by S. L. Walker
One of the tall guys took the brick and walked out. Raven waited for payment while the other guy still stood by the door. I was also waiting for him to give us the payment.
“I’m waitin’ on breakfast to arrive, would ju ladies like to join me?” His Spanish accent became stronger as the coke started to work.
“No, but we would like the 20gs and be on our way thank you,” Raven wasted no time, sitting up in her chair. I couldn’t tell if Lo was offended or moved by Raven’s assertiveness.
“Suit yourself,” he smiled and motioned to the man standing, who turned and left.
“I like ju little Raven. You’re respectful. Got a lil’ mystery in you. I see why Treach pick you. She ya girlfriend?” He asked her, pointing at me. I laughed and so did Raven.
“No, one of my best friends,” she told him, looking at me. I could see why he would ask that. Raven had that tomboy look and she could definitely pass to have a girlfriend.
“Do you, bonita, have a boyfriend?” Lo asked me.
“No,” I said shyly, but couldn’t help but think about Sam. The tall guy came back in with a brown sack, which I assumed was the money and sat it on Lo’s desk. Lo took out the wrapped up stacks of hundreds and put them on the desk pushing them towards Raven.
“20,000,” he said to Raven. Raven smiled and picked up the money, dumping it into my bag and I zipped it up. She got up from her chair and held out her hand to Lo. I quickly got up too.
“It was a pleasure,” she told him as he took out his hand and shook hers.
“Next time you’re going to have to stay longer,” he told her, grinning. She looked at me for confirmation to leave and we headed for the door.
“Aye!” He stopped us. “You still got the gun I gave you?” He asked Raven. She lifted up the front of her sweater revealing the tucked Glock 42 I saw her stash. I looked at her in astonishment.
So he gave her that gun.
Lo burst out laughing giving her a thumbs up, “Esa es mi chica!”
Raven smirked and walked away.
“He gave you that?! When did this happen?!” I asked her full of questions as we walked past the dirty guy in the front and back out to our bikes.
“Give me your bag,” she told me, ignoring my questions yet again. “You go ahead and go to school. I’ll drop this to Treach and get my brother,” she handed out her hand for my backpack.
“No! I’m not going to let you go alone,” I refused, stepping back as to not give her the backpack.
“I don’t have time for this shit, Angie! Switch bags with me! If you guys don’t hear from me by the end of the day, call the police. You know where Treach is now. I need to make sure my brother is good. I’ll be fine,” she demanded, lifting her sweater again to show me her protection. I hesitated but gave her my bag. She switched her books and money over to mine and my stuff to her boring black Jansport. I grabbed her and hugged her.
“Please be safe, Vee. Please,” I hugged her hard.
“I will,” she pulled away from me and hopped on her bike and sped off. I looked back at the abandoned restaurant. More cars had now started to pass by as the morning risers began to go to work. I checked my pager time and had already missed my first class. I said a silent prayer for Raven and hopped on my bike and scurried to school.
VICTORIA
I was eager to see Angel’s face at our usual spot during lunch and she seemed pretty restless herself.
“Where’s Raven?” I asked her as soon as I walked up to her.
“Getting Deon back,” she said, worried. I noticed she didn’t have any lunch with her. “I went with her for the pick up, but she wanted to go by herself for the drop.”
“And you let her?” I asked, surprised.
“I didn’t have a choice. You know how Raven is,” Angel said. I saw her eyes move past me and I turned around to Eva.
“Where’s Raven? She wasn’t in class,” Eva repeated to Angel. She was probably wondering the same thing I was.
How was Angel here and Raven wasn’t.
“Raven went to the drop alone,” I filled Eva in.
“By herself?” Eva scratched her head in frustration. We were all worried. We didn’t trust Treach and was hoping that he would abide by what he said. “You didn’t have any problems, did you?” Eva asked Angel.
“No, the guy was actually pretty cool. I think he liked Raven,” Angel said. I sat down and pulled out a tuna sandwich my mom made for me.
“I can’t eat. Not without knowing Raven is good,” Angel said looking at my sandwich.
