Chapter 18 #3
She hadn’t even flinched at the sound of my yelling.
Looking down at her still body, sweat sprang along my hairline.
Dropping to my knees, I hit the ground in a splat.
She was lying on top of a pool of her own vomit.
The smell was rancid, and I was doing everything I could not to add to the pile of vomit.
Lifting her head, the whole right side was soiled. “Hey! Hey! Solana!”
Tapping her chin, her eyes finally fluttered. Her mouth parted slightly, throw up dripping from the side of her face.
“Solana. Solana! Wake up. Wake up and tell me how you feelin’.”
I could feel myself shaking, but I was trying my hardest to put on a brave front.
My fucking cousins and their damn women were going to be the cause of me catching gray hairs at fucking sixteen.
First, I had to kidnap Discover’s fine ass, and when my niggas and me seen that ass naked, we all had to make like Shio and have a come-to-Jesus moment.
I ain’t never took nothing from a female a day in my life, but that day was the day I was tempted like my motherfucking name was Diddy.
However, I wasn’t no creep-ass nigga. Discover was a dangerous take, and Vello chose to take a risk that my ass would never.
This one? This one was a damsel in distress, and there was nothing dangerous about Solana except that she was trying to croak out on a nigga.
I didn’t want to take shit from Solana. If anything, I wanted to give her ass whatever she needed to beat this shit and live her pretty life outside of this makeshift jail my big cousins had made.
My phone rang in my pocket, and I already had a feeling who it was. Retrieving it with Solana’s wet neck still resting on my arm and knees still planted in her throw up, I slid my thumb across the screen and answered.
“Wassup, Big Cuz?”
Using my shoulder to hold the phone to my ear, I continued tapping her face. She was in and out of it, and I was trying to think what I could do to get her more coherent.
“She… She breathing, right?” Shio’s deep-ass voice boomed into my ear.
“Yeah. She’s breathing… Solana?”
“Hmmm?” Her eyes shut close, and then she clenched her stomach.
I could hear Shio sigh with relief at hearing her voice.
“Solana…” I called out to her again.
“E… Es… Estoy bien… Solo duele… Estoy bien,” she said groggily.
“Hunh?” I asked, not knowing what the hell she was saying, but she was talking so that was good enough for me.
When Big Cuz whispered, “English, baby,” I tuned back in to see what he was talking about.
“Whatchu say, Big Cuz?”
“Have Pearla and Bella help her in the bath and wash her hair… I’ll send somebody to come clean the floor.”
“Or you can come put her in the bath yourself? It’d be good for her to see you, Big Cuz.”
The line grew quiet. I watched as Solana struggled to open her eyes again. She may have been trying to adjust to the light, but either way, I was just happy her ass didn’t die on me.
“Have the girls come help her, Italian.”
Click.
“On God, bruh… My future wife bet not put me through half the shit these mob wives have been doin’ to the Cuppacios. Shit gotta be a curse or sum’n.”
Solana’s body jerked, and I thought she was coughing or about to throw up some more. When it happened again, I prepared myself to be covered in it. When nothing happened, I looked down to see a slight smile on the damsel’s face.
“Italian… We finally meet.”
Solana’s breath smelled of the throw up we were both covered in, but it felt good to see my girl smile. She’d been in this bitch going through it, and taking my ass right along with her.
“I done seen you a few times, but a nigga like me be playin’ the background. So, I guess you can say we finally meetin’.” I took a breath and watched her blink a few more times. “You scared me, yo,” I admitted.
She opened her eyes fully for a brief moment and then closed them again.
Solana reminded me of a doll, and not just any doll, but one of the ones that would be put in an antique shop or something.
Even though she was a powder head, she was the finest one I’d ever seen.
She was a rarity, and so far, the Cuppacio men had gone four-and-oh when it came to bagging the baddest as wives.
Hopefully, us littles, as they called us, got just as lucky but without all the damn baggage.
Jisei, Pia, and Discover had all come with some type of bullshit.
“I hope she does…”
“Hunh?” I asked, trying to understand what she was talking about. It wasn’t in Spanish, so she had to be saying something directly to me.
Solana opened her eyes again. I hadn’t noticed that they were so round and just as dark as her skin until now that I was knee deep in her throw up.
“Chico guapo… Handsome boy. You’re handsome. Too handsome. I hope she puts you… Pasar por mucho… a lot… I’m struggling with translation.”
“So you sayin’ you hope she gives me hell? Damn, I been in here takin’ care of you good. We eat good all day, errday, and you want me strugglin’ when I find my wife.”
