A Bittersweet Hood Dilemma 2: A Naptown Love Story

by Natavia

  “Damn, I want to pop you in your rude mouth!” she spat. I leaned against my car then crossed my arms.

  “Take a shot! You followed a nigga out of the mall, cursed me out for no reason, and now you are threatening me? You went through a lot! So come on, Kyree, hit me! But I’m telling you now if you hit me too hard, I’m knocking your ass out,” I said to her. Her frown turned into a cute smirk then she blushed.

  “I’ll see you later, beautiful,” I said. Wait! Did I just slip and say that shit to her? I’m not even feeling shorty’s attitude!

  “I still hate your ass, nigga,” she said, walking away.

  “And you are still a loudmouth bitch!” I said to her. She gave me the finger then I chuckled.

  When I got to the crib, Tassana’s car was in the driveway. She did everything she was told right. Tassana was perfect for the job. She had that innocent, naïve look to her but the hoe was just as scandalous as they come. I walked in with my bags and she was looking at me sideways.

  “Keep looking because there is nothing in here for you,” I said to her.

  “Seriously? You didn’t get me anything?” she asked.

  “Who do I look like to you? That nigga, Tudos? You better use whatever you got left that you took from me because I’m not giving you shit! I hope you been saving your money and looking for a job,” I said to her.

  “You sound just like Kauzie.” That name sounded familiar, I just couldn’t think where I knew it from.

  “Well, that is a smart-ass nigga! I take that as a compliment! Looks like you are in the same situation, just with a different nigga!” I said.

  “What, you ain’t cook?” I asked her.

  “Yes, it’s on the stove,” she said to me.

  “Let me see you taste it first,” I told her.

  “What?” she asked me.

  “Taste that shit and I want to see you do it! You know I can’t eat your food until you do,” I said to her. She rolled her eyes then walked into the kitchen. I followed behind her. She lifted up the foil then tasted the shrimp Alfredo.

  “You feel better now? Why would you think I would do something like that? I know I’m a complicated person but to kill someone is beyond me,” she said.

  “If you lie you steal. If you steal then you would kill,” I said to her. After Tassana walked out of the kitchen I got a text from Dez telling me that he was going out to some party. One thing for sure there was a party somewhere every week in Annapolis. After I ate my food I went upstairs to shower.

  Once I showered, I got dressed. I brushed my hair then put on my watch. I put on my black diamond necklace. Tassana walked into the room.

  “Where are you going?”

  “OUT!” I said to her.

  “Can I come?” she asked.

  “On this dick when I give it to you,” I told her, chuckling. I grabbed my car keys and cell-phones and was ready to leave out the room. Tassana was laying some clothes out on the bed.

  “Where are you going?” I asked her then she rolled her eyes, ignoring me.

  “Oh, what you can’t hear?” I asked her.

  “I’m going out!” she spat. I waved her off then headed down the stairs and out the door.

  I couldn’t wait until the rest of my niggas from Virginia touched down in Maryland. Right now it was only Tasira and I making moves. It felt weird not having my right hand man, Lee, with me. He said he would be down soon. I pulled up to this spot called La Fontaine Bleue in Glen Burnie. Dez was outside waiting for me.

  “My nigga!” he said giving me a dap hug.

  “What’s up with you?” I asked him.

  “Shit. Chilling,” he said. A redbone with a phat ass walked past.

  “Look at all that damn pudding!” Dez said out loud. The redbone turned around then waved at Dez. He gave her the head nod.

  “Why didn’t you go over there to talk to her?” I asked him.

  “Mannnnnnnn! Shimmy crazy ass is around here somewhere. I’m trying to enjoy my night, you feel me?” he asked. I nodded my head. A black-on-black Navigator pulled up with music blasting. He parked right next to me. He got out with two other niggas. The driver grilled Dez and Dez grilled him back.

  “Who is that nigga?” I asked him.

  “Geechie. Yo, I want to body that nigga,” Dez said.

  Geechie walked past, bumping into me and I pushed him.

