Still A Dog

by Mark Anthony

  “Meagan Washington, you look a little different with the coat and the winter hat,” I explained with a smile.

  She smiled and then told me that she would love to sit down with me and interview me for an upcoming episode of the show.

  I was about to say something flirtatious to Meagan but I kept my cool and professional. I told her that I would love to be on her show.

  “Do you have a cell phone on you? Let me give you my cell phone so we won’t play phone tag or anything like that.”

  “Okay, sure,” she replied as she took out her cell phone and removed the gloves from her hands and programmed my number as I read it off to her. “I’m gonna call you right now, lock my number in your phone too,” she added.

  Unfortunately, my cell phone was still at the police precinct along with my money and my wallet. So I had to explain to Meagan that the police still had it.

  “Oh, okay,” she said with a small chuckle and a smile.

  Meagan extended her hand to me for a handshake, and I extended mine back.

  “Nice meeting you. So we’ll be in touch,” she said before walking back to the black van with dark tinted windows.

  As soon as she was back in the van and we were about to pull off, I said to Steve, “Yo, if meeting her was the reason that I got locked up, then there is no way I could be upset!”

  “Lance, that’s the major leagues right there, son!”

  “Yup, and I’m a pro at this. I guarantee you I’ll be smashing that soon,” I said as I reclined my seat all the way back and just beamed from the thought of what it would be like to get with a chick on Meagan’s level.

  I knew that I had the power to do more than just imagine what it would be like to bag Meagan. I had the power to make bagging her a reality. And I was determined to do just that.

  Chapter Nine

  By the next day, Tuesday, I had managed to return the numerous amount of phone calls that I had received from people who had seen the news and were checking up on me just to see if I was all right.

  My agent had called me, my editor had called, Fifth called, Mashonda called, Layla called, my sister called, my moms had called, all of the authors that I was cool with had called me. It was crazy. One by one I had managed to call everybody back and I made sure to make note of everybody who had chosen not to reach out to me. I did this because I wanted to take note of who was really riding with me and who I would have to remove from my life once this whole ordeal was behind me. Most notably, out of all people, I was surprised that Toni hadn’t called.

  I mean, I knew that she had long since moved on and was in a different space from the space that we had occupied when I was cheating with her. But I still had a five-year-old daughter by her and just on the strength of our daughter—whose name was Sahara—she could have called me. It was all good, though. Toni was living the good life with her super-successful husband and she was always coming across as if she didn’t have the time of day for anybody. But I was sure that eventually the bad karma that she was throwing off would catch up to her and smack her ass with a dose of humble reality.

  Around eight-thirty in the evening, my cell phone rang, and it was Nicole calling me from her cell phone. I had to think twice about picking up, because I didn’t want to later have to deal with any okey-doke bullshit.

  “Nicole, you’re calling me, so I don’t wanna hear no shit about me violating this stupid order of protection you got,” I said as I answered the phone.

  “Lance, I know that. But listen, LL got suspended from school today because apparently somebody called you a jailbird, and he didn’t like that, so LL jumped on the kid and beat him down.”

  I shook my head and blew a whole lot of air into the phone. It took everything inside of me to restrain myself from flipping out on Nicole because this whole episode with LL could have easily been avoided had she not be so unreasonable.

  “Well, what do you want me to say? If I come by the house and speak to him, I’m going back to jail. If I call my own house that’s harassment. Nicole, why don’t you tell me exactly how to handle this situation since you wanna wear the pants.”

  “Lance, listen, I know I might have went overboard—”

  “You might have?” I sarcastically said as I cut Nicole off.

  “Yeah, just hear me out. I been really praying and fasting about us and our marriage, and just about everything in general and now with this incident with LL, I know that God is trying to show me something.”

  I kept quiet because I knew that once Nicole got on her God told me this, God told me that soapbox, there was no use in trying to get in a word edgewise because it would simply go on deaf ears, so I kept my mouth shut until she was finished.

  “And so your point is?” I asked sarcastically when she was done.

  Nicole sucked her teeth and said, “Lance, my point is that I realize where I was wrong, but you know, you could show a little humility yourself and admit where you were wrong too.”

  “Nicole, show me my error? You falsely accuse me of cheating—with no evidence, I might add— you throw me out of my own house, and get me locked up for it, and you want me to show you where I was wrong?”

  There was silence on the phone, and then Nicole asked me if I would come by the house later that evening so that we could both talk with LL.

  “Let me call my lawyer first and see if it’s all right for me to do that. No, matter of fact, why don’t you type up a letter authorizing me to come to my own house and sign it, then scan it and e-mail it to my phone. When I get that, then I’ll come through.”

  “Lance, come on now.”

  “What do you mean, Lance, come on now? Hello! I was just locked up for five days and I’m not trying to go back to jail, so if you want me to come through then sign off on that and e-mail it to me! You created this nonsense, not me!”

  “Okay, Lance, fine, I’ll e-mail you a signed letter okaying you to come by the house.”

