Artist Sincere DuBois
January 1st, 2020
She looked up at me with a small smile and flashed her nails in my face. "You like?"
I nodded, taking a picture of her, holding them up while she looked off to the side. The techs in the salon looked at us, before laughing.
"Cute couple, yeah?" One of them asked as she walked past.
"You guys get married soon." Another one—the one that had just finished up her nails—joked.
Me and Evre both laughed them off, and I helped her up from her seat. "Wash hands." The lady said, pointing at Evre, and then pointing at the sink that was on the other side of the shop.
She walked across the shop to the sink, while I stood and waited for her by the podium. "How much?" I asked the lady.
"For you guys..." she paused.
Here she go with the bullshit.
"$35."
"How much?" Evre asked, walking back over and digging into her clutch. She stepped up closer to the podium and I mushed her head backwards. "Aye!"
"Watch out."
"Boy move!" She fumed, standing in front of me, and I wrapped my arms around her.
"Imma fuck you up if you pull out cho wallet, bruh. Come on, and let me pay." This was my last fucking time asking her to let me pay for shit. After this, she could be on her "I'on need a nigga money for shit" tip all she fuckin' wanted to.
She shrugged. "Ight, it's $35."
"I heard her." I made a face, handing the lady the exact change.
The lady laughed, pointing between the two of us. "You together... so cute." She complimented.
Evre smiled, and I did as well. "Thank you." I nodded, then pushed Evre by the small of her back out of the shop.
"Why you got a attitude?" I asked, kissing her temple as we walked over to my car. She didn't answer at first, seeming like she was in deep thought. "You good?" I asked her.
"Yeah," her head nodded and her eyebrows furrowed. "I'm good."
"Ight."
"Can I drive?" She asked with a smile when we got to the car.
"You know how?" She nodded. "Ight." I tossed the keys to her and we switched sides, and climbed in.
She can't fuckin drive. I thought when I watched her pull the seat all the way up to see over the dashboard. Yeah, she was short as hell, but she ain't need to be that close to the window.
"You good?" I asked her.
She looked over at me, looking pretty as fuck as she gave a wide smile.
She can't drive for shit.
"Yeah, I just do it like that cause I'm short." She lied.
I sighed, putting my seatbelt on.
Lord, please don't let her fuck around and kill us.
"You need the address again?" I asked as she bravely pulled into traffic without looking over her shoulders or in her mirrors.
She gave me a look, swerving some before she turned back to the road. "Nigga, we in my hood." She clarified. "I know how to do this." She assured, getting back into the lane she was just in.
Since she was still on break, and I was too, we made plans to head up to Oakland to spend some time with her momma's side of the family. She didn't plan on bringing me, until she was FaceTiming with her momma about a week ago, and she insisted that I come tag along on Evre's trip.
So, here we were.
"Evre..." I paused, gripping the seat. "You sure you know how to drive?"
She smacked her lips. "Nigga, yeah. Err'body not as reckless as you." She laughed. "I actually studied the book."
Again, I sighed, pulling on my seatbelt.
"That's me or you?" She asked as our phones started ringing, and she stopped at a red light to dig into her back pocket.
"Both." I nodded, pulling my phone from my pocket and answering the Group FaceTime call from Amour.
"Aye, y'all." Me and Evre nodded at the same time, looking at everybody join the FaceTime call.
"Happy New Years, y'all!" Amour squealed, smiling extra hard into the camera.
Heir nodded. "Wassup fo' head." He greeted.
Evre smacked her lips, stomping on the gas once the light turned green. "Nigga, you did not just call that lil girl fo' head."
"And so wha-"
"In my city, where I live you betta bang 'dat! Two fo's gleekos, and them face tats!"
"Hassan, shut the fuck up."
"Don't tell me that. Mm!"
"Mm! Try me again and imma knock ya fuckin' nose off."
"Heir, stop talkin' to him like that!" Evre stressed.
