Around the Way Girls 8

by Tina Brooks McKinney

  “Yo, you heard what happened?” Laquisha asked her.

  “Nah, what?” Kelly asked, real curious to hear the answer.

  “Yo that same dude you said was a fake-ass fiend bagged Buddah up last night.”

  “What? Get the fuck outta here! But I told his ass about him! Why the fuck would he sell to him?” Kelly said, confused. She had described the dude to Buddah and didn’t understand how he would be stupid enough to sell to the duck-ass cop.

  “I don’t know exactly how it happened, all I know is he’s blaming you for it,” Laquisha said.

  “Blaming me? Why the fuck is he blaming me?”

  Kelly’s head was spinning after what Laquisha had just told her. One of her fears had become a reality. She was being labeled as a snitch, by none other than Buddah. She knew she had to talk to him and set his ass straight. She wasn’t no fucking snitch. He landed himself behind bars because of his own stupidity and she would be damned if she was going to join his dumb ass.

  “I don’t know why the nigga blaming you, but the whole hood is talkin’ about that shit,” Laquisha told her.

  Kelly’s cell phone rang. She had a collect call coming through; it was Kevin. She accepted the call.

  “Yo, sis, where the hell you been? I’ve been trying to get at you for two fuckin’ days,” Kevin screamed over the phone.

  “I’m sorry, Kev, my phone was off for a split second. I know you must have been thinking all kinds of crazy shit, but I’m good, yo,” Kelly told him.

  Kelly had turned her phone off whenever she spent time with Dante. She had just come back from a weekend at Dante’s house. She had been going out there every weekend since her first visit, which was six months ago. She knew what she had said in the beginning about fucking with police officers, but Dante’s dick and brain game was on one thousand. And he had been working on her sexually, mentally, and emotionally and she was now under his spell. She didn’t want to have to keep lying to him about her life, so she figured if she didn’t have to talk to anyone while she was with him, then she wouldn’t get caught in a web of lies.

  “Yo, you been actin’ real funny lately. Leaving the hood every weekend and not telling nobody shit. You my fuckin’ sister; where the fuck you been goin’ Kelly?”

  “Who you got watchin me, Kevin?” she asked him, angrily. Kelly wasn’t a child and she didn’t like being watched.

  “You already know I got eyes and ears all over; what the fuck you thought?”

  “You know I’m not wit’ that eye spy shit Kevin, I’m grown,” she said, sounding like an afflicted child. There was no way Kelly was going to tell her brother where she had been going.

  “I mean, shit, fuck Buddah if that nigga is takin’ up too much of yo’ time. Let me know and I’ll set that nigga straight, but yo, you can’t be disappearing on a nigga, yo. You had me mad worried, plus you my main fucking eyes and ears out on them streets. You can’t just leave when the fuck you feel like it,” her brother told her.

  “Kevin, Buddah got locked up. I’m trying to find out what’s what now.” Kelly realized now that she had fucked up big-time. She chose pleasure over business and now Buddah was caught up in some heavy shit and he was blaming her. And why shouldn’t he blame her? She was supposed to be available to him at all times.

  “Buddah got locked up? When? Yo, Kelly, man, what the fuck is you doin’ out there?”

  Kelly wanted to tell her brother that lately she didn’t know what the fuck she was doing out there. The street life had always been her way of life, but after having Dante in her ear souping her up, she was ready to put R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” on her ringtone, put on her cape, and fly the fuck out of the hood.

  “Yo, Kev, I’ve been thinking, about me working for you when you come home,” Kelly started to say.

  “What Kells? Go ’head and say some stupid shit out ya’ mouth like you quittin’ the business,” Kevin told her.

  “I’m sayin’, I’m not the only person you can get to do the job,” she said.

