Page 20 of Maceo

“Don’t start,” she said.

“Girl, move.”

I playfully mushed her head while Smoke moved her to the side.

“Get out of my room!” she yelled.

“Who’s this lil’ nigga?” I asked, taking a seat beside the boy sitting on the edge of her bed.

He looked harmless, but you could never tell. I’d guess he was about five feet seven, no more than a buck twenty. He had this whole preppy look to him, and that was Deja’s type.

“This is Ellis,” Deja said, pinching my arm.

“And who is Ellis to you?” Smoke asked.

“My friend. Now get out.”

“Don’t be rude. Introduce us.”

She huffed. “Ellis, these are my brothers, Maceo and Devin. There. Introduced. Can you please get out so we can study?”

“Nah, we just wanna talk,” I said, peering down at the boy. “What’s up, Ellis?”

Much to my surprise, Ellis looked both Smoke and me up and down with a mean mug, before turning to Deja.

“Girl… what’s up with the machismo act?” he asked, waving his fingers at us.

It was his soft, feminine voice and the painted fingernails that finally caught our attention.

Smoke laughed. “Oh, shit. Never mind, lil’ nigga. You safe.”

Ellis kissed his teeth. “Trust me, I don’t want your sister. She’s just a friend. You two would be more my speed. Deja Boo, you didn’t tell me your brothers were so cute.”

I stood. “Yep. It’s time to go. Y’all study hard.”

“I thought you wanted to talk!” Deja called after us.

Her laughter echoed in the background as we left the room and headed back downstairs. When we got to the kitchen, Mama and Alec looked at us with smirks.

“Well,” Alec said, “how was the talk?”

I waved him off as I picked up my bowl. “Y’all could have told us the young man in question had a lil’ sugar in his tank.”

My mother laughed. “That’s what you get for thinking you know more than her parents do. We got this.”

“Nah,” Smoke said. “That was a setup. I almost yoked his ass up for mean mugging me.”

I chuckled. “He might have given you a run for your money. You remember that time Julian mopped the floor with that dude that disrespected him at the bar?”

Julian was Deuce’s bartender. He was a flamboyantly gay man, but the way he whupped that guy’s ass all up and down the bar area, had all of us impressed. If he ever wanted to switch careers, he could join the crew.

Smoke laughed. “I can’t forget that. He turned ol’ boy every way but loose. Deuce was mad as hell about all that wasted liquor.”

“Speaking of Deuce,” my mother interjected, “tell him to bring that baby to see me with her cute self. Since neither ofyou are trying to make me a grandma, I just have to love on his baby.”

Smoke and I rolled our eyes. I didn’t know what it was about mothers that made them start demanding grandchildren once they reached a certain age. I already knew I was gonna be a hating ass daddy, because why was my baby allowed to do shit I got my ass beat for? The kid was going to be spoiled and bad as hell. With my luck, I would get one that acted just like me.

Still, even with that possibility, the thought of a little me and Shar running around had me thinking maybe one wouldn’t hurt.

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