"Mama, please."
"Boy, get on."
"Please—I love you!" I said, hugging her and rocking her back and forth.
"Look at his begging ass," I heard Nyella's fat, ugly-ass, giant-head self say.
"Stop all that cursing, Ny."
"Mama, please, just a bite."
"No. Wait like everybody else, Harlem."
"I'ma die!" I said dramatically.
She still pushed me away. But while all that was happening, my T.T. snuck me some greens.
"Now don't tell nobody."
"Thank you—I love you."
I ate that shit fast as hell and whew, it was good.
"Fatass," I heard her say.
I went to go bother Terrel, my mama's husband. He cool as hell. Me and Nyella step-siblings and all, but I don't count that shit—and neither does she. We was raised with each other.
"Wassup, Terrel."
"Here go this nigga," I heard him mumble.
"Lemme get a piece of that chicken."
"No, Harlem. You can wait, nigga."
"Same shit. Mama said y'all ugly," I mumbled, but he still heard me.
"Nyella told me you talking to Malai again."
I smacked my lips. Ima kill that lil' girl.
"We not talking. I just saw her at a food spot."
"Mhm. And it's raining."
"We not talking, damn, Terrel. Believe me."
"You still upset she did that?"
"Nah, I can't be. She was going through shit. She was only twenty. She wasn't ready. I learned to accept it."
"No, I'm not talking about that—but I mean, do you wish she would've kept the kid?"
"Yeah... I wish every day, man. I wanna be a dad so bad. I was so hurt when she did that. I ain't know what to do for real."
"What she look like now? She still act like that?"
"Hell nah. Look—she look different."
I showed him the photo she took today.
"Oh, she all about God now. Good for her. I'm glad she got better. You think you'd ever date her again?"
"Hell yeah. Definitely. I ain't never met someone like her again. You know I tried dating, but that shit ain't work—it wasn't her."
He nodded.
"I understand. Me and yo mama dated in high school, then broke up, only to see each other 10 years later."
"Sound like invisible strings. Like y'all was meant to come back to each other."
"Ion believe in shit like that," he said.
"I do. I believe in right person, wrong time—and all that lovey-dovey shit."
"People like you be the delusional ones."
"And why's that?"
"Why it gotta be the right person, wrong time? That shit ain't real to me. If it was the right person, it don't matter the time—y'all gon' stick with each other because that's your right person."
I nodded, going quiet for a bit, thinking.
"What about the invisible strings theory?"
"I believe in that a little, but I think it's more of luck that you see somebody you knew from your past."
"So you think it was luck with my mama?"
"Yeah. I mean, how we both ended up at the same gas station? With the same chips?"
"Yeah, that shit is crazy. Same chips?"
He nodded, and I thought on everything he said.
"Food done! Kids first!"
Man, I hate that shit. Fuck them lil' ass kids.
"Shit ain't fair," I told him, shaking my head.
"Nigga, you just big," Nyella said with a plate in her hand.
"Says the person with the food in hand. Like, how that work? Fat-ass head. Ugly."
I tried to smack her plate and she quickly dodged.
"Stop all that arguing! You two still fight like kids—that's sad."
I shrugged and went inside to make my plate.
I thanked my mom and my auntie, then headed back outside.
"Move, Harlem," my mom said as I tried to take a piece of cornbread off her plate.
"That's the type of greed they talk about in the Bible," my sister said, shaking her head.
"Girl, you are the greed—you was in there tryna bully a kid outta their macaroni," Mama said, and I busted out laughing.
"Oh okay—imagine bullying kids. Now that's sad, Nyella."
"I don't care—he had a big-ass plate of macaroni knowing there's thirty other people. He was being greedy."
I shook my head as Terrel started cussing her out for that.
"Okay, Mama, did you know he back talking to Malai?"
I smacked my lips. She so fucking messy, bro. That shit ain't even cool.
"Malai? Like the girl you dated four years ago?"
"Yes, Mom. And we not even talking. We just seen each other."
She nodded but didn't say much.
"I'm not surprised," she said.
I didn't say anything. I don't like how this shit keeps getting brought up.
"She the same still?"
"No. Look."
I pulled up my phone, went to Instagram, and showed her what Malai looked like.
"I'm happy for her. She seems more happy. When her mama died, everything started going downhill. I always prayed for her, though."
I nodded, now picking at my food.
"Anyways, enough about that—we gotta celebrate. Ain't you working with that one huge rapper? What's his name? The one that look like a lizard."
I chuckled.
"Rob49? I mean, he not huge-huge but he definitely big. And he don't look like no lizard, Terrel."
"Yes the fuck he do. Why you think he always wear them lil' scarves? 'Cause he look like a lizard."
I shook my head as he kept on talking shit, with Nyella chiming in.
⸻
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