Evre always had a soft spot for kids. She hated to hear them cry or sound sad in general. You couldn't mistreat a kid with Evre around, cause that was either an automatic argument or fight, depending on who you was.
"Evre, you shut up too. What y'all want?" Heir asked.
"Nigga, don't tell me to shut up-"
"Please don't." Dre muttered, making Amour laugh.
"Anyway," Evre shook her head, making a wide ass turn. "Bitch, you saw me turnin'! Fix that cheap ass frontal fore you try to teach somebody how to drive!" She honked the horn again as the girl pulled up in the side of her and they started arguing again. "I shouldn't be able to see yo fuckin' lace through the rear view bitch!"
I held onto my seatbelt a little tighter, and motioned for her to put the phones on mute. "Aye, maybe you should pull over and let me drive." I suggested.
She waved me off. "Nah, I got it."
"No, you don't."
"Artist." She looked my way. "I said I got it. Chill." She put the phones off mute.
"Sis, who the fuck let chu drive?" Amour tittered.
"My momma. I'm drivin' to go get my lil sister from her friend's house." Evre lied easily. I mean, we was going to go and get her lil sister, but her momma ain't know she was driving. "What y'all call for?" She asked.
It was quiet for a minute, before Lauren started screaming at the top of her damn lungs. "WE FINNA HAVE A BABY!" She announced.
"What?" Evre's eyes got big and she swerved the car for the second time.
Jesus, please.
This time, she finally did pull over and I let out a sigh of relief and began praying.
"Y'all finna have a baby!" She squealed.
Lauren made a face. "Bitch, not me. We talkin' bout Ms. Pregnancy Scare." She referred to Amour.
"Bruh," Evre stomped her feet excitedly, cheesing hard as hell.
"How y'all feelin'?" Heir asked, and propped the camera up so we was looking at him with his New Years' plate.
"Shit," Dre shook his head as me and Evre got out, switching sides. I wasn't letting her drive my shit no more, especially without no fuckin license. "Just gotta make the most of it. We prolly gone struggle for a minute-"
"Not if we could help." Lauren assured. "This all our baby, fuck you talmbout?"
"On God," Evre nodded, pointing me in the direction of where her little sister's friend's house was. "We'll find a way to make it work. We in this shit together. We bonded fa' life now." She shrugged.
"And that's on period." Lauren co-signed.
"That mean a lot, y'all." Andre nodded. "We just found out a couple weeks ago, we got her first appointment sometime next week. We'll keep y'all posted."
They shared a couple more words, and the call ended, just as I pulled up in front of Evre's little sister's friend's house. "Stay here, imma go in and get her." She said, clicking off her seatbelt.
I looked around, confused as I hooked up my aux cord. "Where else imma go, E?"
"You know what, I'm really gettin' tied of you and yo' smart ass mouth." She said, then got out and slammed the door and walked away from the car.
A couple minutes later she came back with a little girl, with a pretty chocolate complexion, and a wide smile as she talked, but I couldn't tell what she was saying.
"Bye, Carlie!" The little girl yelled with a wave as she held onto Evre's hand, and they both walked over to the car. "Hi!" She waved with a smile when she saw me in the car.
"Aye." I nodded with a smile as Evre helped her into the back.
"I'm Dior." She reached forward and shook my hand, smiling wide. "What's your name?"
"I'm Artist." I told her, pulling out the parking space.
"Oh, ok." She nodded, pulling her seatbelt on. "I like that name. Why did your momma name you that?" She asked.
"Uh, my pops did." I shrugged. "Cause he liked to paint."
"I like to paint too." She nodded.
"That's wassup. You got a studio?"
She poked her bottom lip out in confusion, then shook her head. "Nope. But I got a bunch of art supplies. When you drop me and my sister off I could show you." She offered.
I nodded again when my phone went off.
Lil Ass Girl.🤍
She friendly asf🙄😭my bad
"Oh really? Yeah, I wanna see." I replied, ignoring Evre's texts and hopping on the freeway.
• • • • •
Dior Nicole Ross
Age 5