The Day the Streets Stood Still

by JaQuavis Coleman

  “I need to see BG! I’m King Sean! Don’t fuckin’ act like you don’t know who the fuck I am!” Sean boomed. His words weren’t swaying BG’s team of muscular, wrestler-type goons.

  “Listen, dirty nigga . . . get from round here before you come up missing,” one of her goons growled in Sean’s face.

  “What nigga? You know who I am? Huh! I’m the king!” Sean barked loudly.

  BG heard the commotion outside and came out to see what was going on.

  “Hey . . . hey . . . what’s happening here?” BG asked, fighting her way through the huddle of huge, muscular security guards.

  “I’m her fuckin’ partner! I made her! I’m the king!” Sean was still screaming as he tried to fight the big dudes off. BG finally made her way to the middle where the men had Sean hemmed up by the collar of his dirty shirt. BG clasped her hand over her mouth. She almost cried when she laid eyes on Sean.

  “King?” BG whispered almost breathlessly. Sean’s appearance had literally taken her breath away and sent a wave of cramps trampling through her gut. Gone was the well-groomed, well-dressed, sharp as a tack businessman BG had partnered with so many years ago. Sean stood before her in jeans that were almost falling off of him, sneakers that had been in style two years ago, with a face so gaunt and drawn it looked like he hadn’t eaten in months. His hair and facial hair were all overgrown and in serious need of a cut. He was sweating profusely and his eyes were almost bugged out of his head. Sean noticed her and cracked a dirty-tooth smile.

  “BG . . . yeah, it’s me. Tell these niggas to back off. I needed to come see you,” Sean called out to her when he noticed her. BG couldn’t stop staring at him. She wanted to cry, but all she could do was shake her head.

  “Where have you been?” BG asked with her face crumpled like she smelled something stink. “Why you look like this?

  “That’s what I need to talk to you about,” Sean said, scratching his nose and rubbing his arms like they itched real bad.

  “It’s all good,” BG said raising her hand and calling off her security. They opened up a small path so that Sean could follow BG inside.

  Once inside, Sean looked around the posh restaurant in amazement. “This shit is tight,” he complimented. “You been investing I see,” he said, his words sounding a little salty as jealousy crept up on him like a ghost.

  “Let’s go upstairs to my office,” BG replied, ignoring his snide comment. They entered her office and BG took her seat behind her grand, mahogany desk. Sean stood in front of the desk feeling small compared to her and like a failure. He looked at how well dressed BG was in her designer blazer, jeans and pumps and he immediately regretted coming to her looking like he did.

  “I know I have been missing meetings and shit, BG,” Sean started, sniffling like his nose was running. BG leaned forward on her elbows and squinted her eyes at him. She didn’t want to believe it before, but it had been confirmed for her now . . . Sean was on drugs heavy.

  “I don’t want to hear any more of your fuckin’ excuses, Sean. You haven’t run this business in months. All you want to do is collect money and get your hands on product, but you ain’t putting in no work. Your boys are all going their separate ways, but you didn’t know that did you? Ty . . . that nigga works for God now. Beans, he’s interested in partnering with me on a half-and-half basis like me and you used to do. Ak and Bo, they are finding their way out there in the streets. You ain’t got no more business with me. I don’t owe you nothing because you haven’t invested nothing back into the business. Our dealings are done,” BG said through clenched teeth. Sean felt smaller and smaller with every sentence that came out of her mouth. He slumped down in one of the chairs in front of her desk and put his head in his hands.

  “I’m fucked up, B,” he lamented. “I’m real fucked up right now,” Sean said, shaking his head pitifully.

  “What the fuck happened to you?” BG asked seriously. “I don’t even know you anymore.”

  Sean looked up at her with red-rimmed eyes and snot at the tip of his left nostril. He couldn’t believe how fast the tables of his life had turned.

  “I fucked myself out of the game, B,” Sean said, raising his sleeve and extending his arm to show her the track marks that ran up and down his arm. BG’s mouth hung open for a few seconds as Sean’s revelation settled in her mind. She had suspected it and probably knew it in her heart, but seeing it firsthand and knowing for sure was literally killing her inside. She closed her eyes for a few seconds to let it settle in her mind. Then, as if a bolt of electricity had hit her BG jumped to her feet.

