Page 2 of He Thugged Me First

I had to giggle at that one, because it was partly true.

Nadeen was always inviting me out, but because I was too afraid I’d run into him or anyone from back then, I always declined.

Mazz was my everything when I was younger.

There wasn’t a thing anyone could tell me about him, because back then, I thought I knew everything about him.

I even thought I knew him through and through, but I didn’t.

We were different as night and day. At sixteen, I thought I was in love, and I’m not talking about that puppy love either.

I’m talking about that love that has you ready to give up everything for it.

I thought he felt the same, but he didn’t.

He was feeding the same words to every female around the hood.

I just so happened to be the dumbass that thought I was special.

Turns out I wasn’t, and the best thing my mother could’ve done back then was move us away.

She decided to move at the last minute, and for me, the move couldn’t have come at a better time.

I was reeling from a heartbreak and in need of a fresh start, so as soon as she said move, I was ready to pack.

“Stop flashing. You probably won’t even see him tonight.” Autumn nudged me from my thoughts.

“Even though we are in his neck of the woods,” Nadeen taunted.

I giggled nervously. “What way is the washroom?”

“In the back toward the left.” Nadeen pointed.

I nodded before leaving them there and going to locate the washroom.

Just the thought of seeing him had my palms sweaty and my nerves all over the place.

Once I spotted the washroom sign, I continued in the direction of it with my head down until I walked into something hard.

I fell back, almost hitting the ground, but a pair of strong arms caught me.

When I glanced up, I smiled politely at the figure before apologizing.

“Nah, shorty. That was me. I was tryna stop ya stride.” He winked.

I shook my head with a smirk. He was kind of cute, but not my type.

He was my height. After a few seconds, it was clear that he wasn’t gonna move out of my way, so I glanced around the room waiting for him to spit his weak ass game.

The man was short, so I knew his game was weak.

The moment my eyes connected with a pair of familiar ones, I knew they were playing tricks on me. Why was he here? What the hell?

MAZZ

My eyes had to be playing with me because I knew I hadn’t just seen her.

I’d just connected eyes with the one who got away.

When I met Gayze, I wasn’t who I am today.

I was a young nigga on the grind, only thinking about myself.

I wanna say she was my first love. Shit, honestly my only, but how would I know that?

When shit got tough in the hood, her mother moved her away.

Not to mention, back then, we weren’t on the same page as far as what we had going on.

I was out here foul and I knew it. Things wouldn’t have worked out with us anyways.

I was trying to get more established in the dope game while damn near raising my sister, and she was trying to feed her mental.

I blinked a few times and looked around my space, trying to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me or she was actually here.

It was funny because this was where I first paid her attention.

Her sister had snuck her and Autumn in to chill.

Standing to my feet, I looked around the club just as shots rang out, and before I knew it, I was hit by something. I was knocked backward, and I felt the heat in my stomach before everything in the room went dark.

Hours later, I woke up to the sun peeking through the blinds of what seemed like a hospital room. When I looked up, I had to be dreaming. This couldn’t be Gayze checking me out. I looked up at her, trying to catch her eyes, but I could tell she purposely avoided looking at me.

“Tessa, please run the necessary tests and have the results sent to my tablet.” She gave me a look over before walking out of the room. “And please inform Mr. Carson’s girlfriend that he is awake,” she tossed over her shoulder before the nurse nodded and looked toward me.

“Yo, she my doctor?” I asked in a raspy tone.

The nurse nodded. “She was at the scene when it happened, and she worked on you in the field. Dr. Fields saved your life, sir.”

I nodded my head. “Then page her ass back down here.”

“I can’t do that because she has a meeting to attend.”

I screwed up my face. “How the fuck she gonna have a meeting when she’s a doctor? Ain’t she supposed to be available to her patients?”

“You’re her only patient, sir. Dr. Fields runs the hospital. She rarely has patients. But I will page her right away,” old girl said before leaving the room.

Something in me was proud of her, even though we hadn’t spoken in years. I saw that she had done well for herself. She deserved it, and I was nothing but proud of her, even though she damn near acted like she didn’t know a nigga.

