When we made it to Rochelle’s building, we saw her outside along with Charlene, Pig, Felicia, and some more people from the block while she was holding Tiny.
“Aye, Mya!” Pig said first since he was the only one who noticed me approach.
“What’s up?” I replied. That’s when everybody else noticed me.
“Girl, what you doing out?” Charlene asked.
“Yeah, I thought you were chillin’ today,” Rochelle added.
“I was, but I had some shit I needed to pick up from your crib, Rochelle. Damn. Why you bitches checking me?” I shot back.
“And you got Monica with you. Hey, Monica,” Charlene said.
“Hey,” Monica replied in an uninterested tone. She headed over to Rochelle and took Tiny from her.
“Charlene, don’t you need to be at home getting ready for the prom?” I asked.
“I’m headed that way now. I had to come get this nigga off the block, but I’m leaving now. Come on, Pig,” Charlene screamed at him. “You head to your crib now. Shit. You got to get yourself together. Nigga, you ain’t gon’ have me late.”
“A’ight, ma, I got ya. I said I’m leaving, right?” Pig said calmly while Charlene stared at him, smacking her gum and rolling her eyes at him.
“Girl, you see I got to babysit this nigga just so he can get off this block. Ugh,” Charlene said as she popped the lock on her car doors. “I’ll hit y’all later and tell you how the night went. Yo, Felicia, if you catching a ride you better hop in.” On that note Charlene jumped in her ride and stabbed out.
Pig gave the niggas on the block the Height Squad shake before he jumped in his ride and burned rubber headed to his crib. Surely his crib will be both of theirs as soon as Charlene graduates in a couple of weeks.
“Yo, she be giving his ass the business,” Rochelle said laughing.
“For real,” I commented and laughed too.
“Yo, check this out though. Why does Charlene got Felicia nasty ass out here for?” I had to ask.
“I don’t know. She always ridin’ that bitch and her crew around. She better watch them thirsty hoes. Anyway, scratch them. Now, what you really over here for?” Rochelle asked with a smile.
“Why I gotta have a reason to come over here? If that’s the case I need blood. Can you help me?” I played around.
“Stop playing, Mya. You so damn crazy,” Rochelle laughed. “Come on, let’s go sit on the step.”
We headed over to the steps where Monica was walking around playing with Tiny.
“Girl, Monica knows she loves kids. She’s gon’ be a good mother,” Rochelle mouthed.
“Bitch, don’t play,” I quickly snapped. “Monica ain’t about to be nobody mother anytime soon.”
“Oh my bad,” Rochelle grinned.
“Anyway, guess who showed up at my door out of the blue.”
“Yo dad?” Rochelle looked taken aback.
“Rochelle, what the hell is wrong with you today? Out of all people, why my dad when you know he locked up for life? Don’t get a bitch hopes up.”
“Well, I’m lost then,” Rochelle gave up with a puzzled look.
“Hood,” I hastily replied.
“What the fuck?” Rochelle let fly out of her mouth. “Hood the leader of the Height Squad knocked on your door? You, who turned him down a thousand times at your party last weekend?” Rochelle stood up.
“Not only did he knock on my door out of the blue, but he brought so many roses it hid his identity,” I said and released, to my own surprise, a smile that spread across my face.
“Oh my God, is that a smile on your face? Wait.” Rochelle’s smile faded to concern. “Please don’t tell me you were rude and kicked him out.” Rochelle seemed to hold her breath.
“Wait, whoever said I invited him in? And yes, I had him stand outside our door. There was no way I was inviting him into our tacky apartment. But no, I was not rude. He did ask me to go out though, and I had to turn him down.”
“Why did you turn him down again, Mya?”
“I had to. Monica asked me to take her to the mall.”
“Oh no. Don’t blame that on me,” Monica butted in.
“Stay out of this Monica.” I gave her a fake dirty look, and she smiled.
“Mya, you need to stop making excuses and let Hood’s fine ass take you out.”
“I can’t. I don’t have time for dating. That shit is a headache I don’t need.”
“Scratch the headache. You would have fun. Be a normal eighteen-year-old. Stop actin’ like a granny panty. Get up right now.” Rochelle started pulling me up on my feet. “Get your butt up and go call Hood. Tell him you would love to go out with him. Beg if you have to. Tell him you’ll throw yourself at his mercy for being so ignorant,” Rochelle joked.
“OK, OK. I’ll call him,” I smiled. “But not today. I have to take Monica to the mall. You and Tiny wanna tag along?” I asked.
“Might as well as we ain’t doing shit else. Let me grab my purse and Tiny’s stroller. Be right back.”