  “What, you got a problem?” I asked him.

  He laughed. “I’m not getting into it with some little niggas!” Geechie said to his boys. Dez walked up on him ready to swing. I pulled Dez back then whispered in his ear, “We are going to catch this nigga later.” He nodded his head.

  “There’s no problem over here,” I said to him. They chuckled then walked off.

  “Never let a nigga calculate your move. Sometimes you have to call a truce. Then you come back! Right now, he thinks he got us shook. But we will get at that nigga later when he least expects it! But in the meantime, let’s go inside of this party,” I said, giving him dap. I used to be like Dez a few years back. I used to react first, think later. As the years passed I planned my moves, and when I did it I did it silently.

  We walked inside the party and the music was blasting. Damn, it felt good to be back home. I’d been gone since I was thirteen years old. After my father was killed we moved to Virginia. My mother couldn’t take care of me by herself. Tasira was eighteen and she tried to hold us down until she went off to college in New York. We were living down there with my father’s mother and that’s when I took to the streets harder; I became heartless. But when I met Tassana I started warming up to her. In that short period of time I was finally ready to let my guard down. I knew she was messed up but so was I. When she betrayed me I remembered women like her were the reason why I haven’t met a bitch that can say she got my heart.

  I ordered two shots of Patrón and a shot of Ciroc. Dez shook his head at me.

  “You ain’t driving home after that,” he said laughing. Shimmy walked towards us with her sister, Kyree, following behind her. Kyree had her hair in a big bushy ponytail with the curls falling down in her face. Her jean skirt was high-waist with buttons going down the middle. Her quarter-sleeve fuchsia, thin leather jacket was unzipped, showing her cleavage. Her lips were pink with sparkles in it. This broad is too bad! Her nigga must be a fool to let her out!

  “So we meet again?” she asked giggling. She must be tipsy and high. Shimmy was hugging up on Dez.

  I looked down at her open-toe booties and her toes had white polish on them. Her feet were perfect! I didn’t have a foot fetish but I couldn’t fuck with a broad with ugly feet! She could have a pretty face and a nice body, but if shorty feet were fucked up, I lost interest.

  “What was y’all smoking on?” Dez asked them.

  “Some reggie bush!” Kyree said. Kyree looked at me again, but this time, she held her stare longer.

  “Shorty, what do you want? Why do you keep coming around me?” I asked her. She rolled her eyes at me.

  “If I was your nigga, I would be smacking you,” I said to her.

  “No you wouldn’t. My nigga don’t have No Hands,” she said giggling.

  “This girl is crazy!” I said to Dez.

  “Naw, she telling the truth. The nigga crib we was over the other day. You remember? The nigga, No Hands? Well, that’s who she fuck with,” Dez said. I nodded my head although I didn’t care about that. That was Dez’s nigga! He wasn’t mine. I don’t know him like that, and if Kyree keeps looking at me like that, I might just give her what I know she wants. Kyree wants a nigga to fuck her!

  Some Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj song came on and all the females started going crazy. Kyree popped her plump ass out and started shaking it. I reached out and grabbed it. She turned around then I smirked.

  “What you do that for?” she asked me.

  “You wanted me to or else you would’ve taken your stank-butt ass somewhere else to shake it,” I said to her. Her mouth dropped open. Kyree was teasing me! S
he knew what she was doing, shaking her ass in front of me like that.

  “Keep that pretty little mouth just like that and get down on the floor a little lower,” I said, joking with her.

  “I swear I can’t stand you! You need to go back where you came from because this city ain’t big enough for the both of us,” she said.

  “I got something big enough for you though!” I said chuckling. She cracked a smile showing her perfect set of teeth. This woman has to have some type of flaw because she is too perfect.

  A girl walked over to me whispering in my ear, asking me to dance with her. I got a good look at her and she was average in the face and her body was okay, but I don’t dance!

  “Thirsty much?” Kyree asked her. The girl waved us off then disappeared through the crowd.

  A thick, heavy-set guy walked up to Kyree.

