After Eight years, Ghenesis Santiago leaves for Atlanta, Ga to try having a relationship with her father and his new family. While having to maintain her senior year in highschool and working with her brother and his Crew under her father's orders...
I didn’t laugh. I wanted to. But the mood I was in?
Nah.
I was too irritated.
Especially with this tall, tatted-up, pretty-boy bitch.
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We were headin' back to the city. Me and Ghenesis sat in silence, but it wasn’t the kind of silence that felt chill. Nah. This was tense. Heavy.
I glanced over at her—arms crossed, legs crossed, eyes glued to the window like the trees were more interesting than the whole damn world.
“You hungry?” I finally asked. “We can sto—”
“Nah, I’m good,” she cut in quick.
I raised a brow. “We just smoked hella blunts and you not hungry?”
“Ain’t that what I said?” she snapped.
Say less.
I yanked the wheel left and pulled us down an empty side street, tires screechin’ as I parked hard.
“THE HELL, ZEUS?!” she barked, grabbing onto her seatbelt.
I turned to her slow, tryin’ to keep my voice low. Calm. Controlled. “‘The hell’ my problem? Nah—what’s your problem?”
She scoffed. “You the one drivin’ like a damn maniac.”
“Don’t play dumb. Since you got back in my truck, your whole energy been off. If you don’t wanna do this shit—fine. Say that. Tell Charles. But don’t take that shit out on me. I ain’t the one.”
“Okay, Zeus,” she muttered, waving me off like I was just another name on her bad day list.
That lil dismissive-ass hand wave?
Yeah, that got under my skin. Deep.
I bit my lip, tryna keep from snapping. “I’m tellin’ you, Ghen… this not the route you wanna take with me. I already got Anisha breathing down my neck. I don’t need this.”
Then she said it—quiet, but just loud enough to light a fuse.
“Like father, like son.”
I blinked.
What the fuck you just say?
“You wanna run that back?”
She looked right at me now. “Since I got here, it’s been nothing but bullshit. I take the heat from Charles. I bite my tongue. I agree to work in some shit I ain’t even signed up for. But what I won’t do is let you and him corner me from both sides like I ain’t got no say.”
I stared at her, fully confused. “Yo, what are you even talkin’ about? When have I ever disrespected you?”
“I’m tired. Just drive, Zeus. Please.”
“Nah,” I said, gripping the wheel tighter. “We not goin’ nowhere ‘til you stop actin’ like I’m the enemy and tell me what’s really wrong.”
She yanked off her seatbelt and reached for the handle. “Fine. I’ll walk. Clearly, you don’t hear nothin’ but yourself.”
“Oh, so we doin’ that now?” I reached over and grabbed her wrist before she could hop out.
“Let me go!” she snapped, snatching back.
“Bruh, chill—”
SLAP.
I froze.
She hit me.
She just really slapped me.
I looked at her—heart poundin’, jaw tight, tryna process whether I deserved that or not.
And for a second, I wanted to snap. The old me—the one from before lockup—would’ve blacked out. But I ain’t that person no more.
So I took a breath.
Instead of raising my voice or grabbin’ her again, I leaned back in my seat, staring out the windshield.
“Cool,” I muttered. “You get your hit in, you feel better now?”
She was still breathing heavy. Shaking. Tears in her eyes, even if she tried to blink ‘em away.
“I ain’t your enemy, Ghenesis. You hear me?” I said, low and real. “I ain’t tryna hurt you. I’m tryna figure out how to protect someone who clearly don’t even wanna be here.”
She didn’t say nothin’.
But she didn’t try to leave again either.
We sat there in silence. Not angry silence this time—just… tired. Frustrated. Two people who had way too much fire between them and didn’t know where to put it.
After a few minutes, I put the truck back in drive and started down the road again, slower this time.
“You hungry now?” I asked quietly.
She let out a breath—half laugh, half exhausted sigh.
