Page 141 of Certified to Handle You
“That’s why niggas like you supposed to be in church on Sundays,” I went on, standin’ back up. “Or somewhere doin’ somethin’ that’s actually safe, ’cause when you step into shit like this without knowin’ what come with it, this what happen.”
I stood, reached over to the table and picked up a blade, holdin’ it in my hand for a second before I turned back to him.
“There’s real demons out here,” I said. “And you should’ve chose a different path instead of playin’ around like you was one of ’em.”
He shook his head weak, his eyes wide now.
“Please… bruh…”
I stepped closer, and just looked at him.
“I hope all that shit was worth it,” I told him. “Playin’ with people you ain’t have no business playin’ with.”
He opened his mouth again, tryna get somethin’ out, but it was weak and broken, like whatever he had left to say ain’t even have no weight behind it no more.
I stepped in closer lookin’ at him, takin’ in what was left of a nigga who thought he was built for somethin’ he never should’ve stepped into in the first place.
“You should’ve stayed in your lane,” I said, my voice calm while I adjusted my grip on the blade.
“You could’ve been a regular nigga right now, breathin’, livin’, doin’ whatever it is you used to do before you decided to play crazy.”
He tried to shake his head, but it barely moved.
I stepped in and slid the blade across his throat, until his shit opened up.
His body jerked once, then again, and after that it was nothin’ but him slumped in the chair, with blood gushin’ from his neck.
I stood here for a second, lookin’ at him, then I wiped the blade off slow and set it down.
When I stepped back and looked around, everything was handled… all of it.
And just like that; them niggas that thought they could play with Sha’Nelle and walk away from it was gone for good.
Trill-Land
One week later…
Even after all the shit that went down in Greystone City was handled, I was still locked in with ‘Nelle. I thought I could just go back to doin’ what I was doin’ without talkin’ to her, but that shit ain’t last long at all. Every time my phone lit up with her name, I answered, and even when it didn’t, I found myself callin’ her anyway just to hear her voice for a minute.
It got to a point that we was talkin’ all day without even thinkin’ about it.
I would be movin’ around, handlin’ my business, checkin’ in on shit, and she’d just be right there on the phone with me. It wasn’t no pressure, wasn’t no weird energy, and it wasn’t forced. It just flowed real easy, and I liked that.
Two weeks had passed since she got shot, and I had bagged them niggas up. They ain’t even make no real noise after that, and I made sure of it. It wasn’t no headlines, no big story or nothin’ that would make somebody look too deep into what really happened. It was like they was here and then they wasn’t and that was the end of it.
One night while I was on the phone with ‘Nelle, I asked her straight up if she felt like anything was off or if she felt like somebody might try to come back behind that shit, ’cause I wasn’t finna leave no loose ends sittin’ around her. She told me no, and I listened to how she said it more than what she actually said. To me, it sounded true.
She had been stayin’ at her mama’s, layin’ low, not even goin’ to work no more. I could hear it in her voice that she wasn’t movin’ the same, and I ain’t blame her for that. What she went through would’ve shook anybody, but at the same time she was still her. She still joked, still laughed and talked her shit when she felt like it.
I couldn’t even lie to myself no more and act like she ain’t affect me, ’cause she did. I kept thinkin’ about them days I spent out there with her, and how I was the one cleanin’ her wound, makin’ sure she took her meds, sittin’ there with her when she couldn’t sleep and ain’t wanna be alone.
I remembered how she leaned into me, like deep down inside, she knew I had her.
I gave her too much of me in that moment to act like it ain’t mean nothin’. That wasn’t no random shit. That wasn’t me just showin’ up and leavin’ when it was done. I stayed, ’cause I cared. I made sure she was straight, and I ain’t do that for just anybody.
Before all this, I kept my distance from her on purpose. I had my situation with Reni, and even though me and ‘Nelle always had that vibe, I wasn’t finna cross no lines or put myself in no position where I’d be tempted to do some shit I knew I shouldn’t.That’s why I stayed out the way as much as I could. But all that changed.
Me and Reni had been done for weeks, and then I got pulled into ‘Nelle’s world at the worst time of her life and somewhere in the middle of all that, shit shifted. I ain’t force it and she ain’t either. It just happened, and now I was sittin’ here talkin’ to her every day like this was what it was supposed to be from the start.
