A Project Chick
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Triple Crown Publications Presents A PROJECT CHICK
throwing their panties at him. Her philosophy was, if there was never a dull moment in their sex life and he was getting plenty at home, he'd be burnt out when the homewreckers and sack chasers came calling.
Tressa will never forget the day Luck took her on a surprise picnic. They sat on one of the huge rocks along the James River, and she admired the beautiful and lavish houses across the street while unpacking the picnic basket.
When everything was out, she noticed some keys that appeared to be house keys, in the bottom of the basket. He looked into her eyes, pointed across the street at a white house and said. "That's our new home." She got up and sprinted over to it. She put the key into the door and she couldn't believe what her eyes revealed to her, cathedral ceilings, sunroom, columns in the foyer and living room, fireplaces and spacious rooms. Lucky stood back gloating, pleased at his decision to purchase the house. "I got like 80
G's put up, so you can start decorating. This is our castle, you're the Queen and I am the King."
"Baby, I love it." She said still in shock.
"Can I get some love?" He pulled her close to him and tongued her down.
She hugged him long and hard. "Boo, I know this may sound ungrateful, but when I think about all that stuff at my apartment, I dread packing it."
"No baby, you don't have to pack nothing. All we have to do is move our clothes. I'm going to keep that apartment over there, so when we have out of town guests, they can just stay there instead of here with us or me spending $100 or $200 for a hotel room."
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With Every Good, Comes the Bad
Tressa and Lucky had some very good times, but there was an unbalance in the relationship. Either things were excellent or horrible between them. The thing that Tressa hated the most, but she overlooked, is that fact that Lucky smoked cigarettes. She despised the smell of cigarette smoke because her stepfather smoked. She expressed this to Lucky, but this was a habit he had since he was thirteen years old and he was now twenty-four. As bad as he wanted to, he could never stop. He accommodated her by never smoking around her or in the house, but she still could smell it all over his clothes.
Lucky also owned two rottweiler dogs, Dopeman and Killer. At first, he kept them at Ms. Betty's house when they lived in the apartment, but when they moved into the house, he had special doghouses built for them. He loved those two dogs as if they were his own children. His mother would always say. "Khalil loves dogs more than he loves anybody."
Tressa secretly was against having the dogs in their home. In the beginning, she'd say. "Luck, I was always told that those dogs would turn on you." Luck always responded. "No, not my dogs." He would have a bit of an attitude, because Tressa would say something negative about his prize possessions.
It wasn't long before Tressa accepted them and started sharing the responsibility of "Lucky's children" with 51
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him. They walked the dogs everyday together. Lucky dropped the dogs off to get groomed every week when he was on his way to get his haircut. She'd sometimes pick them up, but most of the time Lucky was responsible for them. Although he said it was charm school that he faithfully took his dogs to twice a week, he tipped the instructor extra cash to teach the dogs attack tactics.
Tressa was surprised when she went for her yearly check up and the doctor told her she was pregnant. She knew that they had sex like rabbits, and never wore any kind of protection. However, after having unprotected sex for over a year, she had dismissed the thought of being able to get pregnant.
At first, she was happy. Once Lucky found out Tressa was pregnant, he made her feel like it was the happiest day of his life. She fixated on the good parts of becoming a parent. She'd be able to dress the baby cute, this would be both Lucky's and her first child, and they'd live happily ever after. Having a child together would complete them as one.
She couldn't wait until visitation day rolled around so she could share the good news with her brother. Taj thought it was the worst news he'd heard since he'd gotten all that jail time.
"What you mean, you having a baby? So, what about school?"
"I am going to finish college after I have the baby."
"So, what you graduated to being barefoot and pregnant now?"
Taj's tone alone sent her into tears. He wasn't screaming at her, but he was firm when he spoke. Once he saw she was in tears, he began to settle down. His sister's tears always made him weak.
"Look, all I am saying is I need you to rethink this.
Sugar Gal, I am begging you not to have this baby. I mean you got ten, fifteen more years, at least, that you can have a baby. Get you somebody who is established in life legitimately, not a hustler. Sugar Gal, this dude ain't going to last long in this game. Matter of fact, the drug game ain't set up for no black man. The best thing for a black man, who has no other choice but the drug game, is to get in and get out as fast as he can. And I don't foresee Lucky ever 52
Triple Crown Publications Presents A PROJECT CHICK
getting out of that game. And what if he goes to jail or gets killed, where does that leave you and the baby?"
"He is going to get out as soon as he makes enough money to get us a business." She said, speaking up in Lucky's defense.
"Sugar listen, when Lucky first got out of jail, I set him up with a job, that if he wanted to go legit, he could have and he didn't. So, Sugar Gal, I am asking you for me to please rethink this." Taj said, practically begging his sister to reconsider.
