write this verse?
Did he expect me to be girlfriend number
three?
I plugged a set of big headphones in the
laptop, put them on and turned the volume up. I wanted to hear his
verse again, clearly. For some reason his rhymes always put me in a
sexual mood, and this particular song singled me out so I was extra
turned on. I closed my eyes, picturing him next to me.
No one knew, but Coras was the inspiration
behind all of my love ballads. His voice was everything to me.
You're with the wrong nigga, I think you know it
too/ but what you don't realize is the shit I'm going through
My hands crawled inside of
my Spandex and I started fingering myself. Words of my own started
to tumble around in my head, floating together to form
poetry. My moisture is not a
choice, I sang in my
mind. It's drawn out of me by the
sound of your voice.
I loved playing with words while I was
playing with myself.
You have to make up your mind first, boy/ stop
giving them other hoes your time first, boy/ then maybe we could
be/ and I can show you what kind of freak I be
Suddenly, my headphones were snatched from
my head and the cord popped out of the laptop. Coras's lyrics now
filled the entire living room.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Archie
hollered.
I was cold busted. "Nothing," I said in a
childish tone.
"Nothing?"
Archie was a bear when he got mad. Chest
puffed out, fists balled. He only had his boxers on right now—a
pair with green martians stamped all over it that I got him for his
birthday last year—so it was hard for me to find him threatening.
He snatched my laptop and flung it across the room. I heard it
crack. Even though I had all of my important stuff backed up in
cloud storage, I was still pissed.
"It looked like you were fingering yourself
to the sound of Coras's voice," he said, stepping closer to me. "Is
that what you were doing?"
Deny. Deny. Deny.
"No, Archie, I was thinking of you."
He smacked me.
It wasn't a hard smack, but this was the
first time he had put his hands on me so I was stunned. I told him
once before that if he ever hit me I would kill him. I had said it
jokingly, but I wasn't joking.
"You deserved that," he said to me. "This is
my house. A man is generous enough to let you move in his house at
14, and then you lie to that man in his face? Keep it real wit' me.
I already know you wanna fuck that nigga. You think I'm blind? If
you knew what was good for you ... Where are you going?"
I left him standing there talking, went into
the bedroom and grabbed my .380 pistol from under the mattress.
Right when I cocked it back, Archie appeared in the doorway.
"You gon' shoot me?" he asked, like he
thought I wouldn’t do it.
I pointed it at his chest. "I told you what I
was gonna do if you ever put yo hands on me, didn't I?"
"And I told you what I would do if you ever
cheated on me," he countered. "I would beat yo muthafucking ass.
You lucky you only got a smack. I don't care if you got that gun,
or that you shot somebody before. I ain't her. You know better.
Bitch, I raised you—"
I lowered my aim a
bit. Bang!
He took a step back with his right leg,
because I had shot him in his left. He was shocked, and I was
shocked that he didn't fall.
"Kirbie!" He said my name like I was a child
that had just been caught scribbling on the walls. "What the fuck,
Kirbie?"
Blood was running down his hairy leg.
I was thinking about shooting him again until
he took another staggering step back and finally lost his balance.
His left leg stayed straight as he fell.
"Put yo hands on me again
and I will kill you!" I spat. "You hear me, nigga?"
"Kirbie, you don't need a gun. You're fucking
crazy."
"Well don't try me!"
"I'm sorry," he said.
I grabbed my suitcase and heaved it up on the
bed. I packed it full and placed my gun on top and zipped it
up.
"Where you going?" he asked, breathing
hard.
His blood was pooling on the hardwood floor.
I didn't want him to die but I wasn't going to help