by Omar Tyree
Patti grimaced, reflecting to when she was a teen. “Mmm hmm,” she grumbled, “you just make sure you remember what I told you.”
Tracy shook her head, heading for the front door. “I’m not gonna run off with no boy, mom. I promise.”
“Okay,” Patti told her teenaged daughter.
Tracy walked through the empty streets toward her best girlfriend’s house, hoping that everyone would already be there, particularly Victor.
“Ay, what’s up, Tracy? Why you stop callin’ me?” Travis asked, catching her on the street.
“Because,” she responded, still walking.
As usual, Travis was high on drugs. He jumped at her and yanked her by the arm. “Hold up, girl. I don’t appreciate that shit. You don’t just brush me off.”
Tracy shouted, “Get off of me!”
Travis let her go after seeing how serious she was. He stood back and admired her beautiful body and fashionable dress.
Tracy arrived at the party and greeted Jantel, who was collecting dollars at the door.
“What took you so long, Ms. Thang?”
“I had to do somethin’ for my mother,” Tracy lied. She then cracked an enormous smile. “Is Victor here yet?”
“Unt unh,” Jantel told her. “I haven’t seen him.”
“Are you sure?” Tracy asked, still pressed.
Jantel looked at her as if her girlfriend was crazy. “I’m at the door ain’t I?” she huffed.
Tracy smirked and walked in.
Victor was sneaking out of a girl’s back door on a nearby street. He stopped to have a few last-minute words with her. “Was it good?” He wore a yellow Izod jacket and blue Calvin Klein jeans. The girl wore a pink terry-cloth bathrobe, and nothing else.
“Yeah,” she said, smiling.
Victor asked her as he gently held her hand, “So are you in love with me now?”
“Yeah,” she responded in a daze. She was a pretty brown-skin, but Victor had messed up her hairdo with his passion, running his hands wildly through her hair during their teenaged lovemaking.
Victor asked, “When you want me to come over again?”
“Whenever you want to,” she answered him.
Victor’s grin was sinister. “It’s up to you.”
The pretty brown-skinned girl nodded her head with a long, passionate stare. “All right then. You can come over after school, Monday.”
Victor asked, “Are you sure you want me to?” It was part of his game, to make her surrender to his young and powerful ego.
“Yeah, I want you to,” she answered, nearly hypnotized.
Mission accomplished, Victor smiled and gave her a kiss. Then he ran off for home.
• • •
Victor was sure he could charm his way inside Jantel’s party. He showered up, redressed, patted on some Grey Flannel cologne and sprinted from his house. He didn’t even carry a dollar with him to pay.
“Come on, Jantel. If I had a party, I would let you in free,” he argued at Jantel’s front door.
Jantel was far from believing him. “The only reason I’ma let you in is because my girlfriend wanted to see you,” she said, running her big mouth.
“What girlfriend?”
“My girl, Tracy.”
“Oh, she was looking for me, hunh?” Victor said, smiling. He grinned, planning on seducing Tracy.
Victor walked down into the basement and gave Tracy a wink. Tracy thought he would stop and talk, but Victor strolled over to chat with his slim-brown friend, Mark Bates.
Mark asked, “Yo, what up, lover? Did ’ju hit it?”
Victor said with a smile, “What, you don’t know? You better ask somebody,” he bragged of his sexual conquest. “Man, she in love with me now. I tore that ass up like a god. Ask her about it, she’ll tell you.”
Victor knew that Tracy was watching him. Jantel gave up her info, and told him everything. Victor could do that to a girl, make her give up her soul for a hint of his young love. He decided to have a little fun with Tracy, doing what he did best, playing head games. He floated over to a light-brown-skinned girl, who was already waiting for him.
“I thought you said you was gonna call me, Victor?”
Victor gamed her; in other words, he made up a clever response to keep her interested. “I would have called you, but I just got back from shopping with my brother. He wouldn’t let me use his car phone,” he outright lied.
“Your brother has a car phone?”
