Page 48 of Mafia Kings & Wedding Rings
“The fuck wrong with these bitches in yo’ inbox?”
“You ain’t see the promo video me and Armon put together? Shit was genius. He took some of my old player moments and created a compilation.” Scrolling to the video, I passed it to Ivo and snatched the blunt he’d been babysitting from his hand. “And the fuck wrong with you? Been acting like a bitch on her period since I got here.” I nudged him away from me.
“Fuck you. I got shit on my mind.” Ivo watched the video until the end. “Hashtag Steal Brick’s Heart? Nigga… you stupid.” Chuckling, he shoved my phone into my chest.
“Say what you want. My inbox is cracking! I got plenty of prospects. I’m going out with one tonight matter of fact.” I pulled from the blunt in my mouth and held the smoke for a few seconds.
“Just be careful. I know you with all this social media shit, but you still Breccan Marek, and we got enemies out here. Pops just died, and it’s a lot up in the air right now.”
“Pssh. I ain’t worried about it.” I waved him off and brought the blunt to my lips again as the front door opened and closed.
Staten walked through in black vintage jeans, a white t-shirt under a gray geometric pattern shirt jacket, and white Air Forces. Nigga was clean with his M medallion hanging over his chest on the gold link chain. Seeing him casually stroll into the house left me grinning. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed seeing his ass. Our father tended to push people a little too far.
Nobody knew that more than me and my brothers. I think we were all surprised when Staten left and Pops didn’t drag him back here and force him into the fold. I think because of the circumstances, he had no choice but to allow him to be a man and make his own choices. He didn’t get to witness who Justus became in the end though. I wouldn’t be the one to tell him unless he asked.
I didn’t want to put a strain on my relationship with him rehashing shit. Our pops was an asshole on a good day. Stern. Direct. The kind of man to look you dead in your eye and call you on your bullshit. With him, there was no in between or fence riding. When I decided I didn’t want to work under Ivo, he asked me what I thought I wanted to do. At the time, I honestly didn’t know, so he gave me room to figure it out. In true Justus fashion, I was on a timeline though.
“Exhibit A as to why I’m not.” I waved in my brother’s direction. “This nigga came in looking like a rapper and shit. That chain looks good on you, bro.”
“The hell y’all in here talking about?” He strolled inside, taking a seat on the arm of an ivory and gold velvet armchair that matched the rest of the living room set.
Jordan was real particular about her décor. I swear the bitch thought she was royalty or something the minute she married my brother. He said she deserved it, but I feel like his money and status was always the reason she cuffed him. Her ass didn’t have no family. Ivo had a habit of taking in strays like Ma though.
“This fool think he the new Flavor Flav.” Ivo aimed a thumb at me. “Got bitches in his inbox acting like porn stars and shit.”
“If they like it, I fucking love it. Matter of fact, I think I need to talk to my people before dinner.” I scrolled to my Instagram account and tapped to go live.
“Let me hit that shit.” Staten pinched his fingers together for the blunt.
I hit the button and took one last puff before passing to him and blowing smoke into the camera.
“Aight, so I know everybody saw the promo and y’all been in my DMs asking if the shit for real. So we can do a quick Q&A before I go with my people for dinner. Yes, it’s absolutely true. Ya boy is looking for theone.Not no smash and dash shit, fuck a sneaky link. Somebody I can get to know and get to know me. Somebody a nigga can spoil.”
“This nigga,” Ivo scoffed while Staten inhaled and shook his head.
Comments rolled in of chicks blowing me kisses, leaving the drip emotion or the silly face with the tongue out and heart eyes. I was up to over five hundred people watching just that damn fast. Leaning back on the couch, I smiled and rested my arm above my head on some chill shit.
“My brother already married and shit. I’m just trying to find my wife.” I paused to read a few more comments. “What about the girl from that lodge you were at the other day?” I sucked my teeth, thinking about that lil’ broad.
She still left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn’t like people assuming shit about me. I made this social media shit look easy,but trust, sometimes those comments could get to you. I’m not always liked, but a disrespectful muhfucka got that shit back tenfold from me.
“Man, fuck her.”
“We liked her though.” Ivo read from beside me. “Yo, she laughing too.”
What she look like?Someone else asked.What’s her name?Suddenly, my feed was full of questions about this girl, and everybody had a fucking opinion. Leaning forward with irritation, I looked at my scowl in the camera as they continued with the remarks. Some was even saying I needed to be humbled a little bit because I was always doing too much. Muhfuckas didn’t know shit about my life but what I showed them. That’s where this social media shit would get you fucked up.
Shit always reminded me of Justus and how he came at me when I finally decided to become an influencer. Outside of my brothers, Armon was my best friend. So when he said we should start filming everything we do, we took that shit and ran with it. Dumb shit like partying on stage with strippers. Taking body shots off bitches in the club, pulling pranks around the house on my mama and grandma so we could record them cussing us out. People took more to me and my lifestyle than anything, and Armon was cool with that. He preferred being behind the camera anyway. My following blew up off my twenty-first birthday party. We were on a yacht with nothing but bad bitches and top-shelf bottles.
Soon after that, different brands started hitting me up, and before I knew it, a nigga was an ambassador for some of the hottest designers. I was cutting checks with everybody, and my engagement on social media was so crazy I had to have different people managing my pages sometimes. I got hired to host parties, which was right up my fucking alley. Justus thought itwas some bullshit, and I was wasting my time, until he saw the figures I was pulling in.
On top of that, I fucked with other brands so that they could support our family’s line of whiskey too. Soon we were being sponsored at parties, and our shit was being sold by the case. Marek Reserve was already a brand, but my status had damn sure helped elevate it. When he saw it was more to it than me just being all over social media all day, he lightened up and let me do me.
“Man, I’m trying to put myself out there and y’all asking about somebody I don’t even know.”
“Wasn’t you the one that said you wanted to get to know somebody?” Ivo chimed in.
“You stay yo’ ass over there.” I mushed his face out of the camera.
