When A Hood Legend Claims It All 2

by Belleza

  Spending the day with them I saw a whole different side to Kenton that made me like him a little bit more. There wasn’t anything more attractive than a man that actually took care of his children. The way his eyes lit up and he morphed into a big ass kid around them told it all.

  “You sure?” I asked for the hell of it.

  “I’m positive. I’ll bring down something for you to throw on. Everything you need is in the bathroom down here.”

  Nodding my head, I went to the back of the house where the guest suite was located taking the time to admire his home. This was something we didn’t do, so I didn’t want to give myself a real tour overstepping my boundaries. As long as I knew Kenton he was big on privacy.

  The room was fully furnished and clean and just like he said it had everything I need to handle my hygiene. From the way he moved, I doubted anyone stayed in there, but I easily picked up that he was a neat freak. To be a man living alone without a woman his house was in tip top shape.

  After getting cleaned, I put on the T-shirt and briefs Kenton left for me on the bed. Since I wasn’t tired I went to go look for him and saw the door that led out to the patio half way opened. Stepping outside, I saw his back was to me, as he lounged on the patio furniture with a cloud of smoke circling around him. I closed the door a little and approached him. We locked eyes and for that moment I felt a foreign feeling taking over me. Breaking our stare, I admired his body as I got closer to him

  This time he was shirtless, with ball shorts covering his lower half. The way his eyebrows were pulled together was indication that he had a lot on his mind. I went to go sit down next to him, but he pulled me on top of his lap gripping the front of the white Polo tee in his hands to pull me closer to him until our lips met.

  When we parted, his lips finally curved into a smile. “Thank you for today. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you,” he said once we pulled away. I held my hand out for the blunt and he passed it off.

  “It’s not a problem. Even though I never see myself having any, I actually like kids. It was a pleasure to spend the day with them.”

  As his hands roamed my body starting from my waist and down to my hips where he squeezed my thigh, I pulled deeply on the blunt to mask my nervousness. As much time Kenton and I spent together, the vibe was different.

  “Why you never wanted to have kids. You seem like you would be a dope mom.”

  Releasing the smoke, I thought about if I even wanted to be brutally honest with him or give him some vague answer that would shut him up. I went against the latter and spilled out a part of me I only told Corryn, which shocked me.

  “I never felt like I was good enough to have children. The one time I did get pregnant I ended up losing the baby and that was a few months into my sentence,” I admitted.

  He didn’t respond right away ad it had me feeling nervous again.

  “I’m sorry you had to experience that.”

  I released a deep breath shaking my head. The thought of it no longer made me sad. “I’m better now.”

  “That doesn’t mean shit. I never thought I wanted kids, but now that I have them I couldn’t see my life without them. If I could get a new mother for them, I would, but other than that I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.”

  “Well, why you never wanted kids?” I asked just so I could get the spotlight off of me.

  He shook his head. “Nah, we ain’t doing that. You in my space, so whatever I says goes. Right now I want to know about you. I want to be able to see every part of you with your clothes still on.”

  I looked at him with a raised eyebrow wondering where the hell Ken went because this wasn’t the man I knew. We fucked and joked around but it wasn’t anything remotely serious. I was thankful for the good weed because I didn’t think I’d be able to open up to him sober.

  “For one to make a child you gotta have a family right? I never came from one, so my biggest fear was having a child and not knowing what to do. Years back I use to get into a lot of shit with this man that said he loved me. He use to always say I was the Bonnie to his Clyde,” I laughed thinking about how when I got jammed he went ghost. “Back then when I was in that cell at night I would cry my eyes out. Now I was able to ask myself how could I be so dumb and in love. Long story short, we got caught up in a police chase. We both jumped out and went separate ways. I ended up getting caught and was sentenced to five years. The first phone call I was granted after I got shipped to my permanent facility I called him and his number was disconnected. I was stressed out and scared because in a way my life revolved around him. I was so stressed out my cycle came on heavy to the point I was about to die. I was in so much pain and the flow didn’t seem to stop. I thought I was going to die. I wished so much for death, I thought it was God’s way of letting me go. It turned out to be his baby I didn’t know I was carrying.”

  Kenton listened to everything I had to say with sorrow in his eyes reminding me why I never repeated this story. I didn’t want anyone to feel bad because I bought everything on myself

  “That’s fucked up. You ain’t see that nigga again? You ain’t have no family”

  I shook my head as I stared into his eyes.

  “No family. Well my grandmother, but after she died I was pretty much on my own. But alive that bitch wasn’t shit to me. You probably don’t want to hear this,” I sighed, “but I did everything under the sun to survive sneaking in my friend’s house to sleep at night and sitting in the park during the day when there wasn’t any school. It just so happened my last result was selling pussy and that’s when I met him. In a way he taught me the art of seduction and from there we became a duo setting niggas up. Life was good up until I got locked up.”

  Kenton didn’t say anything and a lump formed in my throat from the regret of digging that deep into my life. Of course we was just fuck buddies, but no man wanted to deal with a bitch that was a whore or have a thief in their house. I was sure he was seconds from putting me out.

  “That’s crazy, yo. You don’t seem like you been through shit like that.”

