King of Queens (a Nas Story)

TWENTY TWO

Gia | September 1993

"The fuck you mean my album leaked?"

That was what woke me up from my slumber at 5:34am. I tossed the cover from over my head and planted my feet on the carpet beneath me.

I didn't think to slip my feet inside of the slippers perfectly placed on my side of the bed we shared. I scurried to the living room as quickly as I could while holding beneath my stomach.

"Somebody on the block has been selling my shit?" Nasir yelled into the landline. I walked behind him, lacing my arms around his shoulders.

"Fuck all that! What about Columbia?" Nasir's shoulders raised with tension as he continued to yell into the phone. The sun was half way risen and the sky was bright through the blinds that Nasir had left closed.

"My album roll out might be fucked now!" Nasir hit his fist on the wall. His body temperature rose under my touch.

"Baby, calm down." I said into his ear.

"Ain't no calming down, Gia. This is my life being leaked on the streets right now!" Nasir raised his shoulders to shake my hold from him. I released him voluntarily.

"It's too early for this shit." I raised my hands as a surrender. "When you've calmed down, you come talk to me." I said with an attitude as I stormed out of the living room and slammed the door. I climbed back into bed and laid on my side, pulling the cover over my head again.

Long Island | 11:04am

I woke up to Nasir's breathing on the back of my neck. His hands cradling my stomach. He must've been up all morning trying to iron out this album leak.

The faint sound of the phone ringing in the living room alerted my awareness. I moved Nasir's hands from my stomach and slipped out of bed, shuffling quickly towards the living room where our landline was.

I rushed to the phone and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Gia, is Nas there?" An unfamiliar voice asked on the other line.

"Who is this?" I asked with my hand holding the weight of my stomach. My son was flipping non stop and poking at my rib cage since this first wake up.

"AZ. Tell him it's urgent." Said the man on the other line.

"Anthony? Hold on, let me wake him up." I put the phone down and shuffled back to the bedroom, where Nasir was asleep on his stomach with his legs close together. His position reminded me of a dead log.

I walked over to his side of the bed and shook him gently, talking sweetly into his ear. Quite the opposite from earlier.

"Baby, wake up for me." I said into his ear. I continued to shake his shoulders until he moved.

"Hmm?" He said groggily.

"AZ is on the phone for you. He says it's urgent." I said into his ear. I stroked the back of his neck as an attempt to wake him up.

"Who?" He asked into the arm he was propping his head on, still lying on his stomach.

"AZ!" I said a bit louder.

"A? Fuck!" Nasir sprung up quickly and on his feet. Rushing to the living room to get the phone.

"A, what's the deal?" Nasir's groggy voice echoed in the living room. I stood by the wall, watching him talk to his boy.

Nasir stood in the middle of the living room with just his boxers on and nothing else, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Shit, I can't call it man. What's going on?" Nasir held the phone to his ear with his shoulder and opened the blinds in the living room.