The Day the Streets Stood Still

by JaQuavis Coleman

  “Now sit up and let me show you,” he panted. Sunny didn’t budge. She couldn’t make herself get up.

  “Don’t be difficult because I like to be fair. I like for you to want to do it,” Rodney wheezed, growing more excited by the minute. Sunny lay stock still, her brain screaming do what he said, but her body saying no more.

  “Damn, look what you made me do,” Rodney said, as he ejaculated his own body fluid all over his hand.

  “Get the fuck up!” he barked, suddenly turning into a different person. He jumped up off the bed, snatched the blanket off of Sunny and grabbed her up roughly.

  “Please,” she begged through tears. “My mouth is busted.”

  “Well I guess that will make you work harder and faster,” he said, forcing her head into his musty crotch. Sunny gagged as she took his limp manhood between her lips. The salty taste of his leftover cum burned the open cuts on her lips and was bitter on her tongue.

  “That’s it. Gag on it until it grows in your mouth. I’m going to teach you all of the tricks,” Rodney whispered, throwing his head back in ecstasy.

  A year after he had been living at his grandmother’s house Sean awoke one night to the sound of something hitting his bedroom window. Startled, Sean jumped up and grabbed the baseball bat he always kept next to his bed. In the dark, Sean inched around, his heart hammering wildly against his chest bone.

  Tick. Tick. Tick. The sound came again, this time Sean realized it was something like rocks hitting his bedroom window. Breathing shallowly, Sean rushed over to the window to see where the noise was coming from. He immediately put his bat down when he realized the source of the noise. Sean rushed to unlock his window and pushed it up quickly.

  “Sunny, what are you doing out here?” Sean whispered harshly, his face folded into a confused frown.

  “Just please let me in,” Sunny replied, bouncing on her legs like she had to pee. Sean had never heard her sound so scared and vulnerable. They had been friends for an entire year now and Sunny was always like an angry tough girl. She had even fought a few boys in the neighborhood when they tried to bully Sean because he was the new kid.

  “I’m coming down. You gonna have to climb into the basement window. You can’t get up here,” Sean whispered.

  “Okay,” Sunny said, hurrying to the back of Sean’s grandmother’s house. Sean crept out of his room and down the steps. His grandmother had super ears and he knew any creaking noises would wake her. It seemed to take forever to make it to the basement but Sean finally did. He pushed up the slats on the small basement windows. He could see Sunny already lying on the ground waiting to slide in.

  “I hope you can fit,” Sean said, worried that Sunny’s growing hips and butt would get stuck. Sean had definitely noticed how his best friend was rounding out with newly formed woman curves. He had often fantasized about them during his adolescent wet dreams.

  “C’mon hurry up. If my grandmother wakes up she’s gonna flip,” Sean urged. Finally her body dropped through the window onto a pile of boxes his grandmother had there. Seeing how easily Sunny was able to drop onto the boxes and climb down into his house, it suddenly occurred to Sean that if Sunny could get through the window and use the boxes to climb down, any burglar could. He quickly took the stacks of boxes from the window and locked it.

  “Can I stay here with you tonight?” Sunny pleaded, sweat wetting her hair and the sides of her face. “I really can’t go back home right now. If I can’t stay here I will have to sleep on the street,” Sunny rambled. Sean looked at her confused. He hadn’t seen her look so frazzled before.

  “Like . . . um . . . a sleepover?” he asked, his eyebrows scrunched low. Sunny and Sean had been friends for over a year, but they had never had a sleepover before. “I . . . I . . . don’t know if Big Mama is gonna allow that,” Sean said tentatively.

  “Please, Sean . . . just sneak me in your room and I’ll sleep under your bed. Please. I can’t go back home tonight. My mother ain’t there and . . . and . . . I’m begging you,” Sunny pleaded, her voice suddenly quivering on the brink of tears. Sunny couldn’t stop the flood of tears coming from her eyes. She sunk down on top of a box.

  “What’s the matter, Sunny?” Sean asked her, sitting down next to her. He was suddenly scared inside but he was trying his best to look strong.