“Me neither,” added Eva, sitting down next to me. “So, who’s on punishment?”
We laughed.
“I’m not, luckily my mom understood, but if I do that shit again she said that was my ass,” I told them, taking a bite of my tuna.
“Me either, my mom got in late from work, so she didn’t even notice,” Eva said.
“Y’all are lucky. My mom was in a mood, she grounded me for a month,” Angel shook her head.
“Damn!” I shouted.
“Get outta here!” Eva shouted at the same time as me. “Your mom is like the chillest of everybody’s. She must’ve really been worried.”
“That and the fact that my dad hasn’t been home since Thanksgiving. I don’t think he’s coming home,” Angel dished. I didn’t know anything had been going on with Angel’s parents other than when she caught her dad.
“You told your mom what happened?” I asked her.
“Nope but I think she knows. They had been real secretive around me and then he went to my grammys' for Thanksgiving and never came back. She’s been real moody and I know it’s because of him. But I couldn’t tell her,” Angel told us twisting her finger around the strap of her backpack.
“Aw man, I’m sorry Angie, we were so caught up in Raven’s bullshit. You got your own stuff going on at home,” Eva told her with concerned eyes.
“Don’t trip, it’ll work out. Your mom deserves better anyway. And she will lift your punishment before a month,” I told her not convinced her mother could be that strict. But, parents change when they are dealing with problems and they take a lot of it out on the kids.
“I know, it just sucks. Anyway, Raven wants us to wait for her page to let us know she is okay,” Angel changed the subject. We all simultaneously looked at our pagers. Nothing.
“She will get it done,” I said, confidently but a part of me was very worried.
After school, Eva and I had met up in the front both complaining about never getting a page from Raven. We looked around for Angel, but we knew she had to be at the center after school today. My stomach turned and I got a sinking feeling.
“Let’s just ride by her house, if not, we will page her,” Eva said, noticing the worry on my face. We hopped on our bikes and headed to Ravens’. I prayed the whole time that she was safe or at least would page us while we were on our way there. She knew school was out and we would definitely be on a mission to look for her. But in the back of my head, I knew if neither was a given, we would have to roll up on Treach, the way she did for her brother. And this time, not in peace.
It took us no time to get to her house. When we arrived, there was a cop car parked in front. Raven’s dad’s car and Deon’s car was also in the driveway. Eva and I looked at each other at the same time before halting our bikes.
“Fuck,” Eva said, letting her bike hit the ground and running to the front door. I did the same. She knocked on the door, hard. We could hear commotion behind the door. To our surprise, Raven opened the door. Our eyes lit up at the site of her. Not a scratch on her, but she looked exhausted and busy.
“What the hell, Raven?” Eva instantly asked. She tried to push past Raven to go inside the house, but Raven stopped her. The door opened up just enough for me to see Deon sitting on the sofa with a small blanket around him. He looked over at me as he was talking to someone. I strained to see who he was talking to, assuming it was the cops while Eva fussed with Raven.
�
�I’m sorry, I didn’t page you guys, everything happened so quickly,” Raven said. “I can’t talk right now though.”
“Tell them what happened, D!” I heard Raven’s dad shout in the background. Raven looked back and I looked past her as well. I could see Deon more closely, bruised and cut up.
“I promise I will fill y’all in as soon as I can. Now isn’t a good time,” Raven told us.
“Are you okay?” I started to say right before Raven closed the door in our faces. Eva’s mouth dropped in anger.
“Can you believe this shit?!” Eva said storming down the porch steps back to her bike.
“Did you see Deon? He was in there,” I told her not even sure she peeped it.
“Yeah, thank God!” Eva answered.
“That’s all that matters,” I told her. “They are both safe,” I told her.
“Whatever, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Eva hopped on her bike and hurried off.
