Hooked On His Thuggish Ways 3

by Prenisha Aja

  “Yeah, you right,” he agreed, coming closer to me, and placed his hand against my back.

  The both of us then walked to theatre nine. When we got inside, it was actually really empty which was fine with me.

  “You want to sit down here?” He pointed to the bottom row and I scrunched my face up, then looked upwards, examining the stairs.

  I had never been a chick that sat at the bottom. I always felt like that was for the old people and shit. I couldn’t see myself holding my damn head back so that I could see. I was just going to have to battle with these stairs.

  “Ugh. I don’t really want to sit down there. Can you help me up the stairs?”

  “I got you.” Ace grabbed my crutches, leaned them up against the wall then picked me up bridal style. He carried me up the stairs, directly in the middle and sat me down.

  Once he sat me down in the chair, my goofy ass was looking at him like he was prince charming. My knight in shining armor. The way he had carried me up the stairs made me feel royal. Like a queen.

  “You good?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I’m good,” I replied, wanting to grab Ace by the face and give him a big ass kiss.

  Ace nodded before he jogged down the stairs, grabbed my crutches and brought them back up to me. He then left back out of the theatre to get the popcorn and drinks.

  While I waited for him, I basked in the moment. I felt good. I didn’t think that I would be able to feel this way no time soon. I really thought that what Whoodie, Sims and what that bitch did to me was going to haunt me and destroy me. Yes, I was depressed. But talking to my brother, being around Ace and just my family, I felt like they lowkey saved me. I probably would have sunk into a hole that I wouldn’t have been able to get out of if I had kept everything bottled inside of me. It was just crazy because I knew most would have crumbled after going through what I went through, but I had to survive. I had to be strong because I couldn’t let the people who hurt me win by me wanting to kill myself or feeling sad for myself.

  “Aye, here.” Ace pulled me out of my thoughts, handing me a drink and then a bag of popcorn.

  The lights were starting to dim down, and the beginning credits started. Ace was already smacking on his popcorn while I adjusted my seat to let it back. I was trying to get as comfortable as possible. Thank God we were at a theatre that had reclining chairs.

  “Ace, oh my god, why I let you pick the movie?” I covered my face when some demon child popped out with blood running out the side of their head.

  I closed my eyes tightly and decided I wasn’t watching no more of the movie. I would just sleep until it was over.

  “Keisha. Keisha.” Ace nudged me and I popped my eyes open.

  “I know damn well yo’ ass didn’t go to sleep. You don’t have to worry about me taking your ass to the movies ever again,” he fussed as I ran my hands down my face.

  “I had closed my eyes during a scary part, and I guess I dozed off,” I told him, and he looked at me and shook his head.

  “Girl, let’s go, with your scary ass.” He chuckled as helped me to my feet and lifted me up so that he could carry me down the stairs.

  Once I got to the bottom of the stairs, I leaned up against the wall and waited for him to bring my crutches down.

  “I still can’t believe you went to sleep.” He looked at me.

  “Next time, don’t pick a scary movie.” I rolled my eyes and he laughed.

  “It wasn’t even that damn scary. Chill. You act like you scared of blood and shit. You running around here stabbing niggas in their necks and shit. You a gangsta,” he joked, but a little part of me didn’t find it funny.

  I didn’t want to have to do that. I was scared that I had killed him. Shit, all I saw was a bunch of blood. It really had freaked me out, but my main focus was to get the fuck out of there.

  “Not funny? My bad.” We stopped and Ace walked up on me and grabbed me by my chin. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to get you in your feelings,” he apologized, sealing it with a kiss and just like that, I was ok.

  “Now let’s get to the house and shit.” He caressed the side of my face with the back of his index finger, making me blush.

  We were now walking and headed out when Ace noticed Bjay, one of his and my brother’s friends.

  “Stay right here. Let me chop it up with this nigga really quick,” he mentioned.

  “Ok,” I replied, leaning up against the wall as he made his way a few feet away from me.