  I remained quiet because I was still heated, and all of the feelings that I had been feeling when I was sitting in jail were all starting to creep back up and make me even madder. I mean, it was absolutely ridiculous that I had even been locked up and put through the system. And although I didn’t have a short fuse, having had my freedom taken away from me was something that didn’t sit well with me and it never would, especially when it was over some bullshit.

  “Well, listen, why you waited until eight-thirty at night to call me and tell me this, that I don’t know ...”

  “Lance, you know I go to church on Tuesday nights; I just got out and I’m on my way back to the house.”

  “Well, like I was getting ready to say, T.L. is having an album release party tonight at Guesthouse in the city and I’m getting ready to head to that, so being that it’s already late, why don’t I just come by in the morning before you leave for work and we can talk with him then.” I would always drop anything at any moment for my son, but I had a feeling that I would have to deal with some added bullshit from Nicole and so once again I had to make a shit-or-get-off-of-the-pot decision, and at that moment, I decided to shit on my situation once again.

  “Who are you going to the city with?”

  “With Steve.”

  “Lance, I’m not trying to preach to you, but don’t you think you’ve been partying just a little bit too much lately?”

  “No,” I simply responded.

  “Well, I don’t know. Just be careful. I’ll call you in the morning.”

  “Okay, and listen. This is just a phase for right now that will pass real soon. I told you, I’m just trying to have my face constantly in the mix until I manage to break through with this movie thing. And it’s all about who you know, so if I’m not in the mix I won’t be able to network and meet people.”

  “Yeah, Lance, I know all of that, but you’re also a married man with a son. So just watch the example you set for him. And I always tell you, you don’t have to chase what you can attract. When God is ready to open that movie door for you it
will open, you don’t have to sell your soul in the process.”

  I knew it was time to hang up the phone because Nicole always took it to the extreme with the religious shit. How was going to a party all of a sudden selling my soul?

  “Okay, Nicole, just call me in the morning,” I said to her cordially before hanging up.

  There was no way in the world that I was gonna miss or even be very late for T.L.’s party. It was parties like his that I absolutely lived for. Steve was gonna go with me to the party, but we decided that we would drive separate cars just in case either one of us hooked up with something nice at the party and wanted to leave early.

  As we were getting dressed, my cell phone rang, and it was a girl who went by the name of Slim Kim. Slim Kim was the publicist for the party. She had called me because I had called her earlier that day to put Mashonda and Layla on the list for the party.

  “What’s good, Lance? Sorry it took me so long to hit you back but today my phone is straight bananas.”

  “Yeah, I could imagine. I hope I’m not killing you, but I need to add four more people to the list.”

  “No, no, It’s all good. So I already got you plus one. You want me to change that to plus five.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I gotchu, baby boy. Just get me at the bar tonight and it’s all good,” she said in a joking manner.

  “No doubt! I gotchu, girl,” I said before hanging up the phone.

  Steve thought I was the biggest, lamest asshole in the world for inviting both Mashonda and Layla to the party when there was already gonna be so much brand new pussy at the party to choose from. For the most part, I understood where he was coming from and he was right, but it was my ego more than anything else that had caused me to invite them. It was like more than anything I just wanted to show them that I had the power to get them into such a high-profile party. But I was certain to tell them that I was gonna be moving around the entire night and that I wouldn’t be able to really chill with them that much. So I felt like in a sense that I had covered myself by building an out for myself before the party even started.

  Just before midnight me and Steve arrived at the party. The line to get inside was thick and it stretched about half a block long. But we bypassed the line and headed straight to the front. As we approached the bouncers one of them asked, “Lance, he’s witchu?”

  “Yeah, he’s with me,” I said as I waited for him to pull back the ropes so that we could enter the party, “and listen, I got about four more shorties coming through, make sure they get in, a’ight?” I said to the bouncer as I placed a hundred-dollar bill in the palm of his hand.

  “That’s what’s up. I’m on that for you.”

  I knew for a fact that it was because my face had been on the front page of the newspaper, and on all of the news channels, that the bouncer had so quickly recognized me, and I loved every second of feeling like a celebrity.

  The party was packed. There were literally wall-to-wall people everywhere as me and Steve snaked our way to the main level of the club and over to the bar. I saw a lot of people that I knew but I wasn’t able to get everyone’s attention.

  “It’s rammed up in here,” Steve said, just before getting one of the bartender’s attention and ordering drinks for the both of us.

  Just as I finished my first drink, I felt my phone vibrating. I looked at it and I saw a text from Nicole that said;

  Lance, I just wanted to tell you that in spite of everything that’s happened over the past week, I still love you!

  I blew some air out of my lungs and I couldn’t help but smile. Nicole was a special person and I knew why I loved her so much. I was happy to see her text, but again, I had to compartmentalize and move those thoughts to the back of my mind because I didn’t want to feel any guilt feelings. I quickly texted back that I loved her as well, and then I put my phone away and tried to get the bartender’s attention so that I could order another round of drinks. There was a young lady who was also trying to get the bartender’s attention as well.

  “What are you drinking? I got it!” I yelled over the music into the girl’s ear.

  She looked at me and smiled and then told me that it was okay, that I didn’t have to do that.

