Page 20 of All The Smoke

S moke.

Can you come over?

I need to talk to you.

This is Kaori btw.

I frowned as I read the messages from Kaori again.

I hadn’t seen her ass since we ran into them at The Spot and I was cool with that.

She had a nasty ass mouth on her and I knew me.

I’d be in jail with a charge fucking around with her.

Plus I ain’t like the messages because what the fuck we needed to talk about?

How you get my number?

Fuck all that, I wasn’t about to make this a friendly conversation. She had me fucked up the way she handled me the last couple of times I was in her presence.

Bernard gave it to me. I hope you don’t mind.

I do actually. I would have gave you my shit on my own if I wanted you to have the shit.

Okay, Solomon. Can you come or not? It’s important.

It’s Smoke, and naw, I can’t. I got my son. What is it?

Truth was I could have gone to her crib because he was gon’ be with my parents until later when I went to pick him up but she didn’t have to know that.

I was in my feelings bad as fuck. I didn’t know her ass that well but I wanted to.

I hadn’t really wanted to wife a bitch since I met my baby mama, but when I saw Kaori’s fine ass I wanted her.

She threw me off with that shit at her crib that night.

I thought she was a different type of chick, but she was just a hoe like the rest of these bitches.

Fine. Here.

I damn near fainted at the sight of a positive home pregnancy test as well as a sheet of paper confirming her pregnancy. It was dated with today’s date with an estimated date of conception and due date.

Wtf is this???

You stupid or something?

Naw, but is you? Fuck you sending me this shit for?

Use your context clues, Solomon Sr.

Naw, if you got any sense you’ll use ya noggin and go find ya real baby daddy, shorty. I don’t play these kinds of games.

“Smoke!” my brother called out, jarring me from my thoughts.

I was talking to him about putting Solo in football and basketball.

He had been calling me damn near every day asking me to let him play.

I was skeptical as fuck though. I was a temperamental ass nigga and all it was gon’ take was for one of them little mothafuckas to hit my baby the wrong way or for a parent to get out of line and I was gon’ be dressing out at the county jail.

“Y-yeah. My bad, bruh.”

“What’s got you all distracted?”

I contemplated whether or not I was gon’ tell him what was going on.

The moment I did he was gon’ start preaching to me and shit.

I wasn’t in the mood for that. I needed the nigga to tell me to pack the bitch up off my line and maybe go put some hot shit in her head for even playing with me like that.

I knew he wouldn’t though. He would get to carrying on about me making an honest woman out of her.

He tried that shit with Bri and I shut it down.

No way I would ever wife her. Plus, I ain’t know if Kaori was pregnant by me or not.

“Man this girl texting me with this bullshit,” I huffed.

“What BS, Smoke?”

“Nothing. It’s not important.”

“You’ve been mumbling under your breath, bro.” He chuckled. “It sounds important to me.”

“It ain’t shit, Noah.”

“Aight,” he said, then went silent.

I hated when he did that shit because it was basically his way of saying I’m waiting.

Noah had to be in the know about everything a nigga had going on.

I hated and loved it at the same time. Aside from my son, he was the only person in the world who genuinely loved me unconditionally.

I had Bino and Scoot too, but that shit Bri told me lived in my head rent free. I couldn’t help the shit.

“You remember the bitch I was telling you about?”

“The woman from Solo’s dentist’s office, yes.”

“Whatever,” I mumbled. “She just hit me with some pregnancy bullshit.”

“Pregnancy? You slept with her?” he asked. “Never mind, of course you slept with her. You sleep with everyone.”

“Cap.” I smirked like he could see me. “I’ve left a few women disappointed because I turned them down.”

“Anyway, what is she saying and why would she text something like that?”

“Because I told her ass I wasn’t coming over her crib.”

“Solomon…”

Here he goes.

“Don’t start.”

“Naw, let’s start,” he countered. “Don’t tell me you’re not going to see about what she’s saying.”

“Aight, I won’t.”

“Wow, Smoke.”

I frowned. “What?”

“I’m disappointed,” he said. Noah knew how much it fucked with me when he said that shit.

I never gave a fuck when my mama said I let her down and I definitely didn’t care when Bishop said that shit, but I always wanted my brother to be proud of me.

I wanted him to always know and feel like he did a good job when it came to me.

I kept all of his advice near and dear to my heart and I wanted to implement some of the shit when I could.

“This isn’t you.”

“I didn’t do shit, Noah.” I sighed.

“At the very least you need to go over there. A baby is serious.”

