by Brandie
There was silence on the phone for two minutes. I looked down at Luvly and it was as if she was speaking to me through her coma.
“Taeko, you hear me, Dawg?”
“Yeah, I heard you, loud and motherfuckin’ clear. Spare that pussy his sorry-ass life.”
“Just remember though, if she don’t make it, he don’t make it.”
I put the phone down with relief. Relief for the sake of Luvly.
Two months after she recovered she was in that nigga’s arms again, forgiving, but never forgetting.
Later on, I found out the reason he stomped her was that he found out Luvly and Money had been screwing since the beginning—in the place he paid for, in the same bed where he layed his head.
* * *
“Money is about to stop by and take me to my dad’s lot.”
“And you are saying that to say what, Chocolate?” Luvly tried to sound uninterested, but couldn’t hide the interest that aroused in her voice.
“I mean you know how I’m the last one to know what’s really goin’ on. So—shit—maybe y’all gettin’ busy again.”
She paused as if I didn’t know something I needed to. “Well, I do need to tell you something, but I don’t want a lecture. Okay?”
I already knew what it was. Diamond had put the word out on the street that he was about to add to his baby collection.
“Yeah, I promise, no lectures.”
“You ready to be a godfather?”
“Nope, not if it’s the seed spun from asshole.”
She laughed, but I knew it hurt her. “Come on, Chocolate. It’s part of me, so I know you got to love it.”
“Yeah, girl. Damn. You fucking up big time now”
Ding Dong, Ding Dong.
“Hold on.” I threw the phone on the sofa behind me because I knew who was at the door, and I didn’t want him to say anything out of the way.
Ding Dong.
“Damn, nigga! Don’t break my bell; ain’t no pussy in here.”
“If it was, I know it’d be untouched.”
“Man, go head wit’ all that. Boy, guess who I’m on the phone with?” He raised his eyebrows. “She done finally rose from the dead.” His spirits died right on the spot.
“Man, I ain’t studin’ her,” he said, dismissing her with a wave of his right hand. “I’m tired of all the drama and wishy-washy shit.”
“Not Money, not pimp tight, tired of a fine woman,” I said, rubbing my chest like Rico Suave. I leaned over and looked in his face. “You all right, folk? You sick or some shit you ain’t told me?”
“Naw,” he said, turning up his top lip. “Just tired of her using me for backup.”
Understanding his tone, I handled the phone call. “Luvly, I’m about to be out. Hey, you still live with Diamond?”
“No, he stay in Stone Mountain with baby mama number two.”
“Well, give me a call later and I’ll come by.”
“Was that Money?”
Money’s eyes met mine. I pointed at the phone and he started waving his hands in a motion to suggest he was not there.
“Naw, that was Mrs. Hemton lookin’ for Mama.”
“Just please don’t tell him I’m pregnant; let me handle that.”
“You got it.” Click.
Chapter Thirteen
Chocolate
Our Saturdays usually consisted of washing cars, shooting a little ball, playing a game of football, or volunteering at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club and homeless shelter, but today we headed downtown to my father’s lot. The ride had been quiet for the most part. I knew Money still loved Luvly. Always would. But I also knew he was tired of being her crutch when she was hurt.
He told me one time that he would marry her. We were drinking and he was smoking that night, but I knew he meant it.
Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep.
My pager sparked a conversation.
“Hey, you start back messin’ wit’ Nikki?”
“Hell, naw. Why? Who tellin’ lies now?” I asked, hoping the information hadn’t got back to Caymin.
“You know Salone know everybody business but her own, but I guess Nikki was, or is, trying to get on with Salone at the mall. She said Nikki talked about you all day at lunch.”
“Man, I saw her at that white-girl clothing store downstairs at the mall yesterday. She ain’t even my type anymore. She done cut her hair and wearin’ all that shit on her face.”
“I mean what do you expect her hair to look like after that shit Caymin pulled graduation night.”
Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep.
