Kentrell
July 23
"I'm surprised ol boy ain show up to that funeral today" Kd laughed while we stood around outside.
Me and Noel ain really talk all day cause I guess she felt like I was blaming her for Ty comin over but I still stayed by her side throughout the funeral
"No what surprised me is seeing Dana cry for the first time. I only knew her ass being mean and talkin shit so when I saw her break down, shit got real" Kd told us and I nodded, agreeing with him
"And the crazy thing is Elena and Noel ain even she's a tear yet"
"Elena Keep tryina keep herself busy with this baby and them stores" Kd sighed "I told her she needa chill and actually grieve but she won't listen"
"And Noel stubborn as hell. She gone hold everything in till somebody force all her emotions outta her"
"Kentrell" I heard my name being called which made me turn around and see ma standing in the door. I leaned off of the car and went into the house, following her into the kitchen where Kemoni was eating candy with Derek. She was changed outta her dress and now wearing a big T-shirt
"Wassup?" I asked ma while we sat at the table too and she crossed her arms while looking at me
"You good today? Cause last night you went to bed pissed"
I nodded and she laughed a little leaned forward on the table "listen. I know you were upset about whatever happened with Ty last night but what you gotta do is ignore him. Ty likes attention and negativity which is why I never wanted him around Noel when they were younger but apparently they had a whole relationship behind my back"
"You ain knew?"
She shook her head and Derek laughed
"That's not funny" she frowned and punched his arm causing Kemoni to frown
"No Gg!"
Ma rolled her eyes at Kemoni and looked at me again
"Anyways, the same thing with him is the same I felt about this boy she used to date named Trey. They're too busy tryina be thugs like that's cool. And Ty only did that to get under your skin. None of these boys genuinely cared for my baby the way you do and now that they see she's happy, they wanna do everything they can to ruin it"
"They can't ruin shit" I muttered
"And they won't! As long as y'all don't let them. You and Noel been together for about 4 years now, married with two beautiful kids. Of course people are gonna try to bother that but y'all just gone have to learn to ignore the haters" she bluntly told me
"and Noel was upset this morning before the funeral. She ain't wanted me to tell you but I do what I want. We both know she's stubborn and she's holding in a lot right now so that whole issue last night ain't do nothing must make it worse, all because he don't wanna see her happy"
"Lemme go check on her"
"Please" ma asked with a pleading face and I stood up causing Kemoni to look at me
"Daddy, I wantchu" she reached her arms out and ma made a face
"Wait. Daddy bout to go do somethin"
"Come on. Let's go find Kaleb" Derek told Kemoni while he stood up and she held her arms out for him to pick her up. He did just that and I laughed before walking out of the kitchen and went upstairs to the room. I pushed the room door open and closed it behind me seeing Noel sitting on the bed putting Nasir on another onesie. She looked up at me and then back down at him
"You ight?" I asked her and she nodded
"I'm fine"
"Noel..."
"What?" She muttered while laying Nasir in the middle of the bed since he was asleep
"Look at me"
"For what?"
I walked up to her and grabbed her face, forcing her to look at me and she huffed
"Kentrell I'm good. Y'all tryina make me seem like I'm depressed or some"
"Ain nobody tryina make you seem depressed. We tryina make sure you straight cause you always hold shit in until you break down"
"Well let me. I ain bothering nobody"
"You bothering me"
"Fuck you" she muttered and snatched her face from my grip. I kissed my teeth and looked at her before picking nasir up
"The hell are you doing? He sleeping peacefully"
I just ignored her and walked out of the room, taking Nasir downstairs. Ma was now in the living room so I handed her Nasir
"What's wrong?"
"Nothin" I responded before jogging back upstairs. I went back into the room and closed then locked the door behind me
"What Kentrell" Noel groaned and I snatched her up off of the bed, grabbing her by her shirt she was wearing
"You bout to piss me the fuck off. Right now ain the time for you to be shuttin people out and you damn sho got me fucked up if you think ima let you act like that towards me"
Noel stayed quiet for a minute, looking me straight in the eyes and soon hers watered up before a tear fell
"I hate you so much"
I let go of her shirt and she hugged me tight, crying
"You'll be ight" I responded while I rubbed her back
Tip
While Elena was home in Arizona, she had me fly out from LA to check in on the Baton Rouge store to make sure it was ready for the grand opening for when she comes back
"Why are all of these on the same rack? That looks tacky?" I asked one of the girls Elena hired, Simone. She rolled her eyes
"I think it looks fine"
"Okay then. Let Elena come back and see that"
"Okay" she rudely responded and I laughed to myself, having enough with this girl since I got here
My phone started to ring in my hand so I looked down and saw Elena FaceTiming me so I quickly answered and before I knew it she popped up on the screen eating a chocolate bar
"Hey preggo. How you feelin?"
