by Mikal Malone
The moment the thought enters my mind, we hear gunfire outside and jump to our feet.
“Fuck was that!” I ask with my hand resting firmly on my 9.
“Wait a minute. Let me call Derrick,” Yvette says as we put our coats on.
Derrick was in charge of security and was good at it because his men respected how he worked side by side with them.
“Derrick, what’s goin’ on?” Yvette asks on her speaker Boost phone.
“We about to see now. Is everybody okay?”
“Yeah, we fine.”
“Everybody?” he repeats.
“Mercedes is here and she’s fine, Derrick. Just let us know what’s up.”
“Okay,” he exhales. “I’ma find out what’s goin’ on and I’ll get back wit’ you. Yvette, let me handle this okay?”
“I’m gonna let you handle it, but you know I have to be involved.”
“I know, just give me a head start. That’s what you hired me for.”
“Like I said…I still have to be involved.”
“Aight…I’ll hit you when I know something,” he says hanging up.
“What you think is up?” Kenyetta asks Yvette.
“I don’t know, but I think we gonna find out.”
It had been years since shots rang in Emerald City that was unrelated to our handing down the law. As I follow my friends to the door, all of us draped in fur coats, something in my spirit told me things were about to change for the worse. And to think, Yvette just said not to be caught slippin’. I guess that’s why she’s the boss.
Emerald City
Lani & Sachi
“That’s for fuckin’ wit’ my man, bitch!”
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to find his pass code!” Sachi says as she sat in the chair next to her twin sister Lani at the computer station.
Two huge canopy beds sat in the middle of the room which was dressed completely in pink. The girls had everything they desired including a 62 inch plasma TV and 22 inch Apple Mac book. Their father Craig sold drugs and lavished his girls with everything they wanted. Developed way beyond their years, twins Sachi and Lani were head turners. With small waists, large round butts and tiny breasts, they were the envy at school. To add to their mystic, the twins both had long golden naturally curly hair.
Sachi and Lani lived in Emerald city with their mother Margaret and father Craig. Although Craig was of the street and always on them, Margaret was also always gone. She was having an affair with her mother’s new husband and no one knew. And since they were never home, the girls were always out of control.
“Shut the fuck up, Sachi! Here it goes right here,” she says as she hit the enter button and gained access to her boyfriend Lil’ C’s Myspace account. “I betta not find out he’s fuckin’ around either.”
“And if he is what you gonna do?” Sachi teases. “Take him back as usual?”
“Not this time. Cameron be checkin’ for me way more than I be checkin’ for him.” She continues writing down his pass code on the paper next to their computer.
When Lani reads his messages, she’s devastated when she sees one from her best friend Jona. The message reads,
‘Lil’ C, i hope u liked how i sucked u off at my house yesterday. your cum tastes like my favorite candy. if you want me to do it again, just stop by before you go 2 Lani’s. call me first so i can make sure my mother not home. i hope you can cum again. you gonna be mine, 2. i don’t care what you say.’
“Oh shit! I should fuck that bitch up!” Sachi says covering her mouth. She paces the room in a burgundy Juicy Couture set. “She a snake!”
Lani rises like a zombie and exits her apartment in Unit D. Marching toward Jona’s apartment which is a few doors down, she can’t wait to give her a piece of her mind. The pink Baby Phat velour sweat suit she’s wearing seems like a blur in a hallway full of people. Her sister is right by her side.
“Don’t do nothin’ first, Lani! Let me smack her ass!”
Lani bangs on Jona’s door forcefully and steps back. She cracks her knuckles and Sachi jumps up and down anxiously. Sachi loves trouble.
“What the fuck…,” Jona says flinging the door open.
When the door opens, Lani steps up and shoves the pen she used to write Lil’ C’s pass code down in her stomach.
“Owwwww!” Jona screams gripping her belly.
Once she falls, Sachi kicks her multiple times in the stomach and face with her black Ugg’s.
“That’s for fuckin’ wit’ my man, bitch!” Lani says.
“Dusty, bitch! You betta be glad we ain’t kill you!” Sachi adds.
