Blow Read online

  “Oh, nothing,” he said breathlessly, as if he was running or going for a jog. It wasn’t even 10 o’clock yet so I knew he was probably still at the gym. “I'm just chilling.”

  “Then why are you panting so hard?” I said, looking out the window to see the cityscape. I wasn't really paying attention as I watched my breath fog up the window. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” I heard from behind me, and I swiveled to see him standing behind me, a duffel bag on his shoulder with his phone in his hand. “I'm just fine, thanks for asking.”

  fourteen: cyph

  I blinked. Then I blinked again, and he was still in front of me.

  “I must be dreaming because there is no way you on this train with me,” I said more to myself than to the apparition of Zeus in front of me.

  I kicked Isra's shin hard, and she jumped up, wide-eyed, before cursing at me.

  “Am I crazy or is this man really standing in the middle of the train?” I asked her, while pointing in the ghost's general direction.

  “He's really there,” she confirmed for me, for rubbing her shin. “That actually really hurt. I think you should try out for the fucking intramural football team with a kick like that, mate.”

  I ignored her last comment and turned to Zeus. “What are you doing here? Go back to campus! You have two games this weekend, and you're not gonna miss them!”

  He rolled his eyes and tried to sit next to me, but I put my feet up so he couldn't. He sucked his teeth before saying: “Chill out, Cash. They're both away games at Rutgers and Fordham. So, I can make the trip down to New York with you.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “And your coach just let you take an Amtrak versus taking the athletics bus?”

  He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah…I kinda didn't tell him that part.”

  My eyes widened, and I shot up out my seat. “Zeus, if you don't get out this train—”

  “Too late,” he sing-songed with a smile, just as the doors slid closed. It was the kind of smile that made me almost forgot how angry I was because of how cute he was.

  I sat in silence, ignoring him while I twiddled my thumbs. I couldn't believe he was actually here and ditching his team just to take a train with me.

  “Why would you ditch your team for me?” I had to ask, still unbelieving. “I don't get it at all—”

  He cut my sentence off by pressing a soft kiss to my lips, which made me shiver a bit. “Because,” he started before gripping my upper thigh, “what kind of guy would just let his girlfriend leave without a proper goodbye?”

  My eyes widened, and Isra started choking on her water, clearly eavesdropping and surprised.

  When did we make this official? What? I didn't think this was serious, but at the same time I did! Well, of course you were serious, you almost had a coronary when you saw him with Jasmine—

  “Relax,” Zeus leaned towards me and murmured into my ears, his fingers rubbing the back of my hand. “You haven't taken a breath in thirty seconds.”

  I finally realized what he said and took a gasping breath. My heart pounded, and I coughed for a bit before moving my eyes back to his.

  “So that's what we are?” I finally managed to ask with my eyebrows raised. It was an interesting turn of events with the way the world tumbled from his lips.

  He chuckled and ran his hands through his hair. “What exactly do you call two people who are exclusive, go on dates, and can never really be far from each other for an extended period of time?”

  “I-I—” I couldn't get my words out properly, with the way all of this was shoved onto me all at once.

  “Say it with me,” he said, reaching up to grab my chin so I could mouth the word. “Girlfriend.”

  I shoved him away and managed to get him far enough from me since he was weak from laughter. “You're so annoying.”

  He shook his head before looping his arm across my shoulders. “So, what do you say? Let's give this a go.”

  I stayed still before nodding my head and leaning into him. “Yeah, I'd like that a lot.”

  The rest of the train ride was mostly mundane, considering the fact that I slept for two and a half out of the three hour long train ride. When I woke up, Zeus was looking out the window while his fingers massaged the base of my scalp. It was so therapeutic that I never wanted him to stop. When he tried to lift his hand up from my head, I grabbed it and put it right back.

  “Cash, we're approaching the station,” he informed me before softly shaking my shoulders to sit up. I groaned and sat up begrudgingly, not wanting to discontinue my short nap. “Wake up.”