That day, leaving the prison, became one of Tressa's saddest days. Tressa felt like she owed her brother her life for all of the sacrifices he made for her after their mother was gone. It meant everything to have her brother's blessings, but what about Lucky's blessings. Then she kept trying to tell herself that men will come and go, but this was her brother for life. Tressa wanted to continue to further her education, and Lucky convinced her she could. She was confused and didn't know what to do. With all the pressures from her brother, she decided that the timing was bad and scheduled an abortion.
While at the abortion clinic, Lucky came into the clinic and begged her not to have the abortion "Please Tressa, don't do this. I love you so much and I promise, I will never leave you to raise this baby by yourself. Please, just don't do this to me."
Lucky kept on trying to persuade her everyway he could. "This must be what God wants, because look how much we make love and this is the first time you ever got pregnant." He pulled out every convincing line he could.
"You know I'll take care of this baby, I mean look how I take care of my dogs. I go all out for them, something that I bought. Now, just imagine how I'd go all out for something I made."
She looked into his eyes to try to search for the solution. Her mind was made up, the abortion was the right thing to do, but when she saw the tears rolling down his face, she had to give in.
Throughout the whole pregnancy, Lucky was very supportive of Tressa. They did everything concerning the baby together. He went to every single doctor appointment with her. They went baby shopping together. He did 53
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everything in his power to make sure she was as comfortable as she could be. When she was five months pregnant, she found out she was having twins. Lucky considered himself luckier when he found out the twins were boys. Tressa had to admit, he did hold up his end of the bargain. He took care of her to the fullest.
It was after the birth of the twins, when she noticed a drastic change in Lucky. She first became very disappointed when he informed her. "Tressa, nobody's watching my children but their mother. So, until they go to school, you ain't going to school. You'll be at home with them."
This was the first m
ajor conflict she had with Lucky.
Most women, especially a new mother, would have loved for their man to make this demand. Tressa, without a doubt, loved her children, but she wanted to finish school. There was no win, over this situation, or no other argument.
Once Lucky had his mind made up, there was no way he was bending.
Just like a few months before on Thanksgiving Day, the first Thanksgiving in their new quarter of a million dollar house, where his mother brought over a beautifully decorated ham, with pineapples, cherries and maple on top.
Well, Lucky didn't eat pork and did not want it in his house.
His mother ignored that fact, since Lucky grew up on pork.
Just because he didn't eat it now, why should he make decisions for everybody else? Tressa didn't have it on the table, but on the kitchen counter top. Lucky saw it and went ballistic. "Get that damn swine out my fucking house!"
"Your mother brought it to eat. She had to have it." Tressa tried to keep Lucky calm and please his mother at the same time.
Lucky went into the restroom, washed his hands, and when he came back to the kitchen and saw that the ham was still on the countertop, he casually went under his shirt, pulled out his gun and shot the ham. It splattered all across the kitchen, walls, floors, everywhere. Naturally, Lucky's insane outburst ruined their ThanksGiving. This was her first warning to get out, but Tressa was too set in her comfort zone and didn't take heed.
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The ominous signs about Lucky's violence were constantly revealed to Tressa, but she never would take a stand against Lucky. She thought the last straw was when she found out who was really residing in her old apartment.
One day, she got a call from the rental office warning her that there are too many complaints coming from other tenants about her apartment. There was always fighting, almost everyday. Tressa was in shock because there shouldn't be anybody in the apartment on a daily basis.
Tressa thought the management was lying, until the day she got up early, grabbed the keys to Lucky's rental car, (he had just returned from a "business trip"), left the twins and Lucky sleeping while she went out to pick up a few things from the grocery store.
Tressa ran into one of her old neighbors, a little old nosey lady, who lived in the building next door. She informed Tressa of some shocking information, "I liked you so much better than that other girl that moved into your apartment."
"What girl?" Tressa asked surprisingly. The old lady pointed her finger, moving up and down, as she continued to give the gossip of the hour.
"That other girl is a pure damn winch, wearing those super tight clothes. The heifer don't even speak to me.
And, her and that fella that used to come see you in the big fancy car, all they do is fight. I can't stand the little winch." Tressa could feel the heat come all over her. She literally began to sweat. She thanked the lady and walked away, leaving her basket in the middle of the dairy aisle before the old lady could finish. No, he didn't move some bitch into my fucking apartment and they over there fucking on my God damn bed. Oh hell no! This nigga really think I am some weak bitch, don't he? That's good, cuz I got something for him and his bitch. Trust me when I tell you.
In a trance, to this very day, she believed she was having an out of body experience with the episode that was about to play out. Tressa went straight to the apartment, and when she put her key into the lock, it didn't work. She went over to the rental office to get the right key. They never questioned her because the apartment was still leased in her name. The only car in the parking lot was the neighbor who lived in the next building over, whom worked 55
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at night. Everyone else was at work. She thought that maybe the girl was at work too. Tressa returned to her apartment, put the key in, but there was a dead bolt lock on the door stopping her from entering the apartment. This only pissed her off more. So, she knocked on the door. She noticed a pair of eyes peak out through the blinds to see who it was. Shortly after, she heard a female voice scream,
"Ah, shit!!!" No one ever came to the door. Tressa's knocks just got louder and louder. Her knocking turned into banging then she yelled. "Open up the door, bitch!!!! Be a woman! I know you're in there! Oh, you bold enough to live in my apartment, but you ain't woman enough to face me eye to eye?"
