Page 18 of All The Smoke

K aori.

“Bitch, I am crying.” Morgan doubled over in laughter. “Not hitting him with the infamous ‘what you ’bout to do’ line.”

We were out at The Spot for their Two Dollar Tuesday and I was telling her what happened with me and Solomon after they left. I hadn’t been able to give her all of the details because I went to see my daddy Sunday then Monday work and school kicked my ass.

“I didn’t ask what he was about to do.” I laughed and took a sip from my drink. “I just didn’t want him getting the wrong idea.”

“And what’s the wrong idea, bitch? Because you’re single and so is he, so….”

“That doesn’t mean I’m ready to get into something else though, Morgan.” I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know, Solomon is fine with good dick, but still. Jamal and I just broke up.”

“Let me find out you waiting to rekindle with his tired ass.”

“No, hoe, I’m not, but I’m not trying to jump right into anything new either. I just need time to get myself together, you know? Like, maybe finishing school before I hop into another relationship.”

“Well, I can’t talk shit about that. Nothing wrong with loving on yourself for a while first,” she agreed.

I loved myself just fine, and had always known my worth, it was just that somewhere down the line, I started settling for bullshit from Jamal.

My parents taught me early on to never settle for less than what I deserved and made sure I had the best of the best so no nigga could come in and impress me with shit I was used to.

They needed to be able to afford the things money couldn’t buy; loyalty, honesty, and respect, but I was stupidly blinded by lust. Jamal didn’t love me.

He couldn’t have. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have dragged me to hell and back for six years.

“Right, but Solomon is an asshole anyways.” I rolled my eyes. “I was going to explain to him why I didn’t want to confuse things between us but he tossed forty dollars on my dresser like I was some hoe.”

“What bitch?” she chortled, damn near spitting her drink on me. “I know the fuck he didn’t!”

I nodded. “He definitely did, girl.”

“Wow.” She continued to laugh. “That’s not funny but it is.”

“It really is.” I chuckled. “I didn’t think he would be so hurt behind some pussy.”

“I doubt it was just some pussy, bitch, but you know men are ego driven. You hurt his feelings.”

“It’s definitely just sex with us, Morgan,” I said, ignoring the other stuff. She loved to make things bigger than they were.

“The chemistry I witnessed between the two of you in your condo the other night was definitely more than sex, but go off, bestie. You know I’ll dwell in the land of delusion with you forever if you want me to.”

“Fuck you.” I laughed. “I am not delusional.”

“You’re right, you’re not.” She beamed.

“Whatever, hoe,” I spat playfully and waved one of the waitresses over to order more drinks. I needed them.

I had been working overtime to keep my mind off Solomon and to stop myself from reaching out to him on social media.

I’d found his page by going through Bernard’s friends list. I wanted to apologize to him for making him feel a way, but I stopped myself ,thinking it was best if I left well enough alone.

Solomon was easy to like and easier to be attracted to.

There really wasn’t a flaw in sight I could point out, but I also knew what came with dealing with a nigga like him.

Jamal was attractive and a street nigga too.

I was tired of pulling up to bitches’ houses to find my nigga there, strategically leaving my shit in the car so I could track locations, losing weight from niggas stressing me and shit.

I wanted to live stress fucking free. Fuck nigga free!

Solomon just looked like he gave bitches hard times and after sampling the dick twice, mixed with that fire head, I knew he would walk my ass down like a dog.

So it was best for me to get out while I could.

The crowd in the club picked up and I was feeling the effects of my shots so we made our way to the dance floor.

Persuasion’s latest single, “Yo’ Bitch Could Never”, blasted through the speakers and me and my friend were in the center, rapping along to the music word for word.

We even took some of the Jell-o shots the waitresses were carrying around.

I knew I was going to regret turning up like this in the middle of the week when I got up in the morning for work, but I’d deal with it then.

“Look, there’s my man, let’s go speak,” Mo said, pointing. I followed the direction of her finger and spotted Bernard, Elijah, and Solomon posted in the section in the far corner.

I wanted to decline seeing that girls littered the section, one of them directly in Solomon’s lap, but I didn’t have the chance to, considering Morgan was already on her way over there.

She immediately climbed in Bernard’s lap when we entered the section, completely disregarding the woman he was talking to when we got there. All I could do was shake my head and put my phone inside of my bag in case we had to slap one of these bitches since they were looking like we didn’t belong.

