by Shan
Nonetheless, it was appreciated because I didn't need anybody fucking me and concerned with how a young black nigga from the hood with only a high school diploma could afford to pay cash for a house like this.
I walked through the house one more time and then made my way back to the car where Nurse Rosita was nervously waiting. She had practically bitten off all of her fingernails and was beginning to bite a hole in her bottom lip.
About an hour later, we rolled into the projects, and I pulled my hoodie over my head. Again, I told Rosita to stay put in the car while I took care of a little business. I cocked my pistol and placed it in my jacket pocket. I wasn’t scared, but just a little on edge.
I didn’t know who robbed me, but I knew for a fact they wanted me dead. There was no doubt in my mind that they would be back to finish the job, and I had to be ready.
I held on to my stomach as I made my way up the stairs to Rozalyn’s apartment. The door swung open before I could knock, and Rozalyn’s pops stepped out. He looked like he was on his way to work.
"Hey, is Rozalyn home?" I asked.
He looked at me as if he was ready to leap out and attack me. I removed my hoodie thinking maybe he didn’t recognize my face.
"Last time she came home, you sent people to kill her. That was almost two months ago. Haven’t seen or heard from her since," he replied.
"I didn’t send nobody to kill her—what—so you haven’t seen her?"
"No, I just told you I haven’t. I don’t know whether or not her or my son is alive, and that’s because of you. Even if I did know, you think I would tell your dope slangin’ ass?" He turned his nose up at me and walked away.
Why would I send somebody to kill her? I questioned myself as I made my way back down the stairs. I stood in the courtyard and looked around. I immediately noticed that none of the workers was outside. That made me frown 'cause the fiends didn't sleep, and somebody should be out here serving 24/7.
I got back into the car and directed Rosita to Rozalyn’s gay best friend Brian’s house. Once we pulled up, I rolled the window down and stared at the badly burnt house that seemed to be standing on one leg.
"What the fuck been going on since I been down?" I mumbled.
"I think I should get you home, Mr. Andrews," Rosita said with her accent as thick as the humid summer air.
"I’m not ready to go back yet. I need to try one more place," I told her and rolled the window up. I instructed Rosita to make a right at the stop sign. I could feel my cell phone as it vibrated against my leg. Once I pulled it out and saw who it was I quickly hit the ignore button. I wasn’t really trying to talk to Shalea right now.
She’d been real helpful lately, but it hadn’t changed the fact that I didn’t feel the same way about her as I did when we first met.
"Pull over right here!" I yelled and jumped out the car when I spotted one of Rozalyn’s home girls, Starr standing in front of a local food mart along with a couple of chicken heads from the hood.
"Damn, Tae, that’s you?" Starr asked. I put my finger to my mouth telling her to be quiet. I didn’t want to warn anybody just yet that I was roaming the block. "Okay, but you ain’t looking yourself. Everything good in your world?"
"I’m looking for Rozalyn. You talked to her?" I asked.
"That bitch ain’t checking for you. Word is, you the one that sent them fuck boys to kill her. Now you wanna come out here looking for my girl?"
Starr was a short, dark-chocolate, bo-legged, ghetto beauty. She had mad swag in everything she did from her hair all the way down to her shoe game.
"Yo', I don’t know what the fuck you talking about. I don’t send anybody to do my fucking dirty work. You know me well enough to know I takes care of my own. Now, have you talked to her? Where can I find her?"
Starr rolled her eyes, waved me off, and turned her head to stare at some unknown object. I pulled a couple of hundred dollars from my pocket and waved it in her face.
"She almost died ‘cause of you. That’s my girl and that lil' funky ass money you waving around ain’t gone change that," she said and walked away. She quickly hit the corner like somebody was after her.
"I heard her and her bro’ been living in some apartments out in the East and that one of your boys you roll with been footing the bill," One of the chicks that were with Starr said.
"Where at in the East?" I asked. She held her hand out for the money I was holding on to. I handed it to her and watched as she counted it before she stashed it into her bra.
