“Aye!” he called out enough for half the block to hear.
A few heads turned immediately.
“Y’all know this Gio’s wife, she’s holding it down for him.”
That’s what all he had to say. The energy shifted almost instantly.
A couple of niggas nodded at me with respect. Somebody yelled from across the street, “Free Gio!” And a few others echoed behind him.
Kronic looked back at me.
“See, ya nigga earned his stripes out here. We got him.”
I exhaled with a lil’ smile. I knew my nigga was like that, but seeing it by myself was different.
I took a seat next to a girl and watched the block with everybody else. The girl I was sitting next to got me a drink while Bully passed me a blunt. I decided to sit back and enjoy my break from everything I had going on.
After a while of sitting there vibing, an older nigga walked up on me.
“Aye… you got white on you?”
All eyes slowly started to turn toward me again.
I nodded.
The man held up three fingers, and I dug in the duffel bag, pulling out two smaller packs I had weighed out earlier.
He counted forty dollars and handed it to me, and I handed him a pack. He nodded and walked off with a smile on his face. After that, the doors to the shop were open.
Niggas were flocking to me, buying just to show love to Gio, some even giving me more money, telling me to put it on his books. Some telling me to tell him to keep his head up; it was all Gio, all respect.
At some point, I moved off the porch and leaned up against a car, watching a spades game, when my phone rang. I looked at the screen, and it was from jail.
I moved away from the group of people I was around, taking a lil’ walk as I listened to the robot lady and pressed one. It took a few seconds, but I finally heard his voice.
“Hey, Mamas,” he said low.
Just hearing his voice made my chest ache a lil’.
“Hey, baby, how are you?”
“Don’t worry about me, baby. How are you?”
“I’m good,” I said, looking around, checking my surroundings. “I’m out the hood with Bully. Kronic told us to pull up.”
“Oh, yeah?” he responded. “I like the sound of that. They showing out?”
“They are,” I responded quick. “It’s been nice out here, but I have been thinking about something.”
“What is that, boo?”
I hesitated for a second and then blurted out, “What if you were set up?”
The line was silent for a few seconds.
“Why would you say that?” he finally asked.
“I don’t know… something about all this is not sitting right with me,” I said. “The police coming fast, how it was right after you met with ya people. And in the house, it don’t seem like they were actually looking for something. They just tossed our shit all around in every room. Nothing was taken but the shit that was on the table from what I can tell.”
