𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐓 ꜱᴇᴛᴛʏ ʙ

𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙮 𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙞𝙣,
𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙨 𝙝𝙞𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙗𝙮𝙚 𝙗𝙮𝙚,
𝙄 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙤𝙠𝙚 𝙪𝙥 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜

O.T.R (ONLY THE REY );; WAN BILLZ, SET DA TREND

_______________________

JAIYA POV

BRONX, NYC;;
FRIDAY, 7:00 A.M.

I stare at myself in the mirror.

It's been three months since Kahlil passed.

The last time I looked at myself like this, my eyes had been puffy and empty. Now, they just look normal and this time, I'm even smiling a little.

I guess that's how grief works. Eventually, the sadness goes away and you return to your old self, without even realizing it. But I do know a lot of it has to do with the person I'm on FaceTime with.

Setty called me at three in the morning. At first, his screen had been black. Now it's showing the pile of blankets he was buried under. He also hadn't said much before falling asleep. I figured he probably just smoked too much.

I'm staring at his neck tatt and the little bit of his fro I could see, biting my lip when the bathroom door opens.

"Arion is here to see you." Aunt V pokes her head in, "Now I don't know what he want but hurry up girl before he eat up all the damn food in my house."

"Okay. I'm coming now." I tell her, hiding my giggle behind my hand.

Aunt V shakes her head, tightening her robe before leaving. I end the call with Setty and head into the guest room, grabbing my backpack and camera. After checking myself in the mirror one last time, I leave, heading down the hall into the kitchen.

Aunt V always cooks breakfast, and usually I'm the only one around to eat it because my moms leaves for work early. But now Dougie's at the table eating from both me and Aunt V's plate. He's even drinking Aunt V's coffee. I can't help but laugh cause I know he's high, gotta be to be drinking straight black.

"Lil ma!" Dougie shouts, grinning with pancake syrup all over his mouth. But he's too busy licking his fingers to care. "What's up? Yo, you good?"

"I'm good." I tell him. I get a napkin and wet it, wiping around his mouth. When I get close enough, I can see the purple bruising around his eye making me grip his chin and tilt his head back a little, "What happened?"

"Just throwing the ones on the block. You know how that go. I was just lacking, that's all. But niggas know not to play with me cause I'll still up it." Dougie grins, lifting up his hoodie a little to reveal the gun at his waist. I roll my eyes, pulling the hoodie back down while he laughs.

"Come on. Take me to school." I tell him, pulling him up by his arm. Anything to get him out of Aunt V kitchen. She's standing by the stove with her arms crossed, but I can see the fly swatter in her hand. "Let's go. I don't want to be late."

"Nah, neva that. What kind of brother would I be if I ain't make sure my lil sis don't get her education on time?" Dougie says to me before turning to Aunt V and grinning, "You know Dougie love the kids-"

He barely has time to dodge when Aunt V swats him with the fly swatter, hitting him in the back of the neck. I can't help but laugh at the way Dougie takes off out the kitchen with Aunt V swatting at his legs. I shake my head before following them into the living room and then out the front door where Dougie is twisting his hat around, looking back at Aunt V whose standing in the doorway, holding her fly swatter.

"Nah Aunt V, you buggin!" He calls out to her, sucking his teeth, "She treating me like a fly and shit. That's crazy..."

I wave goodbye to Aunt V, making Dougie shake his head before I follow him to the car. He unlocks it and opens the door for me. I throw my backpack on the floor and hold onto my camera, frowning at all gift bags I see piled high with baby clothes.

"What's with all this baby stuff?" I ask, looking at Dougie.

"Oh that's for my sis." He shrugs, "You can just throw it in the back."

He shuts the door and while I wait for him to get in the driver's side, I dig around in the bag a little, feeling pacifiers and bottles. When Dougie opens the door and gets in, I put in the back seat.

"Your sister is pregnant?" I look over at him but he just shakes his head.

"Nah."

"Then-"

"So how you know Kendrick?" He asks suddenly, "The nigga from the tz that be in ya comments."

The question catches me off guard. I just sit there, biting my lip while Dougie starts the car and pulls off from the curb.

I doubt Dougie was just lurking in my IG comments. I had a strong feeling Setty saw Kendrick's comments too. And it was a matter of time before they did something to him again.

Before, Kendrick had been the one to hurt me first. But now, we have an understanding. And I know I need to be honest about him helping me. But another part of me said that Setty and the rest of the Sev wouldn't care about that at all.

