Page 12 of Krist and Moanie (D-Ville Projects #3)

“My mama wasn’t always a fiend. She used to have her shit together, happy, going to work and all that good shit, then my pops died after Jru was born.

She checked out on us and never checked back in, but instead stayed high, stealing from motherfuckers and always looking for her next high.

I couldn’t take seeing niggas beat on her and treat us like shit, so I grew up fast and handled my own.

While she was out here feenin’ and chasing that high, I was making sure Jru was fine and we had a place to stay.

I did a lot of shit I’m not proud of, but I gave him a childhood. ”

My hand found his massive one and tightened around it. “At the expense of your own.”

“Doesn’t matter, we here. I made it happen, and for him, I’d do it all again. I don’t regret shit, except all the money and time I wasted tryna get her ass clean.”

I nodded, feeling the weight of his loss because I felt him. I cared too deeply for Krist not to be moved by anything he carried or felt. I was in tune with him in a way I had never been with anyone else… In a scary way.

“You wrote that for me?” I had a massive smile on my face after hearing the song Krist played from his phone through the speaker of his car.

He grinned. “Don’t be tryna make shit all mushy, Honey Bun.”

“How can I not? You wrote a song about me and recorded it. Is it going on the mixtape?”

“Probably. I just left the studio and I got about three more ways I could’ve written it. Might change some shit.”

His words made me smile even bigger. The fact that he thought about me made my soul smile.

“Oh shit, you like me…like really like me.” I changed my seating position and just looked at him.

He nodded, eyes on the road. “I do.”

I couldn’t help but keep my eyes on him, realizing he had something else on his mind. Something he hadn’t uttered was bothering him and it had nothing to do with his mother or my rat ass cousin.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, why do you ask?” Him saying nothing was like an automatic statement. Something was wrong.

“Krist, what’s wrong?”

“Shit, I don’t know? I’m worried about Jru.

He found out that his girl was tryna pin a baby on him that wasn’t his.

” He pulled into a strip mall parking lot.

There were two storefronts in the small lot.

One was a breakfast joint and the other was a tattoo and piercing spot.

We were definitely no longer in Diamond Falls.

“How did he find out?”

Krist explained the moment with his brother to me and I felt so bad for Jru.

He was a good kid and stayed to himself.

I hated that he was going through something like this at the hands of somebody he loved.

I’d been at him and Krist’s home a few times while the brothers joked back and forth about Jru’s puppy love.

“Damn, that puppy love is a beast. After we leave wherever we are, can we stop and get him ice cream?”

“What the fuck is ice cream gonna do for him?” Krist chuckled out of nowhere.

“Ice cream mends all broken hearts. It’s a proven science.”

Krist just looked at me. “Show me that fucking science.”

“Okay, hold up.” I pulled my phone from between my legs, but he grabbed it.

“Not right now though. I want you to do something for me.” He licked his lips, eyes trained on mine.

“And that is?” I tried to read him, but the sexy grin on his face had me internally shivering.

“I want my name on you. Right here.” Those rough ass fingertips that I nearly craved found themselves at my collarbone.

My eyes ballooned. “Uh, what? You wanna brand me?”

He chuckled, throwing his head back in pure amusement. “Why you gotta say it like that, Moanie?”

“Because that’s what it is, right?”

“Nope. It’s not.”

“Then what is it?” Of course I had questions. Shit, I had never gotten a tattoo in my life and now this crazy ass man was asking to put his name on me. Then, to make matters worse, I was sitting here thinking about it.

“What if I told you I was falling for you?” he quizzed, eyes peering intently at me.

My heart began to thud heavily and everything around me became fuzzy. “You’re what?” I nearly stuttered, wondering if I heard him right.

“I’m falling for you and somehow getting my name on you gives me some type of assurance that you’ll always belong to me, that somehow yeen gonna look up one day and realize how much better you can do.”

My seatbelt was off and I moved into his lap without another word.

My hands found both sides of his face and I made him look up at me.

I leaned forward, pressing my lips against his forehead, then his nose, and finally his lips.

“I’m not going anywhere because I’m looking at the best. You are the best, and just like I belong to you, you belong to me. ”

Less than fifteen minutes later he and I were pulling up to his apartment building and I was confused.

He must’ve noticed my confusion because he spoke seconds later. “My boy Arris on the third floor does tattoos. It’s legit and he does good work. He just hasn’t gotten his shop yet.”

I nodded as he opened the door and got out.

He was on my side of the car in minutes, opening the door with one hand and holding the other out for me to take.

It was official, my first ever tattoo would be Krist’s name right below my collarbone, in the very space he kissed often.

As for him, I didn’t know where he was getting my name, but he was getting it.

Yep, we were branding ourselves to one another and no part of me would regret it.