“Speak of the devil—Caymin pagin’ the shit out of me. I know she don’t want nothing, but some money for the mall.”
“I’d have to be hittin’ that ass if I was givin’ up presidents?”
I didn’t feel like I needed to explain myself to Money, but I didn’t want to hear that shit. “Man, don’t start that cake-daddy shit. If you understood what she had to deal wit’, you’d be pushing me outta the way to give it to her too.”
We finally pulled up to my dad’s car lot. A flock of new SUV’s, Lexuses, some oldies but goodies, and a few Jaguars sat pretty.
“Damn! Pops comin’ up like a fat rat.”
“Shit! Nigga, that last name Starr ain’t Starr for nothin’.”
My dad was already on the lot making deals and making earnings for my education.
“What’s up, Pop? How you doin’?”
“Not as good as you, Money. I don’t have all the ladies you got.”
We laughed as we walked toward the SUV’s. “Hey, Money, how your truck holdin’ up?”
“It’s runnin’ like a champ.”
“Yeah, your grandfather had me special-order that paint and design.”
When I got back to the lot, Money was talking to some woman like he knew what he was doing.
“That Money somethin’ else.”
“Yeah, something crazy.”
“Shit, if that boy sell that woman a car, I’ll give him the profit.”
“Well, I need to be out here sellin’ then.”
“Naw, you gon’ take your butt to school and make money to set me up like a kingpin. Come on over here and let me show you something.” We walked to the side of the building to the garage. He usually kept celebrities’ cars and high-profile cars there. “Open the garage door.”
Behind the garage door was sitting a 300zx, twin-turbo.
“Daddy, this car tight. Who’s? Some football player?”
“You really like it? What about the color?”
“The color and rims are tight.”
“You want to take it for a spin?”
“Hell, yeah.”
Man, that car felt like I was floating on water. It was smooth even over bumpy roads. It had the same system as Money’s truck, the sound crisp and clean. That car was made for me. I would have loved to have that thang in my possession, but I knew a car like that would only bring problems.
I whipped back in the parking lot. Money and my father were standing in the middle of the lot like two proud poppas.
“Aye, Dawg, dis car tight!”
“Yeah, it is.” Money started laughing. “Open up the glove compartment and see who owns it. I think your pop said it belongs to a famous entertainment lawyer.”
“Did you sell that car?”
“Yep.” He punched me in the arm. “A Jag, nigga. That’s dead presidents all in my pocket. Shit, I might take her old butt out. She ain’t that old. Thirty-four.”
We both leaned back to check out how old her backside looked. “Twenty-four.”
I looked into the glove compartment trying to see who owned this baby. An envelope with Chinoe Chocolate Starr is staring at me with “Attorney-At-Law,” written in fancy letters under my name. Opening the envelope, almost shittin’ on myself, there was a check for thirty-five thousand dollars, and one thousand dollars in cash with a note attached:
To Chinoe Starr:
You are a loving second g
randson. We hope that you succeed in everything you do. Anytime you are in need we are going to be here indeed. Take care of yourself and Money. Hurry up and become that big-time lawyer. Money is probably going to need it.
Love, Mama and Papa Loane
I was speechless. What’s this? Two more pieces of paper were behind the money. One paper was a contract for a condo of my choice; the other paper was the registration for the car with my name on it. I almost choked.
At that very moment, I felt like I had really graduated into adulthood. I had no choice but to grow up, get serious, make my impression in life, and then flirt with the world, leaving Caymin’s bullshit, and all the old issues behind me.
The only thing I couldn’t let go of was the beautiful girl I saw at the mall. If it took everything in my life, I was going to find her.
Chapter Fourteen
Luvly
“Ma, I don’t need your sarcasm right now; I’m in trouble,” I screamed into the cell phone.
“Yes. You are! You need to listen to what you said. You are in trouble—again. And you need to watch your tone with me; I’m not one of your little hot-in-the-tail girlfriends.”