"... he's the one who broke my old camera." I say finally.

"The one Kahlil gave you." Dougie's grip on the wheel gets tight, "Nah, cause my brother really grinded to save up for that. Locked and all, cause he knew that's what you really wanted... and he just broke ya shit and put his hands on you. Shit is gettin me tight just talkin about it."

"But we moved past it..." I mumble, watching as Dougie shakes his head.

"Yeah but now he harassing you." He says, glancing at me, "You know niggas have gotten boomed for less, right?"

"He already got shot." I remind him of what happened to Kendrick a couple weeks ago, "I don't want anyone to die over this. It's not that deep."

"Everything is deep in the streets." Dougie tells me, "You gotta think about it like this. Kendrick from the tz right? And Kahlil rep the Sev. We don't fuck with them YG niggas. Kendrick know that. He also know he wouldn't have done that shit if Kahlil was still alive cause he would've got his teeth knocked out by bro again. But he think that now that my brother gone, he can put his hands on you and nobody gone do nothing, like Kahlil don't got brothers that's always gone have y'all back."

At the end of my freshman year, Kendrick ended up coming to our block to fight Kahlil. He left with two bottom teeth missing and he hadn't tried to talk to me ever since. A couple weeks ago when he broke my camera, that was the first time Kendrick had spoke to me in a while. I guess he had been harboring a lot of resentment, not just for Kahlil but for me too.

"And Setty ya mans now right?" Dougie says,  "He a demon just like Kahlil. If somebody speak on his deads or do some shit to somebody he care about... pray for em."

I look at him and he just puts his hands together in a praying motion while grinning.

"Real shit." He mumbles, "But yo look, Kay having a little get together at his house tonight. He want everybody to pull up. It's not a party or nun, niggas not gone be drinking or smoking, and his moms and Bre Bre gone be there."

"Did something happen?" I ask.

It was rare for there to be a get together where they weren't at least smoking. But Dougie just shakes his head.

"My brother just got signed. But ya already knew that." He says, "Something else going on too but imma let Flocka let y'all know what's up. So imma see you later, aight?"

"Okay. Thanks for the ride." I tell him, "Put some ice on that eye."

"Aight. See you tonight lil sis." He grins at me, making me shake my head.

I grab my backpack before opening the door and stepping out into the school parking lot. I slip my backpack on, waving at Dougie one last time before he pulls off.

I make my way inside the school, ignoring the looks of the people who do stare at me, still giving me pity for what happened to Kahlil and still talking about what happened between me and Kendrick. There's still a few minutes before homeroom so I decide to go to my locker and drop off my camera.

I've just put it inside when I get a text that makes me smile.

SETTY

why you hang up 😤

JAI

you was sleep 

SETYY

nah, i wasn't

what that nigga dougie
picking you up for anyway?

JAI

to check on me and
take me to school

SETTY

i coulda took u to school 🙃

I roll my eyes, about to reply when I get a DM on IG. I open it to see it's a message from Tay linking me to a video from one of those Please Don't Lack accounts. I click on the video seeing Setty, Dougie, Mali, Nas, and Kay tagged in the caption. It was a screen recording of one of Setty's Instagram live last night. I could see him outside with his hoodie on, reading the comments.

"Somebody tag this nigga Kendrick. Tell him we outside." He mumbles, "Tell him to pop out-"

"Smoking on Kenny. Nigga almost died in the park." Dougie pokes his head in the camera, grinning, "He tried to run-"

"Nah, don't run!" Kay shouts, mugging the camera from beside Dougie, "Don't run."

"You on the live and you see we outside. So pop out." Setty says, "Niggas wanna be bold in my girl comments but when we on they block, they not outside."

The camera flips and even with how dark it is outside, it's not hard to see the tall buildings of RPT further down the block. Nas steps into the frame then, grinning with his fists up.

"Like how..." He laughs, "Yo bro, we can knuckle up. Nobody gotta use the knocks, you heard. Just come out."

"Yeah pop out." Setty stresses, flipping the camera back to him, "So we can talk like you did with niggas that day in the park."

The camera stays on his face while he reads comments and continues walking when all of a sudden there's shouting in the background.

"That's him right there-" Somebody says before even more shouting starts.

"Nah that's crazy." I can hear Nas laughing, "He running already."

