A Hood Chick's Story pt. 2

by LaShonda DeVaughn

  The hood had changed so much since I lived around there.

  There were new houses being built in spaces that were once empty lots where niggas used to stash burners at back in the day. New schools and church’s being built, and they were even re-doing some of the projects. But the aura in the hood felt exactly the same.

  “Tiaraaa O-OOO!”

  Trè’s friend Ken-Ken flagged down my car once I hit their block. I pulled up to the curb and Renee and I got out of the car.

  “What’s hood with y’all?” he hollered out.

  “Nothing, we chillin’,” I said.

  “Word. What up with Trè, he maintaining?”

  “Yeah he’s chilling, I’ll tell him you said what up.”

  “Yeah do that,” Ken-Ken said.

  I looked back at Renee and then back in Ken-Ken’s direction.

  “Listen Ken-Ken I have to holla at you about something.” He switched to serious mode and he rubbed his hands together ready to hear what I needed.

  His dusty wave cap under his blue fitted B hat and his oversized champion hoodie and busted Adidas sneakers had me under the impression that he was still one of the goons from Trè’s block. Therefore he was the perfect person for me to talk to.

  “Do you know a nigga named Tank?”

  “Yeah I know that scram, he’s from the projects around your old way.”

  “Come here Renee.” I signaled and she walked closer to me and Ken-Ken and took off her glasses.

  “Dammmmn!” Ken-Ken said with his eyes bucked. Renee quickly put her glasses back on and stepped back.

  “So that nigga Tank did that?” Ken-Ken asked.

  “Yeah he put his hands on her like a little bitch, I don’t want you doing nothing crazy though, just shake him up a little bit, put some fear in the nigga.”

  “Say no more, I got y’all.” He had a serious expression on his face so I knew that he would handle Tank for me. He grabbed my shoulder and we began walking up the street leaving Renee standing by the car. He lowered his tone so that she couldn’t hear him.

  “Now T, I’m only doing this because you’re my niggas peoples, your girl is cool and all but shit, hook a nigga up. Beefin’ with Tank is gonna bring heat to the block so at least let a nigga get something out of it.”

  “Okay Ken-Ken I will talk to her for you, but I don’t know about all that hook-up shit.”

  I chuckled inside at Ken-Ken being a typical dude trying to get something out of helping a chick.

  “A’ight,” he said as we stopped walking.

  “Oh yeah Tiara, you throwing a bash for Sharod this year right?”

  “Yeah, that’s every year.”

  “A’ight, I know it’s coming up soon too, you know we’re gonna be there.”

  “That’s what’s up, I’ll let ya’ll know what spot I'm throwing it at a’ight?”

  “A’ight.”

  He gave me a hug and then pulled out twenty dollars to put toward Trè’s canteen. One thing about goonies, or niggas in the hood that are always going to war with other blocks was that it was hard for them to make money. They had too many enemies and couldn’t be on certain blocks without having drama because they had to watch their backs too much. So I took his little twenty bucks as a good gesture but it would’ve only lasted Trè a few days at best. He was used to my $300 every two weeks toward his canteen.

  On the ride back to drop off Renee, she asked, “What did that nigga say about me?”

  I smirked before answering.

  “He told me he wanted a hook-up.”

  “With who?” she asked raising her eyebrows.

  I chuckled. “With you girl.”

  “Puh-lease! Picture me flossing around with his dusty ass.”

  Renee had me cracking up ragging on Ken-Ken the entire way back to her crib.

  When we approached the projects, coincidentally Tank and Bianca were cuddled up beside Renee’s project building door. They were amongst a whole bunch of other niggas who were smoking weed and playing dice and just hanging outside like on any other typical night. Tank kept sliding Bianca kisses on her lips from time to time and Renee took off her glasses to get a better look. When Tank slipped Bianca the tongue and basically had a make out session right in front of us, Renee was heated.

  “Ha! I wonder how I taste to Bianca’s dumb ass.”

  She spoke as if she was proving a valid point but it was only her jealousy showing out loud.

  “Bianca is a dumb ass bitch, she’s fuckin’ stupid. The nigga was fuckin’ me today and her dumb ass is over there all over him. Chicks are so fucking blind, look at her over there smiling and shit like they have a perfect relationship. Only if she knew! Shit if I wanted to I could suck up to him and have him lickin’ my twat all fuckin’ night. She’s lucky I hate that nigga right now.”

  I got lost in Renee’s words. I had just beaten Ashley’s ass for being exactly how Renee was, a sideline ho. And the way Renee was downing Bianca it was as if she was doing something wrong by being with her man. He was in fact, her man, not Renee’s. She had every damn right to be all over her man. Renee looked in their direction with her face all balled up.

  “I don’t even want to walk past them, drop me off at my cousin Kathy’s crib down the street T, I need to get my mind right.”

