Page 10 of All The Smoke

Nodding, I opened the duffle bag and removed the pounds I had just grabbed from Mase. “Bet. I got a sale in MP but I’ll fall though for a lil bit after that.”

“What?” Scoot grinned. “Your antisocial ass gon’ push up.”

“For a little.” I chuckled. “Bri’s parents getting Solo so I’m not gon’ be on shit for real.”

Brianna’s parents were still together and they were aight as grandparents, nothing like mine.

My people got my son all the time. It didn’t have to be anything going on for that, but Bri’s people weren’t like that.

They were having a family reunion and wanted to flaunt my fucking baby around like he was a trophy.

I talked shit to Bri about it but ultimately still let him go because just like he fucked with my people, he loved them too.

“What chick you been talking to though?” I smirked. “I swear all y’all niggas do is worry about bitches.”

“Naw, you got me confused for this nigga.” Bino laughed and pointed toward Scoot. “He damn near in love with whatever hoe he been with. I just been chillin’.”

“Naw for real, nigga has been laid up with a top secret bitch for weeks,” I agreed and joined him in laughter. “Every time I call him, he screen my fucking calls.”

“Why y’all niggas on my nuts?” Scoot jibed. “And I don’t lay up with hoes, so watch y’all mouths.”

“Got damn, bro, our bad.” I grinned.

“You gon’ tell her to fall through tomorrow?” Bino asked and Scoot shook his head.

“Naw because it ain’t no her for real. I fuck with a few chicks, but none that I’m ’bout to bring around.”

I had been friends with these niggas for like sixteen years so I knew when they were lying and Scoot clearly was. He refused to look us in the eyes and shit. I didn’t know why though. I wanted to find a lady to settle down with one day, so if he found that shit I would be happy for him.

“Naw it’s a her, nigga.” Bino laughed. “You always kill that location when you get over by Prancer so we know you got a lil hood bae.”

“Get off my dick, Bino,” he snapped.

“Damn, bro, relax.” I chuckled, tapping his chest. “You worked up over jokes and shit. Nothing wrong with a hood bitch. I used to love my baby mama and she a bird.”

“Whatever,” he mumbled, snatching up a bottle of water and leaving the kitchen.

“Sensitive ass nigga,” I said, shaking my head, then getting back to unloading the weed. “How much of the other shit we got left?”

“Two pounds of the Blue Dream, three of the Pineapple Breeze, and one of the Purple Runtz.”

Nodding, I pushed two pounds toward him. “This the Runtz, so add these to that stash.”

“What’s this?”

“New shit. London Pound Cake and King Kush.”

“You smoked it yet?”

“I smoked a blunt of the Kush with Mase,” I admitted. “Shit some gas too.”

Bino grinned. “Word, say less. I’m ’bout to roll up now.”

“Aight, just make sure all this shit is secured since y’all having mothafuckas over.”

“Heard you.” He nodded, dapping me up.

I shook hands with Scoot, who was outside on the phone, before getting in my car and bouncing. It was still early as shit in the afternoon and for the first time in a lil minute I was done handling my business early, so I planned to get food and turn it in early.

“Yeah?” I mumbled, answering my ringing phone without opening my eyes.

I hadn’t even realized I had fallen asleep until that moment. I’d eaten my plate from Redmond’s after smoking a blunt and passed out in my living room.

“Are you busy, son?” my father asked. I wouldn’t have answered if I knew it was him.

“Naw, what’s up?”

“Can you come to the door?”

“For what?” I frowned and pulled the phone away from my face, looking at the time before getting up from my couch and heading for the bathroom. “It’s ten at night. Why you here?”

“You had some mail come from an attorney, Henry Baines, and I need to talk to you about some things.”

Probably the monthly statement.

“Aight,” I mumbled before ending the call and releasing a deep sigh.

I wasn’t in the mood to deal with Bishop. He was too assertive for me which was why we always bumped heads. I was a grown ass man and he struggled with understanding that. I understood he was my pops and shit, but that didn’t mean I was gon’ let him handle me and talk to me crazy.

Him being at my spot made me regret not getting Solo and dropping him off to them. They never bothered me when they had him, unless he was sick or some shit. Solo being with Bri’s people freed up time for them to get on my fucking nerves.

After washing my hands, I headed to the front door, finding my pops there waiting impatiently. I could see the attitude all over his face.

“Could you have taken any longer?” he asked, pushing past me to enter my crib.

“Actually I could have, considering you just popped up here.”

He made his way to the living so I followed him, falling onto the couch I was asleep on before he called. I still had half a blunt left from earlier in the ashtray on my coffee table, so I grabbed it and my lighter.

“You really need to stop all of your foolishness,” he said, face twisted in disgust referring to the blunt.

“My name is Smoke for a reason.” I smirked.

“Your name is Solomon and you’d think you’d have more respect for your father.”

“Oh, you my pops tonight?” I angled my head to the side. “You not the bishop tonight?”

“I’m always the bishop,” he replied.

“Right and hardly ever my fucking father.” I shook my head. “What is it, Bishop ?”

“I spoke to your brother’s lawyer,” he said, catching me completely off guard. Since Noah had gotten knocked they hadn’t wanted shit to do with him or the situation so the last thing I expected him to say was he’d spoken to him.

