Page 22 of Anything Necessary for Her
“Mhm,” he grumbled, looking up to where my brothers were and then back to Trayvon.
“You came!” I shouted somewhat excitedly. Though Trayvon didn’t have a true chance with me, I couldn’t say it wasn’t flattering, him showing up tonight to face my brothers. Men who claimed to be tough hadn’t done as much.
“Yeah. I did.” He nodded, kissing me so lightly on the cheek that it made me wonder if it was an accident.
Trayvon wiped his forehead, hitting me with the scent of his expensive cologne as he trailed behind me up the few steps. I could feel his palm perspire in my hand as it conveniently slipped from my grasp once we got within close proximity to my siblings.
Unique had now arrived, saying something to his wife, Kabrina, that had her tossing her head back to laugh.
Even Bambi was here with her fiancé Adam.
“Hey everybody, this is my friend, Trayvon,” I called out, interrupting the loud conversation my brothers were having among themselves and their wives.
Kailey’s messy ass came over and sat down, leaving our area, which was right next to this one. It was only separated by two halved gold bars.
“Hi, Trayvon!” Kailey gave a finger wave and sipped her drink.
All my sisters-in-law spoke to him as my seven brothers took him in, all wearing frowns.
“Can y’all speak?” I waved a hand to snap them out of their angry stares.
“Have a seat, Trayvon.” Analicia smiled gently and gestured to an empty space on the couch.
Trayvon started to take her up on the offer.
“You ain’t gon’ speak before you sit yo’ ass down?” Khari frowned, sizing Trayvon up.
This was already starting off badly. Kailey was amused by this all.
“Oh, umm, my bad.” Trayvon wiped his glistening forehead with the back of his hand again before reaching to shake Khari’s hand.
Khari only obliged because Couture nudged him to, and the rest of the brothers followed suit.
“You gotta work on that handshake, my nigga,” Bashar just had to say, making him do it over again.
“Stop.” I spoke through gritted teeth to a giggling Kailey as Analicia tried to tell Bashar the same.
“I’m a bit nervous is all. But I got you.” Trayvon nodded, finally taking a seat, and at that point, so did everyone else.
“Never thought I’d see my baby sister with a nigga whose beard don’t fucking connect.” Unique shook his head, and everyone’s jaws dropped, clearly trying to attenuate their laughter.
“Unique, some people do that style on purpose. Right?” Kabrina smiled at Trayvon as she sat in her husband’s lap.
“Yeah—”
“Nah, I can tell it’s a struggle beard,” Unique cut in, and sadly, once Scotland snickered, it broke the levy on everyone’s laughter.
“So what you do? Who are you?” Asif finally spoke after observing Trayvon for a while.
“Well, I?—”
“Sit up like a man when you talk. I can’t hear or believe shit you say when you slouching.” Asif put his glass of brown to his lips, and I pinched the bridge of my nose at his comment.
My brothers sniggered subtly while Anastazia clenched her teeth at me to apologize, but I could see the humor in her eyes.
“I know that’s right, Sif!” Kailey shouted.
Trayvon cleared his throat and sat up, straightening his shoulders before saying, “I just graduated with Banks from USC with a Bachelor of Science.” He nodded. “But I play baseball and will be going into the draft this summer.”
