Page 7 of U + Me

KK had caught Todd coming over one day when she was leaving. She thought it was because he was looking for her but that was far from the truth. I ended up walking her home that day because that was before I had my car and told her the truth about why he was there. KK struggled with telling her mom and then she got lucky and didn’t have to because somehow word had gotten back to her mom about Todd and my mom not too long after that.

KK said when she got home from school one day, they were arguing so bad that it ended up turning physical. She said her mom had racked up a few taps on Todd’s ass but of course he got the best of her because he was much stronger than her. KK went and tried to break it up and dude turned on her and told her to stay in a kid’s place. That was the day they tried to enforce that she and I couldn’t be friends anymore and I was the reason for her disobedience. I wanted to fuck dude up and her mom was bogus as fuck. KK shouldn’t have had to suffer because of her mom’s husband’s dumb shit. What he had going on with my mom had nothing to do with KK and I being cool.

Crazy thing was it made KK and I’s relationship stronger. From day one I always had a slight crush on her but when she came into my life, she wasn’t in need of a nigga she needed protection and at my young age, I did what I could to be the best friend that I could for her even if that meant just providing a place of refuge when needed.

KIMBERLY “KK”

Thankfully his mom wasn’t home, but whoever was at their front door was not trying to leave any time soon, so he had no choice but to go see who it was.

“I’ll be back. You hungry?”

“Ion have much of an appetite forreal.”

Darius muffed me on the back of my head, causing me to spin around and softly gut punch him on the stomach. “Boy, stop playing!” I chuckled, rolling my eyes.

“You stop. Knowing yo ass greedy as hell.”

“Whatever. Remember you haven’t seen or heard from me.”

Darius gave me a head nod then went upstairs so that he could answer the door. Whoever was outside was ringing the hell out of their doorbell. I ran and stood by the stairs trying to hear if it was my mom or Todd.

I couldn’t really hear who it was, but I could hear Darius talking so I walked up a few steps and sure enough, when I heard another male voice, it confirmed what I confirmed, which was that Todd was at the door.

“I know she here but I’m gon’ roll wit it. If you see or talk to Kimmie make sure you tell her that her best bet is to brang her ass home.”

“Ain’t seen or talked to her but if I do, I ain’t tellin’ her shit!” Darius rebutted.

“Yeah okay, youngin’, fuck around and find out.”

“Find out what, nigga?” Darius shouted and from the tone of both of their voices I could tell that they were pissed off. My biggest fear was for them to start fighting because Todd was an asshole and Darius hated him. The both of them would probably give each other a run. Todd wasn’t some chump, and neither was Darius.

“The fuck you talkin’ too?” Todd hollered.

“Yo bummy ass, old man!”

“Yo problem is ain’t no man full time up in this muthafucka. You would know your place if there was.”

“Oh, I know my place; you know yours?” Darius rebutted as my heart continued to beat faster than normal.

“I gotcho old man. Let yo moms know I’ll be?—”

BAM!

Something slammed so hard it felt like the house along with my heart shook. Bolting down the stairs, I tripped and fell over the last two but that didn’t stop me as I rolled the rest of the way down. I ended up standing at the bottom of the stairs as I heard heavy footsteps heading toward the basement. It sounded like there was only one set of footsteps, so I didn’t have to run and hide out. I couldn’t help but to chuckle because I knew that there would have been way more noise if Todd was trying to come downstairs. I was paranoid for no reason.

When I heard Darius going off and cursing in the kitchen, I could tell he was fixing something to eat for us. Darius knew how to cook just about anything he liked to eat, and he actually preferred to prepare his own food instead of eating fast food. Ever since I’d known him, he’d been in sports and watching his weight was major for him. It was me that had no chill about what I ate.

Thirty minutes or so later, Darius was back in the basement carrying a tray with a plate that had a long ass homemade turkey, Swiss, lettuce, and tomato sub and two large bowls of broccoli and cheese soup. He placed the tray down on the table in front of the couch then looked over at me.

“Mannn, it took everything in me not to jaw jack that nigga. I promise to God he lucky I’m trying to be better by the day with heavy shit to lose.” He huffed then he marched back upstairs.

Shortly after he was back with a bag of Dots seasoned pretzels and two big bottles of cold alkaline water.

“He hit you again or sum?”

“No.” I quickly responded.

Darius was looking at me like he was waiting for me to explain why I was crying when I got here.

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