Page 11 of Another Constant

It took B four hours and three big dumb ass contractor bags to remove death from the room. Then, after he was finished, I of course inspected the space and I swear my boy B was worth every penny he charged.

“Have you done this before?” My brother’s voice made me turn around. His newly-soft ass was standing in the doorway of the room.

“Not this, but similar. Tighten up, Oden, Unc would eat your ass for dinner sitting in here acting like you’re finna throw up.”

* * *

Ipicked my niece up from school and headed straight to Sora’s spot. Nine times out of ten he and Blaze were doing some soft ass homebody shit. I judged it, but I honestly understood. For the right person you did a lot of shit you never intended. Sora’s right person was Blaze, which I loved for him, but it didn’t mean I was gonna stop cracking on him about it.

“Uncle, where is my mommy and daddy?” Aja’s little ass asked as we drove to Sora’s spot. We were right up the block.

“What, you can’t chill with your uncle for a bit?” I asked, eyes trained on the road ahead. I wasn’t trying to lie to her or give any sort of answer because I didn’t know what my brother wanted to tell her.

She giggled. “I do, Uncle. But usually my mommy or daddy picks me up from school.”

“Well today it was me. You got a problem with that?” I asked, pulling up in front of my brother’s spot. What I saw put me on alert immediately.

“Stay in the car, Aja.” I hopped out and moved swiftly to the stone path where Blaze stood yelling at somebody.

The closer I got, the more I heard. From what I could hear, ol’ boy was apparently a delivery driver and he had gone into her food.

“The fuck you mean? No, you’re about to call corporate and tell them I caught you going in my fucking food,” her squeaky voice bellowed.

Ol’ boy was just trying to back away from her but he didn’t see me behind him. He didn’t realize until it was too late and I had his ass by the back of his neck.

“Yo, you good, homeboy?” I asked, not about to let him go, because Blaze was pissed and I needed the full scope of the situation. Shit had to be serious because she was out here in socks with a fucking remote in her hand.

“Yeah, yeah I wa?—”

“About to take off running because I caught you going in my food. Trifling ass.” She was livid.

“Blaze, cool out before you have my niece hyped up.” I gave her a stern expression and focused my attention on ol’ boy. “You ate her fucking food, huh?”

“N-no,” he stammered, attempting to get out of my grasp. His five foot two inch frame wasn’t shit for me.

“Nah, ’cause she ain’t got no reason to lie. Empty your fucking pockets.”

“For what? I didn’t put any in there.”

“You right, you didn’t. But you ’bout to pay for what you ate and call them motherfuckers you report to and tell them you ate her fucking food. If you don’t I’ma beat your ass out here.” He didn’t empty his pockets fast enough for me, so with my free hand I went in them. When I had his wallet in my hand, I dropped him to the ground and started going through it. He had a few twenties and an ID. There wasn’t even a driver’s license in there.

“Blaze, this fool doesn’t even have a fucking license. How are you trusting him to deliver your food?”

“That’s why the app said he was on a bike. But that was the app.” She shrugged.

I shook my head because I hated those food delivery apps with a passion. You never knew what somebody did to your food before they got it to you.

“Yeah, Darelle, this shit is taken. Next time play in traffic before you fuck around like this.” I tossed his wallet back at him and handed the twenties to Blaze. She turned and headed back into the house, while I now stood there waiting for him to call corporate and tell them he got caught eating her food. When he finished, I let him go and went to the car to get Aja. She was still engrossed in her phone, so I didn’t worry much about her seeing what I did. If she had, oh well, she was old enough to know her uncle wasn’t playing with the fullest of decks.

Right when I got Aja out of the car, my brother was pulling into his driveway. He met me at the door and nearly snatched lil mama from me. “Damn, mama, your phone is more important than your uncle?”

She giggled while he tickled her belly. “Nooo.”

When we made it into the house, he put her down on the couch while I went to mess with Blaze. Shorty was still steaming from her food. Sora had told me she was serious about her food, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“You good, big homie?” I asked, watching her toss shit around in the kitchen.

“No, because I’m hungry and had your brother gone and gotten me some food, this wouldn’t have happened.”

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