Lil’ C and his friend Nicholas, who looks like a young Snoop Dog, steps off the elevator when he sees Lani and Sachi leaving Jona’s apartment. He takes a double take when he sees Jona crying on the filthy floor in front of her door. Lil’ C who looks like a young Al B. Sure stands in shock and the neighbors crowd in the hallway.
“Aye, what the fuck happened?” Lil’ C asks, his curly hair peaking under his fitted New York Yankees cap.
Lil’ C is dressed warmly in an extra large blue North Face coat. Nicholas had on a red Eddie Bauer one.
“Damn! Shawty fucked up!” Nicholas adds taking his black knit hat off revealing his soft bushy hair.
“Lil’ C, don’t start wit’ me cause this all your fault. So you betta get in here before I go off on you too,” Lani promises in front of her door.
Lil’ C and Nicholas take one last look at Jona and follow the girls inside.
“Why are you trippin’?” Lil’ C takes off his cap. “You lucky I didn’t go off on you in the hallway. But I ain’t want my moms gettin’ in the business.” He wasn’t supposed to be in Emerald to begin with.
“So you fuckin’ my best friend now?” Lani screams ignoring him. “I told you if I caught you cheating I would go off. So this if your fault!”
Although he liked her for her spiciness, right now she was irritating him.
“First off calm down,” Lil’ C says calmly. He always maintained his coolness.
“Let me know what you wanna do,” Nicholas says with his coat still on. “If you ain’t up for this we can roll right now.”
“You ain’t goin’ no where,” Sachi says to Nicholas jumping on his lap. Whenever he came over they kept each other company.
“C, why are you fuckin’ my best friend? I bet everybody in school knows it!”
“I don’t know what you talkin’ about.”
“So you don’t know what fuckin’ means now?”
“She saw the Myspace account, Cameron. So you might as well stop lying,” Sachi says as she and Nicholas turn on 106 & Park.
“Mind your business ‘cause you ‘bout to make shit worse for your sister,” he turns and looks at Lani and says, “I ain’t fuckin’ wit that girl. So if that’s why you did whatever you did to her, I sure hope you can handle the beef when her cousins find out.”
“I ain’t scared of no Tyland Tower hood rats!”
“I hope so cause you know how they roll.”
“What about how you roll?” Lani grabs Lil’ C’s hand and leads him to her bedroom pointing at the computer screen
“Busted!” she says with her hand on her hips. “’Explain to me why she messagin’ you?” she asks pointing her red manicured nail at him.
Lil’ C is mad at himself for not deleting his messages. “If I ask you again to lower your voice, I’m outta here,” He was trying to figure out how she got his pass code not realizing his birthday would be the first thing she’d try. “And I ain’t fuck her. She sucked my dick. There’s a difference.”
“Boy, are your crazy!” Lani screams.
“You know what,” he says leaving her room. “I’m gone.” She runs behind him.
“Be a man, Cameron! Don’t be a pussy! If you got caught say you got caught!”
“Nick, you ready? Lani’s ass is trippin’ and I ain’t got time for this shit.”
Nicholas pushes Sachi off of his lap and stan
ds up, “Let’s roll.” He places his hat on his head.
“Cameron, why are you leavin’?!” Lani cries as they walk toward the door.
He attempts to pull open the door that wouldn’t open and she grabs his arm.
“Get off of me, Lani.” He says looking into her eyes. “Don’t make me hurt you.”
“Just tell me the truth,” she sobs. “All I want you to do is tell the truth.”
Lani’s pain went deeper than what Lil’ C realized. With her father being in the street, and her mother never being home, she leaned on him for emotional support. He was the only person other than her sister who she could rely on. In her eyes, he took care of her and she didn’t want to lose his love.
“I told you the truth.”
“Cameron,” she weeps as tears run down her face and snot oozes from her nose. “I don’t want to break up.”
“It’s over,” he told her. Lani drops to the floor and goes berserk.
“Unlock this door, Sachi.” He says ignoring her antics.