"I'm hungry. And Kd keep givin me these stupid ass chocolate bars instead of cooking!" She fussed past the camera. I could hear Kd mutter something and she threw the chocolate bar at him before looking at the phone again "how's everything looking?"
I turned the camera around rotated in a circle so she could see
"Hold up. Go back to where Simone at" she instructed so I did so and walked closer to where she was still doing what I told her looked tacky
"What is that?"
"I'm just getting started. I was thinking-" Simone tried to explain but Elena cut her off
"What I'm thinking is I need for all of that shit to come down. That look tacky as hell"
Instead of responding rudely to Elena, Simone just nodded and did as Elena said so I turned the camera back on me and laughed while walking away
"I tried to tell her but apparently I don't know what I'm talkin bout"
"Tip, baby you ain in LA right now. People out there a whole different breed"
"Titi come on" I could hear little kemoni's voice call out in the background causing Elena to smile
"Tip ima call you back later. Oh and one of my brothers, Ben, he's supposed to be bringing you something to eat cause I need you there to make sure them girls don't fuck up my store"
"Okay" I laughed and she hung up. Just as I was about to sit my phone down somebody walked into the store with food and I recognized him from the grand opening
"You must be the brother Elena was talking about just now"
"She was supposed to call yo ass an hour ago. She just called you?" He asked while shaking his head and I laughed while he handed me the food
"Thank you"
"No problem. Say, ain't you Elena lil do-girl that was at her grand opening"
"Im basically her assistant. But I manage her stores. And yes. That's me. The names Tip by the way"
"Ight then.. TIP. Way yo nigga at? The one you was with at out in LA?"
"Things are complicated right now"
"So y'all ain TOGETHER together. That's what I'm hearin?"
I laughed again and crossed my arms
"I could've sworn you gotta whole girlfriend"
"We ain together nomo. Now I'm just lookin for a good time cause relationships ain for me"
"So in other words, you'd rather be a hoe?"
Ben nodded and I shook my head
"Wow"
"Ain shit wrong with it. Gotta life yo best life while you young"
"Usually when people say that they mean traveling, going to parties and concerts... you know... fun stuff"
"I got some fun stuff I can show you while you out here" Ben told me while making a face and I pushed him away making us both laugh
"I'm good off that"
"Nah forreal. Hit me up after you get done here. Let me show you around while you out here" Ben smoothly grabbed my hand and I looked at him for a minute before giving in because in all honesty. He's really cute
"Fine"
Ben smiled and reached out his phone to me. I put my number inside and handed it back to him then made a face while he smirked
"It better be actual fun and not that stuff you on"
"Oh it will" he responded while heading out of the store. I watched him as he left and then went back to helping finish setting up
——————
"No lie, I really had fun tonight" I told ben as we walked up to my hotel room
"I know what I'm doin. I ain that bad"
"I guess not" I replied and he laughed as we continued to slowly walk down the long hallway of the hotel. I looked over at Ben and before I could say something, he spoke over me
"How long you out here?"
"I leave tomorrow night because I gotta handle some stuff at the other store but I'll be back out here again for the grand opening"
"Damn. Lena just flyin yo ass all over ain it. Ass don't know how to act now that she got a lil money. How the store goin out they?"
"It's going great. I think since around April or May, its become a celebrity hotspot. I told Elena the way the numbers looking in LA and adding another store, she might end up being a millionaire within the next year or so"
"That's wassup. I'm proud of my sister"
"I'm proud of her too. I told her she was gonna do great"
Soon we approached my room and I reached into my wallet, pulling out the key
"Thank you for showing me around"
"No problem. But just to let you know next time we gone have my kinda fun" he informed me and I laughed
"Who said there was gone be a next time?"
"Me" he boldly responded and I scoffed
"Oh so you real bold?"
"You ain see bold yet. Trust me"
"Yet?" I asked, raising my eyebrow and before I could say anything else Ben grabbed me by the waist, pulled me into him and kissed me. Taken by surprised, I eventually kissed him back before feeling my room key being snatched out of my hand while he pulled away from the kiss
"I hope Lena don't mind what I'm bout to do" I could hear him say while using the key to open the door and I laughed while he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the room