“Nineteen?” Aunt Max snatched the thoughts from my head.
Inez folded her arms. “Mommy, he loves me and treats me so good. I love him, and he loves me.”
“Stupid ass.” I muttered.
She snapped her neck in my direction. “What did you say?”
“Why you so stupid, Inez? We the same age, what the fuck would I want with a fifteen-year-old? Nigga a fucking pedophile.”
Inez reached up and slapped the shit out of me. I ate it, because I would die before I put my hands on a woman. “Don’t speak about my child’s father like that.”
My mother removed herself from the kitchen, grabbing Inez back from me. “Nezzy, apologize now.”
“Fuck him! He thinks ’cause he pays bills in here that he can say whatever he wants. You are not my father!” she screamed.
“Dang, I can’t even take a nap in here,” Kenneth came out the room.
I could see the red bandana hanging from the back of his pants. “I told you to stay away from them blood niggas, didn’t I?”
“How the fuck am I catching strays?” My mother popped him in the back of his head, and he ducked. “Sorry, mommy.”
“He thinks he is the boss of us all, and you both let him be!” Inez yelled, pointing at both my mother and hers. “You’re not my fucking father, Goo!”
All I could do was laugh. I laughed because when she needed something, I got my ass out in those same streets and made the bread for her. Inez never had a problem when it came to asking me for money.
Never had the issue of me showing up and being there like I was her fucking father. Now because I had a problem with her boyfriend’s age, she had a problem with me inserting myself into her shit.
She was fifteen years old. There was no reason she should have been pregnant, and she damn sure shouldn’t have been fucking with a nineteen-year-old man.
“You right, Nez. I’m not your father… go ahead and get the first aid kit.” I replied, walking backwards toward the door.
“Goo, what you tawkin’ for?” Aunt Max yelled back, confused by my request.
“I’m beating the shit out your boyfriend, Nez.”
She tried to reach out and grab my shirt, and I snatched away from her. “Goo, don’t put your hands on him. This is my life, and I wanted to be with him.”
“No likkle girl decides to be with a grown man,” my mother snapped.
Inez rushed toward the back to grab her sneakers, but I was already out the door. She had me fucked up if she thought I was going to sit back and accept that shit. She was underage and had no business even talking to that nigga.
The cool breeze hit my face the minute I left from out the building. I damn near leaped down the stoop’s steps and headed toward the corner store. Rylan stayed in the neighborhood, and I knew he was at the store. That was probably how he met Inez in the first place.
More than likely, me or my moms sent her to the corner store to grab something, and the two met there. His ass was always glued to the front of that store, with his car parked in front listening to loud ass music.
I flexed my hands, feeling the excitement cruise through my blood. Putting hands on him was about to be the highlight of my week.
Like I knew he would be, he was chilling in front of the store, leaned on his Lexus truck as he spoke to a brown skinned girl with curly hair that appeared to be around the same age as Inez.
He briefly looked up. “What up, G?” Rylan thought shit was sweet until he saw my face and how I was coming toward him. He scooted the girl away. “Erin, let me holla at you later.”
She nodded and picked her bags up and rounded the corner. Before he could ask what the problem was, I smashed myfist into his mouth and started beating the shit out of him. I stomped his ass out with my sneakers and continued whopping his ass.
“She’s fucking fifteen, nigga!” I spit in his face as I continued to jump all over his ass, while he screamed out in agony.
“Goo, you alright?” Inez clapped her hands in my face.
I was so zoned out that I never noticed that she left the couch and was now standing in front of me. “Yeah, thinking of some shit that I need to do.”