“Hey y’all.” I spoke and took a seat since we clearly weren’t leaving the section anytime soon.

Bernard and Elijah spoke back but Solomon remained silent.

I guess that was to be expected . He was clearly still in his feelings about how things went at my place over the weekend.

I felt a little bad, but oh well. I would have easily cleared it up and softened the blow to his ego had he not treated me like a cheap hoe right away.

“You want something to drink, sis?” Elijah pointed to the table where there was a bottle of Don Rep and Red Bulls inside a clear plastic bucket.

Shaking my head, I replied, “No, I think I’ve had enough.”

“Don’t be offering shit I paid for to these hoes, my nigga,” Solomon said as he reached for the bottle.

“Who the fuck are you calling a hoe?” I snapped.

“The bitch that let me fuck twice with little to no effort put in.”

“Nigga—”

“Y’all, chill the fuck out.” Elijah laughed. “Fuck wrong with y’all?”

“I’m cool,” Solomon said as he turned the bottle up then handed it to the girl in his lap.

Seeing her laughing pissed me off because I didn’t appreciate him trying to play me like a whore in front of these people.

What he said was the truth because I did fuck him without him doing anything to deserve it, but that didn’t make me a hoe.

I didn’t go around fucking random niggas; I just did that with his ass.

“Morgan, I’m going to go.” I stood and tossed the strap to my purse over my shoulder. Her ass was so wrapped in Bernard she missed his insulting ass homeboy talking shit to me.

“Why?” she asked with confusion lacing her voice. “We said we were staying until twelve.”

“I know, but I don’t feel like slapping these two bitches.” I used my thumb to point to Solomon and the hoe in his lap. “So I’m going to go ahead and go.”

“Scoot, you better get ya homegirl.” Solomon chuckled. “Bitch don’t know me for real.”

“Call me another bitch,” I warned.

He angled his head to the side and asked, “Fuck you gon’ do if I do?”

“Do it and see.” I glanced at the bottle he set back in the basket, praying I was able to get to it quick enough to bash his stupid ass across the head if and when he fixed his mouth to disrespect me again.

Bernard finally spoke up. “Man, Smoke, chill.”

“I am.” He shrugged nonchalantly then started whispering in the girl’s ear, causing her to blush and giggle. That shit pissed me off even more.

“Like I said Mo, I’m going to go. You stay and chill with your man though.

I don’t want to interrupt your good time,” I said to my best friend before facing Solomon.

“And Smoke, I hope you know how to stick and move with her ass so you don’t get your feelings hurt when a bitch tells you to move around after getting what she wants from you next time.

” That cocky ass smile he wore dropped immediately when I said that.

Checkmate! Satisfied that I was able to get under his skin like he had gotten under mine, I hugged my best friend and left.

Fuck Solomon!

“KK, maybe you need to go home, baby,” Treva said as she held my hair back.

I had been hugging the toilet since I’d gotten to work earlier that morning and it was the same all day yesterday as well. As soon as I got the energy, I was going to curse Morgan out. It was all her fault. She was the one that wanted to go out and the Jell-O shots were her idea as well.

Once I emptied all of the contents of my stomach, she helped me up and handed me one of the prepasted toothbrushes and I brushed my teeth.

I felt horrible. I’d had a hangover plenty of times and each time I felt shitty, but this was on a whole different level.

I honestly felt like I was dying. The Spot needed to be investigated to make sure they were selling us real liquor because I believed I must’ve had rubbing alcohol or some shit.

“KK…”

“I’m good, auntie.” I gave her a small smile.

I definitely wasn’t fine, but I didn’t want to miss any time.

My mother and father were still on their shit, making me pay her rent, and I had a trip with Morgan to pay for, so I needed all my time.

I truly thought my dad would have folded and told my mother to stop with the rent bullshit, but he was worse than her.

He called on the last day of the month faithfully to make sure I had my money in order.

“No, you’re not, baby.” She took my hands into hers after I washed and dried them and gave me a sympathetic look. “You look like everything you’re going through, so you need to go home. You have the time.”

“But I?—”

She cut me off. “Kaori, I don’t know if you picked up a bug or what, but I can’t have you getting me or my patients sick. I love you, baby, but you have to go home.”