Page 27 of Brazen Being It

“Hey, Cam, you good girl?” Dre greets.

“Um,” I begin barely getting that single word out.

“Oh babe, I’ll be right there.”

Before I can even get out another sentence, the call ends. I didn’t mean for her to drop everything right this minute and come to me.

Nervously, I wonder if she’s going to call Drew. Deciding it’s best he hear it from me, I call him while I wait on her arrival.

“Hey,” he greets on the second ring, “you good?”

“Um,” I begin and I hear the phone shuffle.

“I can be there in ten,” he retorts and I let out a laugh.

“God no! Stay put. I called your sister. Before I could say anything more than um, she is headed over here. I didn’t know if she was going to call you and I was worried, you would get the wrong idea.”

“Are you leaving?”

“Yes,” I say and then realize that’s coming out wrong, “no, I mean no. Yes, I’m leaving, I need to go out and I was hoping to ask Dre to take me to a store, but I didn’t get that far talking before she left to come here. I didn’t want you worried, I was going home and I didn’t want her to call and you hear from her before me.” I’m rambling and I can’t seem to stop myself. “I need to go get some things from the store, I thought she could maybe take me so I didn’t have to bother you.”

“First, you never bother me. Second, I left the truck keys, babe.”

Embarrassment washes over me. I have to tell him. He needs to know. “Drew, I don’t know how to drive and I definitely don’t have a license.”

“Well, we will work on that next.” He says this casually like it’s the easiest thing in the world. “Until then, I’ll make sure one of my sisters is around if you need to go out while I’m at work. I’ll let Dre know if you need something more than the cash on the counter, text me and I’ll transfer money to her. I’ll leave my credit card with you tomorrow. I wasn’t thinkin’ about that.”

“Drew,” I whisper, “you’re making this way too easy.”

“Baby, you left all the hard stuff in Arkansas. No matter where this goes, only good for you comes next.”

I feel tears pooling in my eyes but I refuse to let them fall as a knock comes to the door. “Dre’s here,” I tell him. “I’ll see you later.”

“Lookin’ forward to it, Cambria,” he tells me softly.

“Thank you, Drew. Seriously, thank you.”

Ending the call, I open the door and Dre studies me.

“Alright, how can I help? Are we digging a hole to hide my brother’s body? You need an alibi?”

I bust out laughing. “No, I need a ride to the store.”

“Oh that’s easy, come on.”

No questions, no fussing, just a simple okay. I reach out and grab her arm as she turns to go back out the door. “Thank you, Dre for coming. Thank you for being willing to hide a body or be my alibi.”

She smiles brightly, “I love my brother, but penis heads sometimes aren’t smart. We girlies gotta stick together. I told you if you came here, I would have your back. I meant it. Now where do you want to go shopping? What do we need to get?”

“I need some toiletries.”

She blinks like it’s dawning on her. “My brother moved you in and left you to use his man smelling shit, didn’t he?”

I nod.

“Did he get the good toilet paper?” she asks moving past me and to the bathroom to investigate.

“No,” I explain before she makes it to the small room.

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