  “You’re fuckin’ weak! You let that bitch drag you down to the lowest place on fuckin’ earth! I loved you! We could’ve been good together, but no . . . you was in love with a fiend! Now look at you!” BG spat cruelly, fighting to keep the tears welling up in her eyes from falling. Sean’s chest rose and fell rapidly and his eyes went wide. He wasn’t expecting her reaction, nor was he expecting her to say that she had loved him.

  “You disgust me! You came here to beg for money? Or H? Is that why you came to see me after a whole fuckin’ month?” BG gritted, her heart breaking with every cruel word. Sean looked at her pitifully at a loss for words. She had figured him out from the door, but was hopeful that she had been wrong.

  “Here! This is your exit cut! I’m doing this out of mercy, not because I owe you shit. You ain’t got nothing left around here!” BG growled as she went behind her desk and pulled out three rubber banded stacks of money. “This is what you came to beg for so here it is. Take it back to your fiend bitch and get high,” BG screamed, tossing the cash in Sean’s face. He scrambled out of the chair and picked up the money. He needed it more than ever right now.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” BG snarled, looking at him with disgust. “Now get the fuck out of my office! Don’t come back around until you’re ready to get some help! You disgust me . . . you ain’t no fuckin’ king!” BG yelled at him, her voice cracking. Sean looked at her one last time before he turned to leave. Her tears had finally started to run down her face.

  “B . . . once you start you can’t stop,” Sean said sadly. “No matter how much you want to, you can’t fuckin’ stop.” With that he was gone.

  BG slammed the door behind him and fell to her knees sobbing. She still loved Sean, but now it was apparent that he could never love her back. He had chosen Sunny and drugs over her.

  In the months after her encounter with Sean, BG took the helm of the business and it soared to new heights. She invested in a chain of high-class restaurants, lounges and even bought into a D-league basketball team to make her dirty money clean. BG was the new king of the city with Beans and Ak at her side.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Back to Present Day

  After what seemed like an eternity, the graffiti-covered door creaked open. Sean got to his feet swiftly, his jaw was rocking feverishly and he clenched his fists at his side. Sean watched the young dope boy bop out of the room smiling with sweat glistening on his face and chest. His pants were still unbuttoned and halfway off his waist where the butt of his gun peeked out. He eyed Sean up and down with a smirk and then laughed at him. Sean looked at the kid with his thick gold Cuban link chains dangling around his neck and his slick True Religion jeans and Louboutin sneakers fitting him perfectly. Sean remembered when he was on that side of the game, wearing nothing but the best clothes, shoes and jewels. He felt ashamed now, standing there in his dirty, faded jeans, beat-down Nike Air Force Ones and a fitted cap so dirty the team name was barely visible anymore.

  “That’s a sweet piece of pussy you got there. I can only imagine how much sweeter it was before the whole town ran up in those guts,” the young boy said to Sean snidely. Sean lifted his fists, but quickly but them back down when he thought about what would happen to him if he bucked on the young kid. Sean was once one of the most feared men on the streets but that had changed too.

  “I guess you ain’t king no more, huh? King Sean,” the kid
taunted, waiting for Sean to react so he could clap on him and make a name for himself.

  Sean’s chest rose and fell rapidly. His radio went crashing to the floor and he bit down into his jaw. The young boy stopped in front of him and pulled his weapon. He sat it on Sean’s shoulder in a bold show of bravado.

  “Remember when I worked for you and you beat my ass within a inch of my life that time?” the kid asked, then he lifted his gun and cracked it across Sean’s head.

  “Ahh.” Sean winced crumpling to the floor in a heap. The kid stood over him and laughed.

  “Damn, now I got your bitch working her jaws for me and ain’t shit you can do . . . fucking fiend-ass nigga. You wasn’t never no king in my eyes,” the kid said viciously. Then he bopped away, leaving Sean scrambling up off of the floor with his pride and manhood crushed.

