She hit me back quick.
I gotta work, baby. I’m not sure if I can be home by 7, but I still wanna see you.
I smirked and typed back.
Take off. I’ll pay whatever you miss
Hmm… okay
I set my phone down after that, relit the blunt and brought it back to my lips. I pulled off, already movin’ on to the next stop with the rest of my day lined up how I wanted it.
After movin’ around all day, I met up with Blaqson and my potna Sadee, and we stayed out longer than we probably should’ve, ridin’ through the island, stoppin’ at a few spots, checkin’ on people and talkin’ shit the way we always did. It wasn’t nothin’ planned about it. That’s just how we moved when we linked up. One stop turned into two, then into a whole run across Trill-Land before I even realized how late it was gettin’.
By the time we finally went our separate ways, the sky had already started droppin’ into that early night glow, and the streets had that energy where everything picked up instead of slowin’ down. Lights from the stores and food spots lined the strip with music drifting out into the air, and people was still outside like the day wasn’t nowhere near over.
Soon as I got back in my whip, my phone lit up with Reni’s name across the screen, and I already knew what time it was before I even opened it. I glanced at the time and saw 6:50 p.m., and that ten minute window I had left made me sit back for a second before I unlocked my phone.
I typed back quick and kept it simple, lettin’ her know I was on my way and that I was stoppin’ at Auntie Rue’s Sugar House real quick to grab some cookies before I came to get her. I ain’t think nothin’ else of it after that. In my head, I was about to be in and out, talk my shit with Auntie Rue for a minute, grab what I needed, and keep it pushin’.
Soon as I pulled up to the shop, everything looked normal from the outside. The lights was on with the smell of fresh baked cookies still in the air even before I stepped in.
It was one of them places that had been here longer than most of the buildins around it, and people respected it the same way they respected Auntie Rue. She was in her sixties but cooler than a fan.
I pushed the door open, already halfway ready to say somethin’ slick to her before she could say it to me, but the second I stepped inside, I caught the tone of what was goin’ on, and that shit ain’t sit right with me at all.
Auntie Rue was on the other side of the counter, goin’ back and forth with her overgrown ass nephew Melo. The way he was talkin’ to her made my whole mood switch before I even moved another step. He was standin’ too close with his voice raised like he forgot who he was talkin’ to. Auntie Rue wasn’t backin’ down from him either, even though she had no business havin’ to stand there like that in her own shop.
Melo was a twenty-seven-year old ass bum. I had heard about him takin’ money before; lil’ shit here and there that Auntie Rue tried to brush off or handle quietly, but seein’ him standin’ in front of her like that, talkin’ reckless, had me already movin’ before I even thought about it.
“You been stealin’ from me, and I’m sick of it!” She was sayin’, her voice tight, but she wasn’t yellin’ just to yell. She was standin’ on what the fuck she knew.
“I ain’t took shit,” he shot back, loud and disrespectful, like he ain’t grow up under her.
I stepped closer, not sayin’ nothin’ at first, but just watchin’ how he carried himself, and the more I looked at it, the more I ain’t like it. It wasn’t just the words. It was the way he leaned into her space and moved like he ain’t have no type of respect for who she was.
“Aye,” I said, my voice cuttin’ through that shit without me raisin’ it.
He barely glanced at me, like I wasn’t even here, and that told me I was most likely gon’ have to get active.
“Aye,” I repeated, and this time I ain’t move my eyes off him.
Auntie Rue kept talkin’, still pressin’ him about the money. And instead of steppin’ away like he should’ve, he got frustrated and pushed her back like she was in his way.
She stumbled back into one of the racks behind her, and trays of cookies dropped from the impact, hittin’ the floor in a mess that shouldn’t have never happened.
I ain’t even remember closin’ the distance between us…
Next thing I knew, I had my hand fisted in his shirt, draggin’ his dumb ass over the counter like he ain’t weigh shit. When his feet hit the ground on my side, I let him go just long enough for him to realize where he was before I slapped the fuck outta him and dropped him right at my feet.
“What the fuck wrong with you?” I asked, my voice low, but it carried enough that he heard every bit of it.
He tried to push himself up, probably off instinct more than anything, and I stepped into it and kicked him in his face before he could even get halfway there.
“Nigga, is you cool?” I asked, lookin’ down at him. “That’s yo’ auntie you just knocked down.”
His lip split open on impact, and I could see it already bleedin’ and swellin’, but I ain’t feel no type of way about it. If anything, I felt myself gettin’ more irritated the longer I stood here lookin’ at him.
“Nigga, it’s bad enough you almost thirty, workin’ in a fuckin’ bakery, and you stealin’ too?” I went on. “Then you put yo’ hands on yo’ auntie? What type of dick you smokin’?”
