Page 60 of Falling Into Gravity

She scoffed. “How is this friendship gonna work when you don’t wanna talk to me?”

“Who said I want to be your friend?”

“Oh, please…you so full of shit. I felt your eyes on me all night. Every time one of your friends got too close, you was signaling them to back up." Aku kept the conversation lite when she really wanted to dive, so deep into his world she’d emerge with a blue bandana wrapped around her bob.

“That don’t mean I wanna be your friend, though.” A ghost of a smile lingered on his face.

Aku guided his hands to her breasts, squeezing them. “Then what you want to be?”

Malik could feel his dick pressing against his jeans. “Shit, I don’t know.”

“But you do,” she wined her pussy against him. “That’s that fear I was telling you about.”

“How many times I gotta tell you, I ain’t scared of shit…on the gang.”

“Maybe not death,” she swallowed, thinking about Malik being back in Crescent when those shots rang out. “Nah, you ain’t scared of dying…why?”

He squeezed her breast again, feeling her nipples pebbling against her shirt. “I think it’s time for me to go.”

“What the fuck you so scared of? It ain’t going back to that fuckin’ war zone! Nah, that shit feels normal to you. So tell me what the wizard is scared of?”

He gulped, his heart beat slowing just a little, like it was telling him he was safe with her. Even if she didn’t know hood politics or that you never walk another nigga into another nigga’s house knowing they played for different teams. Aku’s actions weren’t malicious. She was just curious about shit she shouldn’t be curious about. He swiped his tongue out, slow enough for Aku to catch it.

“Tell me what got you so scared, Malik.” She spoke into his mouth.

“You…” he confessed. “You got me thinking about shit, I ain’t got no business thinking about. Got me wanting shit, I ain’t never wanted.”

“Like what?”

“To live – there I said it…you make me wanna live.”

Aku swallowed his words, tasted the bitterness on her tongue. “What you get high on?”

“Oh, you think you on a roll, now - huh?” Malik smirked, his finger now on her hips, digging into them looking for solace.

“Give me some,” she dared.

“Hell nah…this shit ain’t for you.”

“Then it ain’t for you either, nigga.” She smacked his face. “Today is the first day of your life…stop that shit or I’ll stop it for you.”

It wasn’t a question or a suggestion. Aku was demanding he stopped popping whatever it was he liked to get high on—even if she wasn’t certain about the drug. Aku never understood the power of her words or how her sweet and sassy tone would have a man doing things he couldn’t do on his own.

Malik had tried to quit before. Swore it off a few times, even flushed a bottle once. But his will to do it never fully clicked until that moment.

The thing is, love wasn’t just candles and kisses. Sometimes it was a woman looking you in the face and holding you accountable to better yourself. Sometimes it’s her seeing the poison before you admit it’s killing you, then standing between you and it like she’d been sent personally to reroute your wayward life.

She smoothed her hand over the spot she’d just hit. “You gonna live, Malik, and it’s gonna be so beautiful. You’llappreciate the sun, love the moon, and create something that’ll outlive you, black man.”

Her words had him wanting to break. Grief thickened his throat. Aku’s soft hands eased it when she pushed her palm against the tattoos on his neck.

“Why me?” Malik asked. The question had been sitting on his chest for a while now because he felt the pull of her—even when he tried to pretend it wasn’t there.

Aku shrugged. “Probably because you remind me of my first love…my daddy. Imperfectly, perfect.”

“But I ain’t.”

“Says who?”

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