Page 34 of A Player's Prayer
If you want me to find her and make that bitch eat a brick, I’ll do it.
Keep ignoring me, Kodi and I’ll come over there and make you touch every wall in that muthafucka!
Baby, I didn’t mean that. You just got a nigga emotional and shit. It’s raining and I’m listening to Keith Sweat. I love and miss you, Kodi.
Sighing heavily,I placed my phone on the table and continued to sort through the mail at my grandmother’s house. It’s been almost a week since I broke up with Adrian, and he’s been beating my line down ever since. Even with all the drama, I still decided to take my trip home. I was not about to waste my PTO because his ass wasn’t shit.
“You know he’s not going to stop until you talk to him,” Amelia said as she ate her Chinese food across from me. She asked if she could accompany me to Florida, and although I felt like this was Adrian’s way of keeping up with me, I told her I didn’t mind. “I don’t know what happened with you guys, but I know he loves you.”
“These niggas don’t love shit but a fresh pack of Za and a fat ass.” I rolled my eyes as I scanned the QR code to pay the five-dollar water bill. “I thought he loved me, but when faced with temptation, he folded like the lawn chairs that were used to beat ass in the Montgomery brawl.” I chuckled humorlessly as I glanced up at her. “Did he send you on this trip to report back to him?”
I had grown to love Amelia, but at the end of the day, she’s known Adrian longer. There’s no telling how much he paid her to get information about what I’m doing or thinking. I would hope that wasn’t the case, but I didn’t put anything past him.
“First of all, bitch, don’t play with me.” She pointed at me with her fork as she shot daggers my way. “When I found out y’all broke up, I figured he was no longer coming with you out here, and I told him I was taking off regardless of whether he approved it or not. I didn’t want you coming down here alone with these weird-ass people you call friends.”
Amelia and I had been in town for only two days, and both Zaria and Bear have been calling me about as much as Adrian. The house my grandmother lived in was in the middle of the hood, so I’m not surprised that word had gotten around that I was here. For the past few years, I’ve been making sure that the house’s maintenance is kept up as best as I can. There are still friends of my dad and grandmother who keep an eye on the place for us. The house deed is in my name, and while I can easily sell it, I don’t want to get rid of the last thing my father has that reminds him of his mom.
“Girl, I’m not worried about them.” I waved her off as I stood from the table to trash the ripped-open mail. “My main focus here is to check the house and do some shopping. Not to mention, my dad called and told me he finally put me on his visitor’s list.” I smiled as I turned back to face her. “I’m more excited about seeing him than anything, and no one is going to interfere with the cloud I’m floating on.”
I haven’t physically seen my father in years, and I was so nervous yet excited about it. Through the years, I sent him pictures of the milestones in my life, while he’s done the same. My dad, being the only blood relative I have left, is a hard pill to swallow since he’s locked up, but I have faith that one day we will be able to make up for lost time.
“I was thinking maybe you could ride with me, though. The visit will only be for an hour. We could shop and—” The ringing of my phone pulled me away from the conversation with Amelia. I started to let it go to voicemail because I thought it was Adrian, but seeing it was Zaria made me roll my eyes even harder. At this point, I knew she and Bear were not going to let up until I answered. “One second.”
I excused myself from the kitchen to take the call. “Yes, Zaria?”
“Damn, bitch! Let me find out you still have your ass on your shoulders from when I came to visit you,” she shouted through the phone over the music that blared in her background. “How do you come to town and don’t say nothing?”
Walking toward the living room, I leaned against the mantle, eyeing a picture of my grandma and me when I was younger. “Zaria, if you’re not calling to apologize for how you acted in Milly Grove, we really don’t have anything to talk about. You said a lot of foul shit.”
I tried to act as if the argument between us didn’t affect me, but deep down, it hurt my feelings. She and I have had plenty of disagreements over the years, but the things she said to me were crazy.
“You’re right, and forthat,I’m sorry.” I heard her move around, finally turning her radio down. “I was wrong with my delivery?—”
“You were wrong for what you said, period,” I interrupted as I moved over to the couch. “To say I owe you is crazy. We’re friends, and I love you. I didn’t think that love was based on what we did for one another. I am thankful for every single thing you’ve done for me over the years, but those things should’ve been done out of love. You act as if you paid bills, funded my schooling, and helped with internships. That was all me, and for that, the only one I owe is God.”
As Amelia walked into the living room, Zaria’s end of the phone went silent. She hadn’t hung up because I could still hear her breathing. I was about to ask her if she’d heard me when a sinister laugh broke her silence.
“You really think you’re something, don’t you? You move to a new city and pretend to be thiswell-keptwoman when in reality, you’re nothing.” I could hear the sneer on her lips as she spoke with so much hate that I barely recognized her voice. “You ain’tshit, bitch! Your mother would rather have died than to raise you. I hope your father dies in prison, hoe. Your grandmother?—”
“What the fuck?” I jumped to my feet as I disconnected the call because I’d heard enough. “I’m going to kill that bitch!”
Searching the living room for my keys, I located them on the coffee table and stalked toward the door. The blistering heat from the sun was nothing compared to the bubbling rage inside of me. Zaria had disrespected me for the last time, and now it was time she felt me through more than my words.
“Dakota, wait a minute!” Amelia shouted as she ran out of the house behind me. The few kids who were playing in the streets stopped and stared at her outburst. “Where are you going?”
“Zaria wanted my attention, and now she has it!” I called over my shoulder as I clicked the key fob to unlock the doors. “I’m about to give her ass something to be mad about.”
Jumping in the rental truck right before I put it in reverse, Amelia tried her hardest to plead with me about what I was headed to do. Zaria’s house was about twenty minutes from my grandmother’s, and if she wasn’t home, I was going to twiddle my fucking thumbs until she came.
“Dakota, fuck her and what she was talking about. That just goes to show you that she’s not a real friend—probably never was.” Amelia continued to be the voice of reason as I sped through the city. “What if her man is there? You said you don’t like him, right? If he puts his hands on you, I’m calling Wild, and you know that ignorant-ass nigga is going to blow this country-ass town to bits!”
Intentionally, I chuckled because she wasn’t lying. No matter how much I wasn’t fucking with him, if I called him right now, he would be pulling up before I disconnected the call.
“Girl, fuck Adrian’s trifling ass too?—”
My phone ringing through the speakers snatched my eyes from the road to the dashboard to see Zaria was calling back. Istarted to let it go to voicemail, but I wanted to let her know her ass whooping was on the way.
“Bitch, I’m on the way to your house right now, and when I get there, I’m beating your muthafuckin’ ass! You think I owe you, right? Well, I’m about to give you exactly what you been wanting! Do you hear me?”
