13. Vani #3
All I could do was laugh. Me and Lo had pregamed at the house.
I hadn’t had alcohol in three years, so two shots had my ass feeling real wavy.
I didn’t know the lyrics to the song that was playing, but the beat was fire, and I bobbed my head getting in the mood.
When Hailey’s twerk session was over, she sparked a blunt, and the pungent smell of marijuana filled the car.
My mouth literally began to water. I just wanted to feel good.
That was all I wanted. To feel good. To stop hating what I had done to my life and start finding the good in it.
Being locked up for three years forced me to sit and think.
I read a lot. A lot of inspirational and motivational books.
I read books on being successful, self-improvement, religion, romance, paranormal, mysteries and thrillers.
I gave away more than two hundred books when I left prison.
The weed that I sucked into my lungs made my throat burn for a bit.
I didn’t cough, but I was damn sure caught off guard by the potency.
By the time Lo parked the car, I was fucked up.
I was still coherent, but I was good on the weed and shots for at least an hour.
I had to mellow out. I wanted to have fun and be relaxed, but I didn’t want to be out of it or risk doing anything that would embarrass me.
We arrived at the bar a little after midnight, and the first floor was already packed.
The place was huge with three levels. On the first floor were tables and booths along with a bar, and four huge flat screen televisions that played everything from boxing matches, football games, basketball games, soccer, and tennis.
We were all famished, so we stopped on the first floor and was able to be seated in a booth.
My eyes darted over the menu, and I wanted to order everything.
Being high plus the fact that I had been eating dog food for the past few years, I wanted to taste everything.
Finally, I decided on Philly cheesesteak eggrolls, a Cesar salad, a burger, and fries. I more than likely wouldn’t eat it all, but I didn’t even care. I was spending Darius’ money, and he had given me plenty of it.
“What’s going on with you and Azarius?” I asked Hailey before taking a sip of water.
“Baby, when I find the words to describe us, you’ll be the first to know. Two of them are toxic and childish,” she laughed. “Once we stopped going tit for tat and showing the other that they could be replaced easily, he fell in line, and got some act right.”
“My nigga,” I chuckled raising my hand to give her a high five. The very thing he’d been afraid of happened. She broke him down.
“I’m going to look through all my pictures tomorrow and repost all the ones I have with braids and tag you for the new bitches that don’t know, and so the old bitches will know you’re back and taking clients,” Hailey stated.
“Thank you. I already know I’m going to get tired of the restaurant fast. I love my grandmother, and I love the food served at her restaurant, but food service has never been my thing. I don’t feel like dealing with it or people and their funky attitudes,” my nose scrunched.
“I feel you on that,” Lo agreed. “I don’t even like letting it be known when I’m broke because the first thing ma or granny does is tell me to pick up a shift at the restaurant.
Now, on Friday and Saturday if I’m not busy, I don’t mind doing the night crowd.
People start drinking and popping in after they’re drunk, and they tip lovely. One night I left with like $500.”
“Damn,” I mumbled. That was the kind of money I needed for sure. I was going to spend the money Darius gave me, but it wouldn’t last forever. I was going to be up every day hustling like I was broke because shit, I was.
“I’m going to need some braids too. Marco invited me to a water park next weekend.”
My brows hiked as I peered at my sister. After a brief stare off, her eyes widened. “What?”
“You really done with Tyriq this time? Because I don’t know who this Marco cat is, but if he has shit to lose, you don’t want Tyriq beefing with him. And I can’t go back to prison. If Tyriq puts his hands on you, everyone will be calling me a snitch because the authorities will be called.”
Hailey snickered. “Not the authorities. Okay Karen.”
Lo waved my comment off. “Me and Tyriq have been done. I was just dumb enough to keep giving in to him whenever I got horny, but that’s been dead. If it’s not about Jaela we don’t have ten words to say to one another. I don’t care what he does, and he better not ever try to care about what I do.”
The waitress came over with our food, but I wouldn’t have responded even without the disruption.
Most things were easier said than done. Also, most times, when a person was mad, they believed whatever it was they were saying.
If Tyriq walked through the door at that exact moment with another woman, only Lo’s reaction would tell me if she was really done and didn’t care anymore.
Between the alcohol I had consumed and the weed I smoked, ninety-five percent of my food was demolished.
Even I was surprised at how much I’d eaten.
I missed good food so bad. Eating good meals were almost the equivalent to having sex.
At least for me it was. When we were done eating, I was stuffed and ready to drink.
Easing out of the booth, I sauntered over to the bar.
“Whatever you’re drinking it’s on me.” Looking over my shoulder, I locked eyes with Tre and gasped.
“Tre?!”
My brother’s friend looked like a grown ass man.
Well, he was at least twenty-one. Maybe close to twenty-two.
He had facial hair, and the chains around his neck were heavy.
I looked him up and down and took in his lean athletic frame.
He had never been a kid that got in trouble and from what I knew he was born and raised in the suburbs.
I hated to stereotype, but he was young.
There were only a few ways he was getting enough money to shine like he was.
“What’s going on with you? Where you work at?” I lifted my brows as I waited for an answer.
Tre dropped his head a bit as he chuckled. “I don’t do anything I shouldn’t be doing. I’ve produced some beats for local rappers. I do pretty good, and they pay a pretty penny for beats.”
“Wow,” I gave a slight nod. “I’m impressed. That’s what’s up. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. E told me a few weeks ago that you were about to come home. It’s good to see you looking good.” The way Tre stared at me like a grown ass man was a little arousing but also unsettling. The corny lil’ kid he used to be kept popping up in my head.
“Yeah. I made it through, and I’m glad. That shit wasn’t any fun.”
Since there was a crowd at the bar, I turned around and ordered my drink. He ordered his, and we stepped off to the side to wait.
“Some of what you have going on needs to rub off on E,” I rolled my eyes.
He was still living in my parents’ house, working mediocre jobs, and not knowing what he wanted to do with his life.
He said college wasn’t for him, and my parents didn’t press the issue.
After working at a warehouse for six months, he said he was joining the military.
That never happened. After he lost the warehouse job for calling out too much, he started working at a factory that made car parts.
At first, he was loving it because with all the mandatory overtime, he was bringing home damn near $1,000 a week.
That got old after about five months, and he quit that job.
E had been going through a relentless cycle of working a job for three to six months then quitting.
My parents tried to be patient with him, but my dad was becoming fed up.
In his eyes, there wasn’t shit manly about E lying around the house all day not working, going to school, or being productive.
Tre shook his head. “Hopefully, he’ll come around. It takes some of us longer than others to find our way.”
The bartender passed us our drinks, and I extended one arm to indicate that I wanted a hug. Tre had really grown up, and I was proud of him. “Thank you for the drink.”
We parted ways and when I looked up and spotted who Lo and Hailey were talking to, I almost stopped in my tracks.
I locked eyes with Darius, and my heart slammed into my ribcage.
The way his jaw muscles flexed were a sure sign that he’d seen me hug Tre.
I didn’t want to show my weakness. If Darius knew how much his presence was unraveling me, he’d use it to his advantage.
Clearing my throat, I willed myself to keep it cool and cute.
He had gained some weight, and it was all muscle. Got damn.