A Hustler's Son

by T. Styles

  “Lakeisha! Lakeisha!”

  I tried to run over to the car but my equilibrium was all fucked up and I fell over again. When I finally got up, they were gone. I leaned up against the fence and wondered what was next.

  IN THE APARTMENT

  3:45 PM

  Our apartment looked weird. After being held at gunpoint, everything looks different, even the place you call home. I don’t know if the blow that nigga dealt had me noid, or if I was changed more now than ever before.

  But for some reason, my senses was heightened. The only thing is now it wouldn’t do me no good. Always watch your back Kelsi, is what she used to tell me. And what did I do? Get caught slipping!

  I ran through every room in my apartment to make sure he wasn’t there, because truthfully, I ain’t know what kind of dude I was dealing with. Prior to now he’d always been pansy ass Charles. But after the stunt he just pulled, I ain’t know who I was dealing with. But I do know that he should’ve killed me. It’s almost like I was given a second chance but for what?

  3:55 PM

  “Bricks, I can’t find her man! I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Maybe I should go back out and try to look for her.”

  “Naw, man! Stay right there. I’m gonna have my brother come pick you up in fifteen minutes. We’ll find her Kels. I’m telling you right now, Bladensburg is too small for that nigga to get away with this shit.”

  “If he touched her I’ll –”

  “Look, we can’t think about that shit right now. We gotta think about our next move. We’ll get that bitch ass nigga! Trust me.”

  “I hope so. That nigga is mine.”

  “No doubt,” Bricks said. “We’ll be there in a sec.”

  “Aight man. Hurry up.”

  Bricks calmed me down because I felt in his voice, that he was as mad as I was about what happened. He always said that nigga was a little extra as far as Keisha was concerned but we never thought he’d go this far.

  The moment I came in, I called Lakeisha repeatedly, hoping she would be at home but knowing she wasn’t. Maybe the knots I got on my head fucked up my frame of mind, because I knew she wouldn’t be there. It didn’t help that all of my calls went straight to her mother’s voicemail where she played the entire song Believe In Me, by Raheem Davaughn.

  Blood was all over my face and I was sure I would need stitches. There was no way in the world I could be here by the time my mother came home. She would lose it the moment she saw me, even though I was sure it looked worse than what it really was. Damn! I still can’t believe this shit happened to me.

  I walked into the bathroom to clean up some of the blood with a few dark washcloths. In case I didn’t make it home in time to tell my mother what happened, I didn’t want her seeing blood all over the white ones. She was too up on shit for me to throw them things away.

  When the phone rang, I dropped everything to go answer it.

  “Lakeisha!”

  “Naw, its Delonte. Did your moms tell you I’m moving back in?”

  “Yeah,” I said all nonchalant and shit. Truth was I didn’t give a fuck. What he want me to do, stroke his nuts?

  “Well, I’ll be there in an hour.”

  See now we got a problem. My girl was out there possibly getting raped and this untrustworthy ass nigga wanted me to wait around for him to maybe or maybe not, bring his sweaty ass socks to my crib? That wasn’t happening.

  “Yeah. I’ll be here.”

  When I hung up I knew it was as likely for me to be here, as it was for him to be around next week. You just never know.

  I went to the bathroom and changed into the shirt I had on the edge of the tub. The bloody shirt looked like I was stabbed, shot and stomped. I stuffed the blood-stained shirt in a plastic bag and put it under my mattress. I was going to throw it in the dumpster later when I had some time.

  I grabbed the box of Band-Aids from the medicine cabinet, and played doctor on the wound Charles caused. For real they weren’t covering shit, but it helped stop the bleeding. A little.

  Five minutes later, Bricks and Melvin were calling me to come downstairs.

  IN MELVIN’S TRUCK

  4:30PM

  I get it now, everything you go through in life, builds you up to become a man. For those who don’t go through shit, they will never have an idea of what it’s like. If shit is easy all your life, you have a false impression of what the real world is like and you run the risk of getting set up. But when you’re thrown out there like me, you’re forced to do what the fuck you gotta do.

