It was ironic that Moolah was at the homecoming dance, since the following day, he’d be leaving the only place he ever calledhome. Not only that, but in the four years he’d been at the school, he’d never gone to a single dance. What for? There were only a few people on this planet he actually liked and wanted to be around. Most of them were there that night and the only reason he had been roped into coming.
As Moolah moved through the hot ass gym, past sweaty teens gyrating on each other, and through a group of niggas trying to break dance, the mug on his face ensured people didn’t really fuck with him. He preferred it that way.
An involuntary grin spread across his chiseled face when his brown eyes landed on one of his best friends.Iskyiah Nathans. His heart did a little two step in his chest as he watched her pretty ass. Truth be told, Moolah had always looked at her as more than a friend. Iskyiah and her brother moved to DesmoreBay when Moolah was in the sixth grade. They came here to live with their grandmother after their mother passed away.
That first year had been rough for Iskyiah. Depression did its best to pull her down. Moolah saw it in her. Once upon a time, he had the same kind of grief pulling him down, only his grief was from abandonment. His daddy was never in the picture, and his mother was a money-hungry woman who chased after men. It was why she named him Moolah—after her first love,money.She left Moolah in the care of her older brother when Moolah was only five years old.
So, though he didn’t take to new people very well, he was drawn to Iskyiah and her sadness. He helped pull her up out of that grief, and they’d been thick as thieves since. It didn’t matter that she was two years younger than him. Iskyiah had always been his lil homie, but as she grew, so did his feelings. Unbeknownst to Iskyiah, Moolah had upgraded her from lil homie to lil baby.
He stood in the cut for a minute, watching her. She wore a short silver dress that he knew her grandma couldn’t have known about. It showed off all her curves, and Grandma Wanda definitely wouldn’t have gone for that. Iskyiah probably had another dress hidden somewhere that she had changed out of when she got here and would change back into when she left.
Her curly hair was straightened and fell in waves down her back, and her makeup was flawless, though Moolah preferred her barefaced.
The only reason he didn’t stand there longer like a creep was because he saw sadness dancing across her face. Moolah didn’t like that too much, so he swaggered over to her and pinched her chin between his fingers. Iskyiah looked startled at first, but she relaxed when she saw her best friend.
“Fuck wrong wit’ you, Sky?” he asked, using the nickname everyone called her by. He studied her face. Her brown eyeslooked a little too watery for his liking. The buttery brown skin on her face was tinged with red. Either she was irritated or had already been crying. Iskyiah tried to turn her head to look away, but his fingers gripping her chin prevented it. Her smart ass chose a point right above his head to look at instead. “We can stand here all night like this. I ain’t got shit else to do.”
Moolah really didn’t give a fuck. Iskyiah had to know he didn’t want to be there, anyway, so looking at her to pass the time was more than alright by him.
She sighed. Her minty breath tickled his nose. Moolah fought the urge to lean down and kiss her. He’d became a master at that by this point—notkissing her.
“Charles—”
“Come here.” Moolah dropped his hand from her chin and grabbed her hand.
He no longer cared to hear what else she had to say. Her boyfriend, Charles, was a fuck ass nigga who needed his ass beat. Both Moolah and Hassan had offered on more than one occasion, after wiping her tears, to do just that, but Iskyiah always talked them out of it. She didn’t do confrontation, and she didn’t want them stepping into her so-called relationship.
What Iskyiah didn’t know was that Moolah had beat Charles’s ass one good time on behalf of her. It was right after Charles took Iskyiah’s virginity the year prior. Moolah didn’t like the thought of that at all, so when he caught Charles coming out of NellanNem’s Corner Store, he didn’t waste any time. His fists flew, and when Charles was on the ground, his feet put in work.
That nigga was beaten so badly, he had to spend weeks in the hospital. Charles was too embarrassed to admit that Moolah had done such damage to him, so the secret stayed between them, though everyone knew they didn’t like each other. They were in the same grade, and their beef had run deep since freshman year, before Iskyiah even came to their school.
Charles was just a fuck ass nigga, and Moolah didn’t like him because of that. When Iskyiah came to the school as a naive ass freshman, and Charles got a hold on her, Moolah’s hatred skyrocketed.
The sound of the nigga’s name made Moolah’s trigger finger itch, and he had never killed a man in his life. He wasn’t proud to admit it, but Charles really got under his skin like that, especially when he dogged Iskyiah out, like right now.
Moolah guided Iskyiah toward the dance floor and stopped right in the middle. “Dangerously in Love” by Beyonce blared through the sound system, and Moolah grabbed Iskyiah’s waist and pulled her close.
She looked up at him through long lashes. “Not Moolah Brooks dancing at a school dance. Pigs must be flying outside.”
She craned her neck so she could playfully look out the large windows in the gymnasium.
Moolah chuckled. Iskyiah was one of the few people that could witness him smiling or laughing. Let his uncle tell it, even as a baby, he never really smiled or laughed. There wasn’t shit that entertaining in his world that would pull that sort of reaction out of him, but Iskyiah was always the acceptance.
“Hush up, girl, ’fore I leave yo’ goofy ass right here,” Moolah said before he leaned down and buried his nose in her neck. He knew he probably looked goofy leaning on Iskyiah like this and swaying back and forth, but he didn’t care. Emotion built within him as he realized this might be the last time for a while hugging her like this. He leaned into the moment. He was glad she did the same. Moolah didn’t pull away until he felt wetness spilling onto his shoulder where Iskyiah’s face rested. “What you cryin’ for?”
He asked the question, but he felt he knew the reason already. It was the same reason he felt a lump in his throat and his already raspy, deep voice dipped down an octave.
Iskyiah tried to laugh through her tears, something she always did. She put on a tough exterior, but Moolah saw right through that bullshit.
She wiped her tears and stopped swaying as she looked up at him. “Because, boy, I’ma miss you.”
Moolah continued to hold her waist as he looked down at her. He committed her features to his memory, praying the next several months went by quickly.
“My birthday is only six months away, Sky. You ain’t gonna have to miss me for long. Plus, you know I’ma FaceTime you every day.”
She giggled as she blinked away tears, but her smile quickly fell. “Why couldn’t you just be good?”
Her voice came out in a tortured whisper. She was the only person on the planet that could have him feeling any kind of regret.
