Jonathan had about forty friends and relatives over for his graduation cook out. Everyone in the neighborhood could smell the food and hear the loud music blasting. Whenever someone entered the backyard, Herman had to remind Jonathan to show them the watch he had given him for graduation. It had taken him nearly four months to save up enough money to purchase the $1200 Movado watch. He thought it was the perfect gift.
“Every man has to have a real timepiece,” he’d told his wife Lorraine with a big smile when he revealed it to her the night before the graduation.
“Jon, show your Uncle Bobby your watch. He don’t know nothing ’bout no Movado! And Lorraine put my Frankie Beverly & Maze on!” Herman exclaimed.
“Is this your party or Jon’s?” Lorraine asked with a laugh.
“That’s what I was about to ask,” Uncle Bobby chimed in. “I hope you had enough money left over after that watch to buy something to sip on, cause you know I’m getting drunk for my nephew’s big day!”
“Ah nigga, you will get drunk for any day!” Herman shouted back. “You know I got something in the cooler, just make sure you leave me some!”
Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeep!
“Who is that laying on the horn like they crazy in my driveway?” Herman shouted. “Jon go around there and see who that is and if that’s one of your little friends, ask them who told them to pull their car up in my yard!”
As Jonathan made his way around the side of the house, he saw exactly who had the nerve to pull up on his father’s lawn. It was his sister Charrise. She was hanging out the window of the car, waving with one hand and using the other one to hit the horn. He looked down at the beautiful 2012 Dodge Charger. It was midnight black on black and was sitting on 22-inch chrome rims. He could hear the Hemi motor and off road exhaust system purring.
“Damn sis, this your new ride? He asked as he approached the driver side door, while Charrise exited the vehicle.
“Nope,” Charrise answered back quickly. “It’s for a very special man in our sister Brianna’s life.”
“Where is she anyway, and who is this special man?”
“You know she wanted to be here, but she had some business to take care of.” Charrise wasn’t sure if Jonathan knew about the ongoing feud between their father and half-sister, and she wasn’t about to be the one who brought it up to him. “And the special man is you crazy!”
“Oh shit, are you serious?” Jonathan started running around and screaming, then he jumped in the car. He immediately turned on the radio and could hear the Bose system blaring. “Damn,” he enthused. “I don’t have to do anything, this car already has everything.”
The music from the car began to drown out the sounds of Frankie Beverly coming from the small home stereo. Everyone began to make their way to the front of the house to see where all the new noise was coming from.
Before Herman and Lorraine could make their way from the side of the house, they could hear the excited voices of people shouting, “His sister bought him a new car for graduation!”
Herman immediately stopped walking and turned around to go back, but was stopped by his brother Bobby.
“Boy that’s a helluva car your daughter bought that boy! Shit, he riding better than you, nigga. Let me see if I can get my nephew to run me to the store. Hell, better yet, give me Brianna’s number. Let me see if she can help her Unk out with a couple of dollars!”
Herman looked at him with disgust. “Nigga get out my face!”
Charrise made her way to the backyard and gave Jonathan some time to cruise in his new car. She opened her arms wide and headed straight towards her mother. She wrapped her arms around Lorraine and felt the matching embrace.
“Hey Ma! I see ya’ll sure do know how to throw a party. Look at all these people,” she said, looking at the nearly full back yard. “Where’s Dad?”
“I don’t know. He got missing when you came in the new car. It was real nice of Brianna to get that for him. She ain’t coming?”
Charrise looked at Lorraine with a peaked eyebrow. “Now you know!”
“I know, I know. I just thought she might come to see her baby brother, ya know.”
Charrise shrugged. “I think it will take a whole lot more than that to get her back over here.”
She took another look around at all her family and old friends from the neighborhood. She didn’t miss this life. She almost felt out of place, wearing stilettos amongst flip-flops. Everyone looked like they were in complete bliss, dancing in the middle of the grassy lot and eating from a homemade buffet.