As I engaged with Solana, I was texting with my free hand.
Bella hadn’t texted me back, which I figured, since she was on the phone with Essex, and I’d seen Pearla’s phone on the fireplace mantle, so she probably wouldn’t respond fast either.
The next person to text was Mahzeyah. I’d had her number for some time, stealing it from Bella’s phone, but I had never used it.
Aye, put the baby down and come to the basement. Bring Pearla and Bella too.
Mahzeyah
Boy! How you get my number? You know what? Blocked!
Mahzeyah, I’m serious
My last message didn’t send, which meant her mean ass had blocked my number for real.
“That was him, hunh?” Solana’s smile, as slight as it was, fell. Her eyes were back closed again.
“It was.”
“He has a child.”
“Solana, don’t even worry ’bout that right now.
“She’s pretty…”
“I wouldn’t know. Secretive ass hasn’t brought her ‘round the family.”
I didn’t know what the fuck Shio was doing with this secret baby, and he hadn’t even told his mama.
My guess was that he was waiting for a blood test, but shit, them bitches didn’t take long according to some of the homies.
You could even get them shits from and get the results in less than forty-eight hours.
That’s why I wasn’t fucking shit without a rubber.
Shio was playing house with one female while the other was locked away like she’d committed a triple homicide.
She ate well and had a soft bed, but, damn, even prisoners got let out at least once a day.
“She’s pretty,” she repeated.
“Do she look like Shio?” I probed.
I was deadass wrong, but shit, we all wanted to know.
The twins had met her, and so had Ezio and Teo, but there hadn’t been any more conversation about her.
It wasn’t like them niggas would tell me shit anyway.
At this point, I was coming like Neltz. I couldn’t wait till I turned eighteen so they could let me in on some shit.
“No, ella no lo hace. (No, she doesn’t.)”
I grinned. “I don’t know what you just said, but I heard the word no. Y’all females kill me. Petty as hell, even on yo’ death beds.” I kidded.
“Stop calling us females. That is degrading as hell. Do we call y’all negros, males?”
Looking back, Mahzeyah was standing in the doorframe in that little-ass cheer skirt. “Mahzeyah, I told you not to bring the baby down here.”
“Boy—Oh my God!” Mahzeyah ran into the room.
“Aye! Get out of here with her!”
She paused, blinked, and rubbed the baby’s back as she was hoisted on her shoulder. “Don’t yell at me, stupid-ass, lil’ ass boy! Now, is she okay? Hey, ma’am! Are you okay? Did he do something to you? I have my tas—”
“ZeyZey… I ain’t yelling at you, sweetie. But can you please get the baby out of here and grab my cousins so they can help her get in the bathtub?”
Mahzeyah finally looked at me like she had some sense and backed out of the room. She paused at the door, keeping her eyes on Solana, then they snapped at me. “And I told you, stop calling me your hoes name!”
I watched as she stormed off, skirt bouncing and ass poking out. I had to look away. The last thing I needed was for my dick to get hard while I was holding Solana’s head up.
“I didn’t have to hope for it. She’s already giving you hell.” She smiled again.
“That’s just my baby mama, Solana.”
“You have a kid?” she asked, her voice a mixture of concern and pain.
“Sum’n like that. Can you stand?”
It sounded like a stampede coming down the stairs, and I knew the chivalry had arrived. Ironically, Bella was the first to enter, and Pearla right after.
“Ohh, boo boo!” Bella tsked.
“Solana! Are you okay?” Pearla gasped, both coming to her side. “Move, Italian!”
“I’m tryna keep her head up just in case she throws up again… Solana. I’ma help you up.”
Standing, I helped her to her feet, feeling bad as fuck because she winced the entire time. There was a red spot on the back of her shorts, and I’d been with enough women to know what that meant.
“Does she have some tampons in here?” Bella asked as I led her to the bathroom.
Not waiting for a reply, Bella started rummaging through the dresser drawers. Pearla ran ahead and started the water for the bath. Solana was taking baby steps, but it was cool. As long as she was moving, I was fine with helping her do so.
“No… No tampons. No puedo usar esos. (Can’t use those.)”
Bella and Pearla shot each other a look that I couldn’t figure out before Bella sighed and continued to look through the drawers. Not even a second later, she sighed again in relief.
“Okay, here are some pads. Let me find some clean clothes for you, boo boo.”
Once we made it inside the bathroom, I sat Solana on the side of the tub.
“Italian.”
“Wassup, Mexi-Mami?”
“Is… Is Shio well?”