Page 18 of Give Me All Of You

“I have my ways of finding things that interest me,” Hassan said, making my friend blush.

“Rue, you got a place I can smoke?” Rakeem asked. I liked the fact that he asked first before lighting up in my friend’s house. He was my boy and all, but Rue was my sister, so I would always side with her.

“Sure. Uhm, you can go on the back patio,” she informed.

“Come smoke with me, bestie.” I howled in laughter at him, calling me his bestie. He swore he hated that word.

“You wake my baby up, your ass will be the one that puts her back to sleep,” Rue warned.

“My bad, shorty. I didn’t know your baby was here. If she gets up, I’ll help Journei with her. You can chill out,” he insisted.

I smiled at my best friend before walking through the kitchen and out the patio door. She looked so nervous, but I knew she was in good hands. Hassan really liked her, and I could tell she was smitten with him too, but Keith really did a number on her, so she wasn’t so inviting to date anyone else.

Rakeem and I took a seat on the patio furniture that Rue had set out here and he pulled out a pre-rolled blunt and lit theopposite end. After taking a deep pull, he leaned his back and let it rest on the back of the chair.

“Rough day?” I asked.

I had one of my legs tucked under me, ready to hear all about his day. My heart hurt for him. I knew it was a lot for him to deal with. Honesty, I don’t think I would be able do it.

“Shit, it was about the same. Lu still refusing to eat or take her meds. The doctor came and administered an IV drip so she could get some sort of nutrients, but that’s about all they can do right now.”

“And there’s absolutely nothing that they can do?” I felt so bad for my new bestie.

“Nah. She’s at the end of the line. All we’re doing is trying to keep her comfortable until she takes her last breath.” He passed me the blunt, and I took a deep pull like it was my loved one that I was waiting to die.

“Don’t do that, shorty,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts.

“Do what?”

“Feel sorry for me. I do that enough. I need my bestie to make things bearable for me.” He looked at me and smirked.

Shoving him, I said, “I can do that.”

I may have been attracted to Rakeem, but I wasn’t about to be a thirsty bitch, and I was going to respect his wishes to just be friends.

Chapter Nine

Hassan

I was with Rock at the freight yard when Journei was on the phone with him. He heard everything she said about her baby daddy and so did I. That shit made me hot. He was being such a fuck nigga, and he had a whole fucking wife. His bitch ass only needed to be concerned with his daughter and not what JaRue had going on, especially if that something was me. When I told him let’s pull up over there, he didn’t hesitate. We wrapped the business up that we were tending to there and headed across town to her apartment in The Heights. That was another thing. Why did you have your daughter living in the fucking hood? Granted, it wasn’t shit wrong with the hood, but I’ll be damned if my kid would live there while I lived somewhere else. While Rock and her friend Journei were outside smoking, JaRue and I sat on her sofa in an awkward silence. After about five or so minutes, the silence was killing me, so I decided to speak up.

“So, how was your day, shorty?” That was the first thing that came to my mind and the easiest route to take to get her to open up to me.

“It was okay. While Infiniti was in daycare, Journei and I had a girls’ day. It was going great until Cheryl’s ashy foot ass came and ruined it.” The way she downed the last of the wine that was in her glass, I could tell that she didn’t care for whoever this Cheryl woman was.

“Who’s Cheryl?” I asked.

“Keith’s wife.” She scoffed.

“Keith ya baby daddy?” I quizzed.

She gave me this look like I should’ve known the answer to that question.

“Don’t act like you don’t know who that nigga is.”

It was my turn to give her a crazy ass look.

“One thing I don’t do is play games, shorty. I’on know not one nigga named Keith other than Keith Sweat. So unless you got a kid by that drunk ass nigga, then I don’t know who the fuck you’re talking about.”

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