Page 35 of So I Know it's Real

“Are you going to leave without us talking about this?”

He stripped a toothpick from a piece of plastic while saying, “Ain’t nothing to talk about. I don’t fuck with nothing associated with that side. Be easy, Clover.”

“Whew,Lord. Why did I volunteer to come up here?” I groaned as I shoved open the emergency exit.

“Oh, shit!”

“Oh, shit is right!” I spat, eyeing the group of ninth graders. “All the cameras around the school, and you guys decide to get on the roof to smoke?”

Reggie grinned and tugged on his baggie khakis. “Whatchu talking about, Ms. Clover? We aren’t doing anything.”

“The smell of weed and strawberries says differently. Give me the vapes and get to class. Now!”

The group of knuckleheads exchanged pointed stares before Reggie urged his friends to do what I said. As soon as the vapes touched my palm, I dropped them on the ground and crushed them with my boot.

“Dang! You couldn’t wait until we left before you did that.”

“Y’all don’t hide the fact that you do drugs. No need for me to make it a secret that I’m getting rid of them. Goodbye!”

Instead of following the boys back to the first floor, I sat on top of the building with my feet dangling off the edge. The breeze was refreshing, and isolation gave me time to think. I couldn’t say which addition to my to-do list was weighing me down, but one of them included a conversation with Durk. We had flirted, touched, and connected since the night we met, but the moment he got scared, he blew me off.

My phone vibrated against my thigh, jolting me from my daydream. At first, I let the call go to voicemail, but the second time it went off, I answered.

“What’s up, Karlie?”

“What are you doing tonight? Going out with Durk?”

I rolled my eyes. “Ugh. No. We aren’t seeing each other anymore.”

“Wait. What happened? Didn’t I warn that fool I would hurt him if he hurt you?”

“I don’t believe it was intentional. We went out earlier in the week, and our night was beautiful until his enemies approached our table.”

“What does that have to do with you?”

“Apparently, they’re connected to Calvin. One of them called me out for being his kids’ mother. Things went left from there.” I groaned as I mulled over what kept me up at night. “The worst of this is I slept with Durk.”

Karlie gasped. “Friend, are you serious?”

I lay back, making work an afterthought as I focused on the clear sky. “Dead serious. I don’t know what came over me. One second, we were laughing in his tattoo shop. The next, I was on his lap with my panties to the side. I knew I was moving fast, but I thought he wanted to me.”

“Hol’ up. What did Durk say?”

I gave Karlie a rundown of what happened at Fusion Eatz then went on to what happened in the car.

“It sounds like he was upset. People say things they don’t mean in the heat of the moment.”

“You’re right, but his words still hurt. The sad thing is I only crossed the line with Durk because of Davis. He swore I wasn’t Durk’s type. I guess I wanted to prove him wrong.”

“Come on, Clover,” She moaned. “You know we don’t play that insecure shit.”

“I wasn’t being insecure. I was being human. Now, I can’t avoid Durk since him and The Sons of Eshu are still staking out my house. All I can do is go home, pour a glass of wine, and cook a delicious meal for my kids.”

Once I ended the call, I skimmed through Instagram. The influx of new followers and engagement made me nervous. My latest post was on trend, but it wasn’t anything grand.

After ten minutes of searching through my timeline, I saw my handle tagged in a post. The username was unfamiliar, and we didn’t follow each other, but the first image on the page infused my backbone with steel.

Durk took the selfie the night we met. In the image, he was snuggled against the side of my neck while my hand rested against his cheek.

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