by Sephiri J
“I don’t know. I keep to myself for the most part. I’m not the party type, to be honest,” I said. “Plus…” I hesitated.
“Plus, what?” he asked, still staring at me.
“Plus, when I do have free time, I’m usually with my boyfriend.” Might as well get it out now.
Guwop didn’t seem fazed by that at all, though. He shrugged. “Then why the nigga ain’t here?”
I didn’t have an answer for that. “I mean… well… this was something Bo invited me to, so he stayed home.”
“If you was my girl, I wouldn’t want you going nowhere without me beside you. You too damn fine to be out here alone,” he said, and my stomach flipped.
I smiled and looked away.
“See, that shit right there. You got the cutest dimples and everything. When was the last time someone told you that you’re beautiful as fuck?” he asked.
I blushed and looked down at my shoes. It had been a minute. To be honest, I couldn’t remember the last time Greg had told me he loved me or that I was beautiful.
“I can tell you got a good spirit. Real talk, this not even me bullshitting,” he said and leaned close to me so I could hear him clearly. “You got a vibe about you. You real pretty to look at, but I feel a good energy from you. Don’t let no nigga fuck with that. Even if we don’t ever speak again, I want you to remember that shit. You feel me, Sade?”
I nodded. I did, and I knew I didn’t want this to be the last time we saw each other or hung out. Something about him drew me in. I couldn’t explain it.
He pulled away from me and grinned.
“You want another drink?” he asked and pointed to my empty cup on the table.
“Okay,” I said.
He went to pour me one as Bo walked back up to us. She had a look on her face like she was upset.
“What’s the matter?” I asked and reached for her hand.
“I’m fine,” she said and smiled at me, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Bo,” I said, knowing she was on some shit. From the minute I came in, it looked like she was upset about something, and now she had that same look on her face.
“I’ll tell you tomorrow. I really don’t feel like talking about it now,” told me and waved her hands.
“Okay,” I said and left it alone.
“I think I’m actually gonna leave in a minute,” she said then glanced at her phone.
“Oh, okay. I’ll come with you.” I reached down to grab my purse.
Guwop walked back to us with a cup of rum and Coke in his hand.
“What’s up, Bo? Where City at?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you,” she said all icily, and I knew that whatever it was had to do with him.
I turned to Guwop, who was looking at her with the same confused look I had a second ago. “I’m about to head out,” I said, and his face fell.
“No, babe, you stay,” Bo interrupted me.
I looked back at her like she was crazy. “I’m not letting you leave by yourself.”
“It’s fine, I promise. I already called the Uber,” she said while holding her phone up. “You’re having fun. You deserve a night out, and G will take care of you. I promise. Call me tomorrow, okay? We’ll talk.”
I hesitated.
“Sade. Trust me. I’m good. Stay, okay?” she said again.
“Okay,” I said and nodded.
I was worried about my friend, but I did want to stay with Guwop for a little while longer.
She leaned down and kissed me on the cheek before she turned to leave. Turning back to Guwop, I took the cup from his hand and sipped from it as the music blasted through the whole club. For the next forty minutes, we danced until my feet started hurting. Two more drinks later, I was tipsy and exhausted.
“How late you trying to stay?” I asked while leaning up to him.
“Whenever you ready, I can drop you home. I ain’t see City again, and I don’t know where the nigga went. So, I’m ready to leave whenever,” he said.
I nodded. I was done too.
We walked out of VIP and out of the club. A few people stopped Guwop on the way out to say what’s up, and I waited patiently until we made it outside. Five minutes later, after, valet got his Panamera, we were driving down the street on the way to Greg’s house. For a second, I thought about how it would look if Greg saw me stepping out of Guwop’s car, but I pushed the thought out of my mind. Greg was sleeping, and it was innocent.
Guwop told me that he grew up in Miami and that he owned a couple repair shops around the city. I told him about growing up in Atlanta and how it was just my dad and me. It was comfortable talking to him; I felt like we could talk for hours and it seem like only a couple minutes.
Twenty minutes later, we pulled up to the house. Greg’s car was in the driveway, and there was a car I didn’t recognize parked beside his. I frowned for a second. Sometimes Greg’s friends would stay the night if they’d been out and didn’t want to drive home, so I figured it was one of them sleeping off some drinks.
“Thanks for taking me home,” I turned to Guwop and said.
“Not a problem. I’m trying to see you again, though,” he said, and my stomach did a flip.
“Um…” I hesitantly said.
“We can be on some friendship shit. I promise. I’m just tryna get to know you. When you realize I’m where you need to be, we can see what happens,” he told me.
I laughed. “Okay, give me your number. I’ll text you,” I said and pulled out my phone.
He recited his number, and I saved it. “Got it.”
After hopping out of his car, I walked up to the front door and unlocked it. Turning, I waved at Guwop, who drove off. As I turned to step inside, I heard someone say my name.
“Sade,” a female voice said from behind me.
I turned to look, and the driver door of the strange car popped open. A frown appeared when I saw Summer, Greg’s baby mother, get out the car. I closed the front door and turned around as she walked up.
