Page 6 of Arris, Jayme & Dyani
She took it and her eyes slowly went over each word before she gazed up at me.
“If I decide I’m serious, I’ll let you know,” she said with a little smile. “I promise.”
I nodded once and took a step back out of the doorway. I pivoted and headed toward the elevator.
I froze halfway there when I heard whistling and looked back at Dyani who was hanging out of the door.
“Goodnight, Arris.” She waved at me and I gave her a nod.
“Goodnight, Dyani.”
Chapter 2
Dyani
I poppeda piece of gum into my mouth and rolled my eyes at my older brother while he looked at me from the driver’s seat of his car, one hand on the steering wheel.
“So D-Ville is good enough for you but not me, right?” I asked.
“That’s right, and we’re not about to argue about this shit anyway because I’ve already said how I feel.”
“And what? You think you get to just make decisions for me now?”
“Nah, but I can definitely block some shit and I know that.”
I scoffed at that and shook my head.
“You’re fucking annoying. You know that?”
“I’ve heard some shit like that once or twice.” He shrugged and faced forward again. “There’s a cute little apartment complex by Brunswick Meadows that has vacancies.”
“And what? You think you can commit me to coughing up that kind of money?” I asked seriously.
I had money saved, sure, but if I had to choose between living in D-Ville and living near Brunswick Meadows, I definitely would have chosen D-Ville. Not only was it cheaper, but my brother lived in the building and I knew for a fact he knew a lotof the other residents so I wasn’t worried about safety or being uncomfortable.
“Man, listen. I’ll cover the price difference.”
I shot Darryl a look.
“So, what? You don’t want to be my neighbor?”
“Nah. You might be trying to spy on me and be in my business and shit.”
“Whatever, nigga.” I laughed and pushed him away from me. “If anything I should be worried about you trying to be in my business.”
“Probably,” he admitted. “I’m not going to lie about it.”
“Well that’s character growth,” I teased.
He laughed. “Look, they gave The Ville a little makeover and tried to gentrify that shit, but it’s still The Ville and always will be. There’s nothing too crazy going on in there or nothing, but at the same time, the less time you spend with or around my friends, the better.”
“You would think you would want me to be around your friends. You don’t think they’d look out for me?” I teased.
“My friends are hoes and I’d hate to have to fuck one of them niggas up behind you.”
“You realize I’m grown, right?”
“Don’t nobody want to hear that shit, Dyani.”
