by Noire
Slick could hear the hint of pain and deep-seated anger in her voice. It was all too familiar and it made him want to know her story. He wanted to dig through and pick at some of the skeletons in her closet. Maybe they shared some of the same bones.
“It’s cool baby. We’re all playing a mind game, were just stuck on different levels,” Slick said as he swigged the cold Henny down without flinching. “We facing the same type of hell, we just owe our souls to different devils.”
Honore narrowed her eyes and looked at him real hard. “That was deep, did you come up with that yourself or did you get it out of some rap song you heard somewhere?”
Slick shrugged. “That’s a bar from my boy, Jada Kiss that I put a lil twist on. I love that line ’cause it’s real and it applies to my life.”
“Ain’t that the damn truth,” Honore agreed as she got up and walked over to the window and gazed outside.
Slick stared at her with something hot in his eyes. Her tight jeans hugged the curves of her thick ass deliciously and it looked like he could fit his hands around her tiny waist and still have room to spare. He gave her a moment to chill, and then he walked up behind her and pulled her body close to his. He kissed the side of her warm neck and they fell into a comfortable silence as he waited patiently until she felt like talking again.
While he was waiting his phone vibrated on his waist in that special pattern again. He knew it was Jewelz, but he ignored it and said to Honore instead, “What you thinking about, baby?”
Honore sniffled a little bit, drawing him in. “The past,” she admitted softly. “I’m thinking about the bullshit, horrible past.”
Those few words stirred something strong in Slick’s stomach and he didn’t like the feeling at all. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear what might come outta her mouth next, but she kept going.
“Believe it or not, I used to be real dumb and innocent back in the day, Slick. But the little girl in me died the day I turned sixteen,” Honore confessed. “No matter what happens to me now it could never hurt as much as I was hurt back then.”
That there shit hit Slick right in the gut. He grunted under his breath and it came straight from his soul.
“A sixteenth birthday is supposed to be one of the happiest days in a young girl’s life, you know?” Honore whispered as she turned away from the window and wrapped her arms around Slick’s waist. He felt his phone vibrating with Jewelz’s special tone again but he damn sure wasn’t gonna answer it now.
“Shit wasn’t supposed to go down so…so fucking horrible,” she said. “It was my sweet-sixteen party for Christ’s sake! And it ended up being the worst day of my whole fucking life.”
Honore seemed to be fighting hard to push a lump in her throat down into the pit of her stomach. Slick heard the soft whimper behind her words and he hugged her tightly, like he was trying to keep her memories from harming her.
“What happened?” Slick managed to utter even though a part of him still didn’t wanna know.
“My fuckin father happened,” Honore said bitterly. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes as she spoke.
“He was a true tweak-out type nigga, Slick. Real violent and way out there with his shit. He treated my mother like he hated her or something. She was so beautiful but he used to beat her until she was black and blue. He got mad one time and threw her straight through the front window of a Chinese restaurant. I was real little back then so I don’t really remember it. But I do remember the horrible scars that were all over her back from where she got cut up and sliced by all that glass. It was totally bugged out.”
“Damn,” Slick said shaking his head. “Ain’t no man supposed to be handling a female like that. It’s fuckin madness.”
“Yeah, well when I got older it got even worse than that. Like I said, I remember the night of my sixteenth birthday party. My father came home drunk after fucking some bitch he was running around with on the low. I could hear him and my mother in their room cussing each other out, not to mention the blows my father was throwing that had her crashing into the walls like crazy.”
“My party had just started and all my friends were chilling in the living room,” Honore said as she began to tremble. “We turned the music up and tried to ignore all the screaming and cussing. I was so embarrassed I told them we should just jet and go to another party a few buildings down that was going on at the same time.”
Honore swallowed hard and trembled, and Slick ran his fingers through her hair trying to keep her calm.
“But before we could bounce my mother’s screams changed. She started shrieking and calling my name.