"It’s some apartments called Village Park. They right off the freeway. About thirty minutes from here," she said and tried to walk away, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"What was Starr talking about me trying to have her killed?" I asked, and she rolled her eyes at me, and then held her hands out for more bread. "Yo', I’m tapped out."
"You supposed to be a baller. I know them niggas didn’t rob you for all your cash."
"I don’t keep that much dough on me like that lil’ girl. When you see me again, I got you."
"Nah, I don’t do IOUs. Sorry," she said and walked away.
"Greedy bitch." I made my way back to the car where Rosita was rocking back and forth in the driver’s seat. "You alright?"
"I have to take you home Mr. Andrews. Your girlfriend calls and she says that she is going crazy 'cause you are not there. I told her that we came to sign up for the therapy classes."
"We can go back now. I can finish up later."
I slouched down in the seat wondering what the hell was going on. There was no in the way in the world I would authorize anyone to kill Rozalyn, and if I had, no one would even know about it. I don't even work like that.
Whoever took it upon themselves to try and do some shit like that without even speaking to me first had hell to pay before it was all said and done. Yea, I was a little suspicious about her part in the robbery, but I needed to talk to her first and find out for myself. I didn’t need anyone to do that for me.
I thought about what the greedy hood rat said about one my boys I roll with footing the bill on an apartment for Rozalyn and her brother and knew just who that person was. Brandon and Zavier were real cool and the way Brandon was acting about me fooling around with Rozalyn I could tell he had a thing for her. Yea. It's him.
"Oh, my God, Tae!" Shalea ran to me and hugged me as I walked through the door. She gave me a kiss on my forehead and looked me over. "I was so worried! Why didn’t you answer your phone?"
"Therapy, Shalea," I said and pulled her arms from around my neck. I walked through the living room and then to Brandon's room to see if he'd made it home yet. "Where everybody at, Shalea?"
"I don’t know. Working I guess."
"I done called B like ten times and that fool ain’t picked up the damn phone." I took my cell phone out and dialed Brandon’s number one more time.
"Here you go Mr. Andrews. You should take this before you start to have pain," Rosita said and handed me three pills. I took the pain pill and handed her the other two back. I wasn’t trying to sleep now. I've been out of the hospital for two weeks now, and that’s all I’ve done was sleep. I couldn't believe all this time I’ve been home that no one mentioned to me the threat on Rozalyn’s life.
"Damn, I done called you like ten times already!" I yelled into the phone when Brandon finally answered.
"What number you calling me from?" Brandon asked.
"What? Do you know who this is?"
"Yea, I know who this is. Who phone you calling me from?"
"I’m calling you from my phone."
"You got your number changed?"
"Yo', I ain’t got time for that bullshit you talking about. I need to talk to you, and I need to talk to you now. Alone."
"Busy right now. You know we been catching hell since you been gone. I can’t—"
"I’m not hearing you right now B. Let somebody else do that shit. Come to the house and scoop me up we got shit to talk about!"
"Yea, wh
atever." Brandon hung up the phone.
I grabbed the bottle of water that Rosita set out for me and swallowed the Oxycontin that was prescribed to me for pain. My back was hurting; my fucking chest and stomach felt like I had bricks strapped to it, and my leg throbbed, and so did my fucking neck. This shit was crazy as hell. It’s been six weeks since I've been shot and from what the doctors was saying it could be something like six months before I was feeling back to normal. Fuck!
"What’s going on? You know you are not supposed to be out of the bed. Your stitches are not completely healed and you know—"
"Shalea, chill with that shit. I got shit I gots to take care of right now. Somebody done did some foul shit while I was down and ain’t said shit to me about it since I been home. So until I figure out what the fuck is going on, I’m not getting back in that damn bed. I have been cooped up in this damn house for two weeks already. As a matter of fact, go get her a couple of stacks and send her home. I don’t need a nurse anymore."
