Love Me

by Diamond Johnson

  At the same time, the asshole in front of me slammed on the brakes, which caused me to slam on my brakes as a reaction to them. And the very thing that I was scared of happening, actually happened. The car behind me went crashing into the back of my pretty ass Dodge Challenger, and a nigga was seeing red. The dumb ass car that slammed on their brakes in front of me for no fuckin’ reason ended up continuing to drive, which just left me and the other driver behind me with their car damn near glued to mine.

  I put my car in park, and before I stepped out, I grabbed my gun from the console, placing it in the waistband of the jeans that I was wearing, just in case this shit was a setup. Where I was from, niggas would purposely rear end your shit, just to get you to step out of the car so they could rob your ass. Granted, the car that was behind me wasn’t the cause of this accident, but you could never be too sure in Miami.

  When I got to the back of my car and saw the damage, I threw my hands up in frustration. Granted, the shit could be fixed, but damn! I hadn’t even had this car for a year yet, and the shit was already messed up. The driver hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet, so I walked over and banged on the window with my fist. It was dark as hell outside, plus they had tints on their windows, so I couldn’t make out if it was a woman or a man.

  It took a few minutes, but the driver’s side door finally opened, and I saw the driver’s body slumped over the steering wheel. The figure behind the wheel was small, so I instantly thought that maybe it was a teenager or something. Her long hair was blocking her face, and she was moaning like she was in pain. The airbag had flown out, and pieces of glass filled the dashboard from the force of the crash. I went to pull her arm, and she screamed.

  “Don’t touch me! Don’t fuckin touch me!” she screamed, followed by a small cry.

  I ran my hand down my face, thinking that God really thought He was funny. Like, this man really had a crazy sense of humor. I knew that voice with that fucked up ass attitude from just about anywhere. What was so crazy to me was had her dumb ass never been speeding, then she wouldn’t have run into the back of my car. The whole accident wasn’t her fault, but she did play her part. Now, she was yelling at me because she was in pain, like I was the one who had her doing one hundred miles an hour on a 65 miles per hour highway.

  “Let me help your dumb ass out, yo!” I said, going for her arm again.

  She screamed again, just as loud, if not louder. That’s when I pulled my phone out, so I could flash the light in the direction of her arm. When I saw the way her arm was leaning, I knew then that her shit was broke, which was why she was screaming like a damn mad woman. I used the button that was on the side of the door to push her seat back. I think she knew that it was me because she wasn’t trying to fight me off. It was almost as if she felt comfortable with me. Either that, or she was in too much pain to put up a fight.

  Now that her seat was pushed all the way back, she was able to throw her hand on the back of the headrest, and all she did was sit there, moaning and groaning, as if she was in the worst pain of her life. For whatever odd reason, I no longer gave two fucks about my car and the damage that had been done to it. I was worried about her well being and getting her to the hospital.

  “I’m going to call a tow company, so they can come and pick up your car. My shit is drivable, but yours isn’t. Your front window is busted out and shit, and the front is pretty much totaled. Can you get out of the car?” I asked her.

  She used her good hand and pushed her long hair out of her face, and that’s when I was able to see her entire face. Sure enough, it was her pretty ass. Her eyes were bloodshot red, and even in the midst of her ass being in the wrong and in pain, she still managed to show that her attitude was still just as fucked up as it was the past two times that I came in contact with her.

  When she saw that it was me standing before her in the flesh, she had the nerve to roll her eyes. I could only hope that those bitches got stuck for good.

  “I can call the tow company my damn self. I don’t know you, so I don’t trust you! You and I are like the only two people on this dark ass road, and you can do anything to me right now. Move!” she went on to say.

  She tried to reach for the door with her bad arm and close it, but the only thing she ended up closing was her mouth from that bullshit that she was spitting. A loud squeal came from her lips, and I knew it was from the pain.

  “Your problem is that you talk too fuckin’ much! I look like the type of nigga that gotta take pussy from a bitch?” I asked because I knew what she was getting at.