Lorraine and Herman had gone through the trouble of renting a tent and tables for guests to have a comfortable place to sit and eat. Charrise had kept up with giving money to her mother each month to make ends meet in their household. It seemed like things were turning around for her parents.
“I still don’t see Dad,” she said as she searched the crowd.
“Well check in the house.”
Charrise walked to the house and slid the sliding glass door open. Herman was sitting in his La-Z-Boy with a beer in his hand. The TV wasn’t on, so Charrise couldn’t figure out why he was excluding himself from the party. Herman was typically the life of the party at these types of events. He took pride in his BBQ and being the host with the most. The man he presented outside of the home, was completely different than the man who Charrise had sometimes watched terrorize her mother and sister. But she was his baby girl, and could do no wrong. Charrise walked around the chair and noticed Herman staring straight ahead with a grimace on his face.
“Hey Daddy,” she said. “What’s up with the sour puss?”
Herman looked up at Charrise without even the slightest hint of happiness to see her. Charrise couldn’t believe it. In all her life, her father had never missed an opportunity to gush over his darling baby girl.
“Daddy?” she said as she walked closer to him.
Herman stood up quickly and grabbed Charrise’s arm. “Where tha hell your sister get that money to buy that car?” he snapped.
Charrise tried to pull away, unsuccessfully. She saw a familiar look in his eyes; a look that he had always saved for Brianna.
She yanked away forcefully. “That hurts Daddy!” she shouted.
“Answer me!” he yelled.
“What do you mean where?” she retorted. “Brianna works! I work!”
“Ummmm hummm,” he said as he began to pace the floor. “I know ya’ll are up to no good over there. Do you think I’m stupid?” he continued to yell at Charrise. “You done came up in here with all that name brand shit on. All that goddamn make up! I didn’t raise you like that! You come up in here tryna make me look bad. Me! Let me tell you something, little girl. I’ve been around, and I know a lot more than you think I do. If you think that I’m going to let this shit slide, you got another thing coming.”
Charrise looked down at the floor to avoid eye contact. “What slide Daddy? I don’t understand why you’re so upset.”
“All you need to know is that the little chump change you’ve been passing along to your mother every month ain’t gone cut it no more. If you expect me to keep quiet, I’ma need more.”
Charrise started to panic. She could feel her heart racing. She’d never considered the fact that her family would start to question how much money she was making and how. She certainly hadn’t expected to get blackmailed by her own father.
“How much more?” she stammered.
“At least double,” he shouted, “or else. Now get outta my house.”
Herman turned his back to Charrise and continued to pace the floor.
In the kitchen, Lorraine hurried to sneak back out of the door. She’d overheard everything, but had learned a long time ago not to intervene when Herman was in a fit of rage. Right behind her, Charrise came bursting through the door. Lorraine busied herself at the grill, checking on the meat. She looked up and caught Charrise’s eye.
“Is everything ok baby?”
Charrise walked over to
her mother, kissed her on the cheek and said, “Yeah Mama, everything’s good. I’m about to get outta here.”
“What?” Lorraine pressed, “Why baby? You just got here.” She didn’t really know if she wanted to hear the truth or not. Either way, there was nothing she could do about it.
“Ummmm,” Charrise hesitated and shrugged, “me and Brianna are gonna take him out tonight. I’ll let ya’ll celebrate now, but I’ma go rest up for tonight.” She tried to form a smile on her face, but it looked more like she’d caught a foul odor in the summer breeze.
“Ok,” Lorraine said, a bit relieved.
She gave Charrise another hug and walked her to the front of the house where Jonathan was pulling back into the driveway.
“Where you goin’ sis?” he said as he hopped out of the car.
“I’m going to rest up for tonight.”
“Tonight? What’s happening tonight?”
“It’s your day boo. We’ll let Mom and Dad handle the cookout now, but tonight me and Brianna got you! You better get ready to party like you’ve never partied before!”
