GRIT (The Silver Nitrate Series Book 2) (24 page)

“Shit… seriously, man? What the hell happened then?”

“Hmmm.” Zenith reached for the crumpled wrapper of a straw and folded it over and over again. “Well, I’d have to leave Paw… and Silver. Something inside of me had been telling me that Paw didn’t have much longer. I couldn’t explain it, you know? It was jus’ a gut feeling. And Silver has a major opportunity right now, I mean big time.”

“Word? Like what?”

“She designs video games, man; fixes them too, like I told you. No silly shit, the real deal, like Resident Evil. But check this out, she is in the big leagues… She’s designing a mainstream game!”

“Damn!”

“Yeah, man…this woman is the wrong one to fuck with. I tried to play some shit with her a while back and she beat the damn dust off my ass. I said fuck this shit! Never again. My pride can’t take it.”

Javier burst out laughing and popped the table with a hearty slap.

“Awwww man! Why am I just now hearing about this?! I could see her doing that, too… She ain’t no joke! That’s what’s up, man… cool, cool…”

“Yeah, so, I wasn’t trying to screw that up for her because honestly, we love each other so much that if one of us had to move, the other one would come. We haven’t discussed it; we just know. So, running around with Pop Evil all over Europe ’nd shit wasn’t going to cut it. I need to stay local until my baby gets herself established at least, and Paw… Well, until Paw no longer needs me.” He hung his head.

“Zenith… Man, look at me.”

He slowly raised his head and stared into Javier’s eyes.

“I love you, man. What you just said to me,” he said, his eyes misting over, “is exactly why my heart,”—he patted his chest—“beats for you, man. I
did
think you were lying to me, holding secrets, but I was jealous of you. Still, I felt happy for you, too, if that makes any sense. But the jealousy in me, and the feeling of having been double-crossed, outweighed all of that. Plus, I was afraid I’d lose my best friend. You know I don’t trust these mothafuckas, man.” Javier grimaced.

“These cats out here are full of shit,’ he continued. “You was my one true homie, man. No matter what, you and I always stuck together and could trust one another. We’d been through so much together… so much. When my mother died, you were there. When my ex-girlfriend got sick and I was falling apart, you were there. When I had my car accident, you were there, man… always there. Couldn’t pay my rent? Who would help me out? Zenith Taylor. The late nights, the arguments about music and our venues—we survived it all. We made it through high school, the women…”

“Yeah, the women!” Zenith laughed. “Damn, the stories we could tell.” He shook his head.

“Yeah, speaking of which, I ran into a real live crazy one, man.” He giggled as he grabbed his water and took another sip.

“When?”

“While you and I weren’t talking. You know you would’ve heard about this.”

Zenith nodded. “So what happened?”

“Maaaaan! I met this chick, right? Her name is Nadia. Zenith, when I tell you the woman was fly, she was fly, with a capital F. About my height, dark brown skin, Haitian chick. She got this long ass hair, lips, titties and ass like whoa!”

Zenith laughed at his enthusiasm.

“You know how we get down! I saw her after a show and did what we do, right?”

“Right.”

“So, I get her home, we fuck… pussy and head game was off the damn chain. We start conversing every few days or so. She’s sending me cute little text messages, and I find myself sending shit back, right? Well, I didn’t think she was my woman or anything like that, just a real cool chick who I wouldn’t have minded hanging out with again, get some drinks every now and again, and just Netflix and chillin’ with, right?”

“Right.”

“So, like, we were performing one night at uh, shit, oh yeah, Promises. We were performing at Promises and I see another lady. So, on our break, I approach this other woman; her name was Rose. Gorgeous woman, man! She was from Jamaica… you know I got a thing for those island women.” He chuckled. “So, we go back to her place, I smash, that’s that, or so I think. Maaaan! I get back to my damn house, get in the bed and go to sleep, and like an hour or two later, I wake up to Nadia’s crazy ass standing over me with a damn knife!”

“Oh shit!” Zenith covered his mouth with his hand, shocked.

“Yeah, man! The bitch looked all crazy, standing there talkin’ about, “‘I’ll slice your testicles off, you lying, cheating, punk bitch!’ Then she said, ‘I’ll douse ’em in gasoline, shove them up your ass and make you shit out fireballs!’ Fire in the hole type shit, man! She was mad crazy, yo’!….and serious, too!”

Zenith burst out laughing.

“It’s not funny, but damn, man! Chick was loco! Zenith, it was crazy. She was talking so fast and waving that damn knife around. She spoke about how I disrespected her, took her virginity, and some other bullshit. If that bitch was a virgin, then so was Wilt Chamberlain!”

Zenith couldn’t stop laughing. Damn, it felt good to unwind and relax.

“I mean, shit, the pussy wasn’t loosey goosey, but it didn’t snap back, either, if you know what I mean… I might be short but I got it goin’ on downstairs. Don’t let my height fool you and I’m telling you right now,” he said, waving his finger in his direction. “A few dicks before my own had visited the arena, and they left their business cards inside.”

Zenith thought he was going to choke. “You stupid, man.”

