by Tranay Adams
Te’Qui observed the fire for a second before picking up his duffle bag and making his way towards the car that was waiting for him. He casually strolled towards the vehicle like he didn’t have a care in the world. Just then, the car he’d set on fire exploded in the background and he didn’t even flinch. He snatched open the passenger door of the car waiting for him and jumped into the front seat, slamming the door shut behind him.
“Everything went okay, bae?” Kesha asked as she glanced back and forth between Te’Qui and the windshield.
“Yeah. We made off good, too.” Te’Qui reported.
“That’s what’s up. What about cha boy, T.J.?”
“Oh, he did his thang. He set the tone as soon as we went up in that mothafucka. I can most definitely see myself gettin’ down with ‘em again on some shit.”
Kesha nodded and kissed Te’Qui. Afterwards, he sat his duffle bag down between his legs on the floor and let his seat back. He laid back and shut his eyelids, folding his arms across his chest. He drifted off to sleep. Kesha looked at him grinning, enjoying the peaceful look on his face as he slumbered. She reached over and played with the cornrows dangling down his neck. When she pulled to a stop light, she leaned over again and kissed him on the temple.
“I love you.” She said with a grin.
“I love you, too.” He replied in his sleep and smacked his lips. He then adjusted himself in the seat and drifted back to sleep.
***
The day was warm and beautiful so Te’Qui had decided to take Kesha shopping for a few things for the baby. They hit every store in the mall, buying everything you could dream of that a baby would need. Te’Qui found himself ten stacks down, but that wasn’t shit. He could still afford to spend more on his unborn seed, and Kesha had every intention on making him do it. If it was one thing the girl loved, probably as much as her nigga, it was shopping. The girl could spend hours in the store, which made Te’Qui hesitant to hit a couple of stores with her. But when he thought about it, it had been all work and no play since he’d been on his grind, jacking niggaz for everything they had. It was about time he got out with his lady and enjoyed the fruits of his labor.
After tearing up the mall, Kesha decided she wanted to get the baby some undergarments and grab a few things for their house from Walmart. So that’s where they found themselves, piling shit up inside of the shopping cart.
“Babe, you got like half the fuckin’ baby section in this basket,” Te’Qui said as he picked up a baby bottle, examined it and drop it down inside of the shopping cart along with the other stuff that was piled up in there.
“Aye, you never know what our lil’ one gon’ need,” Kesha said as she held up two baby outfits which were on a hangers, looking at them carefully. She then placed it to her torso and turned around to Te’Qui, showing him the outfit. One of the outfits was blue and the other was pink. Since they didn’t know what the sex of their child was they decided to purchase clothing for both sexes. “What chu think, bae?”
Te’Qui looked the outfits over and said, “They cool.”
“Cool?” her forehead wrinkled. “Nigga, please, either of these lil’ fit will look cute as fuck on our baby. I’m getting them both.” she sat the outfits down inside of the shopping cart and continued to look at the baby clothes on the rack.
“I’m finna getta strawberry milk shake from that Mickey D’s in here. You want somethin’?”
“Yeah, get me a McChicken sandwich; no lettuce.”
“Alright,” Te’Qui moved to walk away but what she said next halted him.
“Now, I know yo’ ol’ trifling-ass ain’t walking away without giving me a kiss. I just know you not, you must won’t cho mothafucking wig split up in here, fool.” she turned around to him with her hand on her hip and her lips twisted, looking appalled by his actions. “Bring your black ass here.” she called him over to her, curling and uncurling her finger.
Te’Qui chuckled and smiled before walking his way over to his boo. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him down towards her, kissing him. She kissed him on the lips once more before releasing him. As he turned to walk away, she smacked him on his ass causing him to stop and turn around to her. A slight frown was on his face.
“Aye, you better gon’ somewhere with that gay shit.” he spat with annoyance in his tone.
“Hey, when you see a fat ass, you gotta smack it.” she smiled and openly admired her man’s butt.
“Alright now, gon’ fuck around and make me clap that ass in here,” he playfully threatened her as he patted the impression of the gun on his hip.