  Yeah, it was dark as hell out there, and she and I were likely the only ones on the road, but that didn’t mean I was looking to take advantage of her dumb ass. When she didn’t answer my question, I leaned over in the car to take off her seatbelt for her. I don’t know why, but I felt bad for her, so I ended up lifting her out of the seat. I walked with her in my arms over to my car, where I sat her down on the hood of it. While she sat there, I pulled my phone from the cup holder to call triple A. It was dark as hell out there, but I managed to feel her glare on me the whole time.

  The whole fifteen minutes that it took for me to have a conversation with triple A and for them to find my location, I could feel her looking at me. The phone call finally ended with them telling me that someone would be out there within thirty minutes, so I used that time to walk back over to the car and post up with my back on it.

  “I hope you have some good ass insurance because you paying to get my shit fixed,” I let her know.

  She didn’t bother to respond. She just sat there with this expression on her face, as if she was mad at the fuckin’ world.

  “Your little ass always this fuckin’ mean? Fuck is wrong with you, man? I didn’t want to even say it because I don’t want to sound thirsty or like I’m spitting game to your ass or nothing like that, but you too fuckin’ pretty to be so fuckin’ mean! I expect your type of attitude from an ugly bitch. Not you! Every time I see your ass, your face all fuckin’ frowned up,” I said, still with my back posted against the car, but I turned my head to look at her.

  I wasn’t sure if she was crying because she was in pain or because of what I was laying on her. It was true, though. I didn’t want to call her miserable, but damn! She used her good hand to wipe her face with the bottom of her shirt.

  “I’m supposed to be smiling right now? I hit my head on the steering wheel, and it feels like I ran into a damn wall,” she said. She lifted her hair, and I saw that her long, brownish colored hair was sticking to a deep cut on her forehead. “My arm feels like it’s hanging on by a string. I think it’s broke and…” she couldn’t even get whatever else out that she was about to say because she started crying again.

  Well, it was good to know that the bitch had feelings. I thought her ass was going to be cold hearted like me.

  “Stop crying, man. I was fuckin’ around with you with that shit I said about you having to fix my car. Somebody that I grew up with, he’s a mechanic with his own business, so he’ll easily fix my shit up in no time. You made it out this shit alive, so stop crying. When they get here to tow your car, I’ll take you to the hospital so we can see about your arm. Alright?” I asked her.

  She didn’t answer me.

  I walked a little closer to her and placed my hand under her chin. “Alright?” I asked her again, and this time, she nodded like it was okay.

  While we waited, I could see her in my peripheral vision, and her body was shaking. I’m not sure if her ass was cold or what, but I did end up going in my back seat, grabbing my Nike sweater, and wrapping it around her. She was so damn small that the shit fit her body like a blanket.

  “Thank you,” she said, barely above a whisper.

  I nodded, letting her know that it was all good. She sat on top of my car, while I stood on the side of her, and neither of us said anything to each other. The only noise was the sound of the wind mixed with the roaring sounds from cars that would drive by every blue moon. I wanted to use this
time to ask her ass where the hell she was going, speeding like that, but I just left the shit alone. Knowing her, she would say some slick shit back to me, and we would be back to arguing with each other. If she fucked around and said the wrong shit to me, I was liable to leave her ass right out here by herself.

  I felt like it took longer than thirty minutes for triple A to come, but they finally made it to where we were. I went ahead and helped her down from the car, and she walked over and gave them her information, so they could take her car. Once she had her purse and everything in her hands, she walked back over to where I was sitting in the driver’s seat of my car with my feet planted on the concrete.

  “I preach to my kids almost every day about not getting in the car with strangers, so I think that I would be kind of a hypocrite if I were to get in the car with you. I’m just going to call an Uber and have them pick me up,” she said.

