I Choose You: Hood Love at Its Finest

by Diamond Johnson

  After Otis left, I went inside the bathroom to take a quick shower before I got in the bed. Ten minutes later, I was out and walking inside my bedroom to throw on my pajamas. Once I got comfortable in my bed I called Ka’lani. It was after 12:00 a.m. so I was pretty sure she was asleep. I didn’t care though. I was still going to call and let her know how my night went with Otis.

  “Yes Tisha!” Lani answered the phone sounding dead sleep.

  “Wake up and put Kyla and Tamika on the three way,” I said anxiously. This is something the girls and I would do on a daily basis. Since we were in middle school together, we would always get on the phone and talk on three way whenever we had some good news to tell each other.

  “Really Tisha? Hold on, damn!” she grunted into the phone.

  “Lani it is after midnight. What do you want?” that was smart mouth ass Kyla on the phone.

  “Yeah bitch, what you want?” chimed in Tamika.

  “First off, y’all bitches stop talking to me like that. Tisha told me to call y’all. I guess she has something to tell us,” Lani told them, sounding heated. One thing about Lani, she did not like being awakened out of her sleep. That girl can be the fuckin’ devil when she’s sleepy.

  “Hey ladies,” I finally spoke into the phone.

  “What’s up Tisha?” Tamika and Kyla responded.

  “Guess who I just went on a date with? And Lani don’t say anything!” I told her because she was the only one who knew that I was going out with Otis tonight.

  “Who?” they both asked.

  “Just guessssss,” I said, wanting them to guess it instead of me just telling them.

  “Better not have been Mike’s sorry ass,” Tamika said, trying to be funny.

  “No bitch, don’t even insult me like that!” I told her, getting upset. Ain’t no way in hell I would ever get back with Mike’s ol’ sorry ass. Fuckin’ clown!

  “Okay then ho, we don’t know, so who is it?” Kyla said.

  “I went out with Otis,” I told them, smiling.

  “Fine Otis? Tyrone’s boy? The one who been trying to get with you for a year now?” asked Tamika.

  “Yes him, that’s my baby now,” I told my girls.

  “Aww Tisha I’m so happy for you.” That was Lani’s extra emotional ass.

  “Yeah Tisha, that’s good. So how was the date?” asked Tamika.

  “Girl that nigga is a trip,” I told them. “We not even official yet but I was already handing his ass out some rules, you know, to make it feel like I was running shit. I told that nigga he better get his hos in check and tell him that wifey doesn’t like to share.”

  Laughing, Lani asked, “And what did he say?”

  “He said okay, then he gave my ass some rules too. He told me to delete any nigga’s number saved in my phone. He said I can’t be wearing those little ass shorts that I like to wear either, unless I’m with him. Y’all that nigga is a trip,” I told my girls.

  “Damn he said all that?” Tamika asked.

  “Yep he sure did. Hold on y’all, somebody is on my other line” I said, clicking over.

  “Hello?” I answered once I clicked over.

  “Alright baby, I’m home. You can go to sleep now,” Otis said.

  “Alright, I was just on the phone with the girls. I’m going to go to sleep in a few minutes.

  “Alright Tisha, baby I just want you to know that it’s all about you. I don’t want nobody else but you. I’m going to talk to you tomorrow. Tell your girls you’ll talk to them later too!” he told me.

  “Alright Otis, goodnight,” I said, smiling.

  “Goodnight li’l mama.”

  “Speaking of my man,” I said to my girls as I clicked back over to them. “I’m getting tired so I’ll see you guys tomorrow at the shop. Love you.”

  “Otis’ ass must have called and told you to get your ass off the phone, huh?’ Tamika asked and everybody started laughing at her stupid ass.

  “Whatever ho, I’ll see y’all tomorrow, now bye!” I said, hanging up this time.

  It’s been two months since Otis and been talking. I decided to go ahead and make things official with him. I mean, why not? He was the perfect boyfriend. This man was everything and more to me. So far, things between us have been great. There’s been no hos calling him, at least that’s the case whenever I’m around him. I know it’s kind of soon but I love that nigga. He treats me like a true queen. He makes sure I don’t want for anything. He always treats me with respect and he listens to me when I tell him stories about my past.