"Okay," Shalea said, and left to go into the bedroom.
Nurse Rosita looked at me sadly with a hint of tears in her eyes. I shook my head and immediately felt bad for her, but I had moves to make. She’s been taking care of me ever since I’ve been home. She reported any and everything I did to whoever asked and hell she might fuck around and give out information to the wrong damn person. I couldn't have her around anymore. When Shalea came back, she handed Rosita a wad of money. I thanked her and walked her out of the house to her car.
"Did you go see her today?" Shalea asked when I came back inside.
"Go see who?" I played confused.
"You know who? I seen you called her phone at least six times last night. Did you go see her?"
"I ain’t go see nobody. I went to therapy."
"You didn’t go to no muthafucking therapy, Tae! I know because I have your therapy schedule and that shit don’t start til’ next week, so what therapy are you talking about?"
Beep! Beep!
The sound of a horn blowing blared through the house. I gave Shalea the once over before walking out of the house to hop in the car with Brandon.
"What’s up?" Brandon asked giving me a pound.
"What’s been going on? Ain’t nobody been talking to me; telling me nothing. What’s up?"
"I thought Dmitri came over here to meet with you the other day about everything that’s been going on."
"I’m not talking about that. My money is good. I wanna know who the fuck authorized for Rozalyn to be killed."
Brandon ran his across his hand face and inhaled a deep breath before letting it out. "Tavon did that shit man. He said that he knew for sure that she had something to do with you being robbed and shit. He had them shooting at her ass at the fucking hospital, and they ended up shooting both her and Zavier in the middle of the damn projects. Me and Key both tried to tell him to calm down with that shit and to wait until you came through to find out what you wanted to do."
"So, you didn’t feel the need to tell me this shit weeks ago!"
"Shalea been by your side every minute since they woke you up from that coma! I wasn’t trying to start no shit between you and her!"
"Where is she?"
"Where is who?"
"Don’t play dumb on me now. Where is she, B?"
"I don’t know where she at."
"What you fucking her or something?"
"Hell nah!"
"I know you got her an apartment somewhere out East. I know you paying the bills up in that muthafucka' too,m so tell me where the fuck she at!"
"Yo, Tae, she pregnant dogg. I’m not trying to bring no madness to her right now. She done been through enough."
"She wasn’t lying about being pregnant, huh?"
Brandon shook his head no, and that just made me even more pissed off. I wasn’t ready for no kids and damn sure wasn’t trying to have a baby by a sixteen year old, but if that was my seed she was carrying and a muthafucka' brought harm to her or that baby, my baby; a nigga was gone get fucked off for real, brother or no brother.
"Shit!" I kicked the dashboard with my foot over and over again.
"Tae! Tae! Calm down! Calm the fuck down nigga!" Brandon yelled.
"He had no right! No muthafuckin' right to do that shit! What if that is my baby she carrying? And this clown ass nigga got everybody thinking I was out to kill my baby’s mama!" I shook my head in shame. I was so mad at my brother right now that I could kill him. "Just take me to her! Don’t bullshit me."
Brandon leaned back in his seat and drove in silence. I wondered how Shalea would take to the news of me possibly having a baby on the way. Maybe she would just leave. I hoped she would and make my day. I hoped she would just pack her shit and get out.
I really hated that I involved her in my business. I showed her so much to where she can have me hanging by my damn balls if she wanted to. It would be too hard for me to get rid of her at this point, and telling her about Rozalyn’s pregnancy would be a dumb move.
I made a mental note for when I got back up and running again to switch everything over and change everything around such as: Days we picked up our packages, the different routes we took when transporting them, and places we used to cook up dope. The whole organization had to be turned around and done differently. I had to make everything brand new and unknown to Shalea if I wanted to get rid of her.
No doubt, Shalea was that ride or die chick, that chick that every dope boy dreamed of. She had your back like a tight ass t-shirt type female. She just wasn’t my type of chick. With my status in this game, I deserved a classy female on my arm. Somebody that had dreams, ambition, and a positive outlook on life.
