First Degree

6. You Win, You Lose

Bilal in multimedia

Alonzo Marshall

My hand brushed over the top of Cameron's curls as he stood next to me. I watched Gianna as she grabbed her purse and a birthday present from all of us out of the car and took a deep breath.

"Bae, you took Cameron to get his haircut?" I questioned feeling an ounce of annoyance as Gianna shut my car door and handed me the birthday present.

"No, his father took him yesterday. I think his hair looks cute like that, I'm gonna start taking him there to get it cut all the time" Gianna said as she dug through her purse and I rolled my eyes.

"So I guess you don't need me to take him anymore huh?" I questioned as we all walked up the park where the birthday party for my right hand Zane's daughter was being held. Cameron spotted the jungle gym and took off running leaving his mother and I alone.

"Do you just like to find stuff to be upset about or what? I haven't seen you in a week, I'm sure there will be times when he goes with you to get his haircut, but his father wanted to take him to his personal barber" Gianna responded growing annoyed.

I watched her place a stick of gum in her mouth and chew as Zane's baby mama April walked up to us and gave her a hug.

"Hey G, how are you?" She questioned as the two of them walked off towards where some of the other women were. I folded my arms and walked over to Zane who was looking over the grill with beads of sweat dripping down his face.

"Can't believe your lil one is three already" I said sitting the gift on the table. Zane looked up at me and smiled before looking back down.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you ain't got no kids by now. Cam is cool but he's not yours" Zane pointed out but I shrugged it off.

"I've been in his life for awhile now, took him to his first day of kindergarten, taught him how to tie his shoes. For awhile I started to forget he wasn't" I mumbled as Zane flipped a burger.

"I feel you. But on some real shit just enjoy not having any kids to look after, these lil bastards get annoying after awhile and you wish you hadn't bust a nut in a bitch you won't even want in the future" Zane said with a shiver causing me to bust it laughing.

He and his baby mama were cordial but I'll never forget the tears in his eyes when he found out he'd gotten her pregnant. He'd even offered her money for an abortion but once she declined he decided to man up and was actually a decent father.

Zane started to whistle as his eyes landed on something and the corner of his lips curled up into a smile. I followed his gaze before I noticed he was eying Gianna's cousin Trinity who showed up to the party with a scowl on her face.

"You must like pissing your baby mama off. I don't see what you see in her anyway, she's a headache" I pointed out but Zane wasn't even trying to hear me.

April who abruptly stopped talking to Gianna placed her hand on her hip and started to walk over to us. I reached down and grabbed a soda from out of the cooler before making my way over to Gianna to watch the drama from afar.

April was known to try and throw me under the bus whenever she was mad at Zane and I was around. I didn't need her exposing my hoe tendencies while I was still trying to make shit right with G.