Chapter 17
“Haaaapy birthday!” Mama sang out.
I put the covers over my head.
“Thank you, but I want to sleep,” I told her.
Thanksgiving yesterday was so much fun. We were invited to Jalen’s house, but Mama cooked a few dishes to take over there. Everything was so good. Kane had gone out of town to his grandma’s but came over to Jalen’s right after.
I’ve never had a time like I had yesterday.
We ate, played card games while the football game was on, and we ate again.
Later that night, we played basketball after the food had settled.
Mama had a new friend in Jalen’s mama. They promised to link up and go have a few drinks at a bar tonight since the both of them were off today.
“Weeeell,” she stretched, “Kane told me to tell you to get up and get dressed.”
I put the pillow over my head this time. “For what?”
The sheets and pillow were snatched back. “Because he wants to celebrate your day. You’re eighteen, Scottie. You’ve never really had a birthday party, so let him celebrate with you. He has a whole day planned for you he said.”
Huffing, I sat up. I told Kane that I didn’t want to do anything. I should have known he wouldn’t listen. Stretching, I stood and took off to the bathroom to shower and clean my mouth.
It took me about forty minutes to get myself together. I didn’t have a birthday outfit, so I chose black tights and a plain, royal blue cropped shirt with a hoodie with black socks and slides. Ghetto.
Kane was in the living room when I emerged from my room.
Him and mama was laughing about something.
I rolled my eyes at him, but my heart was skipping a beat.
Kane was fine as fuck. He already had a fresh, crisp lineup for the holiday.
His curly hair had some product that made his curls appear even tighter.
Kane wore an orange Nike windbreaker fit with the logo in turquoise.
He had custom Nikes the same color. He was fresh and he smelled so damn good.
“Happy birthday,” he cooed, causing me to roll my eyes again.
Mama was excited when she found out Kane and I made things official.
Then of course, she had to have the birds and the bees talk with me when we weren’t even doing any of that.
I wasn’t even thinking about doing…it. I don’t think Kane was either, but I wasn’t sure.
I mean, he did it with that girl Kayla. He never pressured me about it.
“Thank you,” I murmured, walking into his extended arms. Kane wrapped them around me, kissing my temple. “What do you have planned? I just wanted to sleep.”
Kane snorted. “Of course you do. First…” He looked me over. “First we’re going shopping to get you some clothes.”
I cut my eyes to him. “Really, Kane? We can just hang out here.”
Instead of responding to me, Kane took off to the front door, prompting me to follow, sadly. The sun was beating down, causing me to shield my eyes with a hand. I was irritated and now hot. Still pouting, I climbed in the car.
Apparently, Kane thought it was hilarious. He leaned over and grabbed my seat belt to buckle me up. Kane then tweaked my chin before kissing my lips. A smile instantly spread on my lips.
I still couldn’t believe me and Kane were a couple. We went from not knowing each other, to playing ball, to hanging out, and then to this. To the now. I had someone caring, loving, and fine. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him as he drove us to the mall.
Kane didn’t even flinch when he saw what I was wearing to the mall because this was how I always dressed.
He didn’t care. Kane wasn’t the kind of dude that wanted me to change who I was because I was with him.
Kane made a pair of ball shorts look good.
He dressed in designer, but he loved Nike.
He never dressed over the top, but whatever he wore, he made that shit look good.
Plus, he always smelled so good. Like now, I was inhaling him in as he drove with one hand on my thigh and the other on the wheel. Fine ass.
In the mall, before I could go into any store, we grabbed a bite to eat at Starbucks, another place I’ve never had anything from so I let Kane order for me.
We sat in the food court after grabbing our order.
Kane had ordered both of us a bacon smoked sandwich and him an energy refresher drink, and me a caramel ribbon crunch with extra, extra caramel.
“This is really good,” I smacked.
Kane nodded with a smirk. “That’s why Starbucks is always packed.” He leaned back in his chair. Every time he moved I got a whiff of him. Absentmindedly, I squeezed my thighs together. I cleared my throat.
“What stores are we going in?” I asked, trying to forget about that feeling between my legs.
“Whatever you want to go in. It’s your world, baby,” Kane replied, winking.
I don’t know what my body was going through right now in this moment, but it needed to be stopped. My nippled were hardening and pushing up against the cotton bra. I stood, needing to move around. I stuffed the rest of the sandwich in my mouth.
“Let’s go in Rue 21,” I croaked out. Kane squinted.
