8. Dominque ‘Dolo’ Shaw #2
Just from the outside looking in, it was obvious that she’d come out here to clear her mind, and that stood out to me because whenever shit in my life starts getting rough, the beach is where I would come to, so that I could escape.
The views, the sound of the waves coming from the ocean, all that shit would be peaceful, and comforting for me.
She was so locked in to what she was doing, that she wasn’t paying me, or anyone around her any attention.
I thought about walking over to her and speaking.
Shit, probably even asking her to join me for dinner, or a drink.
She might try to fuck around and play me, especially since we didn’t meet on the best of terms, and she’d gotten mad at me for slamming her down to the ground, all because I was trying to prevent her ass from getting struck by a bullet.
I’ve never been the type to be a scary ass nigga, so I headed over to her.
As I was approaching her, she turned her head, so that she could look at me.
Most women would have probably offered a nigga a smile or something, but she didn’t do that.
She wasn’t mugging, either. If anything, she just sat there, with this look on her face, as if she was wondering what I was doing walking up on her like this.
“What’s up?” I asked, as if we went way back, and I just came over to check up on her.
“Hey,” she said.
I didn’t think that her short ass was going to respond. I just knew that she would still be in her feelings from the shooting.
Her swag was so dope to me. This was only my second time being around her, and you could tell that she had her own style going on.
That green New York Yankees cap that she had on was hard.
Up under the hat, I could see that her hair wasn’t straight anymore.
It was curly. She wore a plain white tee, with a green sweater that was draped loosely around her neck.
Having the sweater on her like that is what made the outfit pop the way it did.
She tied it with gray joggers, and you could see the ankle socks that she had on with the green, and white Asics sneakers.
“Who you out here with?” I wanted to know.
“Myself,” she kept it simple.
Her ass really didn’t talk a lot. Usually, it was women that had to pull conversation out of me, now here I was, having to pull the conversation out of her, and I didn’t know how I felt about that shit.
“Aight. I came out here to get a drink and order some food. The last time I was around you, I slammed you, trying to protect you from bullets. Let me make it up to you. Come have a couple of drinks, and eat with me,” I suggested.
“I don’t drink, and I’m not hungry,” she said.
“Then don’t eat, and don’t drink. Still just come, and sit down with me,” I urged, and when I said that, she looked at me like I was crazy.
“The last time I was in the same space with you, niggas started shooting at the fuckin house. I’m good. I’m not trying to die tonight. I got enough shit going on,” she voiced, and I sucked my teeth because it was bullshit that she was talking.
“I didn’t have shit to do with niggas shooting inside the house.
We still don’t know who the fuck did that shit.
I already did my homework on you, shorty.
I know that wasn’t your first time being involved in a shootout.
You ain’t innocent. Don’t use that as an excuse not to sit down, and vibe with me.
If you don’t want to, then just say you don’t want to,” I let her know.
“Okay then. I don’t want to,” she responded, and I laughed, while stepping closer to her.
“I don’t believe you. You happy as fuck that I walked over here,” I said, and she rolled her eyes, as if she was disgusted that I would even think that.
“You obviously don’t know me because if you did, then you would know that I prefer to be alone,” she said, and I nodded.
“Your right. I don’t know you. That’s why I’m trying to have you get up, so that you can go eat with me.
You don’t need to be turning down no meals, love.
My money long. You can order a few things off the menu,” I spoke, saying that shit, hoping that it would make her laugh.
She was so fuckin hard to the point that she didn’t even crack a smile.
I could sense that something was bothering her though.
Granted, from the homework that I did on her, I already knew that she was mean as fuck, to herself, and didn’t talk like that.
I was sensing it was something deeper though.
I don’t know when the fuck I became a therapist, but instead of walking away, and letting her sulk in the shit that she was going through on her own, I decided to sit down on the seawall with her.
I sat down in the way that her body was facing, and I looked over at her.
“What’s up with you?” I asked, just wanting to know.
“Nothing,” I expected that answer from her, so I nodded.