“What are you doing sitting in my driveway at 2:00 in the morning?” I asked and crossed my arms in front of my chest.
“Is Greg home?” she asked, ignoring my question.
“What is it to you? Are you going to answer my question?”
“I need to talk to him. I’ve been calling him all day, and he’s not picking up. This is important,” she said, looking all agitated.
“What the fuck is so important that it couldn’t wait until morning? You need to go home, Summer. When he’s up, I’ll tell him you stopped by,” I said and turned my back on her to open the door.
“No, I’m coming in to tell him myself. I deserve to be here. This is bullshit,” she snapped.
I turned to her, all the way angry now. I was tired and tipsy, and this bitch was getting on my last nerve. I was over her and her antics.
“Deserve? Why? Because you popped out a kid for him? He doesn’t want you, and this isn’t an emergency. Is Brandon in the hospital? No, because you would be there instead of on my doorstep looking a damn fool. Leave and go the fuck home because you not about to come into the house where I lay my head at 2:00 in the morning.”
“I can be here if I want to, Sade. This is Greg’s house, not yours,” she said a little too smugly for my liking. But her next words made ice run all the way through my body. “Greg and I are having another baby, and I’m three months along. So, I’m coming into his house whether you like it or not.”
1
City
I drove like a bat out of hell to Miami Regional Hospital as my pops’ friend, Mariah, cried in my ear over the phone. My heart raced as I honked the horn so these motherfuckers driving slow like molasses in front of me could get the fuck out my way.
“Speak, Mariah!” I barked into the phone as she sobbed uncontrollably.
“It’s bad, City. They won’t tell me anything,” she said in her thick, Spanish accent.
“Shit,” I said as I made a h
ard right, causing my tires to squeal.
Maria was a bitch who my pops fucked with off and on. She came by the crib and cooked and cleaned for him, I guess she was the closest thing to a girlfriend Pops had since he left Rigs’ mom. But when she called me in the club crying hysterically talkin’ about how there was an accident at the house and Pops was unconscious, I didn’t know what to think. She was switching between Spanish and English, and I couldn’t understand shit she was saying.
All I could make out was that they had taken him to Miami Regional, and she said something about car tire tracks in the front yard. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but all I knew was I needed to get my ass to that hospital to find out.
Five minutes later, I pulled up to the emergency room entrance. I stopped my car right out front; I didn’t give a fuck. They could tow that bitch. Running inside, I went straight toward the nurse behind the desk.
“My father, Michael Bailey, came in here tonight. What room is he in?” I asked.
The nurse looked up at me and put her index finger up while she had a phone pressed to her ear. I felt the rage bubbling up inside me, and I was just about to reach over the desk and grab her phone out her hand when I heard someone say my name.
“City?” a female voice said.
When I turned, I saw Monica, the nurse I messed with, walking down the hallway in her scrubs.
“Ay,” I said as she walked up to me with all smiles. “Help me out real quick,” I told her once she reached me.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“They let anybody work in this bitch? The fuck she on her phone for when she got a job she supposed to be doin’?” I said and looked back at the girl who had now put her phone down.
“Can I help you sir?” she had the nerve to say to me.
I sucked my teeth and looked back at Monica. “My pops came in a little while ago. Tell me which room he’s in cuz I need to go see what the fuck is going on,” I said to Monica.
“Of course,” she said and walked around to another set of computers on the far side of the desk.
I followed her instead of laying into the other nurse who had me on ignore a few seconds ago because I wasn’t trying to get thrown out this hospital before I found out what was going on with my father.
“He’s in room 379. You will have to go up two floors then down the hall on the right,” she said.
Soon as she said that, I turned and sprinted toward the elevators. A couple minutes later, I walked up to room 379. Mariah was sitting outside the room with her head in her hands.
“Mariah…”
She raised her head and looked at me through tear stained eyes.
“City…”
She stood and reached out to hug me then fell into my arms crying again.
“Shit,” I said impatiently. I knew she was upset, but I needed to know what the fuck was going on.
“What they doin’ in there?” I asked and walked over to the door.
“The doctor is inside with cop. They said I should wait outside,” she said, wringing her hands.
“Cops?” I asked as my heart started to race. What the fuck?
I went to the door anyway and pushed it open. Two doctors in white coats were inside along with a police officer. They all turned to look at me when I opened the door. Behind them, I saw Pops lying in the hospital bed hooked up to machines. He had bandages over his face, and his arm was in a cast. His eyes were closed, and my stomach dipped.
“That’s my father. What happened?” I asked as I stepped into the room.
“Sir, we need you to wait outside for a minute so we can finish up in here,” one of the doctors said to me with an attitude.
I felt myself getting angry.
“Nah, I’m not sitting outside. Nobody is sayin’ anything to me about what happened, and I need to know. What’s wrong with him?” I snapped.
I’d had it with these rude ass people at this hospital. Between this doctor and the useless nurse downstairs, I was feelin’ just about ready to tear this whole bitch up.
