“I’m not on nothing, jit. I just been looking for her. You heard from her at all?” Kross still had her phone and wallet, but he was hoping she would’ve managed to reach out to her brother or mother somehow, someway.
Melo could hear the worry in Kross’ tone, so he cuffed the basketball between his arm and side and began walking over to the car. “Nah, I ain’t heard from her. She was supposed to be back to move the rest of my and our mama’s shit, but she never came back.” He shrugged his shoulders. “My sister good, right? Ain’t nothing happen to her?”
“I’m trying to make sure she straight. I’m Kross.” He extended his hand through the window to dap Melo up.
Melo eyed Kross’ hand skeptically for a moment before opting to shake his hand. He had heard Kross’ name here and there around the duplex whenever Andres or Raquel stopped by with Aniyis. Melo minded his business and stayed out the way, so he never tried to figure out who Kross was.
“You was dating my sister or something?” Melo eyed him up and down.
Kross wasn’t the slightest bit intimidated by him, but he respected Melo’s approach. He was becoming a man, and he believed in protecting his sister.
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“Well, if you can’t find her, I think that’s how she wanna keep it. Niggas get ghosted every day. This won’t be the first time or the last,” he slyly let out with a shrug of his shoulders.
Another deep chuckle sounded from Kross as he shook his head. He was starting to see that a slick mouth was hereditary amongst Remedy and her little brother.
“I ain’t fucking get ghosted,” Kross clarified, only for Melo to scoff as if it were hard for him to believe otherwise.
“Look, fam, I don’t know if nobody ever told you, but if you can’t find a female or don’t get an answer when you hit her up on her phone, then you gotta just take a hint.”
Kross smacked his lips as he reached into the back seat of his car and grabbed Remedy’s Louis Vuitton tote bag and brought it up to the front seat for Melo to see.
“Ain’t none of that shit going on, jit. Me and you sister was kicking it. Then I had to slide to take care of something. Her ex-nigga came and snatched her up while I was gone. She left her phone, her purse, wallet, everything. This shit is serious.”
He didn’t really want to delve into all the details with Melo because he didn’t know how open Remedy was with him, but the little nigga was playing in his face, and he didn’t have time for it.
“Tone? He back from Chicago?”
“That’s that nigga’s name?”
“Wait... you ain’t know him?” Melo bumped his thick brows together.
“I ran into him in the streets, but I ain’t know that was the nigga she was fucking with prior to me,” he admitted.
Kross could see the anger that flashed in Melo’s eyes. It was clear to him that he was privy at some degree of what was going on between Remedy and Tone.
“Man, if that nigga did anything to my sister, I put it on my daddy that I’m gone kill his ass,” he gritted with his fists balled up.
“Listen, you not ‘bout to do nothing. I just need you to give me the address to her crib so I can see if she there.”
“If I ain’t going, then you ain’t going either. I can’t trust none of you niggas ‘round my sister at this point.” Melo shook his head.
Kross pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Melo reminded him a lot of himself. He was strong-willed, stubborn, and thought he could take on the world. He respected how Melo was coming, especially now that Deno had passed, and he felt like he was the only man left who had Remedy’s best interest at heart. He debated for a little while whether he wanted to take Melo with him on the ride before finally opting to just let him come along.
“Get in, bruh,” he caved while hitting the locks.
Melo was shocked that Kross was actually letting him go with him, but he was also glad that he was. He wanted to see about his sister as soon as possible.
“Hold up. I gotta check on my mama. I’ll be back.”
Kross recalled Remedy telling him about her mother’s mental state, so he understood that Melo wanted to tap in with her before he just left. Melo didn’t take long. Thankfully, Ava was occupied in the garden with one of the tenants who lived on the other side of the duplex. Melo returned to the car and hopped in, and Kross pulled off. He typed in the address on the screen on the dashboard of the vehicle, and Kross followed the GPS.
“Ain’t you supposed to be in school?” Kross broke the silence between them.
Snapping out of his thoughts that were consumed with uneasiness regarding his sister, he shrugged his shoulders. “I gotta look out for my mama while Remedy works. She was supposed to be setting me up for online school, but I guess she got busy. When you and Remedy meet?”
“A few months back. She’s cool people once you look past that damn attitude she got.”