Kesha laughed and said, “Whatever, boy! You ain’t gon’ do nothing. You love me and this baby way too much.” she held her stomach as she referred to the life growing inside of her.
“Is that what chu think?” Te’Qui questioned as he walked away.
“That’s what I know,” she called out to him as he widened the distance between them. She then turned back around to the clothes on the rack smiling as she went through them.
Te’Qui walked across the floor, leaving the baby section and coming across racks and racks of clothing in the boy’s section. Seeing someone at the corner of his eye, he turned around to see a stunning vision. Te’Qui clocked a sexy-ass chick ten feet away from him. She looked hood as fuck, but she was very enticing to the eye. She was a dark caramel complexioned honey that was thick in all of the right places, with a big old ass. She was wearing a royal blue halter top and jeans so tight they looked like they were painted on her. The jeans had tears going down the legs of them, giving anyone that looked at her a peek at her succulent thighs.
The woman was focused on a little boy who was standing in front of her, holding up different shirts to him trying to see which one looked the best on him.
“How you like this one, Cordary?” the woman asked the little boy who Te’Qui assumed was her son. This was because she had the same name she’d called him inked on her right breast.
“I want the Spider Man one, mommy.” the boy anxiously pointed at the shirt with the Spider Man character on it.
“You sho’?” she lifted an eyebrow, trying to be sure of her son’s choice. He had a habit of saying he wanted something and then he’d change his mind once they got home.
“Yes, I’m sure.” he said excitedly as he took the shirt by the hanger as she gave it to him. “Can I get the sneakers that go with it,too?”
“Yep.” the woman responded, and continued to look at the other shirts hanging on the rack.
Te’Qui’s forehead furrowed when he saw an older man, who had his back to the woman while on his cellular, turn around to her. He disconnected the call he was on and stuck the cell phone in his jacket pocket as he wrapped his arms around the woman’s shoulders, kissing her on the neck. The man had a bandana wrapped around his wrist and around his neck. This was Drama, Big Will’s uncle’s style when it came to fashion. As a matter of fact, when Te’Qui took a closer look, he realized that it was that old ass gangsta nigga.
Small world! Very, very small world, Te’Qui thought to himself as he kept on about his business. On his way back to Kesha, he clocked Drama, the woman and her son with their backs to him as they walked down the main aisle. Approaching Kesha, Te’Qui passed her the McDonald’s bag and sipped his shake, keeping his eyes on Drama and them.
“What chu looking at, babe?” Kesha asked as she unwrapped her McChicken sandwich and took a bite.
“Nothin’. Nothin’ at all,” Te’Qui replied, keeping his eyes on Drama and them. The gangsta, his bitch and his kid looked like one big happy family to him.
***
After Te’Qui had come back from shopping with Kesha that day, he dipped over to T.J.’s crib and honked the horn for him to come outside. As he waited for him to come out, he busied himself with the task of rolling up a fat ass blunt. By the time T.J. was pulling the passenger door closed, Te’Qui was blazing up the bleezy and blowing out a cloud of smoke. Once T.J. had gotten into the ca
r he dapped up Te’Qui and they shared the gas he had on deck.
“Yo’,” Te’Qui started off. “You ain’t gon’ believe this shit.”
T.J.’s brows dipped with wonder. “What’s up?”
“Blood, I think I ran into yo’ B.M and that nigga you told me about that ran off witcho shit.”
He sat up as if he was interested in what he had to say. “Dawg, you fucking with me?”
“Look, I’m pretty sho’, I ran into the bitch while I was out clothes shoppin’ with my girl for the baby.”
“How she look though?” T.J. sat up in his seat.
“The broad I saw was crazy thick. I’m talkin’ ‘bout big ass titties, great big ol’ ass,” Te’Qui described with his hands. “She hadda mole above her upper lip and she rocked cornrows down her back. She also hadda tattoo on her right tittie. It read somethin’ like,” his brows furrowed and he snapped his fingers trying to recall the ink on the woman’s breast. He started throwing out names in hopes that one of them may get him to remember. “Codoroy or some shit.”
