In Due Time

Compton

I'm at the basketball court with my niggas. Dom is mackin' with some girl, Tony is sittin down, reading those messages I stole from Arizona. I still haven't read all of them, too disgusted to.

"I can't believe Stacey would do this shit."

"Yup." I say, throw a three pointer, miss. I'm off my game.

"I wonder how 'ol girl got these messages tho'. Whatchu say she was goin' to school for? Technology?" Tony looks up at me.

"Nah. Art."

"Is she good?"

"Yeah, from what I saw at her studio." I shoot again, miss again.

Dom comes back, smiling. "Got her number. Might hit her up later for a late night booty call."

"Who still says booty call? That's some 90s shit." Tony laughed.

"Then whatchu call it then?" Dom asked.

"A hook up."

Dom looks at me. "Whatchu call it, Cal?"

"Lyin'. Cheatin'. Fuckin' around." I shoot, angrily. Miss.

"Ohhhhkayyy. What's those papers for?" Dom grabs them from Tony. "Oh shit, these the messages?"

I nod. "Got them last night. Went to Arizona's studio."

"You went at night? How late?" Dom asks.

"Like 1. Couldn't sleep."

"1?! That's booty call hour..." he says.

I shoot, miss, get the ball, dribble, shoot, miss.

Tony grabs the ball from me. "Did you hook up with that Arizona chick, Cal?"

"Give me the ball man." I say, trying to pull away. He looks at me, narrows his brows.

"Yooooooo!"

"Give. Me. The. Damn. Ball."

Dom smiles. "Cal, you fucked her? Bruhh, Cal. Calllllllllllllll."

They wouldn't shut the fuck up about it.

"Okay, yes. We fucked. So the fuck what? Damn, hand me the ball!"

They look at each other and smile, both of them throwing out questions.

"Was it good?"

"Was she tight?"

"Did she cum?"

"Did you eat? You ate her didn't you?"

"Did you cum?"

"Hit it from the back?"

"Hit it from the side?"

"She ride you?"

"Cal, you listening?"

I stop them, tell them to both to shut the fuck up and play some basketball. My phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Calvin Kennedy."

I walk away from the court, get a little silence. "Arizona Medulo."

"You wouldn't have happened to see those messages have you?"

"Nah."

"Liar...What did she say when you showed them to her?"

"She ain't really have shit to say. Couldn't deny nothing. All of it was right there in her hands."

"True."

"When's the last time you seen yo man?"

"It's been a minute. Think he's hiding out in Redondo with his cousins."

"That ain't that far."

"Far enough."

Silence.

"Want to talk about last night?" She asks.

"You were hurt. I was hurt. We comforted each other. Cheatin' leads to cheatin' I guess."

"Well said."

"Thanks."

Silence.

I tell her. "One phone call and you changed my whole damn life."

"If it were the other way around, you found them fucking in your girl's dorm, would you have called me?" she asks.

"Maybe...Well, yeah."

"Okay then."

"Damn, you really changed shit up for me."

"Your girl changed shit up for me."

"Nah, your mans did. He was steady tellin' her to come to his room all the time."

"Read the rest of the messages. Your girl made herself available."

"What's your mans excuse?"

"I'm not making excuses for him."

Silence.

"I need those messages back." she says.

"I'm doing something later today, won't be free until late."

"Well just come around the same time you did yesterday."

I take a deep breath. "I'm only coming to drop off these papers, iight?"

"You can't stay for some Jose? Maybe a small conversation?"

"What is there we need to talk about?" I ask.

"We can play it by ear. Just talking. Nothing else."

"Okay." I agree. "I've got work in the morning."

"And I've got to leave for school at twelve."

It's quiet on my end. Quiet on hers. She's still on the line, but I don't know how to end the conversation. She hangs up.

I go back to playing basketball.