  Sunny stumbled out of the room with her lipstick smeared, her hair an untamed mess and her cat green eyes wild. She refused to hold eye contact with Sean as she dug into her purse for the tiny bottle of mouthwash she had stolen from the drugstore earlier. Finally locating the bottle, she popped it open, took a swig of the mouthwash, gargled it and spit it right on the floor of the dilapidated house. It was all she could do to wash the taste of another man from her lips.

  “You ready? I got a twenty for that and I’m hitting more than half for all of my hard work,” Sunny smacked her lips and said with a disrespectful tone. It had been hard for her to maintain her respect for Sean and even harder for her to hide it. Sean got to his feet and pushed her back into the room. He snatched the bundle of heroin from her.

  “You ain’t doing shit unless I say you doing it,” he growled, grabbing her collar forcefully. “You enjoyed that shit right? Right?” Sean barked in Sunny’s face.

  “Don’t do that, Sean! Give it back to me! I worked for that!” Sunny whined like a baby, being real careful with her words. She knew how he could get when it came to sharing the drugs and with his already-bruised ego rearing its ugly head, Sunny knew Sean could be violently unpredictable.

  “You get what the fuck I give you,” Sean spat, squeezing the packs in his hand like he never wanted to let them go. Sunny burst into tears, something she knew would tug at Sean’s heart. She had been working that trick on him since they were kids.

  “But since you worked for it like you like to remind me, I’ma let you hit first,” he relented, softening his tone.

  Sunny hurriedly pulled out her works and with shaky hands she tied the belt around her arm. Sean pulled it for her so she could feel the best vein since the room was too dimly lit to see that well. He tossed one of the little black balls of heroin into the spoon and lit the bottom of it. Sunny was salivating as she watched him cook the drugs with a hawk’s eye.

  When it was ready Sean loaded Sunny’s needle and touched the fattest vein in her arm. She looked at him, her once-flawless face finally showing the signs of her addiction. Sean turned his eyes away from her face, it was too painful to see her looking like she did now.

  “Do it, baby, hurry up,” Sunny whispered in her deepest sex kitten voice. Sean sniffled back the snot threatening to drip from his nose and plunged the needle into her arm easing the poison into her vein.

  “Ssss.” Sunny winced, her body relaxing against the chair. Her head fell back and her eyes rolled up into her head until only the whites were visible. Sean pulled the belt loose so the drugs could move through her system with ease.

  “That shit must be real good,” he said as he watched her head roll back forward and her chin fall to her chest.

  “Yo, I’m next so c’mon,” he demanded anxiously. Sean started cooking his portion of the heroin as his mouth watered waiting for the hit.

  “A’ight you ready to hit me?” he asked without looking at Sunny. All of a sudden Sunny’s legs did something funny that startled him.

  “What the fuck?” he whispered. “You almost made me drop my shit. Stop the shit and get up and help me hit this shit. Don’t be so fucking selfish all of the time,” Sean growled at her. Then Sunny’s body jerked like she had been hit with a bolt of lightning and she fell off the chair. Sean dropped the drugs, let go of the belt around his arm and fell down at Sunny’s side.

  “Baby! Sunny! Wake up!” Sean yelled, grabbing her into his arms. Sunny’s body began convulsing and her eyes were completely white. Her legs flopped around like she was being electrocuted.

  “Sunny! No! C’mon!” he yelled, slapping her face vigorously. White foam was spilling from her mouth and her body bucked so wildly even he couldn’t hold on to her.

  “Help me! Somebody, help me! Help me!” Sean screamed frantically. But there was no one in that house that would care enough to call an ambulance. No one would dare call 911 and risk having the cops bust up in there and break up their getting high.

  “Help me . . . God, help me,” Sean whispered through tears as he held Sunny’s face up against his. He could feel her starting to get cold.

  Finally Sunny’s body went still. Sean laid her head down and looked down into her face. He couldn’t stop the tears from falling as his body jerked with sobs. He hadn’t cried like that since his mother had died.

  “Sunny!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “You can’t leave me! I need you!” he hollered some more. He lay his head on her chest and there was no sound. The heart he had fallen in love with so many years earlier was no longer beating.