“I’m serious though.” Javier smiled. “Virgin? Psssht! Anyway, that didn’t matter to me right then because this chick was waving that damn knife around like she wanted to cut me into a damn pizza slice. She said I cheated on her, went off with some other lady. I knew any type of coherent conversation wasn’t going to happen. So, I pretended to agree with her, right? I told her I was so sorry, fake tears and everything, that I’d had too much to drink, and all the other bullshit I could come up with so I could call the police on this crazy ass nut! After a little while, I got her to settle down, right? So, she’s sitting on the bed, and I tell her I’m going to get us a glass of wine and that I want her to sleep over.

“Man, and of course it was my luck that my brother and cousin weren’t home, so I walked toward the kitchen then ran like a mothafucka outside! Just me and my damn draws, man! It was cold as fuck outside, too; dick was shriveling up and swallowed its own body like a goddamn turtle in a shell! The cold ass air hit my shit like a brick! My dick yelled, ‘RETREAT! Did the Cha Cha Slide on itself, ‘Reverse! Reverse!’”

That was too much; the man cracked him up until it was too painful to laugh anymore.

“Oh, and before you ask, my cell phone was in my bedroom, so she would’ve seen me grab it. I went next door, asked to use their damn phone… told the dude a crazy person broke into my house and I needed to call the cops. The couple, an older lady and her boyfriend, let me in. The police got there, and that bitch gone, man! She
and
her knife!”

“What? She cut right on out of there, huh?” Tears of laughter streamed down Zenith’s face.

“Oh, you got jokes.” Javier smiled. “But yeah, maybe she saw me leave. I don’t know but I remember where she said she lived so they go to her apartment, right, and the woman is in there with her robe on and a cup of Starbucks coffee, like ain’t shit happen! Like she wasn’t just at my damn house, broke in it and waved a damn knife at my dick and threatened to set my balls ablaze, man! Nuts roastin’ on an open fire… like it’s Christmas or some shit, man.”

Zenith unraveled then, sliding down in his seat when his body started shaking with mirth. He wheezed, trying to catch his breath, and the tears now stung his eyes.

“The police go inside, right, see a knife on her damn coffee table and a picture of me she printed off the Internet I guess, sitting beside it with stab marks all in it. Her ass got arrested and I pressed charges on that lunatic. She had the nerve to call me from jail talking about she was sorry, can we start over?”

Zenith slapped the table over and over, unable to speak, unable to do anything but laugh. His gut hurt from it all.

“Sent me a Facebook friend request too, after I deleted her ass. I forgot to block her, so it came through. She was talking about, ‘I’m sorry’, with one of those smiley face emojis, like a cartoon was going to make it all better…crazy ass… That’s what I get though, man. I need to be like you and stop fuckin’ around with these hos and try to settle down, get a good woman that’s going to stand by me and not try to castrate my ass… That’s what I need.”

“Hey.” Zenith put both hands up in surrender, his face hot from snorting and laughing himself silly. “Don’t praise me, man. Silver wasn’t planned, real talk. I wasn’t looking to settle down but I think what happened was, I became more open to it when she popped up on my radar.”

“Yeah, I can dig that.”

“So, because I was kind of rethinking my life about that time, when she and I got to know one another, I realized pretty fast that she might be someone I want to settle down with. Man, the more time I spent with her, the more I… I felt something I’d never felt before. You know I’ve been in love before, but never like this, Javier. She really does it for me. She’s real good for me; we’re good for each other.”

“That’s cool… I like that. I watched you two at the wedding.”

“Before or after I fell asleep?”

Javier chuckled. “Yeah, I saw that too, but I’m talking about at the reception. I’d sometimes look over at you two… and I could see the love. You know, the way you’d glance at one another, the smiles on your faces. The way she’d kiss you, and you’d kiss her back…and then I found myself jealous all over again.”

“Not this again.” Zenith smiled.

Javier laughed lightly, yet, with an air of sadness, too.

“No, not like that. It was just that I missed you, didn’t know how to fix what was broken, and I was jealous man, that you’d fallen in love and I didn’t know much about it! That’s not what was supposed to happen. I hated that I didn’t know your girlfriend as well as I should have, and what you two were building together. I missed something really important in your life. We shared
everything
together… I should’ve known everything about Silver by then, too.”

Zenith nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you should’ve. But it’s not too late. You can start right now.”

“Bet. I can’t believe my boy is gettin’ married!” Javier squealed, jetting his tongue out in a playful way.

“Hold up, she hasn’t said yes. She doesn’t know yet. We’ll see… I
hope
she says yes.” Zenith grinned.

“She will, man, she will.”

“Hey, call this Kevin guy and let’s get this shit done ASAP. I’m taking time off from work to be with my grandfather, so my time will be limited once I bring him home.”

“Got it! I also called a couple of attorneys already. I have a consultation with one later on today. Kevin sent me an email with some details and I want it looked over. I’ll email it to you right now.” Javier grabbed his phone off the table and began typing into it.

“Man… this is crazy,” Zenith smiled and shook his head. “We might be really about to make it, man.”

“You already made it,” Javier said seriously, looking at him from over his phone. “This is just a second chance, and all I can say is, I’m glad
this
time, we can do it together. Pure Grit needs you.”

“And I need Pure Grit.” They fist bumped. “Let’s get to work. Time to grind!”