  “He . . . he . . . is messing with me. But now, he’s going . . . you know . . . all the way in,” Sunny stumbled to find the words. She pointed the area below her navel for emphasis. Sean’s eyes hooded over and his fists curled up at his sides.

  “What you mean all the way in? You mean like he’s trying to hump you?” Sean said through clenched teeth as he sprang to his feet. Sunny hung her head and began sobbing. She rushed into Sean and put her head on his chest and cried. Sean stood there helplessly, not knowing if he should hug her or go kill her stepfather.

  “C’mon. You can stay in my room tonight. Any night you want,” Sean comforted, wrapping his arms around her. Sunny kissed him on the cheek.

  “Thank you, best friend.” She smiled through her tears.

  That night Sean couldn’t sleep. His mind raced in a million directions with the information Sunny had given him about her stepfather. Sean allowed her to snuggle her body close to his and he wrapped his arms around her so that she would feel protected. Sean watched as Sunny fell into a fitful sleep. He could only imagine what she was dreaming about.

  Sunny heard the door to her bedroom creak open and she snapped her eyes shut as tight as she could. Maybe if she pretended to be in a dead sleep he would leave her alone this time. The scent of alcohol entered the room before he did and when she smelled it, Sunny lost all hopes of escaping it tonight. She could hear him breathing like some wild animal in heat. Sunny cracked her eyes and he was jerking his dick to get it hard enough. She swallowed hard because that meant there would be more than touching this time again. After a few minutes, she felt her bed moving under all of his weight. Sunny clutched her blankets in a death grip, but they were ripped away from her anyway.

  “Please! Stop!” Sunny yelled out, hoping that her mother would intervene.

  “Shut the fuck up,” he growled, pointing his gun right in her face. Sunny swallowed her screams back down her throat.

  “Open your fucking legs. You love this . . . I know you. You a fast-ass little hot bitch,” he panted. Sunny looked down and caught a glimpse of his tiny, slimy, musty dick. She snapped her eyes shut and did as she was told.

  “I’m a virgin,” she croaked out through tears.

  “Even better,” he snarled. He leaned down and let a gob of his alcohol-reeking spit fall from his mouth onto Sunny’s nearly bald vagina. Sunny let out another belch of sobs.

  “I said shut the fuck up or I’ll blow your brains out and that bitch of a mother of yours,” he said gruffly as he swiped his hands up and down to make sure his spit served as a lubricant.

  “Ouch,” Sunny cried as he probed her virginal opening with his finger first. “Yes. Nice and tight like I like it.” He reared up over her and grabbed his dick in his hand. With his knees he forced her slim, child-like thighs open.

  “Please don’t,” Sunny tried one more plea. Her words seemed to just turn him on.

  “Ahh,” he grunted as he thrust into her with all his might.

  “Ahhhhh!” Sunny belted out. Pain like she had never experienced before shot through her vagina, butt and abdomen.

  Sunny jumped out of her sleep so fiercely that she scared Sean. His head immediately began pounding from being snatched out of his own fitful sleep.

  “Sunny? You all right?” Sean wolfed as he jumped up. He looked at her strangely. Her eyes were wild, her chest was moving up and down rapidly, and her fists were clenched like she was ready for war.

  “It’s me, Sean. You are at my house . . . Remember, you came here last night,” Sean said, trying his best to help her calm down. Sunny looked at him and immediately the corners of her eyes went soft.

  “I’m sorry. I just .
. . I had a bad dream,” Sunny explained. She closed her eyes for a few minutes because she knew that what she dreamt about was actually her reality.

  “One day you won’t have to live with all of that, Sunny, I promise. One day I’m going to save you from all of that,” Sean said with a sincerity in his voice Sunny had never heard from anyone in her life. Sean meant every word of it, too.

  Chapter Three

  Fall 1999

  “Get the fuck up, nigga!” Sean barked, his favorite Glock extended out in front of him. Fox had given Sean the gun as a gift, followed by the words, “This is the piece that spilled the brains of the nigga who killed your mother. It’s yours now.”

  “You like fucking with little girls? Huh! You nasty m’fucker! I’ve been waiting years for this day, you fucking dog!” Sean snarled, cracking the gun over the sloppy, smelly overweight man’s forehead.

