by A'zayler
“BB, really?” Azayna asked him like she couldn’t believe he’d just said that.
“Just being real.” He held his hands up in mock surrender.
“I would leave,” she whined.
“I said you would, I just said you’d want to come back.”
Azayna crossed her arms over her chest preparing to pout. All I could do was laugh at her because BB was right. That was what I’d been thinking about her too.
“What about Pat, Zay?” Zebrina looked at Azayna while rubbing the top of BB’s head. “You don’t think you’ll miss him? Y’all are just now getting the chance to make up for lost time. You wouldn’t want to leave so soon, would you?”
We all sat quietly with me looking up at Azayna. I could tell by the faraway look on her face that she was thinking, and I couldn’t wait to hear what she was going to say.
“I mean, yeah, I’d miss him. Of course, I would, but I love Egypt.” She looked at me and pleaded for some type of understanding. “I want to be with you.” She sniffed, and I tightened my arms around her.
That li’l baby growing in her had her sensitive as hell. “Don’t cry, boo. It’s all good. I know you love me.”
She nodded but kept crying. We all watched her for a few minutes before BB and I both burst out laughing. I was about to say something to Zebrina about Azayna crying, but when I looked up, her ass was crying too. I frowned at BB with my hand in the air. His confused expression was probably the mirror image of mine.
“Breen, come on, don’t do that,” he coaxed while rubbing her back and smirking at me. “What you crying for?”
“Because I know how she feels. I love you, and I wouldn’t want you to think I don’t because I love my parents too.”
“See?” Azayna’s broken voice sounded.
BB and I both laughed like hell. This pregnant woman stuff was going to keep me in stitches. I couldn’t even take either of them serious enough to resume my conversation with a straight face. Luckily, my phone dinged with a message that put my mind back in serious mode.
Pat Crip: It’s set @ 10
I nodded and pecked a reply before Azayna could see it.
Egypt: I’ll be there
After pushing my phone back into my pocket, I went back to my girlfriend, who had stopped crying but was still wiping her face.
“Where would we go?” Azayna questioned.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Where you want to go?”
“To Atlanta with Logan,” she belted out without even having to think about it.
“Damn. For real? Why? You don’t even know her.”
“Because she’s a good choice. She’s sweet, and she’s your family. I think if you spent more time with her, you probably wouldn’t be so cold all the time. You need love, Egypt.”
“I agree,” Zebrina added her li’l input. “You do need love, Egypt. You’re so quiet and mean all the time, your family would probably be exactly what you need.”
I moved around in my seat some, getting defiant. “I got my daddy down here, and that hasn’t helped any.”
“How much are you really around him, though? You never talk to that man or go by to see him, Egypt. One would never even know you had him here.”
I sucked my teeth. “Shid, that’s because that fool is bogus as fuck. He ain’t doing nothing but running women all through that damn church.” I shook my head in disgust. “Nigga ain’t doing nothing but making the Lord look bad with his sinful ass.”
They all laughed at me, but I didn’t find nothing I’d said funny. My daddy was horrible and was going to bust hell wide open. I had enough shit going on in my everyday life. I didn’t need to add him to it. Now, they might have had a point with Logan, but my daddy? Hell nah.
“So, you wouldn’t want to go to Atlanta with Logan?” BB’s voice got my attention.
That was my nigga. I would listen to him. I wasn’t stunting none of the shit them women were saying.
“It’s not that I wouldn’t, I just don’t want to be a burden on her. My sister got her own shit going on. Her li’l nigga, they kids, her friends, and shit. If I went up there, she might feel obligated to add me into her mix, and I really ain’t trying to do her like that.”
“No, she wouldn’t. I talk to her all the time, and she misses you. A lot!”
I looked at Azayna because I had no idea she and my sister talked like that. Neither of them ever mentioned that to me.
“What you mean you talk to her all the time? About what?”