  “Fuck,” I muttered, before sitting up and stretching my back. “I should probably let my sister know that I'm back.”

  And then it hit me. Zeus would be meeting my family.

  “Oh nah,” I said, shaking my head. “Zeus, you have to go back.”

  He furrowed his eyebrows. “Why? What happened?”

  I massaged my temples, trying to calm the impending headache that was to come. “You're about to meet the most embarrassing group of people on earth.”

  “Who?”

  “My family.” Truth be told, I haven't seen my parents since the disciplinary hearing after the whole incident last year. And with the way my mom looked at me throughout that meeting, I'm not sure I wanted to, especially since I'm bringing Zeus with me.

  “Oh please,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I can charm my way through any family. I’m a football player, dads love me.”

  I shook my head at him and simply laughed. “I promise you; every other family would care about that except mine. I grew up in a basketball house.”

  The doors opened and we all grabbed our bags and walked out the station. When I was finally able to get signal, I called my sister, Dreya to come pick us up.

  “Hello?” I could hear the attitude when she answered the phone.

  Dreya was two years younger than me and a senior in high school. And she was currently going through that “I'm closed off, mysterious and have baggage even though I haven't experienced a thing yet” phase. Every time I texted or talked to her on the phone, I always received limp responses and one-word answers. She needed to stop it before someone actually pushes her away and she gets her feelings hurt.

  “Dreya,” I answered, shifting the phone so I could grab my duffel from Zeus. He moved it away, and I glanced at him weirdly before he shook his head. “I'm back in the city, can you come pick me up?”

  She sucked her teeth before saying, “Bitch, do I look like your personal chauffeur? You better haul a cab or use that good old MetroCard.”

  “If you don't pick me up, I'm not gonna light you up when I smoke,” I threatened, and there was silence before I also added, “and I’ll tell Mama how you fucked that boy in her bed last year during the summer.”

  “Alright, alright!” She finally yelled, before muttering curses under her breath. “Chill, you got it. Where you at?”

  “Penn Station,” I told her, rolling my eyes. “Hurry up, sis. I have guests with me.”

  I hung up the phone and turned to Isra and Zeus, who looked at me astounded.

  “What?” I asked, finally tired of their staring.

  Isra shook her head. “You lot are wild.”

  And it was true. The Rawlings family was wild as hell. From all the fights my brother Adonis got into to Dreya being a self-proclaimed hoe, to me just being me, we were known around the block as a crazy family. Especially with my mother hanging off younger men like a Christmas ornament, and my dad threatening to shoot everyone who she's involved with, even though they separated six years ago.

  “Trust me,” I muttered to her, before interlocking my fingers into Zeus' hand. “You haven't seen anything yet.”

  “Oh shit!” Dreya hollered from the window when she saw the three of us standing at the curb. It was dark outside now, since it was 9:30. “Why didn't you say you were bringing a fine man like this?”

  She then turned to Zeus—as if he wasn’t
my boyfriend as of a few hours ago—and winked. “I'm Dreya, and you can sit shotgun with me.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her foolishness and rolled my eyes. “First of all, back your stupid ass up. He's my boyfriend.”

  She looked between the two of us before sighing and unlocking the car. “I hate you. You’re always bringing home some cute boy from school and forget to bring me one too.”

  Shit. I tensed, noticing how she let her loose lips fly. Dreya and her big mouth!

  Zeus raised his eyebrow at me, clearly confused. “You've brought someone from school home before?”

  I nodded, and my gaze drifted towards the ground, not really wanting to talk about it. “It's not that important. I'll tell you later.”

  Isra smiled and climbed into the passenger seat, which had Dreya, Zeus and I looking at her crazy. “What? I'm hungry and you all are making my head hurt.”

  “I agree with your friend here. Can we all just get in the car and head uptown?” Dreya droned, clearly irritated with all this back and forth and quite frankly, so was I. “It's gonna take at least 45 minutes to get to Harlem on the West Side Highway with all this damn traffic.”

