Free Shattered by Kia DuPree

stuffed all my clothes inside them. Nausy took her sweet, precious time about getting her stuff together.
    “What’s wrong, girl?” Dizzle asked.
    She shrugged her shoulders. Dizzle must ain’t notice how mad she been acting lately.
    “Come here, Nausy.”
    She ain’t move.
    “Didn’t I say come here?”
    She stood up and pulled her tight shirt away from her stomach before she walked over to him with an attitude.
    “Tell me what’s wrong? I don’t like seeing you all mad and shit.”
    “Ain’t nothing wrong,” she mumbled, but she cut her eyes away from him at the same time.
    “Yes, it is. I know how you get when you pissed.”
    “Nothing,” she said again.
    He pulled her to him and sat her on his lap. She smiled, then said, “I know I’m too heavy for you.”
    “Girl, please. I love all this chocolate,” Dizzle said, hugging her tight and squeezing her butt. She giggled and ran her hand over her two French cornrows. “You gonna tell Dirt Dizzle what’s wrong with you now?”
    “Why don’t you like me like you like her? Huh?” she said real low.
    “Nausy…come on now…I love you, girl,” he said, kissing her cheek. “I’m the luckiest nigga on the planet. Don’t you understand? I got the two most beautiful girls on the East Coast with me, and I’d do anything for y’all. Let me tell you something…you, too, KiKi. Come over here.”
    I sat in the chair across from him. He picked my hand up and squeezed it.
    “Listen, y’all treat me good. I ain’t never feel this big. I mean my head swole like a muthafucka. Y’all kick it with me. Make sure I laugh. Keep me company and make me feel good. I don’t wanna lose that. Both of y’all special to me. You understand? If you ain’t got nobody in your corner, you always got me. You hear me? I’ma make sure y’all have, even when I don’t have. I don’t want y’all to ever doubt how I feel about y’all.”
    I believed him.
    “Understand, Nausy?”
    She nodded, then reached over and held my other hand. I guess she wasn’t mad with me no more. He kissed her forehead.
    Later, we all headed down Central Avenue to get on the highway. Dizzle drove a long way until he turned off an exit onto Route 301, then down 97 to Severn and into a neighborhood called Crestwood Mobile Park Community. Some little white kids was playing in the street with a dog tied to their bike. Dizzle waited for them to move, and then he drove slowly down the gravelly road.
    “There it go, right there. The yellow one,” he said, pointing. “Y’all like it?”
    My forehead crinkled immediately. I bit my lip and looked over at Nausy. I could tell she ain’t like it either by the way her top lip curled up.
    “Wait ’til you get inside. It’s much better. I promise,” he said, unlocking the car doors.
    We got out and looked around the neighborhood. All the houses looked like they was made out of plastic or tin and like the long trucks that I saw on the highway, except without the front part. Not brick or stone like all the houses I ever seen. There was a couple of flimsy bushes in front of ours and a funny-looking mailbox that leaned so far forward I thought it was gonna fall. The windows was tiny, like the kind in Ms. Val’s bathroom. I counted two.
    “Come on. Let’s go inside. You can get your bags in a minute.”
    Dizzle walked up the two stairs, opened the screen door, and then he unlocked the other door that wasn’t that thick and seemed like somebody could kick it in if they really wanted to.
    “Are we gonna be safe?” I asked.
    “What you mean, girl?” Dizzle said with an attitude. His jaw locked tight. He ain’t never have no attitude with me before. I ain’t know what to say next. I looked down and waited for Nausy to go up the steps. The inside was smaller than I thought it was. The kitchen sink was the first thing you saw, then the long counter that had two wooden chairs underneath it. There was some little cabinets on top of the stove and a