Setty starts running. But somehow he manages to flip the camera. Him, Kay, Dougie, Nas, and Mali are all closing in on two figures in hoodies. The camera rustles a lot and at one point Setty nearly drops the phone. When it finally does get stable, I can see Kendrick's dreads and then his face, looking panicked.

"Hold this. I'm boutta break em up-" I can hear Setty's voice before he passes his phone to someone else.

The last thing I see is Setty slam Kendrick onto the concrete with Dougie and Kay coming to stomp him while Mali chases down Kendrick's friend running towards the Towers. The live ends shortly after that and I just stand there, staring at my phone, tryna make sense of all of it.

No wonder I hadn't heard anything from Kendrick today. But I was more so upset with Setty and having to find all this out from Please Don't Lack. I need answers, like why they even jumped Kendrick again to begin with.

So I call Setty.

"Jaiya Morant-"

"Why you didn't tell me y'all jumped Kendrick last night?" I ask.

I can hear Setty suck his teeth.

"Why you didn't tell me he was in ya comments harassing you? Why I had to find that out for myself?"

I take a deep breath, rolling my eyes. All this over an Instagram comment. But I also know it's deeper than that.

"Cause it's not that big a deal." I tell Setty, "You see how I ignored him."

"Nah, it is a big deal. Cause why he puttin hearts under ya shit and talkin like y'all cool?" Setty replies and I can already imagine him mugging.

"I don't know..." I mumble, biting my lip and tryna change the subject, "Is that why you was hiding your face on FaceTime? You got a black eye too?"

"Nah, I'm good." He laughs a little, "My knuckles just fucked up from knocking that nigga dreads lose."

I just sigh, biting my lip. Well, at least he was good. I guess the same couldn't be said for Kendrick.

"But you gone help me feel better right?" Setty asks, "You gone take care of me with ya mouth-"

"Bye Setty." I tell him before hanging up.

But I can't help but smile, feeling my face get all warm at the text he sends after.

SETTY

💦💦💦

JAI

🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️

I'm busy texting Setty when I feel someone come up beside me. When I look over, Dior is leaning against the locker next to mine, staring at me. I didn't even know she went to my school. I don't care either. I'm already worried about the shit that went down between Setty and Kendrick.

I'm not in the mood for her or the weird energy she keeps bringing towards me. So I just ignore her, keeping my eyes on my phone.

"So you just gone act like you don't see me standing here?" Dior sucks her teeth, sounding like a child.

I bite my lip to stop from laughing. But I guess it's enough to piss her off because she grabs my locker door and slams it shut, probably scratching the lens on my camera. I yank my locker door back open and it makes a loud bang that makes everyone in the hallway look at us. But I'm too busy putting my hand in Dior face and mushing her to notice or care.

"Don't touch my stuff." I tell her, pushing her head back and making it hit the locker.

I can hear some boys laughing at Dior. So I look back. A crowd is already starting to gather around us.

"You must want me to beat yo ass." Dior says, dropping her bag and pulling her braids back into a ponytail.

"Do whatever you need to do." I roll my eyes at her before turning my attention back to my camera in my locker.

I just barely looked at it when someone else comes getting in my face. It's Kendrick's sister, Kayla. But unlike Dior, she already got her hair pulled back and sneakers on.

"Yo scary ass been hiding but bitch I found you." She says, but when I don't say nothing at first, she mugs me, getting even closer in my space, "Stay tryna play innocent when you had them Sevside niggas jump my brother last night. Mad cause he don't want you bitch, but everybody supposed to feel sorry for you cause of Kahlil's dead ass-"

Hearing Kahlil's name causes something in me to snap. My mind goes blank before I feel all of this anger. From my pops to Kendrick, the things that were said about and done to me and my brother just fill my head. My eyes get watery and my head feels hot from wanting to cry. But also wanting to hurt someone as much as everyone else was hurting me.

"Don't talk about Kahlil." I tell Kayla, feeling my hands shake.

"Or what bitch? What yo weak ass gone do?" She just mugs me, getting even closer to my face.

Behind her, I could see Dior getting closer too. I wonder if this adrenaline I feel is exactly what Kendrick felt last night.

"You gone get stomped out like yo weak ass brother." I could hear Yas' voice before she shows up beside me, mugging Kayla and Dior, "Cause y'all not about to jump my friend-"

Kayla tries to push Yas out the way. But Yas has been fighting since middle school. She just grabs a fistful of Kayla's braids and pulls her down, punching her in the head and dragging her along the hall on her knees while Kayla struggles to get back on her feet.

