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“Meek.”

“Yeah.”

“You still mad?”

“’Bout what?”

Kyenna looked down at the pavement. The shame was eating her ass up, and I was trying to move on like the shit never happened.

“Last night,” she said.

“I ain’t mad, Kyenna.”

“If you are, you have every right to be. I embarrassed myself.”

“Ky-”

“I did, but it was just hurt and alcohol. I crossed a line, Meek.”

“It’s not that serious.”

“I needed to say it, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” she said.

She climbed in her car before I could say another word. I watched her pull off first. Since we were headed in the same destination, I followed behind her. As she turned into her gate, I kept driving to my parents’ house.

“Hey, son,” my mama greeted me when I walked in.

“What you about to do?”

“Getting ready to go and meet up with a few of the girls.”

“Have fun.”

“Hey.” She stopped me. “How did it go last night with Kyenna? Were you able to get through to her?”

I swallowed hard and thought about my words careful as fuck. My mama wasn’t a damn fool.

“Yeah, I got in. She was having a hard time, but she’s fine now.”

“Okay,” she dragged. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Because as the middle child, you never had a problem with your words.”

“What?” I laughed.

“Nothing, son.” She waved me off and walked out.

Pops was rolling a blunt when I walked into his office.

“What you got goin’ on?”

“I just left one of Rah’s storage units.”

“Fuck you doin’ over there?”

“Kyenna found it broken into. They tossed that bitch.”