Page 3 of Krist and Moanie
“What I look like?” I accepted the knot of cash from him, ready to cut out. I never stuck around for the festivities, just the W then the exit.
“You did good tonight, Krist.” I heard a feminine voice behind me. When I turned around I peeped Alley, somebody I went to school with a while ago. I’d seen her a few times and always kept it cool, never going any further. Tonight was no different. Even though she was looking at me with that easy look in her eyes, I wasn’t going. She wasn’t much my type, but the glazed honey bun colored, perfectly pink, thick lipped beauty next to her was. She had slightly slanted eyes with hair that stopped sharply at her jawline. Even in the overpopulated spaceI could feel her eyes. They were serious, shit, almost like she had the ability to look through me.
“’Preciate that.”
Alley giggled. “Anytime, this is my cousin Moanie. Mo, this is Krist. We know one another from school.”
She nodded in my direction. Shorty was beautiful, too fucking beautiful to be in here.
“Y’all tryna eat?” Ben asked. Nigga was forever passenger in my car but inviting a girl to come eat. This time I didn’t mind though, especially since if they came, he’d be entertaining Alley.
Of course Alley nodded and her cousin looked at her. She was no more interested in going anywhere with us than I was with them.
“I’m going to my car. Let me know what’s up.” Shit didn’t move me one way or another.
I moved through the sea of people toward the exit. Fresh air invaded my lungs the moment I exited. Cars lined the usually empty space, making their own pattern for a lot. A lotta people were blocked in, but I wasn’t. I parked right up front so I could pull right out.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I dialed up Jru. His young ass should have been in the crib by now. He hadn’t called or texted me, so I was on his ass.
“Yeah,” he answered on the third ring.
“Where are you? I ain’t heard from you since this morning.”
“My bad.” He yawned into the phone. “I came in after practice and crashed. Coach ran the fuck out of us.”
I chuckled and leaned against my truck. “You good, kid, go back to sleep. I should be there in a couple hours. You eat?”
“No. You gonna bring something?”
“Yeah. I got you.”
“Bet.”
“Love you, bro.”
“You too.”
We hung up a few seconds later. In this life, all I had was Jru. He was my responsibility, had been since I was eleven and he was four. After our father died, our mother couldn’t give the pipe up, so it was always him and me.
I looked up and my eyes landed on Ben walking toward me with Alley and Moanie in tow. He rubbed his hands together with a big ass smile on his face. He was definitely on some mack shit.
“Food it is,” he said in a giddy ass tone that had me shaking my head.
My eyes immediately found Moanie who seemed unsure but had apparently agreed to go. Nine times out of ten, peer pressure from her blood did that.
“Get in the back with me, Alley,” Ben called out, hopping in on the passenger side and scooting into the seat behind mine.
Mama didn’t raise a gentleman; shit, she didn’t raise me at all. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t open the door for shorty. She seemed like the timid type. Fine and quiet. Refined, almost. So, what the fuck was she doing out here?
I opened her door then stood to the side, waiting for her to get in.
“Thank you.”
I nodded and closed the door, moving around to my side. Once inside I started it up and peeled out of the park.
I didn’t bother asking where to go, because at this time of night only a few places were open.
“So, you’re a poet?” she asked, turning her entire being in my direction since we were sitting next to one another. Ben and her cousin had long since made their way to the restaurant’s washroom.