Victor shrugged. “Yeah. It’s no big deal, especially if he won’t let me use it.” He moved closer to her, feeling over her body, compelling her to try and kiss him. Victor then moved away, successfully teasing her as she began to whine to him:
“Why you playin’ with me?”
The guys envied Victor and admired him, especially when he was at work with the girls. He was their hero.
Tracy watched, jealously, from a distance.
“I just don’t feel like kissin’ right now.”
“Why, you got new girlfriend in here?” the girl assumed. “See, Victor, you get on my damn nerves,” she responded, pretending to push him away. She loved the attention that he was giving her.
Victor said, “Look, ‘Sam,’ are your parents asleep yet?” He was up against the wall with her.
“I’on know,” she responded.
“Well, if you want, I could come over tonight,” he suggested, nonchalantly. He couldn’t let her think that he was actually excited about it.
Samantha answered him quickly, “I don’t care.”
Victor stared into her soft brown eyes. “But do you want me to?”
Samantha snapped, weary of his teasing, “I said, yeah.”
“No you didn’t. You said you don’t care,” he corrected her.
She smiled, bashfully, at his quick wit.
Tracy was fed up! She romped back up the stairs.
“So what time should I come over?” Victor asked the girl.
“I’on know.”
“What time will your parents go to sleep tonight?”
“I’on know. They’ll probably be waiting up for me.”
Victor leaned over to whisper. “Aw’ight, look ‘Sam,’ why don’t you go home and act like you sleepin’ so they won’t wait up for you. Then, around one o’clock, I’ll come around and sneak in your basement.”
Samantha was tickled by the idea. “Aw’ight then,” she agreed, impressed at how sneaky he was.
Victor looked to see that Tracy had left. He then turned and kissed her. “You feel better now?”
“Yeah,” Samantha said, licking her lips.
Victor sent her home and halted at the steps. He didn’t want Tracy to see him until Samantha had left.
“He a trip. I hate that boy,” Tracy was telling Jantel. She hushed herself when she noticed the light-brown-skinned girl whom Victor had been attending inside of the basement.
Jantel asked, “You’re going home already, Samantha?”
Samantha lied, minding her own business, “Yeah, because I gotta go to church early tomorrow.”
Jantel nodded and led her to the door, returning to Tracy. “See, that girl used to go with Victor,” she said.
“Yeah, he was just talkin’ to her in the basement.”
Victor popped his head up from the basement door.
“Ay Tracy, come here. I wanna dance with you,” he said, as if it was a closed case.
Tracy declined. “Naw, that’s all right.”
“Well excuuuse me,” he said, smiling.
Victor left, returning to a crowded basement. Jantel smiled at Tracy in the kitchen while she fixed hot dogs.
“Are those the last of the hot dogs?” Jantel’s mother asked, walking into the kitchen with them. She was tall, but not half as slender as Jantel was.
“Yeah, that’s the last of them,” Jantel answered her.
“Well, that’s it,” her mother commented. “Them greedy niggas don’t get no more. They’ll eat you out of a house and home.
”
The girls giggled as Jantel’s mother began to straighten up the kitchen. They then decided to finish their discussion inside of the living room.
Tracy whispered to her friend excitedly, “Should I go dance with him?” She hoped that Jantel would say “Yes,” so she could blame her if anything went wrong.
“It’s up to you,” Jantel said, knowing Tracy too well.
“But do you think I should?”
Jantel smirked. “If you want to,” she said, keeping it Tracy’s decision.
Tracy headed down the steps to search for him. Victor was already with another girl, but he promptly stopped dancing when he saw Tracy.
He walked over and asked her sternly, “So do you wanna dance with me or what?”
Tracy answered him, feeling privileged, “I don’t care.”
Victor led her through the crowds and to the DJ. “Ay yo, Spin, put ‘Computer Love’ on for me and this sweetheart.”
DJ Spin said, “Man, she a sweet little chumpee, cuz’, wit’ pretty-ass eyes. Aw’ight then, I’ll play it after this.”
Tracy wanted to thank the T-shirt-wearing DJ for commenting on her eyes, but she didn’t receive a chance to. Victor whisked her back to the dance floor, with his friends making room for them on demand. Tracy was impressed by the amount of respect they gave him. Victor had the party in check.
