Page 17 of The Hood's Finest: Jersey & Mylani
“Jersey? What you doing here?” he asked, all nervous.
“I should be asking you the same shit, nigga. The fuck you doing coming from the back?” My nostrils flared at the thought of him fucking Mylani and her playing me, knowing I was coming through.
“Uhh. I came to holla at my baby mama,” he explained.
“Baby mama?”
Mylani emerged from the back right before Ray’s ass had a chance to explain.
“Hey. My bad for keeping you waiting,” she informed. “Why you look like that?” She noticed the sour look on my face and turned her attention toward Ray.
“You know this nigga?”
“Yeah. That’s Trinity’s dad.” She had an uncertain look on her face when she responded, but she had nothing to worry about. I had my answer. Ray worked at the trucking yard and had a whole wife and kids at home. Whatever he did in his life had nothing to do with me. I had some shit I was gonna holla at him about, though.
“Oh, aight. Aye, Ray. You might wanna pick up more slack ’round this bitch so that my girl ain’t gotta do the shit for you. Let me find out that you not and we gone have a few problems.” I looked that nigga square in his face and dared him to contest me. This nigga was feeding his baby mama dope instead of takingcare of his responsibilities as a man. I had a huge problem with that, especially when I knew the nigga was eating good.
“You ready?” I turned my focus back to Mylani. When she nodded her head, I took the overnight bag that I was glad to see out her hand and led her to my car.
I opened the passenger door for her to get in before putting her bag in my back seat and going to the driver’s side. I wasn’t pulled off good before she started with the questions.
“How you know my sister’s dad?” she asked, getting straight to the point.
“He works for my pops.” I didn’t wanna give her all the logistics, only enough to ease her mind. It wasn’t like I was lying.
“Oh, okay. You know about his home life?”
“His home life ain’t my business. If you’re tryna ask me if I knew he was your sister’s dad, nah, I didn’t. When I saw the nigga, I thought he was there to see you, to be honest.”
“Are you serious?” She shrieked. “You thought his old ass was there to see me?”
“He ain’t that old, and yeah, I did. No offense, I didn’t think your moms was his speed.”
“She’s something, because he can’t stay his ass away. He’s part of the reason that she’s on drugs in the first place.” I glanced over at her and felt like shit. I knew exactly where he was getting the coke to give her mom, but it wasn’t my business to tell. I switched the subject because I didn’t need another nigga’s business to fuck up what I had going on. I pulled back up to my house and parked the car in the garage.
“This is a big house for one person, but it’s beautiful.”
“’Preciate it. It’s not as big as it looks, though. It’s only five bedrooms. I wanted to be comfortable and not feel smothered. Them condos weren’t big enough, and I wasn’t a fan of having people live that close to me,” I explained. I had neighbors now, but they weren’t in a nigga’s front door.
“I can definitely relate, living in the hood. You shared a yard or driveway with your neighbor most of the time, and that could be annoying.”
I’d had enough of the subject and was ready to enjoy the rest of our night.
“Hand me your bag and make yourself at home.”
I went upstairs to put her bag in my room and came back down and found her sitting on the couch, looking as if she didn’t belong.
“I told you to make yourself at home. Why you over there looking like you scared to touch something?”
“I’m fine. I didn’t want to mess with your things.”
“You ate?” I asked, ignoring her statement.
“Not since earlier.”
“Aight, cool. I’ll whip something up real quick.”
“You cook?” she asked with a skeptical look on her face.