  I listened in on their conversation as Bjay explained to Ace that he was at the movies with some fine ass cutie with a big booty. I wondered who it was. Not that I cared, I was just nosey.

  Around three minutes later, Ace was walking back over to me and that’s when I saw her. The bitch that Whoodie was fucking with behind my back. The bitch that thought it was cute to fuck with me when I was in distress.

  “You good?” Ace walked up, looking back to see what I was looking at.

  “Nah, that bitch.” I nodded towards Chyna who was walking down the hall, thinking that she was all cute and shit, without a care in the fucking world.

  “What about her?” Ace got in defensive mode and I could tell that he was ready to cause hell if it came to it.

  “She is…” I stopped when I realized that she was the big booty cutie who Bjay was referring to. I should have fucking known. She got around so damn fast that it was pathetic.

  As I shook my head and mugged her, she finally matched my gaze. I could see that she was frightened.

  “What about her?” Ace questioned, but I was so zoned out and angry that I couldn’t say shit. “Fuck all this shit,” Ace chimed, walking away from me and back over to where Bjay was standing with Chyna.

  Realizing what was going on, I bucked my eyes and my crippled ass tried to hop over there as fast as I could.

  “Say, you know her?” Ace roughly asked Chyna.

  Bjay stood there confused and was getting ready to check Ace until Chyna spoke.

  “Kinda, but I swear I didn’t do nothing to her. I was just following Whoodie’s orders. I was just as scared of him as her.” She trembled.

  “The fuck you mean?” Bjay asked.

  “The day that she escaped, I was there. I had nothing else to do with anything else that had happened. I only heard,” she rambled, terrified, which she should have been.

  “So, you saying you dated that nigga Whoodie and was in on what happened to Keisha?” Bjay was now doing all of the talking.

  See the thing about him was that he was loyal as fuck to my brother, no matter if he liked you or not. If my brother told him to dead somebody or handle something for him, he did, and I knew for a fact that if my brother knew he was dating the bitch that was in on the shit that had happened to me, he wouldn’t be too thrilled about it.

  “I didn’t do anything to her though. I came after everything had happened. Shit, when I came, she was already tied up and shit,” she expressed. Tears were now coming out of her eyes and she was shaking like a stripper. Her eyes were darting from each one of us with pleading eyes.

  “Man...” Bjay chuckled, running his hands down his face. “This shit can’t be happening.” He stood there puzzled. I knew it fucked with his head.

  “What should we do?” Bjay turned to Ace.

  “No, please. Please don’t kill me. I can tell you who hit her,” she began to beg, saying whatever she could to not get hurt.

  “We already know but tell us just so that we can be one hundred percent sure,” Ace hissed, causing her to jump a little.

  “It was Melo. Melo. Kaizlyn’s ex,” she rattled off, snitching.

  “Aight. Thanks,” Ace said then nodded at Bjay.

  Ace stood behind me and guided me towards the door, leaving Bjay and Chyna standing there. I had no clue what he was going to do with her, but I knew it wasn’t good. A part of me felt bad because I didn’t want a woman to die, even with all the shit that I had talked. The hate that I had felt. We both had been caught up in a tox
ic ass nigga and sadly, the result for the both of us had us in fucked up positions.

  “Fuck,” I hissed, rolling my eyes. “Wait.” I stopped. I hated that I was feeling some type of way for a bitch that would have gotten her ass beat had I not been fucked up.

  “Don’t kill her. Please.” I looked at Ace and he tilted his head to the side to make sure he heard me right.

  “It’s hard to explain. I just don’t want to do her like that, even if she deserves it. I know how it is to be blinded by that nigga. Hell, if it was me, at the time I would have done whatever he told me. So, I understand. Let Bjay know not to kill her. Now them other niggas can go,” I explained.

  This moment made me feel like I was growing. It also brought me on a sense of peace because I could have gotten revenge, but I didn’t feel like it was necessary because I knew the pain that came from dealing with Whoodie, and who knows everything that she had went through while also dealing with him. No, it probably wasn’t as bad as my situation, but I knew it was something.