“Yeah, Ma, I understand all of that, but what am I suppose to do?”
“Tell the truth, and let God be with you. We’ve tried so hard with you, Luvly, but you keep refusing our help. You know your father and I love you very much, and you don’t ever have to want for anything.”
I pulled into a gas station, crying. “I know. I know.” Click.
Lord, have mercy on my soul. Who do I tell about my baby? Diamond or Money? I know in my heart that it’s Money’s, but Diamond will kill both of us. That’s why I can’t get rid of it this time. My best bet is to just play it as it comes. I know I’m going to pay for this shit in the end, but what do I do while I’m faced with it in the present?
Money had been messin’ wit’ this trick named Salone that kept callin’ my fuckin’ phone threatenin’ me. That bitch was crazy. And I couldn’t call Money and tell ’im that she fuckin’ wit’ me, or that I heard in the street that she fuckin’ Diamond, ’cause he would only think I was playin’ get-back games wit’ him.
I looked into the mirror to make sure I looked half-decent before I went into the store. It was packed and anyone could be at this little freak-nick gas station. I wiped my face and headed inside.
“Damn, Luvly, you gettin’ thick as hell. You need to let a nigga get at chu,” A boy I knew from the neighborhood said.
“Dee, please. Boy, you couldn’t handle all this woman if I gave it to you piece by piece.” We both laughed as I walked into the store.
Being upset and not paying attention, letting my guard down, I let my surroundings get the best of me. Just as I walked out of the store, a black Jimmy with tinted windows hit my Mercedes from the back, which made my car hit the car in front of me.
“What the fuck? You can’t see or something?” I yelled. The girl in the car in front of me just laughed like it was funny. The girl in the other car just looked at me like she wanted to beat my ass.
“Fuck this!” I walked fast to my car, reaching into my purse to grab my cell phone when someone kicked me in the back. “Ahhh!”
My only thought was about my baby. As I fell into the front seat of my car, I could see people moving closer to the pumps, but not close enough to get involved.
“Get yo’ trick ass up!”
The voice sounded familiar. Like the same voice that was threatenin’ me every night. I tried to search the car floor for the heavy flashlight that always rolled under my seat.
“I told you that I was on yo’ ass and you would slip up real soon.” Smack! The slap came before I had time to get back out of the car.
Not paying attention to my passenger door, the girl that was parked in front of me grabbed my shirt and hair from the back. While Salone and one of her disciples started punching me in the stomach, and scratching my face, my legs were kicking at full force.
“You won’t have this muthafuckin’ baby, ho.”
She was so determined to hit me in the stomach that I was truly afraid she was going to succeed. My cell phone hit the ground; it gave me both hands free to finally get to the flashlight. I hit the girl holding me from the back, cracking her wrist.
“Ahhh, shit!”
Salone was still punching at full force: “I hate you, you stupid-bitch! Money is mine—”
With no one holding me from the back I got loose and punched Salone in the face, my fingernails deeply wounded her under her left eye. But being in the car, I was at a disadvantage. Another one of Salone’s friends grabbed me from behind again. Salone took all of her strength and came down full blast with both of her hands into my stomach, which left me screaming louder then I screamed when Diamond jumped on me.
That took all the fight out of me. While one girl held my hands back, another girl took my Chanel sandals. Salone yanked my legs like a rag doll and my body hit the ground like a pound of logs. She ripped my diamond-hooped earrings out of my ears, but when she bent down to go for the sapphire ring that Money gave me, I bit her in the same spot I had just scratched her in.
Dee ran over with a couple of his boys and stopped it, but it was too late. My stomach started cramping and when I looked down, there was blood between my thighs.
Chapter Fifteen
FOUR YEARS LATER
Chocolate
“When you comin’ home, boy?”
“After my agent gets everything in order with my contract and money—something you should have been handling. Man, a mind is a terrible commodity to waste.” Money sounded more mature and focused. Going to the Super Bowl had helped him prove to himself that he could achieve anything he set his mind to.
