Free Still Hood by K'wan Page B

I ain’t never heard of three people on a bike at the same time. Second, I don’t think you could handle all this horsepower.” He patted the bike.
    â€œI never met a horse I couldn’t ride,” Jeans shot back.
    â€œI’ll bet,” Marcus snickered.
    â€œI’m saying though, why don’t you give me a number or something so I can get at you later?” the skirt cut in.
    â€œNah, I don’t think my girl would like that.”
    â€œWhat ya girl don’t know won’t hurt her,” Jeans said.
    â€œYeah, but if she finds out she might hurt you. One, shorty.” Marcus revved the engine and peeled the bike into traffic.
    CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. JAH SAT on the couch flipping his phone open and closed, as if through some miracle it would make things
okay. Yoshi had been gone for hours and hadn’t called. He thought about calling her, but pride and lack of courage wouldn’t allow it. It was amazing that, as assertive as he was when it came to the game, he couldn’t quite get it to carry over when it came to his lady. The statement he had made to Yoshi was fucked up, but he didn’t mean it like that.
    Jah was still a young dude, so he really didn’t understand affairs of the heart. He knew that he felt for Yoshi what he had never felt for another woman and it scared the hell out of him. For someone who didn’t know what it felt like to be in a relationship with a woman, love was a totally alien concept, so at times he regressed and hid behind his hard-rock persona. He knew he loved her but wasn’t quite sure how to articulate it.
    His mind spun back to Stacks Green, who was, in essence, the root of the argument in the first place. Jah understood Yoshi wanting him to go out and get money, but what she didn’t understand was that it was hard to do business with someone you despised. Granted, a check was a check, but when it was coming from Stacks it felt more like a handout, and Jah was never the one to lean on another man for anything. He came along getting it on his own, so that was his mind-set. When it all boiled down to it, it was a pride thing, and he was never one to compromise his morals, even for Yoshi.
    â€œFuck it,” he said, flipping the phone open to call Yoshi; but he immediately closed it. No, a call wouldn’t do in this case. He would make his apology face-to-face at the video shoot. Besides, it had been a while since he had prowled the jungle, and it would be good to link up with his old comrade Spooky. After placing a quick call to his young comrade Tech, Jah prepared to hit the streets.
    â€œAND WHERE DO YOU THINK your hot ass is off to?” Reese asked her little sister, Sharon, who was admiring her ample rump in the living room mirror.
    â€œOut,” Sharon said flatly.
    â€œOut where?”

    â€œDamn, Reese, why you sweating me?” Sharon let out an aggravated breath.
    â€œSweating you? Sharon, you just got in from school and you’re going right back out. Whatever happened to studying or homework?”
    â€œI ain’t have none,” Sharon lied fluidly.
    â€œBullshit.” Reese stood between Sharon and the mirror. “I used to run that same lie on Mommy so I could get back in the streets. Now, where are you off to in those tight-ass jeans?”
    Sharon turned around and folded her arms defiantly. “Look, if you must know, my home girls are coming up from Brooklyn and we’re gonna hang out with Karen and them from St. Nick. You happy now?”
    Reese slit her eyes at the miniature version of herself. “You think you’re slick, don’t you? Y’all little hot bitches is going over to that fucking video shoot!”
    â€œReese—”
    â€œReese my ass.” She grabbed Sharon by her arms roughly. Reese’s eyes were wild with something that Sharon couldn’t quite identify. “Ain’t nothing coming out that camp but the devil. Little sister,