by Tranay Adams
Calhoun picked up one of the blocks and turned around to Te’Qui, smiling. “You see, the truck I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about. This is what I was really after.”
“That’s what’s up. Now, where that paypa at?” Te’Qui asked, rubbing his hands together greedily. Calhoun pointed to the bowling ball styled bag on the ground and he picked it up. Holding it against his body, he unzipped it and marveled at the stacks of blue faces stuffed inside of it.
“You can count it up here, if you want,” Calhoun told him.
“Nah, I trust you. We outta here, G,” Te’Qui dapped up Calhoun and he and Kesha made their departure.
***
Te’Qui jumped out of his old school box Chevy and slammed the door shut behind him. He made his way around the grill of the vehicle and headed for the entrance doors of Rite Aid, hands stuffed into the pockets of his sagging jeans. He’d just crossed the threshold of the establishment when his shoulder was clipped by a man wearing a royal blue Nike sun visor cap and matching Nike basketball jersey. Instantly, a frown enveloped Te’Qui’s face and he turned around scowling, pulling his jeans upon his ass. Right there on a spot, he got into a fighting stance. He planned to knock whoever had bumped his shoulder the fuck out if they bucked on him.
“Yo’, my nigga, watch where the fuck you goin’!” Te’Qui mad dogged the man as he clenched his fists.
“Nah, nigga, you watch where...” The man’s words died in his mouth once he saw who he’d bumped. The disdained expression dropped from his face and he took his hand from underneath his jersey. “Te’Qui? Is that chu?”
“Poochie?”Te’Qui took a closer look at the man and narrowed his eyelids.
Poochie adjusted the visor on his head and smiled, saying, “Yeah, it’s me! I ain’t seen yo’ ass in a minute, fool! What that shit do, my boy?” he switched hands with the bag he was holding and slapped hands with Te’Qui.
“Ain’t shit, dawg. How you been?” Te’Qui inquired as he took a step back and gave his old running buddy the once over. He could tell by his red nose and constant sniffling he was still snorting cocaine like a mothafucka. There weren’t any doubts about it.
“Everythang is copacetic. You know a nigga workin’ for Quervo now, so I stay witta grip. Know what I’m sayin’?” Poochie pulled on his nose and exposed the diamond and gold handcuff he was wearing and smiled. He then held up the gold necklace that was dangling down his chest.
The necklace held onto a gold dog milk bone which was flooded with diamonds and boasted his name, Poochie.
Te’Qui appeared to be astonished when he saw all the jewelry Poochie was stunting in. A year ago the nigga was posted up inside of a gas station asking people to pump their petro for spare change. Now here he was bragging, boasting and shining like new diamonds.
Te’Qui pulled into the Valero gas station off of Avalon with YG’s - Why You Always Hatin? Rattling his trunk. Leaving his old school box Chevy running, he hopped out of it and walked around it pulling his sagging red Dickies upon his ass. He made it to the bulletproof partition which the clerk sat behind and paid for his gas as well as a pack of Newport shorts. After he pocketed his change, he walked back to his Chevy, seeing someone shuffling around it. He thought it was his homeboy Poochie who he hadn’t seen in a while, but shook that thought from his head. You see, the dude he’d clocked was shabbily dressed and he could smell him from where he was. His homeboy Poochie was a clean cut, snazzy dressing nigga that was known to keepa pocket full of money and some fly-ass jewels around his neck. So he couldn’t be him...or could he?
“Yo’, my nigga, fuck you doin’ around my car?” Te’Qui frowned up as he approached his hood classic car.
“Oh, I don’t mean no disrespect, homie. I was just tryna see if I could pump yo’ gas for whatever spare change you willin’ to bless me with.” the shabbily dressed dude cracked a dimpled smile. He smiled because he knew how important it was to be in high spirits when trying to earn a couple of dollars in the streets. He found out rather quickly that people were more likely to give their money to someone with an upbeat personality than someone who appeared to be sulking.
Te’Qui narrowed his eyelids into slits and leaned forward trying to get a good look at the nigga standing at the rear of his vehicle. “Yo’, Poochie, is that chu, Blood?”
The man narrowed his eyelids and closer too. “Te’Qui?”