“I know that,” I snapped, frustrated that I slipped up with her ass. I never run up in chicks raw, but I had with her ass. Fuck! “Damn, man.”

“Did you sleep with her with no protection?”

“Unfortunately,” I mumbled.

“Then text her and meet her.”

“For what? For all I know she been fuckin’ hella niggas.”

“On one hand that may be true,” he agreed. “But on the other, you’re the only man she’s been sleeping with. That’s also a possibility.”

“Bruh, I hate when you try to make sense of shit.”

“I’m your big brother. It’s my job.”

“Fine.” I sighed. “I’ll see what she talking about.”

“Good and be nice about it, Smoke.”

“Why you say that?” I grinned. “I’m always nice.”

“Yeah, okay.” He laughed. “I need to go shower while they have my door open though, bro, but I’ll call you tonight to get an update.”

“Man, I’m not going today.” I frowned. “I’m ’bout to go push up on this lawyer nigga because his ass is in town for another client.”

I had been trying to get in touch with him since Bishop came to my crib talking all that bullshit.

I didn’t appreciate him having talks with someone that had nothing to do with my brother’s case nor did I appreciate him saying this shit was pointless.

I was paying him hella bread to make something happen for my brother.

If he felt like he couldn’t, then he needed to run it by me.

Plus, Kaori could wait. She was the one that tried to play me and I was gon’ make her stand on that shit. I wasn’t some lil hoe ass nigga for her to toss aside then come running when her ass had a positive test. Besides, those could have been anyone’s tests.

“Solomon…”

I cut him off. “Naw, I’m the one paying the retainer. His ass don’t need to be discussing yo’ shit with nobody but me.”

He released a heavy sigh before saying, “Okay, I know I’m not going to be able to stop you from going, but talk to the man with sense, Smoke. You know how temperamental you are.”

“Quit psychoanalyzing me, my nigga.” I chuckled. “I’m gon’ be cool.”

“Aight, let me get off this phone though, bro. I love you and tell Solo I’ll holla at him later.”

“I got you. I love you too.”

After disconnecting the call I finished dressing so I could go pull up on this bitch ass attorney. He was defending another nigga from around his way in Cali with a high profile case so I was gon’ push up on him.

On the way to Diablo’s where that janky ass attorney was having his business meeting, I stopped at the gas station. I needed to grab some more cigars and get Solo the freeze-dried Skittles he had been begging me for.

“Smoke?” I heard someone call out from behind me. When I turned around I saw it was Meka, the bitch my brother was fucking with before he caught his bid. She was smiling hard as fuck and tried to hug me but I side stepped her.

“Don’t touch me.”

“You’re still mean.”

“Not mean, we just ain’t ’bout to be hugging and shit like we cool,” I replied. “I ain’t forgot how you left my brother for dead.”

I paid for my shit then left the store with her following me closely.

“Smoke, wait,” she said, grabbing my forearm.

“Meka, for real, quit touching me, fam.”

“I’m sorry.” She lifted her hands in mock surrender. “I just want to… how is he? Your brother.”

I wanted to tell the hoe to get on about her fucking business because she ain’t been worrying about him, but I didn’t.

Meka had been ghost the entire time, claiming she couldn’t put her life on hold for him which was ironic because he damn sure put his on hold for her ass.

Had it not been for her, he wouldn’t have even gotten jammed up.

Noah had received a full-ride scholarship to Ohio State when he was in high school and turned the shit down to stay here with her ass.

But as soon as he got jammed, she dipped. I lost all respect for her.

“Why, Meka?” I frowned. “Why you worried about how he doing now? You ain’t been giving a fuck.”

“That’s not fair, Solomon,” she responded sadly. “I loved Noah, I still do. I just… I don’t know. My father?—”

“Fuck yo’ pops, Meka,” I snapped, cutting her off.

“You worried about yo’ crooked ass father when he ain’t ever give ya ass a second thought.

When you needed money for cosmetology school, who busted their ass to get it for you?

Not ya pops. When you were hungry, needing a ride, trying to flex for your rat ass homegirls in the latest shit, who the fuck kept you up?

Not ya fuckin’ pops,” I spat. I was fuming standing in front of her because she was another mothafucka that used my brother until she couldn’t no more and tried to act like shit was sweet.

I wasn’t going for it though. She could go tell another mothafucka who ain’t know the real that shit. “Move.”

I opened my door and prepared to get in my car because as far as I was concerned the conversation was done. I wasn’t going to give her ass the satisfaction of knowing how well my brother was doing because if she really gave a fuck she would already know.