“I…I rushed towards the back of the apartment to see what was going on,” Honore said, “but the gunshots froze me right in my tracks.”
The tears fell freely from her eyes and a world of hurt tumbled off her trembling lips.
“My father came staggering out the room looking wild and vicious. He had a gun in his hand.” As she spoke her voice got softer and her eyes grew wider like she was reliving the moment.
“He looked dead at me, and he must have seen the terror on my face because all he could say was, “I’m sorry, Ray-Ray. He kept saying it over and over and over again. “I’m sorry, Ray-Ray. I’m sorry...”
Honore held onto Slick tightly and dug her nails into his back as she whimpered.
“And then right there in front of me he pressed the gun to his temple. I saw a quick flash and then his brains…his brains flew out the side of his head and he…he dropped to the floor.”
Honore’s body was shaking uncontrollably and Slick felt helpless as he listened to her reveal her deepest pain.
“That coward offed himself!” she cried out. “He murdered my mother on my sixteenth fuckin birthday and then he off’d himself right in front of me! Fuck that low-down bitch-nigga! Fuck him! He killed my mother! My momma, Slick! That animal murdered my mother and I hope hell is extra-hot for him!”
Slick had no way of knowing it, but Honore was lying her ass off. Her mother had been dead since she was three damn years old. It was true that she had been right there when her mother was killed, but she had slept through the whole thing and she didn’t remember none of it.
Honore had grown up totally unaware of the details of that day, but she got curious when she turned thirteen so her aunt Frita and Sly McFly had sat her down and told her the whole story.
Frita and Sly told her the thing between her mother and father was one of those, “If I can’t have you, can’t no fuckin body have you,” type of thangs. They said her parents had a fuck-a-lot, fight-a-lot relationship, and one night shit got way outta pocket.
Sly was Honore’s godfather, and he said her mother had called him to come over and help her when they got to fighting that night. But by the time he got there it was too late. Sly actually cried when he told Honore that when he walked in the door her mother was already dead and her father was long gone. Sly said Honore had slept through the whole thing peacefully in her bed, and consumed by grief he had snatched her up and taken her to her Aunt Frita’s house and placed her in her auntie’s arms, where he knew she’d always be safe and well-taken care of.
Honore pressed her face deeper into Slick’s neck hoping he’d think she was consumed with grief and anger. But on the real, she couldn’t care less. Her father was never caught, so she had never met the clown and she had no idea who he was or what he looked like, and she didn’t give a fuck neither.
Holding her tightly in his arms and surrounded by her silence, there was nothing for Slick to say. He felt sick to his stomach and all he could do was be there for her. He couldn’t believe that they had been through almost the same fuckin thing. He knew exactly how it felt to watch your mother get murdered right in front of you. Slick also knew what it was like to have everything you held dear to your heart ripped away from you by a fuckin lunatic who was supposed to love you.
They stood there rocking in a close embrace, enduring the painful moment together as Slick whispered soothing words a
nd let Honore cry her grief outta her system. All this shit was his fault for even mentioning the past, and the last thing he wanted was for their evening together to go down the drain. He was just about to say something to switch up the mood real quick when he felt his phone vibrating on his waist again.
“Come on,” he said, taking Honore’s hand as he looked down at his phone. Jewelz needed to fuckin chill. This was like the fourth time she had called. They were supposed to meet up tonight and talk bizzness, but with Honore feeling like this it wasn’t happening. He pressed the call reject button and then gave Honore a long kiss as he wiped the tears from her face.
“Grab ya stuff, shorty. Let’s go out and get some fresh air. Lemme take you for a spin in the whip so we can relax for a little bit.”
“Okay,” Honore said softly, rubbing her teary eyes. “Thanks.”
She turned away from Slick holding her head down and fighting back a wicked smile. Yeah, she had this nigga. She was all up in his lil pea-brained head! She had also busted his lil amateur move with his cell phone too, which made her giggle her ass off under her breath. Whoever the bitch was who kept calling him, her pussy must not be that lethal because he was fronting her calls right off!