  Renee didn’t say another word on the way to her cousin’s house, the make out session had pissed her off to the point to make her speechless, and Renee was never speechless. She placed her head in her palm and rested her elbow against the car window and occasionally sucked her teeth. She was truly mad, mad and desperate because I wasn’t expecting the dumb shit she asked before we approached her cousins crib. I pulled up and parked and Renee opened the door putting one foot outside.

  “T, can you give Ken-Ken my number?”

  “Huh?” I asked puzzled.

  “Come on T, don’t look at me like that, give him my number, he could just be a friend.”

  “Renee stop acting desperate and no I’m not giving him your number. You can’t be serious right now. You act like you can’t be without a dude or some shit. You were right, you do need to get your mind right because you’re talking out ya ass. You were just clowning the nigga the whole ride back and all of a sudden you want to hook up with him?”

  She was aggravated and didn’t want to hear shit I had to say.

  “Fuck it Tiara! Just forget it.” She slammed my door and stormed into her cousin’s crib.

  I drove home and didn’t even give Renee’s bullshit a second thought. I had my own damn problems.

  Chapter Seven – Bad Business

  All the lights were out downstairs and the house was quiet so I assumed that Tony put the baby to bed. When I got upstairs Tony was on the phone and I could hear him yelling before I even reached the bedroom door. I knew that it had to be Shawn. They had the same cocky attitude and always seemed to clash when they go on the phone.

  When I walked into our bedroom, I didn’t acknowledge Tony as I normally would. I went inside our bedroom bathroom and ran the shower water after laying out my clean undergarments on top of my dresser. I didn’t even tune into his conversation although from the tone of his voice it sounded very heated. I shut the bathroom door and peeled off my clothing and stepped into the hot shower.

  I became paralyzed in relaxation closing my eyes and letting the water beam down on my body hitting all the right places to relax me. I opened my eyes intending to reach for the soap when I noticed inside our shower sliding door rail was a pair of turquoise lace panties hanging from it. All that relaxation shit went right down the drain with that water. I was pissed! At first I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. I picked up the panties with my fingertips because I wanted to check the size to make sure I wasn’t bugging although I knew they weren’t mine but my anger had my mind on some naive shit. I knew this nigga couldn’t be this stupid and have a bitch in our crib while our daughter was home; I know he had to have that much respect for me.

  I looked a
t the size of the panties and it read large. I was nowhere near a size large so this meant that he either had a fat bitch over our crib or a chick with a huge ass. I felt stupid as shit and was even more furious at the fact that I had just whooped Ashley’s ass thinking that my mistress problem was over but he was still at it with another bitch in my damn house possibly on my damn bed!

  My head spun in a few twirls and I almost tripped over my own foot trying to get out of the tub in a hurry. As I walked toward the door, I heard Tony’s voice coming closer and closer toward me. It seemed as if he was walking up to the bathroom door on the other side simultaneously. At that point, everything went so fast, I don’t know what the fuck happened. I opened the door with the panties hanging from my finger ready to blast on him and all I heard him say was “NOT MY 80G’S!”

  That was the last thing I remembered. I blacked out on the bathroom floor.

  I don’t know if I got smacked or punched but bottom line, Tony knocked me the fuck out.

  I woke up laid out in the middle of the bathroom floor; my head was throbbing in pain to the point where it hurt to open my eyes. I held my head with both hands trying to stop it from spinning.

  I heard Tony in our bedroom on the phone yelling and screaming making my head hurt worse. He was throwing things around. I heard glass breaking and objects being thrown against the wall. He yelled through the phone, “Shawn, nigga tell me your fuckin’ lying. I will kill that bitch!”

  I was confused, I didn’t know what Tony was raging about and more importantly why he put his hands on me. I managed to stumble out of the bathroom into our bedroom trying to muster up the strength to confront him. I looked around for something hard because I was going to bust him over the head with something. I had never got laid out before in my life and I really didn’t give a fuck about what he was raging about because whatever it was shouldn’t have caused him to lose his damn mind and hit me like I was a fuckin’ man. I snatched one of our lamp cords out of the wall and began walking toward him with intentions on busting the lamp over his hard ass head.

  When he turned and saw me, he folded his phone closed hanging up on Shawn without saying goodbye and rushed toward me. I was shook! He charged over toward me like a hockey player on blades knocking the lamp out of my hand and forcing me to the wall by my arms.

  “Tiara what did you do! What the fuck did you do!”

  I’ve never seen Tony in that state, his eyes were bloodshot red and it was as if he had no control over himself, needless to say, I was scared. I had no idea what was going on.

  “What are you talking about Tony! Let me go! Get off of me, now!” I pleaded while looking down at the lamp that I still intended to bust him over the head with.

  He released me and turned as if he had lost a fight. He sat on the bed powerless placing both hands on his head. I picked up the lamp walking toward him. “Tony, what the fuck is going on? Why the fuck did you hit me like that? You’re going crazy!” I was crying and my head was throbbing excessively.

