Page 5 of For the Love of City

COREY

“WHAT YOU GONE do with a kid?”

Trav’s ass was looking at me like I had all the answers to this situation. Like it hadn’t just been dumped in my fucking lap a few short hours ago and I wasn’t trying to figure this shit out my damn self.

I stopped pacing and put my hands on top of my head.

I was too grown to be acting like a bitch, but this wasn’t some shit I had planned for.

It would be one thing if I knocked somebody up.

I had time to get used to the idea of a kid.

Plan for it. Rearrange shit so that it could have the best of me.

But this? I had a whole teenager being dropped in my damn lap on short notice.

Her ass had arrived and quietly accepted her fate like she’d been waiting on her mama to fuck her over for a while.

That had me ready to call some girls up from down the street to fuck Reina’s ass up.

“Fuck if I know. But what you want me to do, turn her into DFCS or some shit? You know them muthafuckas don’t really care about they job and they for damn sure don’t care about Black kids at their jobs. I couldn’t have that shit on my heart if that girl got hurt because I ain’t step up.”

I hadn’t stopped smoking since I got back to my place.

Even with the visitors I’d had earlier, I greeted them with a cloud of smoke just so I could keep my head in the game.

I’d had less than two days to get used to the idea of having a kid around and was only now getting around to talking to Travis about it.

“Nah I feel you but shit. A whole ass dependent in this muthafucka. It ain’t like her ass a toddler either. How old is she?”

“Fourteen almost fifteen her mama said. She short as shit though so who knows?” All that shit that Reina talked about her daughter having a body was bullshit.

Not like I was checking for her ass like that.

When I saw her she looked exactly like what she was: a little ass girl.

Lyric was short as shit, no taller than five two or three and dressed like the normal kid she was.

“She basically an adult. Shit, you remember how we got down at fourteen and fifteen? And you want a girl out here doing that shit?” Trav was looking worried and had my ass wanting to laugh with how he was acting.

“Why you make it seem like she an alien or some shit, man?” I coughed through my laugh, which was a clear sign I needed to put this shit out. Going with the rational thought in my head I ashed it on the tray I had sitting on the coffee table.

My place was nice. Nothing too fancy and not out in the suburbs.

I was on the border of our territory in what was a mildly nicer neighborhood.

It gave me the ability to have a semblance of peace without being too far away from work if something needed to get handled.

My apartment was two bedrooms, two bathrooms and I knew this shit looked sparse by the way my company had glanced around looking worried.

With a black leather sofa, some pictures of rappers on the wall and a big ass TV, I could understand that she was wondering what she’d stepped into.

“Cause she a whole little ass girl. She should be playing with baby dolls or doing quick weaves or something. We can’t teach her shit but what not to do.”

“How many fourteen-year-olds around this hood you know playing with dolls and shit, Trav?” Frankly I was glad that none of the niggas on the block knew her like that.

It meant I wasn’t going to have to go on a murder spree behind her.

Intel on her homegirl wasn’t as clean so she couldn’t come ‘round me for nothing. I didn’t care who she was.

I needed to know who I was about to have in my space.

Like Trav said, we’d been doing a lot of dirt even as youngins so getting the info on this girl was key while I waited for this paperwork.

He blew out a breath and placed both of his hands on top of his head. “You right. Got damn how we gone move when you gone have a kid at home? And who the fuck is her mama ole tack head ass dropping her off?”

Trav was sensitive like I was to kids being in fucked up situations. When he heard who her mama was he wasn’t going to believe it.

“You know her mama.”

He stopped his pacing and turned to me surprised. “Who?”

“Reina.”

“Reina? Wanna be a down ass bitch Reina? With her old ass? I saw her trying to flirt with some of them boys on the corner and I had to let them know that was Dae’s old lady. She really out here trying to find a sugar kid or some shit.”

“A sugar kid?” I hated to ask because Travis didn’t have sense most of the time so I already knew it was something stupid.

“Her ass was old enough to be they mama so I can’t call them her sugar daddy.”

