Chapter 1 #2
“Call me later. I’m about to go give Sin some of this pregnant pussy to get his mind off Zoo.”
“Have fun with that.”
“Aww don’t sound so sad. You can give up the goodies, too. Stop being stingy.”
“Girl, bye. I’m holding out a little while longer. The first time I tried to give him some, I burnt the meatloaf. That was a sign from God to hold out a little while longer.”
“Nah, that was a sign from the cook police because who the fuck eats meatloaf?” I could’ve just imagined the disgusted look that was on Mimi’s face.
“You sound like Brooklyn. He was happy that shit burned up but mad because he couldn’t get the juicy meat he was about to recei—” Pausing, I stood still and pulled the phone away from my ear to listen to the screams that I heard.
“Let me call you back.” I ended the call without her replying once I realized the screams were coming from upstairs.
Taking the steps two by two, I pushed my room door open and ran inside.
“Brooklyn! Baby! Wake up!” Shaking Brooklyn, I called his name back to back to get him to wake up.
His body popped up like a broken mattress spring, scaring the hell out of me.
Brooklyn’s forehead was covered in a sheet of sweat.
I used the palm of my hand to wipe it off.
My hand glided around his face, stopping at his chest. I felt his heart beating harder than a stampede of elephants. “Are you ok?”
Breathlessly, Brooklyn replied, “No,” with a shake of his head.
“Another dream?”
“Yep.”
“What happened this time?”
This was the fourth dream Brooklyn had since we left the hospital the other night. Regardless of him just laying down before he went to the studio, he would still wake up from a bad dream. I felt bad because Teddy had really been in the wind and there’s no telling where he was.
“Zoo died in this one and you broke up with me right before the doctors came to tell us about Zoo. I lost both of you within seconds from each other. I went from blaming myself for being the reason he got shot, to blaming you. I’on know what I gotta do to get these dreams to stop but I can’t be having thoughts like that.
“These ill feelings don’t happen towards you when I’m awake, but when I go to sleep, my thoughts are consumed of this being all your fault, and I don’t want to feel like this. I know none of this is on you, this is all Teddy. Once I separate his skull from his spine, I’ll be able to sleep better.”
“Um, the fact that you casually said that like it’s something easy to do…”
“It is. All you have to do is put your thumbs right at the nape and allow your other fingers to grip around his face, lift your most dominant leg, place your foot on his shoulder, and yank that shit off.”
“Really, Brooklyn?”
“Dead ass. Which is how he gon’ be... a dead ass.”
I laughed but when he didn’t, I knew he was serious.
“Just be safe. Whatever he gets, he deserves plus more, so I’ll never try to talk you out of doing what you need to do.
Just be safe. I don’t want you getting hurt, and I especially do not need any of this attached to my name since he is my ex.
I see how the reporters have Zoo and PJ all over the news and headlines; I don’t want that type of press at all.
Whatever you do, do this shit discretely.
Do I want you to risk getting caught, end up going to jail and possibly becoming someone's boy toy? No! But—”
“That shit not gon’ happen any-fuckin’-way. I can promise you that. You don’t have to tell me to be discrete, Baby. Trust me when I say, they’ll never find no traces of him. Now that, I can promise you. Just make sure you don’t look at me any differently.”
“Like how you look at me now?” I rebutted, causing him to look at me.
“Nah, when I look at you, I think of how beautiful you are and that I’m lucky you chose me.”
“If you say so. Your dreams are telling you otherwise, Baby.” Tilting my head to the side, I smirked and slouched my shoulders. “Things will get better.” Leaning in, I gave him a kiss on the lips before turning to leave back out the room.
“Where you going?”
“To get the things I just got while shopping with Mimi and then to my mom's. She’s upset because she hasn’t heard from BJ since the night he left with a new chicken head of his. I don’t know what she expects me to do, but I’m going to ease her little troubled mind. You want to ride with me?”
His head dipped to the side before replying, “It depends, am I being introduced as your friend, Brooklyn, or ya man? When my parents met you, you were my girl but I feel like I just forced that on you and really didn’t give you an option of being with me or not.”
“When you said we are together and can learn each other as we go and grow, I was ok with that. Yea, I just got out of something but that shit been over with. With you, we started out as friends and you never really pushed to be more. I liked you. When we started to spend more time with each other, I started to miss not being around you. Miss not smelling you or sleeping on a pallet with you just to feel safe.”
