by J Peach
Once I left her crib, I stayed at my little spot in Marshall Town with two of my young workers, Mac and Pooh, all fucking night counting money while they cut up and bagged my weed and cocaine. After we finished, they called some hoes over and I closed shop. Niggas be getting stupid so I had to check their asses.
They didn’t know those hoes from shit to piss and they invited them in my spot, fuck that. After putting all they asses out, I packed up my money to take it to my lot.
Once everybody left, I locked up and that’s when that Trina hoe came at me. Bitch might’ve smelled good, but she ain’t make my dick jump from all the rubbing that bitch was doing. I had to slap the fuck out that hoe once she put her fucking lips on me. I probably would’ve beat her ass if Mac had not grabbed me. My mom’s said not to hit a woman, but she ain’t say shit about hoes.
A heavy breathe left my mouth as my hand ran over my head then down my face. The sudden slam of the door made me laugh, it was no winning with that babe, shorty was crazy as hell.
I snatched my keys off the nightstand before I left out her room, then headed straight out the front door.
***
Peaches
“That nigga had the nerve to climb his ol’ triflin ass in bed, though. Straight smelling like a bitch. Y’all, I was so fuckin’ pissed.” I vented to my girls through the phone.
“So wait, let me get this straight. You gave that man a key to your apartment?” Ebony chimed in, the shock evident in her tone.
As I drove my head shook, even though they couldn’t see me. “Hell no, his crazy ass took Sly’s key and got one made.”
“Peach, you cut the fuck up didn’t you? I already know yo ass did. You put his ass out at four in the morning?” Angel laughed with her question.
I felt kinda embarrassed about telling them the truth, but those were my bitches, I never kept anything from them. “Eh,” my words didn’t come out as they got caught in my throat.
“No this bitch didn’t just say ‘eh’. Am I hearing something or this bitch done got stuck?” Missy blurted into the line.
“Mhm,” chorused the girls. “Peach, you let him stay!” Kim questioned loudly.
A sigh left my mouth followed by a groan. “Yeah I did—”
“Oh, hell n’all, Peach! What the fuck is wrong with you?” Ebony shouted.
I felt so damn stupid for letting him. “E, I don’t know!” I whined out. Once I stopped at a red light, my forehead hit the steering wheel. “I don’t know.” God, I felt so stupid.
“So what the hell did you do? I know you knocked that nigga upside the head or something?” Angel pushed for more information.
“Ang, damn,” I snapped at her. Hated that she was only being herself right now.
I could hear her smacking her lips. “Bitch, don’t Ang me. And answer the question.”
“Don’t tell me you fuck’d him!” Missy boomed through the line.
“No! What the hell?” I shouted into the line as I pulled into the parking lot of my job. “Y’all, I’m at work. I’ll call y’all once I get off—.“ I tried to end the call, but my attempt was quickly cut off.
“No the fuck you don’t. Bitch, you better answer the question before we be at your fuckin’ job,” Ebony added.
“Y’all, leave her alone. If she don’t wanna talk about it, she don’t have to,” Kim came to my defense.
“Kim, shut the fuck up. Bitch, you know yo ass wanna know too. So miss me with that.” I could just picture Angel’s eyes rolling into her head as she said that.
“If she don’t wanna tell y’all ol’ nosey asses, then she don’t fuckin’ have to. Worry about who y’all fuckin’,” Kim retaliated, hostility coming off thick in her tone.
“Whatever, Kim,” Angel muttered.
“Fo’real, y’all asses need to chill. And we didn’t fuck, I didn’t do or say anything to Blaze yet. I simply rolled off him and went to sleep. Got up this morning, made us breakfast, then left my place and called y’all,” I revealed as I leaned back in my seat.
The line grew quiet, neither of my girls said anything. They were probably just as surprised as me that I hadn’t reacted to Blaze.
“You just let him sleep in your bed knowing he was with some bitch?” Angel asked slowly.
“Yep, pretty much,” my head nodded as I replied.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Angel immediately snapped once again. “That’s some dumb shit these bitches do, not you, Peaches?”
