“Hell yeah I am. I was just trying to see if Alba was riding with us or if she wanted to catch a ride with Harmonie when she leaves,” Lock voiced, and both of my brows went up.
He was lying, and I knew it, but I wasn’t going to call him out in front of Alba right then. I could see behind her somber gaze that she wasn’t feeling anything that Lock had just told her, and she knew very well what we were on our way to his apartment to do. Like I said, they were like Frick and Frack. They grew up together and lived on the same block all their lives. I knew the bond that they shared, and most of the time, I tried not to let it get to me because Lock always made me feel secure, whether Alba was around or not.
“I’ll ride,” Alba mumbled.
“A’ight. I’m about to go and take a piss. Just meet me at the car.” Lock went into his pocket for the keys and slid them into my hand as he pulled away from me. His soft lips swept the side of my face, and my heart skipped a few beats.
After all the time together, this was the first time I felt remotely close to wanting to give him the goods. Listening to his conversation with Alba though, I couldn’t help but wonder if the nature of their relationship was blossoming into something else. Insecurity plagued me because there was no fucking way that I could compete with history. Lock took off up the staircase, and I watched him for a second before facing Alba.
“Come on, let’s foot it. I know he parked miles away,” I kidded, and she cracked a reluctant grin.
“So you really thinking about fucking him tonight?” Alba questioned, both brows raising questionably.
Unsure how to answer that, I frowned. I knew that she and Lock were friends long before I came along, and there probably wasn’t anything they didn’t keep from one another. It was no secret that I was a virgin; the shit was pretty obvious. If someone talked about sex too long around me, my awkwardness all but gave it away. We fell in stride together toward the porch, and Alba seemed like she wished to be anywhere but there with me. Sometimes she acted like we were friends, and then I got the feeling that she felt like I was stepping on her toes when it came to my relationship with Lock.
“Damn, Alba. That’s not even your business,” I rebutted as we strolled the sidewalk together.
Alba continued to keep up with me, but she wouldn’t look at me any further. “It’s a simple question,” she replied, shrugging.
“We’ve been together for two years. I have made him wait long enough I think,” I voiced, not liking whatever the fuck she was insinuating.
That was why I didn’t fuck with this kind of shit or believe in that platonic friendship shit. I always thought along the way that things turned into some other shit on one or both ends. Alba never gave me a reason to really think so until now.
“As long as you’re ready,” she muttered, arms tucked across her B-cup breasts.
It was starting to nip in the air a little, so I embraced myself and gazed around as we continued down the sidewalk. There was a big, white van parked with a bunch of stickers and graffiti all over it. We were just passing it by when it caught my attention. I thought it was odd because it looked like some old, beat-up shit that didn’t belong around here. That, along with the chill I suddenly got, sent this eeriness that swiped my entire spine and made goose bumps pop up all over my arms. It wasn’tthat damn cold, but my gut also started doing some serious lurches.
“What’s really your issue, Alba? I thought we were friends.” I stopped walking to confront her.
The vibes she was giving weren’t friendly at all. She whirled around, her wild curls blowing in the wind when she did so.
“We are friends, Harbor. But he’s also my friend. Lock and I have known each other since we were seven years old,” Alba said, agitated by my question apparently. “My issue isn’t with you either. It’s with him.”
“Why?” I asked, sneering at her.
She stared back at me blankly, like she knew I wouldn’t like whatever she had to say. Rolling her eyes back in her head, she sighed and shook it back and forth. “You wouldn’t understand. You don’t come from where we come from. You have both of your parents, and they love and care about you. You’ve lived in the same house probably most, if not all, your life. We’re not the same, Harbor.” Alba looked me up and down with resentment.
“Okay, well, if that’s how you feel?— “
“It’s how he feels too!” She waved toward the house down the street where the party was only growing rowdier. “He won’t say it, because he does care about you. And I don’t hate you. I think you are smart and pretty, and you’re not stuck-up or no shit like that. You’re cool.”
“I’m just not like you because I wasn’t raised in the hood or none of that? I’m still a black woman in America, Alba. Do you understand that? I still have struggles and downfalls and dysfunction like everyone else. So because my parents aren’t addicts or drug dealers, I’m not relatable to you?” My brows dipped heavily above my eyes because I was that fucking pissed off.
How dare she tell me that my life was a rosy ass daydream when it was anything but? She didn’t know shit about me, andbased off what I was perceiving right now, I knew why. Lowering both eyes into tiny slits, I titled my head to the side and looked her dead in hers.
“So let me get this right, you and Lock talk behind my back, and from the sounds of it, it’s not just one conversation here and there. So what else did he say about me, hmm? Since we are in share mode right now.”
“It’s not even like that,” Alba stammered, realizing the magnitude of her words right now.
She was trying to backtrack, and my heart raced with whatever might come next from her. Lock was surely going to have a thing or two to say when he found out she was out here being a motor mouth.
“Then what exactly is it like?” I challenged her, arms folding with attitude across my chest.
I heard the door to the van behind us slide to the side, but I thought nothing of it. Two men climbed out, and one walked right up on me, bumping me from behind. I was already pissed off, so that shit sent me over the edge. Spinning around, I was taken back by the handsome stranger. My eyes traveled from the sole of his black steel-toe boots to the top of his dreaded hair that he had pulled back away from his strong, handsome face. I was stuck. His hard exterior and piercing stare fixed on me had my heart going crazy.
“The fuck is wrong with you!” I snapped, glaring at him.
Instead of answering me, his arm slid around my waist, and he jerked me from the ground. Kicking and screaming, I tried to pry myself out of his arms, and he went into his waistband for his gun. My eyes stretched when I saw the piece of steel shining in the darkness.