Dior tries to sneak me but I already see so I just slam the side of her head into the locker. It makes her lose her footing so she grabs my hair to pull me down with her. I grit my teeth at feeling the glue start to rip from my scalp. Dior hits the ground on her back, making her lose the grip on my hair. And I don't waste any time in getting on top of her.

At the moment, she feels like a lot of people — my pops, Kendrick. I can feel the frustration and anger slowly slip away from me each time I punch her in the face. By the time someone pulls me off of her, I feel a calm emptiness. Mr. James lifts me up off of Dior. My knuckles are stinging, a little bit red, and a few of Dior's piercings are stuck in my hand.

Yas is also being pulled away by another teacher, Kayla is picking up her braids and cursing at Yas, and Dior is spitting out blood.

But I can't pay attention to any of that.

All I could see was Mr. James' face and feel the disappointment that came with anger.

_______________________

An hour later, I'm sitting in the guidance office with Yas. We were both waiting to hear back about our suspension. I keep replaying the fight over in my head. Mr. James had cleaned my hands but I could still feel the sting from Dior's piercings on my skin. All this and I still don't know what went on between her and Setty...

"I can't believe I just fought over a boy." I mumble, shaking my head.

"I can't believe I just helped you fight over two." Yas sucks her teeth, "Why you ain't tell me you and Kendrick are cool now?"

I ended up having to tell her everything so she could make sense of why Kayla was so mad at me. I still feel bad about lying to Setty, and I feel even worse about keeping it from my friends. So I just keep my head down and don't say anything. 

Yas just looks at me before she sucks her teeth again.

"Yeah. Get all quiet, Jai. Cause you know you dead wrong." She says, "I love you like a sister and I know you not no hard person but everybody don't deserve forgiveness."

"I just don't want to be angry." I tell her, staring at the bruising on my knuckles.

"What's wrong with being angry?" Yas asks. "Get mad. Break some shit. Punch a jealous hoe in the face and rip all her braids out-"

I can't help but laugh cause I know she's talking about Kayla and Dior. It makes Yas smile too before she gets serious again.

"When something you love was suddenly taken from you, you have every right to be angry." She says, gently grabbing my hands in hers and making me look up at her, "But just know, at the end of the day, that anger is not you, it's because of what happened to you."

"Thanks Yas." I tell her, feeling my chest get all tight with emotion.

Besides Setty, it was the first time someone was telling me it was okay to grieve. Because grief isn't always sadness. Sometimes it's anger, even if it's misguided.

"I love you." Yas says, pulling me into a hug and rubbing my back, "And I wanna see you beat on these bitches more often cause you good at it."

I roll my eyes, laughing a little. When we pull back, Yas is smiling. But I can see the worry beneath it.

"You good?" I ask her.

"Yeah. I'm good." Yas says before she looks away, biting her lip, "You know I'm not scared of a fight or nobody... but I was a little nervous cause I got more than myself to look out for now."

Her words start making me nervous. But I just wait patiently for her to tell me what it is.

"I know you can keep a secret, Jai." Yas turns to face me, looking nervous, "Remember I told you about me and Kay that night-"

"Yeah. I remember." I tell her.

Yas smiles but I can see the tears starting to form in her eyes when she shakes her head.

"Losing my virginity to him... and we just been with each other ever since. But it's not always about sex. Sometimes he call me in the middle of the night and we talk for hours.... I feel like sometimes he tell me shit that he don't even tell Dougie." She tells me before holding up her hand, "And he gave me this ring the other night... whatever this is. Ion know..."

I look at the diamonds in the ring as she twists it around her finger anxiously. Then, she takes a deep breath.

"I guess the reason I'm so anxious and shit is cause I took a test last week and... I'm pregnant."

I immediately pull Yas into a hug. I can feel her laugh against me and when I pull back, she's smiling.

"Why do I feel like you're gonna be another Lorena 2.0?" I ask, laughing too while I think about my own moms.

"Cause Ms. Morant stay with the knock on her and I hope you don't expect me to do anything less." Yas says, making me roll my eyes

"Did you tell Kay yet?" I ask.

Yas shakes her head.

"No but I am tonight." She tells me, looking nervous again, "He's supposed to be having this get together thing. It's probably not the best time but I'm tired of holding it in."