My eyes grew wide at her insult. Though it was true, she didn’t have to say it. Angel was a no lying, no sugar coating mothafucka. She told it how it was regardless of your feelings, which is why we clicked. She said the shit no one else would, she told you what you didn’t want to hear. The truth.
“Angel, shut the fuck up!” Pissed, Ebony snapped at her.
“No, you shut the fuck up, E. Peaches, that was dumb, you should’ve at least clocked that nigga with one of yo guns or tased his black ass. I thought you was gon be the smart one, but you just as dumb as these bitches,” Ang continued to go off.
“Angel, shut up fo’real. I do plan on saying something to him. But, man, that mothafucka slap hard as shit and I did not feel like getting slapped again,” I admitted. If it wasn’t for our little fight earlier that night, I probably would’ve started some shit. But my damn cheek still hurt from those fuckin’ smacks.
“Wait, he slapped you?” Again they chorused loudly.
“Yes, I had to fight his big ass. Let me tell y’all…” After I ran everything that happened between me and Blaze down to them, Missy was the first to break out laughing.
“I swear, only you would do that. Who in the hell locks themselves in a room with a nigga to fight them and make up with him? Are y’all dating?” Missy asked.
“No we not—”
“Peach, what’s the point for all the back and forth?” She questioned.
“Miss, I don’t know. He won’t leave me alone. Though I hate to admit it, I kind of like it because he’s not afraid of King. It’s complicated,” I explained. Whatever it was with Blaze was most definitely complicated as hell.
The girls and I stayed on the phone for another ten to fifteen minutes, going back and forth about Blaze and what they thought I should’ve done. I was simply going to tell him how foul the shit was and what happened from there just would.
Chapter 6
Blaze
For the next hour I drove through the Bronx, just to see how shit was going. All the while I hoped to run into Joe-Boy or at least someone to point me in his direction.
As I rounded the corner, I spotted this little dude from around the way who was posted up in front of a gas station.
“Yo!” I called out, rollin’ up on him.
Once he saw who I was, he walked up to the truck. When I got out we shook up.
“What’s up, my dude?” John asked.
My hand ran over my head and I lick my lips as I looked around.
“Shit, working.” I grabbed a cigarette from my pocket, then lit it.
John was a young nigga, no more than fifteen. A poster boy was what I liked to call niggas like him because they’d post anywhere just to catch fiends and make a few bucks.
“Working? Then what the fuck you doing out here? Don’t yo ass got dealership to run or some shit?” He mimicked me and pulled a square from his pocket, leaned against the side of the store, then lit it.
“That’s what I got employees and a manager for, to run shit while I ain’t there.” I took a long pull from the cigarette, inhaled then glanced down at him. I exhaled the smoke and looked around once more.
“Why you looking round for?” Little John asked me.
“You seen that nigga Joe around?”
John let out a breath before he shook his head. “I knew yo ass was on this side for a reason. What he do to you?” The serious look on his face had me laughing out the smoke I just inhaled.
“It ain’t like that. I got a pool hall and a garage on this side
of town. I’m just coming to check up on my businesses, seeing as a nigga fresh out. And I heard Joe Boy been holding shit up since I been gone, just wanna show my appreciation is all.” Was my explanation.
John shook his head, flicked his cigarette, then pushed his hands in his pockets.
“I heard—” he was cut off when my phone rang.
“Hold that thought,” I held up my finger as I answered my phone. “Yo?”
When I saw Mac name flash on the screen I knew it had to be some shit because he knew not to call me. Mac was one of my main street workers. He was hot tempered, but loyal, and kept his ear to the ground. “You talked to Jesse?” Mac asked, making my brows raise.
“N’all, I haven’t. Why, what’s up?”
“She just called me saying that shit you dropped off to her last night, Joe came in after you left and got it?” Mac explained.
Jesse wasn’t a person, but a house. My spot where I had a couple niggas that bag, cut, and sometimes cook cocaine. Joe Boy was one of those niggas that bagged for me, but when I got locked up for those two years for killin’ Blue, Joe got beside himself. Nigga started taking my shit to sell for himself. He hit a couple of my spots, but you would’ve thought after that shit with Blue, niggas would know not to cross me. King wanted to take care of it while I was on lock, but I told him let ‘em be for now.
