Affinity

Chapter 41: Shit Went Left

Only a couple chapters left...

" A shit show if I ever saw one."

" Lemme know when you done whining about ya ripped blazer and we can talk. Nobody told ya ass to start knocking motherfuckers on sight" I adjusted the frozen vegetables on my knuckles as Pap dabbed the blood from his cheek.

" And you ain't even catch the brunt of it, nobody told that girl to bring them bigfoot looking motherfuckers up in there."

" She was yo friend dawg, this shit on you." Jay sat on the arm of the chair I resided in as he threw a sidelong glance to Rah whose two cents wasn't in the best of humor.

" I don't even associate with shawty nomore, how was I supposed to know she was gon show up?"

I ignored Rah's look of pleading as he sat opposite the chair I was sitting in. As we were all spread out around Pap's living room recounting the events that'd abruptly brought my grand opening to a sour close, I still felt rage bubbling under my skin just thinking about it.

" May I?"

" May you what?"

" May I fucking help you with something before or after I drag ya ass up and down them stairs over there!" I could hear Jaz quietly and quickly shuttling all the patrons out the door as my voice grew an octave with each word I spoke. I swear I came out my office not looking to fight, but as soon as I'd seen her up close all bets were off.

" Where's Raheem? Rah, get ya-" We all know she didn't have the chance to finish her sentence, I dusted her chin a couple times before she could even realize I'd stopped talking. Out the corner of my eye I saw a hand reach in my direction and attempt to swat my face, a male hand!

" Shut that shit down playboy!" Rah lunged at the man who's arm was outstretched towards me as Jay finally got his wish.

" I told ya dumb ass my hands did not discriminate, yet here! the fuck! you are!" He was moving the girl away from me damn near dragging her by her hair as he went, it didn't help that I was following him.

" Ab look at ya hands dawg, come on I'm not bout to let you sit up here and fight nomore." Trey was scolding me as he slipped into big brother mode and lifted me like a child, it only dawned on me now that Pap had dipped off.

" Umm where is Ricardo Moreno!"

" There he go." Trey let me down as we neared the back of the store where we'd originated from, and I see Pap's ass tying the other dude the Shan girl showed up with, to my office chair that was now being dragged to the doorway of my office.

" Ummm, explain?" Pap had a shiner under his left eye, but the state of the other man's face had me confident he'd won the fight.

" Look." Pap placed a forty-five caliber pistol in my hand.

" Ole girl ain't come up in here just for Rah, I bet money Hakim got something to do with her sudden interest in ya'll."

" All that is something to mull over at a later date because I hear sirens, and I'm sure only Ab needs to remain to answer the types of questions they're bout to be asking. Cover up ya knuckles sis, Pap untie that man and let's route." Pap looked at the man and then Trey before finally doing as he said making hasty work of undoing the ties he'd used hold the man in place.

" What I'm not bout to do is leave Ab, we all look like we been in a fight, let it be what it's gon be."

" You done stunned the motherfucker." Trey chuckled lightly as he remarked at the man, who even though was now untied, had yet to get up from the chair.

" Look, Jay got the least marks he can stay with me, I'll meet the rest of ya'll at ya crib ard?" I made my way to the bathroom attached to my office and washed my hands and face, hoping I didn't look like I was just throwing and ducking blows moments before.

" Tell Rah I'm good." I wiped my face with a hand towel as Pap stood in the doorway not looking in anyway like he was about to leave.

" Pap, wassup? Come on, you gotta go."

" Just be careful ok?" His eyes looked like he was searching for the right words to convince me to let him stay, but decided against it once he remembered how stubborn I could be.

" Come on bruh, we gotta go!" Trey's voice boomed into the bathroom shaking the porcelain sink my hands were resting on.

" He's right. I'll be ok ima big girl. Look at you, done ripped ya blazer and all, go on Pap, I got this." I smiled at him in assurance while successfully pushing him out the door. I only had a couple minutes to make up a plausible story before the cops came, and having Pap all worry wart like in my face wasn't gonna help the situation.

" Love you." He jogged out the room without waiting for my response.

I huffed and sat down on the closed toilet lid as I heard Jay's heavy footfalls nearing,

" Love you too."

" Lemme talk to you real quick." Rah pulled me into Pap's kitchen by my wrist, an apology for something he'd had no previous knowledge of a heavy scent on his form.

" I know you didn't do it, ok?" I snatched my wrist away from him and leaned against the counter facing him, arms crossed firmly across my chest. I felt silly in this outfit now. Midriff showing and breasts up and out, I would gladly snatch all this off to trade in for one of Rah's sweats when the opportunity presented itself. " I'm just pissed that the whole reason this girl is even apart of our lives is because you needed company years ago. I ain't trippin off her existence, I mean we all got friends, but shawty wanted you in that kind of way back then and is still holding on to that shit. And to bring it up repeatedly, years later, at my place of business no less? No matter if she was backed by Hakim or not, her shit was foul and disrespectful I wish I killed her ass."

I balled a fist against the countertop and felt my chest tighten with the constricting breath of unused anger before continuing. " I know my brother did this shit to be vindictive and make me not trust you, but he also wanted her to kill you. Or if not her, then the jolly green giant motherfuckers she had trailing her."

" How you know?"

" The guy Jay was fucking up, had a pistol on him. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who those bullets were intended for." Rah swiped a hand over his mouth in sour humor, an incredulous laugh slipping through his toothy grin.

" He gon stop playing with us, this shit needs to end."

" I'm ready to end it." 

Thoughts?