Stay Down

15

"gimme three moe'." holding the weight ova his head, he struggled to lift up the weight but finally got it off his chest, pushing it up three more time.

i placed it down fa him, grabbing my water bottle.

my body was drenched in sweat and i could feel my head pounding but after winning against douglas , last night, we was closer to the finals.

it wasn't no time to let up.

honor sat across from me on the work out bench. "i ain't neva bench that much." he shook his head, chugging down his water.

"i wasn't tryna hurt ya man." i laughed as he tried to flex his arm, pulling it to his chest in pain.

"nah, man, just pushin' me to improve. i dig that shit." holding out his hand, i smacked mine against it.

" 'ppreciate it."

"soooo" he stretched, rubbing the back of his neck, "about what king was sayin' the otha day-"

"i ain't really tryna hear that-"

"he needa grow up." his face holding a seriousness i wasn't use to. "it's like he wanna stay the same dime bag sellin' ass nigga."

"you know how king is."

"that's ain't no excuse." he told me, "and when you gon stop lettin' that be ya excuse fa this nigga."

rubbing my hands through my waves, i couldn't even argue with 'em. "he family."

"and you put this nigga on and provided 'em with whatever he wanted. he ain't even wanna do this college shit until you forced 'em."

he moved siting next to me. "look all im sayin' is you need to let this nigga fuck up and hit his head every once and awhile, he a man now and need to start taking accountability."

"you right."

he shrugged, "ya nigga i know. boston got me reading all these inspirational speeches and shit."

"nigga."

"what" he chuckled, "it worked on yo ass."

"i ain't yo test dummy for yo speeches."

we both laughed, watching as people started to leave the gym. "im just tryna show interest in stuff she like since she always at the games and shit, show ha i cae'."

"i feel ya." my mind drifting to kapree, "you must love ha then, huh?"

"more then i thought i could love anyone." he admitted, truthfully.

"how'd you know?" i asked, "how'd you know you was in love with ha'."

he sat there thinking.

"she was there." he finally said, "she was there at the right time when i needed ha and you wanna know what's crazy?"

"what?"

"she ain't neva ask me fa nothing , she ain't neva rush me to commit. she let me be a boy until i was ready to turn into a man and that's all i could ask from her, to let me make my mistakes but not give up on me."

"show ha you worth something even if not at that moment."

"exactly." his mind distant, "she seen the good in me before i could see it in myself."

"ain't it hard though ?" the girl from the club popping back in my head. "not to mess up."

"of course but that's the thing about being in love man." he laughed. "you don't give up."

"and it's like i knew life wasn't perfect." he continued. "but she made it alright."

we stood up grabbing our gym bags walking towards the door.

"i guess you gotta invest a lot in ya shawty to show you care." i said thinking to myself.

"like summer walker said" he voiced, as we walked out the door, "girls need love too."