As he walked in the office, he saw Ms. Cabrera and his homeroom teacher Mr. Raymond. When they both saw him, they looked to the principal.
“Mr. Taylor, may you please have a seat.” His principal brought him into his office. He walked slowly behind him with his shoulders slumped. He could feel the tension in the air. Something was wrong. Perhaps there was a witness to him pulling the fire alarm. “Your mother is on her way here.”
“Why?” He looked around. The two teachers were avoiding eye contact. “I didn’t do anything wrong.” He was going to deny until they provided some sort of evidence.
“We’ve received some news and we’ve been told to tell you before your mother gets here.” He took a deep breath in. “I don’t know how to tell you this but your Uncle is dead.”
The principal was still speaking but Lionel clocked out. He didn’t hear a word after he was informed that his Uncle was dead. Surely there had been a mistake. His Uncle was a cautious man; a healthy man. He went running every morning in Prospect Park; so he was in great shape. He had many friends; you can find no one to say something negative about him. He didn’t have any enemies. No, they have the wrong guy, Lionel thought.
“Did you say that my Uncle is dead. My Uncle? Maxell Carlton?” His eyes welled up. Ms Cabrera kneeled next to him.
“I’m so sorry.” She apologize rubbing his back.
“Yes, I’m sorry as well.” His homeroom teacher spoke up. “If there’s anything that you need from me Lionel, I’m here.”
“My Uncle is dead.” He repeated it back to himself. “He’s dead.” The tears started slowly but surely.
“I’m sorry.” Ms. Cabrera told him again and this time embraced him in a hug.
As his head laid against her breasts, Lionel couldn’t help but think of how different everything was. Just a couple of hours ago, he was wondering how it would feel to be against her chest. Now that he was there, it was nothing like he imagined.
But that was then. It was nearly nine years after the death of his Uncle. Lionel tries his hardest to forget his Uncle, but every time he got carried away with sports, it always brought him back to that day. One minute he was cheering for his beloved Knicks and the next he was back to that main office. He tried to shake out the memory as he watched the game.
“Must you yell at the TV?” Renee asked him as she plopped next to him. “I’m in the kitchen and all I hear is you bitchin’ at some ball players. It’s just a game Leo.” She rolled her eyes.
“Just a game?” He scoffed. “You’ll never understand.”
“No because I don’t get worked up about silly shit like that.”
“Oh you don’t? So the Real Housewives and their drama is okay?”
“Shut up.” She pushed him.
“Yeah I thought so.” He ate a handful of chips. “I think that whole reality TV crap is bullshit, but you don’t see me complaining.”
“Shut up.”
“You’re going to learn to stop telling me to shut up in my apartment.”
“Your apartment? Boy, bye! This is your mama crib! And you don’t pay bills or rent so don’t try that angle with me.”
“Shut up.”
“Make me.”
He started kissing her and grabbed her body on top of his. She straddled him and took off her shirt. When he saw her breasts sitting in a lace bra, he smiled. He looked at this 5’5, cocoa brown beauty with her short pixie haircut and her model face. They met in front of a club. He walked past her while she waited in line. He walked back and smiled at her. She tilted her head and scanned him up and down. He was 6’2, with a low cut fade, and beautiful smile. She usually never went for guys she met in the club, but there was something about him. So she gave him her number and the rest is history. She was trying to get him to commit to something, but every time she brought it up, he dismissed it. He would just say why would they complicate things?
He brought his mouth to her breast. He licked the nipple and slightly bit it softly. She moaned and rolled her hips. She felt him get more erect beneath her. He slid her skirt up and moved her underwear to the side. He pulled down his pants and his boxers. He entered her and looked at her face. She bit her lip and rolled her hips. He leaned back and enjoyed her pace. She was now moving up and down on him. When he grunted, she slowed down and rolled her hips again.
“Keep going like that.” He groaned as she bounced up and down. He grabbed her hips and helped her along. She started yelling and put her hands on his chest.
“Slow down baby.”
“I’m almost there.”
“But I’m not.” She told him but he kept moving her along.
“Then you better catch up.” He warned her because he could feel it coming on. The tingling feeling started at his knees.
“Just slow down.” But when he grunted and sighed, she knew it was over.
“Fuckin’ bullshit!” She huffed climbing off of him. “You do this every time!” She started to fix herself up. “Every time we fuck, you cum first and I don’t!” She threw her hair into a ponytail.
“It’s not that serious.”
“Yes it is! You’re so fucking selfish, everything is all about you. I’d like for things to be about me for once. What about me?”
“Damn girl, why you gotta be so over-fucking-dramatic!” He stood up fixing his pants.
