Page 42 of Kassir and Rebel
“Go in the house,” he repeats and she marches back toward the house. She mumbles something as she does and I only catch one word, bitch. It’s enough to set me the fuck off though because I’m out of his ride and running toward her in two seconds flat. He hooks his arm around me and holds me back as soon as I try to run past him. “Man, chill the fuck out,” he has the nerve to say.
“Fuck you, nigga,” I spit and he grins.
“Yeah. Okay,” he mumbles as I try to break free from his hold. “I’m not letting you go,” he insists. I don’t give up though. I jerk and try to twist free but he holds me tightly and practically carries me back to his ride. He manages to open the door then tosses me inside. “Kassan is in there, in case you forgot,” he reminds me in a calm but ominous tone before slamming the door.
“Bastard,” I yell. He just shakes his head as he walks in front of his ride to the driver’s side. “You know what?” I say as soon as he’s inside.
“What?” he challenges, pissing me off more. So I mush the side of his face with the palm of my hand. “Keep yo’ hands to yourself,” he barks.
“Like you did at the park,” I snap.
“That’s not the same.”
“Seems the same to me, Serious!”
“Don’t call me that,” he barks.
“Why? ’Cause that’s who the fuck you were acting like out there. You talk all that shit about changing and being a different man but I can’t damn tell. You doing the same shit you were doing when you had to fuck her to make me leave. Yeah!” For a moment, he just glares at me, not saying shit. I glare back, daring him to rebut, but he doesn’t. He shrugs then shifts his ride into drive. As soon as he pulls off, I’m back on his ass. “You don’t got shit to say to that?” I challenge. “Nothing? Mr. Serious has nothing he wants to say. He can beat the shit out of a nigga in a park full of people, full of kids. Shit, in front of his own kid, but he doesn’t have nothing to say. Imagine that.”
I continue to talk shit all the way to back to D-Ville and to the building and he remains mute. By the time we pull into his parking space, I’m fuming. My head is shaking incessantly. I can’t stop my damn foot from tapping and my hands are itching to knock some words out of him. I’m pissed the fuck off and he needs to say somethinggotdamn it.I’m out of the G-Wagon before he can walk over and open my door. Since he wouldn’t talk in his ride, we will argue this shit out upstairs. I’m in the building before him, and when he walks in with the food bag, he walks right past me.
“Kassir,” I call out after him.
Without turning around, he says, “We can talk in the morning when yo’ ass has calmed down.”
The nerve!
He continues to the elevator and I catch up with his smug ass. “Oh, we are talking tonight,” I counter sternly.
“I’m not trying to say shit we can’t take back,” he utters before walking onto the elevator. I step on too, and before he can use his key card, I pull out mine and press the ten for his floor. When the elevator opens on his floor, I rush out in front of him and open the door. When he walks in behind me, he shakes his head as if he’s annoyed, so I slam the door. “Rebel,” he grits as he heads to the kitchen.
“I swear to God if you open that food and don’t talk to me, I’m going to?—”
“You gonna do what?” He frowns. “You already put yo’ hands on me and tried to get out at my son’s house.”
“Don’t act like you care about shit in front of Kassan now. You didn’t at the park,” I spit and he ignores me. He treks to the kitchen and places the bags on the counter then walks back to me. He gets so close that he backs me up on the door. “Get out my face,” I snap.
“Nah. You wanna talk. Let’s talk. The park was some DP shit that had to be fucking dealt with. You getting out of my ride, trying to start shit in Kassan’s front yard was different.”
“I didn’t start shit. She did. She came out of the house talking shit. Not me,” I fire back. “Plus, I owe her an ass whooping anyway.” I roll my eyes. “Get out my face,” I yell before pushing him.
He steps back because he wants to, not because of my push but I use the moment to my advantage anyway and get to his sectional. I’m the one who’s supposed to be pissed but he seems angry too. He’s too fucking calm and I hate when he’s like this. He won’t put his hands on me but he also isn’t going to let me keep putting mine on him either. So to prevent that, I take my ass to his sectional and sit down.
“All this yelling and rah-rah shit is too much over nothing. At the park, one of my lil niggas was getting into it with Leem. I saw the shit and went over there to handle it.”
“Y’all beat the shit out of him. Your son was out there and he saw that,” I stress.
“And I’ll explain that to him. But when it comes to my son, my brother, you, and anybody that I love, I’m gonna handle what I need to. Today was one of those fucking times. I’ve changed, Rebel, but I ain’t changed that fucking much. At my core, I’m always going to be the nigga that handles business.”
“Handling business led to guns and shootings before, and to protect me, you fucked another woman, remember?”
“And I’ve admitted that that shit was wrong. Fucked up. This ain’t that and I’m not him,” he says sternly.
“How do I know that?” I ask and the tremble in my voice causes him to join me on the sofa.
These past two weeks with him have been everything. I’ve noticed the change in him and it only makes me love him more. This Kassir is more mature. He owns up to his mistakes and he’s intentional in everything he does and says. The way he took care of me when my ankle was messed up and our date last night, it all proves that he’s changed. I see it. I see him and he honestly has me reevaluating everything, even my life in Miami.
Seeing Coach at the block party and hearing about the opening at Prep had my mind churning. Besides my job, there’s honestly nothing else for me in Miami. Leaving there would be easy. Being head coach at my high school alma mater would be a dream come true. Besides, my found family is here, my best friend is here, and more importantly, my heart is in Diamond Falls. There’s no denying it; Kassir owns my heart and I can’t handle it if he breaks it again. Today took me back to the past for a moment and that scared me. All of my anger is actually rooted in my fear.