  “Sean! Don’t! Let’s just leave!” Sunny screamed, her face a mess as the purple, green, and blue rings around her left eye became filled with a fresh set of blood pooling under her skin.

  “I said get up, nigga, and face me like a man! You can put your hands on a seventeen-year-old girl . . . well face a m’fuckin’ seventeen-year-old nightmare now, bitch,” Sean gritted, this time hitting Sunny’s stepfather so hard the white meat became exposed on his forehead. Sunny started bouncing on her legs like she had to pee, her hands flailing in front of her like she had touched something hot.

  “Sean, please. Stop! He will kill you or get you arrested!” she pleaded. Sean turned toward her, his face folded so tightly in a frown Sunny hardly recognized her friend standing there.

  “You come and tell me this nigga been raping you since you was a little girl . . . your ass just had an abortion with his baby at seventeen and you think I’m gonna stop?” Sean spat so hard small specks of spit flew out of his mouth and sprinkled onto Sunny’s battered face.

  Her shoulders slumped in defeat and she hung her head low. Sean was right, she had run to him and confessed after the abortion and after her mother had almost beat her to death for sleeping with her stepfather . . . or as her mother had put it, Sunny had seduced her man. Sean flew into an immediate rage. He had been waiting years to get his hands on Sunny’s stepfather.

  Sunny had been Sean’s best friend since the day he’d met her and he loved her from a place so deep inside of him that he sometimes couldn’t explain the things he had done and gotten into with her growing up thus far.

  “Please, Sean. I just don’t want you to do something stupid and end up in prison. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself,” Sunny sobbed. “Let’s just leave. Let karma deal with his sick ass,” she urged, shooting an evil eye at her helpless, groveling stepfather.

  Seeing Sunny so upset made something inside of Sean soften as usual. He turned back toward Sunny’s cowering stepfather and placed the Glock against the man’s temple.

  “You fucking lucky nigga. If you ever fucking touch her again, you might as well cut your own dick off and swallow it because next time I won’t have any mercy on your ass,” Sean said through his teeth. He grabbed Sunny and pulled her out of the house. Once they were back on his grandmother’s porch next door, Sean turned to Sunny with a look of love in his eyes.

  “It’s time for us to get a place of our own. You’ll be my roommate and I’ll take care of you until you can get on your feet,” he told her with sincerity. Sean was making enough money now that he was helping his grandmother with her bills, buying his own clothes and practically taking care of Sunny already.

  Sunny threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, her tears wetting his neck.

  “I love you, best friend,” she cried. He couldn’t say a word to that.

  Something inside of Sean changed that day. He had too much pride to admit that he was in love with Sunny, who all these years had just been his best friend and nothing more. He couldn’t see himself telling her he loved her, only for her tough girl to come out and say something smart in return. Sean decided he’d keep that information to himself until the time was right. If the time was ever right.

  As they stood there embracing, a long, sleek, smoke gray big-body Mercedes-Benz pulled up in front of the house.

  “Aye, lovebirds! What’s the word!” Fox called out from the Benz.

  Sean quickly unhooked himself from Sunny and stepped away from her like she had a disease. Sunny blushed, waved at Fox and scurried into Sean’s grandmother’s house. Sean put on his best Fox imitation walk and bopped over to Fox’s car. Sean leaned down into the open passenger side front window, trying not to look so flushed from his encounter with Sunny and her stepfather.

  “You in love! I see that shit all over your face,” Fox joked. Obviously Sean’s efforts to hide his emotions hadn’t worked on the man who knew him so well.

  “Nah, nah. She’s just my best friend. She’s like my sister, man . . . you know that,” Sean replied, his cheeks still burning.

  “Yeah, I used to say that same shit about Mook. The chance I never took and never got to take in the end,” Fox replied, his voice trailing off a bit.

  “Anyway, I guess when you’re ready to admit that you love that little fine thing you will. For now, get in. Let’s talk,” Fox said, flashing his signature sparkly smile. Sean hurriedly got into the Benz. He gave Fox some dap with one hand and dug into his pocket for a knot of money with the other. Sean handed the money to Fox eagerly like he did every time his mentor and boss showed up.

