“What the fuck it hurt so fucking bad for?” He let out a disgruntled groan as he laid on the trash bags covering the table.
“It grazed pretty deep. You’re lucky that’s all that happened.”
As he reflected on tonight’s events, he couldn’t help but to agree with her. He played a dangerous game by making a moveon the Zone 7 crew while in the club. Luckily, all he came out with was a graze and none of his people dropped. Them Zone 7 niggas had two funerals to prepare for, and Kross made sure of it. He knew he needed to be prepared and ready for however they chose to spin back on him.
Buddha scavenged the cupboards of the kitchen before coming upon a small bottle of Fireball whisky. He cracked the seal for his nephew before handing it over to him.
“Drink this. It ain’t no fucking anesthesia or morphine, but it might help.”
Without any question, he downed the entire miniature bottle of whisky, desperately hoping it would numb some of the pain Nadine was about to inflict on him. She managed to stop the bleeding with some gauze, which gave him some relief. She sat at the kitchen table and cleaned out the graze with a wet rag and antibacterial soap. With only household products in hand, she couldn’t really do much besides gauze him up and plaster him with bandages. It was a quick fix and the best she could do.
“This all I can do for you right now,” Nadine sighed as she disposed of the gloves she had on her hands.
Buddha extended a hand to Kross to aid him with sitting up on the table. He gazed down to the bandaged wound on his left side before shifting his attention back to Nadine.
“C’mon. You gotta be able to close it up or something. I can’t walk around with this big-ass gash on my side,” he hissed through the pain.
“Go to a hospital,” she suggested with a shrug of her shoulders.
Kross smacked his lips. “You know I can’t do that.”
“It’s either that, or you wait until I get off work tomorrow so I can grab some supplies from the supply closet.” Her brow raised at him as her hands perched on her hips.
Kross let out a heavy sigh of defeat. He attempted to get off the table but ended up stumbling on the way down. He was fucked up from the few drinks and blunts he indulged in at the club, plus the small bottle of whisky he downed to manage his pain. The mixture of his glossy eyes, lack of balance, and excruciating pain in his left side let Buddha know there was no way in hell his nephew could drive home without putting his life or someone else’s life in danger.
“Get your ass on the couch and rest up,” he ordered, making it clear that he wasn’t taking no for an answer.
Kross attempted to protest, but Buddha gave him a lethal look that made him pick his battles wisely. Nadine prepared the couch with a few pillows and blankets before Kross ended up crashing for the night.
The next morning, Kross was stirred out of his slumber by the chickens Nadine and Buddha had in their back yard crowing. The chickens’ natural instinct served as a perfect alarm clock for Nadine and Buddha, but to Kross, they were only a pain in the ass. His entire body felt sore, and it didn’t help that he had to squeeze his six-foot-four frame onto his uncle’s small-ass couch.
“Morning,” Nadine’s voice rang through his ears as he sat up. “I get off work today at seven, so you can bring you ass back here so I can close you up.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
After clipping her hair up in the mirror in the front room, she turned around and faced Kross. It had been years since she and Buddha saw him last, but it seemed as though nothing changed. She thought a seven-year prison bid would have calmed him down a bit, but it seemed to only turn him up more.
“You have so much more to live for besides this street shit,” she whispered, causing Kross to snap his head in her direction.
“Yeah, I thought so too, until I heard they shot up my lady car while my son was in it. Cassie’s gone, and these streets not gone rest until I put down whoever pulled that trigger.”
Nadine sighed deeply at the thought of Cassie’s unwarranted murder and the injuries Aniyis endured. It was a tragic situation, and she knew there were still some unresolved emotions festering within Kross.
“The pain you feel today will be the strength you have tomorrow. Whether you get to live to see tomorrow is up to you,” she preached with a shrug of her shoulders. “I expect to see you back here later tonight so we can get that graze closed up.”
“Fa’sho.” Kross nodded his head as he watched her walk out the door to head to work. Getting up, he made sure to fold the blankets they gave him for the night and stack them up neatly on the couch.
“Unc!” Kross called out, wanting to thank him before he dipped out.
“I’m out back. Come holla at me!”
Kross navigated through the kitchen, which led to a sliding door for the backyard. A light chuckle drifted out of him at the sight of the chicken coup his uncle was maintaining.
“What the fuck so funny?” Buddha raised a brow at him.
Kross shook his head. “My fault. I just never seen you as the type of nigga to get into chickens.”
“This was all Nadine at first, but they grew on me. I never gotta buy a carton of eggs again.” He held up the bucket of eggs he collected just off the morning alone.