Chapter 22
I had finally made up my mind to go out on a date with Hood, but I didn’t want to make it too formal. So instead of letting him take me out to eat I agreed on bowling. My dad used to take us bowling all the time, and we all loved it. I wasn’t that good at it, but it still happened to be one of my favorite games. When I told Hood that I would go out bowling with him he quickly agreed, and to my surprise, he picked AMF Bowling. That was the alley my dad always took us to. So I was excited about being at the alley again. Tonight is the night that he is supposed to pick me up. Since we are only going bowling I don’t have to dress up. I didn’t want to look too sexy anyway, but I didn’t want to look ghetto either.
After tearing my closet apart with the new clothes I had purchased since I had the money, I decided on these white Blue Label short Polo shorts with an active yellow Blue Label Polo long sleeve shirt and white ribbed-high socks with a pair of yellow active Polo Breeana shoes. After modeling in the mirror and in front of Monica it was decided that I looked cute.
“Mya, you look really stylish. Not everyone can pull that outfit off. I mean, how many girls you know from the Brewster would chose that outfit on a first date?” she rambled.
“I know. It’s only bowling. I ain’t puttin’ on no heels for that. I need to be comfortable. Besides, I ain’t trying to impress him,” I tried to convince myself. I was nervous as hell. What if he thought I looked stupid? Humph, what was I worried about? I looked fly. I took one more turn in the mirror when I heard a knock on the door. I quickly told Monica good night and ran toward the door. There was no way I was letting him into this apartment. Hell no. I had purposely encouraged Li’l Bo to go to his room and play his game so he wouldn’t be in the living room when Hood showed up. Mom was out in the streets. So the coast was clear. I could make a clean getaway. Nervous, I paused before I half-opened the door just enough to squeeze myself out and step into the hallway.
“Damn, baby girl, are you trying to hide something in there or someone?” Hood asked like he was trying to look past me.
“Yeah, my family.” I let out a little laugh. “So you ready?” I asked while giving him a once-over glance. Of course, Hood was dressed in Akoo. This time, he had on some Doeskin Akoo Cambridge shorts and a Whisper White Akoo Vanni Polo shirt with some fresh new Forces. He looked nice. Seeing what he had on kind of relaxed my nerves.
When we got outside, Hood led me to his black Cadillac Escalade sitting on twenty-four-inch rims. He popped the lock, and we jumped in. When he turned on the ignition I thought T.I. would blast out of the speakers, but instead, he was listening to Rick Ross. Feeling like I was riding on a cloud, I sat back in my seat and relaxed until we reached AMF.
Once inside the alley, Hood ordered our games, then we got our shoes and headed to our assigned alley.
“Do you want to bowl first?” I asked.
“Nah. You can go first,” he replied.
“OK.” I tied the last knot o
n my bowling shoes, then I got up and headed to the lanes. I looked back at Hood to see if he was watching, and just like I thought, his eyes were glued on me. I turned back around and focused before throwing the ball. My ball started off at a good roll, but I sidelined and missed all the racks. I turned around with a smile on my face to find Hood laughing at me.
“You think that’s funny, huh? Well, I’m just warming up.”
“Do you, baby girl,” was his only reply. After I missed several more rounds Hood took the lane by storm, throwing the bowling ball and not missing over and over again.
“OK. Now I think you trying to show off,” I said with a fake frown, throwing my right hand on my hip. “You didn’t tell me you were a pro.”
“Trust me, I’m not. I just focus.”
“Yeah, whatever. You not telling me you were a pro means you cheated,” I babbled on as Hood came over and took a seat next to me.
“No, baby girl, I would never do that.” He looked me straight in the eye. “Can I get you something from the snack area?”
“Yeah, I’ll take some nachos and a Coke.” I had relaxed a lot since the game started and was now enjoying myself.
“A’ight, I’ll get that for you.” Hood stood up and left.
While he was off getting my food I decided to keep bowling. I thought without him being around I would do better, but my luck was the same. Missing the racks was definitely in my bowling future.
Hood came back with the food so I went over and sat down with him.
“So where did you learn to bowl like that?” I pried.
“Don’t know really. Like I said before, I just focus. Can’t be that hard.” Hood bit into a hotdog he picked up from the snack bar. “Why do you like bowling so much?” he asked me.
Chewing on a nacho I thought about my dad for a moment. “My dad used to bring us here. We would come here just about every Saturday. Everyone in my family is a pro.” I paused for a minute. “That is, except for me. I could never knock down the racks,” I smiled.
“Where is your dad now?” he asked catching me off guard.
“Prison,” I said without hesitation.
“Wait, I didn’t mean to get personal and shit.”
“It’s OK. I’m not ashamed or anything. I think it’s fucked up seeing how much we need him, but I’m not ashamed. Plus, everyone in the Brewster knows. His name is Lester. He used to be one of the top dealers in the game before he went up. Now he’s just an inmate. Yep. Dad’s in jail, and my mom is on crack, and I’m left raising my brother and sister. What a life, huh?” I bit off another nacho.
“I would say you holding up good.”
“I do OK. So what’s yo’ line of work?”
