Goodfellas

by Carl Weber

  “Treasure!” a deep baritone voice called. “Baby girl, I got something for you!”

  Before either of them could do anything, the newcomer stepped into the master bedroom with a look that said he wanted to murder everyone written on his face. Treasure’s eyes widened, and her brow furrowed. Her eyes moved back and forth between the men, and when they fell on the small mole on the right cheek of the man she’d just slept with, she gasped. She gasped and put her hand over her heart as she scooted as far back on the bed as possible.

  “K-K-Kayden?”

  “In the flesh,” he said and winked at her.

  “No,” she shook her head. “No. Why? I can’t believe you would do something like this!”

  “Like what? Fuck my brother’s bitch?” Kayden laughed. “Trust me when I say you’re not the first one twin and I have shared. Tell her how we used to tag team hoes back in the day, bro.”

  He looked at the face of the angry man who had just entered the room, and he might have been looking in a mirror. The only thing that set him apart from his brother was the mole on his face; other than that, the two men were identical. Kayden shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. Truth be told, his plan had been to dive into Treasure and dive right back out without his brother ever knowing he was there. It looked like his plans had changed, now, and he gave Jayden a sheepish grin.

  “My bad, Jay. You know we have the same taste in women.”

  Jayden’s eyes were a blazing circle of fire. He looked at Treasure, who had tears streaming down her face, and then back at Kayden.

  “Yo, man, what the fuck is wrong with you? You just got back in the city, and you’re already on bullshit. With my bitch?”

  He was completely messed up in the head. He and Treasure had been dealing with each other tough for eight months, and he really thought she would be the one to get him out of the game. Now he knew he would never be able to look at her the same. He glared at her, not because he blamed her for what had just happened, but because he was not ready to say good-bye. Without thinking twice about it, he swung and connected a powerful blow to Kayden’s jaw. His brother fell back and clutched his face as if afraid it was going to disconnect from his head. Treasure shrieked and clutched onto the sheets even tighter.

  “Jayden, I didn’t know,” Treasure’s voice was wavy. She sucked in air and looked at her man with fear in her eyes. “Please don’t leave me. Please. I’m so sorry.”

  “Shut up!” Jayden yelled, looking her way in disgust. “You gon’ fuck this nigga in the crib I put you up in?”

  “How was I supposed to know that your sick-ass brother would do something like this?” Treasure threw her robe around her naked body and jumped from the bed. Her sobs were loud and her entire body was shaking. “Jayden, I love you. I would never do anything to cross you, baby. Please believe me!”

  She tried to reach out and grab him, but he pulled away from her and stepped back. He didn’t want her to touch him. He could still smell the scent of her sweet pussy in the air, and he couldn’t take the thought of Kayden experiencing the bliss between her legs. He turned to his brother, who still had a smirk on his face. Jayden wanted nothing more than to knock it away from his lips, so that’s what he did. His right hook came so fast that Kayden didn’t have time to duck.

  It was a powerful blow, and it knocked Kayden back, but not off of his feet. The next one did, though. Jayden was so mad that all he saw was red. He could have killed his brother at that second, but he felt a pull in his mental that stopped him. He blinked his eyes and saw his brother laid out on the floor with a bloody nose and a fat lip.

  “You gon’ put your hands on me over a bitch, bro?” Kayden asked, holding his hands like a cup under his leaking nose.

  “She wasn’t just a bitch to me,” Jayden said, looking back at Treasure’s tearful face, and then shook his head. “She is now, though. You can have her.”

  With that, Jayden snatched up the bag that he’d dropped at the bedroom door entrance and left the way he came.

  Chapter 3

  Faye

  Two weeks had passed since her mother was taken off of life support. Since then, the funeral had been held, and Faye had said her final good-byes. Of course, Carmen did not help pay or show up for any of it. Faye figured she left town once she found out that there was really no life insurance money for her. Either that, or she realized that the next time she saw Faye, there would be nobody to save her from the ass whooping she had coming her way.