“For what?”

“I mean he is my son.” He frowned, swatting some of the smoke away.

“Oh, I know that, just figured you’d forgotten that.”

“Anyway, he went over his case with me…”

“And?”

“And it’s pointless to continue to waste money on this, son,” he responded. “Noah was caught red handed and?—”

“Naw, no the fuck he wasn’t caught red fucking handed,” I snapped, cutting him off.

“The officers said?—”

Just that quickly he infuriated me so I cut him off again. “I don’t give no fucks what the officer said, Bishop, and I don’t give a fuck what the lawyer said either if he not talking getting my brother out. I know my brother and I know he ain’t have shit to do with no armed robbery and kidnapping.”

“He was driving the car, Solomon.”

“And them niggas jumped in his shit and held him at gunpoint,” I barked. “Fuck was he supposed to do other than comply?”

“I know that’s what he told you…”

“Naw, that’s what the fuck I know,” I growled. “I’ve known and been around him my entire life and I know what he would and wouldn’t fuck with and that bullshit ain’t it.”

I was fuming on the inside. I hated how all it took was some bitch ass cops to tell him and my mother a story and they ran with the shit.

Fuck the fact that they were his parents and had raised him.

Fuck the fact that he was their flesh and blood.

Fuck the fact that they raised him and had common sense, at least I thought they did.

They just needed to hear that he fucked up ,and it was going to blemish this perfect little image they were trying to uphold, and they flipped quicker than a fucking switch.

“Solomon, there’s no need for you to get this worked up…”

“Yeah, it is though, Bishop,” I snapped. “I’m the only one riding for him, and he’s all of our fucking flesh and blood. He yo’ fuckin’ son and you gon’ believe the word of all these other mothafuckas over him. That’s nasty work, Bishop.”

“You want us to argue with the proof, Solomon?”

“I wanted you and Ma to be the same supportive parents that sat with me in family court and shit when I was wildin’ as a lil nigga to him.” I shook my head. “I was the only one that showed up for him when he was on trial. I’m still the only one that shows up for him.”

Neither of our parents had gone to visit him since he’d been locked up, only me and Solo.

If it was my son I would be there from beginning to end, fighting tooth and nail whether he was guilty or not.

He didn’t get that shit and I didn’t get it.

Shit came naturally to me, but we weren’t all built the same, I guess.

“You’re the only one that doesn’t want to accept the truth, son,” he said, having the nerve to look at me sympathetically.

“You got ya truth and I got mine, Bishop.” I shrugged.

“Only one of them stood up in the court of the law though, son.”

“We both know how fucked up the justice system is though, right Mr. Trafficking Cocaine in the Eighties?”

Since he was a few shades lighter than me, I saw his face heat from shame and guilt.

“I had that expunged and that was a misunderstanding.”

“Expunged or not, you caught that charge, my boy.”

He shot to his feet. “I don’t have to sit here and listen to this!”

“Then get the fuck out.” I tossed my head toward the direction of my front door. “I didn’t invite ya ass here anyway, nigga.”

If it were possible I would have seen smoke coming from his ears. Bishop was a prideful man and it really fucked with him to hear me talking shit and standing my ground.

“You have fallen so short, Solomon.” He shook his head.

“And you fell shorter,” I quipped. “You think ya sins are less than mine because you stand in front of a congregation of people feeding them all the bullshit you don’t even exercise yourself every Wednesday and Sunday?”

“I’m a man of God.”

“You full of shit,” I fired back. “You and your wife.”

“You have no respect for your father, the bishop.” He shook his head, clearly disappointed, but I didn’t give a fuck. I didn’t appreciate his ass coming in my shit poking his chest out and talking shit about my mothafuckin’ brother.

“The most ungodly man I know.” I chuckled. “I stopped respecting you the moment you stopped being a father to your son who is more godly than you’ll ever be.”

I could tell I had struck a nerve by the big ass vein protruding from his forehead and neck. I took satisfaction in that. He needed to know my nigga was still solid no matter what he was going through. That was what I most admired about him.

Tugging on his coat, his eyes cascaded down his lower body until they traveled to mine again. “Anyway, I came to let you know I’m entering the mayoral race.”

“And? What you telling me that shit for? I don’t even vote.”

“I’m telling you because I need you to cool it on your extracurricular activities, Solomon, and stop this with Noah,” he replied. “I don’t need this stuff coming up again, circulating town and affecting me and my image.”

I scoffed and shook my head. “That’s all you give a fuck about, man.” I didn’t know why I was disappointed. He and my mother always showed us what was important to them and that was each other and what other mothafuckas thought. “Go ahead and bounce.”

I got on my feet, ushering his ass to the door. I’d heard e-fucking-nough and was over the shit now. I’d rather watch a snail and turtle race or some shit than listen to or share space with him any longer.

“Solomon…”

I cut him off. “I’m gon’ keep hustling to take care of my son and brother, and I’m not ever switching up on him, Bishop.

Either find a way to do your thing around that or cut me out ya life like you did Noah,” I continued and shrugged.

“Either of those options work for me but if it counts for anything I’d prefer the latter.

” I ended the conversation there, slamming and locking my door before going back to my living room to chill for the rest of the night.