“You okay?” he asked, getting worried.
I nodded and took a sip of my drink. “I’m fine. Just ready to get this day over with.”
Kane wrapped an arm around my shoulders and said, “We just getting started, baby. I can’t believe you thought I wasn’t gon’ do shit for your day.”
I turned to him and eyed his tattoos. “I want one. That’s what I want to do for my birthday.”
His brows hiked. “Get a tattoo?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. Don’t ask me what I want yet, but yeah.”
Kane chuckled and tossed his head to the side. “Aight,” he stressed. “We can do that.”
We shopped. Instead of Rue 21, we went inside the Nike store.
That was more my speed. I had navigated to the clearance rack at first, only for Kane to spin me the fuck around and told me to get whatever I wanted.
So, I did. I came out with shoes and clothes.
I thought I was finished, but he took me over to another shoe store and bought me two more pairs.
“Thank you for everything, Kane,” I told him as we walked side by side toward the exit. He was carrying all the bags. Wouldn’t let me touch not one.
“Kane?”
There was that annoying squeaky voice again.
“Keep walking,” he muttered as I spun around to see that girl, Kayla, walking fast toward us.
She was with a group of other girls with the designer purses draped over their bodies.
If I was her, I would keep it pushing in order to not get embarrassed.
Kane was now good at doing that shit. Kane grabbed me by the waist, spinning me back around.
“Kane!” she shrieked. I turned back, because at this point, Kane was my nigga and she was being delusional and tooooo disrespectful. One of her friend’s eyes widened as she attempted to pull Kayla back.
“Stop.” I told Kane. “We need to address some shit so she can get it through her thick skull.”
Kane stopped walking, but the look he gave me said he didn’t like it. “Slim—”
“No.” I stepped away from his arm and turned around. Kayla had finally reached us, breathing hard like she had just run a full-court press. “What do you want?”
Her eyes traveled over me slowly, stopping at my slides before coming back to my face. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“But I’m talking to you,” I shot back. “Matter of fact, he was walking away from you. Again.”
One of her friends covered her mouth, hiding a laugh. Kayla cut her eyes toward the girl before looking at Kane.
“You’re really going let her talk to me like that?” she asked him.
Kane’s face remained blank. “You walked up on us.”
“I just wanted to talk.”
“And I don’t,” he said plainly with a lazy shrug.
Kayla’s face tightened. “So, you really with her now?”
Kane glanced down at me. His entire expression softened as he shifted the shopping bags into one hand and pulled me against his side with the other.
“Yeah,” he answered. “I’m really with her.”
The butterflies in my stomach started doing layup drills.
Kayla looked like somebody had slapped her. “Since when?”
“Since it became official,” I replied. “Which ain’t none of your business. What you need to understand is that Kane doesn’t want you. He told you that before me, and he’s telling you again with me standing right here. Stop running behind him in public. It’s embarrassing.”
“You don’t even know him like that.”
“I know him enough to know he doesn’t like repeating himself.”
Kayla stepped closer. “Girl, you don’t know shit.”
Kane moved between us so fast I barely saw him do it.
“Aight, that’s enough,” he said, his voice low. “Slim, come on.”
I tried to look around his shoulder. “No, because she keeps—”
“I know.” He looked directly at me. “But it’s your birthday, and I’m not letting her fuck it up. She ain’t worth you getting put out the mall or going to jail.”
“I’m not going to jail.”
“You got that look in your eyes.”
“What look?”
“The one you get right before you foul the shit out of somebody.”
I frowned. Behind Kane, one of Kayla’s friends laughed again.
Kayla folded her arms. “You see? She childish.”
Kane turned his head just enough to look at her. “And you still following a nigga who told you he don’t want you. What that make you?”
Her mouth fell open.
Kane didn’t wait for her to answer. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and guided me toward the exit. I looked back once, because I wanted to see her face. She was standing in the middle of the mall with her friends whispering around her.
I smiled.
“Quit looking back,” Kane muttered.
“I wanted to make sure she wasn’t following us.”
“No, you wanted to enjoy her being embarrassed.”
“That too.”
He shook his head, but I saw the smile pulling at his lips.
Once we reached the car, Kane put all my bags in the trunk. I stood beside the passenger door with my arms folded. When he came around, he stopped in front of me.
“What?” he asked.
“You slept with her.”
His eyebrows rose. “We already talked about that.”
“I know, but she gets on my nerves.”
“She gets on mine too.”
“Did you buy her shoes?”