Page 41 of Falling Into Gravity

She tilted her head, studying him like he was art. “Fear.” The word came like it had been sitting on the tip of her tongue begging to be free.

He shook his head. “I ain’t scared of shit.”

“Says the nigga that’s scared of the best thing life has to offer…Love. Yourealscared of that. Maybe you been hurt like me, but my shit bruised my ego more than anything. Did I love him? Enough to see something with him. Now that I’m free—allowing my inner thoughts to simmer—the truth is, I never saw him in my forever future.”

Malik hung on to her every word. Even with the slur, Aku spoke like her words were scripture. He leaned in, fingers dying to connect with her smooth brown skin. “But you see all that with me?” There was no bravado in his voice now. Just that soft ache people carried when they hope for something they don’t believe they deserve.

Aku looked around the room before her eyes found his again. “I really don’t know.” Her shoulders sagged. “I might just be love drunk or love blind.”

Malik swallowed hard. Her words dropped like confessions into the cracks of the room. “What does that even mean?”

The corner of her lips curved. “The hell if I know. I’m drunk and horny.” They both laughed. “Smoke one with me,” she threw out.

“I don’t smoke,” Malik’s eyes bounced around. “But I got some pre-rolls.”

Her head angled, her finger gripped his chin, staring into his red eyes. “You don’t smoke? One, you’re the weed man. And two, your eyes red—you’re high, Malik. What you lying for?”

“I’m dead ass…I don’t smoke. How I’m gon’ be the weed man getting high off my own supply?”

“Then what you high on? Remember you don’t lie.” Aku rested her hand on her hip.

Malik wasn’t a liar but he also couldn’t tell her he had a slight addiction to prescription pain meds. “You trying to smoke or not?”

“Omitting shit is lying,” she sassed, holding her hand out. “They don’t know that in Oz?”

She was hella witty. Malik liked that. It gave her substance—shit that stood out over her looks. She could enmesh herself into any environment with those pretty words laced in hoodology.

After he dug into his stash, he handed her the pre-rolled za. “You talking like you been here before. This ain't ya first time in Oz?”

She took the blunt and flicked the lighter, the flame catching on the tip like it was made to burn just for her. She inhaled real deep. She needed the smoke to calm the feeling clawing at her chest.

Aku examined the blunt as if it had ingredients on it.

The weed hit smooth…no harshness, just warmth sliding down her throat, into her bloodstream, settling in her belly like a slow fire.

“Shit hella on point,” Malik smirked, knowing he only served the best.

Aku smiled, inhaling again.

She leaned back against the edge of his desk, letting the smoke roll out slow, her eyes still fixed on his. “I see.”

“See what?”

She tilted her head, taking another pull. “Why they love you. You quiet, but you say everything without talkin’. You don’t even realize how loud your presence is.”

That line made his breath catch. Malik looked away, rubbing the back of his neck, then dropped his hand like it didn’t matter.

He stepped closer. So close she could see the tiny scar near his temple, the way his lashes curled, the flicker of his pulse in his neck.

“You gettin’ bold now, huh?” he whispered.

She smiled with her whole mouth this time. “Bold been in me. You just waking it up.”

He reached for the blunt between her fingers, their hands brushing. She didn’t let go right away…just let the pads of their fingers linger, touching like they had all the time in the world.

“I thought the weed man didn’t get high off his own supply.”

“Sometimes girls have us breaking our own rules,” Malik’s voice came out jumbled from the inhale and exhale of the weed.

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