“Fuck you, Cameron,” Sachi responds as she bends down and rubs her sister’s back. “Why you doin’ this to my sister?”
Nicholas’s phone rings and he steps to the side to take the call.
“Open this door, shawty.” Cameron asks sternly. “I told ya’ll to stop lockin’ us in here anyway. Who the fuck locks a door with a key from the inside?”
“Not until you apologize, Cameron!”
“That was Ryan,” Nicholas interrupts. “they say they got the stuff.”
“Already?” Lil’ C rises his eyebrows. He sold weed at school behind his parent’s backs.
“I know right? He wasn’t jokin’ when he said he could come through.”
“That’s what’s up,” he smiles. “Uh, Sachi, I’ma need you to let us out now. We got shit to do.”
“All you care about is sellin’ drugs! Why you out there you need to know she’s pregnant. Now what’s up?” The room was silent for a moment.
“Pregnant?!” he says looking down at Lani.
“Yes! And you the father!” Sachi adds.
“Why you say somethin’, Sachi?!” Lani asks wiping her tears.
“Cause he need to know!”
“Is it true? You havin’ my kid?”
“Why? It ain’t like you care! All you wanna do is fuck my best friends!”
He was about to speak when gunfire rang outside. The first person he thought about was his mother.
“Damn! What was that?” Nicholas asks looking toward the window.
“I gotta call my peoples,” Lil’ C says removing his cell phone from his pocket.
“Who?”
“My moms.” He was preparing to speed dial her number.
“Hold up! You not supposed to be in Emerald,” he stops him. “If you call her she’s gonna know your here.”
Reluctantly he places the phone back in his pocket. First he finds out his girl is pregnant and now shots ring out in his mother’s kingdom. The day wasn’t going as planned but what he didn’t realize was, it was about to get worse.
Emerald City
“If somethin’ happens, I’m holdin’ you both responsible.”
Derrick rushes out of the Unit C apartment he had in Emerald City with his heavy blue North Face coat filled with a desert eagle and Glock 9mm loaded and ready for action. When he enters the hallway, people are standing around looking nervously about the gunshots.
“What’s goin’ on, Derrick?” asks an elderly lady. Her red cat walks from out of her apartment and into the hallway. Although she despises the idea of drugs being sold in Emerald, she took comfort in how safe things became since the girls had taken over. “I heard shots and I’m worried. Are the girls okay?”
“Everything’s okay, Miss Key,” he says picking up her cat and handing it to her. “Try not to worry.”
The woman grabs her furry cat and looks to him for more information. But Derrick moves through the hallway and toward the elevator feeling more like a policeman than an dealer.
“Are you sure, son?” Miss Key calls to him.
“Positive,” he says confidently.
“Don’t lie to her!” Yells the crazy old man down the hall. He always ranted and raved about the future and the danger that would come to Emerald. “This is the start of hell here on earth! And it’s all you drug banger’s faults!”
“Get ya, old ass down the hall and stop trippin!” Derrick says looking at the man who was dressed in a brown pair of khaki pants with a white wife beater. His nipples peaking out on the sides. “Don’t nobody wanna hear that shit!”
“It’s true! Everyone’s goin’ to hell!” Derrick ignores him and waits impatiently for the elevator.
“Fuck!” he says pushing the button to the elevator again. It wasn’t coming fast enough for him.
“Derrick, is everybody okay?” asks Bucky, a beautiful dark skin girl who’d been trying to get with him for the longest. Although it was cold outside, she chose to walk into the hallway wearing a tight pair of blue jean shorts with a ripped up t-shirt. Every curve on her body was defined and exposed. “Cause I heard gunshots and I’m scared.”
“Everything’s cool. And you know not scared so stop faking,” he tells her trying not to look at her thick thighs and fat ass.
“I don’t know why you think I’m so strong,” she says touching his arm. “If I had you though, I wouldn’t have to worry.”
“Well you don’t got me,” he says shaking his head. Bucky stares him down licking her lips.
“Not now but I will,” she responds wiggling toward her apartment.