I knew he’d be busy flying here and there, doing interviews and commercials, so there was no telling how long it’d be before he came home.
“Hey, did you go by the mall and take Salone her birthday gift?”
Oh, shit! I forgot. That silver box was still sitting on my bar. I knew if I told him no he’d be tripping like a little bitch. “Yeah, I took it up there yesterday, but she wasn’t in the store. That skinny, freckled face chic said she would be back later on today.”
“Yeah, nigga, you forgot.”
We both paused thinking about all the latest information we needed to share before we departed.
“Aye, Luvly been askin’ ’bout you.”
“Yo, Chocolate, leave that conversation in the wind blowin’ anywhere but up my ass.”
“Nigga, you can’t keep pushing the issue away because the problem is still going to be there.”
“If she want that sorry, dope-dealing, woman-beating-ass Diamond to fuck her and her life up, and take care of Sap, then that’s on her dumb ass.”
I knew that was the end of that conversation.
“Have you made plans for Daytona and Cancún?”
“Yeah, my agent called last week. We got a beachfront house in Daytona. I was trying to see where Jay-Z was getting his house so that we could be in the vicinity of all the concerts and booty-shake contests.”
The laughter crept back into our voices.
“Well, let me get to the mall so your boo can put on an academy awards show about her present.”
“When she get it, tell her to open it in front of her computer so that I can see her reaction.”
“Yeah, nigga, later.”
“Later.”
Quite a few things had changed in CP. Everyone had grown up physically, but mentally I think we were all stuck in a maze.
After Lan got out of jail at the end of ’94, he and his baby’s mother got back together. One week later he beat her again, and she slit his throat in the middle of the night while he slept.
Vegas’s life had been bittersweet. In the summer of ’95, his mother and her boyfriend were arguing about her seeing another man. His aunt, the mother’s sister, was standing in the middle of them while they argued. The aunt was secretly seeing the boyfriend
on the side as well, telling him everything her sister was doing. The boyfriend pulled out a gun and shot both of them in the head, and then turned the gun on himself. Vegas came home from a Friday night out wit’ the boys to find the door wide open with his younger sister screaming, lying on top of their bloody mother.
Since both of them were minors, they had to go live with their father in Korea. Then, Vegas started attending some big university up North. He wrote me a couple of letters, but I hadn’t heard from him since.
Unfortunately, I didn’t transfer to Morehouse, I finished up a degree in Computer Programming at Clayton State University. I was still a virgin, on what seemed like a hopeless journey for perfection. Lately, I’d been offered some modeling gigs and getting paid a pretty penny.
Money, Luvly, and Taeko were doing well despite some poor decisions. Money went pro after he graduated from FSU with a degree in Sports Therapy. He had offers from every team in the league, each one trying to outbid the other, offering homes, cars, extra signing bonuses, women—anything they could to get ’im. With all that at his feet, he decided to sign with the Falcons so that he could be close to his family. Lately, he’d been playing with fire and he knew it.
Luvly had a little girl and named her Sapphire, making me godfather, of course. That little girl was the number one lady in my life. When Sap turned one year, she looked like Money carved her out of his chest, but Luvly still denied the fact that he was her father. Maybe she really didn’t know who the father was, but I doubt it.
Diamond used Sap as a hold on Luvly. He was barely around to see that little girl. The only time he wanted to be bothered with her is when he screwed or beat on Luvly.
After she had Sap, she was miserable and barely holding on to her sanity. My mother and Grandma Loane had Sap the majority of the time when she was first born. I picked up responsibility with her when she was able to walk. Diamond wasn’t around enough and didn’t care enough to know who was taking care of Sap.
Luvly moved to Stone Mountain, thinking she could outrun her trouble, but it followed her. I tried to help Luvly as much as possible, keeping Sap on Tuesdays and Thursdays; my mom kept her on Mondays and Fridays. And I kept my mouth shut and out of her business about Money and Diamond.