“Cordary?” T.J. looked him in the eye hoping he’d say that was the name on the broad’s breast he’d seen. The description he’d given him of the woman was definitely one that fit his baby momma, but he had to be sure.
Te’Qui snapped his fingers and pointed to him, excitedly. “Yeah, that’s it. Cordary. That’s the name that was on her breast.”
“That’s my son’s name, Blood. Fonky-ass bitch!” T.J. slammed his fist down on the dashboard and threw his back against the passenger seat. He ran his hand down his face and expelled his hot breath. He then looked at Te’Qui and said, “Bro, finish telling me the story.”
Te’Qui ran down everything that had happened back at the mall between T.J.’s baby momma, Boo, and Drama. The more of the story that Te’Qui told him, the more pissed off T.J. appeared to get. The nigga had bit down on his bottom lip so hard that blood trickled down at the corner of his mouth. When Te’Qui mentioned the blood to him, he licked it away and continued to listen to him.
“Scandalous ass, trifling ass, no good, hoodrat, gold digging bitch!” T.J. slammed his fist into his palm, angrily. His eyebrows were arched and he was clenching his jaws. “I’m smashing that bitch and that bitch-ass nigga you said you seen her with. On Bloods!”
“I know you are and I’ma help yo’ mothafuckin’ ass, too.”
“For real?” he looked to him like Are you serious?
“Hell yeah,” Te’Qui replied, as he passed the blunt back to him.
“’Preciate it, homie, but chu ain’t gotta do that.”
Te’Qui took a few more puffs of the bleezy and polluted the vehicle’s interior with smoke. With his lungs holding the smoke hostage, he said, “I know. But I fucks witchu, hardbody.” He tapped his fist against his chest. He then blew out smoke making the interior of the car look like someone had been pimp smacked with a handful of powder. “Now, hit this bleezy a couple of mo’ times, you needa calm yo’ ass down. You too fired up.” he passed the blunt to T.J. and he took it without complaint, indulging in it.
“This shit pretty good.”
“I only smoke the finest, bro. That gas.”
T.J. passed the bleezy back to Te’Qui and he took a few more puffs of it before he started chopping it up with him again. “Right now, we gon’ focus on getting this money. But afterwards we getting at Boo and that faggot-ass nigga that snatched my shit.”
“Fa sho’.” Te’Qui nodded and dapped him up.
Two weeks later
Te’Qui lay in bed asleep with Kesha lying on his chest. He was snoring aloud and drool had run from the corner of his mouth, soiling his pillow. He was tired than a mothafucka. He and T.J. had been jacking and extorting niggaz all over the city. Them niggaz was hitting back to back licks. They were on a paper chase, and didn’t show any signs of slowing down. But the minute they decided to fall back and let the streets cool off, Te’Qui’s sleepless nights caught up to him.
Homie had lie across the bed to talk to Kesha about their plans, when he fucked around and fell asleep. It tripped Kesha out how he drifted off so fast. He appeared to be wide awake when he was talking to her, but deep down he must have been exhausted. She wasn’t surprised that he had crashed though. He had barely been home since he’d been on the grind trying to make sure their family had enough dough when the baby arrived.
Kesha’s eyelids twitched hearing the vibration of a cellular nearby. Once she peeled her eyelids open, she looked to the nightstand beside Te’Qui and found his cell phone. Leaning over him, she picked up the cell phone to see who was on the display. It was T.J. Seeing his name she knew what he was calling about and she wasn’t ready to let her boo go just yet. She wanted to be under him just a little while longer before she gave him up. With that in mind, she went to press the decline button, and that’s when Te’Qui woke up.
“Babe, who is that?” Te’Qui asked groggily, face fixed with a frown having stirred awake.
“Nobody, baby, go back to sleep.” she told him.
At that moment, Te’Qui took the cell phone away from her and checked the display. When he saw that it was T.J., he disconnected the call. He was as tired as a runaway slave and didn’t exactly feel like running the streets with him again.
“Man, I’ll get at that nigga later. I’m tired as a bitch right now.” Te’Qui confessed, sitting the cellular back upon the nightstand. He then lay back in bed and shut his eyelids. When Kesha lay her smiling face against his chest and shut her eyelids he wrapped his arm around her. The couple was drifting off to sleep when they heard someone beeping their car’s horn like they’d gone mad.
