Chapter 18 #2
I didn’t know how Essex dealt with both Missy’s fine ass and Bella’s crazy self all day.
Missy was feisty as hell, and Bella was bossy as hell.
Essex had watched Bella grow up, just as he had with me, so Bella was family to him.
But Bella wasn’t Baby Bella anymore. With what Essex paid her, she now had the look that matched her bold attitude.
Every time she came around, she looked like new money.
Plus, she was still in everybody else’s pockets, too, including mine lately, and I was supposed to be the little cousin.
Glee’s eyes had been closed as Pearla greased her scalp, but it was as if she had mommy senses because they popped open as soon as we entered the space.
Unlike mean-ass Mahzeyah, Glee’s features were always soft.
Her bruises were beginning to heal on her face, and even though there was a scab running down the center of her lip, I knew it would heal good too.
She was a trooper and pretty as hell, just like all the other girls surrounding my everyday life.
I didn’t know how much she knew about our family, but when we loved, we loved hard as fuck, and she and Baby Leader were stuck with us now.
I reached for the baby, and Mahzeyah bopped away.
“You so foul, yo.”
“Boy, whatever!”
Mahzeyah sat next to Glee’s fine-ass friend, who was balled up on the end of the sectional with a blanket over her head. We’d all been up all night talking shit, telling stories, and passing the baby around. I walked them home around four a.m., and they were right back over here at ten.
“Y’all fighting over Baby Leader again?” Glee giggled.
“That’s him. He be hogging her, and then gets mad when I get her. You had her all night!”
“Well, didn’t nobody tell you to take yo’ ass to see that nigga. You woulda been able to get her some.”
“For your information, I went home. I’m seventeen, negro. I have a curfew. Everybody can’t be a dropout that do what they want to do like you.” She rolled her eyes.
“Y’all don’t start that shit today…” Bella warned while she held the phone up to her ear. “No, Missy. I’m not talking about y’all. My lil’ cousin and bestie—they argue like a married couple.” Bella shot us a look before restarting the video and huffing ideas into the phone again.
“Aye, watch that lil word.”
“You heard her. Lil’ cousin.”
I kissed my teeth. “Put the baby down, follow me to the back, and I can show you how lil’ I’m not.”
Pearla tossed her head back in laughter, and Glee held her hand over her mouth, trying to hide hers. She complained about her ribs still being sore, so she tried her best not to do too much.
Mahzeyah continued patting the baby’s back. “Never in your wildest dreams, Italian Cuppacio.”
“I know…” I shrugged. “It was worth a shot, though.”
“Is this y’all baby or hers?” Pearla snickered.
“Mine…” “Ours,” we answered simultaneously, with me smirking about saying Baby Leader was ours.
“Oh, Lord,” Pearla said as she parted Glee’s hair.
Mahzeyah smacked her glossy-ass lips. “He needs some kids. The boy got baby fever.”
“I could say the same ’bout you. You pushin’ out a Baby Flexer soon?”
“Tuh! It damn sure won’t be a Baby Cuppacio whenever I do.”
“Shol’ won’t!” Bella chimed in, still on the phone.
“Bruh, pipe down. As long as you don’t have no kids, we gucci. Me, I’m grown.”
Popping my invisible collar, since I was wearing a crew neck, I laughed when Bella waved me off and continued her conversation.
I was certain by the end of it, she would get whatever it was she was proposing to Essex and Missy.
She constantly complained about how much work she did for Essex, yet she was always inserting herself into anything related to his career.
“She’s just so pretty and so little. I love her outfit today, Glee. I love all her outfits.”
We all watched as Mahzeyah held the baby in her lap while making kissy faces at her. Glee’s mom had rolled a bassinet over here since they were here most of the day. It was useless because she’d maybe slept in it once.
“Facts. She be fly. That teal and gray fit she had on… What was that? Wednesday? Hard.”
Mahzeyah cut her eyes at me. “You tryna be funny?”
“Hunh?” Most of the time, I did and said shit on purpose to get under her skin, but this time, I didn’t know what Mahzeyah was talking about.
“I bought that outfit.”
“Yeah?” I nodded. “You did good, ZeyZey.”
My alarm went off on my phone in my pocket.
Instead of removing it, I hit the side button to silence it.
Mahzeyah could have her for now because it was time for me to do what I’d been assigned to do.
