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Coming of Age
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She fell in love, it fell apart... aight let go
She met her match, I let her match
She lit her match, she let me smoke
Yeah me mad petty, Yeah me bogus
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah me know
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"That mac and cheese sure smelling good right about now,"
Keisha smiled, much appreciative of her mother's approval as she took the large dish out of the oven and placed it on the stove top. It had taken her years and countless errors but she finally got her mother's famous cognac cream mac and cheese recipe down to the tee and it had quickly became one of her son's favorite dishes.
"The chicken should be ready any minute," she replied as she removed the gloves from her hand.
"I like what you did with the place," Keisha's mom continued to inspect the various aspects of the house, "There is a really good school for Day Day around here too,"
Regina, Keisha's mother, was skeptical about her daughter sudden urge to come back to Miami, especially since she had gotten her life together back in Alabama. Regina's step-brother had taken good care of both Keisha and Marcus during their time in Alabama and she wasn't sure why Keisha wanted to come back to Miami following her getting her degree. She had gotten a nice job following getting her degree at Alabama and with the drug game still ravishing most of Northeast Miami, she would of preferred that her daughter never came back.
"It's already starting to feel like home," she shrugged as she started to set up the table for three, "Day Day! The food is ready!"
Filled with energy, the six year-old raced down the steps, running full speed right into his grandmother's hands as she lifted him up.
"You just keep getting bigger and bigger," Regina placed him on his seat, "You'll be the one carrying me in a few years,"
Just as she placed him down, the bell rang.
"You expecting someone?"
"You the only person that knows where I live to be honest," Keisha scoffed as she turned the oven off.
"Don't worry about it," Regina motioned Keisha to sit down, "You get to eating with your boy, I'll get it. Who is it?"
"Ac.....Arnez," the voice on the other side said weakly, "Can I speak to Keisha?"
Regina opened the door and hugged Arnez, shutting the door behind him as she led him inside. "Woody's boy? Damn boy! You done grown up on me! Keisha, it's Arnez!"
Keisha rolled her eyes and she got up from the table after fixing Da'Sean a plate, "You didn't tell me you were coming,"
"I just thought I'd swing by real quick," Arnez said clearing his throat, "Good to see you too Ms. Jones,"
"Call me Gina honey," she insisted, "Why don't you come eat with us? We got more then enough food,"
"I...don't think so," he replied as he could sense Keisha disapproving of him even coming over, "I don't want to crash y'all plans or nothing,"
"Nonsense," Regina quickly got to setting him a plate and a seat at the table, "No way I'm letting you walk out of here without eating something,"
"I think he'll just get a plate to go," Keisha interrupted, "He's got somewhere to be."
"That's better then nothing," Regina chuckled as she started to pour food into a plate, "Where you stay by now?"
"I stay pretty close to Booker now," he replied, "I'll let my dad know you sent your wishes,"
"How is he these days? Heard he caught the big C,"
"Yeah," she handed him an overflown plate, "He's going to fight it though. He's got chemo in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the plate, Gina."
"No problem honey," she kissed him on the forehead before returning to the table with Da'Sean.
"You really shouldn't be here," Keisha led him outside, "How do you even know I live here?"
"People talk," he replied in his defense, "I just wanted to see how everything is and if you were alright,"
"Everything is good," she lightened her tone, "I just...don't like surprises and with you coming in with my mom in there, it's just not something I was expecting."
"I'm guessing she doesn't know what happened that night," he could feel a sense of guilt overtaking him, "No way she'd be all over me like that if she knew,"
"She just knows that S....that Sean got shot and Trey was there," she replied as she struggled to retain eye contact with him, "She doesn't even know I was there,"
"She know Sean the father?"
"Not hard to tell," she said with a chuckle, "She never got to meet him but she could tell from his parents that he was good people,"
"That's why I came over to talk to you actually," Arnez cleared his throat as he tried to muster up the courage to continue on, "We both know Sean ain't that baby's father,"
As soon as Arnez finished his sentence, she quickly slapped him. "Don't you fucking dare,"
"Come on Keish," he replied as he rubbed the side of his face, "That boy in there mine and you know it,"
"Don't come here again," she said as she started to walk away but Arnez held her arms.
