King of Queens (a Nas Story)

SEVENTEEN

Gia | 3:03pm

Stacy and I sat on the swings of the park. Swinging our legs back and forth to give us the momentum we needed to keep the swings we sat on—rocking.

We ate our burgers from McDonald's value menu in silence as the spring breeze brushed against our faces. Our hair covering our eyes with each push and pull from the swing.

"This shit is good, I can't even lie." Stacy mumbled with her mouth full. "Mhm!" I mumbled back to her. I was almost eating the same way that Nasir would.

I wasn't sure if it was the pregnancy or if the sandwich was really good this time around. My eyes studied the little kids playing with one another on the playground.

Screaming at the top of their little lungs, chasing each other around the mulch and blacktop until their chests hurt from catching their breath. One little girl with braids and beads in her hair caught my attention, especially. She reminded me so much of myself when I was about her age.

Their parents, talking amongst themselves on wooden benches while they kept an eye on their little ones. Stacy noticed me staring at them. "You think it's a boy or a girl?" She asked me as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand after trashing her wrapper in the brown paper bag.

I crushed my wrapper after finishing my sandwich and tossed it in the brown bag also. "I'm thinking boy." I said with a slight grin. I looked down at my stomach as I continued swinging with and against the breeze.

"Nas needs a girl to slow his ass down." Stacy said with an honest expression on her face.

"You think having a daughter will do that?" I turned my head towards Stacy's direction.

"Yeah, girl. He'll become the softest nigga in Queens the moment he holds her. He'll do everything in his power to protect you and her. I'm telling you, if it's a girl, his entire life will change as he knows it." Stacy said with a smile as she gripped the chains that held the swing on its metal post.

"I guess we'll see when it's time to find out. I'm still sticking with boy." I shrugged my shoulders as I kicked my sandals into the mulch to swing higher.

"Stacy? Giana?"

A familiar voice that I was avoiding for almost a year had came to me through the sounds of wind and children's screaming.

I kicked my feet out the stop myself from swinging. There she stood in front of his with her stroller and a diaper bag on her shoulder. Tionne.

She looks a lot different from the last time I saw her. She was model fit and petite. A brown girl with short hair up to her shoulders and a strange brown hue for eyes. She had put on weight since the birth of her son and her hair was past her shoulders now.

She was still Tionne, just a mother now. Something I was about to become in a few months time. I stared at her as her son made noises under the net covering of the stroller she pushed him in.

"What's up?" Stacy said nonchalantly.

"It's been a minute, hasn't it?" Tionne said with embarrassment in her voice. I continued to stare at her without much to say.

"How you been, Giana?" Tionne rocked her stroller back and forth to control her son's noise level.

"I'm aight." I said blankly. I crossed my arms under my breasts as I continued to stare at her.

"That's what's up." She said without looking at me. I could tell that this was going to become more awkward the longer she stood in front of Stacy and I.