“What’s up, baby?” he asked.
“Did you show the kids that gotdamn Freaknik video?!” By that point, she was stomping across the grass to go confront him head on.
“What? Baby hell naw, that was your sister!” he said, throwing his hands up in defense, making her turn to look at Chanell accusingly.
“I was just trying to show them my outfit!” she said, laughing. “You know we were fine as hell—I just had to show these lil’ heffas where they got it from!” she blurted before sliding in the middle of Amaya and Mona to show off her own dance moves. Ana laughed and must have realized that she couldn’t beat ‘em, so she joined in, recruiting a few more of their family members to hop in too.
While the women were giving it their all on the makeshift dance floor, Andre and Brian pulled some of us men to the side.
“You drink?” he asked with a mischievous tilt of his head.
“Is this a trick question?” Tahmir shot back.
“Nah, everybody’s grown,” he mused, his smile growing wider as he pulled a huge glass jar from a minifridge he had stashed off to the side.
“You know Mama gon’ be mad if she catches you drinkin’ this, right?” Amari teased.
“Lil’ nigga I’m grown! I do what I want! If I wanna have a drink, I’ma have a drink,” he fussed, passing each of us a red cup full of clear liquid that smelled like peaches and rubbing alcohol. I started to decline it, but decided against it, assuring myself that I would only have this one cup and babysit it the rest of the night.
“Pops, please! You know good and well that lady run you!” AJ said, playfully nudging him on the shoulder.
“Shethinkshe run me,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“What you say, baby?” Ana asked. I shook my head, because ain’t no way she heard him from where she was.
“Nothing, My Love,” he answered quickly, making us all double over in laughter.
“Oh, it’s funny?” Andre quipped, glaring at us, then honing on Brian. “And I know you ain’t talkin’! Pussy whipped ass nigga!” he yelled, making all of us laugh again.
“Oh, IknowI’m whipped,” Brian said. “Nothing short of death is gon’ take me away from that woman over there.” He blew a kiss at Chanell who promptly blew one back. Tahmir, Andre, and I all muttered something along the lines of “I feel you.” Before our eyes involuntarily went over to our women as well. We all had another toast and threw our drinks back. Amaya’s people were cool—so cool that I caved into peer pressure and forgot how many cups of that damn moonshine or plates of food not on my dietary list that I had.
CHAPTER 24
SHUT UP & GO TO SLEEP
“Y'all get home safe now,”Uncle B said with a snort as he, my dad, and AJ finished loading up a drunk as fuck Chase and an only slightly less drunk Tahmir into the back of Tahmir’s truck.
“Itoldthem niggas not to drink that moonshine,” Mona huffed with an attitude as she climbed into the driver's seat. I hopped my ass in the passenger seat so she could drop us off at my house. All in all, the day had been a huge success. The guys fit right in with our people, and despite a little bit of harmless teasing, everyone had a good time. So much so, that Tahmir and Chase got tore up off moonshine and had to be carried out of the place.
“You gotta admit, the dance battle was funny as hell,” I said, laughing all over again at their big asses trying to ‘You Got Served’ us in the middle of my parents’ backyard. We won, of course. Them niggas couldn’t do nothing with us.
“Thatwas funny, but that was only a couple drinks in. Why did Tah think he could win a foot race against a professional football player?! And then busted his ass—he's gonna feelallthat shit tomorrow, and I ain't rubbing him down with Icy Hot!” she lied, and we knew she was lying because once you put a nigga’s toes in your mouth, the limit did not exist.
“Sweets!” Tahmir slurred from the backseat, “YouknowI can hear you, right, baby?”
“Good! Because you hadnobusiness!” she said with a laugh. I looked back to check on Chase, and he was sleeping like a newborn baby after a good feeding. I had never seen him take so much as a sip, and after seeing what his drunk ass looked like doing the Chicken Head, I understood why he tried to stay away from the bottle.
“Whatever,” Tahmir said, sucking his teeth. “It was fun, though.” He hiccupped, then leaned back and closed his eyes. I couldn't fully tell, but it looked like his ass immediately fell asleep too.
“Itwasfun,” Mona whispered under her breath. We both sighed into the silence as she drove, and the boys had a competition for World's Loudest Snorer.
“Y'all seemreallyhappy,” she said softly. Because I had known her ass since before she could speak, I immediately caught the sadness in her voice.
“We are, but why did you say it like that?” I asked with a raised brow.
“No reason!” she chirped back quickly… too quickly.
“Mona,” I fussed. “Bitch, youknowwe don’t do that. Spill it.”
