Chapter 14 City
Iwalked into my mama’s crib and shit was everywhere. I was pissed because the maid came through yesterday. This mothafucka was spotless from the pictures in the portal. Now this shit look like a hurricane hit it. I don’t like wasting my money.
“Janice!” I called out.
The TV was loud. The couch had trash on it, and I had to move it aside to take a seat.
“Boy, don’t be coming in my shit calling me like you’re the fucking police. What you doing here this early?” she fussed, dragging her feet as I heard her coming up the hallway.
“Why the fuck the house nasty? The maids were here yesterday.”
“Hell, if you really wanna help, send me a live-in maid.” She flopped in her chair, sitting on top of papers underneath her ass.
I shook my head and pulled the blunt from behind my ear, lightning it and inhaling a bit before passing it to her.
“What you need a live-in maid for? You got a part time nanny too. The crib should be good.”
“I got your sister. She tries to help, but with school she can’t. Another who comes by on holidays, three teenagers who think their grown and them little ones tear up the damn house the moment they see its clean. What you offer ain’t enough, Devin,” she explained.
I was the oldest of nine kids. What the fuck was Janice thinking having all these little mothafuckas, I can’t even tell you.
Before I came up, we stayed in a three-bedroom apartment for long as I could remember.
Living on top of each other. Me and my younger brothers shared a room- bunked beds, living out of trash bags before I moved to the living room.
The girls had to do the same until more kids came along.
I hated going in the crib and shit, so I stayed outside. Soon as I could, I jumped off the porch and got in the field with Ma.
She juggled two jobs and I had to get her out that struggle. It took me a minute, but I made shit move. I always made sure that they had whatever they needed.
When I came into my first big bag, I got a livable house for space. Then a year later, I stayed behind at the house and moved them into a bigger one. I kept it for another year before moving.
Now they were in a mansion, living comfortably.
I put my next to oldest brother in college out of state. My sister didn’t want to go away, so she’s still home studying law. Had a sister, junior in high school. Then I have three teenage triplet brothers, and my younger siblings were twins.
“You need to be making sure everybody put a hand in. I told you about that shit.”
“Look, I know your money might’ve bought it, but my name’s on the deed. Let me handle my house how I wanna, hea?”
“Yeah,” I scoffed.
“Now what brings you by? I know you didn’t come to fuss at me.”
“I had some shit to do ‘round the way. Damn, I can’t come see my family?”
“Anytime you want to. You know the door’s always open.” She looked at me like she was trying to read me.
“What’s up, Janice?” I chuckled.
She threw her shoe at me.
“What I told you about calling me by my name?”
“I just be doing shit.” I chuckled.
“Gone make me bust them golds out your mouth, file them down and make a gold bracelet with them. Stop playing with me, Devin,” she called me by my first name. “Now what’s got you?”
Running my hand down my face, “Nothing, Ma, damn.”
“Aiight then. Don’t tell me but you bet not end up in a cell behind it,” she warned.
“Why I gotta end up in a cell?”
“Because that’s your home away from home.”
“I ain’t been locked up in years, Ma.”
“It was just over a year ago.”
“I ain’t spend no time though. Was out in seventy-two hours.”
Shit. I didn’t like getting knocked. Niggas was always trying shit, and I gotta put them in their places.
“You know these kids look up to you.”
Just as I was about to reply, my sister walked into the living room.
“What you doing here, big head?” She smacked the back of my head.
“Same thing I said,” Mama mumbled.
“Damn, first ma, now you?”
Sariah was a spitting image of our pops and mama.
Pops left just after Sariah was born, and we haven’t seen him since.
He fucked us up when he pulled that move.
Ma still waits on his return, but he’s not coming back.
He’s likely watching from afar, and he wanted to reap the benefits of my hard work, but it’s always fuck that nigga til’ the death.
“Yeah, because you’ve already been by twice this week. Three is your max.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell him,” Ma added.
“I wanted to come kick it. That’s it. Ain’t shit wrong.”
She grabbed her backpack and tossed it over her shoulder.
“Uh huh. Well, you know where to find me. I’m about to be late. See y’all later.”
She rushed to hug and kiss ma before hugging me.
“You got what you need?” I asked, digging in my pocket.
She went into her purse, pulling out her wallet.
“I haven’t even spent what you put in there last month.”
“That’s my smart baby. She get that from her mama. It can’t be her daddy.”
Sariah rolled her eyes heading to the door. “Bye y’all.” She rushed out the door.