“I don’t know Leo, why do you got to be such an asshole? Would it kill you to try to get me off?”
“This…” He shrugged his shoulders.
“What? Are you afraid that you can’t last that long?”
“Watch your mouth bitch.” He snapped.
“Ooh! Did I hit a nerve?” She walked to the door.
“Nah, you didn’t hit a nerve.” He scoffed.
“Whatever one minute man.” She walked out of the apartment.
“Bitch, the only reason I nut so fast is because I wish you had some walls for me to feel. No wall, deep pussy bitch!” He cursed her out.
His insults echoed in the hallway. The people that were out there stared and started laughing. He glared at them and they turned around. He was just about to go inside when he saw a woman staring at him. She was 5’6 caramel, curvy, with beautiful hazel eyes. Her long black hair was in wavy tresses that framed her face. She was lugging in some suitcases.
“Hey.” He leaned against his door frame. “You moving in?”
“Yeah.” She whispered. Although she spoke softly, he could detect an accent.
“Where are you from?”
“North Carolina.”
“Oh wow, that’s what’s up.” He looked her up and down. “Where are you moving to? What’s your apartment number?”
“I don’t know.” She fished into her pocket and pulled a piece of paper. “Umm B23? Am I on the right side? I saw that the building split into two side and I was afraid I came in the wrong one.”
“No you’re on the right side. In fact B23 is just right over there across from the elevators.” He pointed out to her.
“Okay.”
“Wait a minute.” He stopped her while she was walking away. “You’re one of the foster kids?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“Everyone knows about Ms. Rita.” He sighed.
Ms. Rita was a woman that sadly abused the government system. She figured that if she had a lot of foster children that the government would give her some great cutbacks. So on top of the money she received for every child, she was on the food stamp program, cash assistance program, and also rental assistance. She also applied for disability claiming that she was too injured to work, even though that wasn’t true. She loved getting all the money and if she spent it on the children, it would have been fine. But the whole building knew she had a nasty drug and alcohol habit to go with the bad attitude she had.
“I’m guessing she’s not that nice.” Giselle sighed. “That’s really the last thing I need now.”
“Yeah…”
“Today just keeps getting worse.” She sp
oke to no one in particular. “It’s going to be a long year.”
“You’re 17.” He put the pieces together.
“For a whole year.” She smiled for the first time and he smiled back.
“Well, welcome to the building. Good luck with Ms. Rita. You’re really going to need it.”
Lionel went back inside the apartment. He peeked at the new resident and saw her ring the doorbell. He knew what awaited her in there. She was going to get treated like trash while Ms. Rita went on to cash her money for drugs. At least she didn’t have to stay there for longer than a year. When he saw her walk inside, he hoped for the best for her.
“Lionel!” His mother yelled. “Come here and eat some breakfast!” She set down the plate of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. “Boy, don’t let me start screaming again.”
“I’m here already.” He went and kissed his Mom on the cheek. “You know you don’t have to do this right? I’m not a little kid anymore. I’m a man.”
“Man or kid, you’re still my son. A mother can’t cook for her son anymore?” She sat next to him. “Besides, isn’t today the day of your big interview? You can’t expect to wow your hiring managers if you’re starving. Trust me if there is one thing I know, it’s how to get a job.”
“Oh boy, here comes to the whole speech.”
“What speech?”
“The one about how you had me and you worked throughout most of your pregnancy and went right back to work after only six days.”
“Boy hush and eat your food.” She laughed. “You know I’m proud of you.”
“I know Mom, but I know you’d be prouder of me if I went to college.”
“You have to find your own path.” She started eating huge fork loads of the food.
“You have to go back to work?”
“Yup. I’m technically not here. I’m only working so hard because I want to buy a house. I’m so close.” She took another forkful. “I got to run.” She kissed his forehead and she was out.
Lionel ate breakfast alone. He’d grown accustomed to it. He missed his Mother a lot when he was younger, but after the death of his Uncle, she cut back a lot of hours from work. She tried to make sure she squeezed in some time with him. She took him to some games when she could and if it was something as simple as dinner at home she did it. After he graduated high school and turned 18, she took some more hours so that she could save up for a house.
His cell phone ringing made him drop his dirty dishes in the sink. He knew how much his mother hated it but he would always be home before her, so he’d just washed them then.
“What’s up?” He greeted his friend Antwon once he saw his name flash across his phone.
“Nothing much kid, just checking up on my boy. What’s good with you?”
“Chillin’ son. I got this big job interview today.”
“Oh yeah, what is it?”
“Just something in a retail store. Some shipping position.”
“How much does that pay?”
“Minimum wage.”
