My little sister was standing at the counter in a pair of boy shorts and an oversized t-shirt that clearly wasn't hers, holding a coffee mug in both hands. Her weave was pulled up in a messy ponytail and when she saw me, her eyes went wide as hell. She looked scared.
"Yatta—" she started.
"Yo, what the fuck?" I looked from her to Sosa, who was leaning against the counter in nothing but basketball shorts and a wife beater, his locs pulled back. He didn't look shook though. If anything, he looked... ready.
"Aye, real shit, I'm glad you came through bruh," Sosa said, straightening up. "I been tryna get at you anyway."
I felt my jaw tighten. "Is that right?"
Zurie put a hand on my arm. "Yatta, we came here to talk about me. Remember?"
I took a breath, trying to keep my cool. She was right. We had bigger shit to handle. But I was definitely circling back to this.
Sosa looked at his sister, his face shifting. "Yo, what's good? Why you here this early with this nigga anyways?"
Zurie glanced at me, then back at her brother. She was hesitating.
"Tell him," I said.
She swallowed hard. "Sosa... Jamie been putting his hands on me."
The room went dead silent. Sosa's whole demeanor changed in an instant. his face went stone cold, and I could see his mind already working through something.
"Word?" He said it quietly, but I could tell he was thinking about the words she just spewed.
"For a few months now. It got bad last night. Yatta... he kicked the door in and stopped it. He got me and JJ out." Zurie's voice was shaking but she kept going. "I ain't tell you 'cause I knew what you'd do. But Yatta's right. You needed to know."
Sosa nodded slowly, his jaw clenched tight. He pulled out his phone. "Where that nigga at right now?"
"Bro, please—" Zurie started.
"Nah, Z. Real shit." He looked at her, his eyes hard but his voice softer when he spoke to her. "You think I'ma let that slide?" He looked at me. "Where he at?"
"Still at the crib, I'm assuming. I left his ass on the floor last night."
Sosa nodded, scrolling through his phone. "Aight. I got some lil' niggas that'll handle that. Make that problem disappear, feel me?"
"Yea, I'm wit' that," I said.
"Say less. These young niggas hungry and they don't ask questions." Sosa tapped on a name in his phone. "They'll make sure that nigga don't never put his hands on nobody else again."
Zurie looked between us, tears starting to fall. "Y'all don't have to—"
"Yeah, we do," Sosa and I said at the same time.
Sosa set his phone down and pulled his sister into a hug. She broke down crying against his chest. He held her tight, looking at me over her shoulder with murder still in his eyes but control in his movements. That's what made Sosa dangerous, he never moved on emotion. He moved on strategy.
"We gon' handle this shit the right way," he said. "That nigga ain’t gon' ever touch you again. That's on everything."
The tension in the room shifted slightly, and then I turned my attention back to Yah-Yah, who'd been standing there quietly the whole time looking like she wanted to disappear.
"Now," I said, crossing my arms. "Somebody wanna tell me what the fuck goin' on here?"
Yah-Yah opened her mouth but nothing came out.
Sosa stepped up, putting a hand on her lower back with no hesitation.
"Aight look bruh, me and Yah-Yah been fuckin' with each other."