Pressure sat forward a little and reached for her stomach, rubbin’ it slow while he looked at her. “Calm down, baby.”
“I am calm,” Pluto said, even though she clearly wasn’t.
Pressure held his hand out. “Let me talk to her.”
Pluto hesitated for half a second, then handed him the phone.
Pressure brought it to his ear, his whole voice changin’ when he spoke. “Baby girl, what you need?”
He listened, noddin’ as if Zurie could see him, and the way his hand stayed on Pluto’s stomach while he talked made me look between them for a second.
“A’ight,” he said. “Poster board, glue sticks, markers, what else?”
He paused, listenin’ again, then looked over toward the house before lookin’ back down at Pluto. “I got it. I’mma have the stuff picked up, but next time you got a project, you gotta let us know sooner, Z.”
There was another pause, and he nodded.
“I understand that,” he said, still calm. “But that ain’t good enough, baby. Let us know in advance next time, a’ight?”
He listened again, and a smile spread across his face. “I love you too. I’ll be up in a minute to help you.”
When he hung up, he handed Pluto the phone back, and she took it with a look already sittin’ on her face.
“You too easy on her,” she said, rollin’ her eyes.
Pressure leaned back, not bothered at all. “It’s just a school project, baby.”
“That is not the point.”
“I wish them people would fail her ’cause she ain’t got a poster board,” he said, takin’ a sip from his cup. “They better grade the idea and mind they fuckin’ business.”
Pluto looked at him with an attitude. “You missin’ the whole point.”
Pressure leaned in and kissed her before she could say anything else. “Okay, baby. You right. I’m wrong.”
Renza laughed from beside me. “That’s right, Pluto. Keep that nigga all the way in check.”
Pressure looked over his cup at Renza. “You the last nigga that need to be talkin’ about somebody keepin’ somebody in check.”
Then his eyes flicked to me for a second before goin’ back to Renza.
Kay’Lo started laughin’ low, shakin’ his head as he looked down into his cup. Renza smirked and leaned back, but I sat there with my face calm, tryna figure out exactly how to take that.
It wasn’t nothin’ major, and nobody said my name, but I still felt it. It gave inside joke, and I was sittin’ right here without knowin’ what the joke was. I didn’t like feelin’ left out of conversations when I was already the one tryin’ to fit into a space I didn’t fully understand yet.
I picked up my drink and took a sip, keepin’ my face the same because I wasn’t about to give nobody the satisfaction of thinkin’ they had me uncomfortable.
The conversation moved on after that, or at least it seemed to. Pressure and Renza started goin’ back and forth again like nothin’ had just passed, their voices mixin’ in with the music while Kay’Lo sat back in his chair, watchin’ them with that same calm look in his eyes before cuttin’ in here and there when he felt like it. Toni leaned into him again, her hand restin’ on his legwhile he rubbed along her thigh without even lookin’ down, like that was just second nature for him.
Pluto had settled back into her seat too, but not for long. I watched her glance down at her phone again, her lips curlin’ into a smile before her fingers started movin’ across the screen. I didn’t think nothin’ of it at first, not until a second later when Renza’s phone lit up on the table.
He picked his phone up, glanced down at it, and a laugh slipped out before he could even stop it, his head droppin’ a little while he shook it like whatever he just saw caught him off guard.
Pluto didn’t say nothin’ at first, but the way her lips pulled into a smile told me she already knew what he was lookin’ at without even havin’ to ask.
Renza tapped his screen a couple times, still smilin’ to himself, and whatever it was must’ve kept goin’, because he leaned back in his chair a little, starin’ at whatever she sent.
Pluto glanced down at her own phone again, then back up at him, and that quiet little exchange between them felt too easy.