  “Dayum, boy . . . you just like Mook. All business, all good, all the time,” Fox complimented, flicking through the stack of cash real quick. Sean loved to get compliments from Fox, so he was smirking to keep himself from all out cheesing.

  “Listen, you been really putting in that work. I see you out here living your mother’s legacy. I’m telling you, she would’ve been proud,” Fox continued. Sean nodded, his stomach feeling funny like it always did whenever Fox reminisced about his mother. He never really knew what to say back to Fox when he gave him compliments or spoke of dreamy memories that Sean most times wanted to put out of his mind. Fox was his idol, most times Sean was so awestruck by the man that he just liked to listen to Fox speak.

  “Take a ride with me. I wanna show you something,” Fox said, as he pulled away from the curb. After riding in silence for a few minutes, Fox spoke up.

  “You know I always think about what it would be like if my son was still around . . . you know . . . you and him, growing up together,” Fox started, his tone a little more serious than usual. Sean shifted in his seat as his friend Liam’s face showed up in his head.

  “I never blamed you for what happened you know. I know you blamed yourself for years, but that was just what was in the cards for him . . . you know, part of some plan that I’ll never understand but don’t question no more. I just want you to know that I never blamed you . . . never,” Fox went on. Sean turned his face and stared out of the passenger side window; tears were burning at the backs of his eyes as he tried to fight away a memory.

  “Let me show you something,” Liam whispered to Sean. It was the middle of the night and one of the many occasions Fox had picked Sean up for a sleepover with Liam after Mook had died.

  “I’m ’sleep,” Sean had grumbled. Sometimes Liam annoyed him. Sean was already eleven and Liam was just eight so sometimes the younger boy was a little babyish and pesky to Sean.

  “C’mon you gonna like it. Everybody is sleeping and I won’t be able to show you tomorrow before you go home. I’m telling you . . . c’mon,” Liam urged, pushing Sean’s body to keep him awake. Sean let out a long exasperated breath, tossed the blanket back and got up from Liam’s oversized bottom bunk bed.

  “Hurry up,” Liam whispered, waving Sean on. Liam opened the door, peeked down the long hallway of his parent’s huge mini mansion and crept out into the hallway. Sean followed him, sleep still clouding his brain. Both boys went down into the basement, where Fox had his office, his bar and his private area set up. Liam knew his father�
�s sanctuary was off-limits, but he was too excited about his discovery to care.

  He kneeled in front of Fox’s large, cherry wood, executive-style desk and called Sean over silently with his hands.

  Sean knelt down next to him, his face folded in confusion.

  “My father left his drawer opened by mistake,” Liam said as he tugged on the large bottom drawer on the side of the desk. “And look what I found in it.”

  Sean’s eyes almost bulged from his head and his heart kick started in his chest.

  “You better put that back,” Sean whispered harshly.

  “It’s not loaded,” Liam said, picking up the .50-caliber, Desert Eagle Special and pointing it.

  Sean jumped out of the way and pushed Liam on his arm.

  “Don’t point that! Put it back!” Sean whispered harshly again.

  “Man, we could play cops and robbers. This ain’t got no bullets in it,” Liam said. “Watch,” he said, quickly turning the gun into his chest. Sean’s eyes shot into huge circles, but before he could snatch the gun from his friend, Liam had already put his finger through the trigger guard.

  “Don’t . . .” Sean started. Bang! His words were clipped short by the gun going off. Sean threw his hands up to his ears because the loud boom had instantly deafened him. He fell backward because he had been so close the Liam that the power from the shot had even knocked Sean on his ass.

  Sean opened his mouth to scream, but no sound would come out. He lay rocking back and forth covering his ears when Liam’s mother and Fox raced into the room.

  “No!” Liam’s mother screeched. It was the last thing Sean remembered from that night before the shock of the situation had caused him to slip into darkness.

  “Yo, we here. Where ya mind at, man? You daydreaming about that girl, huh?” Fox said, snapping Sean out of his memory.