“Step over here with me for a second,” the cop said and walked to the other side of the room.
I walked with him and mugged the doctor who talked to me crazy.
“Your father was involved in a hit and run tonight,” he said to me, and my eyes got wide. “We have reason to believe it was not an accident.”
“Hold up,” I said and took a step back then pinched the bridge of my nose. “What you mean a hit and run? Mariah, his girl, said he had an accident at home.”
“Yes, it was at home,” the officer said with a stern look on his face. “It appears to have happened in the front yard of his house. From what I have been able to gather from my colleague who is at the house now and your father’s friend outside, someone set the alarm off on his car. And when he went out to the driveway to check on it, they barreled down on him in a truck, knocking him down and pinning him against a tree in the front yard. The lady outside said when she came out, the vehicle was driving away, and your father was badly hurt.”
I listened to all this in shock as the cop explained what happened to Pops. I shook my head in disbelief.
“You sayin’ somebody purposely tried to kill my father?” I asked incredulously.
“It appears that way,” he said. “There are deep tire marks in the front yard grass from the car’s acceleration, and no brake or skid marks. Whoever hit him wanted to do so on purpose.”
“So, who the fuck did it?” I asked impatiently.
“We’re trying to find that out right now,” he said.
My mind raced. If someone was trying to get at Pops, there had to be a reason. Pops was the chillest motherfucker in life, so this whole situation just seemed to come out of left field. He’d been in some illegal shit back in the day, but years had passed since he had been caught up in that. For years, he’d been laying low, counting his money, and living his life. I had no idea who would have this much animosity toward him to try to take his life, especially now. I knew he had hidden cameras outside the house, though, so I planned to go over there and see what I could find out.
I turned back to look at him in the bed. He looked battered and bruised, and I felt anger inside me that I hadn’t felt before. This was my blood and the best man I knew. I wasn’t ready to lose him, and seeing him like that, I didn’t know what to do.
I walked over to the other doctor who was scribbling on a notepad.
“What’s his condition?” I asked while looking back at my dad.
She sighed then put down the pen. “He has a concussion, so we had to put him under to monitor the swelling in his head, a few fractured ribs, broken right radius—that’s the bone in his arm—and bruising to his legs.”
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked, feeling myself getting emotional.
This was some bullshit.
“We don’t know. I have to be honest with you. The concussion is alarming to me, but he will stay under for a few days. We should know more once we are able to wake him up,” she explained.
She looked at me, and I knew she felt bad, but I shook my head and grinded my teeth.
“Thanks,” I said as I walked up to the side of his bed.
I leaned down and pressed my forehead against his. The sound of the machines beeping was the only noise in the room, and I felt the slow rise and fall of his body as he breathed in and out.
“I’ma find out,” I said real low, so no one else in the room could hear me. I just hoped he could hear me through all the drugs they had used to sedate him.
When I walked out of the room, Mariah stood with wide eyes as I came back over to her.
“Mariah, did you see the car that hit my father when you were at the house?” I impatiently asked her.
“It was a black truck, but I don’t know what type or the license plate,” she said as she pulled on her fingers.
“City.” I heard my name again, and I turned impatiently. Monica was walking up to me from down the hall. �
��Is your father okay? I saw the records say he was in a hit and run?”
“We gotta wait to find out,” I said and turned back to Mariah. She looked a mess, and I knew she wouldn’t be any more help. “I’m leaving, but stay with Pops tonight. I’ll call you,” I said, and she nodded quickly.
Turning, I headed back toward the elevators, but I heard Monica rushing behind me to catch up. She got on the elevator with me.
“I’m so sorry this happened to him. Is there anything you need me to do?” she asked then reached out and put her hand on my arm.
“Monica, chill, man,” I said and shrugged her off of me. “Why you gotta pick the worst time to want to be up in my face? My pops is in a hospital bed, but you ready to suck dick like that’s what I need. The fuck, man?”
She looked like I slapped her in the face as she stepped back and folded her arms. The elevator doors opened five seconds later, and I stepped out. Luckily, my car was still outside the hospital doors. I guess they didn’t get around to towing it yet. Jumping in, I rushed over to my father’s house to see what I could find.
Twenty Minutes Later
The sight of the tire tracks on his driveway and in the grass of the front yard made my stomach turn. It was obvious that whoever did this had been chillin’ on the other side of the road, and when my father came out to check on his car, they drove straight toward him like a fucking psycho. The cops were leaving as I pulled up, and one of them gave me their card for if I had any information to share. They could keep that. I was ’bout to do what I needed to do to find this shit out for myself.
Going inside, I glanced at my phone to see if Mariah had called me with any news. I saw that I had a missed call from Guwop and a couple texts.
Guwop: Nigaa where you at?
I would have to get back at him later to tell him this shit that went down. My mind was not in a good place at all. I kept thinking about losing my father, and the shit was messing with me. I was a private ass nigga, but Pops was like my best friend. This shit was a lot. I had a text from Bo too, and I glanced at it before I put up my phone.