The house was silent when the TV took a minute to go to commercial, but I felt ma looking at me. Her ass was staring a mean fucking hole into my head. I couldn’t do shit but laugh.
“What’s up, Ma?”
“You need me. It ain’t jail. I know you’re not going broke. The last time I saw that look was when…” Her words trailed off.
“Who’s got her claws into you now, Devin?”
“See, that’s why I didn’t even wanna say shit, Ma. It ain’t even like that. It’s just some other shit going on with her, and I wanted to chop it up with you so you can tell me what’s up.”
“Well, shit, come on. You know that’s my ministry. I can’t keep a man, but I know all about them. And every trick the women use.”
“I thought shit was good between me and Rayzor’s girl’s best friend. Then, shit, we fucked and her ass put me out afterwards.”
“Oh, Lawd, my baby out here serving trash dick.”
“What the fuck? Hell nah. That ain’t even it. I beat that pussy into the mattress.”
“Then why she kicked you out?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Some shit went down before we went to her crib, but it ain’t have nothing to do with me. Shit, she invited me to come back with her. Then she switched up.”
“She got somebody else then.”
That didn’t even sound like Suki. We had open communication.
Always kept shit real. That’s why I fucked with her.
It wasn’t light work, no pressure, and we had that chemistry.
Not to mention, her pussy kept me calling back.
It’s something else fucking with her, and I normally moved around on bitches.
With Suki though, it had me a lil’ fucked up knowing she got down like that.
“Maybe she had post nut clarity. If she’s a good girl, she might’ve felt bad after you having her do all kinds of nasty shit to her that girl ain’t probably used to.” She shook her head as if she knew Suki personally.
“Nah, Ma, this one ain’t got shit shy about her.”
“Then hell, I don’t know what to tell you, Devin because you got all the answers. How about you ask her?”
“We don’t move like that.”
“What you mean move like that? So y’all can fuck but not communicate?”
“She shut me out a minute ago. I thought this shit could be different.”
“Oh yeah, she’s got her nails in you. You’re over here asking your mama for advice.” She evilly grinned.
“What the hell you happy about?”
“I’ve seen a lot come but none ever stay. This one might be staying if she’s got you stressing out.”
“Ain’t nobody stressing.”
“You can lie to whoever, but I birthed you. You ain’t never too far in life away from me to not know you.”
There wasn’t even shit else for me to say. I got up, kissed the side of her head and stuck a roll in her hand.
“I’ll be back later this week.”
“You can’t run from your feelings. Talk to her. It won’t make you less of a man. Put that ego and pride to the side before you be alone.”
“I ain’t never alone, Ma. I got hoes for all 365 days, 366 too.”
“You can have as many hoes you want, but you can still be lonely with a full bed.”
“I’ll hit you later, Ma.”
“Love you, Devin.”
“Love you too. And tell my other son he better be with you next time too,” she said, referring to Rayzor.
“I got you.” I chuckled.
After that conversation, I thought about hitting up Suki but didn’t because I had a long day ahead. I brought it up to ma, but it wasn’t on me bad enough to start saying shit I couldn’t take back. I just wanted a woman’s opinion because it wasn’t sitting right with me.
On the drive from mama’s, I smoked to get my shit right. The shit I had with Janice wasn’t enough because her words had me thinking about Suki. I’d been trying to hit her ass up, but my shit wasn’t going through.
Crazy ass hoe blocked me.
I was pushing up on Rayzor after him and E touched back down from a quick trip to Vegas. That nigga slipped out in the night after the cookout and his ass ain’t tell me shit. I didn’t find out until I hit him to make a transaction and that nigga was in Vegas.
“Nigga, you eloped?” I asked him while dapping up.
“Shit, maybe.”
I followed behind him into the crib, taking a seat in my normal spot. Rayzor was a creature of habit. Things always change but never his habits. We’ve been doing the same shit for years. Our layouts were always the same. I could always tell when shit was going south by patterns.
“E good now?”
“Yeah. I had to fuck that attitude outta her ass.” He shook his head. “That shit with the girls was starting to affect how she treated everybody, and I can’t have her letting my kids see that.”
“Yo’ kids? Nigga, what?”
“Like I said, my kids, nigga. They’re apart of her, they’re apart of me.”
I tilted my head looking at that nigga like he’d grown two heads. Rayzor say a lot of shit, but this... Nah, this was too deep for me.
He didn’t even have kids of his own and now he’s calling Eris’ son and sister his.