“Even without a title, we had a definition of what we wanted us to be. The night Zoo got shot, right before everything happened, you wrapped your arms around me and gave me this feeling that I hadn’t felt in years.
A feeling of love and security that my mind and body had been missing.
That night, I knew I wanted you to be more than just a friend to me.
Laughing and dancing ridiculously was enough to show me that I want you to be it for me. ”
“I don’t want us to ever fight to the point where we are missing out on each other’s day-to-day lives.
That shit that was going on between PJ and Zoo was crazy.
Think about it, what if he didn’t make it and they had just made up after missing so much time with each other, then he was gone just like that.
They spent so much time being upset with each other when they could have been making more memories. ”
“Just promise me we’ll always talk about how we feel.
No running, no going days without talking, none of that.
If we are in this, let’s really be in this.
You haven’t made me question your intentions since we started communicating, don’t start now.
I probably didn’t trust your choice of women prior to me but hey, that was before me. You’re smarter now.”
“Man,” Brooklyn dragged out while laughing. “I told you she was not my girl.”
“I heard you lie the first time. Are you coming with me or not?”
“Yea, I’ll go. Give me a minute.”
Nodding, I walked downstairs to grab my things.
When Brooklyn came down, he made me want to take my ass back upstairs with him.
“So you just gon’ show my mama ya dick print in those grey sweats like that?”
“Mama Kincade ain’t got no business even looking down there. Gon’ give her little ass a heart attack when she sees this pressure coming towards her.”
“Brooklyn, go change. I need my mama and you talking about her if she sees you, she gon’ have a heart attack, so let's change that now and let her live a little longer.”
“Hating ass.” After jogging up the steps to change, he came back down with a black pair on.
I didn’t bother showing him that I could still see it and now it was about to give my ass a heart attack.
I wanted Brooklyn bad, but I kept trying to hold out.
Every time he walked around my house with no shirt and some gym shorts on, I was ready to risk my ovaries for him.
Plant all of those lil’ bean head ass babies inside of me, love.
When I walked in my parents' house, I called, “Hey, Mama.”
“Briiii!” Brixie came running down the hallway full speed at me, then jumped into my arms. She’d done this since she was a kid, and for some reason, her heavy ass didn’t think she’d outgrown my arms.
“Hey, Sis. Where’s Mama?”
“Forget Mama, who is this?” She eyed Brooklyn a little too long until I popped her arm. “Dang, I was just looking at him.”
“You were staring like he’s a piece of meat.”
“I mean.” When Brixie paused then allowed her eyes to travel down to Brooklyn's dick, I popped her again then pulled him into the living room. Exactly why I didn’t want him wearing these sweats.
My little sis was already hot in the ass.
At sixteen, she was out here acting like she was ready to be a teen mom.
“You, sit,” I told Brooklyn then turned to Brixie, “And you stay away.” Her lil’ fast ass was really out here looking at my man like I wasn’t even standing there.
“I just asked who he is and you still ain’t saying nothing, so I’m guessing he’s just a friend. If he is then I was going to let him know that I’m available.”
“Brixie, take yo’ ass on and where is Mama?”
“I’ll tell you after you introduce us.”
“Brooklyn, this is my sister, Brixie, Brixie, this is my MAN, Brooklyn, now move!”
“What happened to Teddy? I thought you were never going to leave his weak ass. I wanted to tell you so bad, bitch STAND UP, because you were weak in the knees for him, and he wasn’t doing shit for you but stressin’ you out.”
“Ain’t no mo’ Teddy, just me, and you ain’t gotta worry about her being with another fuck nigga because ain’t nobody else coming behind me, and I’ll neva’ have her out here lookin’ bad.”
Brixie looked at Brooklyn with wide eyes then back at me. Nudging my arm, she whispered, “I bet he fuck aggressive.”
When Brooklyn started laughing, I knew he’d heard what her ignorant ass said. I was so embarrassed.
“I thought I heard you in here.” My dad creeped into the room, walking slowly towards me. Meeting him halfway, I gave him a hug then helped him to his chair. “How you been, Baby Girl?”
“I’ve been ok, Daddy. You’ve been taking it easy?”
“Easy like Sunday morning,” he retorted, making me smile at him. “Who you got there wit' you’?” He pointed towards Brooklyn. My parents didn't come to my last game, and they definitely weren’t showing up to a party so this is the first time they were meeting him.