  Dante had been talking to Kelly and getting into her mind more and more every time she came to visit him at his home. He had declared his love for her and in addition to sexing her, cooking for her, and pampering her, he began mentoring her. Disregarding her first reaction to his mention of joining him on the force, he continually talked to her about becoming a member of the New York City Police Department. He explained to her everything it would take for her to become an officer of the law and he thought that she would make a perfect candidate for the Police Academy. They had a class starting in a few months and he wanted Kelly to be in it. Even though she was still skeptical of becoming an officer of the law, she really took his words to heart about her true potential. Kelly knew that everyone she knew would think that she had straight lost her mind, but this was her life and she owed it to herself to be all that she could be. And she owed it to her late mother.

  “Yo, I don’t know what or who the fuck is gettin’ up in that head of yours, but don’t get it fucked up. We got a business to run when I come the fuck out of here, you hear me? Our family business, so clear that shit up with Buddah ASAP.”

  “You have one minute,” the recording recited.

  This was one time Kelly was glad she didn’t have much more time to talk to her brother. He wasn’t trying to hear a damn thing about her wanting to do better for herself. He was only concerned with his own agenda. “I got you, Kev. I’ll get shit straight. Everything good, yo, just be easy. I don’t want—”

  Kelly’s call ended with her brother before she could tell him that she didn’t want him stressing about unnecessary shit, but she had more important shit to handle and she needed to get back to the matters at hand.

  Laquisha had been listening closely, trying to read between the lines of the conversation between Kelly and her brother. Kelly wanted to quit—how interesting that sounded. Right after she meets a cop, her boss gets knocked, now she wants to get out of the game. Kelly could have kept lying to Laquisha all she wanted. Laquisha knew damn well that Kelly had hollered at the police officer that had almost arrested them that day on Broadway. Laquisha didn’t know why Kelly thought she was so stupid, but she was about to let her know that she was far from stupid.

  “Damn, bitch, let me find out the dick was so good, that nigga got you turnin’ in ya peeps.”

  “I ain’t got time for the bullshit, Laquisha. I have to find out what happened to Buddah, so if you got something to say about that, then say it, other than that, you can get the fuck up outta here too.”

  “What the fuck you mean you have to find out what happened to Buddah? Your lover boy probably had something to do with it. You probably helped him set the nigga up. That nigga straight played yo’ ass, and you let him,” Laquisha said.

  Kelly looked confused at what she was saying. How could Dante have Buddah set up when he didn’t even know who Buddah was?

  “First, you said it was the dope fiend who arrested him, now you’re saying Dante had something to do with it. Which one is it?” Kelly asked her.

  “You ain’t know? They’re the same person. That’s what the word is anyway.”

  Kelly wasn’t trying to hear a word Laquisha was saying. It was obvious to her that Laquisha didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about. It was also obvious that she wasn’t going to get any real information from Laquisha about what had really happened to Buddah.

  “Okay, bitch, time for you to go too,” Kelly snapped.

  “That’s cool. I’ll leave. Shit, I don’t wanna be associated with no fuckin’ snitch anyway.”

  “Bitch, whatever. Ya fuckin ass don’t know what you talkin’ about, so don’t go spreadin’ no shit, or you’ll find yourself caught up in some shit that you really don’t want to be in.”

  “No, I think it’s you who’s caught up in some shit that you don’t want to be in. Matter a fact you got quite a lot of shit that you caught up in. Buddah’s shit and that cop’s shit, huh; looks to me like you’re full of
shit.”

  “Be careful or instead of shoving clothes up ya ass, I’ll shove my .380 up that muthafucka.”

  Laquisha knew that it was time for her to jet. She didn’t trust Kelly. And that’s why she had told Buddah not to trust her ass either. Laquisha was dying to be Kelly’s replacement and this was her perfect opportunity.

  “You always threatening to shoot somebody, but I ain’t see you pull that fuckin’ trigger yet,” Laquisha told her.

  “Yet, bitch, that’s the key word.”

  “Yeah right, whatever, Kelly,” she said as she opened the apartment door and let herself out.

  Kelly definitely wasn’t feeling her past two visitors. The two of them had put so many things in and on her mind that she didn’t know which thought to think about first. She didn’t need Dora and Laquisha spreading shit out on the block that they had no clear knowledge about, especially if it was pertaining to her. Kelly still had some business to handle out on the streets and she didn’t need the whole hood against her. Fuck them bitches, I need to find out what happened to Buddah, she thought as she quickly realized that was her first priority. Her mind shifted; she had more important shit to deal with.