“Yeah, dawg, it’s me.” Te’Qui smiled broadly and approached Poochie. He slapped hands with his old road dawg and embraced him, patting him on his back. His face scrunched up as he got a whiff of him. Poochie noticed the look on Te’Qui’s face and a look of embarrassment crossed his face.
“My bad, fam. I know a nigga fonky and shit. I look bad, too. You see my threads,” Poochie looked over his tattered clothing. When he looked back up at Te’Qui, he could see the hurt and hopelessness bleeding from his eyes. He wasn’t used to seeing his man like this. Poochie from off of 25th and Griffith was looking tore up from the floor up.
“It’s alright, my nigga. I’ve been where you were. This is just a minor setback for a major come back.” He told him as he watched him remove the nozzle to pump the gas into his car. While he was doing this, they chopped it up about the past and the present. Once the gas was done pumping, Poochie placed the nozzle back into its rightful place. When he turned back around, Te’Qui was holding out ten one-hundred dollar bills. Poochie couldn’t believe his eyes. He thought that he’d get a couple of bucks from his child hood friend, but not a g-stack.
“Thanks, dawg. I really appreciate this,” Poochie said as he stuffed the money into his pocket.
“Don’t wet it. You gotta pardon a nigga for being nosy, but I’ve gotta ask...what happened in yo’ life that led you here?” he folded his arms across his chest.
“Well, you know I was already out here willin’ and dealin’, right? One night my curiosity got the best of me and I tried the shit. I wanted to see what it was about this shit that got niggaz hooked on it. Well, my ass found out. Now, I’m stuck on it. Doin’ any and everything I have to to get high. A nigga like me that had the world at the palm of his hands fucked it off chasin’ after some gotdamn coke. Who woulda thought?” His eyes grew watery and he shook his head, feeling ashamed that he allowed himself to go out over some drugs.
“Hold up.” Te’Qui reached inside of his vehicle. He then looked around to make sure that there wasn’t anyone watching him before he pulled out a small Ziploc of coke. He pulled Poochie closer to him and stuffed it in the pocket inside of his jacket. “That ain’t much, but it should hold you until you get cho self anotha fix.”
“Thanks, man.” Poochie dapped him up.
“You ain’t gotta thank me, Blood. I’m just lookin’ out for a friend. I’m sho’ you’d do the same for me, right?” Te’Qui asked as he jumped inside of his whip and pulled the driver’s door shut.
“Most def’.” he nodded as he stuffed the Ziploc further down inside of his jacket’s pocket.
“That’s what I know. Now, look, I want chu to do me a favor.”
Poochie leaned down to the driver’s window and rested his arms upon the windowsill. “Anything, my nigga.”
“Don’t spend alla that loot on yo’ habit. I want chu to get cho self some clothes, somethin’ hot to eat and a place to hole up for a while. Okay?”
“I got chu, dawg. I’ma do just that. I’ma pay you back to. I may be broke as a joke right now, but once I get right, I’ma repay you for lookin’ out for a nigga. Mark my words.”
“I believe you, homeboy. No doubt.” He dapped him up and told him to stay up before pulling out of the gas station. Poochie stood where he was looking at Te’Qui as he drove off. Once he was out of sight, he pulled the small Ziploc from out of his jacket’s pocket and looked at it in the palm of his hand. He then closed the bag inside of his hand and ran off into the night to get high.
***
Man, it’s crazy how a nigga can be down one minute and then up the next. The drug game is
bipolar as a mothafucka. That’s why I stay on this ski-mask shit. A young nigga can’t see his self shedding blood, sweat and tears while working a spot or corner for the next nigga. I ain’t no hoe! Fuck I look like clockin’ figures and then lettin’ some other mothafucka check my dollas? Motha fuck that! Ain’t nan nigga out here gon’ pimp me!
“I see you, lil’ daddy, doin’ yo’ thug thizzle out here in these streets. I ain’t mad at chu, loved one.” Te’Qui cracked a smirk which caused Poochie to smile broadly. He knew how niggaz like him loved to have their egos stroked and he didn’t mind doing it. You see, to him, a real nigga should be able to salute another nigga’z accomplishments. He was proud to see any black man come up, whether it was on some street shit or some legal shit. “Get yours, and then some. You feel me? ‘Cause ain’t nobody out here gon’ give you a damn thang.”
