Page 7 of Always Been You

Terror

My last few months paralleled the side of the highway, all passing in a blur.

Plenty of work was coming, and I was taking it all.

I carved out a rhythm for myself, and even though it didn’t give me a lot of time to spend with my people, it gave me less time to think.

Currently, I slept and went right back to work.

After Brick’s death, the whole hood was tripped out, and it was so easy for me to slide in place.

In the last six months, I had made more money than I have in my whole life combined.

My trigger finger was no longer hesitant.

This bitch was precise, and it would sing a last song to any muthafucka steppin’ out of line with me.

We easily pushed the few people Slash had in place out and put everybody on notice that anyone coming at us wrong was dead.

Slash fell back, but I wasn’t crazy. I was still on the lookout for him.

I even heard little rumors about people saying I had something to do with Brick’s death, too.

Nobody was bold enough to ask, but I knew his brother, Smoke, being who he was, would eventually try to see about that shit.

At the end of the day, all I could do was be real.

I know what I did and didn’t do, and there ain’t a damn man on this earth who put fear in me anymore.

I took one L, and I learned from that shit tremendously. Those days are over. So, if he couldn’t take my word that I ain’t have shit to do with it and he was trying to make shit a problem it’s up there. The streets kinged me, and I wasn’t coming down from this throne for nobody.

I took the exit, and the lights changed drastically as I pulled into my estate.

I pulled up to my house, stepped out, and headed for my door.

I had to take a second and get my head together before I walked in.

One other thing I tried to do through this transition is work shit out with my baby mom, Crystal.

I can honestly say the more time I spent with her, the more I realized I didn’t like her ass at all.

She wasn’t a bad person, but she lacked motivation.

All she wanted to do was sit on her ass all day.

She took care of our son, Marcos Junior, and she even had me hire a nanny to help with that.

She spent all day posting on IG about our life and all of our moves.

When I talked to her about the shit, she couldn’t understand how something like that was dangerous for me.

When I came home from watching my back in the street, I wanted someone I could feel at peace with.

Not someone who had to take a picture of every plate before we ate to get content.

Don’t get me wrong, she would always be taken care of on the account of my son, but this relationship shit wasn’t gone last, and we both knew it.

We were just hanging on to see who would take that step first.

She was bad as hell, I had to admit that.

She was 5’4 stacked like a muthafucka with natural long black hair, brown skin, and everything any nigga would want physically.

But that’s just it, she was just physical.

Shit was getting real in these streets, and sometimes I just needed someone to talk to instead of all that other shit.

I finished the blunt on the front porch and rubbed my hands down my face, hoping that maybe she was sleeping, and I didn’t have to hear her bitch at me like always.

It was a little after three in the morning, so it was likely she didn’t wait up.

I stepped into my house, and immediately my body tensed up.

I heard sounds coming from the upstairs bedroom.

I just knew her ass wasn’t that crazy to have a muthafucka in my house.

I crept up the stairs with my gun at my side.

First, I passed my son’s room to peek in to see if he was asleep.

He was sleeping soundly, his chest rising and falling.

I closed his door gently and screwed the silencer on my Beretta.

The sounds pulled me in the direction of my bedroom, and I felt my pulse through my damn forehead.

I opened the door and saw Crystal’s best friend Trish ass naked slobbing some nigga up in my bed.

“What the fuck?” The words slipped from me so fast.

“AAAHHHHH SHIT!” Trish screamed, covering herself.

“Get the fuck out of my shit! You fuckin crazy to have the nerve to be fuckin a nigga in my shit like you live here! Where the fuck is Crystal?” These muthafuckas had me all the way fucked up!

What the fuck was Crystal on, letting some shit like this even happen?

This was precisely the dumb shit I was talking about with her.

Our damn son is right next door to this hoe fucking in my house like it’s hers.

And who the fuck was this nigga? This nigga could be a damn opp for all these bitches know, and he all in my shit.