“Bet! I can’t wait!” Jonathan was smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.
“You know we got you, but only on one condition.”
“Whatever it is, you got it!”
“Great, cause I’ma need a ride home real quick.”
Chapter Five
“Bri are you ready yet? Damn, we just going shopping, can’t you just throw something on already?” Charrise had met up with Brianna at Selena’s new place.
Once Brianna had spent a little one-on-one time with her, she knew that she’d keep Selena around for a while, so a more permanent residence seemed more suitable.
“Charrise, give me a break. You just want to get downstairs to see if you can run into Cam again!”
It had been two weeks since Brianna and Charrise had accidently found out that Cam Newton, the star quarterback for the Carolina Panthers was living in the same building they’d moved Selena into. Even Brianna had to admit that she was taken aback by his beautiful smile and chiseled body. But once he started bouncing the basketball around her and Charrise in the elevator, she was reminded that he was only 19 years old.
“How are you ladies doing today?” Cam yelled over the noise of the bouncing ball.
“Maybe if you’d quit bouncing that ball, we could answer!” Brianna yelled back.
“What you say?”
“I said quit bouncing that damn ball!” Brianna shouted.
“My fault, I didn’t mean to make you curse,” Cam said with a big smile.
Before she could say something back, Charrise jumped in.
“Cam don’t pay her no attention, she’s not a morning person. I would love to take you one-on-one, sometime.”
Brianna shot Charrise an ‘are you seriously going that hard?’ look.
Charrise kept going. “By the way, you’re my favorite football player and I’m your biggest fan.”
“Well thank you, Ms.?”
“My name is Charrise, and this meanie is my sister Brianna, but everyone calls her Bri.”
Again, Brianna looked at Charrise, reprimanding her with her eyes for giving out her info.
“Well it’s nice to meet both of you, and since you’re my biggest fan, I’m going to make sure I get you some tickets to my next game.”
Ever since that day, Charrise had spent plenty of time hanging with Selena, trying to run back into him so she could take him up on that offer.
“Look Bri, I ain’t looking for nobody. But if I run back into him, I’m going hard this time!”
“Shit! You don’t think you were going hard last time, bitch?” Brianna said with a laugh.
Bri’s laugh made Charrise start to chuckle.
“Forget you! I ain’t like you. You act like you allergic to dick all of a sudden. That damn magic bullet going to hurt you one day!” Both girls laughed heartily.
As they began to approach the elevator, Brianna remembered that she forgotten to leave Selena a note letting her know that they were going to the mall. At some point every day, Selena would go for a 5k run and she’d left right before Charrise came in. Brianna knew Selena wouldn’t get back for at least 30 minutes, and wouldn’t want to go to the mall, especially not with them.
Brianna and Charrise were both mall rats who could spend a whole day shopping. On the other hand, Selena hated shopping. She preferred to go in the store, pick an outfit off one of the mannequins and be out. Since Brianna knew how she was, she figured she would just find Selena something to wear.
They had booked VIP at Club Lux off South Blvd. The club had already scheduled Rick Ross, and Brianna knew he was Jonathan’s favorite artist. She figured that would be the perfect way to celebrate with him, since she’d promised herself a long time ago that she’d never again step foot in the home she’d grown up in.
She and Charrise always made sure that their baby brother had the latest gear, and shoes to match. Brianna loved showering him with gifts. She figured that he was the one man left in her life that she could show love to and not worry about it coming back to bite her in the ass. Besides, Jonathan was the perfect kid. He stayed on the honor roll and had already been accepted to Clark University in Atlanta for pre-med.
Brianna grabbed the note pad and scribbled Selena a quick note. She posted the sticky paper against the refrigerator. She knew Selena would come in from running and head straight there to get her specially made energy shake, so she couldn’t miss it. When she arrived back at the elevator, Charrise was holding the door open button.
“About time you got back, my finger about to fall off. What were you doing? Writing her a love letter?”
