Page 10 of On Everything

Hov

“What’s your name, dummy!”

I punched him in his stomach, making him collapse to his knees. I was winded as a muthafucka having to chase this nigga about ten blocks before I caught up to him.

“What the fuck is your name?”

“I’m Marke-ke.”

I punched him in his face again because his name didn’t come as fast as I needed it to.

I didn’t need the nigga name for anything important.

I just like to formally address the niggas who I reprimand on the block.

My dad always taught me growing up that in order to gain control of a city or an organization, you have to build rapport with the niggas working for you.

So, in my opinion, you need to build rapport with your opps too.

Calling them niggas by their weak ass names while stomping their heads makes them think I hate them personally.

It’s worked to my advantage many years in the drug game.

“Now what the fuck is your name!”

“Markelle! I’m Markelle.”

He finally spoke and spit blood from his mouth onto the concrete. I kneeled down next to him because his voice was weak, and I was way too tall to hear his punk ass.

“Markelle, why the fuck are you chasing my bitch?”

“I didn’t know that was your bitch, man.”

I punched him in his stomach again taking all the air out of his chest.

“Watch your mouth.”

“Sorry, man. I'm sorry.”

He was coughing so hard, it sounded like his ass was about to throw up blood. Shid, I’d made niggas puke up their insides before with just a few punches. I spend a lot of time in my gym because I can’t control the block if I can’t run and chase a nigga down.

“Why were you chasing her?”

“She was in the store when we were catching this lick, and she ran out the back. My homie Durk told me to go after her.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know! He just said don’t let her get away. So, I chased her. I figured out who she was mid chase, and that’s when I was just trying to stop her to calm her down. I swear I wasn’t trying to hurt Ciara.”

Ciara was on my mind from the moment I saw her earlier up until now.

Shit, I was back on this side of town to see if she liked the renovations I had done to her place.

That’s when she ran into me with this bitch ass nigga behind her and made me want to kill his young ass.

I feel like he was chasing something that belongs to me. Someone I needed to protect.

“You know I should kill you for scaring her, Markelle, but getting rid of your body would be too much work for me tonight, and I’m ready to go home and relax. But-”

I put my mouth up to his ear.

“If I ever hear about a nigga named Markelle pulling jack moves again, I’m going to personally deliver a bullet to your mama’s doorsteps. Tell a soul that I just beat your ass and I’ll do worse.”

I stood from the ground and walked away from him, knowing that his heat was in my back pocket. That nigga couldn’t stand and do shit to me because I’m sure he had a broken rib or two. That’s the consequences you get when you dealing with a nigga who will die about shit that’s his.

I took off towards my car about a block before I stopped a taxi coming up the street. I didn’t fuck with that Uber shit because raising a finger and getting a ride was so much easier. A lot of this new age shit I’m just not with, and that is the difference between me and Cashmier stuck up ass.

I jumped in the cab and the driver looked at me in the rearview mirror.

“Castle Hill projects up the street.”

He nodded his head, and the meter started to run when he put his foot on the gas.

My phone was now full of missed calls from several people, but the name I saw the most was Cashmier’s.

She been on my ass all day because it’s her birthday and she hasn’t saw me since I fucked her ass good this morning and set twenty thousand dollars on the table for her to spend.

I don’t know why she fussing because Cash knows I am not a nigga who goes out to fancy fuckin’ restaurants, to spend thousands of dollars.

Cashmier however felt that since I have money that we should be doing that kind of shit and change who I am.

I continuously tell her right game, wrong nigga, but her sheltered ass is still spoiled rotten.

So rotten that I’m ready to move past this shit.

I have never been the kind of man to hold on to shit I don't need. When you become baggage to me, I drop the load. It’s just that fuckin’ simple.

When the taxi came to a stop in front of the building, I paid with the black card and then stepped out of the car.

I was about to run upstairs and check on Ciara when my phone rang before I could start across the street.

Cashmier .

I sucked my teeth and shook my head. I knew I needed to answer her, or she was going to be calling back again and again while I’m in Ciara’s presence.

Crew once told me he would’ve been taken Cashmier out to the pasture and put a bullet in her as much as she bothers me.

Nigga legit looks at hoes as cattle. Crazy ass nigga.

“Yeah?” I answered the phone.

“Where are you at, Hov?”

“I’m in the streets, taking care of shit.”

“Oh, I thought you wouldn’t be out late all night tonight.”

“I told you I had to be at the trap because money was looking funny around there. You don’t remember that conversation?”

“I do, I just thought because it’s my birthday that you would come home and at least spend some time with me. I haven’t saw you since this morning and I miss your ass. You know you are the greatest gift that I could get today.”

Cashmier was a firecracker to everyone in the world except me.

She knew that smart mouth, high sadity shit wouldn’t fly with a nigga like me.

I give her ass everything she wants and the dick she acts like she can’t live without.

For all that, she puts up with my neglect and lack of emotions.

Though she put up with it, I still had to hear backlash about the shit from time to time.

She was still a strong, black, educated female, even though she was weak for me.

“Alright, I’ll be there in a minute, Cash.”

“You promise?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, why did you exhale like that?”

“Because I’ve had a long ass day. Let me get off the phone though. I’ll be there soon.”

