“Slow down, Zsa.” He laughed as he swerved across the yellow line. “I’m driving.”
“I can’t believe you bought them!” I screamed, holding one of the candy apple red wedged heel boots in my hand.
“Yeah,” he said as I hugged the boots. “I felt bad for the misunderstanding we had the other day when I thought you were letting that dude kick it to you.”
“I don’t wanna talk about that.” I quickly swallowed the lump in my throat, as the thought of how he yoked me by my collar flooded my mind.
The last thing I wanted to think about was how frightened I felt with my collar in his hands and the look of rage in his eyes. I mean…I knew I had no business talking to that dude, although I didn’t know him and all he did was ask me for directions to Springfield Avenue. But still, I knew Ameen had had a bad day and all I did was aggravate it. So…in a way…I guess I asked for it. But my baby made my day once again with these thousand dollar kicks. “I swear you the truth.” I planted a wet one on his lips as we headed to his spot.
Ameen lived with his mother, her boyfriend, his sister, and her baby. His house was ran nothing like mine. For one, he paid rent. Rent, can you believe it? Your mother taking money from you. Now, what kinda bullshit is that?
Wait, that’s not all of it. You know I can chill in his room, right? Door closed, slow jams playing and everything, and Ameen’s mother has never knocked on the door or asked what we were doing. She really didn’t seem to care. As a matter of fact I don’t even think she knew my name. I would always speak and ask everyone how they were and they would respond by looking at me like I was stupid. Whatever.
I walked behind Ameen into his room and before long we were doing things that I knew my mother would’ve had me drowning in holy water for.
Two hours later I was showered, dressed, and ready to go to work. I grabbed my car keys off of Ameen’s nightstand. “Call me later.”
“Where are you going?” He hopped out the bed. “Hol’ up, wait for me.”
“I have to go and pick up my little sister.”
“So, what? I can’t use your car?”
“I didn’t say that.” I hesitated. Lately, Ameen had been using my car a little more than I really wanted him to, but then again, he was my man. “We have to hurry, Ameen. She doesn’t like being at the neighbor’s too long.”
He smiled. “You know I got you.”
As we drove down Clinton Avenue toward Highway 78 West, I swear this mofo had stopped at least a hundred different times to speak to just about every dude he knew on the street. If he wasn’t blowing the horn like crazy, he was slowing down to kick it with someone. I was getting pissed by the minute.
He slowed down for the umpteenth time and yelled across the street at a guy standing there. “Yo, come ’mere!”
After a few minutes of Ameen kicking it with his friend, a guy pulled up next to us on the flyest 2009 royal blue and white Suzuki motorcycle I’d ever seen in my life. I waited for him to pull off since the light had turned green, but he didn’t. Instead he took his helmet off.
Damn! Can you say fine?
Imagine Idris Elba at seventeen, or better yet, Souljah Boy completely muscled out and looking like a man. Six feet tall with toasted almond colored skin, a crazy nice build, muscles everywhere, tattoos in all the right places, sexy dreads that hung midway down his back, and a shadow beard and mustache that would make the saneness chick hurt somebody. I hoped like hell that Ameen didn’t notice me starin’, because if he did, he would see that for a split second I was in love with somebody else.
“Hey, yo.” The guy on the motorcycle called for my attention.
Hey, yo? Last I checked, my birth certificate said Zsa-Zsa La-Shae Fields, not “Hey, yo.” So I turned around and looked at Ameen, because just that fast I’d been turned off.
“You know him?” Ameen asked as his chiseled jaw clinched tightly.
Before I could say no, the guy on the motorcycle said, “Zsa-Zsa.” I turned back around and this cat had the nerve to be smiling, and that’s when it came to me, exactly who this was. I hopped out the car. Tears of joy filled my eyes and my heart raced in my chest. “Malachi?!”
“Yeah, it’s me, ma. What’s good? I been looking for you since I got back in town,” he said, hugging me tightly. The ring he’d given me years ago hung around my neck and pressed against his chest. “I missed you so much,” he said.
“I missed you, too!” I couldn’t help the tears falling down my face. I felt like such a dork. “I can’t believe you’re here!”
“Yeah, I’m back here for good.” He wiped my eyes and continued to hold my hand. I knew for sure that Ameen was probably pissed. “You look beautiful.”
“Pardon me,” interrupted our moment. “You wanna introduce me to your friend?” Ameen said as he leaned over the middle console.
“I was waiting for an introduction myself,” a pissed female voice chimed in. I looked up and a chick that I knew from school was standing there. I just hoped this wasn’t his girl.
I turned to Ameen and said, “Ameen, this is Malachi, and Malachi, this is my boyfriend, Ameen.” They gave each other a fist bump and I turned to the girl Malachi was with and said, “Don’t I know you? What, are you two related?”
“This is Staci,” Malachi said. “My girl.”
I felt like I’d been stabbed. I swallowed, and Staci rolled her eyes at me. “Whatever,” she snapped. “Can we leave now?” She hopped on the back of Malachi’s bike.
“Yeah, whatever,” I said, getting back into the car.
Malachi looked at me and his eyes seemed to apologize. Suddenly I remembered how it felt when he’d left the first time.
“So I’ll see you around,” Malachi said.
“Yeah,” I said dryly, watching them take off and head down the street. “You do that.”
I turned to Ameen and was greeted by the palm of his hand. I tried to move, but Ameen palmed the entire side of my face and pressed it against the window. “You gon’ disrespect me!” Ameen screamed.
“Get off of me!” I tried to swat his hands, but he grabbed my wrist with his free hand and said, “I dare you to move. Move.” He paused and looked at me. “Do it and see don’t I pimp smack you!”
“What are you doing?” I screamed again.
“You cheating on me with that dude? Huh? You cheating on me?”
“Would you chill, Ameen?” I can’t believe this.
“Who the hell was that?”
“Malachi!” I screamed. “He was my best friend.”
“Oh, now you got best friends? So what am I? Nothing? You have to be crazy disrespecting me!”
“We were best friends when I was a kid!”
“And here I bought you a thousand dollar pair of boots trying to make up with you!” he screamed toward my ear. “And you gon’ disrespect me? This is the same thing you did the other day when that dude asked you for directions.” He mushed me again before letting me go. “As a matter of fact”—he grabbed the Gucci shopping bag—“these are going back.” He opened the car door.
“Ameen!”
“Don’t be calling me now.” He took my car keys and tossed them toward me. “Call me when you know how to act!” He slammed the door behind him and disappeared up the