90s Love

Chapter 45

The first time we all managed to get together and have a real family dinner since Calvin left for college was the week of Thanksgiving. He was on break, and Kelly and Shad made the effort to come by. I just happened to be the last one in the house after coming home from a work shift.

"Damn girl, do you work every day?" Shad asked with a smile, spotting him as I took off my coat.

"Why shouldn't I?" I joked, going over and hugging him softly.

"We cooked without you!" Kelly's voice called out to me.

"Good," I replied with a chuckle, walking into the kitchen, giving her a hug.

"How was work?" Ma asked.

"Good. The same ole thing." I waved off.

"Hungry?"

"Yeah." I smiled.

"Give us 5 minutes."

"Alright." I went to the living room, plopping down in between Calvin and Rashad. "Miss me?" I teased, looking to Calvin.

"Nope." He smiled, pushing my head.

"I ain't miss you either," I admitted, pushing his head back.

The two of us continued our long-overdue back and forth bickering at the dinner table.

"Why'd you sit next to me?" Calvin snapped, smacking my hand away from his plate. "Why?"

"You're not gonna eat it!"

"I just said I was gonna have it!"

I just squinted my eyes at him, unconvinced.

"How're things going with the whole Markell thing?" Kelly brought up, making me look to her and stop purposely trying to get under Calvin's skin.

"I don't know," I replied. "They still don't know who did it, and the police are just making stupid arrests."

"Janae." Dad scolded.

"It's not like every single weed seller in the city has something to do with Markell's death. That's all I'm tryna say." I defended, turning to him. "He wasn't even that kind of kid."

"Do we even know that for sure?" Calvin questioned. "No ones cooperating with police, and they'll probably start tearing down his rep soon if the real killer doesn't come out. He doesn't deserve that."  

"A lot of people don't deserve what they get. That's the sad part of it all." Kelly concluded and I just took a sip of my ice tea, remembering the type of information I was sitting on.

"How's Quincy?" Rashad asked me a while later.

"Good," I responded. "We're doing good."

"He treating you right?"

"Yes." I managed to smile. "I'm not gonna bring him around anymore if you're just tryna give him a hard time."

"I'm making sure everything's all good." He smiled back and me making me shake my head with a laugh.

It almost felt like it actually was.

🖤

I'd been keeping at extra eye on Kay, just for her safety. I didn't want to make it obvious there was an issue, so we just justified it as spending more time together. But the weird thing was, for a nigga that was known to run the streets, Nico was nowhere to be found actually in them.

Kaylen found herself hanging around the grocery store while I worked until closing. The two of us walked out of the store after my shift ended, and chatted about school things as we walked to my car.

"So you don't think I should retake my SATs?" She questioned.

"No. You got a perfectly fine score the first time. Why would you go again?"

"To get a better one." She smiled, and I just shook my head, fishing out my keys from my pocket.

"Renzo, what are you doing here?" Kay's voice spoke, making me instantly look up alarmed, seeing Lorenzo approaching us.

"Did you snitch?" He demanded, looking straight at Kay.

"What? No!" Kaylen instantly shook her head.

He nodded towards me. "Does she know?"

"Yes." She admitted in a whisper. "But she's the only one I told!"

"I told you to keep it quiet Kaylen!" He snapped.

"Yo, chill out, I'm not gonna say shit. I've been through this shit with Nico before." I said, stepping in between the two of them. "Relax."

"The cops are cracking down and they're onto him," Lorenzo informed us. "And if they get to him, he's coming for you." He pointed at Kaylen. "So, play this right." He then walked away, leaving us to digest his words.

"And you liked that nigga?" I questioned, pulling a face as I looked to her.

"Don't even ask me." She mumbled, and I just went to my car unlocking the door and getting inside, Kaylen hopping in the passengers.

"What do I do, Nae?" She wondered as I started driving. "This is completely out of my hands right now."

"Well, you didn't tell anybody, and you're not gonna tell anybody." I shrugged simply. "Right?" I raised an eyebrow as I glanced at her.

"Right. Of course." She agreed.

"In the meantime, we stay together and if the shit starts getting serious, we tell."

"Wait, what?!" Kaylen exclaimed, nearly snapping her neck to stare at me like I lost my mind.

"The girls and Q." I clarified. "They can help. And I learned my lesson from last time. We gotta have people on our side for this one."

"Nae, this isn't about you. This is about me. I'm the one who saw what I saw."

"And you're also the one who told one of Nico's little associates that you told me what you saw."

"Shit."

"Uh-huh." I agreed, focusing on the road ahead of me.

Here I go again being in the middle of somebody else's shit.