Page 26 of Krist and Moanie
I swung the door open with irritation. “What you doing at my door? Where the fuck your manners?”
“Damn, I can’t come by to see an old friend? I know you miss me.” She smiled. “Shit, if you don’t, your hair does.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“You’re good? I can’t just come in and braid your hair? She got you sewed up like that for real. I’ve heard the tal?—”
“Look, I ain’t finna stand in this hallway and debate politics with you about mine. You wasted your time coming through. I’m good on your services.”
“About yours? She’s your girlfriend?”
“Ay, Sazzy, don’t be on no bullshit. Be safe ’bout yours because I’d hate for things to get critical just because you couldn’t let go of some shit that was never anything.” That was my one and only warning.
She sucked her teeth. “Ain’t nobody gonna do nothing to that girl, at least I’m not. I can’t say the same ’bout her blood.”
I wasn’t even about to answer. I was closing the door when what she said caught my attention. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Sazzy sucked her teeth again. “I was eating with my baby when I heard Alley and her girls plotting on your girl. I know they were talking about her because her name is Moanie, right? And the girl was like, ain’t that your cousin, Alley? Like she kept saying it. Then the other one mentioned your name and I really put two and two together.”
I nodded, heat rising to my core at the thought of anything happening to Moanie at the hands of anybody. That created deadly thoughts in my mind.
“’Preciate the info.” I then closed the door before she could say anything else. The wheels were turning in my head.
I picked my phone up and dialed Ben immediately.
“Yeah, bro.” He was groggy, meaning he’d stayed out all night as usual.
“I need you to call Lexie for me. I need her to touch somebody.”
He perked up. “Nigga, who? Not the same girl whose name you just got tattooed on your neck.”
“Nah, not her. Getcho ass up out the bed and meet me at your grandmother’s house.”
“Nigga, I’m at my grandmama house. You late. Slide through.” He yawned into the phone.
“Bet.”
As soon as I was off the phone with him, I moved toward my room to get dressed. I was about to get this shit handled, get my haircut, and still be on time to pick up Moanie after grabbing her a meal because I already knew her ass hadn’t eaten. That, I’d call a productive day.
“You love her, don’t you?” Jru’s voice interrupted me from the intense pattern of thoughts flowing through my mind. I assumed he was asleep, but I guess he wasn’t.
I looked up and we locked eyes, him with a genuine question and me with an answer I wasn’t yet ready to utter.
“What you know about love, youngin?” I changed the subject at an expedited rate.
“I know what it is because I know what it’s not,” he answered in a duh type tone, which made me chuckle. How was my teenage, bird chested ass brother out here about to school me on love? The lil nigga was holding an X-box controller, the headset atop his head.
“Good logic.” I went to walk off, but his words halted my movement.
“So, you do love her?”
“Yeah, I think I do,” I responded honestly, with no intention of turning around.
“Good, I like her for you.” He didn’t wait for my response. He had already gone back into his room and closed the door.
After our exchange, it didn’t take me long to get fully dressed and out of the door. About ten minutes later I was pulling up outside Ben’s grandmother’s house. Just like I knew he would be, he was standing on the porch with a blunt to his lips.
Upon seeing me pull up, he descended the stairs and exited the gate. He met me at the sidewalk and extended the blunt.