“Don’t you be trying me like that! But I see the way you be watching them girls when we at Onyx.” Brianna shot back with a smirk.
“No sis, I’m strictly dickly. Speaking of dick, let’s get downstairs and see if my baby daddy is in the lobby!”
When they arrived in the lobby, Charrise was disappointed to see no sign of Cam, but the concierge greeted them quickly. They were there so much that he knew them by name.
“Good morning Ms. Campbell’s, I have already sent for your vehicle, it will be just a minute.”
“Thanks Charles,” Brianna reached in her purse and grabbed a twenty dollar bill and placed it in his hand.
When the car pulled up, Brianna and Charrise got inside and headed towards South Park Mall. As they rode down Sharon Rd., Brianna carefully observed the white women out with their children walking down the perfectly manicured lawns. She couldn’t help but to wonder what her life would have been like if she grew up in the same environment, or if Tre was still alive. Well, you’ve got to play with the cards you’re dealt! She told herself. Besides, her life wasn’t all that bad. At least she didn’t have to get up every day and go to work for pennies, or even worse, have to fuck some sorry ass nigga for a few dollars to make ends meet.
“Charrise, plug in my iPod and find my song. Oh, and make sure the volume is up!” Charrise scrolled through the iPod until she found the new Mary J song entitled “Mr. Wrong”. Almost immediately, the lyrics and Drake’s voice came blasting through the speakers.
Don’t it seem like, like I’m always there when it matters
But missing most of the other time, a terrible pattern
The rewards I see from working made me an addict
There’s way more people that want it than people that have it”
Both girls snuggled into the soft leather seats of the new Range Rover sport, enjoying the sounds of the premier sound system. Once they arrived at the entrance of the mall, Brianna pulled up to the valet service. The valets grabbed both doors and handed her the valet ticket. The girls exited and headed into the mall.
“Mental note Charrise, we will be stopping at the Cheesecake Factory, so I can get a slice of that chocolate mousse cake.”
“Aiight! You know them hips spreading. Your ass will be out there running with Selena in a minute!�
�� they both laughed.
Brianna rubbed her belly. “Well I can get away with it for now.”
Charrise rolled her eyes and kept walking without another word.
“Ok, our first two stops are BCBG and Michael Kors. We got to find Selena something hot for tonight. If you think it’s been a minute for me having some dick, you don’t want to know the last time she was touched!”
After finding outfits for Charrise and Selena in Michael Kors, they made their next stop. In BCBG, Brianna tried on a Persian blue dress with dolman sleeves that hugged tightly on her butt and hips, but hung loosely around her waist. She walked out of the dressing room and did a slow spin for Charrise to view.
“What’chu think about this?”
“Ummm,” Charrise hesitated, “it’s cute but… that’s not really your style.”
“Well I have to do something to hide this growing baby bump.”
“I know exactly what you can do!” Charrise announced.
“That’s really easy for you to say. You didn’t hear the kid’s heartbeat!”
“What? When did you hear that?”
“The day before yesterday when I went to the OB.”
“Damn sis, that’s heavy.”
“I know right! Shit! I can’t get that sound outta my head. It’s like… like…”
Charrise shook her head and looked down. “Like you’re making a person… creating a life.”
Brianna nodded. “Exactly. I don’t know if I can go through with an abortion after hearing that.”
“I feel you. I know I’ve given you my opinion, but honestly, you know I’ll support you either way right?” Charrise stood up and hugged her sister.
“I know sissy,” Brianna said with a small smile.
“Look, while we’re having this little warm and fuzzy moment, I’ve got something I need to tell you.”
“Oh lord,” Brianna placed her hand on her temple, “I hate when you start a conversation with that!”
“Yep, and you should, cause this ain’t good.”
Charrise pushed Brianna back into the dressing room and entered with her. She lowered her voice almost to a whisper and explained what had gone down at the graduation cookout with her dad.
Trapstar Double book (Parts 1 & 2 Boxed Set) Page 13