Page 38 of He Thugged Me First

“Here my goofy ass was miserable, and this nigga was playing house at the hospital.”

“Remember, he’s not a nigga; he’s a wigga. You wanna set it off?” Nadeen asked.

“Nope. I’m good. I actually couldn’t do anything but laugh.”

“Good because he doesn’t deserve anything about you. I hope you politely asked him to get his shit out of your place,” Autumn responded.

“I damn sure did. Now I’m on my way to?—”

“Pound town!” Nadeen screamed into the phone.

I couldn’t help but laugh. She was right, but definitely too excited to say it. Oddly enough, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my chest the moment I heard old girl say the wordbabe. In reality, he’d given me the easy way out, and I just had to take the opportunity. So actually, Kenya was right. I wasn’t good at goodbyes.

MAZZ

I felt like I was getting out of the game at the right time. I had studied the patterns and did the research, and I couldsay for a fact that niggas rarely made it out because they’d allowed themselves to be controlled for that need for power. It was different for me though. I was consumed with the need to provide for my sisters and stay full. Once I was able to do that, I felt done. I came up in the streets under niggas like Ozzi and Cass, so I knew firsthand that these streets didn’t love you, no matter how much they claimed to. I even briefly worked for that nigga Gemini, but I was never meant to work for anybody, so I waited for my time, and I came up the right way. I didn’t believe in snaking niggas that I once broke bread with. It was room in these streets for all of us to eat. The thing is, not everybody felt that way, so that’s why whatever the fuck was happening.at this point in time.

My thoughts were interrupted by the way Gayze was stirring in her sleep. She had dozed off a few hours ago, and I let her because she seemed too sleepy.

“Why did you let me go to sleep?” She wrapped her arm around me.

“Because you needed sleep. Yeen gonna miss shit.” I looked down, and she was looking up at me.

“If I trust me with you?—”

“Ifyou trust me with you? Baby, you already trust me with you.” I laughed and kissed her forehead.

“You know what I meant.” She giggled and sat up on me.

“Question is can I trust you with me? I fucked around and fell right back into it with you. Now you gotta handle ya shit at home.”

A smile covered her face. “What if that’s already handled? What are you?—”

“That’s what you went to handle before you came here?” I locked eyes, looking up at her.

She bit her bottom lip looking at me. “Does it matter?”

“Smart ass mouth.”

She giggled before leaning down and pressing her lips against mine.

“Nah. I guess it doesn’t if you handled that shit.”

“Good.” I felt her delicate ass hands slip into my sweats as she continued to bite at her bottom lip, looking at me. Gayze knew what she wanted. It was just up to her to get it.

Just like I knew she would, she slammed her lips shut and looked at me. “I wanna talk.”

With a smirk, I put my hands behind my head and focused on her. “Then get ya hands out of my pants and talk, ma.”

She laughed, but she damn sure didn’t move her hand.

“What does this mean for you and I?”

“What you want it to mean, G? You know what this is.” I peered at her. I hoped she didn’t think I was coming halfway this time. If I could help it, I wasn’t fucking up at all. At the end of the day, I was a man, and she had to understand that.

She giggled and looked up at the ceiling then back at me. “It’s not that. I’m just afraid of things starting out one way and ending another. I fear?—”

“Look, if you gimme that”—I pointed to her heart—“then shit will always work out in our favor. We will always be us. I’mma never expect you to be anybody other than you are. Just like I expect you to never expect me to be something I ain’t,” I countered, grabbing her thighs as I sat up to put my back against the sofa.

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