  It turned out that Chrishelle had a $200,000 life insurance policy, all of which went to Faye. Two hundred thousand of which $50,000 of it went toward funeral and hospital costs. So now, there she was, $150,000 richer sitting in the bedroom of an empty home. Not empty in terms of furniture, because the apartment was fully furnished, but empty in a sense that there were once two people that lived there. Now there was only one.

  Faye sighed from the center of her queen-sized bed. She wore a pair of shorts and a tank top over her smooth caramel skin. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she looked at the big boxes that were against the wall of her bedroom. She’d bought them days before, but still had yet to pop them open and start packing. She knew she needed to get out of that apartment, but she was not ready to say good-bye. It was the only home she’d known since she was ten years old. Getting up from the bed, she decided it was time to enter her mother’s room for the first time since it all had happened.

  She walked down the hall and couldn’t understand how the wooden floor was cold under her feet when the heat was on. When she made it to her mother’s closed bedroom door, she took a deep breath before she opened it. She took one step inside, flicking on the light, and instantly got a whiff of Chrishelle’s scent. Vanilla and Sweet Pea, her favorites. The bed was neatly made, and there was an outfit laid out on the bed. The day that she was attacked, Chrishelle must have had plans for later in the evening. The tears tried to come up, but Faye willed them away. She had to be strong; it’s what her mother would have wanted. She found herself walking around the room, running her hands softly on all of her mom’s belongings. She already knew that she would never give anything away. She already had a storage unit ready and waiting to receive all of it. All she had to do was pack it all up. She took a seat on the edge of the bed and picked up the dress that was laid out there. She wanted to press it against her nose and inhale deeply, but before she did that, the parchment that had been under the dress caught her eye.

  “What’s this?” she said aloud, picking up the piece of paper on the top of the stack.

  When Faye saw what it was, she let the dress go and focused all of her attention on the paper in her hands. It was her birth certificate, her original birth certificate. She’d never seen it before, and Chrishelle kept it tucked away. That, along with everything else from Faye’s early past.

  “Regret You Vincent.” She read her birth name out loud and clenched her teeth.

  She never knew her parents, but she knew that they must have hated her. They wanted her to know how much of a mistake she was, so they gave her a name that would remind her every day. Before Chrishelle came into her life, she was in an orphanage. Although she was a pretty girl, she had grown up with a bad attitude. But that was to be expected since life, so far, had not been nice to her. She was mean, rude, and a bully to everyone that she encountered. A few families tried to house her, but they always brought her back within a month. It got to the point where she truly believed that she was unlovable. That was, until she met Chrishelle. She remembered that day like it was yesterday.

  “Regret! Get upstairs and make your bed this instant!”

  Regret rolled her eyes to the back of her head when she heard Sister Louise’s voice. She’d literally just gotten out of her last class of the day and was looking forward to being alone. She hated everything about that place. She couldn’t even call St. Peter’s a home. It was an orphanage. A place for kids who had nowhere to go. The moment she stepped foot out of the classroom, Sister Lo
uise had been waiting for her. The other girls snickered as they walked past and shot Regret funny looks.

  “She’s always in trouble!” Regret heard one of the girls whisper.

  “No wonder her parents named her Regret. She can’t do anything right. Not even make her bed!”

  Regret was boiling. It felt like every second the sisters got to ridicule her in front of others, they took it. She let out a small groan and took heavy steps toward the staircase down the hall. Sister Louise tried to grab her arm as she walked, but Regret snatched it away.

  “Don’t touch me,” she glared at the older, chocolate-skinned woman. “I know the way to my room.”

  “I know you do,” Sister Louise said, adjusting her robes before cutting her eyes down at Regret. “I am simply making sure you are headed in that direction!”