  “Good morning baby,” I said to O when I woke up beside him in his bed. He was still asleep so I got on top of him to straddle him. No we weren’t having sex yet but I would spend the night with him occasionally. Don’t get me wrong, a bitch was dying to give it up but I wanted to hold out a little bit longer. Otis’ ass doesn’t make the shit any easier though. I almost slipped last night and gave him some when he came inside the bathroom with me while I was taking a shower, but I held my ground.

  “Come on now Tisha, let me sleep baby,” he said groggily

  “Baby wake up! It’s Saturday and I want to go to the mall,” I pouted.

  After a few seconds he looked at me and said,” I got your ass too spoiled.” I smiled knowing that he was gonna get up so we could go shopping.

  After jumping out of the shower I came in the room to find Otis in his closet looking for something to wear. He pulled out his red Polo shirt, a pair of dark blue Levi Jeans, and his new pair of Nike Air Maxes. Usually I don’t wear sneakers; it’s always heels or sandals, but today I wanted to try something different. A few weeks ago, O bought me the same pair of Nike Air Maxes that he was about to put on so I decided I would wear mine too. I wanted to dress like my baby today.

  I got dressed in my dark blue True Religion jeans that looked painted on, with a red True Religion shirt to match with the Nike shoes. I parted my hair down the middle, leaving it flowing down my back, with a red and black Bulls hat to match. I was looking good as hell. I knew when Otis came out the shower he was gon’ be talking hella shit since I copied what he had on.

  “Really Tisha?” he said laughing.

  “What?” I asked him, playing stupid.

  “You wanted to dress like daddy today?” he asked me as he started getting dressed.

  “No,” I lied, “I was already planning to wear this.”

  “Yeah okay,” he said, walking over to where I was sitting on the bed waiting for him to finish getting ready. Ten minutes later we were pulling out of his driveway headed to Bal Harbour out in Miami.

  When we arrived, it took us forever to find a place to park so we eventually just did valet parking.

  “Tisha what you plan on getting today? Between all those damn shoes, clothes, and purses you have at my crib and your crib I don’t see what the hell else you need,” Otis said, laughing at my shopaholic ass.

  “Baby I just want to look around,” I said, lying through my teeth.”

  “Tisha we been together for two months now. Your ass ain’t never come to the mall to just look,” he said, catching me in my lie.

  “Alright baby, well I just want to get a few things,” I said, kissing him.

  Two and a half hours later we were finally headed back to the car. I believe I had the whole damn mall in my hands. I was carrying shopping bags from Prada, Chanel, Jimmy Choo, and Versace. Otis’ ass talked all that shit and he walked out the mall with more shit than me. He had bags from Ralph Lauren, Versace, Gucci, and a new pair of Louboutin sneakers.

  “You hungry baby?” he asked once we got in the car.

  “Yes baby, let’s go to Red Lobster,” I said, reclining my seat so I could take a quick nap because we had a li’l way to go before we got there.

  “Tisha baby get up. We here now,” Otis said, shaking my arm a little.

  “And wipe that slob from the side of your mouth,” he said, trying to be funny.

  “Shut up nigga! I don’t have no slob,” I said, embarr
assed.

  “I’m just messing with you baby. Now give me a kiss!” he demanded.

  I faced him and gave him a long sweet kiss.

  “Alright let’s go,” I said, because I was starving.

  Right when we walked inside, we were seated. I decided to have the half portion of the shrimp Alfredo and Otis had the wood-grilled salmon and jumbo lump crab. After waiting for ten minutes, our food came and I dug straight in. Five minutes later, I was full already.

  “Baby you do this shit all the time,” Otis said. “You call me while you working saying ‘O baby, bring me something to eat, I’m starving,’” he said, mocking me. “And yo ass don’t never finish shit,” he said, cracking up.

  I flipped him off because he was indeed right. Since I can remember, I never finished all of my food. After Otis paid the tab and left the tip and I took my food to go, we were headed out the restaurant hand in hand.

  “Otis!” some ho screamed, getting out of her car.

