Page 18 of Lyric Squared

“Appreciate that.”

“No problem,” Ward said as I ended the call.

“Leaving so soon?” Malika appeared, leaning against the doorframe with her arms folded and sad eyes.

Refusing to get caught up in her beauty, I focused on the task at hand. I cleaned every inch of my center, removing any evidence she’d been bouncing on my dick or that I’d been swimming in her ocean seconds prior.

“Yeah. Got shit to do.”

“Can you at least come back?”

“I can’t give you an answer to that.”

“Why not?” She insisted on more information.

“Because lying isn’t my thing, and I’d rather say nothing than something I know could end up being a lie.”

“So basically you’re not coming back?”

“If I do, I do. If I don’t then I don’t. Tripping now won’t help in your protest to get me back here later.”

“I’m not tripping. I just miss you and you just got here.”

“And gave you what you really wanted, Malika. Let’s not act like we don’t know what this is.”

“I want it to be more,” she declared.

“Oh yeah?” I sniggered, “Have you told that to Antwan and Dex? The other two niggas that be climbing up in your shit, probably leaving their seeds behind for the next nigga to find?”

Silence was her only response.

“I didn’t think so. Let’s just keep this a buck. We have good sex and a good time when we’re together, but neither of us is ready for whatever you’re thinking in your pretty little head.”

In the full year that I’d been in Malika’s bed, I hadn’t once considered removing the magnum, no matter how good she felt. That should’ve been the sign she needed to understand my train of thought when it came to whatever it was we had going on. Together, we were a good time. It ended there.

“So, you’re saying that all I am to you is a piece of pussy?”

“If that’s the hill you want to cry on, I’m going to let you. But arguing ain’t it for me. Debate a nigga that gives a fuck. I don’t. I’ve got to roll. Don’t wait up.”

I’d already made it up in my mind that I wouldn’t be returning. There wasn’t a woman in the world that could tell anyone that I wasted my breath or energy going back and forth with her. I didn’t have the capacity – not for a nigga or a female.

I located my jeans near the foot of her bed and slid them back on. My Forces were next to my pants, making the transition simple and easy to get them on my feet. When I was redressed, I scurried through her front room and was out of the door seconds later with one thing on my mind – Kale.

Underneath the Channing City lights, I mashed the gas of my matte, black Camaro, weaving through traffic that the nightlife brought about. It was Friday. Everyone was happy to be taking a break from their work week and getting some drinks in their system.

The twenty-minute drive to a forbidden part of town where Kale had no business being was cut by eight minutes; the motor of my new toy being just what I needed to get me across the city in haste. When I reached the intersection of 4th and Omen, I slowed my engine to a creep so that he wouldn’t be alerted of my arrival. It wasn’t easy to conceal the horsepower underneath the hood but it was worth the try.

I reached the corner of 4th and Audelia undetected. Kale was too wrapped up in his heated phone conversation to even notice me when I stepped out of the car and on his turf. Had I been a hitter or had come to shake him down for his paper, it would have been such a sweet lick. Kale wasn’t on his toes. He was lacking.

So easily, I entered his personal space. From the few words that I heard him utter, I quickly came to the conclusion that hewas talking to our aunt, Brandi, the woman who’d raised us both. Me from the age of four when my granny took sick and Kale from the day he left the hospital. I was already out of high school and had found my own lane by then. We were twenty years apart, making me more of a father figure than an older brother.

To say I took my job seriously would be an understatement. Kale made that thing in my chest beat. And seeing him risking everything I’d worked so hard to give him and everything my aunt and uncle had instilled in him broke it. Split it into tiny pieces that would take time and effort to put back together.

“Get in the fucking car before I beat your ass out here in front of all these niggas you fronting for,” calmly, I stated, close enough for only Kale to hear me.

Causing a scene wasn’t in my plans, but I would if it came down to it. When Kale ended the call with our aunt, lying to her about his whereabouts, he turned in my direction with his head lowered and eyes on the ground. He raised a finger and began scratching the back of his neck, a sign of discomfort that I’d learned a long time ago. I led the way to my car, which was only a few feet away, daring him with my eyes to make a questionable move.

I made it to the car first, Kale shortly after. As I watched him lower himself into my passenger seat, it was taking everything in my not to stomp a hole in him. Not only was he jeopardizing his future, but he was making a fool of the people who loved him the most. My aunt and uncle worshiped the ground Kale walked on. He had the best of everything, and they busted their asses each day to make sure that he got it, in addition to everything that I was already giving him.