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“Normani, girl, get up! Ride to the mall with me today and to the nail salon. Wherever you at, I’ll just come scoop you. Are you at your house or Billion’s?” I questioned.
There was a minute of silence before she finally answered.
“Your cousin’s. Call me back in one hour, and I’ll get ready,” she said.
It really sounded like this girl was on the phone, and she was sleep talking. I sucked my teeth and rolled my eyes because I was already dressed; I was just waiting to walk out the door and get her. I hadn’t had my niece in over a week, so Dream was dressed too, and we were just waiting to leave. I had no idea where Dream’s father, Chance, was because in the week I had been gone, Dream had stayed with my mother. If Loyal knew that, she would shit bricks because she didn’t want our mother to be the one raising her daughter, but that was a story for another day.
I wasn’t sure what the hell Loyal and Chance had going on, but my mama told me that his ass wouldn’t even pick up the phone for Dream when she called him on my mom’s cell phone. I knew he was a bitch ass nigga anyway, which is why I hadn’t liked him from the beginning.
“Get ready to go where? I thought you was hanging with me today. Who is that? Twinkle’s ass?” I heard my big mouth cousin talking shit in the background.
This was the shit I was talking about. He was always trying to hog my damn best friend from me.
“Billionaire, please stop yelling in my ear. Twinkle, just call me back, okay?” Normani said.
“No, I’m on my way over there now,” I told her.
“She can’t hang out today. Scoop her up in the morning, Twink,” Billion’s deep voice came through on the phone.
“Billion, please! I’m on the way. You think you supposed to be the only one hanging with Normani. That was my best friend first,” I said, sounding like a spoiled ass kid who wasn’t used to not getting her way.
“Where the fuck you been anyway? Monty said he can’t find yo’ ass and that you ain’t been picking up the phone. Who the fuck you been hanging out with?” he asked, sounding like my damn daddy.
“The next time Monterius calls you to discuss me, tell him to ask himself why the fuck he can’t find me in the first place! He wants to make me look bad in front of everybody else when he knows damn well why he and I are in this boat in the first place! As my cousin and as a nigga who just found out that a baby you thought was yours actually isn’t, Billion, I expect you to say fuck your bro code and be able to see where I’m coming from. This man had a baby on me! Are you not understanding that?” I screamed into the phone.
I felt like people were only looking at it from a perspective of how many years Monterius and I had been together. Because we had history, they thought I should just thug this hurt out, but I wasn’t doing that because then I would be disregarding my damn feelings.
“Twink, I ain’t say that I ain’t feel where you are coming from! I actually fuck with the fact that you’re putting your foot down, and you ain’t letting that nigga get away with that shit. Homeboy or not, the shit that he did is foul. All I want to know is where the fuck you been for th
e past week. Ain’t nobody seen or heard from you,” he said.
“Hanging with a friend,” I told him.
“What friend? Let me meet him. I want to make sure you ain’t running around with no lame ass nigga,” he said, making me laugh.
“Anyway, Auntie Paulette told me that Normani is knocked up. Is that true?” I asked, changing the subject.
“You ain’t slick, trying to change the subject. It’s cool. I’ll just talk about it with you when you get here. It ain’t even a matter of me trying to be all up in your business or no shit like that. You my cousin, so I want to know who you hanging with, so if some shit goes down and you go missing, I know who to look for. My mama always running her damn mouth. I told her ass not to say shit because Normani wanted to be the one to tell you, but yeah, she let me shoot her club up,” this fool said.
“Oooooh. I’m so happy for you guys! We about to go to the mall, and I’m about to look for some stuff for my new little cousin. What you want? A boy or a girl?” I asked, smiling big.
I heard him laugh, and from his laugh alone, I could tell how happy Billion was. I swear I had never seen him like this before.
“You women just be looking for a way to spend some damn money. I don’t care what we have. Normani wants a boy, though,” he said.
I smiled even bigger, thinking about the handsome baby boy I knew the two would have. I talked on the phone with my cousin for another five minutes or so, and then I let him know that I would be on the way to scoop Normani.
Dream was already waiting for me by the front door, so we walked out of the house together, and I helped her into her booster seat. As soon as we got into the car, my phone rang. It was my sister. I sighed, knowing I should just answer the phone because I had been dodging her calls for a week because I knew she was only calling to speak to Dream, and I didn’t want to let her know that Dream wasn’t with me and she had been staying at our mama’s house. I would just lie and say that my phone broke and I had just gotten a new one.
“You want twenty dollars, Dreamy?” I asked my beautiful niece.
“Yes, Auntie. Oohhh, I’m going to buy me some slime from Walmart,” she said, smiling big.
“Okay. I’m going to tell your mommy that my phone broke, and I’m just now getting a new one, okay? Don’t tell her that I had you at your grandma’s house, alright?” I said, pissed that I had to have my niece lying for me.
“Okay, Auntie,” she cooed.
Once she agreed, I went ahead and accepted the call, releasing a sigh, already knowing that Loyal was going to be on ten with me.