  “Where is Tokyo, Kyree?” the guy asked her.

  “Darrion, if you don’t get the hell out of my face! Shouldn’t you be looking for Tassana’s hoe ass? You was fucking her too, right? That’s right, dirty dick, we know all about you! Tokyo don’t want you!” Kyree said to him. Tassana was fucking her sister’s man too? Damn, Tassana just spreading her pussy around!

  Darrion grabbed Kyree by the arm. “I will smack you! I can’t stand your loudmouth ass, anyway!” he said, squeezing her arm. I pushed him off of her.

  “What are you grabbing on her like that for?” I asked him.

  “Mind your business, little nigga!” he spat.

  “I’m going to get a nigga to fuck you up!” Kyree yelled at him. Shimmy came over to stand by her sister with Dez following behind her.

  “We will scrap with your big ass!” Shimmy said to Darrion in a fighting stance. These chicks were too hood!

  “Forget this shit!” Darrion said.

  “Yeah, get your funky ass on now, nigga! Tokyo is with Kauzie and she is having his baby! She don’t want your potato salad-smelling-feet ass!” Shimmy said, getting hype. That must’ve got to him because he pushed Shimmy into the table, causing her to fall on her face. Dez and I both swung on him at the same time. He was too big for Dez to be fighting him by himself. Tokyo messed with Kauzie from what I understand, and Tassana was too. Tassana mentioned him the other day, saying that I treated her how he treated her. What the fuck these broads got going on in Annapolis?

  The crowd was moving out of the way. The bouncers pulled me and Dez off the nigga. The bouncers escorted us outside. Shimmy and Kyree followed behind us, yelling and screaming, trying to get to the nigga, Darrion.

  “Yo, I swear you are always starting some shit!” Dez said to Shimmy.

  “So what? That nigga needed to know what was up! I’m glad his sweaty behind know now! I bet you he won’t be asking for Tokyo anymore!” Shimmy fussed.

  “It’s still early. What can we do now? We only been in there for thirty minutes and already got kicked out,” Kyree said.

  “We can go downtown Baltimore,” Shimmy said.

  “Let’s go!” Kyree said.

  “You riding with me?” I asked Kyree, smirking.

  “Ewwww, no!” she said.

  “What the fuck do you mean, ‘ewwww’? Get your ass in the car,” I said to her. She looked back at Shimmy but Shimmy just shrugged her shoulders.

  “Go ahead. Dez has to stop somewhere, real quick, and I know how funny-acting you are! You be rushing people,” Shimmy said to Kyree. Kyree rolled her eyes then strutted to my car. I shook my head at her.

  “Meet us down at Fells Point,” Dez said, walking off with Shimmy.

  When we got into the car Kyree started fixing her lipstick. She looked at me then rolled her eyes.

  “I’m still mad at you for pulling that gun out on Tokyo,” she said to me.

  “Come on, shorty, shut that shit up! I didn’t know. When I see her again, I will apologize. I will give her a real one and I don’t be giving those out,” I said. I started the car up then pulled off.

  “How old are you, Osari?” she asked me.

  “How old do you think I am?” I asked her.

  “Twenty-five or Twenty-six?”

  “I’m twenty-one,” I said to her. She was shocked. The expression was written all over her face.

  “Y’all lil niggas be looking too grown and acting too grown now!” she said.

  “Black men have to grow up fast in order to look out for their families. Age ain’t shit but a number! It’s what you know,” I said to her.

  “Well, that is true in a way. It’s just me and Shimmy, our parents are products of the streets. They are roaming around to get high off of anything they can find. I haven’t seen them in years. They might even be dead,” she said sadly.

  “How old are you?” I asked her.

  “Twenty-three,” she said. I nodded my head.

  Kyree went into her purse and pulled out a small bag of weed. She skillfully broke it up. After she was done rolling up she lit it.

  “What do you do, Osari?” she asked me.

  “What do you think?” I replied.

  “I already know the answer to that!” she said.

  “You have any kids?” she asked me. Damn, shorty nosey.