  “It’s all good, I gotchu,” I said as I finally got the bartender’s attention and ordered my drink and told him to get the young lady whatever she wanted.

  She smiled again and then told the bartender to let her have an apple martini.

  “Thank you,” she said into my ear.

  I really was just being nice and wasn’t even trying to kick it to her, and I could tell that she appreciated that fact. She also seemed a little bit surprised that I didn’t at least ask her what her name was.

  The night was real young and I was just getting warmed up so that move that I had made in buying her a drink and not asking her what her name was, it was just a move to get my swagger in full tilt.

  I paid for the drinks and told the young lady to be safe and that I would see her around. Me and Steve continued making our way through the crowd and bumped into someone that we knew from Queens but we hadn’t seen in a while, a dude who went by the name of Fredro.

  I had known Fredro since I was in junior high school. He was one of those pretty boy dudes from way back in the day who always had money, the baddest chicks and the baddest cars. When all of the money from the crack game started to dry up, Fredro was one of the first dudes from New York to go down to Virginia to get money dealing weight. So he was well-known for his flamboyance and for always holding money.

  “Oh shit, my niggas! What up?” Fredro said as he gave us a pound.

  “What’s the deal?” Steve replied.

  Fredro told us to follow him and that he and his crew had a table upstairs near the other bar.

  “Yo, we got the whole upstairs on smash, come on.”

  As we followed Fredro I was directly behind him and while we were on the winding steps that lead to upstairs, Fredro turned to me and in my ear and said, “Yo, I got that white. Holla at your boy!”

  I nodded and the three of us kept it moving. When we finally did make it upstairs, the energy was totally different than it had been downstairs. Downstairs was much more rammed and people were more or less profiling, but upstairs people were actually partying their asses off and having a good time.

  I immediately recognized Buffie the Body, DJ Kay Slay was in the spot chillin’. Toccara from America’s Next Top Model was there, Roxie from BET’s 106 & Park was there. I saw one of the NY Jets, and I also saw the model Melyssa Ford. Steve saw something that he liked and he told me that he was gonna be back so that he could go holla at the chick.

  After Steve walked off, I went up to Fredro and I handed him two hundred dollars. He looked down at the money and without saying anything he went into his pocket and discreetly pulled out two cellophane bags of cocaine and handed them tome.

  “The bouncer at the bathroom all the way in the back, he knows what up.” Fredro said right before breaking out into a quick, impromptu P. Diddy dance move that was right on cue with the DJ throwing on “Hypnotized” by the Notorious B.I.G.

  “No doubt,” I said as I calmly walked off to the bathroom.

  I hadn’t done coke in a while, but I was skilled at it and I didn’t need the bouncer to keep people out of the bathroom for me since I didn’t stretch out my coke and snort lines of it at a time. All I needed was the car key from my key chain and I was good to go. I missed doing coke and with all of this stress that was going on with Nicole it was like the perfect excuse for me to try some.

  I went into one of the bathroom stalls and carefully opened up one of the bags of cocaine and stuck my key into it until there was a small mountain of cocaine sitting on my key. I slowly lifted the key to my right nostril while I used the index finger from my left hand and pinched my left nostril, and then with my right nostril I snorted the coke. I did that about ten times and then I put the cocaine away, put the keys in my pocket and I wiped my
nose and exited the bathroom.

  By the time I made it back over to Fredro and his crew, I was high as a fucking kite. The cocaine mixed with the alcohol was the ultimate high.

  “You shining!” Fredro said as he gave me a pound. “It’s off the hook, right?”

  I was almost too high to speak, so all I did was smile at Fredro and nod my head. With the cocaine running through my system I had all of the confidence in the world and began dancing with different chicks and trying to rap to just about any and every chick, but I was in control of myself and I made sure I did things in a tasteful way.

  Steve didn’t fuck with any type of drugs. No X-pills, no coke, and no weed. All he did was drink and I respected that since he was fearful of violating his job’s drug policy and potentially losing his well-paying city job.

  I was so high that I didn’t even care that both Layla and Mashonda were looking for me. Normally I would have been a little bit stressed-out and panicked since they had both texted me within five minutes apart and told me that they had arrived and asked me where I was. I texted them both back and told them where I was, but before they reached me I had went back into the bathroom to snort some more coke.

  When I came out, I saw Slim Kim.

  “What’s up, Mama?” I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek and she asked me if I was having a good time.

  When I was done speaking with her, Mashonda walked up to me from behind and she wrapped her arms around my waist.

  “Hey sexy!” I said as I kissed her on her lips.

  Mashonda then introduced me to the two people she was with. Both of them were just as sexy as she was and they both had bodies like she did. One of the chicks was named Felicia, who was her older cousin from New York, And the other chick that she introduced me to was named Joy, who she introduced as her mother.

  “Get the fuck outta here!” I said over the loud music. “There’s no way that’s your mother.”

  All three of them laughed because they said they always got the same reaction from people. I called Steve over and introduced him to Mashonda and her family and he too couldn’t believe that Mashonda was standing there with her mother.