  “Wait, you live in Harlem?” Zeus asked, and I almost rolled my eyes again because I knew what else he was going to ask. I guess an eye roll was going to be my signature expression this entire weekend. “Isn't it dangerous over there?”

  “No,” Dreya and I firmly stated in unison. We hated when people tried to vilify our neighborhood.

  He furrowed his brows. “Then why do they say crime rates are high on the news…?”

  “Oh please, there's nothing dangerous about Harlem because if there was, there wouldn't be so many damn white people trying to buy our brownstone.” Dreya scoffed, before honking the horn because the car in front was driving like Ms. Daisy. “We get at least five offers a week trying to get us to sell our building.”

  It was sad, really. The majority of my neighbors couldn't deal with the rising rent and were forced to move out. Every time I come home, there was always someone on the block that disappeared, and was replaced. Then, they started building these high-end stores to encourage the landlords to either sell the building or hike up the prices.

  I sighed and played with my fingers, trying to keep myself busy so I didn't think about the knot of anxiousness curdling in my stomach. There were about ten different reasons why I didn't want to come home, and the most overwhelming one was because of the disappointment masked with happiness I'd see on my mother's face. I was hoping that by Thanksgiving, everything would’ve been okay. But with the way my heart was beating overtime, I was surely mistaken.

  I should've faced this by myself, but I knew if I did, I would have to talk about what happened back in February. And I really didn't want to. As bad as it sounds, I could hide around Isra and Zeus at least to soften the blow.

  Ten minutes later, we pulled up outside my house and my nerves were all wired up. I couldn't even compose a text because my hands were shaking so badly. I was a mess, and even Zeus knew because he placed a hand on my jittering thigh.

  “Babe, relax,” he soothed me, tracing patterns on my bare leg, since I was wearing wool knee high socks. The tremors slowly started to subside, and I leaned my head into his neck.

  Suddenly I was warm, and I could feel the atmosphere between us rise in temperature.

  I heard the passenger seat door close and I moved away from him. “Dreya, do you mind if I take a drive really quick? I gotta meet up with Kayla, so take Isra inside and get her acquainted. It shouldn't be long.”

  Dreya nodded. “If I see a scratch on—”

  “Did you forget this was my car before it was yours?” I reminded her, before getting out the backseat and unbuckling her seatbelt. “Get out.”

  “Puta,” she growled before shoving past me and getting out the car.

  I chuckled and sat in the front seat. “Fucking Latino boys from East Harlem doesn't mean you know how to speak Spanish, bitch.”

  Dreya gasped, before looking around to see if anyone on the block heard. “Don't say that so loud before one of our nosy ass neighbors hear!”

  Continuing to laugh, I closed the door and was almost about to change gears when Zeus stopped me. “Let me drive.”

  “Why?”

  “Can't I just want to drive you around? Give me the direction to your friend's house and I'll drive,” he explained. Shrugging my shoulders, I hopped over the console and he climbed through the backseat.

  He put the car in drive and we pulled out of the space and onto the road. “Turn right here.”

  Zeus did as I asked, and this is how it was until we reached Kayla's apartment complex. I turned to him because I had to ask so he wasn't comfortable. “Are you good with me smoking right now?”

  He scoffed. “Am I good? Of course, I want a spliff too. I haven’t smoked in a while.”

  “I thought it was under college league regulations that you can't fail a drug test—” he interrupted me.

  “Oh please. Coach would pee in a cup himself to keep us in a game,” he rolled his eyes and turned the ignition off, “but why do that when you can pay people to piss in cups for your all-star athletes?”

  “Jesus Christ,” I murmured, shaking my head. The amount of scandals and secrets hidden by the athletics department in this school was terrifying. “You sound like you don't like him very much.”

  He shook his head. “All I do is take orders on the field from Gallagher, but he seems to think that I have to listen to his commands off the field. I have no time for that pompous asshole.”