I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with Joe’s ass.
“The fuck you mean he got it?” I asked in a calm voice, but on the inside I was boiling.
“Yeah, Jesse said him and about two other niggas came in, raided her fridge and cabinets. You know she over there having a fuckin’ fit right now.” Mac played cool and laughed it off.
“Damn, they took her shit?” The calmness in my voice was slipping when he said all her shit, meaning the eight pounds of cocaine and ten pounds of weed I’d just dropped off. “Yo, you know where that nigga Joe Boy staying?” I asked John while walking back to my truck.
“He’s prolly on Carolina, if he ain’t there, he’s at that new spot with Rob and Doe,” John quickly replied while following behind me.
With a nod of my head, I hopped in the truck then started it up.
I rolled down the passenger window, signaled for John to get in “Come show me where it’s at.” Once he got in I put the phone to my ear. “Yo, go check on Jesse and make sure she’s straight, we’ll meet up later.”
“I’ight.” With that we hang up as I took off down the street. As I drove, I pulled my burner phone out and shot Sam a quick message. I knew I could trust Sam, shid, we been slanging since we were thirteen, out posted on a corner with rocks, serving fiends. So there wasn’t a doubt in my mind about him. There were only three people I trusted in the world and that was my moms, Sam, and King.
King was at the same place as Sam. We got up with King a year or so later and his old G showed us the ropes on how to be in this game and be smart.
Hell, if it wasn’t for his ass, neither Sam nor I would’ve finished high school or went to college for that matter. Like he said, just because you came from the hood didn’t mean you had to be stupid. You had to have a cover for slanging. Which is why I owned two car garages, three pool halls and car lot. I wasn’t a nine to five type of nigga, I’d pop off in a minute. It was best I had my own so I wouldn’t have to work for no one.
I went to school for Law, got a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice. I had to know the law, couldn’t be in that business and not know it.
“Turn right up here on Carolina. It’s the blue house on the left,” John directed.
I parked at the corner, reached in my pocket and threw him a few bills.
“This’s his spot, no kids, right?” My head nodded toward the blue house with two cars parked in front.
“N’all, don’t no kids be in there. Just him and these new niggas he roll with,” John told me.
My head nodded, then I pointed toward the door. “Thanks, now get out.”
“You don’t need help or back up?” The seriousness in his voice caused my brows to raise before I laughed, shaking my head.
This nigga is what? Fifteen? The fuck I look like bringing a kid for back up? In fact…
“Don’t yo ass supposed to be in school or some shit?” I asked, kind of fuck’d up about this little nigga, I mean, even though I was slanging way before him, I still went to school first then came to these streets. “Look, don’t answer that, let me give yo little ass some advice. Whether you take it or not is up to you. You wanna slang?”
“I am slanging,” he replied and even puffed up a bit.
I had to laugh at that, these kids nowadays think cause they making two maybe three hundred dollars a week they slanging.
“Get the fuck outda here. Yo ass ain’t slanging, you holding for some other nigga, making his ass money. Nigga, you wanna be in this fo’real, finish high school, learn the drug game, the rules, territories. Learn the law, my nigga. Yo ass can’t be posted up at no gas station wall waiting for a tweaker to come at you when half those mothafuckas be cops any fuckin’ way.
“Get yoself a little crew of two niggas, save yo pennies and buy yo own shit by the pound. Then have yo little crew cut it, bag it, then sell it. Learn to cook yo own shit, if yo ass don’t know how to cook then this life ain’t fah you. If yo ass scared to drop a nigga on sight, no matter who’s around, then you ain’t about this life at all. Go get yoself a job and make legal money, pretending to be about this will have yo ass in a body bag within a month to a year. This shit is gruesome,” I told his little ass truthfully.