  I understood now more than ever.

  What don’t kill you makes your stronger, Kelsi.

  I was starting to believe that more and more because plenty of niggas would have been terrified at what just happened, but to me, it all felt natural. I felt I was on the right path, even if it was the path of destruction.

  I ran downstairs and jumped in his brother’s black Durango. Melvin was cool as shit and was always down for anything. He’d gotten me and Bricks out of plenty of shit in our day, including the time we was drunk and got locked up after leaving Crossroads, a night club one night.

  Fucking with these broads, we didn’t realize they got us for our wallets in the club. Instead of calling it a night, we decided to eat at IHOP and leave without paying. Melvin came all the way down from D.C. to get two drunk ass bastards out of Upper Marlboro’s holding cell, which was about 40 minutes away from where we lived.

  That’s the only time being a minor paid off, because moms would have flipped if she had to come get me for stealing pancakes and shit.

  Outside of Bricks, Melvin was the only nigga I really fucked with.

  “Hey, lil nigga. I heard what happened. If we find that bamma, I’m whooping his ass.”

  “Thanks Melvin, but that nigga’s mine. If he put his hands on my girl, I’m killing him. I just need you and Bricks to have my back in case he tries to slug me.”

  “A lil nigga after my own heart.”

  “We think we saw the Z near Capital Plaza on the way coming to get you, so we going back there now,” Bricks said.

  “For real!” I asked wondering why they just didn’t go there and get her. I mean what if he got away? I would have been real salty about that shit.

  “Yeah it looked like his old ass car but it was just parked. I figured you live right around the corner so even if he drove up the street, we could still catch up with his ass,” Bricks said.

  “You right. As long as we find him before he rolls out, I’m good.”

  “Where his punk ass live anyway?” Melvin asked.

  “He live in Landover. Somewhere near Landover train station.”

  “Well what the fuck is he doing going to Bladensburg?” Melvin asked.

  “Exactly!” I said. “He’s almost as old as you and still in high school. How old are you anyway Melvin? 54?” I joked trying to make myself laugh when wasn’t shit funny.

  “Naw, lil nigga, I’m 35 and old enough to be your Pappy.” He laughed.

  When he said that I didn’t want to admit it but in a way I wished he were. My father wasn’t about shit. He came by when he got ready and dropped me off some cash every now and again. I cared more about the million-dollar insurance policy he bragged on having then I did about him.

  When we pulled up in the Capital Plaza’s parking lot, I spotted that niggas car right away. Everything in me wanted to tell Melvin to run his shit over but I had to think clearly because of Lakeisha. If I react too quickly she could be in more danger. I wish she would have listened to me and gotten on that fucking bus!

  “There’s his car. Park right there, next to the McDonalds,” I whispered as if Charles could hear me.

  “Yeah I see his ass. I’m gonna park behind it so we can run up on him.” Melvin said.

  When I got out of the truck, I walked toward his car. I tried to stay out of sight because I didn’t want him spotting me before I knocked the shit out of his ass. Plus, I didn’t want him pulling off if Lakeisha was
still in the car.

  Melvin didn’t follow Bricks and me because he went toward his car. When I looked to my left, I saw Bricks creeping real low like he was in a scene from Menace To Society. It was weird to watch because at 5’9” and 240 pounds, Bricks wasn’t a small dude. I seen that black ass mothafucka crush many a nigga in his day.

  When I turned around, I saw Melvin and more importantly, what he had in his hand. I was ready for war now that I knew he was packing. I picked up a big ass rock in the parking lot and put it in my pocket.

  “What you doing with that shit nigga? Stoning him to death?” Bricks asked.

  “Fuck you.”

