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Neighborhood Watches

Episode 6

By Majique MiMiPublished about a year ago 4 min read
2

Malik’s eyes widened and his head whipped around as if he were pointing out the more than comfortable lifestyle Samuel “Sticks” Martin provided her. The intentionally exaggerated gesture didn’t skirt over Jasmine’s radar either.

“ I saw that.” Jasmine smirked and pulled from the blunt again.

“Wasn’t tryna hide it, but I…”

“Yeah, I know you wasn’t tryna be rude…”

A loud cackle of laughter escaped Malik’s mouth, “Ha! More like I’m not tryna get murked either.”

Jasmine sucked her teeth and pretty much mumbled under her breath.

“If you was worried about yo life, you wouldn’t have eaten a seafood salad made by a woman you ain’t know and never seen ‘fore now. You could be takin yo last few breaths as we speak.”

Malik chuckled, “Nah that’s one thing Moms always told me as a youngin, to not take errything from errybody and anybody. Shit that’s how she got…well got, actually. One of the popular kids on the block thought it be funny to spike her wine cooler at a house party and then…”

Malik shrugged letting his last statement hang in the air before he shook his head as if he were trying to escape the image of his mother sittin in her own piss on the bathroom floor because she was too high to notice she ain’t make it to the toilet. Then there was the time the school called her because Malik was running a slight fever. Stacey showed up wearing clothes which hung off of her to the point that when she arrived at the front desk her basketball shorts fell to her ankles exposing the red crotch-less panties left over from the evening before.

Malik didn’t realize he was in his own head for far too long until Jasmine questioned the look of sadness on his face. She put her hand on his knee.

“My bad Leek., I ain’t…”

Malik didn’t want to discuss his mother anymore, so he brushed Jasmine’s apology aside.

“Ain’t nothin to be sorry for. Errybody has choices they gotta make. Some of us just gotta do what we gotta do to survive, right? I mean look at chu.”

Jasmine played around with the TV remote some more to see if there was a more suitable show to have as background noise. She smirked at handed the remote to Malik, who shook his head.

“Nah, you good. Watch. The wife is a pain in the ass and she gonna wanna list the house after all the work ‘ol girl put into it. Ain’t shit wrong with that house now, but the husband ain’t got no balls.”

Jasmine let out a loud cackle and continued her laugh, “Chu mean? You ain’t ever heard the sayin, happy wife, happy life?”

Malik blew a puff of air out of his nose as a retort, “You think my block knew anything about happiness? Shit we was just happy our block ain’t have no vacants, fuck outta here. But I guess good ol’ Sam…”

“Don’t call him that,” Jasmine interjected with a little more intensity than usual causing Malik to look at her, raise an eyebrow and smirk.

“No, I’m dead ass unless you want yo boy Dell to pop our muffin tops off. I ain’t never heard nobody, not even Lady Watts call him ,Sam. Fuck outta here, I like my life.”

Malik sucked his teeth, “Well you seem to have it pretty good here…”

“Look Leek, I’ma give ya a piece of advice a lil, ol, ex numbers runner told me once. It quite honestly was one of the best pieces of advice anyone ever gave me. She said Jay-Jay, everything ain’t for errybody and what looks like ain’t always. Fuck what chu think, this my house. Literally. My name is on the deed…”

“Yeah well that’s cuz Sticks can’t…”

“Boy before you even fix yo face to talk some shit about Samuel not being able to own property, just don’t. You youngins barely got outta high school with a passin math grade, but because y’all watched all five seasons of The Wire, y’all think y’all know about assets and what not.”

“You do?” Malik asked sarcastically.

“Listen here nah Leek. I was told at a very young age, I wasn’t gon be shit nor amount to nuthin cuz of the funny uncles sniffin up behind me, but that’s another story fa later. The point is, I put myself through school. Me! I never asked my people to help me with money for nothin cept maybe one summer class. And even then, I paid errybody back. Fuck that. I worked and went to school full time for years…ya heard me …years. So contrary to popular belief, the Barksdales, the St. Patricks, nor the Martins were ever rich. This house…is MINE!

“Again, I ain’t tryin to start no shit here, but when we first got here you said this was Sticks’ house…”

“I hate this house. He can fuckin have it when I go. Shit burn it the fuck down for all I care…”

“Or you could turn it into a halfway house...”

Jasmine chuckled an interjection, “What like it is now?”

“Nah, I mean for real. You could fix up the rooms. There are plenty of common areas for meetings, classes, shit swim lessons.”

“So, you sayin I should hire the Love It or List It crew before I go?

Malik shrugged and chuckled, “It’s an option…”

Young AdultSeriesLovefamily
2

About the Creator

Majique MiMi

You can call me MiMi. I’m a Brain Aneurysm & Stroke Survivor & Former English Professor. I write to stay sane, and to keep gratitude in my Spirit & Praises in my mouth.

Check out my series starting with Hood Ornaments

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