  “Don't worry,” I reassured him, patting his thigh. “Tonight will help you relax and relieve some stress.”

  He smirked and then I felt his hands slide over my knee-high socks higher and higher until they disappeared beneath the oversized flannel that doubled as a dress for me. “In more ways than one, I hope.”

  My face heated up, and he let out a low chuckle before squeezing my thigh and unbuckling his seat belt. “C'mon.”

  That's when I noticed what he was wearing. I put my head in my hands. We were standing outside, and he had his hands crossed over his chest when he started to walk but saw I wasn't following. “What's the problem?”

  “Nothing, it's just you're dressed just like a New York boy.” He was wearing Timbs with a thick army fatigue bomber jacket and dark washed jeans.

  He laughed. “Would you believe I googled what New York guys wear before getting on the train?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Good, I wouldn't want my credibility to be tarnished.” He looped an arm around my shoulders and led me to the building. I pressed the buzzer to Kay's apartment and the door unlocked. Typical Kay, never actually checking to see who was at the door. One day, she was going to let a serial killer in her building without even knowing.

  Once we got to the seventh floor, the elevators slid open and someone stumbled in and crumpled to a heap on the floor, mumbling to themselves.

  Usually I would ignore them, and just step over their body if it was someone else. But upon closer inspection, I realized I knew them.

  “Are you kidding me right now?” I all but screamed, running a hand through my hair. “Of all times!”

  The man turned around and grinned at me drunkenly. Even while shit faced, he still looked good.

  “Do you know this guy?” Zeus asked, when he saw me try and help him to stand.

  “Yeah, but I wish I didn't.” I rolled my eyes and dragged him towards Kayla's apartment door. “Zeus, meet my idiot twin brother, Adonis.”

  Adonis sent Zeus a sloppy smile and saluted him. “What’s up, Zeusie? You mind if I call you that? Don't answer, I don't care. If I wasn't so crossed right now, I'd kick your ass for fuckin' with my little sister. Because with the look you were giving her, I'd interrupted something going on.”

  “Adonis,” I warned, pushing the door open to Kayla's apartment. “Shut the hell up. And stop saying I’m your little sister when you know we�
�re twins!”

  He laughed loudly, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room—including Kayla. She walked up to me and gave me a bone crushing hug, which I returned just as fiercely. “Cash, I missed you!”

  “Girl, I missed you too!” I let go of her with a big smile before turning around to introduce her to Zeus. “Kayla, this is Zeus. Zeus, Kayla.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Why do you love keeping all the fine niggas you bring home all to yourself, you selfish hoe?”

  I laughed, but in the corner of my eyes I saw Zeus shift, clearly uncomfortable by that last statement. “Nice to meet you, Kayla.”

  She squealed and clapped her hands before shaking his. “And he has an accent? Girl, you are scoring left and right!”

  Now it was his turn to chuckle, and he ran a hand through his hair, which was getting longer and longer by the day. He was really taking “No Shave November” to the next level, especially with the way his beard was coming in lately.

  Kayla's focus then shifted towards Adonis, which made her roll her eyes. “Did I not just kick you out my house a minute ago? Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

  “You know you could never kick me out, baby girl,” he trilled in a soothing voice, reaching up and stroking the side of her face. I was confused, did I miss something while I was gone? Kayla couldn’t stand Adonis the last time I checked.

  “Whatever,” she eventually said, trying to sound strong even though her voice was shaky. “Don't light up though, because we're cyphing together since you wanna be all up in my house.”

  He grinned and nodded before kissing her on the lips, which shocked the hell out of me. My jaw dropped, and Kayla saw the look of surprise on my face, so she quickly tried to explain. “Wait—”

  “What the actual hell?” I questioned, raising a brow. “So when were you going to tell me that you and Adonis are… this?”

  She shook her head frantically. “We’re not together, Cash. We’re just messing around a little.”