“One day, you all will take my allergies serious.” I snickered.
The cool breeze swarmed past us as we were chilling on the stoop. Everyone was at peace, and I could tell it had been a while since we all had felt this. I nursed the drink that Navy had made for me, before she disappeared the minute Don came onto the block.
“This drink starting to taste like I’m about to be a father of five,” Meer loudly announced, as he stepped down from the stoop.
Capri snatched the drink from him, spilling some in the process. “Oh, fuck no.”
He pulled her up and she wrapped her arms around his neck, as they danced to the music. Nigel had come back over here three times, and the last time Meer had bought all the rest of the drinks from his cooler.
Meer bought me a lime and apple flavor that Nigel had, and we were sharing one of Gam’s cookies. As much as I could feel the cool breeze, a bitch was hot as hell. I think my panties were sweating with how hot I had gotten since I finished that drink and my piece of the cookie.
“Ya’ll not hot?” I blurted.
Blair, who was sitting on Quasim’s lap, looked over at me. If her staring wasn’t enough, Quasim took a pull from his spliff and looked at me too, which had me even more paranoid.
“What? Is there something on me,” I started to move my arms, eventually standing up while Cappadonna and Alaia stood at the bottom of the stoop, staring. “Why the fuck you all staring at me?”
“Walk that shit off, Zoy,” Don hollered from the other side of the street.
“Are you alright, Zoya?” Blair questioned.
“After you and your man made me paranoid… now you wanna ask how I’m doing?” I stomped down the steps, mushing Kincaid in the process.
“What the fuck I do?”
“You just here and breathing… weren’t you supposed to be with sky daddy?”
Alaia busted out laughing while holding onto her husband. “All you niggas would have been crying if you lost me.”
Capri and Meer both looked like they were holding in their laugh, as I walked past them. “Yo, Zoya, you good?” Cappadonna called behind me.
“Going to the store… I need some air,” I fanned myself as I turned around and headed toward the corner store.
If you were someone that was easily overstimulated, then the corner store wasn’t the place for you. There were too many damn options of every damn thing when you walked in. You can get everything from water balloons to condoms to horny goat weed.
I didn’t even know why I came to the store, but I was determined to get something. They weren’t gonna look at me like some weird bitch that just walked in and then quickly left without buying anything.
“What water you used for these fucking ice cubes?” Gerald was standing at the counter with a bottle of water, and an ice cup in his hand.
“Spring water,” the store owner replied, but I could tell he was lying.
When you lied and found loopholes to defend more lies for a living, you learned to weed out the actual liars. I could spot someone lying from a mile away.
“You know I can tell the difference between spring water and fucking tap, right?”
“Bullshit. Nobody can tell the difference,” the man challenged, and Gerald smirked, not even noticing that I was standing behind him.
“Which water you used?”
“Same one you’re buying.”
“If I pour this into this cup and it tastes different, I’m gonna beat yo ass, ight?” The man became nervous and tried to back pedal.
“As his lawyer, when he beats your ass, you cannot press charges,” I stood beside him, and he looked down at me and smirked.
“You heard my baby.”
“Damn, Goon, take the ice for free.” He surrendered, knowing he was selling tap water ice for two dollars a cup.