  “Man, you trippin’.” Ace shook his head.

  “Just listen to me,” I told him.

  Ace side-eyed me before he turned on his heels and rushed back inside of the movie theatre, while I stood outside waiting from him.

  When he came back, we walked to the car silently. We actually didn’t say anything to each other for the remainder of the night.

  It was now the next morning and when I woke up, Ace wasn’t there. I wondered was he still not feeling my decision from last night. I knew that if they would have killed her it would have weighed heavy on me, and I didn’t need any more burdens holding me down. I was ok with her living. But one thing I wanted was for Sims and Whoodie to be snatched off the earth; oh, and Melo. Why them and not her? Easy, because the damage they caused was way more severe to me.

  Sighing, I sat up in the bed and eased my leg over to the side. I grabbed one of my crutches and hopped to the bathroom. I peed, brushed my teeth and washed my face then left out of my room. When I got to the stairs I called for Ace.

  Man, I hope I don’t have to try to get down these bitches by myself, I thought.

  I had called Ace’s name a few times and he didn’t answer. Grabbing my phone out of the pocket of my joggers, I called his phone. It rung about three times and right when I was about to hang up, he answered.

  “What’s up?” his voice boomed through the phone.

  “I need your help please.”

  “Aight.” He hung up the phone and within seconds, he was walking up the stairs, two at a time.

  He grabbed me up, causing me to drop my crutch, and carried me down the stairs. He didn’t take me into the living room but instead into the kitchen, where the smell of food tickled my nose and caused my stomach to growl.

  “You cook?” I asked, shocked.

  “Hell yea. You surprised because I’m a thug?” he asked.

  I didn’t want to answer but yes, I was shocked. Not because he was a hood nigga but because most niggas didn’t cook.

  “Listen, I had to learn to cook or I was going to starve,” he stated as he walked away.

  I watched him as he moved around the kitchen cooking us breakfast. I was relieved to see that he wasn’t mad at me.

  Once he was finally done, he fixed us both a plate and we sat at the bar eating. The plate had waffles, sausage, bacon, grits, eggs and a cup of orange juice to wash it all down.

  While we were eating, laughing and even kind of close together, in walked my brother.

  I jumped back so far that I damn near fell off of the bar stool. When I looked in his direction, he gave us the side-eye as he walked farther into the house.

  “What is this?” he asked with Kaizlyn right behind him.

  When she and I made eye contact, she already knew what it was.

  “Uhhh…” I stuttered. I couldn’t get my words out.

  “Say, let me just talk to you for a minute,” Ace chimed in saving the day.

  My brother looked at Ace funny and reluctantly, he walked off to the back of the house with Ace behind him. I didn’t know how the talk between the two of them was going to go. However, I would be lying if I said I was expecting a good outcome.

  Kaizlyn rushed towards me and grabbed me by the face. “Oh my god. You did.” She laughed and I jerked away from her and held my head down.

  “Having a fucked up leg ain’t stopping shit is it?” she joked, and I wasn’t even in a joking mood until I knew things were going to be ok with Ace and my brother.

  “Girl, don’t worry about your brother. He should be happy it’s Ace and not another Whoodie.” She shrugged, stealing a piece of bacon off of my plate.

  “I hope.” I sighed as I waited impatiently for the two of them to walk back to the front.

  Finally, after what felt like hours, they finally walked back to the front where Kaizlyn and I were. When I heard the two of them laughing, I was able to breathe.

  “You lucky this my day one nigga, or it would have been fucking trouble around this bitch.” Jaxsyn jumped at me.

  “Whatever.” I tried to play it cool like I wasn’t bothered but deep down, I was scared as fuck that it was going to be an issue. Now though, I felt good knowing that Ace and I had Jaxsyn’s approval. Now all I needed was to get this damn cast off my leg so that I could go to school and get ready for graduation.