  I was so hurt that he had actually hurt me like that but as much as I wanted to retaliate, I couldn’t bring myself to bust the lamp over his head.

  He looked up and yelled, “My money, my fucking money is gone!” He stood and snatched the lamp out of my hand and sat me on the bed holding my arms and looking at me. “My money T, that shit is gone!”

  I was still confused. “What are you talking about Tony, what money, what the fuck is going on, why are you doing this?”

  His eyes were filled with tears but I could tell they were tears of anger.

  “Did you and one of your girls go to Ashley’s house today?”

  I played dumb. “What are you talking about?”

  “Answer me Tiara, this ain’t the time to act stupid, did you and somebody go over to Ashley’s house and fight her?”

  I looked at him without answering wondering what me fighting Ashley had to do with anything and I could tell he was getting impatient.

  “Tiara, I’m gonna ask you one more time, I know that stupid bitch Renee probably talked you into it because you left that hoodrat shit behind. Was it her? Did you go over there with Renee?”

  I stood to my feet. “Yes I did and no Renee didn’t convince me to go over there; I went over there because you were still messing with that bitch so I took matters into my own hands to make that ho stay away from my family.”

  Tony was pissed! He turned around and began punching the air and then he stopped and spoke angrily through his teeth.

  “Well Tiara you just fucked up our family. That bitch had 80 G’s of mine and 20G’s of Shawn’s money. She was going to Miami to cop us some weight and bring that shit back.”

  Now I was really confused. “Why would you give her all that money to risk Tony? You run a successful business, why are you dipping back into this drug shit?”

  “Listen!” he shouted cutting me off. “I had this shit planned perfectly. She was gonna meet my connect, cop the weight and drive it back in a U-haul truck that her grandmother rented. It was gonna take them 24 hours to get there, one day to finish the transaction and 24 hours to get back. Now I get this phone call from Shawn telling me that she called him telling him that you and some chick came to her crib disrespecting her house and now that bitch disappeared and is nowhere to be found with our money.”

  Tony sat back on the bed and took my arm forcing me to sit with him. “Tiara, I’m so sorry for hitting you, I swear on my life I didn’t mean to hit you the way I did in the bathroom. When I heard that she left with my money because of you, I reacted out of anger.”

  I couldn’t sympathize with him, fuck that, he hit me over some side dealings that I had no idea about, my mode was in total “fuck him” state, he fucked up with me. So, I dug for more answers because none of this made sense to me.

  “Tony, I still don’t understand why you would risk that money when you have a successful firm.”

  “You’re starting to piss me off asking all this irrelevant shit.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about Tony, it’s VERY fuckin’ relevant.”

  “Okay Tiara, let me break it down for you. I couldn’t tell you that I was dealing with Ashley on the side for business because I didn’t want to hear your mouth but I was not fucking her. I was just using her for money purposes. You’re so worried about me fuckin’ her and all I was worried about was getting money. When she called my phone earlier, she just wanted to set up a time to meet me to go over everything before me and Shawn gave her the money. I left work today and met up with her and one of her friends in the bank parking lot and we gave them the money.”

  I interrupted. “Wait, what was her friend’s name?”

  “Here you go asking irrelevant shit again.”

  “Tony, I’m serious what is her friend’s name?” I was hoping I didn’t already know the answer to this question.

  “I don’t know, Kia, Takia or some shit. We checked her out, we know where she lives and the whole nine. What does it matter what her name is?”

  “Nothing,” I said letting him finish talking. I couldn’t tell him that his money was left in the hands of my old enemy. Now that she knew that it was my man whose money that she was holding, the outcome was bound to turn out bad.

  “Both of these bitches are hoodrats so two hoodrats cant’ get too far with that money. Man Tiara, if these bitches really disappeared with my shit, I will go to Ashley’s crib and tie up her whole family if I had to.” He calmed down and put his hands on my face causing me to cringe from the hit.

  “I’m so sorry Tiara, I am. I apologize a million times for hitting you. I also apologize for making these moves behind your back but I couldn’t tell you about the business. I didn’t know how.

  “What do you mean you couldn’t tell me about the business? The firm is definitely successful Tony. Of all people, I know that. I mail all the checks off and pay everything on time, I’m in charge of the firm’s accounting if you want to get technical with it.”

  He star
ted fidgeting and looked agitated.

  “What’s the problem Tony, spit it out.” I said.

  “Okay, look,” he started. “I have been stopping payments on all of the checks that you’ve been sending off. The business is going bankrupt. The market has been dead because the recession is still affecting the economy, you know that. The petty accounts that we have aren’t going to keep the business afloat. So I did some side shit, scams and what have you, but they all flopped. That’s why I tried to do what I knew best, cop some weight and keep us elevated before you found out.”