Page 25 of Sugar Baby
I was so mad I didn’t know what to do, so I figured it was best for me not to say shit. The whole time I drove to Sugar’s house, there was no doubt in my mind she’d blame me for this shit. I kept looking over at Tyreek, and I could tell his spirit was broken. That made me feel even worse.
As I turned onto Sugar’s street, I said, “I need to hear what happened outta your mouth.”
He ran down the same story Rhakeem did. That they were told they were robbing Sko instead of me, which technically made sense. Rapheal couldn’t tell them he was robbing me. They wouldn’t have agreed. Sko was crazy, but he didn’t have my reach. He wouldn’t have been able to find out who did it like I could.
“Why did you leave school, Tyreek?” I asked, pulling into her driveway.
“I just wanted the money,” he mumbled before sniffling, and that shit broke my heart. “My pops ain’t working and the lil retirement money they give him ain’t shit. The bulk of that goes to bills and his medicine. Mama wants to work but his pride won’t let her. He’s only cool with herhelping Baby with her catering jobs because he knows how much she loves to cook. I try to help as much as I can because Baby been doing so much for us and she don’t need to carry the weight of our household.”
“Is that the real reason why you don’t want to go to college?”
His head hung before he nodded and wiped more tears. “Yeah. I’ve been accepted into all the schools I applied to, but the ones I want to go to won’t give me enough financial aid to cover it. The last thing I’m going to do is make them feel bad about not being able to send me to school, so I just told them I wasn’t going to go instead. When you mentioned the gap year, I figured that would give me enough time to try and stack at least enough money for my first year.”
“But you’re a straight A student. I feel like there should be some scholarships that would give you a free ride.”
“I thought so too, but it’s need based. So even though we really ain’t got no money, because of his retirement fund, I don’t qualify for the big bucks. It would be better for me if he wasn’t getting any income at all. They don’t care that everything he gets goes to the bills.”
I thought about it for a minute, and God immediately put on my heart what to do. “If you really wanna go to school, I’ll pay for it, but you gon’ have to stay the fuck away from them, Reek. Especially Rell. That lil nigga is not your friend, and the path he’s going down is going to put him in a grave right next to his brother. Is that what you want for you too?”
His head shook as he finally looked me in my eyes. “I promise it’s not. I meant it when I said I’d try and stay out of trouble. Had I known that’s what they were going to do, I wouldn’t have gone, I swear.” He was starting to getworked up again, so I decided to drop the shit. We got out of the car, and when we made it to the door he asked, “You’re really gonna pay for me to go to school?”
“Yes, but you know my rule. You have to stay out of trouble. So it’s on you. I need you to show and prove, and the first part of that is cutting off Rell.”
He smiled before extending his hand for me to shake, but when I noticed the tears falling from his eyes, I pulled him in for a hug. The door swung open, and Sugar’s face was fire red.
“It’s true?” she seethed, snatching Tyreek away from me and pulling him into her home. “Rittany told me she saw your men snatch up my cousin, but I didn’t believe her.” Her eyes widened as she looked Tyreek over. “And you put your hands on him!” she roared before smacking the shit out of me. “How could you!”
“Baby, it’s not what it looks like!” Tyreek yelled, picking her up and carrying her into her house.
A part of me wanted to go in and make her hear the truth, but the other part of me knew she carried and didn’t play about her cousin. Before I let things get physical between us, I’d give her time to calm down and hear the truth from him. When she did, she knew how to get in touch with me. As much as I didn’t want to, I headed back to my car as she yelled for Tyreek to let her go. This shit was going from bad to worse, but right now, there was nothing else I could do.
Chapter
Fifteen
SUGAR BABY
Iwas so upset I didn’t want to hear anything Tyreek had to say. This wasn’t the first time I had to clean his wounds because he’d been in a fight, but it was the first time the man I was with and developing deep feelings for was responsible for it. For some reason, I thought Cash would never put his hands on me or anyone I knew and loved, and now, I wasn’t sure why I even thought that. The man was known for punishing and killing people with his fists. Why did I ignore what he was truly capable of?
“Sugar Baby, will you let me explain?” Tyreek asked as I put the cream on his busted lip. “It’s really not what it looks like.”
“Did you lie to me? You told me you robbed Sko. Was that not the truth?”
“Yes! If you will just calm down and let me explain, everything will make sense.”
Since he hardly ever raised his voice at me, I realized he was serious. I told him I’d hear him out after I got himtogether and calmed down. He stayed over so much my guest room was basically his room and he had clothes here too, so he took a shower while I smoked and baked the quickest thing I could throw together to try and calm down, which was peanut butter cookies.
By the time they were done, I was on my second blunt, and Tyreek was coming out of the bathroom looking refreshed.
“You ready to talk now?” he asked, reaching for my blunt.
“Boy, you know I don’t let you smoke with me.”
He sucked his teeth as he sat on the island. “I don’t know why. You know I do it anyway.”
“So? It’s bad enough I can’t get you to stop cursing around me. You act like I’m not your elder.”
He chuckled. “Baby, please. You ain’t my elder. Not like Granny. You my big sister. Plus I’m eighteen. You the one who took me to get my first box of condoms.”
