Page 24 of That Fire

“What? I’m just asking a question. I can’t ask my brother a question?”

“Naw, you can’t,” I said. “When it comes to my fucking personal business, keep yo’ fucking two cents to your fucking self, nigga.”

His eyebrows lifted, and he nodded repeatedly. “Oh, I see. I can’t question your decisions. Got it.”

“You can’t fuckingjudgemy decisions, because that’s exactly what you doing.”

I stood from my seat and shoved the chair under the table. I swore that nigga got on my fucking nerves. I was glad I had moved out, because we would have been in there fucking up Jasper and Chas’s house right about now.

I left my food right there on the table, and as luck would have it, Ryder J walked into the diner. I looked him up and down like I was gon’ fuck him up. He frowned hard. “Why the fuck you looking at me like that?”

I didn’t respond to him, because he didn’t know PJ was still alive. Had I said that he was a fucking messy ass nigga, I would have had to say what PJ said. I walked right out of the doors as I heard him and Crew behind me.

“Royal, come on, man. You tripping. Aaliyah fucked anything moving, and you mad that we asking questions and tryna warn yo’ ass about her,” Crew said.

I walked right over to him and got in his face, then pushed him to the ground. “Watch your fucking mouth.”

As I was about to walk off, I saw him about to charge me. I braced myself and went at him. I put him in a headlock until he punched me in the gut, nearly knocking the wind out of me. I released him and punched him in the mouth. Seven, Kingsley, and Kane came running out of the diner, immediately pulling us apart.

Seven turned to Ryder J, and said, “Muthafucka, you was just gon’ stand here and let them go at it? He should have fucked yo’ messy ass up too. Messy like a lil bitch. Swell up like you wanna come at me. Instead of breaking shit up, we’ll fuck both of y’all up out here. Bitch ass niggas.”

They both walked inside as Kingsley shook his head. “What the fuck wrong with them?”

“I don’t know, but I already know his ass gon’ go running to Dad about it.”

I walked away and got into my Escalade, going to Aaliyah’s house instead of meeting her at the clinic. Crew was tripping for real. I couldn’t stand a know-it-all nigga. He may have been my brother, but we seemed to be growing apart these days. It was like he wanted to criticize everything I did.

I whipped into her driveway and got out, slamming my door. That nigga had me hot. She was at the back door when I got to it. She smiled and opened the door. “Hey! I thought we were meeting at the clinic.”

“We were, but my brother pissed me off.” When she looked away, that had alarms going off in my fucking head. “Y’all ever had words or interaction of any kind?”

She took a deep breath. “About a year ago, he wanted to fuck, but I told him no. So I have to assume that he’s salty that I’m with you. I didn’t tell him that me and you were already fucking around because that wasn’t his business.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to cause any shit between you and your brother. Y’all seem close. I thought after I turned him down, that would be the end of it. What happened?”

“Nothing. Just him tryna tell me what to do with my life. I’m sick of that shit.”

“It has to be more for you to ask that question, baby. It’s okay though. It must’ve been offensive to me. I’m used to it. Niggas always gotta insult a woman when she don’t want shit to do with him. Real bitches.” She lowered her head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to speak negatively about your brother.”

“It’s okay. He exhibiting real bitch behavior. Come here.”

She came to me as I leaned against the countertop. “How you feeling? I’m sorry. I didn’t even ask.”

She laid her head on my shoulder, and said, “It’s been a rough day. Your children been fighting for the past couple of hours. They calmed down when they heard your voice though.”

I wrapped my arms around her and smiled. “They know their daddy gon’ get on their asses about giving you a hard time.”

She lifted her head and smiled. It was the first time I referred to myself as their daddy. Like she said, I didn’t give a fuck whose blood was running through their veins. Henderson blood would be running through their hearts and souls.

Chapter 8

Aaliyah

“So you finally brought your ass to an appointment, huh?” Bali asked, fucking with Royal.

“Yeah. I figured we could get the samples too while we’re here.”