When Big Cuz called me up, I was taken aback by his request. After I’d fucked up with Hobo, fucking around with Neltz, I didn’t think my cousins would ever trust me to handle shit ever again until I proved myself.
Getting that call and hearing the exhaustion in his voice, I knew I couldn’t say no.
Jogging down the stairs, I hit the light on the basement wall.
I couldn’t believe Jisei had this spot deserted like this.
She’d left everything in this bitch, down to designer clothes in her closets.
It was girly as hell with all the pink, but the basement was more neutral.
Staying here, even though I knew it was temporary, gave me a sense of how it would feel to live alone.
My spot was going to be the hangout, for sure.
I wouldn’t have it any other way, especially now that we’d set a standard with the townhouse.
Bending at the slot that was toward the bottom of the top half of the door, I slid it open so that I could see inside the room.
I used the one at the bottom to slide her food and other items she needed in, but she’d been quiet today, so I wanted to make sure she was straight.
A few days ago, I put a fan in there since she was sweating like a pig, even with the air being on sixty-eight.
Yesterday, I threw in a heating pad for her cramps to help soothe her since it was recommended that she not take any medicine.
We didn’t want her to swap out one drug for another, and I was learning by the day that this addiction shit was not for the weak.
Solana had been a trooper indeed. She was also a good listener, or at least, I was telling myself that since when I talked to her, she remained quiet most of the time. I knew it was because she was probably in pain, but being alone down here all day was not good. Even my ass knew that.
Seeing Solana was in her normal spot, balled up on the floor beside the bed, I sighed.
The room was covered in clothes, and a few food bags were scattered about.
I joked that she wasn’t the cleanest a few days ago, but I had no room to talk because, shit, I could do better in the cleaning department myself.
“Solana.”
Her lunch was still next to the slot, untouched.
She was eating most days, so that was a good sign, but she’d been going through it the last couple of days.
Alexa had told us it was a mental battle.
The body aches, plus her mind craving something she couldn’t have, was taking a toll on her.
I was watching her deteriorate by the day, and I wanted to take her to a real rehab more days than not.
Solana was pretty, and she was sweet. Watching her go through this was doing something to my own fucking mental.
The twins would hit me with product from time to time to get off so I could keep some money flowing in my pockets.
I sold some of it to my niggas at a wholesale price and hustled the rest. I was making about fifteen hundred a week selling white, which was more than enough for a young nigga with no bills.
Most of the product given was cooked down to crack.
Crack sold for more in the hood and at a quicker pace too.
When I made a sale, I looked at it as a dollar sign.
It was new Js. It was a pair of designer shoes.
It was gambling money. It was some expensive seafood boil.
Not once did I think of whom I was affecting when I sold the drugs.
This side was the fucking ugly side, and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d had a hand in Solana’s addiction even though I knew I truly hadn’t.
“Solana…?”
She didn’t budge. Usually, she would wake up when I came to the door or shoo me away, at the very least.
“Aye, Solana? You good in there?”
Again, she said nothing in response. I tried focusing to see if I could see her breathing, but it was hard as hell looking through this slot with my long limbs.
I wasn’t as tall as my cousins, but I was a little over six feet already.
We tall niggas may have been nice to look at, but we had challenges, too, like bending and shit.
“Solana!”
I was met with silence, and my heart started sputtering.
I didn’t want to call Shio. I’d fucked up with Hobo, and he’d come through, fixing my mess with that. I wanted to prove to my Big Cuz that I could help Solana fight this shit. I’d read through every online article I could find and felt like I’d been doing a damn good job.
“Solana!”
Scanning her balled frame again, the sweatshirt that covered her body looked like it was wet on the sides. Getting completely on my knees so that I could get a better view, I shouted when I saw she wasn’t moving at all.
“Fuck!”
Hopping up, I retrieved the key from my pocket, which I had never used until now.
It took me a few twists and turns to get the key to work, but when it did unlock the latch, I pulled the heavy-ass door open as fast as I could.
It had to have weighed three-hundred pounds as it swung with a heavy, rusted sound before it banged against the wall.
“Fuck! Cuz tryna trap a gorilla in this bitch? Gotdamn!” I mumbled while stepping on top of a sweatshirt and an old thank you plastic bag after that.
“Solana!”