  When we reached the car, I was hot when I ain’t see Lakeisha in the passenger seat. Bricks planned on snatching her out of the car while I handled my business with Charles but now I didn’t know where my baby was. It made me mad as hell to see that nigga’s pansy ass laughing on his cell phone, looking like a bitch.

  When he looked up and saw me at his window, he was shook. I took the rock I had in my pocket and crushed his window. Glass went everywhere but I wasn’t worried about getting cut. I’d seen enough blood today to be immune to any pain or fear.

  I grabbed him by the shirt and was trying to pull him through the broken window. He was fighting me but I kept the hold I had on him. He was almost as tall as me so, pulling him out wasn’t working. Bricks came to my side of the car and together, we were ripping his shirt to shreds trying to get his ass out the window, but it wasn’t working. When we realized it was dumb to pull his clown ass through the window, I decided to open the door.

  “Hold up Bricks,” I said out of breath. “Don’t let his ass move.”

  Melvin was right behind us making sure Charles didn’t get away and no one would approach us.

  I reached through the window unlocked the door and pulled him out. Bricks turned his ass around and threw him up against the car. He wanted to make sure he didn’t have the gun he used to bludgeon my head earlier. I was sure he didn’t because P.G. County Police would have locked his ass up with a quickness and he knew I was looking for his ass. He’d be dumb as shit to have a gun on him now.

  “He’s clean.” Bricks said like he was a cop.

  “Where the fuck is Lakeisha?”

  “She ain’t here nigga!”

  I looked in his eyes and all I saw was fear and I loved it. I wondered if I looked like he did now when he approached me earlier with that piece.

  “I see that bitch! So where the fuck is she?” I asked as I walked up closer to him.

  With Melvin on my left and Bricks on my right, we stood in front of him like we were 5-0’s finest.

  “Man, uh, get the fuck out my face. I said she ain’t here. What the fuck you want me to say? Huh?”

  “Is this nigga tryna break?” I said as if I was talking to my boys.

  Yeah this nigga was trying to break bad and I was tired of talking to him. I figured he’d done something to Keisha and there was no reason he should even be existing.

  I was just getting ready to use the blade I carried in my pocket when I saw Melvin’s 6’3” 300 pound frame walk toward him. Charles’s entire expression changed. The fear I provoked in him earlier had worn off and had been replaced with the fear he had for Melvin.

  There we were in the middle of the parking lot of Capital Plaza and I could have sworn that nigga was on the verge of crying.

  “Lil nigga, you got five seconds to tell me where my man’s girl is.”

  “She ain’t here. Uh, her friend saw us driving down the street and she went with her. I wasn’t gonna do shit to her, I just wanted to talk to her.”

  “Slim, she’s not your girl, so what the fuck you gotta talk to her about?” Melvin asked with the gun visibly showing in the front of his jeans.

  I knew this was my business but I loved seeing Melvin getting in that nigga’s shit.

  “Uh, I, uh wanted to talk to her about us. Did he tell you she used to be my girl?”

  “Slim, you sound like a bitch! You’s a sucka for love ass nigga for real!” Bricks laughed.

  “I don’t care what you think. Like I said before, I wanted to talk to her about us!” Charles said.

  “You wanted to talk to her about us. They told me you was a bitch but I had no idea.” Melvin said as he pulled out a gun. “Well since you like to hit folks with weapons, I’m going to return the favor. And if you move, if you move, I’ll be using the other end of this gun. You feel me, lil nigga?”

  “Pleaseee … don’t,” Charles begged.

  “Mel, let me handle this.”

  “You got it Kels,” Melvin said as he handed me the piece.

  It was the first time I ever held a weapon in my hands outside of the blade I carried to school sometimes. I’d seen ‘em all the time but niggas don’t like you touching their shit. For a minute, I looked at it and admired its power. I could do anything I wanted with it between my fingers.

  I looked down at the steel and held it in a position that commanded authority. Charles’ expression changed once again but this time I didn’t need Melvin or anybody else to make him fear me.