  “I’m not used to people asking me personal shit. You know enough already,” I spat.

  “I’m riding in the car with a nigga I don’t know. I have every damn right to ask you questions. You could be a serial killer. You better tell me something, Osari!” she spat with attitude.

  “If I was, you wouldn’t know! Who goes around telling things like that?” I asked her.

  “Well, I don’t have any kids. I’m an assistant manager at the Ramada Inn. I do hair for the fun of it. I’m going back to college to get my degree in business management. I start classes in two weeks,” she said.

  “Your ratchet ass is on your game, huh? I can dig it. I think that’s attractive,” I said to her.

  “How about you? You seem like you’re smart,” she said to me.

  “I graduated high school. After that I went to college for my Associate’s Degree in marketing. I received it four months ago. That’s all my pops wanted from me. He didn’t care what kind of degree it was. He just wanted me to have one. I did it for him but for right now I don’t have any use for it,” I told her.

  “So you and your dad are close?” she asked.

  “We were very close. He’s been dead for eight years now. My life hasn’t been the same since,” I said to her. She nodded her head. She didn’t ask me anything else and I’m glad she didn’t.

  When we got downtown Baltimore Kyree called Shimmy.

  “Her phone is off!” Kyree fussed then I called Dez. I wasn’t used to this. If it’s just the two of us, is this considered a date? I asked myself. Dez picked up on the fourth ring.

  “Where are you?” I asked him.

  “Shimmy’s drunk ass is throwing up! I don’t know if we are going to make it. Damn, it Shimmy! Hold your fucking head out the window! You just threw-up in my car!” he yelled at her.

  “Shut the hell up, Dez! I told you I can’t drink Henny!” she yelled back at him. I told Dez I would holla at him later. I looked at Kyree with her arms crossed and her nose frowned up.

  “They aren’t coming. Your sister is sick,” I said to her.

  “I told that wanna-be grown little bitch not to drink that Henny! Now, I’m stuck with your crazy ass!” she fussed.

  “I swear yo! Your mouth is too much! I will slap you in it in a heartbeat! Lose that fucking attitude because it’s no longer attractive! I don’t want to be stuck with your hood ass, either! But I’m about to suck it up! Now, what spots can we hit up down here? I don’t like those rowdy clubs,” I said to her.

  “Well, I guess we can go to Norma’s,” she said.

  “What’s that?” I asked her.

  “The strip club,” she spat.

  “Oh, shorty, you ain’t saying nothing but a word,” I said to her.

  I got a table in the VIP section once we got inside. This badass chocolate
stripper broad came into our section. She popped her ass on me and I forgot all about Kyree sitting there. I passed Kyree some ones she could throw and she snatched them from me. After the stripper was done she collected her money from the floor. I poured me a shot of Henny.

  “Loosen up, shorty,” I said, pouring her one too. She downed her shot then took another one.

  “Slow down, girl!” I said to her. By the end of the night Kyree and I were too drunk.

  Once the club closed I had to hold her up when we walked out. I needed to get a room down here somewhere. There was no way in hell I was driving back to Annapolis. I had a gun in my car too and I couldn’t chance taking that drive. I went on my phone to Google hotels near me. The Four Seasons hotel wasn’t too far from us. I put Kyree in the car and she started giggling. This ten-minute drive was going to be a long one!

  After we checked in we got into the elevator. Kyree fell and couldn’t get back up.

  “Damn it!” I said as I picked her up. I had to carry her to the room. Once I got in I dropped her on the bed.

  I took a cold shower so it could wake me up somewhat. When I got out I drank nothing but water. I had things to do in the morning and having a hangover wasn’t going to work. When I heard tumbling I went into the bedroom and Kyree was on the floor. I took her to the bathroom then took her clothes off. I stuck two of my fingers down her throat then leaned her over the toilet. I wasn’t ready for what came out of her stomach. It smelled foul! I wanted to puke myself. She threw-up a lot! I hurriedly flushed the toilet then stuck her in the shower.