  “I did this to you. I did this to you,” Sean said, his voice trailing off and his mind reeling backward.

  Sean finally got his bearings enough to stumble out of the shooting gallery onto the street. He could barely walk; he was so dope sick and so shaken up by Sunny’s death that his legs felt like two lead pipes. Sean was at rock bottom now and he knew it. He had no friends, no family, no woman, no money and nowhere to go. He stopped at a corner to see if there were any dope boys out that might front him something just to keep him from getting sick. The corners were empty but for a few fiends that were on the hunt, just like him.

  Sean leaned over and dry heaved a few times as his body began giving in to the need for a hit. He fought hard to keeps thoughts of Sunny from his mind, but it was killing him that he’d just left her body in that disgusting, abandoned building like a piece of trash. Sean didn’t have a choice, he was too messed up in the game to do anything else. He couldn’t afford to bury Sunny now even if he wanted to.

  As Sean started walking, he started thinking back on his life and the one person who had always seemed to have his back . . . BG. Sean had heard BG was doing big things, but the last time he’d seen her their meeting hadn’t ended well.

  “I’m ready for the help,” Sean whispered out loud thinking of BG’s last warning to him. Pain was starting to take over his entire body and Sean knew it wasn’t going to be long before he couldn’t walk at all. “BG, I hope you still keep your word. I’m coming for the help,” Sean groaned, dragging his feet forward.

  It took Sean two hours to walk to one of BG’s spots, the one he knew she kept her office inside of. His legs and back ached and he was dizzy by the time he got there. His entire body was soaked with sweat and his mouth was dry as a cotton ball. He was severely dope sick by the time he weakly tugged on the door to BG’s restaurant.

  “No . . . fuck,” Sean huffed feebly, barely able to get enough breath out to say it. It wasn’t opening time yet so the door to the restaurant was locked. Sean was too sick to stand any longer. He put his back up against the door and slid down to the ground. Shivering with the beginning of withdrawal, Sean lay in front of the door so long his body gave out and he fell into a fitful sleep.

  “Yo, nigga, get up!” a man barked, nudging Sean in the chest with his foot.

  “This ain’t no fuckin’ homeless shelter,” the man continued, kicking Sean with a little more force this time. Sean could barely open his eyes with the pain that was pounding behind them. His stomach was doing somersaults and he felt acidy vomit creeping up his throat. Sean rubbed his hands over his face and
could feel the dried crust around his eyes and mouth as he forced himself awake.

  “I said get the fuck from ’round here,” the man growled, this time hoisting Sean up by his dirty shirt. Once Sean was up, BG squinted and cocked her head to the side. She had been standing there waiting for her security to clear the homeless man from in front of her place of business.

  “King . . . Sean?” BG whispered, her eyes going wide with recognition. Although Sean looked like he had aged twenty years over night, he was dirty and had so much facial hair covering his face his features were hardly recognizable, BG could never forget his familiar eyes. As she stood there, she had a flash of their night together in Miami years ago when she’d stared directly into Sean’s beautiful chestnut eyes.

  “BG . . . BG . . . yeah . . . yeah, it’s me,” Sean said pitifully, silently praying that she didn’t dismiss him. “I . . . I . . . came for the help. Remember you . . . you . . . said come back when I was ready for the help,” Sean pleaded, on the brink of collapsing. BG’s security team was looking at her as if to say “you know this bum?”

  “Open the door. Get him inside before he falls over,” BG demanded of her team. They looked at her reluctantly, but they didn’t dare question her request.

  Two of BG’s men helped Sean up to her office and put him down on the leather couch she had inside. BG told them to leave so she could have a minute with Sean.

  She stepped over to the couch and stood over him. “Are you really ready for help?” BG asked Sean. He was rocking back and forth wracked with pain all over his body. His teeth were chattering, although it wasn’t cold in the room.

  “Yes. I’m ready,” Sean huffed out, barely able to speak. “But . . . but I need something right now to set me straight until . . .” Sean practically begged. It broke her heart to see him like this.