I started to laugh and I wasn’t sure if it was from the weed, his words or both. It felt good though to have this nigga take me out of the hateful headspace I’d been in.

“Bruh, she offered me this girl.” Getting that out sobered me up again and pissed me back off. I rubbed at my face trying to determine how I was going to tell this girl why she was here.

“For what?”

With the way Trav’s head was reared back, I knew he was about to go off the same way I had. When I got word that Reina had gotten a beat down I’d just go on with business as usual. Shit, I might beat him to talking to some girls that cooked for us to do the honors.

My brows rose cause I knew this nigga wasn’t just talking about how wild people were but now wanting to act na?ve. “What you mean for what? What you think?”

“Just like that?”

“Ain’t seem to give two fucks what I did with her, which is pissing me off.” I was itching to grab that blunt again but I braced my arms on my knees to stop myself.

“She know?”

And this is why despite being a fucking clown Trav was always gone be my nigga. He might be a fool, but he had a heart of gold. He hadn’t even met this chap yet and he gave more of a fuck about her than her damn mama.

“Nah. I refuse to be the person to damage her self-esteem like that. I can tell that she probably ain’t heard a kind word since her daddy died.

Hearing that her mama didn’t care what happened to her on top of her giving her up is too much.

I can’t break her like that just cause her mama’s stupid.

She’d internalize that shit real quick and then we got bigger problems on our hands than what to do with her when we gotta make a play. Didn’t we?”

“Yeah but I’m saying some shit you ain’t gone be able to hide. Does her ass look smart?”

“Does she look smart? Like explain this to me like I’m as stupid as you sounding right now because what does looking smart have to do with anything? I swear I be wondering where I picked you up from.”

“I’m saying if she looked like she had any sense she’s probably already figured out her mama ain’t shit, City.

Me and you were much younger than her when we realized it.

Besides, we supposed to be linking with them niggas next week to finalize this protection shit.

So that we ain’t sitting on the block and can really run shit the way we need to. How we gone handle that?”

I hadn’t even thought about the meeting we had next week, which showed just how off my square I was.

That meeting had been the only thing I gave a fuck about for the last few weeks since the connect fell into my lap and now Reina’s ass was fucking up not only her kid’s future but potentially mine as well.

I scratched my cheek hating that I hadn’t shaved before I left the house. Shit was itching and was gone have me scratching like a fiend if I let it stay too long.

“We not missing that. The last thing I’m going to let them do is move on from us.

But one thing I won’t do is pass her over to the next nigga that Reina might try to ship this girl off to.

They might not end up as solid as us, lil baby gotta be traumatized and then we gotta murk that nigga and her mama.

Not to mention carrying the guilt because we could’ve prevented it. Nah, not on our watch.”

“Facts. So it’s take your daughter to drug business day or some shit.” He nodded like the plan was set but the only problem was we hadn’t discussed any of this shit with her.

“I can’t call it.”

“Damn. So we got a kid?”

It seemed like the realization of this had just hit him and he looked mildly discomforted.

Trav’s pretty boy ass had his braids freshly done and as always was dressed and looking like he just stepped out the house.

Because of how he was neglected he had a thing about cleanliness and making sure he looked good.

My mama was neglectful but she was never dirty.

It’s the one thing I could give her credit for.

“Apparently, my nigga.”

“How she taking this shit?”

I looked around because surely he could see the damn girl wasn’t nowhere near me so how the fuck would I know?

“How you think she taking it? How would you feel if the mama who has basically ignored you for the last few years upped and dumped you with a grown ass man you ain’t even know?”

Again, all he could do was nod his head empathetically. We knew we were two stand up men but she didn’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if her ass didn’t try to hop out a window or some shit the first chance she got.

“What’s shawty’s name?”

“Lyric.”

Trav smiled like he was proud of her name or it fit her when he hadn’t even met the girl yet.

Neither of us had been out here trying to have kids but it damn sure seemed like we were both good with whatever the hell this was we were about to do.

Maybe it was some shit because of how we were handled as kids and we were on some savior shit. Either way, I was glad he was down.

“Pretty name. But how we gone move?”