Page 49 of Kentrell

“Been thinking about it,” she admitted, voice dropping soft like she was saying something she’d been holding in for a while. “Especially now. I don’t know how much longer I’m gon’ be in here… and truth be told, I wanna see a little piece of you running around. Make sure you leave something soft behind in this world.”

I didn’t mean to think of her.

But she came anyway.

Zoe.

Soft… but sharp. Stubborn as hell. Lips still warm in my memory, like she’d kissed me five minutes ago instead of days back. Her voice still lingering in my ears, curled around my name in ways I wasn’t ready to unpack. That kiss… yeah, that shit was still branded somewhere under my skin.

“You smiling,” my mother said, snapping me out of it.

I blinked. “What?”

“You got that silly-ass smirk,” she said, eyes lighting up as her grin stretched wide. “You thinking about somebody.”

I shifted in my seat, pushing the smile off my face like it wasn’t just there.

“I ain’t got nobody.”

“Lying through your damn teeth,” she said, laughing now, the sound loud and familiar and full of life despite where we were. “What’s her name?”

I didn’t answer. Didn’t blink. Just let the question sit in the air between us, untouched.

I needed a lane change. Fast.

“You still talk to Pokie?”

The shift in her was instant. Like a door slamming shut from the inside. Her shoulders squared up, arms folding tight across her chest. Her mouth pressed into a line, thin and bitter.

“Oh Lord… what that bitch got to do with anything?”

I leaned back, watching her. Letting the weight of the question settle between us like dust in a room we both tried to avoid stepping into.

“Y’all used to be real close,” I said, watching her reaction.

“Yeah… so close that bitch left and never came back around.” Her tone snapped sharp, but I caught the hurt buried under it.

“Why she leave?” I pushed, already itching for more than she was trying to give me. “Matter fact… how the fuck she leave?”

That’s what had me stuck. The how.

I knew how my daddy moved. He ran a tight-ass ship. His reach stretched all over the city—outsouth, outwest, over east, up north. Hell, if he wanted to, he could get a bitch jammed up out in the damn suburbs too. There wasn’t no clean way to leave Pretty Kenny. Not without him letting you.

“Shit, Trell… I don’t fuckin’ know.” Her voice edged toward irritated, her foot bouncing under the table like a warning shot. I knew that shift. If I ain’t pivot soon, she’d cuss me out then ice me out.

“She was talking to this nigga we met downtown,” she said finally, pulling in a breath that seemed to settle her some. “He had her disappearing and popping back up like she ain’t know she was still on Kenny’s clock.”

Her lips twitched with a bitter little chuckle, head shaking like she couldn’t believe it even now. “I mean… I get it. Swear I used to wonder what life felt like outside this shit.”

Her mind was drifting. I couldn’t have that.

“You think he moved her outta town?”

Her jaw clenched. Tight. Silent for a second longer than she probably meant to be.

“She just fuckin’ left.” Her voice dropped low. Real. “I mean… we was fuckin’ hoes, Trell. Let’s call it what it was. And Pokie never wanted to stay in this shit. Not really. She had her mama nem in her ear. Always making it seem like I dragged her intothis life. Like I put her up to it when truth be told… we was both young, fine, and reckless.”

Her face twisted just a little when she said‘her mama nem.’Bitterness still fresh after all these years.

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