She rolled her eyes and pushed some of her locs over her shoulder. “Everything. Me, the baby, you. All kinds of stuff, but for real, she’d love it if you came.”
I shook my head as my attitude began to rise. I don’t even know why I had one for real other than the fact that I didn’t like them talking about me or even being friends for that matter without including me. What kind of shit was that?
“See, we’ll go up there, and you and she will get all tight and leave me out.” I shook my head. “Nah. What I’ma do if that happens? At least down here, I have BB.”
“Not for long,” Zebrina mumbled without looking at me.
I heard what she said and was about to speak on it, but BB stopped me.
“You’ll always have me. I’m only a phone call away, no matter where I’m at, but I can tell you right now, Dade is about to history for me.”
Now, I was really in a bad mood.
“Like I told you earlier, you have to do what’s best for your family. A new environment might be good for you, Azayna, and the baby. With all this shit going on, you don’t want to raise no baby around here.”
I was listening to him, but I wasn’t about to respond. My mind was flying in a hundred different directions, and nothing that I said right now would be what I really meant. I needed to really think about this stuff.
“Y’all leaving Florida too, BB?” Azayna asked while massaging my scalp.
Apparently, she’d picked up on my change in mood, and I was glad she had. Her touch was what I needed.
“As soon as my wife says the word.”
Zebrina leaned her head against his and hugged his face into her breasts. “Or, my husband does.”
“So, y’all really got this shit planned out?” My attitude was still loud and clear.
BB and Zebrina gave me their attention, her smiling, and him calm as always. He didn’t answer right away, but he eventually leaned forward and nodded.
“Egypt, listen, man, you my li’l homie. More like a brother than anything, but you don’t need me to survive.”
“I—”
He held his hand up to silence me.
“And before you object, I don’t mean that in no disrespectful way. All I’m saying is, whether you notice it or not, you’ve been dependent upon the gang and me since your mom passed. I get that you’re lost our here or that you may even feel alone without Auto. I know how close y’all are, but you got this.” He nodded once. “You’re tough, the fucking toughest, and it’s not because that’s who you have to be, it’s because that’s who you are. You think I fuck with you just because you Blood?” he frowned and shook his head. “Fuck no. I fuck with you because you solid, and I know you love me for real. I don’t worry about shit when you with me or doing shit on my behalf because I know what we mean to each other, and that ain’t on no gay or gang shit. We family. We gon’ forever be family, in life whether we like to admit it or not, we need family. You got me, Breen, Azayna, and your sister and her people. Don’t run from that shit. And most definitely don’t feel like we’re leaving you or not thinking about you because we’re thinking about ourselves. Evolution is necessary.” He made eye contact with me. “Evolve, Egypt. Fucking evolve, blood.”
I felt like a whole bitch as I sat there listening to my boy call me out. He’d hit every single nerve that had been rattled in me all day. From the pain to the confusion, he’d pulled it out of me. Stuff like that was why I kicked it with him the way I did. All the years I’d been learning up un
der him, I’d always considered it to be a respect thing, but clearly, I loved the nigga, and he loved me back.
I was just so accustomed to everybody I loved leaving me that I fought that shit as hard as I could. I’d done it with Azayna and BB too. I figured if I kept everybody at arm’s length that I’d be okay, but I guess all that did was make me angry and withdrawn all the damn time. So, the moment I heard myself sniff, I knew it was time to let that shit out.
“So, you saying even if we move, you’ll keep in contact?”
BB leaned up and held his closed fist out toward me. “Definitely.”
I pressed mine against his and nodded before wiping the water in my eyes. “Aight.”
“Aww, Egypt,” Azayna crooned while hugging all over me. “Now we’re both crybabies.”
Her remark made the heavy mood much lighter as we laughed. I was thankful she’d broken the deepness of my thoughts before I ended up turning into a crying little bitch in front of all my friends.
“Man, fuck all of this. I’ll worry about it when the time comes. For right now, let’s get on these cards.”