  “OK, well, you don’t have to touch me to do it!” Regret snapped again as she walked. “I don’t even know why you want me to make my bed now when the day is over. I’m about to go lie in it as soon as I get upstairs. I want to change out of this ugly uniform. Who chose the colors blue and yellow anyway?”

  “Oh no, you aren’t!” Sister Louise said as she walked beside Regret. “Tonight is Craft, and Sister Aria told me that you weren’t at your last knitting lesson.”

  “I’m only ten years old!” Regret said in an exasperated voice. “I don’t want to sit under an old lady knitting for hours!”

  “Your attitude is toxic,” Sister Louise said when they finally reached the stairwell. “Don’t you see that’s why none of the other children have taken to you? Don’t you see that the way you behave is the reason why these parents keep bringing you back? You have been chosen four times—four! There are children here who have not been chosen once. You are too young and too pretty to have so much anger in your heart, Regret. Nobody here is trying to hurt you.”

  “Then why do you always choose to chastise me when we are in front of people?”

  “I chastise you the moment I see you after you have done something irresponsible,” Sister Louise snapped, but when she stared down into Regret’s face, she realized that, although her mouth was smart, she was still talking to a child. She could see in Regret’s face that she was unsettled. Sister Louise sighed and softened her tone. “Honestly, Regret, if I had my choice, I would never chastise you at all. I just want you to be happy.”

  “How can I be happy here?”

  “We find happiness in all that God gives us,” Sister Louise smiled. “This may not be where you want to be, but believe me when I say that this is not your last stop. I may be hard on you, Regret, but believe me when I say that the life you have here is much better than the one you could have out there. And at the rate you’re going, you may never experience a real home. If that is the case, then it is my, and all of the other sisters’, job to make sure you leave this place with the right values that a young woman needs to know.”

  “Like what?” Regret asked curiously.

  “Like how to make your bed in the morning.” Sister Louise touched Regret softly on the cheek, and surprisingly, the young girl did not back away.

  Although Regret felt the smile inside, she did not let it show on her face. She allowed Sister Louise’s thumb to stroke her cheek only once before she pulled away and bounded up the stairs.

  “And I expect to see you at Craft, Regret! We have a guest coming.”

  “Yea, yea,” Regret said under her breath when she was at the top of the stairs and out of earshot. She walked down the hall, passing many of the other girls’ rooms who were also on the west wing. When she finally reached hers, she was happy to see that nobody was in sight. They all must have gone outside after their English lesson. Regret had been looking forward to going into her room and changing into her more comfortable clothes, but if she had to go to Craft in an hour, then it was best that she left her uniform on. She didn’t want or need Sister Louise down her back about another thing.

  She shared a room with three other girls. The room was spacious, and each girl had a closet, a desk with a chair, and a full-sized bed. Regret had to admit, things for her could have been a lot worse. She’d seen the way other kids lived in other orphanages. Whereas St. Peter’s might not have been where she wanted to be, she was at least grateful to have a roof over her head. Regret wasn’t as big of a terror as people made her out to be. However, once the other girls heard her name and saw her pretty face, they treated her differently. She was too young to understand that the other kids were just jealous of her.

  Sister Louise was right about one thing. Regret had been chosen to have a real family multiple times, while many of the other kids hadn’t even been chosen once. Regret had been blessed with long, fine hair, light skin, and the face of an angel. She, in other words, was soft on the eyes. She had the kind of face that parents melted at when they saw it. However, whenever she left and got in the houses of the people who wanted to make her their daughter, she just didn’t get the vibe of “home.”

  After Regret made her bed, the hour passed by quickly. Soon, she was back out of her room and in the hallway with a few of the other girls headed downstairs for Craft.

  “Did you make your bed, little baby?”

