Page 44 of Anything Necessary for Her
The boys spread out, introducing themselves to whichever lady they liked.
“You are so sexy.” One grinned as he reached for Kailey’s hand, but she simply shook her head and put her cup to her lips for a sip.
I cracked up, trying to ignore his homeboy who had made his way close to me, waving off his other friend who was clearly pissed since, according to him, he wanted me first.
“Jamie,” he said, taking my hand to kiss the back of it.
“Banks.” I lifted my brows, making Kailey giggle as his homeboy stood in place, greedily drinking her in while she purposefully ignored him.
“Banks, huh?” Jamie nodded. “Interesting name.”
I gave him a closemouthed smile, not wanting to be mean, but not particularly interested either.
Lately, it seemed like if a nigga wasn’t Willow Harris, he didn’t do it for me, and I hated that. It felt like I was back in my teenaged years, looking for his replacement in order to get over my crush. On the upside, I forgot about his ass once and could do it again.
We’d talked a little since the night he’d come to my house, but with his hesitation due to fear of him hurting me, plus his unwillingness to do too much while a secret, andmyhesitation to tell my family about us because I didn’t trust our dynamic, made it feel like we’d reached an impenetrable impasse. Therefore, I was looking to focus my sights on other prospects.
“Banks as in Banks St. Thomas?” the man who’d been into Kailey asked, looking me over.
“Oh shit.” Jamie stepped back from me, he and his homie staring me down as if I were an infamous apparition.
“Aye, this is old girl with all them fucking brothers!” The homeboy shouted to the other guys who pulled their attention from my classmates to stare at me.
“Some nigga named Prime is yo’ daddy?” Another questioned me as I started to wanna fold into myself.
This shit was embarrassing and made me feel younger than I actually was. It was one thing for shit like this to transpire when I was a kid or even a teenager, but as a grown woman, it was annoying, infuriating, and humiliating.
“Yeah! Sif is her brother!” another responded.
Like clockwork, they all rose to their feet and began meandering out, discussing me and my brood of brothers by name.
“Ugh! This shit happens all the fucking time!” Synthia screamed, stomping her foot like one of my nieces.
“No it does not!” Kailey spat.
“It does! And her damn brothers are taken, so it isn’t like we can fuck on them! I don’t appreciate men I can’t even fuck, ruining my chances!” Nikita backed Synthia up.
“Bitch—” Kailey started toward Nikita, but I halted her.
“How about I just leave and let you stupid bitches kick it with niggas who are too afraid to talk to a woman over her brothers.” Igrabbed my shit as everyone sans Synthia and Nikita begged for me to stay.
“I’m coming with you,” Kailey said.
“No, stay and have fun. I’m going to brunch tomorrow with my mom and sisters-in-law, so I can’t be out all night anyway.” I kissed her face since she was staring at me sympathetically like she didn’t believe I’d be fine.
“Are you sure? I don’t even really like them.”
“I am.” I laughed. “Have fun, and call or text me if you need anything.”
“Like for Asif to give me a ride home?” She lit up.
“Bye, Kailey!” I giggled, bumping the shit out of Nikita as I bypassed her, making her howl and fall onto the couch.
I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and was so thankful that this was one of those nights where Kailey and I met up so I could drive myself home.
The entire ride to my parents’ house, where I planned to spend the night so I could ride with my mama to brunch, I couldn’t come down from my irateness.
I didn’t know if I was pissed at the ladies from Prolific or them punk ass niggas for embarrassing me. I was kind of upset with my brothers, too, though they hadn’t done anything.