I hung up, placing my phone in my pocket. My visit to Ciara would have to be at a later time so I can go home and deal with this bitch.

When I arrived at my penthouse building, I parked in the garage on the penthouse floor next to Cashmier’s car.

Her Mercedes Truck barely moves because most of the time she calls a car service to take her around the city.

I put in the code at the entry door, came out on the 7 th floor, and took the elevator straight up to my floor.

The fresh ass smell in the hallway always made me feel at home.

I wasn’t here as much as I should be, but I am at my most peace up here sixteen stories in the sky.

When I opened my large penthouse door, the entire threshold shook when I shut the door.

I walked into the living room and spotted Cashmier in the dining room through the pillars that separated the two rooms. I could see from here that she’d set up the dining room to look fancy on some shit.

Her hair was pinned up on top of her head, and I’m sure she had her eyebrows and shit drawn on to look perfect.

The dress she wore looked black and tight while she was sitting, so I know it was fire on her.

Just because I fell out of love with Cashmier didn’t mean she doesn’t look good.

Cashmier is one of the prettiest women I ever seen in my life and that's not because we were together.

I didn’t announce myself. She just turned over her shoulder when she heard my keys hit the table.

“You came back. Wow.”

“Yeah, I said I would, didn’t I?”

“You say a lot of things, Hov. I just choose to believe only some of them these days.”

I took a seat on the arm of the sofa, not taking another step towards her. I could feel her temperature from here already.

She stood up from the chair, confirming that dress looked good as hell on her ass as I suspected.

Cashmier is probably every nigga in NYC and Jersey’s dream girl.

5’7, beautiful chocolate skin. She was truly a diamond in the rough and I treated her as such.

Everything probably started going downhill with us when she said she didn’t want kids.

I may be a street nigga at heart, but I wanted a family one day.

I need to leave a legacy here like my father did with me. It is only right.

I had mapped my life out perfectly after I reconnected Cashmier at that Louis Vuitton store.

I wanted to retire out of the game in ten years in my forties, give all my time to being a family man, all while letting all my businesses run themselves.

I planned on keeping my kids away from the streets as a whole.

Put them in private schools and show them that our race and culture could be educated too.

I didn’t want no son of mine to follow in my path, because leaving a legacy didn’t mean he had to slang dope like I do.

I was born for this shit, a hustler through and through, but me and Cashmier’s kid I could see being a famous soccer player or some shit.

They were just yesterday’s dreams though, because Cashmier said she would never get pregnant.

Every day she takes those birth control pills like vitamins and no matter how much I mention kids, she just won't budge.

“What borough where you in today?”

“I was in the Bronx.”

“Oh, Bx.” She bounced her shoulders. I could tell the shit was sarcastic. Cashmier don’t fuck around in the hood nor does she ever want to go there. Her hood is 5 th avenue or anywhere the white people have gentrified.

“So, did you get everything done that you needed to in the hood today?”

“Not really. I never do. Just a waste of time, really.”

“So, you wasted your time when you could’ve been here with me? Do you even care when you hurt my feelings, Hov? Will I ever be put first?”

I stood up and stepped past her because I wasn’t about to do this arguing shit.

“Where are you going, Hov! It’s my fucking birthday!”

“And I left twenty bands on the table for you to get whatever the fuck you want, didn't I?”

“That money doesn't matter to me Hov! I wanted for you to care about my birthday for once!”

“Well, I fucking didn't! Is your birthday supposed to stop a multi million dollar drug operation from running? Fuck a birthday!”

Her mouth went silent, and her nose wrinkled up like she was about to cry. I know what that face means. I'm not proud, but I've been the cause of it a lot lately.

Cashmier tried storming past me to our bedroom and I stopped her by grabbing her arm.

“Let me go, Hov.”

She struggled but I am way too strong for her.

“Cashmier, do not walk away from me in the middle of a disagreement. What the fuck is that going to do?”

“Nothing, just like me being everything I can be for you is doing nothing for me either. I get nothing out of this relationship but money and superficial dick.”

“Which you love, so what’s the big fuckin’ deal? Why are you acting like shit hasn’t been this way with us for a long damn time? Your birthday can't change shit.”

She started to shake her head like she was disgusted. Arguing with a woman is never shit I liked to be on. The streets are stressful enough to come home and have your bitch tripping because of one birthday out of all the others that she has had. That's superficial shit.

“You just don’t get it, Hov. Or maybe you don’t want to. Maybe this entire relationship is doomed because you’re just with me because of who my father is.”

“Pssh.”

I laughed at her ass because that part was quite comical.

“You know it’s true, Hov. My father could be the next Mayor of New York City, and you would die to have that type of power at your disposal. I guess if he loses the election, then you will leave me.”

I stepped closer to her face, putting not even an inch between her nose and my chest. Though her statement had some truth in it, she still failed to realize I move how I want to, and no political position will ever be more important than mine in the streets. I'm Hov. I run this fuckin city.

“Don't ever fuckin think any woman can have leverage over me for anything other than pussy, and even that can only take a bitch so far. Just know that your daddy can’t even save you, once I don’t want you at all.”

Her entire body was trembling after I spoke.

“Now have a good night birthday girl. I'll see you in the morning.”

I walked towards the guest room because Cashmier is about to have to learn how to sleep alone.