  Regret heard the voice and instantly knew who it belonged to. Carie Lacey was a year older than Regret, and for some reason hated her guts. She was a pretty brown-skinned girl who wore her hair in two pigtails. That day when Regret whipped her head to look at her, she saw that Carie was wearing blue bows in them to match their skirts. Regret rolled her eyes at the girl and kept making her way toward the stairs. She hated getting into it with Carie because everyone always took the other girl’s side, even when she was wrong.

  “I don’t understand why you would even think it was OK to leave your room without making your bed. That’s disgusting! No wonder parents always bring you back. No one wants a pig lying around their house!”

  “You know what?” Regret stopped and swiveled around to face Carie. She put her hand on her hip, not able to resist herself. “They say I have a nasty attitude, but if people knew the real you, they’d say you had the bad attitude. Maybe the parents can see through the Goody-Two shoes act. No wonder you have never gotten chosen to go home with anyone.”

  Carie’s eyes bulged, and there were a few gasps from the other girls who were in earshot. Regret smirked at her small victory and turned her back to Carie once more, leaving her with the stupidest look on her face. Regret was tired of people being mean to her. Sister Louise said that the other kids didn’t take to her because of her attitude. No, they didn’t take to her because if they saw one kid being mean to her, they followed suit. None of them had their own minds. None of them would ever be her friends. St. Peter’s was not a bad place to live, but she was always alone. And that was why she hated it so much.

  She finally reached her destination. The Craft room was on the first level of the orphanage. It was huge and had different sections, kind of like stations, all around it. Regret assumed that she was going to walk into a room full of old people, as usual, ready to show the girls how to knit. However, that day, she was surprised with all the new faces. There were twelve girls in the Craft room, and twelve women, not including the sisters standing around. Sister Louise smiled when she saw Regret enter the room and nodded toward a table with chairs around it. Regret, curious as to what was going on, took a seat by her name tag without another word. Her eyes fell on a pretty, younger-looking lady with a pixie cut and the face of a model. Her body was shaped like the women in the magazines that Regret sometimes snuck and read. She was very stylish in her jeans, boots, and brown leather jacket. When her eyes met Regret’s, Regret hurried to look away.

  “Good afternoon, lovely ladies,” Sister Clarise started once everyone was seated. “I’m sure you’re wondering who these lovely new faces are. Well, after deliberating with a few of you girls, it has come to our attention that you did not really enjoy your knit sessions. I mean, I couldn’t understand it because who doesn’t love
to kni—”

  Sister Louise cleared her throat, and Sister Clarise paused, catching herself with a smile. A few of the girls giggled, and even Regret cracked a smile.

  “Since we want you girls to be happy with your stay at St. Peter’s we are going to, shall we say, switch gears a little bit. These ladies will be your new mentors! You will get to spend two hours with them every Wednesday outside of St. Peter’s.”

  The other girls squealed with joy while Regret tried to contain her happiness. She didn’t want to seem too impressed by the new arrangements. Still, it must have showed on her face because Sister Louise smirked her way.

  “Now, each of these lovely ladies has already been assigned to one of you,” Sister Clarise turned to the women standing behind her. “You can go find your girl, ladies.”

  Regret’s eyes scanned the women. They all looked to be in their late twenties or early thirties. Most of the women were black, but there were a few Caucasians in the mix. She couldn’t see where the pretty, young-looking lady went, and she found herself looking to see who she had been matched with. Regret was so busy watching the other girls being paired up that she didn’t even feel someone coming up behind her.

  “Regret?”

  Regret turned around and found herself face-to-face with the pretty face that she’d been looking for.

  “T-that’s me,” she finally said.

  “Looks like I’m going to be your mentor,” the lady smiled big and stuck her hand out. “I’m Chrishelle. Nice to meet you, pretty girl.”

  Faye snapped back to reality and realized that the birth certificate in her hands had become blurry. She willed the tears to leave her eyes as her mind wallowed in the memory of when she had first met Chrishelle. It was one that she would hold close to her heart forever. There was no way that she could ever forget the melodic smile that she’d received. No one had ever smiled at her like that.