by Omar Tyree
Tracy smiled, reflecting on their similarities.
When Victor finally approached their bench, Tracy was ready to explode. He then looked and smiled at her. She stared back at him and returned his favor. It was obvious that she had been watching. Tracy realized that Victor was more than likely three times more experienced at playing mind games than she was.
“Ay Victor, there go that young-girl, man,” one of his friends said, referring to Tracy.
Victor grinned. “I see her, but I’m just gon’ make her sweat for a while.”
“Shit, cuz’, I don’t see how you do it. You got all these little young-girls in love.”
Victor said, “It’s all in the mind, boy. You tease ’em and let them make their choice. If you’re the man, like me, they’ll be on you.” Victor took a shot at the hoop and missed. “Shit! Let me get that one back.”
His friend responded, “Well, every time I give a girl her freedom of choice, the bitch ends up dumpin’ me.”
Victor chuckled, and looked over at Tracy with another smile. Tracy turned away in embarrassment.
“Shawn, cuz’, you have to know how girls think, and then you’ll know how to deal with them. All girls are ruled by curiosity, so the less they know about you, the more they wanna know, and the more they wanna find out. So you just keep ’em guessin’. Watch this.”
Victor swiftly walked over to Tracy and sat without speaking.
Jantel had had enough. “Hi, Victor,” she said. Tracy was acting like an airhead to her. Just tell him how you feel about him, she wanted to advise her friend.
Stupid! Tracy thought. Why she have ta’ open her dumb mouth?Damn, she stupid! The last thing Tracy wanted to do was seem obvious, even though it was a given to Victor. She was only there to see him.
“Oh, you not gon’ speak to me?” Victor asked Tracy after waving to Jantel. Tracy couldn’t help but to smile.
Victor chuckled at her and got up to leave.
Tracy asked Jantel, “Why you do that, girl?”
“Well, you didn’t say that I couldn’t say nothin’ to him. We’ve just been sittin’ out here for hours, doing nothin’. God!”
Victor came back and whispered in Tracy’s ear, “I got something to ask you. Okay?” Tracy turned to eye his beautiful dark face, shining in the sunlight. Being that close to Victor again gave her goose bumps.
“What?” Tracy asked him.
“I’ll tell you, just make sure you don’t leave the playground,” he answered her before he walked away. He returned to his friends as Tracy wondered. He then walked off with them, heading toward the stores on Chelten Avenue.
Tracy obediently remained at the playground, watching the older boys playing basketball while she waited patiently for Victor to return. After a while, Jantel was ready to leave. She wasn’t in love with Victor, and she thought that Tracy was acting ridiculous.
“You’re actually gonna stay here and wait for him?” Jantel asked her friend.
Tracy sucked her teeth. “Jantel, if you don’t wanna stay with me, then you can go home,” she responded.
“Hmm,” Jantel mumbled, standing up from the benches. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she announced. “Happy waiting,” she added.
“Whatever,” Tracy said with a smirk as she continued to wait. She was afraid to leave, loving Victor without betrayal. And when the sun started to go down, she grew restless, still waiting, foolishly.
“Are you waiting for somebody?” one of the glamorous older girls asked her. They were all beginning to fade away.
Why don’t you mind your business? Tracy wanted to snap. “No, not really. I just like watching basketball,” she said instead.
The girl’s friends snickered at Tracy as they began to walk off. “Don’t get no splinters in your ass, waiting for no nigga, girl. ’Cause ain’t none of ’em worth it,” she said to Tracy as she walked off behind her friends.
Shawn said, “Ay Victor, man, that’s ugly how you doin’ her.” They were heading back from the store.
Victor sucked his teeth. “Man, shet up. I know what I’m doin’. You gotta discipline these young-girls,” he responded tartly. “She goin’ through my little trainin’ session.” He munched on his barbecue chips and took a drink from his soda. “Plus, I’m waitin’ for my pop to roll out, so I can take her to the crib and hit that ass again. I’m gon’ hit it from the back this time.”
When they got back to the playground, Victor looked over at Tracy, who was sitting by herself, and decided that he had trained her enough. It was nearly eight o’clock and his father would be gone from the house by then.
