by Sa'id Salaam
Darian was Maryam’s boyfriend. He was known as a corner boy. He was light weight though. He only sold a couple of bags of weed to his friends and a few pills to the neighborhood junkies. They had been dating for about two years. According to Maryam, they were going to be together forever but you know nothing lasts forever.
“What’s his name?” asked Camilla.
“They call him Duke.”
“Oh iight.” Camilla nodded her head and returned her attention to the game.
She watched intently as the boy slammed the ball into the hoop, his slinky frame dangling for a while before dropping to the ground. He had some skills on the court. An athletic man, Camilla thought as she envisioned him with his shirt off. He was a little bit older than them. She could tell from the way his face had filled out; he could no longer claim to have boyish good looks.
He stood on the court with sweat dripping down his face and his hands on his hips. He was huffing and puffing while she was undressing him in her head. She could imagine that he was packing. She had accidently seen Darian naked, so if big ding-a-lings ran in the family Duke had to hang low. Camilla caught herself licking her lips and immediately put her tongue back in her mouth. She would hate to get caught slipping. Duke’s ass sure was fine though. He was like a tightly rolled blunt and she was ready to smoke him. She could feel her panties getting wet and it damn sure wasn’t sweat. She hardly knew ole boy though. He could be some type of lame but she had to admit his game was tight.
Darian and Duke jogged to where the girls sat on the bench. Darian squeezed between Camilla and Maryam. He kissed Maryam on the lips. Duke chose to stand.
“Ayo, shorty,” he nodded in Camilla’s direction, “so you still playing hard to get?”
“Boy, please.” She chuckled. “I’m Camilla. But my friends call me Cam.” She smiled.
“Cam? I’m Duke.” He told her as he wiped sweat from his forehead with his shirt.
“We bout to walk to Wendy’s, yall coming?” Darrian stood up.
“Might as well.” Aziza sighed.
Cam and Duke staggered behind as they walked up the hill to the fast food restaurant.
“So where you from?” Cam asked him.
“Raliegh.” He answered.
“True. I got family there.”
“What part?” he asked.
“Near Durham.”
“Oh iight. I’m from up here though; use to live in River View. But I’m up here for the summer chillin with my lil cousin.”
“Oh you one of them Diamond boys.” Camilla chuckled.
“Nah, chill.” Duke said, nonchalantly. “So what yall been doing for fun and shit.”
“Everything.” Camilla laughed. “It is mad stuff do to so whatever floats our boat for the day is the wave. We probably hit up the pool in a lil while.”
“Oh iight. That shit is poppin?” he looked over at her.
“Hell yea. Everybody and they momma be at the pool.” Camilla said.
“Ayo.” Duke called after his cousin.
“What up?” Darrian turned and asked.
“We going to the pool.”
“O ight nigga. Lemme get my grub on first though.” Darrian rubbed his stomach.
As they sat in Wendy’s Duke called Chris. Chris was a big time Coke Boy from Honduras
. “Yo?” Chris answered on the first ring. “What up pretty boy?”
“I can’t call it, nigga. Yo, I’m about to head over to JFK meet me over at Trey crib in twenty minutes. Bring the work.” Duke said into the phone.
“Iight, lil nigga.” Chris hung up and Duke slid his phone back into his pocket. Cam walked over to the table he was sitting at and sat across from him.
“Hey, lil Mama.” He said with a smile. “You ready to drown?” they both laughed at his corny ass joke.
The group of friends walked down the hill to the park, talking about everything and everybody. Duke had other shit on his mind. Chris hit his phone about ten minutes after they got to the recreation center.
“Yo, I got to make a quick run.” Duke told Darrian.
“Iight, my nigga. Hit my jack if you need me.” Darrian said.