Just then, my trigger finger began to itch.

I raised my gun and pointed it at this nigga.

He jumped out of bed and shot both his hands over his head, talking fast.

“Terror man, no disrespect. She told me you said this was cool.”

“Nigga don’t talk to me while yo’ dick out! The fuck?”

I was so charged up, I let one fly, and it hit him in the shoulder.

He screamed in agony. “GET OUT MY SHIT!” I was about to lose my shit.

Their only saving grace was my son next door.

The nigga scrambled to his feet, knocked Trish's ass over, and bolted out the door.

I watched drops of blood leave a trail as he hobbled away.

Trish tried to go, but I snatched her ass up.

“Where the fuck is Crystal?” I said through gritted teeth.

“She wanted to go out tonight. She asked me to babysit.”

“What? Man, don’t ever step foot in my house again. Don’t think cause y’all friends you can’t catch a hot one.” I tossed her away from me, and she let the clothing she had covering herself fall to the floor.

“Don’t be like that, T. I don’t really have to go, do I?

” She said, trying her best to sound seductive, but I was disgusted as hell at the thought of my dick being anywhere near her.

I damn near threw up in my mouth. She had so many trains run on her ass, her nickname was Amtrak. My dick had way more morals than that.

“Don’t nobody want none of that nasty ass pussy. Yo’ ass smell infected. Got my whole room smelling like feet and diseased pussy.”

“Fuck you nigga, that’s alright, you trying to play Mr. Faithful.

” She quickly dressed and left as well. I thought that would’ve made me calm down some, but it didn’t.

I was ready to set this whole damn house on fire.

I couldn’t be comfortable here again. On my fucking bed though?

I walked out of the room and down the steps and shook my head at the blood trail.

I was even more pissed as the next hours rolled by and Crystal wasn’t home. When she finally stumbled into the damn door, she was pissy drunk. That was another big turn-off I had with her. She couldn’t hold her liquor for shit but was constantly going over her limit.

“What the fuck, Crystal?” I was sitting on the stairway facing the front door when she entered.

“Oh shit! You scared me. Don’t do that.” She said, chuckling and stumbling. I tried my best to hold my composure, but she was pissing me off.

“Bruh, you really left Junior with yo hoe ass friend. She got some nigga in my house fucking while our son is in the next room. What the fuck you on?” I said, snatching her up because she damn near fell face-first into the marble floor. I led her to the steps and sat her down.

“I didn’t know she was gone do all that, baby.

I promise I’m gone talk to her! Because that shit is not right!

” She said, slurring her words. She was trying to remain serious, but the liquor made her chuckle.

She was so damn unattractive at that moment.

In a split second, I made up my mind. We were fucking done.

I never loved her, and as fucked up as it sounds, I knew I never could.

These past few months, I grew years, and maybe she just stayed the same, but I was over her reckless ass behavior.

Shit, we were parents, and not just that, it was a target on my back, so we had to be extra careful on how we moved.

“All I ask you to fucking do is stay here and take care of our damn son. You don’t fucking work. You don’t pay for shit, but somehow that shit is still too much for you somehow? Bruh, you trifling as fuck!”

“Oh, you're quick to throw in my face what I don’t do, huh? I may not pay bills, but I do have our damn son 95% of the time. You act like I don’t deserve a break, too, Marcos.”

“If that’s how you felt, that’s something we fucking talk about. You know my mom would have kept him.”

“Nigga fuck yo momma! She don’t like me no way.

” She said, rising from the stairwell and swaying.

I shook my head as I stepped over her and went to my son's room.

I scooped him up in my arms and walked out the front door.

It was damn near seven in the morning now, so I knew my mom would be up.

I would have her watch him for a few hours.

As my mom's only child, when I decided to make the move back to Flint permanent, I had to bring her along, too. She couldn’t be away from her only grandbaby. She loved Junior probably more than me. I strapped my lil dude in and made the drive to my mom’s house.