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Dior helped Brandon to get Brian into the house before she sent Breeze a text message letting her know that she was back home.
“Baby, I’m about to go and kick it wit’ Breeze in a lil’ bit. You want me to bring you somethin’ to eat?” she asked as they sat on the couch.
“I don’t know.”
He wanted her to stay with him, but he knew that she deserved to get out and have some fun sometimes.
“I’ll let you know,” he said before he leaned over and kissed her.
“When do you wanna talk to our parents?” she asked.
“I don’t know. My mama gon’ flip,” he told her.
“Well, it’s our problem. I just figured we could tell them before I start showin’.”
“You still got a year of high school to finish and I can’t work, so we gon’ need they help,” he informed her.
“I know, but wit’ everything that’s goin’ on I know they’ll be understanding.”
“Maybe. I guess we might as well tell ‘em at the same time so we only gotta get cursed out once,” he said with a nervous laugh.
“It won’t be that bad,” she assured him as she rubbed his leg.
“I hope not.”
“Well, before we tell ‘em I just wanna know that we’re on the same page,” she said seriously.
“What you mean?”
“Do you want me to keep the baby?”
“Yeah. Of course I do.”
“Okay. So no matter what they say or how they react, we keepin’ our baby.”
“Yeah. We’ll do what we gotta do but we keepin’ my son.”
“Okay.” Dior sighed, glad that at least he was on her side. “My mama off this weekend so see if Miss Belinda wanna go to dinner or somethin’,” she suggested.
“Aiight.”
“I’ll see you in a lil’ bit,” she said as he saw Breeze pull up.
“Aiight. Have fun,” he said, trying to sound sincere.
Dior felt bad as she left him alone in his living room.
“Where’s C?” she asked as she opened the front door.
“He’ll be out here next week.”
“Oh okay. I can’t wait to see him,” she said sincerely.
She knew that C would cheer Brian up a little.
Breeze stopped on the porch as Dior opened the front door.
“Hey cutie,” Breeze said with a big smile.
Dior pulled the door closed behind her and looked her friend up and down. For the first time since she’d known Breeze, she felt a twinge of jealousy. Here it was the middle of June, summer break and Breeze was looking like a million dollars without a care in the world while Dior was stressing out.
“Hey,” Dior said with a forced smile.
“You wanna eat first or shop first?” Breeze asked as they climbed into her car, which had the top let back.
“It don’t matter.”
Dior was trying to shake her envious feelings. Breeze was her friend and had been for a long time. She wanted to be happy that Breeze was finally happy, but it was hard. If Breeze hadn’t started dealing with Primo none of the stuff with Brian would have ever happened. But if she hadn’t started dealing with Primo she also wouldn’t be as happy as she was. It was a double edged sword.
“You mad at me?” Breeze asked, making sure not to sound like she was accusing her friend.
Dior sighed out loud and rolled her eyes.
“Not really. I guess I’m just mad at the situation.”
“I can understand that,” Breeze said as she merged onto the expressway.
They drove to the mall in silence. Breeze knew that once her friend started some retail therapy she’d loosen up.
Dior didn’t feel like shopping, not that she had any money to shop with anyway. She just lingered behind while Breeze looked around.
“So, you tell Brian about the baby yet?” Breeze asked, seeing that Dior wasn’t going to start a conversation.
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“He was a lil’ thrown at first, but now I think he happy. It’s just, you know, him bein’ in the wheelchair and stuff.”
“Yeah. What his doctors sayin’?”
“They say he doin’ good, but he don’t think so.”
“He’ll come around. You like these shoes?” Breeze asked as she held up a pair of Ed Hardy sandals.
“Yeah. They cute.”
“I talked to Primo and he said he’ll cover the medical bills. Just let me know how much,” Breeze said as she picked up another shoe.
“Good. Miss Belinda got enough on her plate.”
Dior sighed as she finally picked up a Fendi flat.
“That’s cute,” Breeze said as she eyed the shoe.
“Yeah, but that price ain’t.” Dior laughed lightly.
Breeze checked the price tag and shrugged.
“I like the pink ones better,” she said as she picked up the same shoe in two different shades of pink.
“I like the multi-colored ones better. I could wear ‘em wit’ more stuff,” Dior said as she sat the shoe back on the display stand.
“True.”
They browsed a little longer before they went to another store. Breeze made mental notes of all of the things that her friend showed interest in. She’d double back and get them later.
“What you got a taste for?” Breeze asked as they headed back to the car.
“I don’t know. Miss B be throwin’ down, so I been eatin’ good. I guess I could go for some wings.”
“Me too,” Breeze agreed, knowing just the place they’d go to.
“Ain’t that Lala and Chance?” Dior asked as she eyed a couple walking towards them.
“Yeah. That man is still fine as hell,” Breeze said, remembering the crush she’d had on Chance for so long.
“I’m surprised they still together,” Dior said.
“Yeah, he was always a player,” Breeze agreed.
“Hey Lala,” Dior said once they were close enough to the couple.
“Hey ya’ll,” Lala said with a smile as she and her boyfriend stopped walking.
“What’s up?” Breeze shifted nervously.
“Nothin’. I ain’t seen ya’ll in a minute,” Lala said as she looked both girls over.
“I know. Chance kidnapped you,” Dior joked.
“I don’t know who kidnapped who,” he said as he looked up from his cell phone.
“How ya’ll been?” Dior asked.
“Everything is good for S.D.,” Lala said proudly.
“Looks like it,” Dior said as she took in the couple’s expensive clothing and jewelry.
“We should get together sometime,” Lala said, sounding way more mature than she actually was.
“Yeah,” Dior agreed.
“Call me,” Lala said as she extended her hand.
Dior gave Lala her cell phone and tried to keep her eyes off of Chance as Lala stored her phone number. Dior promised to call Lala as she gave her her cell phone back.
“Why you was so quiet?” Dior asked as she and Breeze walked out of the mall.
“Nothin’. I was just surprised to see them,” Breeze lied as her mind raced in a million directions.
She wondered if Dior was actually going to call Lala. They had never been all that close, but Lala was the type of girl that was cool with everybody. She was cute and kind of quiet, yet somehow still managed to be very popular. They’d all gone to high school together, until Lala had started dating Chance.
Not long after they’d started dating they’d moved to the suburbs and started a drug ring, known as Supreme Dynasty, with Lala’s older sister Nicki, her best friend Trina and Chance’s best friends Shawn and Jay.
They were young, but they were well on their way to playing a major role in the drug game in Illinois. They were making major moves, but there were some veterans in the drug game that just couldn’t see that shit taking place. They refused to sit back and let little ass kids take over something that they’d worked so hard to build.
Primo happened to be one of the veterans that weren’t going to sit back and watch S.D take over. He wasn’t much older than some of them, he was only twenty-seven, but he’d started out way younger than they had. He’d had to work hard to prove himself and he’d only really started to solidify his position of power about two years ago. These kids needed to prove themselves, not piggyback on Jay’s uncle Chad’s success.
Primo had started to interfere with a lot of S.D.’s connections and they’d vowed to get rid of him. The only problem was that he was too elusive. They could track damn near anybody, but this nigga moved like a ghost. Breeze had heard Primo talking about S.D. and she had a bad feeling about Dior reuniting with them.