Page 35 of Bruised Hearts

“Are you really the champ?” A lady walked over to Landon with all thirty two teeth showing.

“Wrong nigga, that’s Landon.” I said without looking up.

“Oh, they said he’s a boxer.” She walked off, but she kept her eyes trained on him. Landon just smirked as he put his steak in the pan. His fire was too high, but I wasn’t helping his ass no more.

“Now, why are you over here trying to be inconspicuous. We know you’re Breaker. You acting funny?” The girl came back with another groupie in tow.

“He’s closed.” They looked at me confused while Landon laughed.

“Excuse me?”

“Closed. Not open. Shut, blocked against entry.”

“Girl bye,” she waved me off.

“Your eye gone be closed with him if you don’t back the fuck up. Gone over there and finish making your lil pasta before you get your feelings hurt.” She looked back at Landon, but he offered her no help. He was laughing too hard.

“You heard what she said, gone now before you get both of us beat up.” They stalked off, so I went back to work. Landon grabbed me to him and tongued me down right in front of everybody. “You know I like it when you’re toxic. Keep on we about to cut this date short.” Giggling, I was ready to tell him we can go. The groupies had ruined the mood. Instead, I grabbed some pasta and threw it at his ass. His eyes lit up in amusement. Grabbing some flour, he threw it on me. Seconds later, we were having a full on food fight. Everyone else was staring at us in horror, while we laughed hard as hell, and were having the time of our lives. The fire detectors went off causing us to look over. Landon began frantically digging in his pocket while I tried to put the fire out, but somehow making it worse.

“What are you doing? Help me,” I said as the flames grew.

“I know you want Landon, but I need to pay these people so we don’t go to jail.” He passed the instructor a wad of money before grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the door. Not about to argue, I giggled as I followed behind him. We ran all the way to the car. As soon as we got inside, we fell the fuck out.

“Now what we gone do? I’m hungry as hell,” I said with a fake pout.

“I wasn’t eating that shit. Did you see what I took that pasta through?” Thinking it over, he was right. Thirty minutes later, he pulled into Slicy Pizza. We got our food, and was now driving through the city taking bites, looking at the scenery, and just enjoying each other’s company. The simple things. It was exactly what I asked for, and Landon succeeded.

“You’re a bad influence.” Until he said that, I didn’t realize I was sitting there with a goofy smile on my face. Turning my mouth up, I looked at him confused.

“How is that?”

“I’m supposed to be on a diet, but I’m sitting here eating this greasy ass pizza. I’m probably on the news cus I done damn near burned down them people place.”

“I ain’t did shit, but try to make my pasta. Everything else was on you.” Seeing a big glob of sauce on his face, I leaned over and licked it off. Using his hand that wasn’t holding the pizza, he held my head as he kissed me. Our moment was ruined because the car started wobbling and making a weird noise.

“Nigga, did you hit something?” He was driving when he pulled me into kiss him. Did he close his damn eyes?

“Naw, I think something wrong with the tire.” He pulled over, placed his pizza in the container and got out. When I saw him grab his phone, I climbed out as well. “Yeah, it’s a flat.”

“Okay, so what are you doing?” He looked up confused.

“Calling somebody. The fuck you think I’m doing?”

“Naw, regular niggas change tires,” I said reminded him of our deal.

“Regular niggas also have roadside assistance.”

“Say man, your ass tweaking. It’s dark as fuck out here, and I see a couple of unsavory characters walking this way.” Hearing him say that caused me to laugh. However, he walked to the trunk without putting up any more fight. He was standing back there so long, I decided to go see what was the holdup. His ass was probably trying to sneak and call somebody. He was standing there just staring in the trunk.

“What you doing?”

“Trying to figure out where the tire would be,” he answered honestly. Laughing, I pulled up his compartment and his ass shrugged it off. Grabbing the tire and the jack, he laid it on the ground, and started trying to remove the bolts with his hands.

“Landon, use the lug wrench.”

“The who?” My mouth fell open when I came to a realization. His ass wasn’t calling help because he thought he was too rich to do it, this negro didn’t know how. Giggling, I grabbed it and handed it to him.

“Don’t take them off, just crack it.” He did as I stated, and then looked up at me to hear what’s next. “Okay, jack the car.”