Beep! Beep! Beeep! Beeeep! Beeeeeeeeeep!
“Yo’, Te’Qui, it’s time to roll, dawg! Brang yo’ ass outside! Come on!” T.J. called out. He was so loud that his voice carried from the streets, to inside of Te’Qui and Kesha’s house.
Beep! Beep! Beeep! Beeeeeeeeeeep!
“Come on now, Blood, it’s time for us to shake and move! We got bitness to handle!” T.J. called out again.
Kesha shot up in bed, face frowned, lips twisted, as her individual braids hung over her face, little momma was hot than a mothafucka. “What the fuck, Te’Qui? Is yo’ fucking friend crazy?”
Te’Qui sat up in bed and looked to the digital clock on the nightstand. It was 2:30 A.M. “I don’t know, but homie better have a damn good excuse ‘fore showin’ up atta nigga crib at this hour for real, for real.” he blew hard and ran his hands down his face.
Beeep! Beeeep! Beeeeeeeep!
“Yeah, this negro done definitely lost his gotdamn mind!” Kesha hopped out of bed, slipping on her house slippers and grabbing her housecoat. The entire time she was putting her shit on she looked pissed off.
“Where you goin’?” Te’Qui looked over his shoulder at her with a crinkled brow.
“To check this disrespectful ass nigga!” she told him, pulling her dreads from out of the collar of her housecoat and letting them fall down against her back. She started her march towards the door, but stopped once he called her back.
“Hold up, Keesh. Limme go see what this nigga want. It could be about some serious shit.” Te’Qui said as he hopped out of bed and grabbed his Glock underneath his pillow. He tucked that bitch on his waistline and grabbed his hoodie from off the back of their bedroom door.
“If it ain’t life or death, get in that ass, bae.” Kesha told him as she stood by the door. Her brows were lowered and her lips were twisted, with her arms folded across her bosom. She was displaying mad attitude, like hood chicks do when they feel a nigga disrespected them.
“Fa sho’.” He kissed her on the forehead. As soon as he graced her forehead with his lips, there was pounding at the front door.
“Bae, you hear this shit? This nigga knocking at the doe like he goddamn police.” she looked back and forth between her man and the front door.
“Open up, nigga! I know you up in there ‘cause yo’ shit parked outside! Don’t make me kick this b
itch down, Blood! You know I’ll do it!” They heard T.J. at the door. After he made his announcement, he continued to pound on the door.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
“Unh unh, my nigga doing too much, gimme yo’ strap, Te’Qui. I’m fitsna shoot this mothafucka!” Kesha tried to grab Te’Qui’s gun from off his waistline, but he grabbed her wrists and pinned them to her sides.
“Relax, bae. I got this, okay?” he looked in her eyes and waited for her response. From the expression on her face he could tell that she was on ten, so he wasn’t about to let her go until she told him that she was straight. Her eyes were focused on the front door and she was seething. Seeing this, he turned her chin towards him so that they’d have each other’s gaze. “Okay?”
Finally, Kesha took a deep breath and shut her eyelids briefly, calming herself down. She looked to the carpeted floor and then back up at her man, saying, “Okay. Go handle your boy.”
“Thanks, babe.” he gave her a quick peck on the lips and headed for the front door.
Bang, bang, bang, bang! The front door rattled from the pounding of T.J.’s fist.
“Come on, dawg, we gots shit to do! Crack this bitch open!”
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Again, the front door rattled from the pounding.
“Alright, nigga, I’m comin’. Hold the fuck on!” Te’Qui called out. All that mothafucking noise had gotten to him.
Te’Qui unchained and unlocked the door, pulling that bitch open. As soon as he did, T.J. started in over the threshold. When he looked up and saw Kesha’s scowling face, he greeted her.
“’Sup, Keesh?” T.J. threw his head back like What’s up? She responded by rolling her eyes and slamming the bedroom door on him. T.J. raised an eyebrow and looked to Te’Qui, pointing at the bedroom door. “Fucks wrong witcho bitch?”