I closed my eyes and sat back, just thinking about all the shit I had going on. Just when I closed my eyes, Mecca’s voice filled the room.

“What the fuck happened, Mazzier?”

I looked up at Mecca and shook my head. I hated that they’d called her. I was supposed to take care of her and Mel, but here I was worrying her.

“Hell, if I know. Where is Mel?”

“At school. I didn’t tell her. I didn’t want to worry her little brain,” she responded, shaking her head.

“Good. I need you to?—”

“Dr. Fields should be in soon.” The nurse peeked her head in the room before walking away.

I nodded and looked at my sister. “Call Quari. He needs to hit the ground running and not come up here. I don’t know who the fuck shot me, and I don’t know why, but there is other stuff to be handled.”

She nodded just before there was a knock at the door.

“You had the nurse page me?”

I turned and looked at her. She was just as beautiful as I remembered, if not more. She had filled out more and was fine as fuck. She no longer wore thick ass glasses and bones. She had just the right amount of meat on those bones and not a glass in sight.

“Gayze!” Mecca screeched, running over and wrapping her arms around Gayze. Mecca was fickle as fuck, and out of all the females I ever had in my life, she only fucked with Gayze. I could see that shit didn’t change.

“How are you? When did you come back?” Mecca rained in with questions.

Before she could respond, the nurse peeked her head in the room and whispered something into her ear, which made her shake her head.

“Update me after intubation, and we’ll monitor throughout the night.” She nodded. Seconds later, the nurse left the room. Then she looked at Mecca. “I’m good, and I’ve been back for a few years.”

The moment she said that, I felt like I had been missing shit. How the fuck had she been back for years and I hadn’t seen her? Was she hiding from a nigga or something?

“We have to catch up!” Mecca smiled before her phone rang, and she excused herself to take the call.

“Something I can help you with, Mr. Carson?” she asked, trying to be professional as she stood in front of me.

I mugged the fuck out of her. “You know what the fuck my name is. Don’t do all that.”

She looked at me confused. “Look, I’m here because I was paged. Is there something with your medication? Do you have a question about your medication or?—”

“As a matter of fact, I do have a question. How come you’ve been back for years and I’m just now seeing you?”

She laughed. Something she always did when she was irritated. “Why would you need to see me? I don’t owe you shit, and you don’t owe me a damn thing, Mazz.” She crossed her arms and mugged my ass.

I smiled because there was the Gayze I remembered. “How have you been?”

She shook her head. “Good, and yourself?”

I looked her over and licked my lips. “Still fine as a motherfucker with that bad ass attitude.”

“I’m sure you didn’t have the nurse interrupt my meeting just for you to?—”

“Wonder why the fuck you acted like yeen know me or where the fuck you been?” I mugged her.

She threw her head back in laughter before mugging me back. “What does it matter?

“It matters to me, Gayze Arie Fields. Now what’s with it?” My eyes never left hers, no matter how much I wanted to admire her frame.

She sighed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “I’ve been around. More so here.”

I nodded my head. “Never thought to look me up?”

“Don’t do that. Remember how we left things? Let’s lea—” Emotion filled her expression as if things had transpired yesterday and not years prior.

I screwed my face up. “Fuck outta here. You didn’t even give me?—”

“Gayze, your fiancé is on hold. He said it’s an emergency.” I looked up and the nurse from earlier had stuck her head in the room.

I watched Gayze rush from the room just as the word fiancé registered in my head. She was finna marry some busta ass nigga. I didn’t even know the nigga, but I was pissed because that belonged to me. I thugged it first.

LOVE

“What you know ‘bout love?”

I loved him. Quari and I had come a long way from the day we saw one another in my dorm, then we met at my friend Mecca’s house.

I could say it was love at first sight, but then it would be lying.

I purposely stayed away from him because of my brother-in-law and Ozzi.

They were overly protective and said he lived a life I didn’t need to be in.

I believed them, but then the magnets in the earth did some shit, and now here I was.

“What the fuck you mean you don’t know? Love, it’s up there. You already live with me and I?—”