“So you changed your mind about dancin’ wit’ me, hunh?” he whispered.
Tracy responded harshly, “I’m dancing with you, ain’t I?” She wanted to establish respect, but Victor just smiled. He slow-dragged with her, rubbing her firm behind and starting to lick behind her ear. Tracy’s nipples hardened.
Victor whispered as he ran his fingers down the back of her thighs, “Do you like me?” He licked her neck as everyone watched in amazement. “I know you like me. Don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Tracy admitted, no longer caring.
Victor ran his hands to her lips and kissed her, only to pull away when she got into it. He then led her to the wall and leaned up against her as Tracy tossed her hands around his back. Victor started to kiss her again, rowing her body side to side, back and forth with his. He was possessing her, doing what he did best.
“Computer Love,” by Zapp, went off. DJ Spin followed up with “Do Me Baby,” by Mel’isa Morgan.
Victor whispered through the song, positioning Tracy’s mouth, “Stop kissing so hard. Do it slowly.” He then stopped and looked into her twinkling hazels. “Do you want my phone number? ’Cause I’m ’bout t’ roll out of here.”
“Yeah,” Tracy answered.
Victor wrote his number on a piece of paper for her and left the party.
For the rest of the night, Tracy did nothing but think about how romantic he was. She already suspected that she would lose her virginity to him, only wondering when their moment of love would be.
Victor walked up to Samantha’s door with a cocky stroll as he wet his lips with his tongue. He walked right into her basement and sat on a couch to take his shoes off. Samantha wore a gray bathrobe, with only her panties and bra on under it.
“You feel nervous?” he asked.
“No.”
“Are your parents sleepin’ yet?”
Samantha watched him take off his clothes, “Yeah, they sleep. They went to bed an hour ago.”
“Did you bring a blanket down here?”
“Yeah, Victor, but why do we have to do it on the floor?”
“Because it gives you more leverage and it feels better,” he told her, opening her robe.
Samantha was fifteen, with a tender body that was without scars. “Don’t do it so fast, ’cause I like it slow,” she told him.
Victor said, “Look, once it starts feelin’ good, it’s hard for me to slow down.” He slid off her underwear and unclipped her bra, bringing her to the floor with him to lie over a soft blanket.
Sam wrapped her legs around his as Victor kissed her naked body and guided himself inside of her, gripping her by the waist and slowly thrusting. He then increased his speed, beginning to pound into her.
Samantha ran her hands to his hips and attempted to slow down his pace. She could feel herself shaking under his weight. She then pulled his body down to hers, wildly caressing his back and neck.
Victor pulled away when she had finished and started up again as if life itself depended on his speed. He flexed overtop of her, losing his poise and crashing back to her chest as he began to suck in air. And they laid there in fresh sweat, completed and not wanting to move, remaining for an hour, until Victor snuck back home.
“Was you at Jantel’s party Saturday?” Carmen asked Tracy that Monday at school.
“Yeah. Why you ask me that?” Tracy wanted to know. She wondered if something was wrong.
“Was Mark Bates there?” Carmen asked her.
“Yeah,” Tracy responded, shutting her locker.
“That boy is a liar then,” Carmen snapped. “He told me he was gonna be at his grandmother’s house.”
“Do you talk to him or somethin’?” Tracy quizzed.
Carmen smiled and said, “Yeah, sorta.”
“You know Victor, that hangs with him?”
Carmen got excited. “Yeah, that boy is the shit. He got everything uptight.”
“He does?” Tracy responded with a smile. She already knew how well-respected Victor was, but she didn’t mind hearing it again and again; it all increased her liking of him.
They dodged junior high school students walking the hallway.
Carmen said, “Yeah, and his brother plays basketball for college. He be on TV and everything.”
“How old is his brother?”
“Like, twenty.”
“And everybody knows Victor?”
Carmen grinned, curiously. “Why, you talkin’ to him?”
“No, I just met him,” Tracy answered, minding her own business.
