Free Chasing Bliss by Sabrina A. Eubanks Page A

I’m gonna punch you, you little ass kisser.”
    Corey rolled his eyes and answered the call. “Hello?”
    Holding true to his threat, Chase reached across the table and punched him in the shoulder.
    “Ow! Nah, Cyrus, I ain’t seen him. Nah, I tried to call him, but that nigga’s MIA. Can’t find him nowhere. Maybe he’s laid up with some bitch.”
    Chase kicked him in the shin.
    “Ow! Nah, it’s nothin’. I’m getting somethin’ to eat with J.T., and you know how that nigga likes to beat up on me. Yeah, okay. If I see him, I’ll tell him to holler at you. See you later, Cyrus.” He hung up and turned to Chase. “Man, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Corey rubbed his shin, looking for blood.
    J.T. laughed. “You curse too much. I mean, we all curse, but you curse too much. And don’t be puttin’ me in your family business, little man.”
    “You are our family, man.”
    “Why, thank you,” he said and ordered another beer.
    Corey looked at Chase. “What’s wrong with you?”
    J.T swallowed the last of his first beer. “I think we pissed him off.”
    Chase shook his head. “No… Cyrus pissed me off. What’s he lookin’ for me so hard for?”
    Corey looked at the table, but J.T. rubbed his goatee, looking Chase hard in the eye. “I don’t know, Chase. Let me think…”
    “Shut up, J.T.,” Corey mumbled.
    “I won’t shut up, youngster. You know what that asshole is callin’ him for.”
    Corey shot him an angry look.
    “What? You mad ‘cause I called Cyrus a name?”
    “You curse too much. I’m gonna take a leak,” Corey said before he got up and walked away.
    J.T. smiled at Chase. “Don’t nobody better be sayin’ nothin’ bad ‘bout Master Cyrus now.”
    Chase smiled back at him. “Leave him alone, J.T.”
    J.T. drank some of his beer. “All I can say is that I agree with you, Chase. Fuck Cyrus.”
    Chase sighed and finished his beer. He thought about having another one, but he had his bike with him. He looked down at the empty bottle dejectedly. “I know what he wants, J.T. Whenever Cyrus knocks this hard, I know what that fool wants.”
    J.T. let out a sigh of his own. “Yeah, ol’ Cy ain’t exactly the Avon lady.”
    Chase shook his head. “He damn sure ain’t. What do I do, J.T.?”
    “If you don’t wanna do what he’s telling you to do, tell him to go fuck himself, my friend.”
    Chase mulled it over. He was so tired of Cyrus. If he never saw him again, he’d be okay, even if it hurt for a little while. He’d told him he was tired, but it never made any difference to Cyrus, the selfish, manipulative bastard. “I already paid him what I owed him,” he said out loud.
    J.T. nodded. “This I know.”
    “Then why is he doin’ this shit to me?”
    “Because, whether you want to admit it or not, Cyrus is not a nice person, Chase.”
    Chase frowned and shook his head. “I really don’t have time for Cyrus and his nonsense right now.”
    J.T. smiled slow. “I bet you don’t.”
    Chase looked around and then leaned toward J.T. “I know I can talk to you about this shit, J.T. Corey’s still kind of silly. Yo, man, this shit with Bliss is crazy scary. I dreamt about her last night, and she’s been on my mind since the moment I met her. When I’m around her, I feel like I can’t get close enough to her. I want to be all up on her. The first thing I did this mornin’ was call her. I didn’t want to hang up just ‘cause I like the sound of her voice. I want to see her so bad right now. I…” Chase trailed off when he realized J.T. was smiling at him. “What are you smilin’ at?”
    “You act like you think there’s something wrong with you, but there ain’t, Chase. You’re falling in love with her, stupid.”
    Chase blinked. “I guess I knew that. I guess that’s what I meant when I asked her to jump off the cliff with me.”
    J.T. looked at him like his brains were leaking out the side of his head. “Say what?”
    “Never mind. It’s a long