Stolen (b.t.)

23

Bryson

"It was wrong of me to hit on your son's mother like that. Thank you for bailing me out" Iniko sat in the passenger's seat.

"Shit, I wanted to bail you out, but Bryson wouldn't let me" Kejuan bit into his chicken leg from Popeye's.

"How sweet of you" Iniko smiled.

"I never liked her. She failed me on that spelling test way back" Kejuan shrugged.

"Where's Byron?"

"He's at home with my mom" I pulled up at the drop.

"You've been here a lot lately" Iniko stated.

"I'm proud of my baby boy. Finally starting to kick his anxieties ass" Kejuan beamed.

I pushed my glasses up, and pulled my sleeves down. "Doubt it"

"I believe in you, Bryson" Iniko reached over, and squeezed my hand.

I could my cheeks turn red. "Thank you"

"I been believing in you your entire life, and I ain't never made you blush"  He sucked his teeth.

"You need a girlfriend" Iniko wrapped her arms around me, and held me as I walked for the both of us.

"I'm not responsible. I like strippers" He shook his head.

"Date a stripper then" She suggested.

"And make the rest of my strippers jealous? Neva"

"You're impossible, Kejuan. Do you know that?"

"My mama dropped me on the head when I was a baby"

"Really?"

"She meant to drop the groceries on the table, but dropped her infant son" He laughed. "I'm fucked up"

I need all my strippers to say some shit I forgot who some of y'all were. And if you been ghost, you got dropped. Don't worry bout it. I need one or two new strippers, and if you dont vote or comment, dont sign up either.

"Don't forget about the Christmas party" I said.

"Huh?" Iniko asked.

"My uncle flipped me upside down, and dropped me on my head by accident when I was four"

I laughed, but also cringed, cause I remember the sound of his neck cracking.

"You turning into one cruel individual, Bryson Djuan. I liked you when you were caring, and cried a lot"

So five months ago.

Goddess was the only one here, and she was doing stretches.

"You expect your strippers to come and rehearse, but they bail on you"

"Hey, Aniya" I nodded my head at her.

"My favorite bartender" Kejuan slid onto the counter, and sat infront of her.

"You know another bartender? You cheatin' on me, Swan?"

She cleaned the counters around him.

"Yeah, I am. Square up" He shrugged.

"I have complete control over your drink, Kejuan" Aniya reminded.

"Can you give me something that'll fuck me up? No brown though"

Aniya glanced at me before grabbing a glass and rinsing it out.

She filled it up with carbonated water, and handed it to him.

"Bryson's orders" She smiled.

Iniko took my glasses off my face, and kissed me.

It was random, but I sure did appreciate it.

"You a hoe, Bryson. This is absolutely unacceptable" Kejuan said.

Tia, Ronae, and Haillie walked in. "Hey, guys"

"Imma be a mean man today. Warm ups finna be on brutal" Kejuan clapped his hands. "Dogs, work"

"I've been here the whole time, and we just finna act like I wasn't? Oh, okay" Goddess stood up, and continued stretching.

"I want them splits in perfect form. We got all night to practice. Go, go, go" Kejuan urged.

Ronae looked him up and down. "Do the splits your damn self"

"Can I fire her?" Kejuan looked at me. "She fired"

"No you aren't" I looked at her.

"Am I hired?" Iniko teased me.

"Hell yeah"

I pushed Kejuan back into the counter. "Say it again, nigga"

"Iniko, yo mans scary lowkey" Kejuan pried my hands off of him.

"Sorry" She apologized to me. "I didn't mean to upset you"

I shook my head. "You're uh - I um. Forget it" I went into my office, and closed the door behind me.

-

If you didn't know already, I stared a new Bryson book eight days ago titled 2.0. Twenty something chapters deep.