“I’m sorry, Slick,” Honore said softly as she picked up her purse. “I didn’t mean to fuck our groove up like that. You shouldn’ta let me have that Henny. That yak be having me in my feelings sometimes though.”
“It’s all good baby girl,” Slick said making sure she knew it was cool. “I’m glad you felt close enough to me to share that kinda pain. It means you trust me. Now let’s get outta here and go have some fun.”
Slick scraped their plates and tossed their steak bones in the garbage, and then he sat their plates in the sink and their liquor glasses on the counter. His phone vibrated again, and he snuck another quick peek at the caller ID, confirming what he already knew. Whatever Jewelz wanted it was gonna have to wait. Determined to wipe that look of pain outta Honore’s eyes, Slick turned the phone off then scooped up his car keys as him and Honore broke out and got ready to go swing from some vines in the concrete jungle.
$$$$$
Coney Island was warm and packed to capacity as Slick and Honore walked together holding hands on the crowded boardwalk. People of all races and ages had come out to enjoy the rides and the games. The smell of popcorn, cotton candy, and buttery corn on the cob, along with the loud cheers of happy kids, filled the Brooklyn air.
“Damn,” Slick said as he looked over at the huge Cyclone ride spinning around like crazy. “I ain’t been out here in years. My grandmother used to bring me here to get on the rides whenever she had a little extra money and I used to love it. Especially the Hell Hole.”
“Yeah, it’s been a real long time for me too,” Honore lied as she leaned in closer to Slick. On the real, she didn’t know shit about Coney Island or about nothing else in Brooklyn neither, for that matter. She was a Queens girl and she was only claiming dirty Crooklyn to throw Slick off. “I used to come out here when I was a teenager,” she perpetrated. “This joint used to be popping back in the day.”
“Yeah, you hungry?” Slick asked her, eyeing the sign for Nathan’s restaurant. “You like frog legs?”
Honore frowned and shook her head. “Yuck. Hell no. Besides, we just ate steak. What I want with some nasty frog?”
“Ay,” Slick said patting his stomach and fronting. “I still got room to grub. Wait right here for a minute. I’ma run in Nathan’s and get me a frank.”
Slick jetted inside the restaurant and placed an order, then he turned on his phone and checked his messages real quick. Jewelz had been blowing his shit up. There were voicemails out the ass from her but he only had time to listen to the last one where he heard her say, “I can’t believe I actually did that shit, Slick. But I did! I did it for us.”
“Ay, let’s go down to the beach,” Slick said to Honore as he walked out of Nathan’s carrying a frank drenched in ketchup and relish and some thick-cut fries.
“I’ono about that,” Honore said doubtfully as she stopped and looked down at her shoes. “That sand is kinda wet and I ain’t trying to mess these Steve Madden Proto’s up.”
Slick bit off half of his frank and gave her a look like he hoped she wasn’t that vain. “Chill, I can buy you a million pairs of those shits, French Fry.”
Honore rolled her eyes. “Don’t be looking at me like that. I’m just playing. I might even stick my feet in that dirty ass water.”
Slick grinned, happy to see that the dark cloud that had been hanging over her was completely gone. “A’ight cool. And I might just dunk yo ass in that dirty water too!”
“Yeah, a’ight,” Honore laughed as she punched Slick in his arm playfully. “I’ma drown ya punk ass, don’t play with me.”
She grinned devilishly. “Let’s go, Papi. And get rid of that nasty frank, too,” she said, frowning toward the last little bit of Slick’s food. “If you still hungry when we get back to the crib then I got something nice and sweet for you to eat.”
Honore stepped outta her designer shoes and picked them up, then she took off running toward the water kicking sand up behind her.