“Come here, girl,” he said. His stare was serious as his connecting eyebrows rose. Tracy walked over to him slowly, feeling ashamed but important. If Victor wanted her, then she was surely a somebody. “When you want me to come over again?” he asked her sternly.
“I’on know. It depends on when my mother goes out,” she answered, neglecting what she had told herself about not giving him any.
Victor said cheerfully, “Well, guess what? We can go to my house right now. But you probably don’t want to though.” He started to walk away from her, toward a hole inside of the playground gate.
Tracy lost her cool. “I didn’t say that!” she gushed. There was no way for her to refuse without losing him. “I’ll go with you,” she said bashfully, as she followed after him.
Victor responded, “Come on, then.” He led her through the hole in the gate. “YO, I’LL CATCH Y’ALL NIGGAS LATER!” he shouted, smiling at his friends and taking Tracy’s hand.
“Damn, cuz’. Just let me be that nigga for one day,” Shawn said to no one in particular.
“Dig it, man. Victor got all the flyy bitches.”
Victor and Tracy walked around the corner, hand and hand. He wore a white Adidas shorts and shirt set, clean as usual. Tracy felt like a queen, ready to make love again to King Victor.
Victor looked into her hazels. “You know, I never realized how sexy your eyes were until I seen them in the light today,” he told her.
“Thank you,” Tracy responded, tickled brown. God, I love him! she thought to herself.
Victor told her to wait outside on his patio for a moment while he went in. Tracy waited, happy to be with him. He then came back and gestured for her to come with a flick of his wrist. His house was beautiful. Tracy looked at his brother’s basketball pictures, noticing the family attractiveness.
“Your brother is my complexion,” she commented, standing in front of the imitation fireplace.
“Yeah, my mother is your complexion,” Victor told her. “Us niggas come in all colors.” He approached her from behind, putting his hands around her waist and kissing the nape of her neck. Tracy rubbed his hands and leaned her head forward, loving it.
“Tracy, I want you to do me a favor. All right?”
“Yes,” Tracy responded, dizzily.
Victor turned her around and looked her in her eyes. “Go upstairs to the last room in the hallway and take off your clothes. I’ll be up in a few. And get under the covers while you’re at it.”
Tracy didn’t even hesitate. She did exactly what he had told her, waiting for him under the covers, naked and unashamed.
Victor walked into the room and turned off his light. Tracy felt his smooth dark body as it joined hers under the sheets. He turned her over on her stomach and pushed her knees forward as he entered her from the back.
Tracy whined, “Ooww, Victor. I don’t wanna do it this way.”
He gripped her by her waist and began to pull her into him. Tracy dropped her head into the pillow, fighting the pain until it no longer hurt her.
“Did you miss me?” he asked her.
“Yesss,” she moaned, breathlessly.
“Do you like it?”
“Mmm, hmm.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No.”
“Good,” he told her, kissing the nape of her neck again.
Tracy rolled over an
d rubbed his chest when he had finished. He was her man and she loved him. Victor allowed her to lay with him on his bed, butt-naked and under his sheets, as Tracy peacefully fell asleep in his arms.
Victor leaned away from her and looked into her face as she dozed off. She’s just so young and pretty, he told himself. He ran his dark fingers through her hair. “I like you,” he whispered in her ear, but I just can’t let my guard down, he thought to himself. His older brother had told him that young-girls were the worst ones to fall for, “because they don’t know enough about relationships, and they’re not mature enough to handle all of their emotions,” he had said. Nevertheless, Victor liked Tracy’s loyalty to him, so he considered her trustworthy.
Victor continued to have sex with Tracy throughout the summer, whenever he wanted. He never seemed to spend any quality time with her though. Tracy was pleased when she did have him. She saw no need to complain. He would come to her block and simply look at her a certain way, and she knew exactly what it meant.
Tracy had a problem with not being able to tell Victor “no.” On restless summer nights, she even went looking for him. Time spent with him was never boring, and Tracy enjoyed her small part in his fast world.