  Kelly was trying to put some shit together on her own without talking to anyone. There really wasn’t anyone she could talk to anyway. She was supposed to be the eyes and ears in Colonial, but it seemed as though the hood now knew everything and she knew nothing. She played back the events of the past few weeks. So the so-called fiend that came up to her was Dante in disguise and he was the one who busted Buddah. Somehow she felt that there was much more to it. And she was going to find out exactly what that “much more” was.

  Her cell phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but she answered it anyway. It was the telephone company, MCI, prompting her on how to set up her phone to receive calls from Brian Levy, aka Buddah. She feverishly ran to her bedroom and got her debit card out of her wallet and set up the account.

  Buddah didn’t take long to call her back.

  “Yo, Buddah, what the fuck happened?”

  “You tell me, Kelly.”

  “What you mean?”

  “You fucking wit’a cop, man?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. You fuckin’ wit’a cop.”

  “Yo, who told you that shit?”

  “Don’t worry about who told me. All you need to know is that I know.”

  Buddah hung up in her face. Well, that pretty much told her what he was thinking. Kelly wasn’t going to fold just because niggas had her fucked up. Yeah, it may have looked like she had something to do with Buddah getting caught up, but she knew that she didn’t. Not wanting to believe that Dante may have gone behind her back and arrested her boss, Kelly thought about Chop. She wondered if he had anything to do with Buddah getting caught up. He was real sour when he left Buddah’s crib and he surely had a beef with her. Kelly was going to make it a point to see what was up with Chop too. Shit, she couldn’t trust anyone.

  The block was full of people when Kelly came out of her building. Everyone who caught her eye either gave her the evil eye or had something smart to say under their breath. She could hear them and she could also read their lips. They were saying she was a snitch and pig lover. She didn’t give a fuck. She was looking for Chop. She had some questions for him.

  “Ay, yo, you seen Chop?” she asked a crackhead.

  “Chop’s over there. He dead,” the crackhead told her, looking at Kelly as if was way late.

  “Dead?” Kelly said in disbelief.

  She ran over to the crowd of people and parted her way through. Sure enough, there was Chop, sprawled out in the middle of the block with a gunshot to his head.

  “Yo, what happened?” she asked one of the onlookers.

  “They said a nigga drove up, got out his whip and just came up; shot him point-blank ‘n shit. Yo that nigga whole shit is gone,” the man said, referring to the back of Chop’s head.

  “Ain’t nobody see who did it?” Kelly asked.

  “Nah, and even if they did, ain’t nobody sayin’ shit,” he said as he walked away.

  Kelly’s whole world was crashing down around her. She had no idea who wanted to kill Chop, but shit, Chop sold drugs, it could have been a customer, it could have been another drug dealer, and shit, it could have been anybody. Kelly thought long and hard about all of the events that had occurred in the past several months and all of a sudden the street life that she loved so much didn’t seem so glamorous.

  Chapter 8

  Him Or Me

  The thought of Kelly seeing a police officer was fucking with Kevin hard. What was fucking with him even harder was the way he found out. He had to hear it from a nigga he ain’t even fuck with. And he had to physically show the nigga that he didn’t appreciate the bad news. All he could see was a grimy-ass boy in blue with his hands all over his sister. What the hell did this man, this devil, this cop, have over his sister? Kevin knew that his sister shared his sentiments in regards to the “swine of the earth” as he so often called them. He just couldn’t understand what would make his sister even give the nigga the time of day. He knew his sister looked good and could have any one she wanted, so it had to be something about this nigga. And he was going to make sure he found out exactly what it was.

  Shit was floating around in the air in the prison about Kevin’s sister being sexually involved with a cop and being a snitch. It didn’t take any time for the word on the streets to make it behind the walls. Niggas in the pod was asking all kinds of questions and making a bunch of fucked-up comments about shit they really knew nothing about.

