Page 54 of In Too Deep

My brow rose. “Embarrassing you? How the fuck would I be in doin’ that to when you’re the one walkin’ ‘round herewith Gucci and shit on your back but your pussy smells like sewer water when you pull your panties down, but I’m an embarrassment. You sittin’ here beggin’ me to take you near blue water when you got to walk around in a bikini and shit, smelling like hippo ass. Fuck out here wit’ that shit, bruh. I don’t give a fuck whether we go or not. That’s on you, but I’m grown ass man and I do whatever the fuck I want to do and if you don’t like it, then you can leave or shut the fuck up and let me do me,” I grimaced and walked past her.

Just like that, she had the floor to leave, and if she chose to stay after witnessing what just happened, then that’s on her.

An Hour Later

That nut took a lot out of me and gave me an appetite, surprisingly, so after getting myself together, I trotted downstairs and finished my plate. My mama moseyed around in my business, asking me what I was doing and what took me so long. She didn’t play that shit—people leaving the table for stupid shit, and phones out at the table. Growing up we always ate as a family, so I was used to her being annoyed about it.

Trecee had returned from downstairs, and I noticed her shitty attitude. She had a right to be upset, but I’d given her an ultimatum, and if that wasn’t enough for her to leave and pack her shit, that’d make her weak. For a while, I’d let what she’d done for me—saving my life, linger over my head, as if that was cast in stone, but in reality, that wasn’t enough. Off GP, I let it abuse my mind for years and cloud my judgment. On the way back to the house, she didn’t say shit to me, only humming to the music that played lowly from the radio. Then suddenly her phone rang, jarring her attention towards it. My knuckles turned white from gripping the steering wheel so hard. I stole a glanceat the phone, her name flashing ominously, the silent ring a prelude to something terrible.

It was late, and while she didn’t solely want to act like a guardian toward her younger siblings, when their mother wasn’t around, they called Trecee for everything, and she hated it—couldn’t understand it either. It took me to sit down with her and break it down to her that they trusted her and as fucked up as it sounded, Trecee was the closest thing they had to a responsible party while they mama ran the streets chasing dick, abandoning them, but she didn’t want to hear that shit, so I left it alone. When her screen lit up from another incoming call, she ignored it and put her phone on Do Not Disturb. Then suddenly, my phone rang in the front pocket of my jeans. I reached for it, noticing her little sister calling me now. Putting my phone screen in Trecee’s view, she glanced at it and told me not to answer it, but I did anyway, getting a scoff out of her.

“Wassup Moriah,”I greeted. “What you callin’ to beg for now?”

“Uncle Rome,”she sniffled. “Is Trecee with you?”

“Yeah.”My back stiffened in defense mode, hearing her crying.“She right here wit’ me. What’s the matter?”

She burst into tears trying to speak, but it was hard for me to hear her. The background was loud too. Trecee suddenly became alert, her voice rattled with fear as she gripped my arm, asking me what happened.

“Baby girl, you have to calm down and talk to me, I can barely hear what you sayin’!”

“M-monterrius burned the kitchen trying to cook some noodles.”

“Yeah.”Panic clawed at my throat; I didn't see the red light, only the desperate need to reach their house, the roar of my engine a desperate plea against the silent fear. Still holding the phone to my ear, I tried to calm her down, but I didn’t havemuch luck at that, so I told her to hand the phone to Monterrius or another sibling.

“Y-yes,”he answered. I could hear the fear in his voice too, and that point I was a couple of minutes away from their house, taking back streets to avoid lights, so I could get there as fast as I could.

“Mane, what you got going?”

“The house is s-smokey,”he stammered.“I thought I put water in the pot to make some noodles, b-but I made a mistake. I really didn’t mean to do it,”his voice quivered.

“Moriah said there was a fire.”

“A fire,”Trecee blurted out.“What is going on?”she shrieked.

Ignoring her, Monterrius said,“There was a flame, but it’s smoke everywhere.”

“Is everybody out the house?”

“N-no, we’re inside. M-my mama said to stay in the house and don’t go outside.”His voice was filled with fear.

“Mane, listen y’all need to get out of there, go outside and leave the front door open. Me and Trecee pulling up now. Where your mama run off to?”

“I don’t know, she didn’t tell us. She said she’ll be right back and left.”

By this point, I had parked my car widely in the middle of the street, leaving Trecee and her heap of questions behind. Had her selfish ass chosen to answer the phone, she’d know what the fuck was going on. She was heavy on my heels as I stepped on the gravel and dirt, bypassing the stairs to get her siblings, who were standing outside with fear written all over their faces. Moriah had tears running down her face, so I bent down and picked her up first, then turned my attention towards Monterrius, who was wiping tears of his own.

“Is there anybody else in the room?” I asked, darting my eyes at each of them as they shook their heads no. “Moriah, I got to put you down for a second, baby girl so I can see what’s going on inside.”

She cloaked her arms around my neck tighter and put her face in the crook of my neck and burst into tears. “Uncle Romeeee, I don’t want you to leave me. I’m scared.”

From the way shit was going, she wasn’t going to let me let her go, and I needed to see how bad the damage was and open a few windows.

“Shhhh, okay, okay, okay, baby girl, just continue to hold my neck and close your eyes, okay?”

“Okay,” she murmured in a soft tone.

“Aye,” I turned back to the kids that were still standing in front of the yard. “Y’all stand y’all asses right here and don’t move.” Clutching my arm tighter around Moriah, I walked inside, surveying everything through squinted eyes. The smoke alarm was blaring, and it was smokey as fuck, making it hard to see anything. I instructed one of the kids to place a brick at the foot of the front door to keep it open. Then went around the house opening as many windows as I could to air some of the smoke out. Returning outside, I heard a commotion and crying, but feeling I'd done all I could, I went to investigate and saw Trecee yelling at her siblings.

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