“What happened between you, and Gold?” I just went ahead and asked that because I felt like that’s what was bothering her.
I wouldn’t tell her that I’d gotten the hint from Ari because I didn’t want her to get mad at her cousin about it.
You could see it in her eyes that she was shocked that I’d asked her that.
For the first time since I’ve been over here, she showed a little bit of emotion.
Well, she frowned, while tilting her head to the side, wanting to know how I knew that.
“What you mean what happened between me, and Gold? How you know about my business dealings with Gold?” she asked.
“Don’t worry about that. Just answer the question,” I said.
“I don’t know you to be telling you shit about my personal life. Fuck you got going on man? What? You got a wire on you or some shit?” her dumb ass asked me, reaching her hand over, as if she was searching for a wire.
I damn near wanted to pick her lil ass up by her hat and slam her down on the sand for insinuating some stupid ass shit like that.
“Man, watch out! You talking about what I got going on, what the fuck you got going on? What kind of snitching ass nigga you take me for? I ain’t shit on me but my phone, my wallet, and a gun!
” I snapped, right after I pushed her hand out of the way, and I stood up, emptying out my pockets, showing her that it was just my phone, wallet, and keys inside.
Next, I raised the shirt that I was wearing, so that she could see the gun on my hip.
I just did all this talking while I was at Jazelle’s house, saying how I wasn’t the kind of nigga to overly explain shit to a bitch.
Yet, here I was, emptying out my pockets, raising my shirt, damn near getting naked out here in this bitch, so that she could see that I wasn’t wearing a wire.
She even knew that she offended me with that shit because the look on her face eventually softened, and she relaxed a little bit.
She was uptight like a motha fucka. I was the same way when I was around people that I didn’t know.
The shit was just weird watching someone else do it, especially a female.
“My bad,” she said, and then she turned her head, so that she was no longer looking at me.
“I’m living the same life as you. You don’t gotta worry about me wearing no fuckin wire.
I need something a little bit more convincing than that.
Fuck a ‘my bad’. You gotta tell me you sorry.
You offended me,” I said, milking the fuck out of this shit.
She turned her head around, so that she could look at me, just to see if I was serious or not.
“I’ll apologize right after you apologize to me for slamming me on the ground,” she wouldn’t let that shit go, so I laughed.
“It ain’t the same though. I protected you,” I voiced.
“And I was injured in the process,” she said, removing the sweater that she had tied around her neck, and she picked up both her arms, showing her elbows.
There were scars that were in the healing process. After she showed that to me, she pulled up the pants leg on the joggers that she was wearing, showing me a bruise that she had on the back of her calf.
“You rather have a couple of bruises or would you rather a gunshot to the head? That could have been an option too,” I said. She thought about what I said, and after a few seconds, that’s when she released a sigh.
“I’m sorry. I lack trust. You asked me something personal, and being as though we don’t know each other, I have no understanding how you know about my dealings with Gold,” she shocked me when she apologized because I didn’t expect her to.
I was prepared to just drop it, knowing that I wasn’t going to get an apology out of her.
“Answer the question that I asked you. What happened between you two? You moving weight for him still or no?” I inquired.
“No,” she answered it short, choosing not to give me a backstory.
“Who you working for right now then?” I wanted to know.
“I’m figuring it out. I’m not working for nobody at the moment,” she said, and I nodded.
I put my hands inside my pockets, looking down at her, trying to see where I wanted to go next with this.
I could smell the hustle on her. When it came to me putting niggas on to my shit, I didn’t give them a seat at the table until I could smell the hustle in them.
I had to smell that they were hungry for this shit.
Riot had traits about her that I liked. I liked the fact that she was aware.
She never got scared when I walked up on her because she had already turned her head to see that I was approaching her.
She wasn’t soft, either. That much showed when we were at that listening party, and her ass was trying to run inside the house, where the bullets were flying.
She had street smarts, even though she just tried me, and did that goofy ass shit, thinking that I was wearing a wire because of the shit that I asked about Gold.