Page 21 of Down With the King of the South (Down With the King of the South 1)

I was so fuckin’ sick of this shit! I knew I should have never answered the phone in the first place.

Toddrick “Miami” King

“What you getting into tonight? I’m sick of the whole strip club scene. I’m trying to do some new shit. Let’s call up a jet and go to Vegas to gamble,” Jabari said.

It was five in the evening, and he and I were in my home gym. I loved working out; it helped to alleviate a lot of the stress that a nigga be dealing with. Sweat was dripping from just about every part of my body, and it looked like someone had just taken a bucket of water and thrown it on me. I’d lifted so many weights tonight that the veins in my arms were showing more than they usually did. A gallon of water sat on the floor right next to my feet. All I needed to do was take a few more swigs, and I would have finished the entire thing. I was sitting down on the bench that went with the bench press as I used the hand towel to wipe away the sweat from my face.

“Shit, I got four tickets to see a fight tonight at the Hardrock, but I don’t know if Ima go, though. It’s supposed to start at ten. Jimbo, a little nigga who grew up right here in Miami, is supposed to be fighting somebody tonight from Colorado. He came to the rec center last week and personally handed me the tickets. I’m not really in the mood to step out tonight like that,” I said.

“Nahhh, if dude from Miami, you have to go off rip. You gotta show bruh some support. He handed you them tickets for a reason, which means he wants your ass to be there. You like the king of boxing nationwide, Miami, so just go because it’s a whole bunch of other shit that his ass could be doing with his life, but he’s doing something productive. I’ll go with you. Call up your girl and see if she wants to go. Tell her to bring her shit talking ass friend too,” he said.

It took me a little minute to figure out who he was talking about, then it clicked that he was talking about Jashae and Mahogany.

“Why you want Mahogany to come? Just so you could fuck with her ass again. Take her crazy ass lightly if you want to. Shorty missing a few screws for real,” I warned him.

“I’m missing a few myself, so what? Let me find out you being a pussy and don’t want to call Jashae,” he told me.

“Fuck you, nigga! Ain’t nothing pussy about me! I’ll call her right now,” I said then stood and went to the counter where my phone was.

It was hooked up to the Bluetooth speakers that I had inside the gym, and some old school JT money was blasting through the walls. I hadn’t talked to Jashae on the phone in years, so I honestly didn’t know if her number was still the same. I’m not going to lie, I was hoping that I had deleted it so I could have that as an excuse not to call. I let Jabari’s ass hype me up to call her, and now I was a little nervous to do the shit. I guess I was thinking about the fact that she could possibly say no and clown me while I had her on the phone, right in front of this shit talking ass nigga.

I found her name and number then went ahead and called it, placing the phone on speaker. Almost four rings had gone by, and she still hadn’t answered the phone. Just when I was getting ready to hang up, it picked up, and I heard some shuffling around. I could hear the wind blowing as if she was either standing outside or she was in the car with her windows rolled down.

“Hello?” she answered. Her hello was basically her in confusion of about who was calling her.

That right there proved to me that she didn’t even have my number saved in her phone.

“What’s up, Choc?” I asked.

“Miami? Hey, what’s going on? Hold on, I’m walking to the car. I just left the hair salon,” she said.

I waited another minute or so and then I heard her soft voice come back on the phone.

“Hey. Everything alright? If you tried calling Vonte, he’s in practice right now. They won’t get out for another hour or so,” she went on to say.

“Nah, I actually called to talk to you. What you got planned for tonight? I have tickets to watch a fight, and I wanted to see if you and Mahogany wanted to roll. I’m going to bring my cousin, Jabari, with me,” I said.

“Mahogany doesn’t like your cousin,” she said, followed by a beautiful ass laugh. “If I tell her that he’ll be there, she won’t want t

o come,” she let me know.

“Then don’t tell her that he’s coming. What about you, though?” I asked.

There was a forty-second pause before I heard her voice on the phone again.

“Ummm, as long as Mahogany agrees to come with me, and you bring your cousin for sure. It can’t be just you and me because ummm, you know? I don’t want it to look like it’s a date and people get the wrong impression,” she said, and I nodded, agreeing with her.

“Yeah, Jabari definitely is going to be there, so you don’t have to worry about that. Just four friends going out. It’s not a date, Choc. If I had to take you on a date, just know that it wouldn’t be in a room filled with a bunch of motha fuckas because I would want to be able to hear you when you speak. Besides, a boxing match is not my ideal place for a date. Call your girl up, let her know the plans, and y’all can meet us there tonight. I’ll text you over the address when we hang up,” I let her know.

“Okay,” and just like that, she hung up the phone.

In the middle of me texting her the address, I heard Jabari in the background laughing.

“A boxing match is not my ideal place for a date,” he mocked me, followed by a laugh.

“Fuck you! It’s not! If I’m feeling somebody, Ima take her somewhere nice, where it’s a nice little ambiance, where the two of us could just sit and talk. More than likely that’ll get done over dinner. I ain’t trying to take it there with Choc yet. That’s my friend,” I went on to say.

“Keep telling yourself that. Your eyes light up like a motha fucka when you talk about shorty. You look similar to the way that I look when I light up a fat ass blunt whenever anybody says the name Jashae. I know I play a lot of games, but like I told you before, you better get her before another nigga do. Keep playing that friend bullshit if you want to, and you going to hit the corner and see her holding hands with another nigga. By then, it’s going to be too late,” Jabari said, having the fuckin’ nerve to give me some advice.

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