Tressa continued to scream, but the girl on the other side of the door still didn't respond. "Oh, that's OK bitch, cuz I am going to teach ya punk ass a lesson, believe that!" Tressa went to her car and called "Pop A Lock" to come out and unlock the bolt lock. They told her it would be forty minutes before they could get there. She sat in Lucky's rental car with her eyes glued to the window, and for the next ten minutes, she watched the blinds open up just enough for the eyes behind them to see she was still sitting outside.
Forty minutes seemed like it would take forty years.
Anticipating when the locksmith would get there was driving her crazy. So, she took matters into her own hands.
She ran up the street to the gas station and returned.
Tressa decided to give the girl one last chance. She decided to go at it with a little more calm approach. Instead of banging, she knocked on the door. "Oh, you still in there playing possum huh? Lying up in my shit! I don't think so.
Baby, oh you coming out, one way or another. Dead or alive!" At that moment, Tressa poured gasoline under the door.
Tressa listened for a minute and counted to thirty before she lit the match. She could hear the girl running around the house. As she counted and reached twenty, her cell phone rang. It was Lucky. Of course, the girl had called Lucky in a hysterical panic. Lucky spoke calmly into the phone. "Baby, get out of there because that bitch done called the police on you. Get out of there before you end up in jail."
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Tressa hung up the phone because she could care less about what Lucky had to say. He called right back again, Tressa would not respond. "Listen baby, I know you're hurt, but you're not in your right frame of mind.
Please snap out of this. I apologize, now please just leave." Tressa heard him, trying to calm the other girl down who had called him on his cell phone. He told her. "Just calm down, I am talking to her now."
"Tell that bitch to just come to the door, and then I'll leave. You got the nerve to be talking to that BITCH and she done called the police on me?"
"Baby, listen just leave before the police get there." Lucky pleaded with her.
Tressa hung up again, and at that moment, she lit the match and calmly walked down to the steps and then to the window as she sang, "Burn Baby Burn". She knew there was no back door, so there was only one way out if she was planning on getting out alive. She could hear the girl screaming, but for some odd reason, Tressa was still in a trance. She couldn't make out any of the words that the girl was saying, it sounded like another language.
Tressa's phone rang again, it was Lucky. She answered and immediately said. "Stop blowing up my damn phone and call your bitch, tell her to just jump out the window, I'll catch her." She said laughing.
"Fuck her. I ain't thinking bout her. The bitch could burn as far as I care. I just need you to get up outta there before you go to jail." At that moment, she heard one of her babies in the background cry and that's when she snapped out of her trance.
She ran to the rental car and pulled off as she heard the sirens getting closer and closer by the second. Once she got to the corner, she looked in her rear view mirror and Tressa saw the girl in the window about to jump. She didn't go back, it wasn't worth it. Lucky or the girl wasn't worth her losing everything, her children, her sanity, her freedom, her self-respect and self-esteem were more important at that moment. Her heart dropped when she passed the speeding police cars, ambulances and roaring fire engines. She could have been caught red handed with the gas can in the car, but she was spar
ed, this time.
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As she continued to drive home, her cell phone rang and rang. It was Lucky calling each time, but she never answered. She drove around for a while and when she finally returned home, the twins had the house tore up.
Lucky greeted her with an argument, fussing about her not answering the phone, in an attempt to try to side track the argument she had in store for him. "Yo, why didn't you answer the phone? You didn't know if something was wrong with the boys or not?"
"What? Why you didn't find some place other than my apartment for your bitch to live in?"
"Look, now which is more important, your kids or that apartment? Now, why couldn't you answer the damn phone! Were you on the phone with your nigga or something?" Lucky falsely accused her even though he knew better, anything to deflect his cheating ass.
"Don't even come at me like that, with the bull! I am not the one who's unfaithful here. You are!"
"Well, you ain't answer your phone."
"And sometimes you don't answer yours either!" She screamed back at him. "I ain't got to put up with this shit!"
"Oh, yeah?" Lucky asked. "Well, where you going to go with two babies? Who gonna want you? Who is going to treat you like me?" He was enraged. He charged towards her. She thought he was going to hit her for the first time, but he didn't. He just grabbed her cell phone and smashed it into a thousand pieces. She was scared and so were the boys. Her sons just crawled over to their mommy crying.
She picked them both up and went into the nursery.
Lucky came to the door. "Tressa, I am sorry all of this turned out this way. That was a girl named Dee that brings work for me from out of town. She liked me, but I promise you, it ain't like that." Tressa didn't respond, she only rocked her twins in the rocking chair back and forth.