Chapter 9 #2
With my stomach touching my back, I didn’t have time to cook shit. I didn’t want to cook anything, either. Lyric had already done so. I wanted whatever the fuck she was having, but I settled for a cup of noodles that I planned to drown in hot sauce.
I filled the cup with water and placed it in the microwave on top of a few paper towels to soak up the water that boiled over the top.
By thirty second increments, I increased the time on the microwave until four minutes appeared.
It might’ve been easier to just tap the four for a quick start, but I was so accustomed to doing it the way I had.
While my noodles were warming, I sparked one of the four blunts I’d rolled before leaving the house, knowing that I wouldn’t have the energy to do so when I returned.
I had too much ripping and running to do for the day, which I knew would leave me exhausted.
Though I hadn’t expected to pull up on Lyric and ole boy, that only added to my exhaustion.
I took the steps two by two, ready to undress and get a bit more comfortable for the night.
My buzzing cell vibrated against my leg in the pocket of my pants.
I removed it, took a good look at the screen to find an unsaved number dancing across the screen.
Though I hated answering calls from unsaved numbers, since the incident with my brother, I was a bit more inclined to.
That unknown caller had saved my brother a life of turmoil.
Hadn’t I answered it then he might’ve been the one going to jail that night, the minute he left the block.
The police were waiting in the cut and had seen us pulling off the block.
Though Kale had left days prior headed back to school, I was still worried about him. I always worried about him.
“Yeah,” I answered, finally reaching my bedroom where I began to strip.
“Keanu, can we–” Lyric began to speak.
It wasn’t until then that I realized I’d been all up in her mix and hadn’t even secured her digits.
Calling her while she was away from me all day didn’t cross my mind because the minute I started missing her, I went to get her.
Too bad, she was preoccupied. The thought occurring again pissed me off a little more.
“How’d you get my number?” I interrupted, cutting her off from whatever she was about to say. There was no doubt in my mind that she’d be upset by the question I’d just asked but that was my intention.
“Keanu, are you serious right now?”
When I didn’t respond, she understood just how serious I was.
“I took it from Laike’s phone earlier today when I found myself missing you. I planned to call you tonight.”
“Call me? Yeah? Before or after you had dinner with that nigga?”
“Can we not do this?”
“We’re not,” I assured her and ended the call straightaway.
As I adjusted the temperature for the shower, a sigh escaped my lips. Showing Lyric tough love wasn’t easy and neither was it a preference of mine, but it was necessary. When she rang my line again, I quickly silenced the call and shed the rest of my clothes.
Before stepping into the shower, I accessed the call log and saved her number with a simple black heart.
A smile crossed my face as my head fell back in laughter.
I’d never been on no corny shit, ever, but using an emoji for a contact for the first time made a nigga feel good. She was just that… my heart.
“Alexa, play Brain Dead by Moneybagg,” I called out as I stepped into the shower.
The water penetrated my skin, relaxing me instantaneously. A little more stress rolled off with each bead. I quickly washed my body from head to toe and brushed my teeth. With Lyric on the other side of The Hills, that the hot water was the only assistance I’d get for a good night’s rest.
I made it down the stairs for another drink, a towel wrapped around my waist and one in-hand.
I patted myself dry with the smaller one.
The sound of the beeping microwave caught my attention, reminding me that I had something inside.
One bare foot in front of the other, I headed in its direction.
When I popped it open and saw the cup of noodles inside, I cringed.
FUCK. The rumbling of my stomach commenced. Simultaneously, my alarm system chirped, notifying me that someone had entered my home. With Kale at school, there could only be three other people bold enough to walk through my door unannounced.
I made my way to the kitchen’s exit and stood.
One by one, I counted the footsteps as they neared me.
The closer the sound got, the higher my numbers raised.
Second after second elapsed before the figure finally rounded the corner.
Once she got a glimpse of me, her movements stopped.
There was still so much space between us as we both remained quiet, glaring at each other.
This woman, not only did she hold the keys to my home in her perfectly manicured hand, but she held the keys to my heart in them, too.
As I stared back at her perfect skin and perfectly contoured frame, there was no denying it.
She was the end of the road for me. She was my final destination, and I didn’t give a damn how many detours or other paths I took, I’d always end up here. With her.
It infuriated me, how easily I knew it would be to forgive her in the future.
Her innocence as a kid, I’d allowed to follow her up into adulthood and seemingly the relationship we were starting to build.
It was Lyric. My Lyric, and she meant no harm.
She never had. Her heart was always pure even if it seemed as if her actions weren’t.
She always meant well. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind about that.
“Please don’t be mad with me,” she spoke, dropping her hands at her side and allowing her keys to dangle from her index finger.
Unable to respond, I turned and headed for the stairs, again. I was ready to lay down and didn’t have an ounce of fight in me. If Lyric knew what was best for her, then she’d join me.
When I made it up the stairs without hearing her footsteps behind me, it was to my surprise.
When the beeping of my alarm sounded, letting me know that my door had been opened and closed again, my heart sank into the sock that I had just pulled up on my feet.
In a haste, I pulled the black briefs over my ass and headed back downstairs.
Lyric leaving wasn’t an option. She’d come and she’d stay.
I’d been missing her all fucking day and now that she was here, the thought of going to sleep alone was too much to consider.
I didn’t want to do that, wouldn’t, even if I had to pick her ass up and put her in bed myself. She was sleeping beside me. She had to.
When I made it to the front door, fully prepared to run out in the Channing cold to chase her down, it opened again.
In walked Lyric with three large bowls stacked on top of each other, balancing them between her chin and two hands.
Too relieved to even extend a helping hand, I watched as she kicked the door closed behind her.
Our eyes met, revealing the thoughts that had crossed my mind without me even saying a word.
For a brief moment, Lyric stood in the same spot with her eyes on mine, reassuring me that she had no plans of going anywhere.
For the first time, I knew just how much the validation she sought from the ones she loved meant to her.
My troubled heart was finally at peace, lulled by a simple look. A glance.
“Come on so you can eat,” she tossed over her shoulder.
I followed behind her like the lovesick puppy that I was.
When she reached the kitchen and saw the microwave was still open with swollen noodles inside, I wanted to run and hide.
I was so consumed with thoughts of her that I’d left the noodles in the microwave long after they were done while I was upstairs enjoying a shower and ignoring her calls.
Her eyes danced between the noodles and mine.
“Noodles?”
“While you were thinking about stuffing the next nigga, yours was starving. So, yeah. Noodles.” I shrugged.
“Oh, Keanu,” she chastised, stepping closer to me, “I never took you for the jealous type.”
Her index finger grazed my skin as it hooked the waistband of my briefs.
The perfume that she wore bounced from her skin and into my nostrils, tickling the hairs inside of them.
She smelled like money and rightfully so.
Lyric was one of the most high maintenance women I’d ever seen in my days, her mother was the other.
There were literally only two of them. Even with all the money that Luca was stuffing into Ever’s accounts, she still didn’t possess the same aura as the two women she was around most often and it was simply because they weren’t new to money. Their money tree was old and it was deeply rooted.
My dick stiffened as my jaws locked. As much as I’d love to bend Lyric over the table and feast off her for the evening, I knew that explosive sex between us wouldn’t always be the resolution to our problems – no matter how fucking addictive it was.
I swatted at her hand, causing it to fall from my waistband. There wouldn’t be any fucking tonight or the next. She wouldn’t have the pleasure of even seeing my dick until we figured this shit out. Her pussy would only trick me into believing that we were okay when we weren’t.