CONNECTED

10.

Tae

"Bitch you stay cheating, that's why I don't like playing with you niggas." Marcus barked at our friend, Loc.

"Nigga ain't nobody cheating, you don't know how to play Dominos. You need to stick cards." He told him. "Y'all noticed this nigga always start bitching when he losing his money?"

We all laughed "Hell yeah" I took the one of many blunts from Julio.

Him, Marcus, Loc, our mutual friends Terrance, Ken, and Jerzee, and I were all sitting around the table in Marcus's studio playing Dominos. We had been at it for hours. Of course we were betting money, I wasn't playing if we didn't. Dominos way too easy to play with chump change so we were only putting in twenties and up.

"Mannnn I'm out." Terrance told us as Julio took his last fifty. "Y'all done hustled me enough for the day. I'm just straight smoking from now on."

"Aw don't be a bitch"

"Fuck you Tae, I ain't got no more cash on me anyway." He pat his pockets.

"Go to the ATM" Marcus suggested with a blunt in his mouth.

"Not happening, Latifah beat my ass last time I pulled that shit to bet with y'all." He was talking about his wife, who didn't play no games with him. She was like Nicole mixed with a lil bit of Mila times ten. She was originally from Trinidad so she was real loco in the head.

We clowned him "Wife got you on lock." Jerzee put down a domino.

"Hell yeah she do and I ain't shame to admit it."

Eventually we got tired of playing and started listening to beats Marcus recently created. Them niggas were broke anyway while I was four thousand dollars richer.

"How you know when you ready to be with just one woman?" Loc asked, laying sideways in one of the couches, kicking his legs back and forth. "I mean how you really really know cause some niggas think they know but then don't even end up marrying the bitch."

We always got high as hell and had deep conversations about life and all that comes with it.

"When she the only one you think about and none of these hoes matter anymore; not no fat ass, big titties, cute face, none of that." Terrance answered first.

"I knew I wanted Nicole from a crazy ass experience. I knew before I got shot, but the way she really was there for a nigga proved it for me." I told them. "And one night I was just staring at her while she was sleep-"

"What the fuck G? You stare at her while she sleep? Jerzee questioned, cutting me off.

I looked down at the blunt I was rolling. "Hell yeah"

"That's some real creep shit."

"That's called love, y'all niggas don't know about love!" Julio defended me.

"Nigga apparently you don't either." Jerzee and Loc laughed while the four of us stayed quiet.

"Anyway" I started back talking, trying to help them avoid an argument. "I was staring at her while she slept and that love shit just came over me and I knew I wouldn't want nobody else ever again." I told them honestly as I lit the blunt.

"That shit didn't scare you?" Loc asked me.

I chuckled "What the fuck ima be scared of?"

"Commitment man"

"No, I knew I wanted her from the beginning. I didn't think shit would get this far but I'm glad it did."

"So when y'all niggas getting married? I'm itching to get in a tux and dance the night away." Marcus rubbed on his face like he was just that nigga. "I'm in the wedding right?" He looked at me with a questionable look on his face.