"Well, imma be there tonight and you know you got my support." I tell her, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

"I know and I love you for that." Yas says, squeezing my hand back.

"Yas..." I mumble, turning to her in realization, "You knew that and you still fought with me."

"I'm not about to stand by and let nobody jump my sister." Yas rolls her eyes before grinning, "And I just had to beat a bitch ass one last time."

We both start laughing then, ignoring the look the lady behind the desk gives us. When we stop laughing, things get quiet between us so I start rubbing my thumb over the bruise on my knuckle.

"So, you gone tell Setty about Kendrick?" Yas asks, looking at me.

But I just shake my head.

"I don't think he'll understand."

"He won't." Yas tells me, making me look up at her, "Hell I dont even understand it, so just leave him alone, Jai. You think he forgot about you rejecting him freshman year? You think he forgot about Kahlil beating him up and giving him that concussion? Them shooting at each other cause it went that far, remember?"

I bite my lip.

It is that deep. I don't know why I told Setty otherwise.

"And you want me to believe that same person wants to help you find out who killed Kahlil?" Yas shakes her head.

"People can change, Yas." I tell her quietly, "You know that."

"But not that fast." She says, pausing before looking at me, "And if you want me to be honest, Jai.... What if he did it?"

"You think he hated Kahlil that much?" I ask her.

Yas hesitates. But the look on her face makes my stomach twist.

"You think he didn't?" She frowns at me before standing up to leave when the guidance counselor calls her name.

I watch her disappear into the office. But her words stay behind, suffocating me along with the silence.

_______________________

My moms nor my Aunt V are mad about my suspension.

"You didn't get your ass beat, now did you Jai?" My moms had asked, "Let me know if I need to loan you the Glock."

But Yas had just showed her the video and she had been satisfied. Since I'm not on any kind of punishment, I just spend the extra time near Aunt V's house taking photos and volunteering extra hours at the center. When it's time to leave for Kay's get together, I get a text from Setty saying he won't be able to make it because he's shooting a music video with Cblu.

I decide to go with Yas then, since she was already nervous about what she had to tell Kay. She picks me up close to ten and we spend the entire car ride practicing what she needs to say. But most of the time we just end up laughing. So by the time we get to Kay's, she's nervous all over again.

But when we get there it's nothing but familiar faces. A lot of boys from the Sev and Kay's mom and little sister who open the door for us and give us hugs.

"Nah, they done let Mike Tyson in." Dougie jokes as soon as he sees me.

He's grinning along with Mali and Mhady, who shakes his head, putting his arm around me.

"I can't believe they had baby girl fighting." Mhady says, "She don't even move like that."

"That bitch said something about Kahlil." Yas tells them.

"Oh you better than me." Nas comes up, shaking his head, "Word to my mother, them bitches woulda got flocked at."

We all laugh making Kay mug us from a nearby table, tryna figure out what's so funny. As soon as she notices him, Yas tries to leave and go to the other side of the room. But Kay just grabs her and pulls her onto his lap.

"Nah, I know you not gone walk past like you don't see me sitting here?" He sucks his teeth, poking her in the side, "And I heard ya ass been fighting today. What I tell you about that?"

But Yas just bites her lip.

"I have something to tell you."

Kay is staring at her, and I can see her take a deep breath before looking him in the eye.

"I'm pregnant."

Kay just stares at her for a second longer before he shakes his head.

"Damn, my heart. That's crazy." He says, making Mali, Nas, Dougie, Mhady, and even me shake our heads from where we're watching.

All it takes is a second for Yas to be on her feet, slipping off her croc, and beating Kay with it.

"Damn Yas chill!" Kay jumps to his feet, covering his head to dodge the pink shoe, "I already knew."

Dougie tries to defend Kay and take the croc from Yas, only to flinch back when she tries to hit him next.

"Watchu mean you already knew?" She asks Kay, mugging him.

"Yo bro hurry up and explain before she throw this other croc." Dougie stresses to Kay.

"You left the test out in ya bathroom and I seen it but I ain't say nothing cause wanted to see if you was gone tell me first." Kay tells Yas finally.

"Well... now you know." Yas says, "And?"

"Watchu mean? I been happy since I found out." Kay says, grinning, "I'm boutta be a father. Daddy Flock-"

Everyone in the room starts cheering then. And Dougie, Mali, Mhady, and Nas start hyping him up while Yas just rolls her eyes.

