My mother kissed her teeth as she looked at both of them. “My door… stop slamming my bloodclot door!” she hissed.
Inez turned to face my brother. “I was so heated that I didn’t hear you.”
We all knew when Inez was high, she usually tried to stay away from us. I hated seeing her when she was out of it. My mother was the only one that would rather her safe in the house, than being outside like that.
I would rather her not get high and allow niggas to fuck on her. The reason I worked so hard was so my family didn’t need anything. It was bad enough my moms didn’t want to leave this apartment and wanted to stay in the neighborhood.
I was growing irritated because my question remained unanswered. Inez spun around and dropped her bag onto the kitchen table.
“I was over on Amboy and Lotts with Brenay, and she went to ask her baby fava for money. He shoved her on the floor, you know she pregnant too.”
“He put his hands on you?”
“No, I shoved him because he was gonna start kicking her. Brenay don’t bother nobody, all she wanted was money for the baby… she’s due this month and have been doing everything alone… Goo, it gets hard for her.”
“He spit on you?” Khaos questioned the second time, but he was staring directly into my eyes.
“Yes… that’s so fucking nasty.”
Brenay had been friends with Inez since they were in elementary school. She wasn’t into the shit that Inez was into, but that was her best friend. No matter how much you tried to convince someone to do better, you couldn’t want it more than they wanted it for themselves.
Even though she wasn’t into the same shit that Inez was into, she still chose the wrong kind of nigga to create life with.
Brenay was strict about being around Inez when she was sober. There was too many times when Brenay had been in those same trap houses picking her best friend up off a mattress. As much as she loved her, she couldn’t continue to risk her own life to save her friend who didn’t want to be saved.
“He put his hands on Brenay and spit on you?” I questioned a second time after Khaos, so we could lock in on the crazed shit that was floating in both our heads.
All common sense had exited the chat as soon as she said a nigga spit on her. “Yeah… then when I told him that I’m gonna get my cousin, he spit again and said get whoever the fuck I needed… he wasn’t hiding. Then gonna tell Brenay that bastard baby ain’t his baby.” Inez was more pissed about her friend than the fact that she had gotten spit on.
I went to my room in the back and grabbed my gun and my hoodie. Soon as my moms saw me pulling my hoodie over my head with my gun tucked in my back, she sighed.
“Goo, no… leave it alone. I don’t want you both making trouble… you’re home.” Her biggest fear was seeing me back behind bars.
I mean, I understood her fear. She also had to understand that I wasn’t one for disrespect, especially when it came to my family.
“Not leaving disrespect alone. When it comes to the women in this family or Boobie… not leaving shit alone, Mommy,” I told her, hating that I even cursed at her.
Women were already not protected.
Let me say that again… Black women were already not protected. They went through this fucked up world having to be targets, and having people make think pieces about them. If they were great, they weren’t great enough. If they accomplished something amazing, then the focus was shifted to their humble beginnings instead of the accomplishment.
They had to work ten times harder, tone down who they were, and cover up their roots just to be taken seriously. Then they had the nerve to be marveled at like animals, with women wanting to touch their hair.
It really fucked me up when Black men didn’t protect our Black women. When we allowed the disrespect or were on the other side of doing the disrespect to them. I didn’t know how thefuck the rest of them got down, but when it came to mine, I was shutting shit down every time.
“You see, Inez… you see what that poison does to you and send them out der!” my mother hollered at her, knowing that neither me nor Khaos was letting the shit slide.
I didn’t give a fuck if Inez was a dolphin with timbs on and asked the nigga for a hug. Niggas was gonna die learning about respect when it came to mine.
“I know exactly who the fuck she talking about… nigga owe a few homies money.” Khaos muttered.
“Those dirty ass fucking crip niggas be over that way,” he muttered, checking his gun.
I jogged down the few steps in front of my mother’s building and headed straight to my whip. Since I was running errands, and didn’t feel like riding my bike, I drove. Having to come from Manhattan to Brooklyn pissed me off every time I headed toward that fucking bridge.
One would think I would be in heaven being able to jog through central park every morning.
Nah.
