Page 29 of Turned Out by His Hood Mentality 1

“Alright, come on. I’ll drive since you’re feeling... umm, what should I say? Under the weather?” she said, trying to be funny.

What a lot of people didn’t know was that Normani could be funny too. She wasn’t serious and uptight all the time. You had to actually get to know her to see that side of her, though.

I laughed at her while I pulled my keys out of my purse because I wanted to drive.

“I’ll drive. If I start feeling queasy, then I’ll let you drive,” I told her, and she nodded like it was cool.

We got in the car and agreed to eat at Yardbird down in Miami for brunch. I keyed in the address on the navigation in my Mercedes. During the ride over, we talked about pretty much everything. Normani expressed her excitement about her upcoming book signing, and I talked about how excited I was to possibly be getting my own storefront.

The nursing business was good, but if everything picked up with my boutique, once I opened the store, I would easily pick my passion over working in a doctor’s office. Don’t get me wrong, my job was cool and everything, but in the beginning, I really just did it because I felt like I had to do something legit if I was trying to be a role model for Dream. We talked a little more, and I even showed my excitement about Dream getting ready to start cheerleading practice next week. It was the weekend, so right now, she was with her father. Before getting to Normani’s house this morning, I’d dropped her off over there.

I said it before that I really didn’t care too much for Chance, but that nigga made sure I brought Dream to his house every weekend.

We were about five minutes away from the restaurant when my phone started ringing through the Bluetooth in my car. It was Billion calling, more than likely on behalf of Monterius. I wouldn’t dare tell my cousin where I was because although we were blood, Monterius was his boy, and them niggas were going to stick together. There was no doubt in my mind that he would rat on me the second I dropped him my location. I would still answer the phone for him; I just wasn’t going to tell his ass where I was.

“Hey,” I answered the phone.

I didn’t want to go through the hassle of taking the Bluetooth off and talking to him with my phone to my ear, I was just going to talk to him through the car system. Normani was in her own world anyway, looking at something on her phone.

“Yo, it’s a one hundred thousand dollar bounty on yo’ head right now. I could use those one hundred Gs. Split the shit between my two kids. Drop your location, cuz. Monterius said the first person to send you to him alive, he paying them on sight,” Billion said.

I rolled my eyes as I continued to drive.

“I’m not telling you where I’m at. I’m your cousin, nigga! You’ll really rat on me over that nigga?” I spat, annoyed at the thought that he would do that.

“Hell yeah! Fuck you mean? I would because I know that you just in your feelings, and you’ll be back with the nigga in another week. If I felt like you were serious and really done, then nah, I wouldn’t tell the nigga

where you were. He said he ain’t even do shit to yo’ ass. He said he got home, and you packed your shit and was out of the house. Why you doggin’ bruh like that?” Billion asked me.

“When in fuckin’ history has a nigga ever confessed to doing anything wrong? You think I’m going to pack my shit up just to get a reaction out of him? No, I’m serious this time!” I voiced.

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll believe it when I see it,” he shot back.

“It’s this exit, Twinkle. Merge over,” Normani called out.

I was so engrossed in the conversation that I wasn’t paying the navigation system any attention.

“Yo, that’s Normani?” Billion asked.

I laughed at how excited his voice sounded when he asked about my girl. Normani hit my arm and shook her head, telling me to tell him no, that it wasn’t her. That had me raising an eyebrow. For one, why did my cousin sound all excited at the sound of her voice? For two, why was she telling me to tell him that it wasn’t her? I didn’t even try to put the two of them down with each other anymore because Billion swore that she wasn’t his type. The day after the party, Normani and I talked on the phone. She went on and on about how much she didn’t like my cousin because he was rude.

I felt like maybe they had seen each other after the party, so nah… I wasn’t going to lie for Normani. I wanted to see where this would lead. I was cheesing so hard like a Cheshire cat because I knew that these two would make such a beautiful couple. They were so opposite of each other, which is what made it so unique.

“Yes, it’s her. How did you recognize her voice, and why you sound so happy to hear her?” I questioned.

Normani hit me on my leg, making me crack up laughing. She was exposing herself, showing me that it was definitely something she didn’t want me to know. Ooooh, I couldn’t wait until I got off the phone with Billion, and she ran down to me what happened because whatever it was, it sounded juicy.

“Normani? Yo, you got me on speakerphone, Twink? Can she hear me?” his deep voice barked through the speakers.

“She hears you. What’s up?” I answered.

“Normani, you see how you do a nigga? You did that dumb shit and ain’t wanna give a nigga yo’ cell phone number. Okay, cool, I accepted that shit. You gave me the office number, and I been calling for the past three days. I put two and two together the first day and found out that you gave me the direct number to the doctor’s office and not your main office phone number. You think you so fuckin’ slick, yo. I know you told that receptionist not to put my calls through because every time I call, she lying to a nigga, telling me that you're either not in the office or you’re with a patient. You mean to tell me that you don’t get a break all day? Now, if I were to pop my ass up at your office, you woulda been mad. I know the location from googling the office phone number. Children’s Medical, right? Shorty, I will pop the fuck up on you! Why are you playing games with me?” Billion’s deep voice boomed through the phone with his southern accent coming out full force.

I was in the driver’s seat, cracking up laughing because my cousin was seriously in his feelings and sweating the fuck out of Normani. I’ve never, I mean never seen him chase after a woman like this before, and I was around to witness him and Sidnesha together when they were supposedly in love. It was cute.

Normani was sitting in the passenger seat, looking unbothered as hell, but I was trying to figure out when the two of them even met up for her to have given him the office phone number.

“Billionaire, I told you that I would give you the office number. I never specified that it would be my direct office number. My assistant isn’t lying either. If you’re calling and she’s telling you that I’m busy, ten times out of ten, I am busy. If I’m with a patient, it’s her job to make anyone calling aware of that. Same thing applies if I’m at the hospital,” Normani said to my cousin in her proper voice.

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