"Nah but for real why you think we having this little party? And we not drinking or smoking, nun of that." Kay says to Yas once the hype has died down.

"And we got a little surprise for you." Dougie adds, pulling the same gift bags I had seen in his car earlier from under the table.

"Yeah I seen that shit was positive and I had to do something so me and Dougz went crazy at the baby store." Kay grins, handing the bags to Yas.

She smiles at this, opening the bags and looking inside only to look up and mug Kay.

"Why is all of this boy stuff?" She asks, pulling out onesies with footballs and basketballs on them.

"Cause that's my mini me." Kay just sucks his teeth.

"What if it's a girl and she's my mini me?" Yas asks, crossing her arms.

"Nah prayers up cause we don't need no more of ya species in the borough-" Dougie says making Kay laugh.

Yas takes off her other croc and throws it at him and he starts running out the party, screaming. I can't help but laugh while watching it all and I can feel Mhady laughing from where his arm is still around me. Yas and Kay's situation wasn't ideal, sure, but I had a feeling everything would work out just fine.

_______________________

After the get together, I ask Mali to let me ride with him to the video shoot. The shoot seems to be over when we get there and everyone is just hanging out in the parking lot behind some apartments. The cameras and stuff were still being packed up too. The first person I see when I get out the car with Mali is Cblu with a small group of people.

"Hol' on this my lil sister." He says to the other people in the group, making me roll my eyes because I'm older than him. "Y'all this Jai. Kahlil sis."

"Hi." I say, trying to smile even though I feel a little shy with everyone watching me.

"I'm Jenn Carter." The girl closest to Cblu grins, showing off her braces as she motions to the two boys behind her, "We 41, you heard. These my brothers, Tata and KR."

"Yo, you really remind me of Kahlil." Tata says, shaking his head, "That's crazy."

I just smile at him and Tata smiles back. But I'm too busy looking at KR, who hadn't said anything the whole time, just stared at me. Now I can see him wrap his arm around Cblu and whisper to him.

"I'm jackin ha."

Louder than he thought he was because Jenn and Tata start laughing.

"Oh you jackin ha?" Cblu grins, whispering back, "That's all you?"

"Where's Setty?" I ask, trying not to roll my eyes.

"Yo, he is smacked. You heard." Jenn says, grinning, "Bro damn near passed out in the v."

I thank her for telling me, say goodbye to them, and then make my way through the parking lot looking for Setty's car. When I see it, I can see the backseat is open and Setty is sitting there, blinking slowly, talking to Mali whose standing beside the car. But as soon as he sees me, Setty's sitting up straight, mugging Mali.

"Why you bring her out here without a coat?" He asks, making me roll my eyes because he doesn't have one on himself.

"She wanted to come straight here." Mali shrugs, laughing a little.

"Nah, you bugging. It's too cold for that shit." Setty sucks his teeth before looking at me, "Come here."

When I get close enough, he grabs my hand, pulling me into the car onto his lap and then he slams the door shut. I can see Mali shake his head before wandering off in the parking lot. I don't waste any time in kissing Setty, first on the lips, then his cheek, and finally his neck.

"I missed you." I say against his neck.

Setty just leans back against the seat, staring at me and smiling a little.

"Jai?"

"Hm?"

"You squishing my mans." He says, laughing.

"Sorry." I tell him when I finally notice the hardness poking me.

I try to scoot back a little but by doing so I accidentally touch it. Setty sucks in a breath before grabbing my hand and lacing our fingers. When I look up, I can see him biting his lip.

I decide to just rest my head against his chest then and listen to his heartbeat. After a while, Setty manages to relax and he slips his hand under my sweatshirt to rub my back. The warmth from his skin starts to make me feel sleepy.

"You don't know how you make me feel." I blurt out, blinking slowly.

"How I be making you feel?" Setty asks.

"Safe..." I mumble, listening to his heart rate pick up, "Happy..."

I don't need to look up to know that Setty's smiling. The entire day starts catching up to me then. I didn't realize how tired I was. I start dozing off when I feel Setty wrap his arms around me and kiss me on my forehead. I'm half asleep, probably dreaming when I finally hear him speak.

"Yo ass prolly sleep... but I be happy when I'm with you too."

_______________________

jai finally stood up for herself. ik y'all might've been waiting for that.

let me know what y'all think of spirit so far

also, happy new years 🎊 wishing y'all nothing but blessings for 2023 fr ❤️