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After Te’Qui and T.J. disposed of the car they’d driven over to Tangela’s house in, they hopped into a rental and headed out to Te’Qui’s crib. T.J. drove and smoked on a fat ass blunt, stinking up the interior of his ride. He found himself glancing over at Te’Qui whose attention was focused out of the passenger window. There was a frown fixed on his face and he looked hostile.
“’Sup, Blood? You tripping off that lil’ bitch back there that I offed?” T.J. asked him.
“That girl was only fourteen, my nigga, fourteen-mothafuckin’-years-old.” Te’Qui told him.
“Limme ask you something, homie,” T.J. said as he made a right turn at the light. “How old were you when you put ten toes down in these streets? How old were you when you lost yo’ homeboy, Baby Wicked? How old were you when you caught yo’ first body?”
“I was ten-years-old, but what the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
“You was ten before you got knee deep in these streets, and that lil’ hoe back there was fourteen. Shiiiiit, she was probably far mo’ seasoned than you. You know bitchez mature faster than niggaz, right?”
“What’s yo’ point?” his brows wrinkled.
“My point is this, these streets don’t love nobody. They don’t give a fuck how old you are or who you kin to.” T.J. told him, straight up. “As far as these streets are concerned, if you got sense enough to play in ‘em, then you fair game. It’s fucked up, but that’s just how it is, you feel me?” he tried to pass Te’Qui the bleezy, but he didn’t want to hit that shit. He waved that nigga off.
“Youz a coldhearted ass nigga, man. Straight up. You don’t give a mad-ass fuck!” Te’Qui told him how he felt. “You know who you remind me off, Blood? You remind me of my mom’s ex-boyfriend, Tiaz. He was a ruthless, cold blooded mothafucka just like you.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yep.”
“Well, I’d like to meet, Blood.”
“You can’t. He’s dead. My uncle peeled his ass in jail.”
“For what?” T.J.’s forehead wrinkled with curiosity.
Te’Qui went on to give T.J. the rundown on Tiaz and his mother’s relationship, as well as how everything went down. The fat nigga listened closely to everything he was being told, and appeared to be intrigued by it all.
“Damn, Tiaz didn’t play. Y’all better be happy yo’ unc got ‘em up outta here, or else that woulda been y’all ass.”
“Man, fuck that nigga! I ain’t no lil’ ass boy no mo’, if he was alive I’d have somethin’ for that ass.”
“My nigga, spoken like a true gangsta,” T.J. smiled and tried to dap him up, but he left him hanging. Instead, he focused his attention back out of the passenger window.
T.J. shrugged and kept on driving, puffing on his fat ass blunt. About thirty minutes later he was pulling up at Te’Qui’s house and he was jumping out. Te’Qui slammed the door behind him and leaned down into the passenger window, making eye contact with T.J.
“Check this out, dawg. You my man and all and I fucks witchu hardbody, but after we get cho trap back, I can’t fuck witchu no mo’.” he told him seriously.
“What chu mean?” T.J.’s forehead creased.
“What I mean is, once we get cho shit back, you and me are through. I see the future right now, and fuckin’ with a nigga like you, I’ma either wind up dead or fightin’ a life sentence, and I can’t fade either one of ‘em.”
With that having been said, T.J. mad dogged Te’Qui, looking like he was ready to bite his fucking face off. He didn’t say shit back though. He pressed the button on the door panel and rolled the passenger window up, causing Te’Qui to pull his head back. When T.J. took off, Te’Qui stood there in the street watching the back brake lights of his car. Once the red lights disappeared, he headed towards his house.
***
Te’Qui closed and locked the door behind him once he entered his house. He pulled off his shirt as he headed to his bedroom door, hearing the television as an infomercial playing. He opened the bedroom door and found Kesha lying underneath the covers on her side asleep. Te’Qui sat on his side of the bed and unlaced his sneakers, sitting them aside on the floor. Afterwards, he rose from the bed, pulling thick wads of blue faces from out of his deep pockets and dumping it on the bed. As he was doing this, Kesha stirred awake and looked at him through sleepy, narrowed eyes.