Yea I know when you coming straight out the dungeon it’s real hard to hope and dream for something better than what you used to, but the shit can happen. I might not have been going about the right way to make it happen, but I was making it happen by doing real big things. In a couple of more weeks, this living hood rich shit will be over with. It was time for me to the live life the right way.
"I gotta get rid of Shalea," I said bringing my thoughts to life.
"You feeling Roz that much?" Brandon asked as he glanced at me then back at the road.
"Would I be wrong?"
"For wanting to leave Shalea or for wanting to be with Roz?"
"Both."
"Shalea did a year flat in jail for you bruh. If she wouldn’t have taken that charge for you, you would have been doing more than that lil’ time you did."
"I ain’t ask Shalea to do that shit for me. The bitch did that 'cause she knew I was about to dump her. She wanted to take that charge for me so she could hold it over my head for the rest of my life."
"Yep, and she knows too much, Tae. You let her in on too much."
"I know. A little bit too much."
"What’s up with that though? Y'all was like a lil’ Bonnie and Clyde in the beginning? It was all love. You know they say ‘Never leave the one you love for the one you like,’" Brandon said and grabbed a blunt out the ashtray.
"Yea, I heard that before. I never loved Shalea though. It was just a fantasy being fulfilled for me being with an older woman you know, but I never loved her."
"Three years and you never loved her? Come on now. Keep it real."
. "I’m keeping it all the way one-hundid right now. I was over Shalea after the first year, but she was a good business partner, so I kept her around."
"You in love with Rozalyn?"
I laughed, "Love is a strong word. If you were in my shoes, would you be with her? You know with her being all underage and shit? I know I did the shit with Shalea, but it's different when the woman is older versus the man being older."
"Damn--I don’t know, but what do it matter now? Y'all already got a baby on the way?"
"That hasn’t been proven yet."
"You know she don’t get down like that."
Brandon was right. Rozalyn wasn’t the type to sleep around with different men. When I met her, sh
e was a virgin and not one time did I use protection with her, but I just found it hard to believe that she was carrying my child after sleeping with her that one night. Shit, anything was possible I guess. We pulled into a set of apartments that were right off the freeway just like ol’ girl said.
Brandon pulled up to the back of the apartments and parked. I had to say I was proud and appreciated my boy very much for doing this. He could have said fuck it and let Rozalyn fight to survive, but he didn’t. That showed me how much he had my back. For real.
I followed Brandon up three flights of stairs and in between, I had to kneel over to catch my breath. "Damn, this shit ain’t what’s up," I said and huffed and puffed like I just finished a marathon.
"Your ass supposed to be in the damn bed," Brandon said and used a key to open the door. No one was home. Rozalyn and Zavier were gone, and I was starting to wonder if Brandon tipped they ass off or something. I made myself at home by sitting on the couch and propped my feet up on the coffee table. I wasn’t going anywhere until I saw and spoke with Rozalyn.
10: Rozalyn
"Shit!" I don’t know why Brandon got this apartment all the way up here on the third floor. These damn stairs are a beast. I had my third month checkup at the doctor’s office today, and everything was good.
The most joyous sound a female could hear was the sound of her unborn’s heartbeat echoing from within the belly. I never knew how amazing being pregnant would be. The anatomy of it and the stages of development are just miraculous.
I stuck my key in the door, unlocked it, and walked in. The house smelled of weed and cigarette, a smell that now made me so sick to my stomach.
"Brandon, damn I told you to smoke that shit—"
"Where you been?" Tamar asked. I damn near fainted when I saw him. I placed my hand over my heart to try and control my erratic breathing. Tamar walked closer to me, and I dropped my head to look at the floor. The last time I saw his face it was covered in blood. "Where you been?" he asked again.
"You scared the shit out of me. What are you doing here?"
"I’ve been waiting here for you all night. Called you multiple times and everything. Where the fuck have you been?"