“The shit being your daughter?”
Them eyes rolled again and she was lucky I had a damn heart. “Her attitude and her behavior are too much. She’s smartso she thinks she can do whatever. He was supposed to help me get a firm hold on her since he’d been her daddy’s homeboy.”
I just stared at this fool as she basically convinced herself that King’s old ass was the best thing for her child. Even though it was clear he had some type of creep tendencies and was old enough to be cool with Lyric’s father. “So you moved on to plan B.”
“I couldn’t find Travis and this is where King said you normally be. So are you really going to take her or not cause if not—”
“What you got a line of niggas that are trying to get at your daughter? Gotdamn, I know Dae rolling around in his grave seeing how you acting.” I was disgusted listening to her talk about this girl the way she was. I’d seen people fight harder for their damn rollover minutes than she was for her kid.
“I mean she getting a body like her mama so of course they notice. I’m just trying to do the right thing because King already gave me some bread. He been helping for years so of course he’d be the first person I turned to. He made sure we ate and looked out for us.”
I had to roll my eyes because I knew all that looking out shit came with a price. There was no reason she couldn’t get her ass up and get a fucking job or even ask King for some work. I wasn’t sure if Lyric was the price for his kindness, but that was a debt King’s ass would never collect on. She must’ve seen my disgust with her on my face because she went back to saying what she needed to. I was glad cause that meant she could get the fuck from around me before I called some girls we knew to beat her ass. “I know that y’all are tight so I’m bringing her to you for safekeeping until he show up.”
“And if he don’t?”
She shrugged like she really ain’t give a fuck. “It ain’t my business.”
I took a step back to resist the urge to strangle this bitch. It was too hot out here to keep her around because no matter what, if she got loud she was going to draw attention to us. Despite wanting to keep the peace, I had to let her know I ain’t like how she was moving. “You foul as fuck Reina.”
“Mama gotta have a life too, Jodi.” She said that shit so smugly that I knew this kid was gone be better off without her. My ass might not have been the greatest but it was clear I wanted more for her than her foul ass mama did.
“Yeah, when your kid is grown, not when they still young and need you. But like I said, I’ll give you an address to drop her off at once you got everything I requested. She can’t stay with me until then.”
“Whatever. I’ll have it. Like I said, I got moves to make. And whenever King stops this hiding shit whatever needs to be done to get her transferred over to him is between y’all. Once I give her to you, I’m out of it.” She held her hands up and backed away like I was gone Uno reverse and force her to keep her chap.
I didn’t know what the hell I’d just signed up for, but I would never let this girl feel the depth of what her mama had done. This girl was just out here solo and I couldn’t let her get eaten by the sharks. Especially not when the biggest one was her mama. I wasn’t sure there was a way to soften the blow of being abandoned: there wasn’t I’d experienced the shit myself. But I’d do what I could so that she knew if nothing else me and Travis had her one hundred percent.
COREY
“WHAT YOU GONE do with a kid?”
Trav’s ass was looking at me like I had all the answers to this situation. Like it hadn’t just been dumped in my fucking lap a few short hours ago and I wasn’t trying to figure this shit out my damn self.
I stopped pacing and put my hands on top of my head. I was too grown to be acting like a bitch, but this wasn’t some shit I had planned for. It would be one thing if I knocked somebody up. I had time to get used to the idea of a kid. Plan for it. Rearrange shit so that it could have the best of me. But this? I had a whole teenager being dropped in my damn lap on short notice. Her ass had arrived and quietly accepted her fate like she’d been waiting on her mama to fuck her over for a while. That had me ready to call some girls up from down the street to fuck Reina’s ass up.
“Fuck if I know. But what you want me to do, turn her into DFCS or some shit? You know them muthafuckas don’t really care about they job and they for damn sure don’t care about Black kids at their jobs. I couldn’t have that shit on my heart if that girl got hurt because I ain’t step up.”
I hadn’t stopped smoking since I got back to my place. Even with the visitors I’d had earlier, I greeted them with a cloud of smoke just so I could keep my head in the game. I’d had less than two days to get used to the idea of having a kid around and was only now getting around to talking to Travis about it.
“Nah I feel you but shit. A whole ass dependent in this muthafucka. It ain’t like her ass a toddler either. How old is she?”
“Fourteen almost fifteen her mama said. She short as shit though so who knows?” All that shit that Reina talked about her daughter having a body was bullshit. Not like I was checking for her ass like that. When I saw her she looked exactly like what she was: a little ass girl. Lyric was short as shit, no taller than five two or three and dressed like the normal kid she was.
“She basically an adult. Shit, you remember how we got down at fourteen and fifteen? And you want a girl out here doing that shit?” Trav was looking worried and had my ass wanting to laugh with how he was acting.
“Why you make it seem like she an alien or some shit, man?” I coughed through my laugh, which was a clear sign I needed to put this shit out. Going with the rational thought in my head I ashed it on the tray I had sitting on the coffee table.
My place was nice. Nothing too fancy and not out in the suburbs. I was on the border of our territory in what was a mildly nicer neighborhood. It gave me the ability to have a semblance of peace without being too far away from work if something needed to get handled. My apartment was two bedrooms, two bathrooms and I knew this shit looked sparse by the way my company had glanced around looking worried. With a black leather sofa, some pictures of rappers on the wall and a big ass TV, I could understand that she was wondering what she’d stepped into.
“Cause she a whole little ass girl. She should be playing with baby dolls or doing quick weaves or something. We can’t teach her shit but what not to do.”
“How many fourteen-year-olds around this hood you know playing with dolls and shit, Trav?” Frankly I was glad that none of the niggas on the block knew her like that. It meant I wasn’tgoing to have to go on a murder spree behind her. Intel on her homegirl wasn’t as clean so she couldn’t come ‘round me for nothing. I didn’t care who she was. I needed to know who I was about to have in my space. Like Trav said, we’d been doing a lot of dirt even as youngins so getting the info on this girl was key while I waited for this paperwork.
He blew out a breath and placed both of his hands on top of his head. “You right. Got damn how we gone move when you gone have a kid at home? And who the fuck is her mama ole tack head ass dropping her off?”
Trav was sensitive like I was to kids being in fucked up situations. When he heard who her mama was he wasn’t going to believe it.
“You know her mama.”