I softly pushed Azayna from my lap, so that she could take her seat next to me. Hanging out together made the hours fly by. We’d been on their back porch for so long that we were able to watch the sun set. We’d eaten and talked for so long that I’d unwound drastically without even noticing just how tight I’d been.
“Where you going?” I looked up at Azayna when she stood to go in the house.
“To the bathroom,” she said without looking at me.
I wouldn’t have stared at her so long if she had not just come from the bathroom for one and taken her phone with her for two. She’d been back and forth in the house all day to use the bathroom, and not one time had she taken her phone. I did my best to practice some self-restraint and trust, but I just didn’t have that shit. I was on my feet and following her inside within seconds.
“Uh oh,” I heard Zebrina say before she and BB laughed behind me.
I ain’t have time to check them since I was too far in the house already. When I reached the hallway where the bathroom was, I leaned my head against the door, so I could hear. The water was running, but I could still hear low whispers. I instantly got mad as hell because she was trying to be sneaky, on top of playing me like I was some sort of fool.
The crazy side of me wanted to kick the door off the hinges, but this was BB’s spot, so I wouldn’t. However, that didn’t stop me from twisting the knob and beating on the door. It took her a little too long to open the door, but as soon as she did, I pushed her inside and kicked the door back closed behind us.
Without warning, I snatched her phone and went to her call log. I got even madder when I saw that the last call was Zebrina, and I knew like hell that she hadn’t been talking to her, so that meant one of two things. She had somebody else’s name saved as Zebrina’s, or she’d deleted her last call. Either way, it was going to piss me off, so her best bet was to just tell me what I wanted to know.
“Who you were in here talking to?” I grabbed her arm.
“Nobody.”
I snatched her ass to me fast that she ain’t even have time to think. I leaned down so that I was in her face. I didn’t even bother to ask her again. She’d heard my question the first time. I stared her ass down until she looked away.
“Master.”
“The fuck for?” I roughly grabbed the bottom of her face and made her look at me.
“He’s been texting me all day, just telling me he misses me and he’s sorry about that park incident.”
I was getting hotter by the second. “You had to sneak in here and talk to him?”
“I knew you were going to be mad.”
“Fucking right I was gon’ be mad. You ain’t got no business talking to a nigga you used to fuck unless you still got something going on with him.” I said that part low because my trigger finger was starting to itch. “You still out here fucking?”
“No!” she yelled and snatched away from me.
I grabbed her right back. “Be your ass still.”
“You’re not my daddy, Egypt! You don’t get to just talk to me any kind of way.”
“If you had your stupid ass outside with your man where you were supposed to be, then I wouldn’t have to be your fucking daddy. But, you in here sneaking to talk on the phone, just like a damn child!”
“Whatever,” she mumbled. “It wasn’t like that. I just didn’t want to cause any trouble with you and him. He wouldn’t stop texting, so I called and told him that I accept his apology and to just let me be.”
“You had to come in here to say that?” I yelled.
“Yes, look at you.”
Both of us stood there breathing hard while looking at each other. She was right, I was livid and was about to handle Master’s ass as soon as I got a free minute. She wanted him to let her be, and for there not to be any trouble between us. I had her covered. I owed that muthafucka anyway.
“Get your stuff. We about to go.”
“Why?”
“Just do what I said.” I moved so that she could walk out of the door.
It took her a minute to tear her eyes away from me, but once she did, I leaned over in the sink and put some water on my face. I had some serious issues to handle, and I needed to calm down in order to get it taken care of the right way. I splashed my face a couple more times while I prayed silently then left the bathroom. When I made it outside, she was standing there looking like a sad puppy. I ignored the fuck out of her too.
“Aight, Zebrina.” I hugged her when she stood from BB’s lap. “BB, I’ma call you in a few.”