EVA
I got home to my mom relaxing in a bath, something she did every Wednesday. I was frustrated and happy at the same time with Raven. How could she have us worry about her like that? I took off my black puff coat and threw it in the corner and changed out of my yellow long sleeve shirt and blue jeans to some red PJ shorts and a white t-shirt. All I wanted to do was relax, not worry about homework or anything. My pager buzzed in my pants on the floor and I figured it was Raven ready to fill us in. I was surprised to see Steve’s number pop up. He had never paged me before, but he did give me his number and you bet I remembered it. I snuck past my mom’s room where I could hear her jazz music playing, so I knew she was still deep in soak in her bath. I got to the house phone and quickly called him.
“Hello,” his sexy voice answered. I could hear a TV in his background.
“Hey, this is Eva,” I said, trying to make my voice match his sexiness.
“Eva, hey. How are you? This your house number?” He asked.
“Yeah, but my mom always answers, so,” I told him warning to never call here.
“Oh, of course not. What are you doing right now? I’d love to meet you at this local bookstore called Ralphies',” he invited me. My heart skipped a beat. Hell yeah, I would love to, I wanted to say. I leaned over and looked at the time on the microwave. It was a bit early still and I couldn’t pass up seeing him outside of school. Today was such a busy day with lecturing and note taking, he barely looked at me.
“Yeah, sure! Where is it?” I asked him.
“It’s not too far from you, I don’t think. If so, we can meet somewhere close and I can come get you,” he told me.
“Oh, no it’s okay. I’m a big girl,” I told him, not wanting us to get too comfortable. I smiled through the phone. He gave me the address and said he’d be there in 30 minutes. I giggled like a little girl getting off the phone and trotted back to my room, still hearing the loud jazz through my mom’s door. I looked in the hallway bathroom mirror at myself and didn’t like what I saw. I instantly went through my closet looking for the cutest and coziest outfit I could find.
“What’s bookstore datish?” I asked myself. looking past turtle necks, long sweaters and faded tank tops. My mind raced that he saw me today and would know I changed clothes. I didn’t want to look obvious, but I also wasn’t the one to not make a good date impression. I grabbed the jeans I wore today off the floor and grabbed my brown cowgirl boots and slipped on a long sleeve black v-neck shirt with a black sparkly scarf. I grabbed some eyeliner and nude lip gloss and made my baby face look flawless with just those two essentials. I brushed and fluffed my long black hair the way I liked it and sprayed myself with some cucumber melon body splash. I was perfect. I wrote a quick note on a sticky pad and put it on her door telling her I was stopping by Ravens to welcome Deon back home and I’d be home before 6. I snuck out the house and road my love-struck ass to Ralphie’s Bookstore.
Ralphies' was closer to the school than I had thought and I was a bit nervous that other students might see us. It looked like a smaller version of the Borders bookstore. There was some outside seating with small wooden tables which was empty due to it being 40 degrees outside. I opened the glass doors to the smell of coffee and light chatter. To my left, was the front register, where one lady was buying a book, and to my right was a small coffee stand with no customers. The clerk looked bored leaning on the counter with her face in a teen magazine. I looked around the bookstore at all the different signs for book sections; Horror, Sci-Fi, Biography, etc, but I didn’t see any sign of Professor Heart. I decided to make my way over to the romance section and browse some books while I waited. A lot of titles were very sexual; Her Ecstasy, The Lover, Guilty Pleasures, Touch me Here. My eyes grazed over different titles becoming heated in parts I shouldn’t be. Suddenly a warm hand covered my eyes from behind me causing me to shriek a little. I turned around to that smile and the same cologne he always wore. Professor Heart stood there quietly laughing with a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Shhhh,” he chuckled. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”
“Professor Heart,” I smiled from ear to ear.
“Steeeeeve,” he corrected me as he always did and handed me the coffee. “I brought you some hot chocolate, wasn’t sure if you drink coffee.”
“I love hot chocolate,” I took it from him, still grinning. He was stunning.
“What you doing in the romance section?” He looked around at the different books surrounding us.
“Oh, I don’t know, I was looking for you,” I told him.
“In the romance section? I guess you think I’m romantic?” He flirted.
