Crimson Kisses

Two- Manage to Do Damage

James

"I hope you know that bitch has been by the house twice since you've been gone this morning," JB said as he grinded my weed in a Magic Bullet. "Didn't you show her the DNA test?"

I licked my cigar paper and dabbed it to make sure it was closed before putting it in an old metal domino container with four more we rolled for the week, and grinned. "You know I did. That's why the bitch is mad. She's not gettin' no child support from me which is why she keeps making pop up visits."

"Shit gets on my nerves and I don't even live here."

"Nigga you're only here on Mondays and Fridays," I laughed.

"So? What that got to do with your old bitch gettin' on my nerves? Shit, you were only gone for two hours. She barely fuckin' missed you the last time."

I shrugged and put a razor blade to another fresh Swisher Sweet cigar I had just pulled out of the wrapping to open it up and gutted it.

"How's that job treatin' you?" he suddenly asked me as he dumped the green onto a cardboard shoebox top. "The nigga D come through for you or what?"

"Yup," I simply replied. "Paid me this morning for the next week."

"What he got you doin'?"

"Personal security for his little sister."

"That's lame as fuck," he commented. "She bad?"

"She's sixteen, JB," I laughed.

"I know some sixteen year olds with titties and ass that's bigger than any twenty-five year old hoe I done fucked."

"I'm not tryin' to look at her like that, man."

"She got ass?"

"JB!"

"I'm just askin'!" he chuckled.

"Nah," I lowly laughed to myself while sprinkling weed into my gutted cigar. "She's about five-foot-five... medium brown complexion that looks smooth as hell... mole on her upper-lip... and she wears glasses. Cute little silver framed glasses. A little chubby. And God does she have a mouth on her."

"She sucks?!"

"JB! No! I'm talkin' about how she talks, nigga!"

"Oh, my bad," he surrendered.

"She has this attitude about her that, even if I snapped off on her, she would slice my throat with her words. She's kind of fragile though." In that moment I looked up from my cigar and stared at the calendar on the wall across from the round table we were sitting at in my kitchen when going into an absentminded daze. I thought about her. Deeply thought about her while damn near whispering, "She has these cat-like eyes. These innocent eyes. Hurt is behind those eyes, I think. Something dark and mysterious. Almost like she's been broken." Even JB didn't think to bring me out of my trance and my mind was gone a million miles a minute. It was like I could see her in front of me so vividly, just far away enough for me to reach out over the table and grab her. "When I saw her," I merely mumbled, "her short hair was blowing out in front of her face while she was standing on this ledge in the hotel. I had just walked in when I saw her and I went to her quietly. At first I thought she was bluffing, so I stood there and stared at her some more. Then, she leaned forward and I didn't even feel myself reach out for her." I lightly shook my head with my eyebrows pressing together. "If I wasn't there... D would be planning a funeral right now."