SALUBRIOUS

SB7

Nasiem Fareed

11:11 am - September 15th 2023

Sunday was the only day at the florist shop was closed, which meant that Nas was off of work that day. Even with the opportunity to sleep in, he didn't. He'd been up since 8 and even when he attempted to go back to sleep, the smell of Sevyn making breakfast halted him. Nas' hands rested at the back of his head as he eyed the ceiling, submerged in deep thought.

He woke up this morning with tattooing heavy on his mind, after telling Sevyn he didn't want to fight his calling, he realized maybe that's what he was doing. Tattooing would definitely be a good stepping stone for getting where he actually wanted to be, and figuring out what road he wanted to take.

Suddenly, knocking sounded against his door. Nas looked in that direction before yelling out to grant access. The door swung open, revealing Wham. "It's breakfast downstairs, if you wanna eat." He announced, Nas nodded his head.

"Preciate it." He replied before grabbing his phone off of the charger. The more Wham tagged him in Instagram stories, the more followers he gained. He had one photo on his page, that he took at his welcome home party. The photo had a few hundred likes from the influx of followers that came to his page. After his brief glance at his notifications, he put the phone back down. "You remember Kimora?" Wham questioned as they jogged down the long staircase. Hearing that name sent a weird feeling over Nas, he tried to push that encounter to the back of his mind, but Kimora's daughter was ever so often popping up in his memory, bringing Nas a feeling of uncertainty.

"Yeah...why?" Nas questioned back. Once they approached the counter, Wham handed him an envelope. Nas' eyebrows furrowed together as he ran his thumb across the seal to break it. He then removed a piece of notebook paper from the now open envelope. It felt as if everything moved in slowly motion as he fixed his eyes upon the paper to read it.

Nas, can you please meet with me at this bar? I attempted to give you my number because there's something we need to talk about..here's my number again, can you text me so we can discuss a time? Thx

At the bottom of the note was both Kimora's phone number and the address to the bar. Nas eyed the note for a few more seconds before placing it beside him on the table. "When you get that?" Nas questioned as he grabbed a hold of his fork, he honestly wasn't even hungry anymore. He stuck the fork into the fluffy yellow eggs and left it there. "It was in the mailbox..im guessing she stuck it in there, cause ain't no post office label on it." Wham explained.

Nas nodded his head as he ran his tongue over his top row of teeth, he still had so many questions. "She came around y'all when I was locked up?" Nas questioned. When him and Kimora were together, he brought her around his friends, but not enough for them to be acquainted. Their only mutual connection was Nas, so with him being gone, he didn't expect them to still be cordial. 

Wham shook his head no, "She live around the corner, I see her when the neighborhood do lil get togethers and shit." He explained. Nas grabbed his orange juice and took a quick swig. The organic drink was smooth and full of flavor, making him take another swig to experience the taste again. "I saw her at target the other day." Nas announced.

"That make sense—she probably brought the letter over here knowing I'd know how to get in contact with you." Wham voiced, Nas poked his bottom lip into his mouth as he scratched his head. "That girl ain't call me one time when I was locked up...the only letter I get from her is while I'm free? Shit crazy." Nas spoke in disbelief. On top of his mother switching up on him, Kimora did as well.

Nas held on to the idea of getting a piece of mail from Kim for years, optimistically waiting to see her very distinctive handwriting on a piece of paper—but it never came. He knew everybody else was done with him, but he never expected that from Kim. Being that he was always in her corner, he thought she'd do the same. Instead, life went on without him. "Hold on right quick." Nas spoke as he got up from the table. He jogged up the stairs and entered his room, where he then sat on the edge of the bed in putting the number on the letter in his phone before hitting the lime green button to make the call.