“You ain’t never lied, niggaz ain’t gon’ give you shit. Well, every nigga out here besides you. You always looked out when I ran into you. A nigga was fucked up out here in these streets, boy, so I ‘fore sho’ appreciate every goddamn dolla you blessed me with. You feelin’ me, dawg?”
“Sho’ you right.” Te’Qui nodded.
“I don’t know how I could ever repay you, G. For real, for real.”
“I can think of a way you can pay yo’ debt, if you know what I’m gettin’ at.” he smiled and rubbed his hands together greedily. He had a hunger in his eyes as he licked his lips. That nigga Poochie knew this look well. Te’Qui had came up with a scheme to get some money.
“You still on that kick doe shit, dawg?”
Te’Qui shrugged and said, “Aye, you know my M.O. You know any niggaz out here I can put that fiyah to and make ‘em drop it like it’s hot?”
There was a moment of silence as Poochie stared at Te’Qui, wondering what he should say to him. Once he came to his conclusion, he went on to speak. “Nah, I don’t know anybody you could knock over, but I’ll get at chu should I come across any. How’s that?”
“Oh, fa sho.”
Te’Qui watched as Poochie pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and went straight to his contacts.
“Shoot me yo’ line,” Poochie told him, eyes focused on the screen of his cell phone; its illumination shining in his face being that the foyer of CVS was dimly lit thanks to a couple of lights in the ceiling having blown out.
As Te’Qui gave Poochie his telephone number he studied his outfit as well as the jewelry he had on. In addition to the icy gold handcuff on his wrist and the iced out dog bone, he had huge square diamond earrings in his lobes and a gold, blue face Rolex watch, scarcely surrounded by diamonds. For the first time in his life, doing something scandalous to someone he had love for invaded his brain. He wanted to pull out and make Poochie’s ass drop it like it’s hot, and leave his ass right there in CVS’s parking lot in his boxers. Now, as bad as he wanted to do something that foul, he wasn’t going to execute those thoughts in his head. He had mad love for Poochie. They came up on free lunch together and ran the streets as adolescents. He, Baby Wicked and himself were like the Three Musketeers at one point. So, he couldn’t bring himself to lay his 2-1-1 game down on him.
Nahhhh, Blood, how the fuck that look, me makin’ this fool Poochie break himself? I’m fucked up, but I ain’t that fucked up! You can’t burn every bridge you cross. Besides, I’m sure he’s gon’ eventually bless me with a money move in the future.
“Alright. I locked you in,” Poochie announced as he slipped his cellular back inside of his jeans. When he did this, Te’Qui took note of the Glock in his waistline. “I’ll holla at chu once I get somethin’, pimp. It’s the least I can do for one of the realest niggaz in the streets, ya heard?”
“All day.”
Poochie dapped up Te’Qui. In that moment, Te’Qui saw his nose dripping a mixture of snot and blood; a result of sniffing too much mothafucking coke. The nigga loved cocaine, and Te’Qui was sure he was going to die of an overdose one day if he didn’t give his nose a break from it.
“Take it easy, my nigga.” Poochie walked away sniffling and touching the moisture he felt below his nose. When he looked he saw traces of blood in his green snot which was on his fingertip and thumb.
“You do the same, homie.” Te’Qui watched Poochie’s back as he trekked through the parking lot, heading for a black on black BMW truck with all gold trimmings. That bitch had limousine tinted windows and gold rims. Te’Qui openly admired the SUV and saluted his nigga’z accomplishments.
Poochie fired up his truck and zoomed out of the parking lot banging RJ’s Get Rich. Once he’d disappeared before Te’Qui’s eyes, the young gangsta bopped off into CVS to get what he’d come there for in the first place. A home pregnancy test.
***
Te’Qui posted up outside the bathroom door waiting for Kesha to deliver the results from her pregnancy test. She’d been in the bathroom nearly twenty minutes so he couldn’t help wondering what the hold up was. The suspense was killing him so he decided to see what was up with her. He was just about to knock on the door when he heard the lock coming undone. He stood in the doorway as the door was pulled open and he found himself standing face to face with Kesha. She looked up into his eyes and smiled hard as she held up the white stick. Te’Qui took the stick from her and looked at it. A smile spread across his face once he saw the blue plus sign on it.
