Tulen smirked while hitting Tuden on the chest. “Awh! I thought you was gon’ say you been shoppin’ for dawifey.”
“And if I was? Don’t be actin’ like you niggas ain’t the boss at trickin’. Tuden been trickin’ since he got his first job. Lil’ ass check and tryna cop a bitch some Jordans.”
Tulen coughed up smoke in laughter as I told the story of us going to the mall back then. I’d borrowed the neighbor’s car to take Tuden to the mall and was mad as fuck when he got to the register, and he didn’t have enough. He walked out of the mall the same way he went in, with sixty-two dollars. I wasn’t putting in on shit back then over a bitch I wasn’t fucking.
“Guess what, Shit-talker?” Tuden asked after we laughed over the dumb shit he’d done as a youngin’.
“Who don’ died?” he yelled out.
“Mane, ain’t nobody died.” Tuden grinned, and I knew he was headed down the road of good bullshit.
“Aite, so tell me sum’n good.”
“Yo’ favorite hood nephew don’ got married.”
Shit-talker turned his body in an almost unnatural position since my chair was behind him. “You done joined the MNS?”
“The who?” we asked in unison.
“The Married Nigga Society!”
I sucked my teeth. “Bruh! You just be makin’ up shit. You don’t need shit else to drink.”
“On God!” Tulen shook his head.
“MNS was founded by Benson Brown back in 1872. Look it up, niccahs. But, damn, Nephrew. I’m proud of ya.”
Instead of replying to Shit-talker, I held up my middle finger to my childish-ass brothers.
“Fuck dem niccahs! Dey still got milk on dey tongues.” Shit-talker rested his elbow on his thigh and slightly hunched his back over. He was going to be aching like a motherfucker in the morning. “Lemme ask you dis. How she look?”
Tulen grunted. “Fine as hell!”
“As a muhfuckah! Ion know how dat nigga got out and lucked up like dat. She slick famous too. Bossed up and errthang.” Tuden was full-on grinning like I wouldn’t lay his ass out.
I was tired of explaining that Glow and I weren’t like that, so I let it rock. My brothers knew what was up but still liked to fuck with me from time to time. They acted like Tulscan and Tuscany weren’t already married.
“Look…”
Tuden had pulled up Glow’s Instagram page. The last picture she’d posted was from the Sniff-and-Sip party, when she was inthat little-ass bow top. That fucking get-up she was wearing was the reason I cornered her ass and propositioned her to be my wife. It was crazy because it wasn’t that long ago, but so much shit had transpired since then that it felt like it had been years since that party.
“Oh, damn…” Shit-talker leaned back before leaning forward and looking up to Tuden. “How da fuck you zoom in on dis box-ass phone?”
Tulen fell out laughing while I snatched the phone from Unc, locked the screen, and tossed it back in my brother’s lap.
“My bad, Nephrew…” He held his hands up, the paper-wrapped beer can still occupying his right hand. “She high yella dan a muddafucka, but she cold as ice in da middle of da Arctic Ocean. Dese niggas gon’ be suitin’ up to deep dive fo’ dat dere. You know how to swim, Nephrew?”
Tuden and Tulen were hollering in laughter, and the scene had a few old heads in the hood looking our way.
Shit-talker jutted his chin at my hand. “Where da fuck yo’ ring at? I know you ain’t out here puttin’ on for dese tied-ass hoes?”
“Yeah, where yo’ ring at, Tunan…” Tuden instigated with Tulen coughing on smoke again. His ass needed to put the blunt out. He couldn’t be getting high because he had been laughing since he sparked up the second Backwood.
“We ain’t have time for allat, Unc. Shit just happened, but she aint trippin’ ’bout it.”
“Lemme ask you dis, Nephrew. Isshewearing one?”
Running my hand over my head, I cut my eyes at my brothers, who were cracking the fuck up again.