“Ay, girl. Is your name Tracy?” a short, well-curved girl asked from the bottom of Tracy’s walkway.
“Yeah,” Tracy answered. She had been sitting out on her steps with Raheema.
The short girl said angrily, “Well, I got somethin’ to talk to you about. Was you lookin’ for my boyfriend?” she asked.
Tracy looked at the two girlfriends the short girl had brought with her, knowing they were all in high school.
“I don’t even know your boyfriend,” she said.
“Yes, you do. You know Victor Hinson, girl. Don’t fuckin’ try to lie to me,” the girl snapped.
Tracy was glad that she was in front of her house. If anything jumped off, she was ready to make a dash for her door.
“I’ma tell you now, if I ever hear about you bein’ with him again, I’ma kick a bone out your young ass.” The three girls walked away after soundly ranking Tracy.
Raheema grinned. “See what trouble boys get you in?” she said.
Tracy sat speechless for a second. She then sucked her teeth and sighed. “Aw, that bitch know he be runnin’ around doin’ it to everybody. She stupid to even go with him,” she said.
Raheema asked with a smile, “Well, what about you?”
Tracy smiled back. “So what, Ra-Ra?”
Raheema giggled helplessly. “Well, if I talked to a boy, first I would make sure that he didn’t live around here.”
Tracy grinned, curiously. “Oh, so you like boys now, hunh?”
Raheema defiantly shook her head. “No. I’m just saying if I did.”
on the flip side
“See them girls right there, Bruce?” said a short, round-bellied, brown-skinned boy inside of the Cheltenham Mall lobby.
“Going into the arcade?” his taller, lighter-toned friend responded. Shiny waves mopped his head, flowing to the right with a part on the left.
Round-belly said, “Yeah, cuz’. We can get some ass from them, Bruce. They live up Wayne Avenue. I’ll talk to the dark-skinned one.”
His friend was hesitant. “Naw, cuz’, I’m not talkin’ to that other girl.”
“Why not, man? Bruce, she looks good as shit, and you a pretty boy, too. Man, you can get with her,” Round-belly assured him.
Wavy-head contested, “Naw, cuz’, I can’t really deal with them type of girls.” He could tell that the girl was flyy; she had clues of high maintenance written all over her face, hair and body.
“Man, all you got to do is talk, and she’ll be on you.”
“I don’t know, cuz’. She looks like one of those material girls to me, and I ain’t really thorough enough to talk to them.”
Round-belly said, “Man, shet up, as pretty as you are.”
Wavy-head smiled as they went inside the arcade.
Round-belly said, “Ay Carmen, what’s up, baby?”
“Oh my God! What’s up, Bucky?”
“You tell me.”
Bruce stared nervously at Tracy, who was looking at him.
“Yeah, this is my boy, Bruce,” Bucky introduced him.
Carmen said, “Hi, this is Tracy.”
“Hi you doin’?” Tracy said.
Bruce was too afraid to talk. He silently nodded his head.
Carmen asked him, “Don’t you go to Northeast High School?”
“Yeah,” Bruce answered, nervously.
“Do you know Victor Hinson? He goes there.”
“Yup, he live up y’all way, right?” Bruce said, opening up. He leaned up against Marie Brothers’ Donkey Kong.
Carmen responded, “Yeah, he do.” She then looked at Tracy and smiled.
Bucky told them, “Yeah, well, we might be around there to see y’all. Aw’ight? So I just want y’all to know that we’re comin’.”
“Aw’ight,” Carmen said.
The two boys walked out from the arcade.
Carmen asked Tracy, “What ’chew think about Bruce?”
“He was pretty as shit,” Tracy told her.
“I know. Wasn’t he? You see all them waves in his head?”
Two days had passed before Bruce and Bucky pursued their plans. They found Tracy’s house on Diamond Lane, and ended up meeting Raheema and Jantel.
“Yo, what’s up, Jantel?” Bucky said with a grin. He seemed to know everyone. “Don’t that girl Tracy live here?” he asked, pointing to the house next door.
Jantel responded blandly, “Yeah, why?”
