Another Hood Love (13 page)

Laela

I walked up to Ricky as he stood in the foyer; he was looking good and smelling even better, but I wasn’t fucking with him. I had dealt with more than enough drama behind him, and he wasn’t even my nigga; shit, he wasn’t even somebody that I was having sex with. I didn’t have to deal with his shit, and I wouldn’t.

“What’s up Garrick, did you need Blue to find you a clue? Because I have clearly been forwarding your calls,” I said with my hands on my hips, waiting for him to speak. I was so over these lying ass niggas. Was it that hard to just keep it 100 these days? Niggas felt like they had to just tell a bitch anything, but didn’t understand that keeping it real made things a lot easier. I mean, it wasn’t like he and I were in a relationship, so if he had some other shit gong on, then he should have kept it real with me and gave me the choice of wanting to keep dealing with his ass.

Ricky shuffled his feet a little as he looked in my face. I let out an exasperated breath, getting impatient with his ass.

“Are you going to respond or just continue to stare at me like an idiot?” I asked.

“Man Laela, I know I was wrong not being truthful about Toya, but me and her ain’t shit; she just some broad I chill with every once in a while. I ain’t feeling her all like that, and I ain’t trying to make her my bitch either,” he said as he leaned against the wall behind him, rubbing his hands over his waves. “I didn’t think she would jump bad like that at the restaurant either; she ain’t no fighter, so I just figured she would just talk a little shit and then it would be over. I never meant for you to be put in that situation, or end up in any trouble behind that ratchet bitch and her patnas.”

I just stared at him while trying to collect my thoughts, I took a deep breath, trying to word my thoughts right.

“Look Ricky, I hear all that shit but at the end of the day, if you would have just kept it real from jump none of this shit would have gone down. Now I’m on a year probation and I don’t even know if you the type of nigga that I even want in my life,” I said, leaning on the wall across from him. I still had strong feelings for Jah, so I wasn’t trying to deal with no other nigga on no deep ass level – especially a nigga that came with drama and lies.

“So you saying that you cool on me then?” he asked. I thought on it for a minute. I liked chillin with Ricky; he was cool as shit, but I couldn’t do the extra.

“I mean we good, but I just can’t entertain the foolish shit; you can hit me or whatever, I will unblock your number, but I can’t guarantee anything more.” He nodded his head.

“Damn, blocked a nigga though, I respect it. Thanks for hearing me out and I’m sorry to interrupt your night, but I just needed to see you and holla at you for a sec.” I nodded my head.

“It’s good, hit me tomorrow or something.” I walked to the door and opened it for him as he walked out. When I looked out, I noticed Jah was pulling up;
what the fuck?
I had been ignoring his calls as well, and now his ass was popping up too. I shook my head as I watched him hop out his Porsche truck and walk up on Ricky.

“Shit, Jaeda!” I yelled as I stepped out on the porch.

I could tell Jah was pissed seeing Ricky leaving my house but shit, I wasn’t his girl anymore so he needed to chill.

“Fuck you doin’ over here pussy?” Jah said, walking up on Ricky. I stepped off the porch and got between them.

“Jah knock it off, we not together so what you worried bout it for?” I asked, irritated that this nigga was doing this shit at my house. Jaeda came and stood next to Ricky as he stepped forward, apparently not intimidated by Jah.

“Y’all need to cut this shit out, it’s already enough drama and y’all ain’t bouta start no shit here. If y’all wanna get down then do that shit somewhere else!” I yelled at the both of them.

“Jah, you need to cut if you bouta act stupid, ain’t nobody got time for this shit,” Jaeda said, stepping in between the two.

“It’s good sis, I’m out – I just was coming to make sure Lae was good, but I see she still keeping this pussy nigga around after all the drama. She ain’t fucking wit me but still dealing with mark ass niggas, ain’t that bout a bitch,” Jah said, staring at me with fire in his eyes. I matched his gaze as I stepped closer to him.

“Nigga you don’t know what you’re talking about, so please watch how you speak to me. I ain’t fucking with neither of you niggas, so please get the fuck on!” I was pissed and began to walk back toward the house. I was done entertaining the dumb shit, so I left them there to do whatever they felt necessary. I was fresh home from a week in the hall, and I wasn’t beat for the drama; these niggas weren’t shit, and they weren’t about to ruin my night, shit.

Jah

It had been a few months since Laela had gotten out of juvie, and her stubborn ass was getting on my damn nerves with this shit; she didn’t want to give a nigga no time. She wouldn’t talk to me and wouldn’t kick it with me, and she only let me hit some shit when she wanted to. Fuck all that, she wasn’t about to keep playing games with me. I wasn’t about to keep kissing her ass and she keep playing me to the left; I was about to stall her little ass out. I had enough issues with this retarded broad Ericka that swore up and down that she was carrying my seed, and she was out of her mind if she thought that I would want to be with her trifling ass.

Ericka was 20 years old, and didn’t have anything to offer; she had a nice body and a cute face, with some bomb ass head and average pussy. She could hustle her ass off, but she didn’t cook, clean, or have any kind of ambitions in life; she wasn’t what I wanted in a woman, and definitely not who I wanted raising my children, but I made my bed so now I had to lie in it.