  “Who is this bitch?” she asked, referring to me.

  I had to do a double take because I knew damn well she wasn’t talking about me. Where I’m from, words like “bitch” are fighting words. So, unless this ho wanted to fight I suggested she watched her mouth!

  “Who you calling a bitch?” I asked, letting go of Otis’ hand now.

  He grabbed me around my waist and put me so I was standing behind him.

  “Marshae watch how the fuck you refer to my woman!” Otis said, getting all in her face. This bitch had the nerve to try and get around him so that she could hit me. I wanted so bad to get from behind Otis but the way he was holding me in place, it was damn near impossible to do so. As he was holding me, I called this girl everything except for a child of God. I somehow managed to remove Otis’ fingers from around my wrists and when I did, I went to work on that ho. I punched her ass right in the mouth. I don’t know how my little ass did it, but I managed to flip her ass on that ground. I started stomping her ass in the face and stomach.

  Eventually Otis pulled me off this ho and I spit right in her face.

  “Who’s the bitch now?” I yelled at her as Otis carried me to the car.

  Once we got in the car, I was so mad. I had a small scratch above my eyebrow from when the bitch was scratching me in the face, but that was it. That ho had the nerve to try and pull my damn hair out. Wrong bitch, because ain’t no tracks to pull out. This is all me.

  “Who was that ho Otis?” I asked once I calmed down.

  “Nobody bae, just some ho I used to mess with,” he said, sounding so nonchalant about the situation.

  “Used to? How long ago?” I was beyond pissed now.

  “She was way before you I swear,” he told me trying to plead his case.

  “Well I don’t believe you!” I told him.

  “Tisha baby, since me and you been together I been with you every damn day. When do I even have the fuckin’ time to cheat? I just told you that I use to mess with her and that was a long time ago. We wasn’t even in a relationship yet, so why the fuck you trippin’?” He had the audacity to sound mad. For the rest of the ride home, I didn’t say shit to his ass.

  When we pulled up to his house, I got out the car and slammed the door as hard as I could. I literally tried to break his shit. When I got to the front door, Otis came behind me, threw me back against the door and said,” Tisha calm yo li’l ass down! I done told your ass what’s up with her already. I haven’t seen that girl in months now!” he barked at me.

  I looked at him, just trying to see if I believed his ass or not. Suddenly, I started crying. I was scared. Scared of getting my heart broken again. I didn’t want to go through the same thing with Otis that I went through with Mike for so many years.

  Otis started wiping my tears away, saying “What you crying for baby?”

  “Because,” I said, not being able to control all the crying I was doing.

  “Because what?” he asked, kissing my cheek.

  “I’m scared of getting my heart broke. Look how you got me acting out here. I’m too old to be out here fighting in these streets. I told you when we first got to together to control your bitches and that I don’t like to share!” I said, finally getting myself together. I swear I felt like a weak ass bitch, standing here crying over this man.

  “Alright, Tisha I apologize for what happened, but like I said, I haven’t messed with that girl since I got with you. I love you girl and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize what we got,” he said, pulling me in for a hug. I was smiling so hard because this was the first time that he told me he loved me. I mean I knew I loved him but honestly I didn’t think the feeling was mutual with him. I knew he had a strong like towards me but I didn’t take it as him being in love with me.

  “Aww baby, I love you too,” I told him, kissing him on the lips.

  “Alright baby, I’m about to go over to Ty’s crib for a little bit. Wait up for me because I won’t be gone long,” he told me.

  “Alright bae, drive safe,” I said, not really wanting him to leave me but I didn’t want to come off as too clingy.

  “I will,” he said before slapping me real hard on the ass.

  “Ouch, that shit hurts,” I whined. I hated when he did that shit.

  “That was for slamming my damn door like that. Now go in the house. I’ll be back,” he instructed me.

  Chapter 12: Otis

  Before heading over to Ty and Lani’s crib, I wanted to stop by the tattoo shop to get something done. I wanted to tat my girl’s name. I really felt like she was the one for me. I’d been wanting her ass for the longest and now that I had her, I was willing to do any and everything to keep her. That shit that Marshae pulled earlier at Red Lobster was uncalled for. I’m going to check her ass about that shit on a later date though. Right now I had shit to handle.

