Page 74 of Juliet's Echo

“Oh no, don’t go all silent now. You was just loud and proud, talking about my guy this and my guy that,” she fussed.

If I knew Yah like I knew Yah, that one smack to the shoulder wasn’t all she had planned for him.

Mega, however, caught her wrist before she could hit him again. What started as him blocking her turned into his thumb absentmindedly rubbing across the back of her hand.

Interesting.

My eyes narrowed.

Neither one of them noticed.

“Psalm wanted to be a man and court his lady,” Mega said. “Besides, I’ve been kicking it with him for a little minute now and he’s a good dude. If I thought he had any ill intentions, Ju Money know I got her back.”

I stuck out my bottom lip and signed, “Thank you.”

Mega accepted my gratitude with a simple nod of his head.

Yahya sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes.

“Since you pick up on energy so well, why you ain’t pick up on Nazir’s trifling ass?”

“Man, Juliet went out with him behind my back.”

“Okay, Echo Number Two,” I signed.

It seemed like none of the men in my life realized I was a grown-ass woman.

“Had I known what type of time he was on, Psalm wouldn’t have needed to do shit. I would’ve handled him myself.”

“Oh, so you big and bad now, huh?” Yahya laughed. “I don’t know. You might’ve gotten away with beating Nazir’s ass, but from what I heard, the way Psalm mopped the floor with him? You might want to leave Romeo alone about his Juliet. That man ain’t about to play about her.”

She stuck her tongue out and extended her hand for a high five.

“And don’t,” my hand connecting with hers.

“Yeah aight,” Mega laughed. “Both of y’all must’ve forgot who saved the day during that fight.”

Yahya let out the loudest raspberry known to mankind.

“Boy, please. How could we forget? It’s the only war story you tell.”

The three of us burst out laughing.

Truth be told, if Mega lived to be a hundred, he was probably still going to tell people about the time he saved me and Psalm from certain death at Sunday’s. By then, the story would probably involve helicopters, a SWAT team, and him carrying both of us out of the building on his back.

My watch vibrated, and the reminder for Creative Writing lit up the screen.

“Let me get to class and slay this project. Come on, I can drop y’all back off at campus,” I said, hopping off the hood of my Jeep.

Instead of piling in like they normally would, both stood there staring at one another.

Suspicious.

Very suspicious.

Looking at them, I waited for some kind of indication that either one planned to speak.

“It’s cool, Ju Money. I’m gonna go chill with a few guys in the game room,” Mega finally said.