He dapped me up so Azayna and I could dip. The entire ride to my house was quiet, and I knew it was because I didn’t have anything to say, and she was probably scared to even open her lying mouth. When I finally got to my house, she touched my arm.
“Why do you have to go back out? I want you to stay home with me.” Azayna pouted as I pulled into my driveway.
“I’ll be right back. It’s not gon’ take me long. I just need to run off real quick.” I tried to drop my attitude since she’d dropped hers.
“Egypt, please stay.” Her tone was desperate, and it almost made me wonder if she knew what I was about to do, but how could she? I hadn’t told her.
“Azayna, just go in the house and relax.”
I could tell she wanted to object, but she didn’t. She just nodded and got out. I made sure she was inside before I backed out and pulled off down the street. I’d tried to keep myself from seeing about that nigga Master all day, but I just couldn’t keep my mind off it. He needed to be dealt with accordingly before I could rest well. Thanks to Pat, shit was already in motion. All I had to do was show up.
I’d hit him with a text earlier asking him to have Master meet him somewhere so I could handle his ass. I was shocked as hell when he actually agreed. I’d expected some type of friction, but he’d been game with no questions. Maybe it was for me, or maybe it was Azayna. Either way, he’d come through, and I was grateful. The closer I got to the meeting spot, I cut my lights and drove slower.
I spotted Pat’s truck first before Master’s came into view. Versus driving completely to them, I parked and got out with my Mac drawn and ready to end anything that looked wrong. Even with Pat helping me, I wanted to be sure he wasn’t teaming up with Master against me. I looked around, surveying the scene for a minute before making my presence known.
The parking lot was behind an old abandoned building with two big dumpsters shielding it from view. Glass, empty soda cans, and bits of trash were littered around the ground accompanied by cigarette butts and Black and Mild wrappers. Pat’s black truck, Blue’s car, and Master’s truck were all parked one way or another while they stood beneath the only working street light in the parking lot.
“What’s going on?” I got Master’s attention first because he was the only one not expecting me.
Pat nor Blue moved from their places. Pat w
as leaning against the front of Blue’s car while Blue stood behind the open driver’s door.
I kept my eyes on Master as I walked closer to him. The nigga looked like he’d seen a ghost, and all I could do was smirk. He just didn’t know what I had planned for his ass.
“What you doing out here, Egypt? This ain’t your neck of the woods.” He chuckled nervously, referring to this being Pat’s side of town.
“Yours either.”
He shuffled before looking from me to Pat. Pat was standing directly in front of him, chewing on a toothpick, looking just as unbothered as he always did.
“You invited him?” Master nodded his head toward me.
Pat looked at me like he hadn’t known I was coming then faced Master again. “Yeah, that’s my grandson’s daddy. We all cool and shit.”
If we had been anywhere else, I probably would have laughed at Pat, but right then wasn’t the time or the place to be playing around. That was a funny muthafucka, I was learning that.
“So, what’s up?” I could hear the fear in Master’s voice as he looked from me to my gun.
I had it hanging down by my side, but it would be up and ready to party soon enough. I needed some answers first.
“Aye, Master, so what’s this I hear about you being behind my car getting shot up?”
He looked like he was ready to piss on himself when I took a step closer, closing some of the distance between us. I needed to make sure this nigga felt me. I had absolutely no plans of being out there all night playing games with him. I was still waiting on my answer when footsteps behind me caught all of our attention. My Mac and the gun that Blue was holding immediately pointed in the direction. I frowned and exhaled when I saw BB. I wasn’t expecting him, but the backup was welcomed.
“What you doing out here?” I questioned while turning back to face Master.
I’d moved too fast turning my back on that fool anyway, so I hurried to right that wrong. With BB behind me, there was no need to watch my back, but the rest of these niggas were suspect, and I’d been slipping majorly by forgetting that long enough to turn around. When I looked at Pat, he was chilling, still not looking disturbed, while Blue had lowered his gun but hadn’t put it away.