  Marshae was some bitch that I at my club a few years back. We weren’t exclusive or anything and I never gave her any clues to ever think that she was my girl. So, I couldn’t understand why she decided to show her ass today in public. I cut her ass off because she would call me every damn day asking for my whereabouts like she was my woman and always begging me to come over to her house. I eventually changed my number and we haven’t been in contact ever since. Seeing her in the parking lot of Red Lobster was the first time that I’d seen her in a while. When she called Tisha a bitch, I knew my girl was gonna fuck her ass up then.

  Originally, I had Tisha behind me because what dude wants their girl out in the streets fighting? Then for some reason I loosened my grip on her wrist and she got out. I stood there for about five minutes and watched my girl beat the shit out of Marshae. When I felt like she beat her ass enough, that’s when I pulled Tisha off of her. That would be the last time I allow Tisha’s ass to fight. I just let her do that because Marshae started talking a whole bunch of shit and I didn’t want her to think for one second that my girl was soft.

  I pulled up to this tattoo shop out in Miramar called Designs. I went to them for every single last tattoo that I had on my body. My man Joe owned the shop. Joe was a white boy but he had a black dad, so the nigga was ghetto as hell. He reminded me of the old rapper Paul Wall. He had the golds in his mouth like him too.

  “What’s up O?” Joe asked me as soon as I stepped in the shop.

  “What’s up nigga?” I asked, giving him dap.

  “Nothing much. What brings you out here man? Yo ass finally want to get that half a sleeve done?”

  “Nah man, I came to get the Mrs. name tatted on me today,” I told him.

  “The Mrs.? Nigga yo ass finally settled down. She must be a baaaad bitch to make you wanna tat her name,” Joe said.

  “Yeah she bad man, but don’t call my lady no bitch again,” I told him, dead serious.

  “Alright O, I’m just playing with you. So where you want it at?” he asked, leading me into the back room.

  “Right here,” I said, pointing at my neck. I want it to say “Tisha.”

  “Alright man,
just give me a minute to draw it out then I’ll start.

  “Alright.”

  In the meantime, I sent Tisha’s ass a text to see what she was doing. Knowing her, her ass was about to take a damn nap after all that damn shopping she did today.

  Me: Baby wyd?

  Queen: About to take a nap. If I’m not up when you get back, just wake me up. Don’t let me sleep without taking my shower. I love you.

  Me: Alright bae, I love you too.

  Ten minutes later, Joe came back inside the room with the sketch. It was real nice. I knew I was going to love it and my girl would love it too.

  After 45 minutes, I was finally done and that shit was nice as hell. It wasn’t too big that it took up my whole neck but the shit was big enough for anybody to see it. I knew Tisha’s ass was going to go crazy when she saw the shit too.

  “Damn Joe, this shit is hard. Thanks bruh,” I said, standing up to look at it.

  “No problem man, anytime,” he told me.

  After paying for my tat, I was on my way to Ty’s house. I knew that Tisha was going to be happy when she saw her name on my neck. Tisha got this habit of kissing on my neck and leaving big ass hickies in the process. I feel like she do that shit on purpose too. My baby be marking her territory. Now that I got the tat there, the hos will definitely know that I got somebody.

  Fifteen minutes later, I was pulling up to Ty’s house. I jumped out the car and walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. Lani came to the door with the phone glued to her ear. I’m pretty sure she was talking to either Kyla or Tamika because I knew for a fact that my girl was asleep.

  “What’s up Lani?” I asked, giving her a brotherly hug.

  “Ain’t shit. I see you got a new tattoo. What you got?” she asked, noticing the wrap that I had on my neck so it wouldn’t get messed up.

  “It says Tisha,” I told her nonchalantly, walking inside of the house.

  She came and walked in front of me and looked at me like I was crazy. “Nigga stop lying. What it say for real?”

  “I just told you,” I said, removing the wrap from off my neck. It was time to take it off anyways. Joe told me I could take it off in the next twenty minutes.