“Well, everybody knows Victor Hinson.”
“That’s his last name?”
“Yup, because I remember when he played for the Raiders.”
“He played for the Raiders?”
“Yeah,” Carmen said. “He was number twenty-four on defense. He was on the older pound team.”
They hurried to their classes with Tracy thinking about how popular she could become from hanging out with Victor. More people talked about him after class. He was in high school, yet all of the students in junior high knew of his rep, and he was known all throughout the neighborhood of Germantown. He even borrowed his brother’s white Jetta, driving around on missions to entice unsuspecting girls. And he wanted me to have his phone number, Tracy mused happily.
The final bell for school rang, and Tracy hurried out of the building. To her surprise, she then was surrounded by interrogating younger girls.
“Ay, Tracy, I heard you was kissing Victor at the party?”
“Yeah,” she answered, not caring if they knew.
“You gon’ go with him?”
“I don’t know,” she said, heading home and feeling proud.
“Well, you should, because I would.”
Tracy got home and found a boy talking to her next-door neighbor, Raheema. She decided to eavesdrop while sitting out on her steps.
The boy asked, “Can I have your phone number?” His sharp brown face shone under a yellow Kangol hat.
“I told you ‘no,’ four times already. God!” Raheema snapped at him.
“Why not?”
“Because I said ‘no.’ ” Raheema darted in the house and left the boy outside with Tracy. Tracy smiled at him, hunching her shoulders.
He asked her, “Why she act like that?”
“Because her father is mean as hell and she always be trying to please him. I’d say, ‘Bunk him,’ if I was her.”
“Is he a big dude?”
“NO!” Tracy exclaimed with a laugh. “You’d probably kick his ass. He ain’t nothin’.”
The Kangol-hat-wearing boy laughed himself before heading o
ff. “Tell Raheema that I like her anyway,” he said.
Tracy knocked on Raheema’s door. Raheema let her in.
“Why was you so mean to him?” Tracy asked her. “That boy was nice.”
“So what, Tracy? I just wish that they would leave me alone,” Raheema told her. “You can have them, all of them.”
Tracy smirked and shook her head, vehemently. “Girl, you’re just stupid!” she said, leaving back out. Raheema didn’t pay her any mind.
Tracy had been told to begin picking up her brother at four o’clock each afternoon from a new nearby day-care center he would be attending. She had completely forgotten about it even after Patti had reminded her several times. Patti came home with Jason in hand and was pissed.
“Tracy, I thought I told you to pick him up?”
Tracy cringed and threw her hands to her face. “Oh my God, mom, I forgot all about it.”
“Mmm hmm,” Patti mumbled. “I ask you to do something as small as that, and you can’t remember.”
“Dag, mom, it was only the first day.”
Patti frowned at her. “I had been reminding you for weeks, Tracy. I mean, what the hell is on your mind, girl? I told you to pick him up this morning.”
“I know, mom, but I forgot. Dag! You act like he’s gonna die or something.”
Patti looked at her daughter sternly. “This is about responsibility, Tracy. Now if I can’t count on you to help me out around here, then don’t count on me to do you any favors.”
Tracy immediately reflected on being able to stay late at Jantel’s party. “Well, I didn’t ask to stay later at Jantel’s party. You said that I could.” Her mother was being petty.
“This ain’t about a damn party, Tracy. This is about you acting more responsible around here,” Patti fumed. “Now don’t forget to pick him up tomorrow.” She angrily took off her jacket and set her bags down before walking into the kitchen. “And what did I tell you about these damn dishes?” she screamed at her daughter from the kitchen.
Tracy walked into the kitchen and washed the dishes without a word. Patti left her alone and went up the stairs to her room, feeling a touch of guilt. She was losing control of her emotions, but to hell if she was going to apologize. No one apologized to her. I guess I’m just supposed to do every-damn-thing around here, she huffed to herself. She closed her door and stretched out on her bed to take herself a nap. I don’t feel like cooking shit tonight. I’ll just order them some pizza, she decided. I need a damn vacation. Calgon, take me away.