Crossroads

Ch. 8: The Big L

"Bestie." I was on the phone with Zonnique.

Star giggled. "What?"

"I'm having cramps." I groaned and clutched my stomach.

"And? What am I supposed to do about that?" She laughed.

"Bring me food please. So we can talk about men and cry." I whined.

"No! Tell your nigga to get you food. And plus I'm on a date with Bobby."

"Then why the hell are you on the phone?"

"'Cause he went to the restroom, stupid."

"Oh," I replied softly and she laughed. "But yeah, I guess I'll see what Khalil's up to. I'm about to call him now so talk to you later."

"Ask him to bring you some Vitamin Dick too because you're lacking and it shows." She giggled.

"Girl, bye!" I yelled before I hung up.

"Boop boop boop... boop boop boop... boop boop boop boop." I said mocking the sound on my keypad as I dialed Khalil's number. He picked up on the third ring.

"Wassup, baby?" He answered.

The sound of his voice made me get instant butterflies. "Baaabe," I whined.

"What's wrong?" He asked, sounding concerned.

"What are you doing?" I asked just trying to make conversation before I asked him to do something for me. I didn't like to ask him for anything. I was so used to not having anyone to turn to for these things.

"Just watching the game with Trey."

"You guys are at your place?"

"Yeah. Why, you need something?"

"Yes! My stomach hurts and I want food. Can you bring me food? And some Ibuprofen?"

"But babe... the game's on." He complained.

"Please?" I felt like I was going to cry. If I didn't have something on my stomach and some painkillers, I'd get sick and be throwing up.

"Man! I'll be there."

"Thank you! Muah!" I hung up and waited for him to come over.

(1 Hour Later)

I was in bed laying in one of those bizarre positions girls tended to crawl in when they had cramps. I was on my knees hunched over while clutching my lower abdomen where I felt like guts were tying themselves in knots. My face was buried in the comforter.

"What the fuck is taking him so long?!" I exclaimed holding onto my stomach as I changed positions so that the first half of my body dangled off the bed. He only lived 20-25 minutes away depending on traffic.

Suddenly I heard my room door open and close. I quickly sat up to see that it was just Khalil.

"Finally. I felt like I was seeing the white light." I whined.

"Sorry, I had to do a quick run for my boss." He said and sat next to me on the bed with 3 bags in his hands.

I've been avoiding asking him about anything relating to his occupation. I was skeptical of the whole idea. Why wouldn't I be? He always had large sums of money. It was very unlikely for a 19 year old black kid to have so much on his own without any inheritance. He had a nice apartment, an expensive vehicle, and the money to splurge on himself. I knew something wasn't right. I knew it had to be something illegal but I never pushed the issue with him. If that was the case I wouldn't know how to handle that. There were positive and negative reasons for why he was so wealthy at a young age. He could've been having his own side hustle like a business or something but he never mentioned anything like that to me. He always mentioned having a "boss". But instead on coming right out and asking him what he did or who he worked for, I decided against it in fear of getting a response I didn't want to hear.