Page 4 of Girl, We Go Together
“Na, it’s nothing important, beautiful.”
She gave me a half smile that showed off the small gap between her two front teeth before twiddling her thumbs around one another. Something was on her mind.
“What are you thinking about?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“My dog.”
It was a random ass thought, but I was interested in entertaining it. When some people go through traumatic stuff, they start thinking about everything in their lives. Her thinking about a dog after being shot wasn't the craziest shit I’d heard.
“What happened to it?”
“Nothing. He’s home by himself right now, and I’m not supposed to get discharged for a couple of days.”
She leaned back in bed and sighed before grabbing her cellphone from the nearby table.
“You got somebody to feed him? I can drop by to walk and feed him if you need me to.”
She gave me an uncertain look, which was understandable. After all, we were strangers.
“Mmm,” she twisted her mouth unsurely, “I can ask Zynea.”
She typed around on her phone, and then it started ringing, so she answered the call.
“Oh, dag, I forgot they were putting you on the road already. No, it’s okay, I’m gonna see if someone else can do it for me. No, don’t be sorry. I love you, too. Safe travels.”
She ended the line and then rolled her brown eyes over in my direction.
“So…” she said sweetly.
“So?” I crossed my arms over my chest and then looked at her with a smirk. “You need a nigga, huh?”
The corners of her mouth turned upward, revealing her deep dimples and bright, full set of teeth.
“Well, technically, Mello needs you.”
“Who the fuck is Mello?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“My Shih Tzu. His name is Marshmallow, but I call him Mello for short.”
She scrolled around on her phone and then turned it my way so I could see the white dog she had. She was smiling hard in the picture with him. I looked at the time on my Apple Watch and then stood from my seat. After a light stretch, I gave her my phone number so she could text me her address.
“Where are your keys?”
She pointed to the table on the other side of the room.
“You can get them out of that hot pink purse right there.”
I went to get the bag and handed it to her.
“You just couldn’t go in there and get it?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“A nigga that’ll dig around in your purse will fuck around and steal from you. Don’t let no nigga dig around in your bag,” I said with the straightest face.
She chuckled before grabbing the bag from me, reaching inside, and then handing me the keys.
“I'm gonna stop at my crib and wash this off me first if that’s okay?”
I still had her blood on my clothes from the night before.
