Smoke Kings by Jahmal Mayfield

Author:Jahmal Mayfield [Mayfield, Jahmal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

26

Though it wasn’t anything new, it surprised Nate to answer his door to a young girl with unruly, rust-colored hair and lively brown eyes. Darius’s girlfriend was wearing a short lavender sundress and her usual white sneakers. Deeply tanned, so Nate couldn’t tell whether there was any redness splotching her nose and cheeks. She hadn’t been sheepish, as it were, in sharing her newfound fondness for Smirnoff Grape vodka. It kept her nightmares about Darius at bay.

The first time she’d come, Nate had asked her a lot of questions. The second time, the roles reversed. Each time since had been them getting to know each other. Feeling each other out. He’d wanted to know what made Darius love her. She’d wanted to know whether Nate had any limits.

They moved this silent conversation to the kitchen. Nate pulled two tall glasses from the cabinet over the sink, filled both with ice cubes and tap water. They settled in chairs, on opposite sides of the dining table. Sofia tinkled the ice in her glass. Took long swallows of the cold water, drumming her fingers on the table between gulps. Nate nursed his drink.

“Well?” he said.

It took her a moment. “I have news. Austin’s living in Pennsylvania.”

Nate frowned. “Who told you that?”

“It’s kind of convoluted.”

“You really should be in college, Sofia.”

She blinked and Nate felt something inside of him shift.

“You ready for the address?”

“Keep it.”

“What?” Sofia’s voice notched up an octave. “But you said—”

“Doesn’t matter what I said.”

“You’re not gonna do anything?”

“Like what?”

She shrugged. “Make Austin pay for what he did.”

“An acquittal’s an acquittal,” Nate said, not even believing his own ears. “His attorneys argued self-defense and won, Sofia.”

Her eyes brimmed with tears. “You’re gonna let them get away with it?”

“They won.”

“Darius wouldn’t have attacked those boys. Austin was starting shit with him in the store.”

“You had your say in court.”

“Bullshit verdict,” she muttered.

“I know it,” Nate replied, his voice raspy.

“But you won’t do anything?”

“Nothing I can do.”

“It doesn’t make you mad they got off?”

“You have no idea how mad it makes me,” he admitted.

Sofia wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Straightened her posture. “Then I don’t understand. Why won’t you track them down—at least Austin—and make him pay?”

“If I did, would it bring Darius back?”

“Course not.”

“No point then,” Nate told her.

“I can’t believe it. You’re a pussy.”

“Think it’s time for you to go, Sofia.”

“Punk-ass bitch.”

Nate stood and moved around to her side of the table, tried to take her arm. Sofia shrugged him aside. Rose from her chair on her own. Defiant, though, rooted in place, glaring at him.

“It’s all right for you to buy some sneakers other than white,” Nate told her. “And, please, get yourself in school. What’s your community college down in Monmouth County? Brookdale? You could enroll there if you aren’t up for four years just yet.”

“You think I give a shit about an associate degree. You know why I came to you? ‘Cause Darius thought you cared about him.”

“I—”

“Fuck you!”

Nate didn’t walk with her as she stormed from the kitchen.

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