“Oh, shit! I’m gonna be a father.” Te’Qui said excitedly, like he couldn’t believe it.
“That’s right.” Kesha nodded.
“And you gonna be a...”
“A mom.” She nodded.
“I love you.” He said as he looked into her eyes.
“I love you even more.” She matched his gaze and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him.
Te’Qui was on his way home from a welcome home party for his homeboy Shottie when he first met Kesha. He’d pulled to a stop light when she’d crashed into the back of him. When he glanced up into the rearview mirror and saw an old school Buick Regal on them chrome thangz, he just knew it was a nigga as G as him behind those tinted windows and would more than likely want to show his ass. With that in mind, Te’Qui grabbed the paperwork to his vehicle out of the glove-box and snatched his Glizzy from underneath the driver’s seat. After he tucked his shit on his waistline, he jumped out of his car mad dogging, hard as fuck. Approaching the rear of his vehicle, he glanced at the bumper and his shit was dented. His head snapped into the direction of the car of the mothafucka that hit him, wondering why the fuck he hadn’t gotten out yet. Just as he was about to approach the car, the driver’s door of the Regal swung open. The first thing that came out of the Buick was a pair of thick, shapely legs accompanied by short top burgundy Chuck Taylors. Right after came the head and body of a gorgeous woman. She wore her hair in dread locks and the 4Niners jersey she had on showed off her flat stomach and the diamond piercing in her navel. Te’Qui couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Little momma was visually stunning.
Kesha approached Te’Qui rubbing the back of her aching neck and wincing. She looked at the damage to both cars before casting her apologetic eyes into Te’Qui’s direction.
“I’m so sorry. This is my fault. This is what my ass gets for tryna text and drive,” Kesha told him, feeling sorry for rear ending Te’Qui’s car. She then looked him over to see if he had been injured. “Are you okay? Should I call an ambulance?”
“Nah, I’m, I’m...” Te’Qui stuttered having been struck stupid by Kesha’s beauty. He then shook it off and continued with what he had to say. “I’m good. Are you alright, though?”
“My neck is killing me, but I’ll be fine. I’ma head over to emergency once we get this taken care of. Limme grab my insurance papers out of the glove-box so we can exchange info. I’ll be right back.” Kesha walked off with Te’Qui eyes glued to her skin tight black jeans, watching her bodacious ass swing from left to right. He admired the sculp of her bottom as she reached inside of her vehicle through the front passenger window to grab her insu
rance papers out of the glove box. He observed her place some papers on the hood of her car and jot something down on it. Once she finished she advanced in his direction, looking over the papers. Kesha gave Te’Qui her insurance information and took down his for herself.
“Again, I’m sorry about all of this. I’ma call my insurance company as soon as I get home and let ‘em know what happened.”
“I appreciate that; good lookin’ out.”
Silence fell between Kesha and Te’Qui as they stood in the street staring into one another’s eyes. Suddenly, Kesha decided to break the ice again.
“Listen, I feel awful about this. How about chu let me take you out to dinner to make up for it. What do ya say, huh?” she touched his hand affectionately, while holding his gaze and hoping he’d agree to go out with her.
“It’s all good. You ain’t gotta do that. I’m sure yo’ insurance company will take care of me.” He held up the paper containing her car insurance information.
“Please, I insist. Besides, it’s the least I could do. I mean, look at cho shit. If I was you, I woulda jumped outta my car and beat my ass.” She glanced at the dented bumper of Te’Qui’s car and then focused her attention back on him. She looked at him with sad eyes and a pouty lip; fingers interlocked implying she was begging him. Te’Qui pretended to think it over a moment before answering. He was feeling Kesha but he didn’t want to come off as thirsty. Once he figured he’d made her sweat long enough, he nodded his head and agreed to go out to dinner with her. As soon as he did a big ass smile spread across Kesha’s face and she jumped excitedly. She pulled her cellular from out of the back pocket of her jeans and programmed Te’Qui’s telephone number into it. Once she’d locked his digits into her cell phone, she gave him a friendly hug and promised she’d call him soon to set up a date and time for them to go out for dinner. This was one year ago.