Page 1 of Another Constant

Chapter1

Kinga West

“You can be in the streets and not be in the streets. Just because that is how you make your money doesn’t mean it has to consume you. You can just be you and someone will love you for just that.”

“Tete, c’mon. You know I ain’t out here looking for love. That shit can miss me.” I sucked my teeth, looking everywhere but at the old woman. She hated when I cursed and wouldn’t hesitate to hand me my ass for it.

“Everybody is looking for love, Kinga… everybody. Even the toughest man hiding behind his words and venom is looking for somebody to love him constantly… You’re just denying it. That’s fine for only so long. When the time comes don’t be big headed and let it pass you. Let it be everlasting and infinite. Let it be constant.. like what me and your uncle had.” She smiled, looking at the picture of him on her mantle. Sudden death halted their constant.

They said you found what you needed when you weren’t looking for it. What was messed up was I didn’t need a damn thing from a soul. Shit, at least that’s what I thought. Matter of fact, that was what I’d told myself for most of my life. I had everything I needed, and what I didn’t need, I didn’t have.

I was under my favorite oldie, checking the brakes. I heard a loud knocking sound when I was riding through the blocks earlier and I didn’t like that at all.

Some shit by Jeezy boomed around me while I rapped with the chorus. He was all I listened to, so I never knew the exact name of a song, but I knew the lyrics. When my money was good, I spent more time in the garage working on my cars than out on the streets protecting a façade. This was what brought me peace, rather than crashing out and acting up in these streets. The only time I was really with that heat was when people came out of their necks. If it wasn’t the cars, then I was in the kitchen. Nah, I wasn’t one of those big niggas or even a soft one. I just baked when I felt myself about to go there.

“How come every time I come in here you under one of these fucking cars?” Sora asked, all in my damn business as usual.

“Because it’s a job, you know? We can’t all be out here racing anything with a motor.”

My brother laughed. “Don’t be mad I beat you in the seven block.”

I chortled, then rolled from under the car. When I sat up, I peeped him leaned under the hood, looking things over like he knew what was what. “You keep telling yourself that.”

I was on my feet in seconds, moving toward my tool chest. I still had yet to find out what had my baby knocking and that annoyed me.

“What’s the problem, Kinga?”

“What do you mean?” I turned and glared in his direction.

“It’s always something with this fucking car. What got you about to go home and bake a cake now?”

I flipped him off. He always had jokes but wouldn’t hesitate to come through and go in my fridge or under my cake plate.

He chortled. “You're right about that. But what’s the problem now though?”

“Knocking near the brakes. Where are you coming from?”

“The house. You know Blaze been tryna keep me cooped up with her high risk ass.” He shook his head, seeming convincing. However, I knew how he and B were, so I knew for a fact it was him. He was always trying to be in her skin.

“Yeah, I hear what you’re saying. How is the baby?”

“She's good.” He smiled, bringing a smile to my face as well. He was about to be a father in less than three months.

“You ready?”

“Hell nah, but I will be. You talked to Oden?” He was talking about our oldest brother, the only person I knew who could go missing like Nine but live in the same city. He was a loner, but had been that way since we were kids, so we never took offense to it.

I was about to respond to him when I heard yelling in the distance. A female voice if I wasn’t mistaken.

“Hell nah, you’re not about to tell me to shut up or keep it down. I have called this fucking shop five fucking times, and nobody could call me back, so if I come in this bitch yelling, that’s on y’all.” She sounded like she was crashing and the last thing I needed was for my spot to be hot.

Sora laughed. “Looks like you got some heat out there, huh?”

“Nah, some heat got me. Whoever is out there doesn't want this shit. Big Jay better handle that.”

Of course Sora’s stupid ass laughed. Everything was a joke for him, maybe not everything because when Blaze told him she was pregnant, I damn near admitted him. Especially because at first shorty was giving him every excuse in the world why she wasn’t looking to move back to Chicago. She eventually moved and he got his head back after walking around for months without it.

“No, I will not calm down. I had to pay to get a fucking boot removed, and somebody in here is going to reimburse me.”

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