“Damn son, why you being a sucka?”
“A sucka? Is it the eighties again?”
“Whatever nigga, I’m just saying now you know you can make more bread with me… You and me take over the block, push some products, and make way more money than that.”
“Aww…”
“Come on, son. I got your back and you got mine. It’ll be like how it always been, but this time we making paper.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“A’ight.” His friend sighed. “So what’s up with you and Renee?”
Lionel laughed. He knew that word would get around but he didn’t think that it would take only one day.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He brushed it off.
“Oh yeah, shorty is going around bad mouthing you.”
“What is she saying?”
“What do these bitter chicks always say when it’s over?”
“He can’t fuck me.” Lionel joked in a feminine voice.
“He plays too many games.” Antwon mimicked in the same tone.
“He wont wife me up.”
“He won't let me fuck his homeboy.” Antwon mimicked again.
“You really think you funny.” They both busted out laughing.
“Nah, but for real, hit me up when you get done with that job interview. If you get the job, we party tonight with alcohol and bitches.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then we heal your wounds...with alcohol and bitches.”
Lionel checked the mirror in the men's’ bathroom. It was a couple of minutes before the interview. The bright white shirt and dark blue slacks transformed him. He was so used to seeing himself in casual street gear. He leaned close to the mirror and looked at himself one more time. He didn’t want to psyche himself out.
“May I please see Mr. Taylor?” The hiring manager said just as he came out of the bathroom.
“I’m right here.” He followed the woman to the room. He sat down on the chair that was right across from the desk. He looked around the teal room and put his sweaty palms against his knees.
“Good morning.”
“Hey.” He closed his eyes. “I mean, good morning.”
“Don’t be so nervous Mr. Taylor.” The woman looked down at the paper. “May I please have your resume.” He handed her his resume. “I see you haven’t worked anywhere else.”
“Yes, I was hoping that I’d get my start at this company.”
“I see.” She looked at the resume once more and then placed it down. “So why would you like to work for this company.”
‘“I think I’d make a great employee.”
“Everyone here thinks they’d make a great employee. Why do you want to work for the company?”
“I am a big asset.”
“According to who?”
“Excuse me.”
Then the hiring manager continued to belittle Lionel, at least that’s what he felt like she was doing. Whatever answers he came up with, it didn’t seem good enough for her. He could sense that he wasn’t getting the job. As she went on and on, he just let everything wash over him. He knew what he had to do. He was sick of feeling like he was a burden to his mother.
“That will be all.” She told him after handing him his resume back.
“Whatever bitch.” He crumpled it and dropped it on the ground.
When he stepped outside, he loosened up the tie and opened up the first two buttons. He took out his phone and dialed up Antwon.
“Tell me that we’re partying with alcohol and bitches tonight.” Antwon laughed. “I say we hit up Manhattan and just go crazy.”
“Nah, don’t look like I got the job...at least not with them.”
“So are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Yeah man, let’s get into business together.”
Chapter 3
“Giselle, if you’re going to be living in this house, you have to take out the trash every night.” Ms. Rita told her by her bed with a cigarette dangling from her lips. “You’ve been here for a week and you haven’t done that yet.” Giselle groaned and looked at the time it was 7:00 a.m.
“It’s too early for this.” She complained.
“Too early? You uppity bitch! You are staying in my place. don’t you forget that?” She screamed waking up the seven other foster kids that lived in the two bedroom apartment. “You’re lucky that I haven’t let you share your bed yet, but with that fucking attitude…” She walked out of the bedroom without finishing her sentence.
“What’s her problem?” Giselle asked one of the young ladies that were in the room.
“What’s today?”
“Um, Tuesday?”
“Hmm, Tuesday is cocaine day.” The young lady told her. “Yeah, she’s a bit of a bitch when she’s coming down from coke. She’s much better when she’s coming down from crack. She’s fidgety. It’s kind of funny to watch.”
“Wow, she’s on drugs. She shouldn’t be a
foster mother if she’s on drugs. She needs to set an example.” Giselle sat up straight in bed.
“Oh gosh. You’re so cute.” The girl laughed. “I can tell by the way you talk that you’re not from here. Ms. Rita has been doing this for years. She takes the money that we’re suppose to get and she buys her drugs. And then when it’s time for the government to check up on us, she cleans up and makes everything looks perfect.”
“Why doesn’t anybody say anything?”
“What’s the other choice? I’ve been bouncing around foster homes. This is not even the worst that I’ve been in. At least this place is somewhat clean.” She shrugged her shoulders. “What’s your name?”
“Giselle.”
“Laura.”
URBAN: What A Thug Wants Page 11