Thirty-Seven

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Monday 10:04 a.m
The Grand Opening, Finally

"It took you twelve years but you finally opened it." joked Dray as he gripped King's shoulder and rocked it a little bit. Despite Dray's humor it felt true to King causing him to laugh to hisself. He hadn't kept track of how many times he said the shop was suppose to officially open, but today was finally the day.

A sense of pride rained over him. This was something he had been planning since he was a little child. Back when he use to give his teddy bear, Woody, and some of his other toys quote on quote line ups. They were usually done with a pair of child safety scissors but little Kingston didn't mind at all.

Sure business wasn't something he wanted to go to school for in the beginning, but he remembered something a senior told him when he moved back to Brooklyn. Not to chase after a bag but to chase a career you love that provided a bag. That quote stuck with King and when his junior year came he switched his major to business management.

He fell in love with the idea of becoming his own boss and not having to follow anyone else orders but his. And the most important part was his grandfather. One time over spring break King had been cleaning the attic which was demanded by his mother of course. And stumbled across some old pictures of his grandmother and grandfather. Turns out not to far from where his grandparents lived was an old abandon building. His grandfather bought it and turned it into a barbershop. At first it was only provided to males but his grandfather let his grandmother do hair in the back of the building.

He ran the business for twenty years until he had to shut it down due to some unknown problems with the building. King asked his dad why he had never told him about the shop and that's when King learned the actual truth. When his grandfather bought the shop the man who sold it to him never gave him full ownership of the building. The blame fell on his grandfather due to his reading not being the best. Meaning that whenever he wanted his grandfather out of it he could. And that's exactly what happened.

The man who his grandfather bought it from ended up dying and none of his family members wanted his business nor the land despite it being inherited to them. Once school started back up King made it an essential that he buy back that property. And that he did. King did some research and turns out the mans son in law owned the company now. King bought the place back out and fully signed ownership back over to his name now. Meaning that King owned the building now and so did his family.

"I'm proud of you big bro." Deezy congratulated as he dapped King down and pulled him into a slight hug. Deezy knew how much this meant to King and wouldn't have missed the official grand opening for nothing.

"Thanks man." King replied hugging him back before releasing him. "But seriously get your ass in that chair and get that fixed." King corrected him slapping Deezy head.

"About time someone noticed." Dray barged in grabbing Deezy's face and examining the mess on top of his head.

"You need to do the same. Look at your beard D." King mentioned not sparing anyone at the moment. The few customers he had snickered at his remark as he pointed both Deezy and Dray to a seat.

"You have no room to talk. That moss nest on top of your head need some work done on it to. So catch a seat boss man." Deezy joked pointing to the seat across from him as he sat down.

Dray shook his head but had remembered what King had said awhile back. He did need a back up barber in place of when his personal one couldn't make it. And knowing King he wouldn't just hire anybody so the four barbers he did have had to be working with something.

"Worry about self." King warned Deezy as he peeped at his reflection in one of the mirrors. Running his hand through his hair King nodded his head in agreement with Deezy. A little touch up was needed but nothing to major. But he had time to get that done today's focus was on the customers and customers only.

"Aye King!" A voice called causing King to look away from the mirror. It was one of the customers actually calling for him. Nodding his head upward the man continued. "You know any games playing right now?" He asked readjusting a little in his seat as the barber got him together.

"Nah not that I heard of but I could check if they got some reruns." King answered walking over towards one of the barber's stands. Grabbing the remote that laid on one of the table King walked back to the front. Pointing it at the main tv King switched from Netflix to ESPN. Like he figured there wasn't any games except for the past ones from last week. And finals were premiering yet. "No nobody playing right now and I ain't record any."

"You good." The random guy replied closing back his eyes as the barber continued to work.

"I thought we told you to have a seat." Deezy mentioned pulling his arm from underneath the cover and pointing towards the empty seat again.

King wanted to roll his eyes at Deezy's annoyance but he figured since nobody was in now he might as well. Shooing Deezy off King reached into his pocket and pulled out his black leather wallet. Opening it up he pulled out three five dollar bills and handed it over to Cedric. He had met Cedric back at the old barber shop on seventh street. Unfortunately, it closed down two months before King wanted to open his shop. With Cedric being in need of a job and seeing his work King hired him without a doubt.

"What's this for boss man?" He questioned looking down at the money as if it was foreign to him.

"What the sign say Ced?" He asked pointing the money in the direction of the sign.

Plastered across the windows of the shop in white writing were the prices of what King offered. Right below the name of the shop read: Walk Ins $15.

Cedric didn't want to read it but he had finally comprehended what King was doing.

"You own the shop why would you pay for a walk in?" Cedric asked scrunching his eyebrows together as he continued to look at the money.

"It don't matter if I own the shop or not. I'm paying for a service that you provide." King explained sitting the money behind Cedric and on his table.

"Will you sit your ass down and stop always trying to-." Deezy started but Dray had stepped in.

"He be trying be T.I." Dray interrupted laughing at his own joke.

"Y'all swear all day that y'all some damn comedians." King said irritated sitting down in the chair.

"Exactly." Cedric agreed grabbing the money off the table and handing it back to King.

King finally rolled his eyes as he repositioned hisself in the seat. He made sure to turn the chair a little to where he could face the television. As Cedric wrapped the cover around his body the bell of the front door could be heard going off. As if on command all eyes turned towards the front door.

"What y'all doing here?" Deezy asked tilting his head towards the mystery group who stood at the door.

"Don't start with me Deezy." Melanie warned laughing as she held a finger up at him. She was not in the mood to be messed with especially it being Deezy. He was like a aggy older brother she never wanted but for some reason had received.