  “Have an Uber pick you up on the middle of a fuckin’ highway? You cool with the Uber driver or something? Because if not, then that’s a stranger to you too. You know me better more than any Uber person that’s going to pick you up. I’m not going to fuck with you, yo. I’ll just take you to the hospital and drop you off wherever you need to go. Remember, I got a daughter, and I would hope that if some shit like this ever happened to her, a real nigga similar to me would be there to save the day,” I cockily said, and she gave me a look like, yeah right nigga!

  “What’s your name?” she finally asked me.

  “Bully!” I simply let her know.

  “No! Not the street name that everybody else calls you. I want your real name. I want to know what it says on your driver’s license.”

  I don’t know how somebody so small could be so fuckin demanding. I liked that tough shit, though.

  “Za’kai Kemp. You want my social security number too?” I asked her, and there those big ass eyes of hers were again, rolling.

  She didn’t bother to answer my question, but she did walk around the car and use her good hand to let herself in. Her car had already been loaded up on the back of the truck and was on its way to whatever location she had given to them. Once she and I were inside the car, I took off and headed in the direction of the hospital.

  “I told you my name, but you didn’t tell me yours,” I said the moment I got off the highway and was now sitting at a red light.

  “Takari. Most people call me Shrimp or Kari,” she told me, and I nodded.

  I liked all three names, but Takari was the one I liked the most. The shit was sexy, and it had a little ring to it. After that, nothing else was said between the two of us. The music just played softly in the background while I made my way to our destination. Pretty soon, I pulled the car into the emergency room parking lot, and in no time, the two of us were walking inside.

  As I sat in the lobby while she went up front to check herself in, I had to question myself for maybe the fifth time tonight on why the hell I was even doing all this shit. Not to say that I couldn’t be a gentleman when it came to women, but I felt like had it been any other woman, I wouldn’t have given this much of a fuck. I probably would have for sure had them pay for fuckin’ up the back of my whip, and I would have let them get in the car with triple A, while I went on my way. Why the fuck did I insist that she let me drive her to the hospital? Why was it so important for me to make sure that her arm was alright? Mannn, then I even tripped about her wellbeing, when she announced that she was going to call up an Uber and have them bring her home.

  All this shit was way out of my damn league. The only woman besides my ole girl who has ever made me bend over backward for them was my baby mama, and it wasn’t because Breshay had it like that either. It was simply because she was the mother of my kids.

  “Well, it’s definitely broken,” the doctor said.

  She had finally brought her ass in the room after we were in that bitch damn near two hours waiting for her. Takari ended up falling asleep in the hospital bed, and I had to wake her up when the doctor came into the room. When the doctor told her that her arm was broken, her ass went to crying like the car accident was happening all over again. Usually, all that crying would annoy the fuck out of me, but she was good in my book. I think my ass would have dropped a few tears too after finding out that my arm was broken and knowing that they were going to have to snap my shit back in place.

  “Boyfriend, can you come console girlfriend over here?” the doctor said to me.

  He was an older, white male, and I wanted to correct him on what he’d just said, but I didn’t. I stood up from the chair that I was sitting in, and I walked over to the bed where Takari was. The doctor stood off to the side with one of the nurses as they prepared themselves for whatever they were about to do to Takari’s arm. I played the perfect role of a boyfriend as I stood in front of Takari and used my hand to wipe her tears away.

  When they started working on her arm, I stood behind her and placed one hand on her shoulder, massaging it. I could tell that I was helping to alleviate some of the pain because she wasn’t as distraught as she was before. In no time, they had the cast on, and the doctor went to get the medicine that he prescribed her with for pain, and then we could be on our way.

  “Fuckin’ crybaby! You talk way too much shit for you to be crying like that. I should have recorded your ass!” I told her the minute the doctor, and the nurse walked out of the room.

  She gave me the finger and put her head down because I knew she was embarrassed. Once she had her medicine and everything, we were on our way.

  “Where you want me to drop you off at?” I asked her the minute we made it back to the car.