  For that one second, to him, I was God.

  “I’m gonna ask you one more time,” I said as I cocked the gun. “Where the fuck is my girl?”

  Melvin and Bricks looked around to make sure no one was watching in case I shot this mothafucka right where he stood. I don’t even know how I knew how to cock the gun, maybe from playing video games or maybe it was instinct.

  It could have been the thought of him on top of my girl and her begging him to stop. It could have been him going in and out of her and her screaming for me to help, even though I wasn’t near, or it could have been pure unadulterated hate.

  I was so mad now; I was five seconds from blowing his head off. My hand was shaking, my finger and the trigger were about to become one. Charles was sweating bullets as he stood up against his car. Melvin took two steps next to me and said, “Be sure. Just be sure.”

  I knew what that meant and I was sure. I was sure I wanted to kill him but I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth. What if she was okay and I’d gone too far? I didn’t want my moms coming to see me in the oranges behind bars. She had enough problems dealing with these niggas in her life. I ain’t want to add to her burdens. The thing is, because I thought of how she would feel if I took his life, I spared him and he ain’t even realize it.

  Didn’t even have a clue!

  But this bitch ass nigga wouldn’t be getting off so easy either.

  I took the glock and changed the position from that of authority, to that of a ruthless object that I used to come across his face, like he did me. Once down, Bricks started stomping him liked he’d kidnapped his girl. Normally I handled business on my own, but he deserved what he was getting, he deserved it all. I’d be mad as hell later, if I found out he actually raped Lakeisha and I let him get away unscaved and I was mad at how my mother would feel the moment she saw my face. So for five more minutes, we punished his ass in the middle of the parking lot, until we were tired.

  When we felt he received the proper beating, Melvin reminded him to stay the fuck away from Lakeisha and me on Monday at school and he said that he would. But after everything we did today, I knew I’d be seeing him again and it wouldn’t be in passing.

  BACK AT THE APARTMENT

  6:15 PM

  When I made it back to the apartment, Valentino was sitting in the parking lot, with his shit in his Escalade, ready to move back in. I knew that nigga was a pusher and that kinda irritated me too because I ain’t want my moms involved in no bullshit. So what I slang weed, but that nigga pushed coke and I ain’t like that shit.

  Truthfully, everything that cat did irritated me.

  “Your boy’s here,” Bricks said as we all looked toward his truck.

  “I see his punk ass.” I glared at him through the window.

  “Your moms got his ass open. She be straight playing his ass though. How you put a nigga out every
week?” Bricks laughed.

  “What I don’t understand is why he keep coming around this mothafucka!” I added as we stared at his truck.

  I could have gotten out right away but I wanted to see how anxious he was. And he ain’t let me down.

  He was moving back and forth, like he was gonna die if he didn’t get in the apartment right now. He was mad as shit at me. Like she was in the apartment waiting for him and he was going to melt if he didn’t see her in the next five minutes. This nigga’s a pussy for real!

  “Well I’m out. I made this nigga suffer long enough,” I told them.

  “Later. Let me know if you see any spottings,” Bricks said. “We ain’t got no problem finishing that nigga off.”

  “No doubt.” I told him. “Thanks Melvin.”

  “You got it, champ. Later.”

  When I jumped out of Melvin’s truck, I told them I’d get up with them later. Delonte got out of his truck and followed behind me like some love-sick puppy.

  “Where you been? I told you I was coming. I’ve been waiting out here all day,” he said as he followed me to the apartment door. “And why was you taking so long getting out the truck when you knew I was waiting out here?”

  “Come on man, how you gonna be out here all day when you just called two hours ago?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Naw I don’t,” I said as I made my way to the apartment and opened the door.

  Delonte followed behind me, put the big ass trash bag down he was carrying, and sat next to me on the couch eyeballing my face.

  “Do you have to sit on the same couch with me? We ain’t in love!”

  “I’m trying to get a good look at your face.”