3. Step to Me
STEP TO ME
“The fuck?” Lotus sat up in her empty bed.
The pounding at her front door instantly pissed her off.
Eyeing her cell on the charger, she saw that it was too late for whatever bullshit waited on the other side.
Crawling out of bed, she stomped down the hall into her living room.
She reached for the bat in the corner behind the door and stood on her toes to look through the peephole.
When she saw that it was Jewel, her eyes rolled back.
Lotus pitched her door open and glared at her brother in the hallway before he pushed his way inside.
“Jewel, the hell you doing here?” she demanded, closing and locking her door behind him.
Turning on the heel of his black Timbs, he shoved his hands into the pocket of his black hoodie.
“Eazy told me to meet him here.”
Mouth still partially open, Lotus almost argued, then caught her brother’s tight scowl.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“The hell going on? Ma said you’re pregnant. This nigga Eazy got me coming over here like he run shit—”
“Jewel, you need to mind your business.”
“Fuck that, Lo. You pregnant?” he asked, taking a few steps forward with his brows bunched together.
“Yes!” she hollered. “Damn!”
“Is it Eazy’s baby? You been fucking that nigga behind my back?”
“Behind your back?” Lotus scoffed. “I’m grown as fuck, Jewel.”
“That don’t fucking matter! You should have said something!”
Tears stung Lotus’s eyes, and she blamed the hormones because she’d never been that sensitive, especially not with Jewel. She blinked them away and listened to the keys jingling in her door before the lock turned and Eazy let himself inside with Bull behind him. Jewel threw his arms up.
“This nigga got a key too! You won’t even give me a key!”
“Stop yelling at me!” Lotus screamed. “And you ain’t got a key because you’ll use my house to bring random bitches over!”
“The fuck wrong with you, bro?” Eazy stepped in, face locked tight in a grimace.
Jewel was his boy, but he wasn’t for the disrespect of Lotus from anybody.
“Fuck you mean? This my fucking sister, E! You know better!” Jewel aimed a finger at his boy, and Eazy shook his head.
“Look, the shit just happened, aight. We didn’t plan none of this! But it is what it is. She’s fucking pregnant, and I ain’t about to sit here and let you or nobody else stress her the fuck out!”
“Both of y’all chill,” Bull chimed in, closing the door behind him.
“Lo, the fuck you doing letting niggas slide in you raw! You can barely take care of yourself, and Rhema told me you lost your fucking job.”
“Go to hell!” she growled, stomping past him and into her bathroom where she slammed the door shut behind her.
“Don’t be talking to her like that, nigga,” Eazy warned, aiming his finger at Jewel.
“Nigga, that’s my sister. I talk to her how I want—”
“Not in front of me. She carrying my seed, so you ain’t the only muhfucka looking out for her no more.”
“Y’all done?” Bull asked, hands in his pockets as he watched the two go at it.
Jewel and Eazy continued to size each other up, but Eazy eventually backed off.
“We got more important shit to worry about right now,” Bull reminded them.
“Exactly,” Eazy agreed.
Jewel pinched the tip of his nose.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Bull looked at Eazy and then back at Jewel.
“Braxton is dead.”
Shock displayed over Jewel’s face from the news.
“Oracle is fucking walking… and… Niva’s alive,” Eazy revealed.
Jewel’s expression shifted, and a frown crowded his face.
“Niva? How the fuck is that even possible?”
“That’s why we here.” Bull shook his head.
“He wants us to meet him on Danbury,” Eazy volunteered.
“You sure you ready for this?” Jewel checked with Eazy.
He knew what Niva meant to him; they all did.
Eazy was never one for cuffing a bitch to begin with.
At the time, making shit exclusive with Niva was the only way not to lose her, so he did what he had to do.
Over time, he saw that monogamy shit wasn’t so bad.
Most of these bitches nowadays were for the streets anyway.
He didn’t think he’d ever meet anybody else he would see a future with, especially after she died.
Lotus’s bathroom door opened, and she stepped out, expression somber, making Eazy’s chest tight. Baby had that glow everybody talked about with pregnancy, even behind her glossy eyes. She was carrying life. His child was growing inside her, and that meant something else.
“Yeah. Just give me a minute with Lo, and I’ll meet y’all at the car.” Eazy dragged his hand down his beard.
Jewel paused and turned to his sister, giving her one last glance.
