Page 60 of Weddings on the West: Vol. I Brick & Destiny

“So,” I started as I sat down on the couch. Brick sat next to me and pulled me closer. At least he wasn’t that mad. “What are we watching?” I asked.

“Mortal Kombat,” Kilo answered. “The new one just dropped, so we started with the first one.”

“You got me fucked up if y’all think y’all staying here for both of these long ass movies!” Brick grumbled.

“Umm… Okay,” I said with a weary glance towards the TV, flinching as a character was brutally murdered on screen. Pistol hadn’t said a word the entire time. He just sat with his eyes locked on the movie like he was picking up moves.

“Peep,” Brick said, pulling my face to his. “You ain’t never seen Mortal Kombat before?”

“No,” I answered, cringing again at more on-screen violence. By the midway mark of the first movie, I had loosened up a little bit, but by the end of the second, I was cheering Kitana on louder than Kilo and making a note to check out a kickboxing class in the area. Brick just looked at me and laughed, squeezing me tighter every time I settled back into his arms.

Fifteen

On Fire For the Lord

BRICK

“You sure we gotta do this?” I looked over at Destiny, hoping she would change her mind at the last minute. She just sat there in that passenger seat smiling like a damn fool as I pulled into the parking lot of Endless Bullshit Church of God and Fraud Ass Niggas. It had been four weeks since our wedding, and I hadn’t been able to tell her ass no since then. Today should have been the day.

“Yes!” she beamed, hopping out the car before I could even get her door. She led the way excitedly, picking two seats in the front of the sanctuary.

I hadn’t even hit yet, and she had me sitting on the front pews of a damn church, looking at her fake ass daddy. From the expression on his face, he felt the same way about me being there that I did. I knew he wasn’t gon’ do shit, though. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Peep’s homegirl Stasha slink over, sitting down next to her before she leaned over and cleared her throat.

“Hey… Des… Can I talk to you in the back for a second?” she whispered loudly. She may as well have been using her regular voice.

“What’s wrong?” Destiny asked, still sporting that same unsuspecting smile.

“Just… Come to the back for me, please,” she said with a serious expression on her face. Destiny got up and followed her from the back just before Coop rose from his throne—yes, the nigga had a whole ass throne in the pulpit. He dramatically strolled up to the podium in that ugly ass suit. If my mama wasn’t right about shit else, she hit the nail on the head when she talked about how tacky his punk ass was. That loud ass, burnt orange abomination was a fall color and had both my eyes and my stomach hurting every time I looked up at him.

I shouldn’t have even been there. I should have been working. Dream’s was fine, and I knew my manager could handle anything important, but I had three more of my business partners get hit over the last month, and the losses were starting to get dangerously close to the millions. We had too much security at our warehouses, and I suspected that was why we hadn’t taken a hit, but it was still a bad look.

“Good morning, everyone. Now, I’m not gon’ keep y’all long.” Coop started his sermon and I visibly cringed, hearing the fake ass act he put on. The worst part was that his loyal churchgoers were none the wiser and eating it up.

“Today, I want to talk to y’all about Revelations 21:8. Please turn with me in your Bibles, family.” He paused, waiting for the sound of rustling pages to die down before speaking again.

“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars.”

Is this muhfucka’ talking to ME?

I could only assume so, because he looked directly at me between each word.

“They will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur! This is the second death!” He wiped the sweat from his brow as he continued to condemn me to hell.

“Family, we must repent! If you want to make it to those pearly gates, you must confess with your mouth and give your life up to the Good Lord! If you don’t want to be eternally damned into that lake of fire, you got to live on fire for him and his word! Gon’ head and give your life up to him now! Let me hear an Amen if you on fire for the Lord! I said let me get an Amen, if you are on fire for the Lord!” I watched in disbelief as people fell out all around me, shouting and catching the Holy Ghost to this man’s bullshit. I said a quick prayer for all their souls because I knew for a fact that serving false prophets was a sin, and that orange clad muhfucka was as false as they came.

Ain’t no way this was the same nigga who lied, cheated, and stole his way through life. I stared him right in his eyes as he looked at me, letting him know that I saw straight through him. Our stare-down was interrupted when Peep came rushing back to me. She didn’t take her seat, standing there awkwardly.

“Babe, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said softly. “Let’s just go.

“Fuck you mea–” I stopped in my tracks when she sent me a death glare. “Sorry, what you mean let's go? You been begging me to come here with you, now I'm here and you wanna leave?”

“Brick, please,” she begged. The look in her eyes made my trigger finger itch, so I decided to get my ass up before I aired that whole shit out.

“You good?” I asked as I led her to the truck. She gave me a silent nod, but kept her mouth shut tight. I looked at her and sighed before walking over to my side and climbing in.

“Peep, I don’t know what I did, but I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cuss. Just talk to me,” I said, starting up the car. She refused to answer, staring ahead. The moment we were out of the parking lot, she broke, crying so hard that it startled me.