“Hey, baby, when did you come in?” Kesha asked groggily.
“Just now,” Te’Qui replied. From the sound of his voice Kesha could tell something was up with him. So she turned around to him in bed to see what was up.
“What’s the matter? What happened out there?” she asked with concern.
Once Te’Qui finished emptying his pockets out on the bed, he turned on the lamp on his nightstand. He then sat up on the bed and grabbed a handful of the money that had Broadway’s blood splattered on it. He and T.J. had busted it down the middle, so he went home with quite a few thousand dollars.
“I can’t tell you exactly what happened, you know that, Keesh. In my business, it’s always best that you don’t know too much of shit. That way if The Boys snatch you up, you ain’t got shit to tell ‘em ‘cause you don’t know shit. You feel what I’m sayin’?”
“Yeah, I feel you. You keeping certain things a secret is for both of our protection.”
“That’s right.” he started counting up the money.
“It’s ‘cause of something that nigga, T.J. did, huh?” she inquired as she joined him in counting the money up.
“Yeah.” he admitted, shaking his head as he thought about the fourteen-year-old Asia that T.J. clapped. He then said under his breath, “That stupid fat mothafucka.”
“Okay. I know you can’t tell me shit, but I can at least guess, right?”
“If you want too.” he replied with a tone higher than a whisper, as he counted up the blue faces.
“Well, being that it’s T.J., I know he’s a ruthless ass nigga. So, I’ma say he capped somebody that you feel that he shouldn’t have. Also, the person was young and most likely female. A young girl, probably barely old enough to date?” she looked up at him.
Te’Qui stopped counting and took a deep breath. Staring ahead, he tried to decide whether he should tell Kesha what was up or not. Coming to a conclusion, he looked her right in her eyes and said, “Yeah. That’s exactly what it is.”
“I’m sorry, baby.” she sat the stack of money down on the bed and caressed the side of his face.
“Me too. ‘Cause although I didn’t pull the trigga I was there. So, my hands are just as much stained with baby girl’s blood as his are.”
Kesha nodded her understanding, but she didn’t agree with the girl’s blood being on Te’Qui’s hands. See, she knew her man was a cold blooded wig splitta in the streets, but she also knew that he had a heart. A big heart.
Maybe you should fall back from dealing with dude. I mean, it seems like y’all don’t live by the same moral code, so y’all gon’ end up bumping heads. And if he’s the G that he seems to be, they y’all gon’ wind up killing each other.”
“Shit, I thought that was gon’ go down tonight, after that girl lost her life.”
“For real, bae?”
He looked at her and nodded. “Yep.”
“If that nigga would have done anything to you, I woulda took that choppa out that closet and went looking for that ass.”
Te’Qui looked at Kesha and smiled. He the caressed her cheek and kissed her on her forehead. He loved the fact that she’d ride out for him. “That’s my baby.”
“You goddamn right, don’t nobody fuck with my man or my baby.” she looked down and rubbed her stomach.
Te’Qui and Kesha finished counting up the blue faces. They then rolled them up and put rubber bands around them. Afterwards, he got up from the bed and opened the closet. He opened the digital safe and placed the money inside. He picked up the small notepad and ink pen, writing down the amount he’d just put inside of the safe. Once he sat the ink pen and notepad back inside of the safe, he shut it.
“I tell you one thing I’ma do though, babe,” Te’Qui started up again, closing the closet door behind him.
“What’s that?” Kesha asked curiously.
“Like I told homie once he’d dropped me off, after we get his money and shit back from this broad, I’m severing ties with ‘em. I can’t afford to play for the stakes he’s playin’ for in this game. You feel me?”
“Sho’ you right, baby.”
“I’m finna go take a shower.” Te’Qui disrobed and kissed Kesha.
“Alright, I love you.” she watched his back as he headed for the bathroom door.
“I love you too, momma.” he replied, shutting the bathroom door behind him.
Once Te’Qui was out of sight, Kesha got down on her knees on the side of the bed. She shut her eyelids and put her hands together, praying that her fiance made it out of the streets before he met his death in them.