Watching her hips shake, Slick didn’t hesitate a lick. Forgetting all about Jewelz’s message he tossed the rest of the delicious frank over his shoulder and took off running after his sexy new bae.
$$$$$
Jewelz was puzzled as fuck. It was getting late and she had left Handgun Goody’s studio hours ago. She had been trying to get in touch with Slick all damn day long and she just couldn’t understand why he wasn’t answering his phone. He was the one who had been barking about staying in touch and getting together to talk bizzness that night, and if there was one thing that boy was about it was his bizzness.
She replayed their last conversation over and over in her mind.
Yo, stay on your toes around that sucka and keep in close contact with me at all times, ya heard? Slick had warned her. If that nigga so much as looks at you the wrong way I want you to bail the fuck outta there and hit me up real quick so I can come kill him.
Jewelz frowned. She had hit his ass up, all right. She had hit him up, down, left and right, over and over again, and he hadn’t picked up the phone not one damn time. She was a little concerned about that but she was still amped as fuck and riding a high from today’s events. She couldn’t wait to get with Slick so she could update him on all the things she had learned about the Goode Brothers Gang.
Jewelz thought about the brief call she had taken when Handgun Goody had stepped outta the studio to answer his phone. Her doctor had been on the line warning her that the cancer cells in her blood were multiplying and that she needed to come in to receive treatment at once.
Jewelz didn’t like to be rude, but she had told that doctor the same damn thing that she had already told his frantic nurse: She wasn’t coming in for her next appointment, or for the one after that, or for the one after that neither.
She was fed up with all that chemo bullshit, and radiation treatment was definitely out too. At least for now. Maybe she’d try to get everything started up again after she had completed her mission and gotten her revenge, but there was no way in hell she could commit to continuing that type of thing right now.
Chemo could make life horrible. It was impossible to focus on a mission and function as a killer with all that pharmaceutical poison coursing through her body. All the vomiting and sweating and shitting and the feeling of being too weak to even stand up on her own two feet…nah, Jewelz just couldn’t do it.
And even after listening to the frantic warnings from her doctor, Jewelz was proud of the way that she had handled that dirty-ass nigga Mike aka Handgun Goody today. She was even prouder that she hadn’t sank her teeth into his chunky dick-meat and ripped his throbbing bone off at the root when he stuck it down her throat.
All of this was on Jewelz’s mind as she walked through Van Dyke projects listening to Slick’s phone ring in her ear. It was still r
olling over to voicemail when she entered the old folks building and rode the elevator up to the fourteenth floor.
She called him again while she stood outside of his grandmother’s apartment and banged on the door. He didn’t answer the door neither, and when she hit the stairs and went up another flight, he wasn’t up on the roof fooling around with his birds.
It was dark outside by the time Jewelz hopped in a bootleg taxi and gave the driver Slick’s other address. She figured he was probably taking a lil break from his Sometimey role and chilling in the sweet two-bedroom condo that he used as a retreat when he needed to get away.
Jewelz remembered how grateful she had felt when she first got on with the Zip ’em up Crew. Slick had been real generous and he had let her crash at his condo until she could get a place of her own.
He had stayed there at the condo with her off and on sometimes, but it was like that dude had an invisible force field around him and no matter how hard she tried to get up on him, Slick had refused to give up a single beat of his banging-ass rhythm.
Jewelz still had the key to his crib. Not because she was trying to check for him, but because he had never asked for it back. She paid the cab driver and then unlocked the outside door and rode up to the twelfth floor where he rested.
“Slick?” she called out softly after ringing the bell like a million times. “Slick, are you in there?”
Wondering if he was knocked out sleeping, she stuck the key in the lock and turned it, then walked inside. It was stark quiet in the condo and it only took her a couple of seconds to take a peek in the two stylish bedrooms and realize that the apartment was empty.
It only took her a few more seconds to realize something else too. Jewelz’s nose itched like a mutha as she walked into the kitchen. She saw two glasses on the counter, two eaten-off plates in the sink, and two big-ass steak bones in the trash.
And then she sneezed. A strong cloud of perfume lingered over the entire eat-in area. It was a sweet, cloistering brand that she would never forget. Poison by Dior.