RedBone by T. Styles Page A

only son. How could he, when she didn’t even know the real reason for the hit on young Theo? All because Tommy said he could no longer live a lie and sleep with another man. Upon hearing his words, Ashur went mental. It wasn’t until Tommy’s isolation that he realized he was in love with him, and that losing the friendship would hurt him on the deepest levels of his soul.
    When he came to a light, he took a huge gulp of liquor. Some of the alcohol fell down the sides of his mouth and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. Maybe I should go to that bullshit with my wife, he thought. He reasoned that although Brownie might be mad now, the fact that he showed up would go a long way later. Ashur was still in his thoughts until he heard a noise on the back of his car. When he adjusted the rearview mirror and looked out of it he saw a teenager, not watching where he was going, bump into his car. “What the fuck?” Ashur said to himself.
    Although the light turned green, Ashur hopped out in the middle of the road. People bonked their horns, but eventually went around him to get to their destination. Ashur couldn’t give a fuck; he had tunnel vision as he approached the couple sitting at the bus stop with the boy.
    “So what ... you can’t control your fucking kid?” Ashur asked the man and woman who pushed the boy behind them. The teenager looked angrily at Ashur. “I mean ... look at my shit! He ruined it!” Ashur pointed to the slightly chipped paint job and grew angrier.
    “I’m sorry about that, man,” the father said. “I didn’t see him do it until you parked the car.” He looked at his son and saw fire in his eyes. It was obvious he wanted to fight Ashur. “Sit down ... now!”
    “Well, sorry ain’t gonna get my car fixed now, is it?”
    The man bit his tongue and said, “If you wanna take it in to see how much it’ll cost to get repaired, I’ll see what I can do. I’m working two jobs right now, but I’ll take on a third if I have to. Seeing as how it was my boy’s fault.”
    “Well, you better get a third and a fourth job while you at it, nigga!” Ashur said, stepping closer to his face. He wanted to fight so badly he was being unreasonable. “’Cause I didn’t pay for a nice ride to have my shit fucked up by your brat.”
    The father was just about to step to him until his wife said, “Joseph, come over here! Please!” Joseph didn’t budge. “We don’t have time for this. He ain’t worth it.” She looked at Ashur. “Let it go.”
    Joseph looked back at his wife and then at Ashur and said, “I know you mad about your ride, and I respect that. But if you disrespect me in front of my family again, I swear on everything I love, I will kick your mothafucking ass out here today!”
    Ashur heard the seriousness in the man’s voice and slowly backed away. For some reason, he felt fighting the man may prove to be more trouble than he felt like dealing with at the moment. After all, he’d been drinking and wouldn’t be at his best for a brawl. Not to mention that the nick was small, and blended in with the other one Brownie made when the button of her jeans scratched up against it as he fucked her from behind. Although the car was old, it was the same car he was in when he first met Brownie, drove his first child, Mia, home from the hospital, and fucked Tommy for the first time. Like it or not, the car held memories and it was important to him.
    Stepping back in his car, he pulled back into traffic and took a swig of liquor. Always a hothead, the vision of the teenager falling on his car swelled in the spaces of his mind. The liquor wasn’t doing anything but making matters worse, so when he was two blocks away from the scene he thought about how the man played him and decided to do something about it. Besides, there was no way he could face his wife, knowing he’d punked out in the worst way. So he bucked a U. Pulling up to the bus stop, he rolled his window down and saw the look