The Trade

Luck

Railin.

Monday Afternoon

After we left Ms. Laura's house and after getting Jojo I decided I would pick up some lunch for Rylee, and take it to her. She works at the Post Office , and I knew she would be on break, and now is a good time to ask about that pipe.

“Hi, Im here to see Rylee Amos.” I smiled at the guy in a uniform talking to another guy with dred locs, he was a God

Around 5'11 Brown skin, dreds, some nice ass teeth. Damn.

“You must be Railin.” the first guy guessed

I nodded

“Yeah, and you are?”

“Kyler and this is Rod, these your babies?” he smiled and asked while introducing himself and his friend

“Yeah , this is Krei, my daughter, and Jojo, my nephew,Ry's son” I smiled down looking at my sleeping beauty and Jojo

“She's beautiful, just like her mom” Rod smiled

Yeah, I jizzed my pants a little, so what? I haven't been physically attracted to someone in a long ass time

“Thank You” I smiled “ So Rylee? Where is she?” I asked again

“Oh shit, um, Ry got fired a couple weeks ago”

Pause.

My sister couldn't have gotten fired, one, and not tell me about it , two.

“She what?” I asked to make sure I heard him correctly

“yeah, she came in here like 2 hours late, after missing like a week of work. But to top it all off she looked like she was high” Kyler spoke

I stood there, trying to understand everything he was saying to me

In my 18 years, I had always been Ry's shadow. We are, well were best friends. But best friends dont keep stuff like this away from each other.

For the past 3 weeks, I noticed she has been almost like bi-polar, or dead to the world. She barely paid any attention to me, Krei, and most importantly Jojo

“Um, okay, Thank you” I smiled as I grabbed Krei's diaper bag, and Jojo's hand to leave

“Aye, before you leave you think I can get your number?” Kyler asked

“Im not interested” I said coldly walking out of the door

Once I strapped them in, I stood right outside of the car so I could still see them, and called Rylee

I called 4 times before she answered

“What Rai? Im at work!!!!” she spoke loudly

“Quit fucking lying to me Rylee, I know yo ass not at work, Im at your job right now, Kyler told me you got fired 3 weeks ago.., what the fuck is that about, huh? Why didn't you tell me, I would've understood.... But what I wont understand is why the fuck you came to work high? Or why in the hell is there a crack pipe on your dresser, where your son can see that shit ? Why the hell are you doing this shit to Jojo Rylee? What the hell is wrong with you? This shit would explain you being dead to the world, and not paying attention to your son! Mama raised us wayyyy better then this. We already fucked up by having babies young, but now you doing drugs?!?!?!?!?”

I could here shuffling on the other side of the phone

“I got 5 on it” I heard her attempt to whisper

“Rylee!!!” I know this hoe aint buying drugs right now

“Railin, Imma grown ass woman okay?, I can do what I want. I dont have to tell you I got fired. And Jojo is fine! I don't need to interact with my son to be a good mom, he has clothes on his back dont he? Im doing a damn good job at raising my son. And If I wanna have drugs in my house, I can do that!! If I want to get high, guess what Rai? Im going to do that! What the fuck you care for? You gotta another mouth to feed now, worry about that baby of yours, and leave me the fuck alone hoe! I don't need your permission to do shit! Now if you don't mind, Im about to go get a fix, Dont call my phone on no bullshit no more, and make sure you go pay the light bill” And with that she hung up

I stared at my phone crying for a minute before someone came up to me

“Hey, Railin, you alright?” The dred head, Rod, asked

“Yeah, Im okay, thank you” I smiled wiping my tears

“You don't look okay-”

“Look I understand you trynna be nice, but I have to go” I said getting into my bucket, lucky me it started on time today

Part of me felt bad as well though, I was yelling at her, but I strip for my living, and she has no clue. She thinks Im working as a maid. But what I do, has nothing on what she's doing. Im stripping to take care of me and my baby, not abandon her

“TT, whats wong with you and mommy?” Jojo grabbing the diaper bag for me

“Nothing Big Man, we just had a little fight” I answered taking them into the house

“Is mommy coming home for dinner?” he asked sitting Krei's diaper bag on the couch

“I dont know Jo, I don't know.”

“Why mommy don't love us nomore?”

I sighed , I know sooner than later this shit gone get hard for him

“Come sit with TT”

He came and sat on my lap

“Mommy does love us okay? She just sick.I love you Jojo, Don't you ever think TT or mommy doesn't love you, because we do”

He nodded and hugged me after kissing my cheek

The sound of Krei waking up made us break our hug

“Can I feed her TT?” he asked excitedly

I nodded while smiling at him.

While her bottle was warming up, and our pizza was in the oven., I went into Rylee's room to look around for her new love

And not to my surprise , it was everywhere. In her closet on the shelf, in her dresser, in shoe boxes, even in her jewelry container that usually held some of the jewelry mommy left her. But it was gone.

How could this have happened? Everything was all good and now this shit? Im losing my crack head of a sister, now I gotta take care of Krei, Jojo, and even Rylee by myself.

I need to call my brothers, but in the mean time, Rylee not having a job is really about to affect us, meaning I gotta get more days at the club. Not that I even want to work there, now I need to.

Just my luck