  16

  Chyna

  To know that I was trying to do everything the right way with Bjay, but karma had found a way to enter my life fast and bite me in the ass had me in my feelings. I hated that I was so stupid when it came to Whoodie because he had landed me in some fucked up predicaments and I was now paying for that shit.

  It sucked because I really liked Bjay. I felt like there was a chance that we could actually make it, but I was slapped in the face and woken up quick when I saw Keisha and that guy. I wasn’t expecting for the rain to start pouring down this damn fast on my parade, but it had, and I felt fucking miserable. But to finally have that off my chest, was a relief. Shit, to still be here breathing was a relief because those niggas could have easily killed me. I knew they were supposed to. I never found out why they didn’t, but I was grateful.

  I had been calling him and texting him over and over and still, no answer. This shit truly sucked, and I just wished that I could go back in time and walk away from Whoodie with the hopes that I would still run into Bjay.

  Sighing, I rolled my eyes when I heard the front door slam. I knew it was my mother. I actually hated being back here but after the shit that went down with me and Bjay, there was nowhere else that I could go.

  When I got home, my mother wasn’t even here, which go figure, but now she was and I knew it was about to be some shit. I felt it in my soul.

  “What the fuck you are doing in my house?” She came raging towards me, screaming to the top of her lungs.

  I hopped to my feet and we were now standing toe to toe. I was sick of her. I was sick of her acting like the fucking younger sister. She was my mother and it was time that she acted like it. It didn’t even fucking matter that she fucked my ex. What really mattered was her waking up and being and acting like my fucking mother.

  “I’m here because this is where I live. You are my damn mother. When are you going to start acting like it?” I yelled back.

  She chuckled loudly, stepped back and then smacked me across the face. For one split second, I wanted to raise my hand and hit her back. I wanted to beat my mother’s ass.

  Inhaling deeply, I looked her dead in her eyes. “You happy now? Do you feel better? Does it feel good to you to know that you treat your own daughter like shit?”

  My mother stood in front of me, breathing heavily. No words came out of her mouth. She just stood there looking at me stupid.

  “Nothing to say? Why? Why don’t you have nothing to say? You should feel like less than a woman. Why are you mad at me? Why do you hate me so much? Why did you feel like it was ok to sleep with someone your TEENAGE daughter slept with? A
boy. Because Melo sure isn’t a man. Matter fact, he’ll probably be in jail for a long ass time, and what did you get out of it?” I spat.

  “You know what, Mom? I pray I’ll never be like you. I pray that if I ever have kids that I learn how to be a better mom than you ever have been to me. I know if I hold on to this bitter feeling I have for you, I’ll get older and be exactly like the person I despise so much. So, what I’m going to do is let karma deal with you, because trust, she works fast.” I shook my head at her then walked off, leaving her standing in the middle of my bedroom.

  It was funny, but I didn’t care to stand there and go back and forth with her. I no longer wanted to argue with my mother about how to be a better mother. How to treat or how to love me. I couldn’t do it and I no longer cared to argue or fuss over Melo. I was over Melo, Whoodie, and my mom.

  The only thing that I could think about was Bjay. It was like he had come into my life in such a short period and made me want different. It was crazy, but it was the truth. It was like even though my life was complicated, he came and gave me normalcy.

  “Chyna. Chyna,” I heard my mother calling my name from behind me, but I didn’t care to turn around to see what she wanted. Instead, I walked right out the front door and got in my car.

  After riding around in circles, I found myself sitting in my car right in front of Bjay’s house. I kept telling myself not to come over here, but the slow jams had me deep in my feelings and I ended up here. I didn’t know if I wanted to get out or not. Hell, I didn’t even know if he was here, but I just couldn’t deal with him being mad at me. I felt like I needed to explain myself. To let him know exactly how it went down and pray that he was able to forgive me. To see that I didn’t want to be that girl that I was when all that went down with Keisha.

  Inhaling deeply, I shut my car off and got out. I didn’t know what I was about to get myself into, but I was hoping for the best.