“I don’t know. Are you?” I flirted back.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” he said those words bringing a chill down my spine and the same heat in my pants I got from reading the titles. “I have to say, though, you seemed a little distracted today in class. Is everything alright? And Raven? Is she okay?”
I wanted to tell him everything right there. I wanted to spill it all and cry on his shoulders that we got ourselves into something we shouldn’t have but I couldn’t. As much as that handsome face looked concerned and worried about my well being, I wouldn’t dare. Plus, I couldn’t have him looking at me differently. He put his hand on my cheek as I looked away, still thinking how bad I wanted to tell him.
“Yeah, I think she is having some family issues that’s all,” I said, running my fingers over books, trying to look distracted.
“And what about you?” He touched my hand, stopping me from fiddling with the book binders. He touched my cheek again.
He didn’t know doing that shot fire through my veins. Or maybe he did. He looked me in my brown eyes as if about to lean in for a kiss.
“I’m fine,” I said softly hypnotized by his eyes and then he did it. His soft, warm lips pressed against mine. I kissed him back as his tongue slid over mine causing me to almost drop the hot chocolate that I still had gripped in my hand. He stopped and stepped back admiring the pureness of my face. He had just conquered my soul. I blushed and smiled and went back to fake looking at the romance books. I noticed he wasn’t looking at me anymore but over me. I turned to see who he was looking at and the same tall girl, Nicole, that was leaning all over him in the classroom that day, was standing there in the front of the alleyway like a hurt puppy. Did she just see us kiss? I smiled at her and then looked at him.
“This book here,” he instantly turned away from her and pointed to one of the novels. “I like this one,” he said, taking it out of the slot. I looked back at her and she was gone. What did I miss?
“Oh really?” I looked at the title. “The Lover, by Robin Schone,” I read out loud, but still in the back of my head I was curious about Nicole. I could tell he knew I wasn’t interested in the book.
“A rich woman who finds pleasure in a male prostitute. It’s actually really enlightening,” he added. I smirked. I wanted to ask him about her, but I was too afraid. I don’t know what was making me afraid nor did I know why. I pushed my thou
ghts out. “Oh, so you are a romantic?” I teased, looking back once more for the puppy faced girl. Even though I wanted to know about her, I had finally had him and wasn’t about to let anything ruin it.
RAVEN
I hadn’t talked to Deon since we had got home. Everything was a big mess, but all I cared about was him being home. My dad is furious and he won’t even talk to me. I waited until the dead of the night before I tapped lightly on Deon’s bedroom door. Nothing. I go to open it and couldn’t turn the knob, he had locked it, something he rarely did. I tapped a little harder and whispered out his name, soft enough so dad wouldn’t hear me. I snuck to the front door and peeked out the window to make sure he didn’t sneak out and leave, but his car was still in the driveway. I went back and tapped harder on his door.
“Deon, are you asleep?”
I paused.
“Go to bed, Vee,” he said in a tone I had never heard before. A tone of despair and exhaustion.
“D, can you open the door?” I paused again, giving him a chance to answer.
Silence.
“Unlock the door,” I demanded, raising my voice out of the whisper. He remained silent. I smacked my teeth and walked back to my room. I closed my door and flopped on my bed.
The day replayed over in my head.
Treach’s ugly grin when I gave him the cash. The fat men that dragged Deon out of the room and basically throwing him at me. Treach reminding me that we weren’t done. I could see Deon’s eyes outraged at me but burning a hole through Treach. Me taking off my oversized sweater and giving it to Deon, who’s t-shirt had been ripped and bloodied. Me riding him on my bike back to where his car was just like he did me when we were little kids; thinking of every excuse in the book to give my dad, but none mattered. Soon as we pulled up to the house, there was a cop car parked. Deon and I both hesitated to go in but dad’s instincts must’ve kicked in because he opened that front door so fast we didn’t have time to make a decision. The anger, fear, and relief were all combined in one big emotion. He hugged Deon, questioned me, hugged me, questioned Deon. The cop came to the front door with his notepad. My dad walked over to the cop and while Deon and I were following behind him, he muttered to me, “Don’t you say one word.”