"If you must know." Breylynn started. "Remember I told y'all when King finally opened the shop I would bring my little cousin here." She continued pulling the three year old from behind her. The bright-skinned child fiddled with his belt loop as he looked around at the unfamiliar place. His hair was in a man bun with his brown curls sticking out causing it to look messy. A touch up was needed on the little guy.

"I can get him next." Leroy offered as he dusted off the person he had been doing earlier. The guy thanked him before handing him the money and shaking his hand.

"Come on Xavier." Breylynn instructed as she picked the child up and placed him in his seat. She had decided to stick around just in case he decided to act up. He wasn't the best around new people so she had to be prepared.

"So you not talking to me?" Deezy asked Mariah as he touched his chest as if he was hurt. Mariah rolled her eyes at the question but Melanie could see the blush on her cheeks a mile away. But she decided not to blast her friend but instead go tend to her own man.

"Hey baby." She exclaimed as she approached King who had one eye open and one closed. At first she was a bit confused as to why he was getting a hair cut in his own facility, but questioning King was like interrogation to her.

"Wassup." He responded poking his lips out for a kiss. Leaning down Melanie gave him a quick peck knowing King hated when she got lipstick on him.

"Nothing Bre said she wanted Xavier to get a little line up so we all came. Plus you know I wasn't about to miss your grand opening." She explained looking around at the place. Her lips formed into a smile as remembered how much work had went into this place. Even the arguments between Mariah and Bre had payed off.

"Thank you bae." He said smiling as he pulled Melanie to the side of him so Cedric could start on the front of his hair.

"So I'm guessing this the lucky lady?" Cedric cooed as he raised his eyebrows towards King.

King laughed at the crazy man but answered. "Yeah this the one I be telling y'all about."

"Telling then what?" Melanie asked smartly as a smirk came across her face. "It better be all good things." She corrected him.

"I can vouch for him that there isn't one bad thing that he says about you. Your a very sweet girl just like he mentioned. It's finally nice to meet you." Cedric vouched extending his hand towards Melanie.

"It's nice to meet you-." She paused unsure of his name.

"Cedric." He blurted as they shook hands.

"It's nice to finally meet you to Cedric." Melanie greeted again.

"That's Leroy over there with Xavier. Tony over there fixing want-to-be-Drake, my bad I meant Dray. Luther is over there with Deezy. And Patrick is the one over there." King explained making sure he introduced everybody to Melanie.

"Hey y'all." Melanie said waving her hand and smiling as each guy said hey back to her.

"Aye you, Mariah, and Bre go check out the salon and see if y'all like it." King reminded Melanie since Breylynn and Mariah had yet to see the finishing touches of their designs.

"I forgot all about that. Hopefully I can pry Mariah off Deezy." Melanie mumbled as she headed towards them. She wasn't sure if Breylynn was going to come right this minute but she knew that she would eventually want to see it.

__________

"My heart cold, I bet the angels agree. These n**** fake I don't f*** with them they all strangers to me."

For Keeps by Rich The Kid ft NBA Youngboy played through the speakers of the shop as more and more customers poured in. Judging from the day King had his cookout for the shop he didn't expect a lot of people to come back. Taking that they had forgot about the shop since the official grand opening took so long. Despite his negative thoughts business was booming. The guys were coming to get their fresh cuts and the girls followed right behind them to get their various hairstyles done.

King was currently sitting in one of the empty barber stations checking his social media. From time to time to he welcomed customers and thanked them for coming. Or even started conversation. And sometimes making certain requests with the different channels they wanted to watch. And now that he had thought about it he hadn't seen any of the girls since they had all went back there. At first he wanted to text Melanie and tell her to come back up front but he thought that maybe she was enjoying her time back there. 

Girl time I guess, he thought to hisself as he locked his phone and placed it away. Looking up King's head did a double take. Hell he had moved it so fast he thought he had gave hisself whiplash. He was almost thanking God he didn't text Melanie to come back to the front. Because just as his mind gave him the signal that he was right about what he seen the bell of the front door opening went off.

And this time it wasn't a new customer.

It was Nikki.

"Welp time for me to go." Deezy announced as he to seen Nikki standing at the front door. Trey stood on side of her with his head buried into his phone as her hands rested on his shoulders. Her eyes immediately met King's and she flashed him a quick smile.

Deezy had seen the smile and proceed to get out his seat. "Yep it's definitely time for me to go. Don't want Melanie to get any of Nikki's blood on my new shoes." He mumbled as he got out of his seat and headed outside.

King had no time to curse him out because Nikki was already walking his way. If you could have seen King's face you would have thought Jesus had came back to personally get him. His legs were locked. His hands couldn't move. The man didn't even know if he was blinking. The only thing that ran through his head right now was the fact that Melanie and Nikki were in the same room. And the last time he talked to Nikki was when he woke up in her bed.

"Hey King." She said softly as her pearly whites flashed a smile at him.

He had started to draw attention to hisself now as Curtis and a few others had now started looking at him. But they didn't understand that World War III could possibility be happening before their eyes.

"What you doing here Nikki?" He asked looking her up and down making sure that if anything was to go down he could vouch that she was the one doing something.

"Well I heard through the grape vines that you opened a shop and I said why not come through and support. Plus Trey is in need up a new haircut." She explained taking the phone from Trey's hand.

"Mamma what you doing!" Trey asked angrily.

"I told you to put that away earlier anyways. Now say hello to King." She instructed locking the phone and placing it in her back pocket.

"Oh yeah! Hey coach." Trey greeted him holding out his hand for a dap. He had admired King as a coach and always enjoyed when it was time to play his team.

"Wassup with you little man." King replied dapping the little boy down before releasing his hand. "Well look when Tony done with him y'all all can go over th-."

"Baby! Jayla said she need some more sham-." Melanie words had been cut off by her own self as she locked eyes with Nikki.

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