Derrick was relieved when the elevator finally opens. When he gets downstairs, his men are waiting.
“What happened?” he asks Bruce, Paul, Harold and Ed as they follow him to the building’s door.
“We were out here on post, when somebody said some niggas was tryin’ to come through the gate. Next thing I know, the Unit B crew starts bustin’ off. I ain’t seen nothin’ else cause we ran upstairs to get you.”
Derrick phone rings and its Mercedes. “What’s up?”
“Is everything cool?” She asks.
“Naw…somethin’ is up,” he tells her. “Maybe you should go home until everything blows over.” He knows she won’t leave.
“We on our way out,” she says hanging up.
“Let’s go to the guard’s station,” he tells his men.
When they get there, they see blood pouring from the large window of the guard’s station. There was broken glass and meaty matter everywhere. They all aim and walk closer. They see Jake murdered and the gate left unsecure. All that remained was a uniformed body with no head. He wonders how many outsiders were in the city.
“Bruce…I want you and Paul to stay right here and watch the gate. Don’t let nobody come through you don’t know. I’ma have somebody, get Jake out of here.”
“Got it!” Bruce says stealing a few looks at the bloody carnage.
“Harold and Ed, ya’ll come with me.”
“Let me and Ed watch the gate,” Harold asks.
“Yeah…we got it!” Ed chimes in.
“What you sayin’, I won’t watch the city right?” Bruce responds.
“Naw, but we know you won’t watch the city like we will.”
“Aight, ya’ll got it, but if somethin’ happens, I’m holdin’ you both personally responsible.” They nod in agreement. “Come on,” he says to Bruce and Paul.
Looking up to the rooftop, Derrick notices something is out of order. Where were the sharp shooters? Where were the soldiers on the field? Safety had been breeched and Emerald city was in major jeopardy. Times were changing…for the worse.
Yvette
“We should’ve never abandoned our posts.”
“How this happen?” Yvette asks Derrick as they stand on the steps of Unit C.
The soldiers were back in position on the field and the shooters were back on the roof. By the looks of things, it appeared that Emerald City was in o
rder. But the trained eye could tell that things were far from normal.
“I talked to Aleed and a few others. They said a van packed with a rack of niggas pulled up trying to get in but Jake wouldn’t open the gate. They said one of the niggas got out, ran up to him and fired. Jake couldn’t even call and warn us. After that, one of the dudes in the van opened the guard’s station and then the gate. They all ran in after that.”
“Where were the shooters on the roof?” Mercedes asks.
“They said everyone on our crew ran after the men, including the rooftop soldiers. Aleed told me about twenty dudes got in. When they looked for the men, they were gone. It’s like they disappeared into the walls of the city.”
“The soldiers in the field left post too?” I ask.
“Everybody went after these cats, Yvette. It’s fucked up but it’s true,” he says dropping his head.
“This was a fuckin’ set up!” I say walking away from them momentarily. “They knew if they ran through, we’d leave the gate empty and abandon our posts. We should’ve never abandoned our posts, Derrick!”
“I know,” he says. “But what else could they do? Just let ‘em run in without trying to do something?”
“He’s right, Yvette,” Mercedes says.
“I know it’s fucked up but we never had a situation like this happen and the men weren’t prepared. I take responsibility for that. But trust…it’ll never happen again,” Derrick responds.
I knew what he was saying was true, but it didn’t eliminate our problem.
“You think they still here?” Carissa asks.
“I know they are,” I say looking around. I feel violated.
“What now?” Mercedes asks.
“Let’s question the neighbors. They might not tell the cops if they seen somethin’, but they’ll tell us. We just have to make sure we protect them.”
I was still talking to my crew when Chris, my lesbian lover, walks outside of the building. She looks worried and my heart drops when I see her coming straight for me.
“Who the fuck is this dyke?” Mercedes asks. “I see her all the time but she ain’t always live here.”
“Yeah…I was thinkin’ the same thing?” Carissa adds. “Fuckin’ carpet munchin’ ass bitch probably got somethin’ to do wit’ this shit.”