“Me.” Hood smiled at me again. That’s when I realized I was falling in love with his smile. “I’m into profits and brotherhood.”
“So is that what the leader of the Height Squad calls himself? Pretty interesting,” I responded sarcastically.
“I guess you know all about the crew.” He rubbed both his hands together.
“I live in the Brewster, remember?”
“It is what it is, baby girl. You know what I do. I’m building an empire.”
“Yeah, I think that’s what my dad was building.” Again I made another sarcastic comment.
“I got to admit something. I’m not totally in the dark about your dad. I didn’t know him personally, but some of the people that I dealt with when I first started in the game had worked with him. They all say he was not to be fucked with, and I think it’s fucked up how it went down.” Hood sounded sincere.
“What? So you knew? Why did you ask then?”
“I didn’t know he was your father, but when you said his name I knew then. Everybody has heard of Lester. He was next in line to be named kingpin of the streets. And I like I said, that situation was fucked up.”
“Yep. But time goes on, right?” I stuffed another nacho in my mouth. “You know my dad calls me baby girl,” I informed him.
“Oh, my bad again. I just keep steppin’ on yo’ toes. I don’t mean no disrespect though. You want me to stop calling you that?”
“Nah, you cool. I just thought you should know.”
“The first time I talked to you that just came outta my mouth. It just fit you.”
“It’s cool,” I assured him. “So do you have any kids?” I asked, surprising myself.
“Nope. No shorties. Although one day I would like to.”
“Do you think it would be a good idea to have kids in your line of work?”
“My shorties would always be straight. No doubt. And I would silence anyone who tried to test that.” Hood has a killer look in his eye. “My family has always been small, just me and my moms. Besides that, the only other family I have has been my crew. Pig, that’s my nigga for life.”
“Charlene says you guys are close,” I took a slow sip of my drink. “So where does your mom live?”
“She lives in Phoenix. Been there for about six years.”
“Phoenix? That’s far. Do you mind her living so far away?”
“It’s cool. I fly out all the time. You know, it’s better for her out there. Anything for my moms.”
I instantly knew he’s a momma’s boy.
“Sorry about the twenty questions. Just curious.”
“You cool, baby girl. Gotta answer questions for the daughter of a kingpin,” Hood joked.
“Oh, you got jokes, huh?” I laughed.
“But on the real, you can ask me anything.” Hood smiled then took a swig from his cup. “So you spoken for?” he finally asked me.
“You take me out on date and then ask me that? Don’t you think you should ask me that first?”
“Really I didn’t care because that nigga was gon’ have to stand down,” Hood said with a seriousness that made me know he wasn’t joking. “All bullshitting aside, I wanna be ya man.”
“Why? You don’t know anything about me. All you know is I’m Charlene’s girl.”
“There ain’t nothing I need to know, period. I wanna take you out. Spoil you.”
That statement caught my attention. “Look, I don’t need anybody to spoil me. I take care of myself. I ain’t nobody’s trophy bitch. Got that?” I said with much attitude.
“A’ight, a’ight, baby girl.” Hood threw both of his hands up letting me know he understood. “Can I at least let you beat me in bowling?” he joked again.
“Don’t speak too soon. I was practicing when you were gone. I think I’m ready to bring on my A-game.” I stood up and grabbed a ball with a huge grin on my face.
We bowled for at least another hour. Of course, Hood won, but he threw some of my balls to get me some extra points. I also caught him watching my ass a couple of times, but it was cool being that he was so damn fine. On our ride home we laughed about Pig and Charlene, how she be bossing him around. It was funny. When we made it back to my crib he walked me to the door. Without a second thought I reached out and planted the biggest kiss on him that I had ever planted on anyone. I had never kissed anyone before, but the way I worked my tongue in and outside of Hood’s mouth you would’ve thought I was a pro. Clearly I was because before I finished Hood let out a moan. Shit, was I that good? For the first time ever my womanhood kicked in. Full speed.
Chapter 23
Almost a week had gone by and I hadn’t heard much from Rochelle since she had started messing around with Li’l Lo. I didn’t mind much though because I had been spending a lot of time on my new cell phone with Hood. I hadn’t seen him since our date because he flew up to New York on business. Basically, he had some bricks to pick up, but he only told me in so many words. He would be back on Friday so I decided to get my hair done again so I would be lookin’ tight when he returned. We had planned to go on another date, and this time I would impress him.
After eating breakfast with Li’l Bo and Monica, I decided to call Rochelle up to see if she wanted to go with me to 4EverStylz. I had called Pepper earlier in the week and
set up an appointment but before I could call Rochelle my cell phone started to ring. I reached for it thinkin’ it was Hood.
“Hello,” I tried to sound casual even though my heart was pounding from excitement.
“What’s up, chick?” Rochelle beamed through the phone.
“Damn, Rochelle. Stop catching me off guard like that,” I said feeling a little disappointed that it wasn’t Hood.
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