Page 29 of Rah

She was in such a rush that I was forced to step back as she flung her door open and climbed in. She looked so worried and scared that I felt selfish for forcing myself on her, like I wanted to, so I stepped back and let her peel off.

I stood there, watching her taillights fade, feeling like she was taking a piece of me with her.

SOLAE

“Elijah, stop writing on that cast boy.”

He looked at me like I had sucked the only fun out of his bad day. He’d slipped and fell on black ice running into the school and fractured his wrist. I had been in the emergency room with him the rest of the morning and all afternoon.

Rah showed up but went back to the block after Elijah was released.

The entire time I was in that ER, I couldn’t stop thinking about Priest. Breakfast with Priest had been dangerous in all the ways I knew it would be. The way he made me laugh and looked at me like I was the only woman in the room felt too good. And as messed up as it sounds, I was almost glad Elijah hurt himself at school, because that call pulled me out of the moment before I made the mistake of giving Priest my number. But walking away from him didn’t kill the craving. It just made it worse. Denying myself only left me sitting here, staring at the wall, wondering if Rah was really being as faithful to me. No matter how I tried to push it out of my head, that light-skinnedgirl from the party kept creeping back into my thoughts. My women’s intuition was punching me in my gut over and over again, giving me that feeling that I just couldn’t ignore.

He was constantly giving his attention to the streets and Moses. As his woman, I was loyal enough to his hustle to deal with that. But I wasnotabout to deal with bitches too.

After giving Elijah his dose of Tylenol to help with the pain, I could no longer ignore that gut feeling. I sat down at the computer and logged into our T-Mobile account online. After logging in and going under Rah’s account number, I pulled up the call details, in order to see which numbers he called frequently.

I recognized most of them, but there were two specific numbers that he called just as much as he called me. That gut feeling now became nausea mixed with regret. I knew that, unless his mother or brother had a new number, he was courting whoever was on the other end of this number.

I dialed it anonymously with no hesitation. I figured that the person wouldn’t answer since I’d blocked my number. Sure enough, whoever it was didn’t answer. However, the voicemail came on saying, “Hello, you’ve reached Aaliyah. Leave a message.”

She sounded pretty, younger, and full of life.

I felt nauseous.

I felt a cramp from the abortion procedure and felt nauseous again.

And my stomach clenched again.

I ended the call, in the middle of leaving a silent voicemail message.

Then I dialed the other number to see where that would lead.

“Kenwood Assisted Living. This is Olivia speaking. How may I help you?”

That gut feeling was still there. I had a hunch, so I went with it. “May I speak to Aaliyah, please?”

“Aaliyah?” Olivia sounded caught off guard. “Um… She hasn’t come to see her mother today, ma’am.”

My brows curled as I tried to put the pieces together.

Then Olivia rocked my world. “I’m not sure when she’ll be back. She’s busy withthat beautiful, newborn baby, so I couldn’t tell you.”

As nausea completely consumed me, I hung up.

MOSES

My right hand, Smoody, and I were riding through the city making runs. Smoody was driving. I was in the passenger seat, staring out the window. My stomach was in knots. Every time I blinked, I saw Kahlani being driven away in that police car. My woman—my rider—was in jail because of me.

Smoody must’ve noticed that I was still sick about it. “Bro, you gotta stop blaming yourself.”

“I can’t stop thinking about her. She shouldn’t even be in there right now.”

He nodded with his eyes still on the road. “Real ones like her don’t exist no more. She’s solid, for real. Ain’t too many women takin’ a charge for their man these days.”

“Yeah, and that’s exactly why I gotta get her the best lawyer money can buy. I owe her that. She cannotdotime because of this.”

“Then we get that money up,” he replied without hesitation. “Ain’t nothin’ to it.”