"Keish I love you," he begged, "That's why I started tripping when I saw y'all together. I don't know, it pissed me off that you had tied it up with someone else but I'm telling you baby, we both know that baby mine. My daddy ain't the greatest person in the world but he ain't never walked out on what was his and I ain't about to do the same thing,"
"Let go of my hand," she said very calmly as she tried to ease the situation, "Leave me and my boy alone,"
"We could do a paternity test," he pleaded, "If I ain't the dad, I swear on everything that I won't call you, I won't come here, I won't even thinking about you no more if you don't want me to. But baby, I'm telling you, that baby is mine girl."
"It don't even matter if it's yours," she started tearing up, "You and your little homeboys almost ruined my life and I'm not turning back to that. Not with my baby,"
"I'm out the game Keisha. I ain't smoke in a year, I ain't even touch a bottle in six months. I don't even live with my pops anymore and real talk, we don't even talk about nothing but how's it going and we keep it moving. I don't associate with those people anymore Keish and as soon as I get my degree, I'm gone and I ain't never coming back. We could build something together and I don't expect you to take me back but damn girl, we'd be fools to let this opportunity get away from us,"
"That ain't enough for me," she replied as she started to wipe her tears, "I want him gone Arnez. That's why I was looking for Trey. I want that scumbag gone,"
"Who? Trey?"
"Whoever shot Sean," she replied cut-and-dry, "I want him dead."
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Trey lifted his arm over his head and took a sniff. Not bad at all. He couldn't remember the last time he was so nervous as he knocked on the door, just wanting to get this up and over with. After hearing a little bit of commotion on the other side, he was pleasantly surprised when a light-skinned girl opened the door.
"Come on in," she said as she placed her hand on his shoulder, "You must be Trey. Chris has told me a lot about you,"
"Hopefully good things," he replied as he chuckled at her calling him Chris, "You have a very nice home,"
"You both know how to sweet talk and let a woman hear all the things she wanted to hear," she playfully scoffed as she led him into the kitchen area, "It ain't much but we try to make it work,"
"A lot better then what it would be if it was just JuJu," he smirked, "Or Chris,"
"I don't like the name JuJu," she shrugged, "If I really want to bug him, I call him Christopher,"
"But you know better then that," JuJu said with a smile as he appeared from the bedroom, "Little man, this right here is my wife Cherry. Cherry, this little man."
"My dad was big into reggae so he named me after Cherry Smith," she quickly added.
"Had he known better, he would of named you something else because with a name like Cherry, he was just begging for the boys to come running."
"Come on now baby," she scoffed, "The food is ready,"
They all sat around the table as Cherry started to take the food from the oven and place it on the table. Having just finishing working the corner the entire day, Trey quickly dove into his meal.
"So Trey, how's it been since you got out?"
"Just trying to make ends meet," he said as he dug his head out from his plate, "Just working,"
"She knows little man," JuJu chuckled, "She knows everything,"
"Chris told me you're working with Greezy now," she chimed back in, "That must be tough with everything that went down,"
"Not really," he shrugged even though she was right, "Sometimes somebody gotta take the rap and my time was up. I did my time, kept the crew out of trouble and now he helping me back on my feet. Cycle of life when you think about,"
"I told you this boy was smarter than a mug man," JuJu chewed on his wings, "He gonna get on his feet, make his money and get the fuck out,
"Same for you too Chris," she quickly rained on his little speech, "The drug game just not the type of life I envision for us,"
"The drug game pay them bills though," JuJu slightly raised his voice before realizing he was in midst of company, "Trey still got a life ahead for him but me? I'm damn near 30 with no job experience and a record. Where they hiring niggas like me? Uh? That's why my man over there gotta get out as soon as he can,"
"So as long as the bills getting paid, you don't care about getting shot? About me being by myself? How about when your time gets called up to take the sheet, I'm supposed to be by myself? What if turf gets overstepped on and I'm worrying about catching a bullet every time I walk the street with you?"
"It don't got to be like that," Trey interrupted her, "We don't got to shoot each other just to make some money. Millions of dollars get made every day up in Wall Street and those niggas are ruthless, vicious but they don't kill each other. They don't run up on each other. Everybody got they own little game running, they own little schemes and they making that bread. Everything else in America gets sold without niggas getting shot, why not drugs?"
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WHAT A TWIST