“It was straight; you know, school, practice, then the block got a nigga tired as hell,” I said while pulling to a stop at a red light.

“Yeah, that is a lot for one man all day every day, and you need something soft and relaxing to come home to each night.” She winked in my direction, and I winked back before pulling off from the light. Any other female I would have shut down right there if they would have implied us being anything more than sex partners, but there was a possibility that Kari could definitely win a spot in my life.

My phone started ringing, and I looked at the screen to see that it was Ericka’s irritating ass calling me; she was now almost full term, and I swear she was getting on my last nerves. She called all hours of the day and night always needing something, but I swear she just did that shit to make sure I didn’t have time for nobody but her. I couldn’t wait until this baby came. Once I took a paternity test and determined whether the baby was mine or not, I wasn’t doing too much extra for her ass; she had come out her mouth last week and asked me to pay for her hair, and I gassed her so hard that I’m sure she won’t ever make that mistake again. I had to remind her that even if this baby was mine, I wasn’t her nigga and I was only obligated to do for my–nothing more, nothing less.

“What’s up?” I asked, answering the phone and trying to hide my irritation.

“Nothing much baby, you coming to see us today?” she asked. I sighed in frustration as I looked over at Kari, who was staring out of the window.

“Girl what do you want? I’m busy and you calling my phone talking stupid, did you need something? Are you in labor? If not get the fuck off my phone,” I said, hanging up and not even giving her a chance to answer. I wasn’t about to spend my time with Kari, entertaining the foolishness of my possible baby mama. As we pulled up to Texas Roadhouse and parked, I felt my phone vibrate a couple of times. Figuring that it was just Ericka calling again, I ignored it.

After Kari and I were seated, she began telling me about her day; my phone was in my pocket going crazy, and I was about to cuss Ericka’s retarded ass out right about then.

“Hey, can you order me a strawberry lemonade with the sirloin steak and grilled shrimp combo with extra shrimp, a loaded baked, and green beans while I go take this call right fast?” I asked Kari before getting up and walking away from the table. Once I got in the restroom, I pulled my phone and realized that all the missed calls were from the Squad. I even had one from Big Ken, so I knew something must have gone down. I called Tone back and listened as he explained that I needed to get to Big Ken’s immediately.

“Aite nigga, I’ll be there in a about an hour,” I said, getting ready to hang up.

“Nah nigga, fuck an hour, you need to be here like now! Shit, we been calling you for 30 minutes straight as it is.” Tone hung up, and I let out a frustrated sigh and headed back to the table.

“Hey, sorry to cut dinner short but something came up and we have to go,” I told Kari as I got back to the table just as the food arrived.

“Excuse me but can you pack these up to go and bring the check please?” I asked the waitress as she set the food on the table.

“Oh yes, sure thing,” she replied as she walked away.

“So what happened? Is everything okay?” Kari asked as she drunk down the last of her drink.

“Nah not really, but I gotta meet up with the Squad and I don’t really have time to drop you off at home before I go, so you gonna have to mob this out with me for a minute, aite?” I said as the waitress returned with the check, and placed our food on the table in a large carryout bag. I reached into my pocket and peeled off a hundred dollar bill, and got up as we exited the restaurant.

I didn’t know how this was going to fly with me bringing Kari with me to Big Ken’s house, considering that Laela was going to be there but shit, they made it seem like I didn’t have time to drop her off, so they would have to deal with it. Maybe it would make Laela open her eyes and see that maybe she should quit playing with a nigga. I pulled up to Big Ken’s, and I actually had contemplated on just telling Kari to stay in the car but I had already shorted dinner, so I didn’t want to be a complete asshole and have her sit in the car.

“Come on ma, get out,” I said as we both opened our doors and stepped outside. I shook my head; I guess I was low key feeling her ass.

I walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. I looked at Kari as we waited for somebody to come open it. I guess I would see if she could hold her own, because she was most definitely about to get all the shade walking up in here. I looked up just as Jaeda was opening the door; she looked at Kari and then looked at me before stepping to the side.

“Mmm it’s about to be trouble, trouble,” Jaeda said, repeating a line from State Property. I chuckled and walked into the house. I looked at Jaeda and gave her a quick hug.

“What’s up sis?” I asked her.

“Shit, got a few issues but I guess we can get right.” I shook my head, not sure what was going on.

“Hey umm, since this is family business you might want to have a seat in the kitchen,” Jaeda said to Kari with hella attitude and rolling her eyes, pointing to the kitchen.

I handed Kari my car keys and told her she could grab her food from the car and eat it if she wanted to. As she was turning around to walk to the car, Laela stepped into the foyer.

“Damn, we’re bringing the thot of the week to my house now, Jahlil?” She was clearly pissed off, but I could give two fucks at the moment.

“Man I was already with her when I got the call, so I just came straight here, you feel me? So knock it off Lae.” I knew Kari had heard her, but she just continued out of the door.

“Well you should have left the bitch in the car where pets are supposed to be,” Laela spat as she turned down the hall and headed into the family room, where we always had our meetings. Jaeda and I followed and took a seat once we entered. I noticed that Rico wasn’t there, but they said they were all waiting on me.