She slipped her hands into her robe and rolled her eyes at him. “I hate you. You know I don’t like crying.” She angrily swept a tear from her eye.
Eazy shoved him.
“Apologize,” he told him.
Jewel scoffed before glaring at him over his shoulder. “Aye man, ain’t nobody got time for this for the next nine months.”
“Then stop being an asshole,” Lotus quipped.
“What, you want a nigga’s blessing or something?”
“Nigga, I don’t need it.” She folded her arms across her chest. “But if you want to be a part of your niece or nephew’s life, you need to get right with me.
I didn’t tell you about Eazy because I deadass was ready to fight him until recently.
Like he said, we didn’t plan it, but this is where we at. ”
“I’m sorry, aight. You right. You grown. Clearly the nigga got some sense if he chose you.”
“Now you know,” Eazy responded, stepping closer to Lotus and resting a hand on her hip. “You get the pretzel I left you?”
“Yeah. I kind of ate yours too.” She pouted cutely, and Eazy chuckled.
“You gon’ be hell.”
“I was hungry… and worried. I eat when I get like that.”
“She ain’t lying. What they call it, that freshman fifteen? Sis got a little chunky that first year and a half of college.” Jewel nodded.
“Fuck you! Ass!” She shoved him, and he winced before snickering.
“I didn’t want to call because I thought…”
“You thought I ghosted you?” Eazy inched into her space, heart cracking open a bit.
“I don’t know what I thought, but I didn’t like it. Now I’m starving again, too. Did you save any of that pasta you made earlier?” she asked, hiking a brow.
“Nigga over here cooking and shit like a simp,” Jewel grumbled, arms crossing over his buff chest as he shook his head.
Eazy shot a quick glare at Jewel before focusing on Lotus again.
“Yeah. I put it in one of those Tupperware things with the lid.” He nodded over his shoulder to the kitchen and licked his lips. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Make sure you lock up and call me if anything feels off, got me?”
“Yeah.” Lotus nodded.
“Oh, now you want to be all submissive and shit too!” Jewel threw his hands up and marched toward the door. “It’s like I don’t know neither one of you muhfuckas.”
“Get the fuck out,” Eazy growled.
Lotus reached for his hoodie and pulled him close.
“Be careful,” she enunciated before standing on her toes and kissing his lips.
“Yuck!” Jewel gagged, and Bull shoved him toward the door.
Eazy appreciated that Lotus didn’t need to know everything in that moment.
All she was concerned with was him making it out of whatever it was.
Resting his arm around her back, he pulled her against him and brought his face closer to hers.
For so long, he thought Niva was the beginning and end for him.
Then she was gone. What he stumbled on with Lotus was new.
He wanted to explore that and her. Whatever they were on, he was determined to hold onto it, regardless of current events.
Clearly, the Niva he thought he knew didn’t exist, but what was between him and Lotus was very real.
“You know you stuck with a nigga now, right? So don’t ever question if I’m coming back, aight.”
“Whatever. You’ll say anything,” Lotus whispered against his lips right before they brushed across hers, and his tongue slipped into her mouth.
“Any fucking thing for you,” Eazy told her between kisses.
“Then you should leave, so you can get back,” she encouraged, pulling back and searching his handsome chocolate face.
“Walk me out.” Eazy grabbed her hand and pulled her to the door.
Lotus stopped at her table and pulled the drawer out. She grabbed her gun and held it up for him to see, then offered a smile.
“I’m good, and my aim is legit.”
“Aight, that’s cute.” Eazy nodded from the hallway. “Keep the safety off. Don’t open this door for nobody.”
Lotus watched him strut to the elevator where Bull and Jewel waited, and they all got on together.
She closed and locked her door, pressing her back against it and sighing.
Her heart was betraying her. Or maybe it was the hormones, but she liked Eazy, and that was something she’d never admit about anybody.
Regardless of how much he annoyed her, in a short time, she’d grown to care about him, even against her own will.
The default ringer for her phone went off, alerting her to a new call.
When her cell alerted her to a new call, Lotus frowned and marched over to her kitchen counter to check it.
The caller was unknown, so she hesitated, then decided to ignore it altogether.
A second after the first call ended, another came through.
Picking up the device, she studied the screen before swiping to answer.
“Hello.”
Silence. Then heavy breathing. The hell?
“Hello!” she yelled.
When she didn’t get a response, she ended the call.
“Dumb ass,” she mumbled, shuffling over to her couch.