  “You don’t gotta be sorry for me. I’m here and I’m doing way better. That’s why I love Corryn. She really helped me get on my feet and at thirty years old I can finally say my life is good.”

  “Shit, it ain’t no time limit on success. You are doing ya thing. That’s why I like you.”

  A grin appeared on my face that had him groaning and covering his. “No, no, no, you already said it, so spill the beans. Do you like me Kenton?” I asked, prying his hands away from his face.

  With the blunt to his lips he nodded his head.

  “I fucks with you heavy. I honestly didn’t know how to go about it though. I always felt like I could relate to you , but now that you told me your story, we are more alike than you think.”

  “Tell me!”

  “Chill… this shit ain’t about me. You on the stand so stay there.”

  “Not fair!” I pouted crossing my arms over my chest and he laughed. I could tell he was battling something which I wasn’t going to pressure him into talking about. I know how it felt to have shit bottled up and I also knew how it felt to have that one person to let it all out to. Kenton wasn’t there yet, but if he wanted me to be that person I’ll be there.

  “I don’t want you to think you wouldn’t be a good mom because of that shit. Ya past doesn’t determine ya future and from the looks of it you’re on a different path.”

  I squinted my eyes and placed the back of my hand on his forehead. He looked at me funny; that had me cracking up now.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Who are you? Is this Kenton? Are you sick. As long as I knew you I never knew you thought so deeply.”

  “Well what the hell did you think. Just a street nigga that lay the pipe?”

  “Yes, lay the pipe to a bunch of hoes,” I said and he jerked his head back.

  “I’m offended.”

  I held my hands up and shrugged. “I’m just calli
ng it exactly how I see it; however you’re showing me a different side of you.”

  “Everyone doesn’t deserve all of me, so I tend to keep shit on a need to know basis.”

  “I don’t see nothing wrong with that. Just know that I’m impressed and I like you too.”

  “I been knew that,” he said with a snide smirk.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked.

  “Yup, I know I’m the only one hitting it.”

  “How?!”

  “Trust me, with this dick the next man gonna be swimming in you,” he joked and I rolled my eyes because he was correct. Them days with dealing with a bunch of men were long behind me. Luckily for me I’d already mastered locking away my feelings so I didn’t end up sprung over Kenton when he wasn’t looking for a girl.

  “You spending the night with me?” he asked out of nowhere.

  “As in your bed?”

  “Where else jackass?”

  With a smirk on my face, I popped him upside of his head.

  “I’m not fucking you,” I said only because I was on my period.

  “Good, because I wasn’t trying to fuck you. Not tonight at least. Ain’t no point of being lonely in bed when I have another body to lay up under.”

  As weird as it felt, I welcomed the feeling this new Kenton was giving me. I never knew how it felt to be genuinely cared about. The little things he said along with his actions today made me believe there were actually good men in this world.

  CoCo

  I impatiently waited for Sharita to enter the salon, so I can get all the details about her day with Kenton. I remember her telling me they were just fuck buddies at one point of time, but the way he was looking at her yesterday had me thinking other wise and I needed her to run down the information.

  She knew I was waiting for her ass to get here which was why she started blushing the second she came through the door. This was the perfect opportunity for her to spill all the tea because we were closed for the day to do inventory and take a very personal half day off. I needed the excitement of Sharita’s story to make me forget the dinner I was having with Amare at my mother’s place later this evening.

  Since I just gotten there the lights were still off, so we walked to my office together to put our stuff away.

  “I want the truth and nothing but the truth,” I told her as she sat her belongings on the couch next to me.

  “Where do you want me to start?”

  “From the very beginning where y’all became lovers. I’m not buying that whole just sex story.”

  She started to laugh. “CoCo, I swear, it was just sex between Kenton and I. I didn’t even know he was coming to the shop to get his daughter's hair done.”

  “Exactly, I didn’t know you knew how to do hair, so go ahead and explain to me what’s going on between y’all.”

  “Nothing new. He asked me to hang out with him and his kids. We ended up doing a bunch of stuff before we ended up back at his place in Delaware.”

  “And y’all had sex.”

  She shook her head from side to side. “Nope and that’s what surprised me. I never knew he even had a house. I expect him to have a condo with stripper poles coming from the ceiling. His attitude sucks, but he’s a great guy and he loves his kids so much,” she rambled. “And the bad part about it is that I’m falling for him.” The way she spoke of him had me feeling all giddy inside.

  “Awwwwww,” I cooed making her squirm in her seat from embarrassment.

  “Stop it!” she whined. “It feels weird. It feels good, but still weird. I haven't felt this way in a long time and you know that makes me nervous.”

  “No! I don’t want you to do that, Rita, everyone isn’t out to use you and hurt you,” I replied, knowing she was thinking about the jerk she wasted her life on. “Trust me, I wanted to feel that after finding out my entire relationship was a lie. In my mind I was thinking men wasn’t shit. Second guessing myself all because he couldn’t be honest, but then Amare popped back into my life and had me disregard all those negative thoughts and emotions.”

  “You’re absolutely right,” she sighed. “I don’t want to jump the gun and think into it. He probably was just being nice to me because I was being nice to his kids.”

