim’s I didn’t cut the engine. She opened the door. Stuck her foot out and then turned back to me.
“You not coming in?” I shook my head and bit down on my back teeth. “Oh,” she said softly.
“I’ma go chill with my parents,” I lied.
Slim stepped out of the car and closed the door behind her without saying anything else to me. I made sure she made it inside before pulling off.