12

AMIR

"You like my daughter?" Her mom, Teyana asks me. I look at her for a second, thinking of what to say. She breaks the silence with a soft giggle.

"I'm playing with you son." She smiles and its warm. I definitely know where Kehlani gets most of her personality from.

"Your husband would kill me." I reply, referring to Damien.

"Yes he would, he loves his girls." She chuckles. We both stare at Kehlani whilst she walks towards us. Her expression becomes more significant as she walks closer to us, she's been crying.

"You ready to go?" I stand up and she nods.

"You going home mama?" She asks Teyana.

"No im going to stay here for a while longer, Amir's going drop you off?" She looks at me before looking back to Jayda.

"Yeah, I am." I respond.

"Kehlani, baby, don't you worry about your brother okay?" She says to her but she only nods in response. I don't know what happened in that room but I pray it wasn't anything unbearable.

We walk out into the parking lot in silence. I look over her a few times but she doesn't say a word. I open her door for her once we get in the car before getting inside it.

"You want to talk about whatever happened?" I ask her and she starts to smile.

"You want to know?" She replied and I nod. "I feel like my whole life I always had to take care of Kieron and he was somehow my responsibility, even though he's older than me." She pauses for a second as my hand rubs gently against her thigh.

"I always though I would protect him from anything, you know? He would always be safe." Her voice slightly breaks but no tears fall. I want to let her know that she doesn't have to be strong in front me.

"Your brother is a grown 25 year old man, he can take care of himself. I understand how you're feeling right now but you're both adults." I reply and she nods. I know i'm telling her exactly what she knows already.

"I know it's just- it's hard. I'm the only one that's there for him Amir." She sighs.

"Nobody is saying that you still can't be there for him, but you need to know that you can't help anybody that don't want to help themselves. If he don't want to himself, you can't force anything." I look at her as we pull up to a traffic light.

"You don't think I should help him?" She looks up to me through her eyelashes.

"If he allows you to, then you should." I reply before redirecting my focus to her lips. I lean in to kiss her but she dodges it.

"Eyes on the road sir." She points at the green light and not longer after the cars behind start beeping.

"I see how it is." I nod as she laughs from besides me. Just wait till we get to her house.

"We never finished playing our basketball game." She reminds me.

"We can finish it at my crib."

"You so nasty Amir." She rolls her eyes, trying to suppress her smile. It's crazy how her mood can change in a matter of minutes

"What you mean? I got a basketball court in my house." I scrunch my face up in confusion.

"You was serious?" She asks me and I nod. "How come I ain't ever been to your house?"

"You've never asked me." I shrug.

"Well-

"We're here." I pull up to her house, purposely interrupting whatever she would ask.

"You not coming in?" She looks at me with a frown as I shake my head.

"You want me to see you on monday?" I ask her and she rolls her eyes.

"Why not tomorrow?"

"I got shit to do mama," I lean back in my seat and stare at her, taking in her beauty.

Fuck it, I can make time.

"But I can come over a little late though, that cool?" I ask and she smiles once more. "That's cool." She replies.

"Come here." I order and she leans in closer towards me. I grab her by the throat before gently pecking her lips. I pull her in for more as our tongues linger against each other. She pulls away, biting her lip.

"Always running." I mumble, referring to her backing away so quickly.

"What you say? I ain't hear that correctly." She bucks up at me but I don't flinch.

I get out of the car and open her door, holding her by the hand as she steps out. We walk over to her front door and pause right before she opens it.

"See you tomorrow?" She asks and I nod.

"See you tomorrow 'Lani." I reply. She kisses me before pecking my lips twice. She walks into the house and gives me a small wave before shutting the door.

My fucking woman.

I feel my phone go off as I walk back to the car. To my surprise, it's...Rico?

2 hours later

"Why are we here Rico?" I ask as I look around the empty diner where we was at. I didn't want to remember anything from here but of course, he had to meet me here.

"You remember here?" He asks me but I refrain from reacting.

"Rico just tell me what the fuck you want." I sigh.

"We was bosses. We were kings," He chuckles as he looks around. "I know you miss the thrill man."

"Nah im doing good over here." I nod.

"Niggas working with Drake, got them a lil' bitch and forget where they came from?" He chuckles harshly.

"Fuck out my face man." I get up but two of his guards come out of hiding from their booths. I sit back down at their command.

"So you threatening me now?" I ask, referring to his goons.

"Just listen to what I got to say to you." He replies.

"The streets is the streets shit ain't gonna change.  I ain't getting involved in that shit again."

"A 9 year old kid got in the crossfire of a drive by shooting two days ago. I paid for the kid's funeral. No casket should be that small man." He shakes his head.

"I agree, but what does that unfortunate event got to do with me?" I rub the back of my neck.

"That's what you gonna fucking say? We grew up in this streets, we raised and fed and clothed niggas. Now these new niggas with no fucking morals coming in here, fucking up what we built." He shouts out as the echo deepens.

"You should've left that shit a long fucking time ago man." I shake my head as I start to stand up but he gestures for me to sit back down.

"They tearing down our neighbourhood." He tries to plead with me but I disregard it.

"Rico, with all due respect man, that shit ain't my responsibility no more. I left a long fucking time ago." I reply before putting down 10 dollars on my empty plate and walking out.

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