  I shot her a look. “I highly doubt it. I haven’t been around Kenton that much, but I don’t take him to be that type of person to do shit because he feels obligated.”

  Sharita went to go say something but looked toward my office door.

  “You don’t hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  “It sounds like someone is in here? Were you expecting Amare?” she questioned me.

  “No, but if so I would have to open the door for him. He doesn’t have keys,” I responded as we both stood to our feet. I went and grabbed the bat I had on hand for situations like this and the closer we got to the door, I heard exactly what she was hearing. I pulled open the door and was shocked to see Trina who looked startled as well dropping the black bag she had in her hand.

  I had so many questions to ask, but all that left my head as I stared at the wrapped coke that was at her feet. With the bat gripped tightly in my hand I closed in on her.

  “So it was you! So that means…”

  “Don’t act like you didn’t fucking know!” she spat scrambling to get the coke up and back in the bag.

  I lost it and dropped the bat before I ran up to her throwing punches to her face. All the anger I felt that night I found out Pitt was storing coke in my salon resurfaced and she was on the receiving end of it all.

  All this time I thought it was him, but she was working for him. How could I be so blind just because she was my best friend for all these years?

  “You fucking bitch! Pitt is going to kill you!” she screamed loudly ass I landed punches to her face. I was beating the shit out of her with a vengeance. She couldn’t defend herself, so she grabbed my hair making me lose my balance and we both toppled on the ground.

  Using her weight, she ended up getting on top of me and landed a few hits until she was knocked over. Sitting up right away, I saw that Sharita was getting hers in too. I knew she wanted to beat Trina’s ass for the longest but didn’t off the strength of me. I guess one swing was all it took for her to say fuck it too.

  “You stupid bum bitch! She was your best fucking friend!” she yelled pummeling her with her fist.

  I sat there and watched Sharita beat her ass until I heard Pitt’s voice. When we turned around, I was staring at him pointing his gun at Sharita who didn’t look scared.

  “Get off her,” he said to Sharita.

  Seeing him it all clicked and I released an evil laugh. “So you not only hid a wife, you cheated on me with my best fucking friend. How pathetic are you Pitt?”

  His lip curled as he looked at me with disgust dropping the gun to his side. “Charge it to the game, baby girl.”

  Click.

  “Get your bitch and get the fuck out of here before I’ll shoot you right in the middle of your big ass forehead,” Sharita said holding a gun I didn’t know she had. My head was whipping back and forth unsure what to do at this point. I knew Sharita wasn’t supposed to have a gun as a felon, so if the cops were on their way she’d be hauled off right back to jail.

  “You ain’t shooting shit!”

  Taking the gun off him, she pointed it towards Trina.

  Pop!

  Trina yelled loudly as the bullet missed her by an inch.

  “You crazy bitch! That bitch almost shot me Pitt!”

  “Next time I won’t miss,” Sharita sneered looking his way.

  Looking defeated Pitt called out for Trina. She scrambled off to him with what bricks were left in the bag and together they rushed out of my salon. I walked to the door and locked it behind them looking at Sharita with wide eyes.

  “Bitch, you’re not supposed to have a gun!”

  “I’m not but who gonna protect me? The law?” she snipped tucking it behind her back. “If Pitt was about that life we�
�d both be dead.”

  Releasing a deep breath I shook my head. “Trust me. I could’ve told you he wasn’t about that life.” I surveyed my salon quickly to make sure nothing was out of place. I had no idea how long she’s been in there or what else she took. When everything looked cool, the first thing I did was call Amare because I wasn’t sure what to do with the amount of coke that was now on my floor.

  ***

  “Everything is clear,” the caller on the other line said as soon as Amare answered the call and connected it to the car speaker.

  “Good looking,” Amare thanked them before the caller hung up. I felt his eyes on me, so I looked his way.

  “Your locks are installed, along with a camera and security system.”

  He removed his arm from the console and pulled out a set of keys.

  “These belong to you. The set for Sharita is on there also and I have a set for emergencies.”

  He arrived fifteen minutes after I called him for a minute. My mind was frazzled from my adrenaline rushing that I didn’t have a clue what to do. I had drugs on the floor, a lodged bullet in one of my walls and a close friend that had no business with a gun.

  He came and handled everything which reminded me he was use to situations like this. I tend to forget he was even invested in the street life because he kept me far from it.

  I weakly smiled and nodded my head. “Thank you so much.”

  “No need to thank me. Are you cool though?”

  “Yes,” I smiled. “Why you keep asking?”

  “Because there was blood on the ground. Sharita doesn’t have any cuts, but you have a scratch on ya face.”

  My eyebrows snapped together and he began to laugh. “I’m fucking with you. You and Sharita had to have fucked that girl up.”

  “Trust me it was long overdue for Sharita. I’m just angry because that was my friend and she would cross both those lines by not only sleeping with my ex but also hiding drugs in my shop for him.”

  “Some people are only loyal to themselves. I told you that girl wasn’t no good.”

  “Yeah you did. I swear if I got a chance to run across her, I’d beat her ass again.”