Page 4 of Our Mother's Sons

“Only way ima be able to go to war is if I get my daily dose of nut.”

“Jack off,” he shrugged.

“Fuck you think I am? Twelve? I’m just saying. How fair is it that you get to drain your dick every night and I gotta jack mine?”

My brother pushed back from the table but remained in his seat.

“Jovani you know I’ll never tell you nothing wrong. This is why I been told you to lock something in. Even if she wasn’t your girlfriend, you should have had one or two in the tuck you’re familiar with. We not twenty one no more.”

“We only twenty six!” I screeched. It felt like shit was crawling all over me at the mere thought of not fucking nothing. I was all for staying out of the clubs but staying out of some pussy? That was like living a fucking horror film in itself.

“That’s four years from thirty, my boy. Get right.”

“Niggas get their long lost love back and all of a sudden become the love doctor.”

Jeovanni held his middle finger up.

“But on the real. Just be safe, brother. I know you can handle your own, but now that I have a family at the crib, it’s hard for me to be two places at once. I can’t protect you and them when we not in the same setting. You know it’s forever us.”

“Us. And I got you. I told you I didn’t fuck nothing last night. But, i’ll cool it on the hoes,” that tasted like shit coming out of my mouth.

“And I’m glad you gave that baby up. For one, keeping her would have been unethical as fuck. Them Russians was paying stacks for children. You heard the laws when they told us that sometimes parents be selling the fucking kids to the traffickers. Imagine that shit? Muhfuckas selling their own children. We don’t know if she was snatched or if her folks sold her. If she was sold, her people seeing you out with her could pose a real problem and if she was taken and you were spotted with her, that is a whole legal shit show we don’t need. We don’t know what the fuck she done been through in the time that she’s been separated from her people. Plus, you don’t know shit about no kids.”

“You didn’t know shit about kids either but Jordan and Jason doing just fine.”

“That’s because they boys, not in diapers, and I have their mother right there correcting me when I fuck up. Being a parent isn’t some shit you do when you’re bored, Jovani. With the life you live, you don’t have time for no babies. Fuck she going to do? Go to The Pleasure Pad with you and survive off Pluck it?”

I’d reached my Jeovanni’s hard lessons max for the day. Bad enough, the greasy chicken didn’t ease my headache. Pushing from the table, I grabbed my trash and stretched my back.

“Jovani-“

“Yeah, aite I hear you. The baby turned in, so you don’t have to worry about that.” My brother eyed me as if he was trying to spot a lie but I paid his ass no mind. I had places to be and people to see. So, I tossed my trash and went to lock away the cash. That was the least I could do since I didn’t count the shit.

The stacks and stacks of money brought me back to thoughts of the other night when I made it rain at the crib on ole girl. I hadn’t given away all my fives at the club so her nondancing ass gave me a private dance. Her little booty had some wiggle to it, though. That night was wild; she hadn’t even taken the money when she left, so it was still sprawled out all over my bedroom floor. I was leaving that shit for the cleaners when they came next week. Now that I thought about it, I was glad she wasn’t at the club last night. I wasn’t in the best headspace and after violently vomiting I was for sure keeping my ass out of Pleasure Pad on the strength of being embarrassed. I hated like hell I didn’t get her number though. She was a time for sure. Especially now since sergeant stiff dick had grounded me.Fuck.

Chapter2

Jovani (Von) Bendetti

It took me two hours to put all the money away. Jeovanni’s ass just sat there and watched, lecturing me the whole time. I wouldn’t have it any other way, though. Half the shit my brother said to me went in one in and out the other and the rest I stored for safe keeping. I knew no one on this earth loved me like that nigga did so, I took all of his tongue lashings even when I wanted to lay his ass out. That nigga fist was big as fuck though and he hit hard so, I would just continue ignoring him.

The rain had cleared, but the skies were still grey, meaning more rain would occur. If the sun didn’t come out, that meant the sky wasn’t done watering. Hell, here in Florida, you could still get some rain even when it was sunny. As I pulled in beside my grandma’s Benz, I looked to the left of me to see if I spotted her nosey ass bestie. Ms. Nixon was Rainah’s grandma and something like a grandma to us. Even she’d popped my ass in the mouth before. In the hood, everybody disciplined everybody’s kids. She was nosy as hell, but I was glad that her surgery had succeeded. She was a part of my life and was one of the people I vowed to protect. She and my Grams were both stubborn as hell, though. All this money we were getting, and they both could be somewhere living lavishly. There was no way we would upgrade our Grams and leave her homegirl. The only reason she didn’t have a Benz is that she refused. She claimed she didn’t drive like that. Thankfully, Rainah had convinced Ida Mae to move into her old condo. Still, she was home more than the condo. I didn’t know what the fuck it was about old people still wanting to live in the ghetto. I was fucking out of here the first chance I got with the first real money I made.

Using my key, I entered my grandmother’s house and the smell of incense burned my nose and damn near brought me to tears. That shit was so fucking strong. She smoked cigarettes mainly when she was stressed and had been doing so since before I could remember. She didn’t like the smell to linger in her home and instead of burning candles like regular folk, she was still stuck in the 1990’s with these Dubai smelling ass incense. The living room was clear, except for some cartoons playing on the TV, so I trudged through the house.

“Grandma! What I tell you about burning them strong ass incense. Bad enough you live in the hood! You don’t need it smelling like the Afghan store!”

As I approached my grandmother’s bedroom, walking down the long hallway, she emerged from behind her door with a scowl.

“What I tell you about coming to my house with all that loud talk?”

“And what I tell you about them incense? You don’t smell that?”

Squinting her eyes at me, I could see her salt and pepper curls even in the dark.

“You ain’t got to smell it! This is my house.”

“Who paid the taxes on it this year?” I smirked.

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