Bucky frowned. “Boy, you got an attitude,” he commented to her.
Jantel did not particularly care for him. Bucky was known to be disrespectful to girls. “Yeah, whatever,” she huffed.
Bruce interjected, “Well, she probably ain’t home anyway.” He then smiled at his friend. “Man, you always arguin’ wit’ girls, cuz’.”
Raheema had been staring at wavy-headed Bruce from the time he walked to her steps. He didn’t notice it at first, but once he did, he was drawn to her like a magnet. She had the most innocent pair of eyes, and he was not afraid of her attractiveness. Raheema seemed soothing and down to earth as compared to Tracy.
Bruce asked Jantel, “What’s your friend’s name?”
Jantel smiled, expecting Raheema to brush them off as usual. “Why don’t you ask her?”
Bruce looked at Raheema and they smiled at each other, to Jantel’s surprise.
“My name is Raheema,” she answered.
Oh my God, she likes him! Jantel assumed from Raheema’s dreamy look. Wait until I tell Tracy!
“That’s a different kind of name. I like that,” Bruce said to her.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Bruce.”
“Are you in high school?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to high school in September.”
He grinned at her. “Oh, you gon’ be a freshman, hunh?”
Raheema nodded. “Yup.”
Bucky smirked and began strolling down the street. “Yo, man, I’ll be back,” he told his friend. He didn’t want to get in Bruce’s way, and he was obviously taken by the girl.
Bruce said, “Aw’ight,” and sat on the steps to continue talking to Raheema.
Jantel then decided to leave the two love birds alone herself. “Well, when you see Tracy, just tell her that I’ll call her up tonight,” she said with a smile. Dag, everybody’s talking to somebody but me. Maybe I should give that boy Damon that runs for the Philadelphia Express a chance. He likes me, and he’s kind of cute, she told herself as she walked off.
Bruce asked Raheema, “So you got a boyfriend, pretty?” He felt much more confident with her than he did with Tracy. Raheema was definitely more his speed.
“No,” Raheema said, staring into his eyes.
Bruce leveled with her from “jump-street,” or in other words,
from the beginning of things. “Well, to tell the truth, I’m at the point now where I would like to settle down and find a girlfriend myself. And you’re such a nice girl and all that I wouldn’t mind you being the one.”
Raheema blushed. “Well, I don’t know if I’m ready for a boyfriend yet.”
“Yeah, well, I can understand that. We just met each other, so we’ll just be friends for a while until we find out how much we like each other.”
Bruce left once his friend Bucky came back. Talking to Raheema had been relaxing to him.
Bucky said, “Ay Bruce, don’t talk to that girl, cuz’.” They headed down Chelten Avenue, back home toward Chew.
“Why not?” Bruce asked.
“That babe ain’t fuckin’, man.”
“Oh, I know that.”
“How you know?”
“ ’Cause, I can look in her eyes and tell. That’s gon’ be my girl, man,” Bruce announced.
Bucky laughed. “I’m tellin’ you, cuz’, leave that nut bitch alone.”
“You crazy. I ain’t hardly tryin’ to let her go,” Bruce snapped. “See man, that’s all I want is a pretty girl, who I like. I don’t need them flyy, hip-hop girls.”
Bucky responded, shaking his head, “Aw’ight then.”
They walked home to the East Germantown area, across Chew Avenue.
• • •
“Ay Bucky, the party gon’ be live tonight, right?” Bruce was asking.
“Yeah, cuz’, it’s gon’ be many hoes up in there,” his friend responded as he groomed himself, getting ready to leave out.
Bruce wore leather-trimmed jeans, a Members Only jacket, a gold pinky ring and a pair of seventy-five-dollar Fila sneakers. Bucky slid on his blue silk shirt with black, snake-skinned shoes and a matching belt. He wore dark blue Louis Rafael slacks and a gray Sergio jacket. Silk shirts were in in Philly at the time. The year was nineteen-eighty-five; the day was Saturday.
“Bucky looks like a million dollars,” Bruce said with a laugh. He wrapped a twenty-dollar bill around his finger for status; all of the guys who had money to spare were doing it.