“Aite Jah, glad you finally decided to get your ass here,” said Big Ken; he looked stressed, so I just sat back and fired up the blunt that I had brought in with me. “So task force hit us today on the East side and the West side; we took a pretty large loss, and I’m working on getting a lawyer for everybody they got down. Right now they took Rico, Sonny, and Lil’ Var from the East side crew, and they got Kam, T-Ron, and Tiffany from the West side crew. They confiscated 30 weapons between the two crews and a total of $120,000 but no drugs.”

“At the moment, they have only been hit with weapons charges and they are trying to add gang enhancements to everyone; each of them have about 7 felony charges against them, so I am pretty sure they will all end up doing some kind of time. I don’t think that any of them would flip, but we can’t be too sure so we are changing everything.” Big Ken shook his head and downed a shot before he continued. “Laela, I am going to need you and Jah to do the pickups on re-up day. Instead of Saturday mornings, we are picking up on Thursday nights. I want everything moved tonight out of all the trap houses, and into the back storage room of the 99 Cent store.” He paused and hit the blunt that Tommy had passed him. “Jaeda, Tone, and Tamia, I need you all to restructure your blocks, and watch everything. Let your workers know if they don’t know them then we don’t serve them. I ain’t taking no chances with these pigs, they gonna send the decoys and that’s an L that we don’t need you, feel me?” We all nodded our heads in agreement. Damn, shit had gotten sick and now we were all going to have to pick up the slack and tighten shit up. We couldn’t afford to take any more losses. With the new set up all mapped out, we were dismissed from the meeting.

I was walking out of the family room, chopping it up with Tone as Laela approached me.

“You can leave now and get your mutt from out of my kitchen,” she said as she walked past, bumping me on purpose.

“I swear, that bitch is evil,” I said, me and Tone laughing together.

“Call me another bitch Jahlil, and you won’t live to tell about it,” Laela said, never turning around. I shook my head and let Kari know that it was time to roll out. As we stepped outside, I shook my head as Lexis, Jaeda, Laela, Sage, and Tamia and Jamiya all were standing in the driveway talking. I turned around and dapped up the guys as Kari and I kept walking towards my car.

“You need to hurry up and drop her ass off so you can be back here by 10 Jahlil!” Laela yelled after me, her childish ass. I looked at my watch; it was already going on 8 o’clock as I hopped in my whip. I really didn’t have much time before we had to meet on the block so that we could move all of the product to the 99 Cent store.

“So that disrespectful bitch must be one of your boos; she lucky I didn’t slap her ass,” Kari said with a roll of her eyes. I just looked at her before I spoke. If she had something to say about how Laela addressed her, then she should have spoken up when we were there. I hated bitches that were all talk after the fact. I had never brought up Laela to Kari because it was none of her business, but if she wanted to disrespect her it wouldn’t be on my time, and especially while she wasn’t there.

“Chill ma, that’s my ex and you can just dead all that name calling shit, bruh; she ain’t here to defend herself, so knock that off,” I said, giving her a quick glance.

“Well shit, where were you defending me when she was talking all that shit back at the house?” Kari raised her voice and crossed her arms over her chest. I chuckled a little.

“I was right there next to you, waiting to see if you were going to speak up for yourself; look lil mama, if a nigga disrespect you in my presence I got your back, but shouldn’t no female on Earth make you feel intimidated enough that you don’t stand up for yourself when you feel disrespected. I don’t care if it was my mama; if you don’t demand respect, you won’t get it.” I was trying to give her a little game; I knew she wasn’t a hood bitch, but I didn’t need any weak scary bitches on my team.

I looked in my rearview mirror and noticed a black and white police cruiser switch over into my lane. I was going the speed limit and my tags were up to date, so if he pulled me over I knew he was going to be on some bullshit. I pulled the zip of weed out of my middle console and handed it to Kari.

“Tuck that,” I said; she looked at me crazy and matched her gaze. “Look, I ain’t got time for all that, is you gonna tuck the shit or not?” I said while still handing her the bag. She snatched the bag from my hand and grabbed her purse.

“The fuck you doing? Stick that shit in your pussy and hurry up!” I said, keeping my eyes straight ahead as the police turned on their lights. I pulled over once I was sure that Kari had secured the bag; I could tell that she was pissed, but I could give two fucks right about now – she could either get over it or get lost. I rolled my window down as an officer approached both sides of the car.

“Mr. Jones, I need you and your lady friend to step out the car slowly.” I knew this was about to be some bullshit. I looked over a Kari, and she was shaking like a leaf.

We ended up sitting on the sidewalk as they called for backup, and the two officers tore up my truck from top to bottom looking for anything illegal. After they were done, I just knew they were going to return with some half-cocked story about finding something illegal; although I knew that I was straight, Oakland Police was not above planting drugs or weapons on niggas. The officers were rude and arrogant, but I kept my cool. As I pulled off, I had about 30 minutes to drop off Kari and make it to the block.

I pulled up to Kari’s spot and killed my engine; we sat there in silence for a moment before she finally spoke.