Page 5 of Krist and Moanie (D-Ville Projects #3)

Krist

W omen like Moanie were dangerous. Before you knew it you were in so fucking far that nothing or no one could fish you out.

The fucked up thing was I knew that but still jumped in head fucking first. Now I was sending good night texts and inviting her to the studio.

Shit, I never took anybody to the studio with me because I needed my focus.

I was working on a mixtape, my first even though I had dropped a few tracks.

I’d been working on it under wraps for about two years, curating my own sound and avoiding that washed up shit.

I had about eight tracks and my goal was ten.

Every time I thought I was finished, I felt like I was missing something, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure it out.

After I dropped Moanie off, I slid through DP territory to see what Ben was on. My boy was always wherever the festivities were. It never failed.

“You went ghost on niggas today. You straight?” he asked as soon as I took the blunt from him.

“I had some shit to handle. What, err’thing over here good?” I glanced around, my eyes landing on all the youngins out enjoying the breezy Friday night.

“Shit to handle,” he repeated, not used to hearing me speak like that.

“Went to the park, nigga.”

“To do what? Fuck? Since when you start going to the park?” The expression on his face had me laughing.

“What? You the only motherfucker who can get a walk in?”

His face was frowned up. “Nigga what? You ’ont even like being outside. The fuck you gonna go to the park for? Grumpy ass.”

“Nah, I was minding my damn business.” I pulled from the blunt again, feeling the smoke burning my lungs. I didn’t smoke much.

“You was with a bitch, wasn’t you?” He had a big, stupid ass smirk on his face.

“She ain’t a bitch. Watch your tongue,” I defended fast as fuck before he could digest or settle the statement.

His smile grew. “Oh this shit serious. You was with a girl. Who? Do I know her?” He accepted the blunt back.

“Moanie.”

“Who?” Confusion was etched into his features.

“Alley from the other night. Her cousin who was wearing the pink.”

“Who? You know I be fucked up.” He laughed to himself even though that shit wasn’t funny. Ben started drinking at eight in the morning and continued well into the night. He carried that shit better than most, but I always told him that him and those yellow eyes needed to slow the fuck down.

“Ol’ girl you took down in the bathroom of the diner.”

He laughed. “Oh, Ashley.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. “Her name ain’t Ashley.”

“Shit, that’s what I was calling her the whole night and what she answered to.” He shrugged.

I was about to respond, but he was already chasing ass and my phone was ringing from the truck.

When I pulled up to places like this, I never turned my truck off, just in case I needed to hop in and speed off. I moved to the truck, reaching in and pulling my phone out. When I got it, I saw I had a call from my brother. I glanced down at my watch and saw that it was nine o’clock.

“Yeah, Jru.”

“I think I fucked my ankle up on the court today. I rolled it.”

I blew a frustrated breath. “Ice it up, if it’s swollen I’ll take you to the hospital in the morning to have it looked at.”

“Aight. Where you at?”

“Onna block. I should be headed that way in a few. You need anything?”

“Nah, I’m good. Ms. Keisha cooked and gave me a plate before I left.”

I laughed. “Okay. Get some sleep, man. I’ll fuck with you when I get home.”

“Okay. Love you, bruh. Be safe.”

“Always.”

When we hung up, I rejoined Ben’s funny ass over by the girls. He was always surrounded by women, always the nigga tryna make them laugh long enough to let their guard down and get between their legs. He was the funny nigga and he ate that shit up every time.

I kicked shit with the young niggas and Ben for a little while longer before I was ready to take it in myself.

I wasn’t really with the idea of dangling in one spot for too long.

It was nuts, and to keep it a buck, too much could or would go wrong.

I’d been in the streets too long to get caught out here dangling.

I couldn’t even go out like that.

By the time I made it to the crib, it was well into the wee hours of the morning.

As a matter of fact, I was out like a light, laid out on the couch, dead to the entire fucking world.

I didn’t know I was that tired. Sleep was good until I heard the door open and I hopped up.

The lights were on and Jru was moving around the kitchen.

I sat there for a minute, trying to catch my thoughts.

At the same time I glanced down at my watch and saw it was five in the morning.

“I went for a run. I had something on my mind.”

I turned around, trying to read him, but it was of no use. Jru was young, but he was my brother through and through. That poker face was a motherfucker. “You wanna talk about it?”

“Naw. I got practice in about an hour. You good?”

I nodded. “Shit, ain’t I supposed to be asking if you good? What that ankle feeling like?”

He shrugged. “I’m good. It’s tender. It went down a little bit.”

I nodded.

“You getting old on me, bro. Falling asleep on the couch and shit.”

I laughed. “This motherfucker is uncomfortable too.”

He laughed as well. “You bought it.”

He was right, I did, and every time I fell asleep on it, which wasn’t that often, I realized I should have left it at the store. It was one of those moments where the lil couple dollars I had was burning a hole in my pockets.

“You need anything?” I asked, still trying to get into his business while he was being a teenager and keeping his lips tight.

“Nah. I’m good.”

I looked at him for a moment before nodding.

Whatever he had going on in that mind of his would come out at some point, so I let it be.

Instead of going back to sleep on that uncomfortable ass couch, I retreated to my bedroom and fell into my bed like I hadn’t had any sleep.

The entire time my mind was trying to find the right thoughts to fall asleep, one person popped into my thoughts, and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why. Moanie.