  Kevin was trying his best to ignore all of the negative words that were flying through the prison about his big sister, but it was becoming one of the hardest things he ever had to do in his entire life. For the first time since his arrival, niggas wasn’t respecting who Kev was and they weren’t showing no fear for “Crazy-ass Kev” either. The niggas who didn’t have anything to lose was fucking with him on the regular now. They kept trying to break him.

  “Ay Kev,” called one of the Mexican inmates who was in for murder.

  Kevin wasn’t going to respond, but he decided, fuck it. Niggas wasn’t running him, he ran niggas.

  “Yeah, Ramon, what’s good?”

  “You think your sister could ask her pig boyfriend to help me get my green card, homie?”

  “Nah, nigga, but tell your mother I can help her out with these nuts.”

  Ramon charged full force at him. He had no choice but to defend himself, throwing a host of punches to Ramon, catching him in his nose as his knuckles busted his nose open and blood began to flow from Ramon’s nose. The two men scuffled as Kevin lifted Ramon up off of his feet and slammed him to the ground.

  The other Mexicans that were in Kevin’s pod immediately came to the aid of their homeboy as they descended on him and tried to annihilate him. They pounded their fists into him one by one and then all at once. A multitude of red whelps began to appear and formed their place on his light skin. Not one of Kevin’s so-called boys stepped in to help him. Siggah stood there watching with his black hand over his open mouth. They all watched as Kevin took the worst beat-down he had ever received in his twenty-two years on this earth. The more they hit him, the madder at his sister he got. He was almost home, but now he was going to have to go to the hole.

  Kevin sat on the floor inside of the two-by-four boxed-in cell like a caged animal. He had landed himself in solitary confinement and they hadn’t brought him any food in the past seventy-two hours. He was about to start singing a song as he listened to the beat of his stomach growl. He was trying to determine whether it was a rap song or an R&B joint, but the growl in his stomach had a crazy sound to it. It was extremely long and incredibly strong. Kevin wondered how people could fast for days and weeks for their religion. More power to ’em, he thought. He couldn’t see himself ever fasting.

  It had been a minute since he had spoken to Kelly. She wasn’t answ
ering his calls. He knew that she was trying to get away from the family business and now he knew why. Why didn’t she tell me she was fuckin’ wit’ a cop, he thought. But he already knew the answer to that question. Kevin knew that there was no way his sister would willingly tell him that she was fucking with a police officer. He was more than anxious to hit the streets. His sister had crossed the line. He wanted to know why it happened, when it happened, and how the hell it managed to happen. He was a man and he knew with a proper dick down any female was subject to be a victim. He figured that must have been the case because his sister was acting as if she had been sprinkled with fairy dust. He had a few more days and he would be able to try to call her again. If she didn’t take his calls then he planned on writing her a letter. One way or another he needed to get his point across to Kelly. He had to make her see the grave mistake that she was making by mingling with the enemy.

  What seemed like forever was finally over. Kevin was out of the hole. He was transferred to a different pod so that he couldn’t associate with the Mexicans that he had the altercation with. He was hoping that the niggas in his new pod wasn’t on the same shit his last pod was, but he quickly learned the opposite.

  “Aw shit, they sent the fuckin’ cop-lover over here with us,” one of the black inmates said.

  “Look, yo, my time is short. I don’t want it wit’ y’all niggas and for real, the way I’m feelin’ right now, y’all don’t really want it wit’ me, so I’m asking if a nigga feel froggy, leap and let’s get this shit out the way, other than that, a nigga ready to do his time and get the fuck up outta here, so I can go deal wit’ some real shit.”

  “Man, fuck all that peace-offering shit. You already know what it is.”

  “Well then nigga, stop talkin’ and let’s get to it,” Kevin said as he threw up his hands. He was ready to go again and add some more time to his stay.

  Kevin threw the first punch. He needed to work off the frustration and anger he was feeling anyhow. He thought he’d rather take it out on this punk-ass muthafucka than to take it out on his sister, but she was going to hear it from him, that was for damn sure.