Being a drug dealer, wasn’t shit pretty. You couldn’t be sensitive in that shit, nor could you be dumb slanging. You had to learn yo shit before you jumped into the devils ring to play with fire.
“I ain’t got a choice, its fast money and I need it to look after my mom and my sister. I’m all we got.”
I looked at him and nodded my head in understanding. I knew I liked little dude for a reason. Even though he didn’t want to slang, he had to, he had priorities and was willing to do what need be for family. That’s how I got sucked into the life. “Do you wanna slang?”
“I ain’t got shit else,” he answered with a shrug.
“Nigga, answer the fucking question straight up. Do you wanna slang?” I snapped at his little ass.
John let out sigh. “No, not really. But what else I got.”
Reaching in my arm rest, I grabbed a business card.
“Taking this card means you in, you got one time to fuck me over and I’ma kill you my damn self. Ask for Tameka, tell her Blaze sent you. She’ll set everything up. I don’t like lazy ass workers and I hope you good with your hands. The sooner you call, the quicker yo ass can get to work. After school hours only. I’m giving you a job at my garage, its legal and I pay well. John, if you take this job you got to leave this life alone and finish school.” The only reason I was looking out fah little dude was because I’d been where he was at that moment.
I remember right before I got locked up, he approached me when he was younger, tryna buy some weed to sell. Even though I didn’t give his ass shit, the fact that he asked fuck’d me up.
“I will, promise. Thanks, man. My momma gon’ flip,” he said, snatching the card from my hand and dialing the number.
This mothafucka wasn’t about to make that call right then. “Nigga, get the fuck out and do that shit, I got business to take care of. Tell Tameka to call me later.”
“Thanks, man.”
With a head nod, we bumped fists then he got out the truck. I waited until he rounded the corner before I pulled up at the blue house and blocked the driveway. Opening the glove compartment, I pulled on a pair of latex gloves then some black leather ones. I grabbed my SP2022 with the silencer. Taking the safety off, I got out the truck.
Once I got to the front door, I knocked. As soon as the door opened, I shot dude in the head, his ass dropped and I stepped over his dead body then walked into the house, closing the door behind me.
> “Doe, who at the door?” Somebody yelled from the back.
I ain’t say nothing as I walked through the living room. Those were some dirty mothafuckas and the place stunk. I ain’t know if it was supposed to be the niggas trap or just an abandoned house. “Doe? Oh shit!” Dude called when he came from the back room and saw me. Before he could run, I smacked his ass in the mouth with my gun.
“You know who I am, huh?” Of course he did, otherwise the dummy wouldn’t have said ‘oh shit’.
“Man, I didn’t know it was yo shit or yo spot. I didn’t—”
“Fuck that, where’s my shit and Joe Boy ass at?” Dude was straight shaking and he was lying. I didn’t like fuck ass niggas like him.
“In the floorboard in the back room. I swear I didn’t know that was your spot—” His ass wasn’t meant for the life, look how quick that nigga was to run his mouth.
“Where, Joe Boy?”
“Upstairs with some hoe. Man I swear—”
“Go get my shit, if you try to run I’ma find you and burn yo ass alive. Boss I am, understand.” Dude head was bobbing up and down in a fast motion, shit was comical. But those niggas stole from me, that was automatic death.
I let him go and he ran to the back as I walked up the stairs, going to the room I heard moaning coming from.
Like I did to the front door, I knocked.
“Get the fuck away from the door!” Joe yelled from the other side.
Pissed, I kicked in the door. Joe Boy and the bitch he was with jumped. The chick wiped her mouth, stood, then smiled at me.
“You wanna join?” I hated hoes. I was about to shoot the bitch until I realized she was pregnant.
“Hoe, get the fuck out of here before I stomp yo stupid ass.” I wasn’t gon’ touch her, I mean if she wasn’t pregnant I would’ve killed her, but I wasn’t killing no pregnant woman, hoe or not. While the hoe was getting her shit, I shot Joe Boy in the shoulder, making the chick scream. “Bitch, don’t even think about it,” I told ’em as he made a move for his gun on the nightstand. “The fuck is wrong with you screaming like you stupid?”