  “You can take me to the projects. That’s where my mom stays. My kids are over there. That’s where I was on my way to before I slammed in the back of your car. I don’t usually drive like that, but I was upset. My husband was supposed to go and pick them up tonight, but like always, work comes before me and our fuckin kids. He called me in the middle of my sleep, and I was upset, so I was driving like an angry person. I’m sorry. Listen to me” she said followed by a sarcastic laugh. “I’m sitting here airing out all of my damn dirty laundry. I’m sorry,” she apologized again.

  I knew her marriage was on the rocks, even without her telling me the shit. When she talked all that shit at the movie theater to me that night and wouldn’t let the shit go, I could tell that she wasn’t happy in her marriage once I saw the ring on her finger. I could be wrong, but happily married women just weren’t going to trip off something so minor.

  The light was on in the car, so I had the perfect view of her face. Seeing her, it made me think back to a few weeks ago when I ran into her daughter in the wee hours of the morning, and she was seconds away from letting that little nigga, Raheem, beat her ass. Out of all the fast ass, teenage girls that could have been there that night, it just so happened to be her daughter. I didn’t want to stick my nose in family issues, and from the looks of things, she was already stressing, so I didn’t want to add more to her stress, especially if she didn’t know about it.

  I knew Raheem from around the way. Although he and I were nowhere near the same age, news traveled fast as hell around Miami, especially in the projects. It was no secret that he put his hands on pretty much any girl or woman that he was involved with. I didn’t care what his ass did in his spare time, but I wasn’t about to walk past and pretend that I didn’t hear a girl screaming in the hallway like she was afraid for her life.

  When it came to any type of woman, I always had a soft side because I believed in karma. I was raising a little girl, and if I disrespected women, I knew when the time came, and my daughter was old enough to start dating, niggas was going to disrespect her. I was trying to avoid that at all cost.

  “Shit, you don’t have to apologize. I think we all have breaking points. At the same time, think about what you just said to me. You were on your way to pick up your kids. Meaning, you have other people in the world that you’re living for. You can’t be driving all crazy like
that because you’re upset. Anything could have happened tonight. You lucky to just have walked away with a little cut on your forehead and a broken arm. Your kids only get one mama. Remember that shit,” I let her know, and she nodded.

  “You’re not that much of an asshole as I thought you were,” she said, followed by a smile.

  For whatever reason, I ended up smiling when she did. Her shit was not only contagious, but it was beautiful too. This time, the ride home was a quiet one because she’d fallen asleep on the way to her ole girl’s spot. Maybe it was a mixture of her catching up on the sleep that she said she was woken up from and all the fuckin’ crying that she’d been doing, plus the pain pills that the doctor had given her. All I know was that I had the radio completely off as I listened to her softly breathing next to me. Her breathing was so fuckin’ calm that it put me at ease.

  I laughed to myself because I was thinking about Breshay and the way she slept. Her mouth would be wide the fuck open, and she would be snoring and shit. With Takari, her head was turned facing me, and she calmly slept. I ended up taking the long route to the projects just so I could have her in my presence for a little while longer. The reality was, she was married with three kids, so it was no telling the next time that I would be this close to her again.

  It took about another twenty minutes, but I was finally pulling the car into the projects where her ole girl lived, and the same projects where my grandma stayed. I couldn’t get enough of this part of town. I quickly brought the car to a stop, and because she was a light sleeper, her eyes quickly shot open and she looked around at her surroundings.

  “Told you I wasn’t going to fuck with you. I brought you back in one piece to your kids,” I let her know. She released a small smile as she took my jacket from around her and placed it back on the back seat.

  “Thank you again, Za’Kai,” she said.

  Hearing her say my government like that was like music to my ears. I hardly let anyone call me by my name because I’ve grown up with people calling me Bully almost my entire life, but I didn’t even bother correcting her when she said it. She made my name sound sexy when. I was parked right in front of her mother’s building, so I stayed behind in the car. I didn’t pull out until I watched her go up the stairs, and I saw for myself that she was safely inside the house. I don’t know what the hell was going on with me, but I think I wanted that man’s wife!