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his thick lips graze over mine, and just like that I was putty in his hands.
    “What is it, Bird?” My voice was filled with lust, and I knew he didn’t miss it.
    “You serious with that nigga Brick?”
    My eyes flew open, and I stared at him for a moment. I wanted to tell him that I was so that he would leave me alone, but Bird always knew when I was lying, so I decided to keep it one hundred with him. “No. We’re just chilling.”
    “He know about me?” His fingers had long left my face, and were now playing with the rim of the cotton shorts I had on.
    “No.”
    “Good.”
    I furrowed my brows in confusion. I didn’t exactly know where he was going with his line of questioning. Before I could ask why he was so interested in Brick, he filled me in.
    “I got a play togetha, but I need you on board, ma.”
    “Hell nah Bird!” I said, pushing his hands away from me. I should have known that he was only calling me to use me.
    I had met him when I was 16. My parents had kicked me out with nothing, so I did what I had to do. Pussy was the only thing I had to offer, so I swallowed my pride and started turning tricks. Only two months into my new profession, I met Bird and he swept me off my feet. He wasn’t a rich nigga, but he was stable and stability was something that I needed desperately. Though we weren’t in a relationship, we fucked with each other heavy. Shit, we fucked so much I wasn’t even surprised when I found out I was knocked up four months later. After I found out about my pregnancy, I promised myself that there was no way I was going back to that shit.
    “I told you I was done with that shit! The fuck you on?” I yelled.
    He stood to his feet and ran his hand across his face. Clearly, he was frustrated. I took a step back. I had been dealing with Bird long enough to know that when he couldn’t get his way, he usually retorted to kid-like tantrums that often resulted in us fist fighting.
    “What’s the fuckin problem, Nee? You just said you wasn’t serious about that fuck nigga! You out here tryin to play wifey with his ass, but I’m trying to get this paper so we can get Justin back, or did you forget you had a fuckin son?”
    Just like that, the wheels were turning in my head. Justin was our son. When I had him, me and Bird settled down and tried to live life as normal as possible. Bird’s mother had passed a month before, leaving him sixty thousand from her life insurance, so there was no need for me to be out here tricking and bullshitting around. Bird had become depressed about losing his mother, so we mostly sat inside and did nothing until one day he decided we should get out. We didn’t have a sitter and it was late, so I knew I should have said no, but it had been so long since we had done anything together that I agreed.
    Justin had just turned five months and couldn’t crawl or anything, so neither of us felt guilty about leaving him alone. What could a six month old possibly get into? I made a bottle for him and placed it right next to him, just in case he woke up before we returned. He was a good baby, so a bottle would put him right back out. After I made sure he was ok, we left the small apartment we shared in search of a good time.
    No matter how many times I’d asked, Bird wouldn’t tell me where we were going. After riding for fifteen minutes, I knew that we had to have been leaving Benton Harbor. I wanted to protest, but when he passed me the fat blunt he had rolled while driving, all of my worries seemed to fly out of the window. Before I knew it, we were in Kalamazoo at some college party. I was so high off the blunt we had smoked that I couldn’t even tell you the name of the school, but what I did know was that them muthafuckas partied hard!
    We went in, danced a little bit, and then I ended up running into of my homegirls. Bird said he was going to get us some drinks and dismissed himself. He never liked being around too many females, and swore up and down that