by T. Styles
Jayden remained silent. This was ridiculous. He slicked her out of her money straight up so why was Sandy lying? Instead of answering, he stared at his shoes and then his hands. “She gave me the money, sir.” He looked into his eyes. “That’s all I can tell you.”
“Well where is it now?” he asked, his voice shaky and unsure. Age looked horrible on him.
“I don’t have it. She bought me food with it.”
“Where?”
When Jayden didn’t respond, Harmony slapped him in the back of the head, forcing his forehead frontwards. When his head rose, the first person he looked at was Sandy. She was nothing but a pretty faced liar. He looked at the belt again and wondered how much boys would pay to fuck or kiss her.
“Where did you go to eat?”
Jayden didn’t feel like talking to him anymore and he could feel the money burning a hole in his pocket. But it belonged to him, and he didn’t want to give it back. As far as Sandy knew, it went to the waitress at IHOP.
“Where did you go eat, Jayden? I want this mothafucka outta my house.”
Although Mr. Reynolds was seated, he stomped the floor with his cane sending out a loud thud throughout the rundown apartment. “Miss, you will not talk like that around my daughter.” He looked around. “We do not come from this type of environment and I won’t subject her to your foul language.”
“And you will not come over here and disrespect my son! Since Jayden was born he never lied to me! Ever! Now if he says your daughter gave him the money and they spent it on food, then that’s what the fuck happened. Now unless you have something else to talk about, get the fuck out of my house.” She pointed at the door.
“Please don’t talk to my daddy like that.” Sandy said under her breath. “He’s old.”
“Little girl, you ought to be glad I even opened the door for you and your dried up father to begin with. Unlike him, I knew you were a liar the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“What kind of mother are you?” Mr. Reynolds growled. He observed the surroundings again. Dishes littered the sink and dust particles were visible on every area of the hardwood floors. The smell of unwashed clothing and the filthy toilet made matters worse. “You don’t even take care of your home and I can smell the liquor from your skin from over here. And I’ll bet you there isn’t a man with morals alive who would lay with you.”
Jayden felt the temperature in his body rise, but remained silent. His mother was a mess but she was his mess.
“You right about that. I don’t do men with morals.” Harmony grinned. “I’m a drunk, Mr. Reynolds. I barely want to get up most days but how else am I gonna get my next drink?” She looked around her pathetic dwellings. “I don’t clean my home and I haven’t disciplined my children to be regular enough to help me out around here.” She looked at Jayden and there was something loving behind her eyes. Something real. “But my son is good. And he has a pure heart.” She ran to the bedroom and came back out with nineteen loose dollar bills and four quarters. “There’s your money. If it will make you feel better about your daughter being dumb enough to be used, so be it. Right now all I want you to do is get the fuck out of my house.” She placed her hands on Jayden’s shoulder. And the pride he felt for his mother at that moment was indescribable.
Although the old man was withered, he leaped up with the finesse of an Olympic high jumper as he snatched the coins and money from Harmony’s grasp. With the handle of his cane firmly in his hand he said, “I want your son to stay away from my daughter.” They both moved toward the doorway.
“If I find my son anywhere near that little bitch of yours, I will kill him myself!”
When they were gone, Jayden and Harmony bathed in silence. He remained seated. She remained standing behind him. After a few more seconds, she sat on the sofa and observed him.
“You don’t have to tell me she’s lying on you. I already know.” She twisted the cap off of a fresh vodka bottle. Where had it come from?
He shifted in his seat. “How did you know?”
“Her eyes wouldn’t stay still.” She swallowed the contents she poured into the top of a mouthwash bottle, because all of the cups were broken. “You tried to run game,” she pointed at him, “and I get that. You forgot one thing though, if you gonna run game, you betta know what the fuck you’re playing.” She laughed at him. “I keep telling you you’re not smart enough, you’ll never be. You will always be the kind of person who has to be told what to do and think.”
Jayden swallowed. His throat felt pasted together.
“When I was a girl, I was the baddest bitch alive.” Harmony smiled as she stared into the grimness of the living room. “Niggas use to give their whole lives, just to be with me,” she licked her arm, “just to taste me. Nothing was off limits.” She looked into his eyes. “And that included their money. I never had a problem with having cash in my pockets. Ever.” She grinned remembering her patented fuck technique. “In all the games I ran nobody ever came to my grandmother’s house saying I took anything from them. You know why?”
“N-No.” He stuttered.
“Because I perfected my craft. Fair exchange is not robbery. The threat of me not fucking with them, not giving them any of this good pussy, was greater than the loss of their money.” She poured the vodka into her mouth. Fuck a cup. “I was a genius and master manipulator. You have to be when dealing with other peoples money.”
Jayden could feel a prickly sensation cross over his skin. The next question was hard but he wanted an answer all the same. If she had so much money, why was their cupboard bare? Why were the lights always getting cut off and why did he and his brother wear holey clothing to school? “Mama, what happened?”
“I showed one man my heart and he was the only man I’ve ever loved. The only man I will ever love.” Tears poured down her face and she swatted them away like flies. “I made a decision to stop running game and to be with him exclusively. But it was too late for my mind. I’d done too much dirt and sex was just in my bones. I had to have it all the time even if it wasn’t with him. In the end I’d done so much, that he wasn’t able to recognize me anymore.
“When he left me all I wanted was more sex and money became unimportant. I had to fuck in the day and fuck at night. Some people ate breakfast but I sucked dick.” Jayden’s skin crawled. “These days I be so caught up, I forget to ask for money.” Another swish of vodka made her pain easier to swallow. “Now it don’t matter to me anymore.” She looked around her run down apartment. “Nothing matters to me anymore.” Her eyes zeroed in on him. “Not even you.”
The old Harmony had returned.
The sorrowful look on her face was replaced with rage. She sat back in the sofa and crossed her legs. “Jayden, put my money on the table before I break your neck.”
“But I don’t have it. We used it at IHOP.”
“Sandy wasn’t the only one I was observing, little boy. Although you didn’t take that girl’s money, you had something to do with its disappearance. I don’t care how or why. I do know that if you don’t put my money on the table in fifteen seconds, I’m gonna get up.” She laughed. “You could never be smarter than me, Jayden. Ever.”
In a quiet whisper he asked, “What about the field trip? You said if I could get the money I could go.”
“Fuck the field trip.”
Jayden stood up, walked over to the table and released the money. It floated down like a polluted snowdrop.
“Now get the fuck out. I want to be left alone.”
Jayden dawdled toward the door. Head low. Heart heavy. Mind confused. He placed his hand on the doorknob and noticed he could still smell Sandy and her father’s fresh scent in the air. “Thank you for what you did for me.” He turned around and looked at her. “I’ll never forget it.”
“Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, Jayden. Just leave me alone. Contrary to what you believe, all misery don’t like company.”
****
Heavy music poured into the hallway o
f the building and rolled down the stairwell. The closer he got to Armanii’s door, the louder the music rose. He’d been trying to reach her ever since she put him out and he hoped she was okay. At first he knocked in a mousy fashion and received no results. With an ounce of confidence, he knocked harder and this time Armanii flung the door open and smiled at him.
“Hi, Armanii.” He waved and stuffed his hands back into his pockets. “I was coming to see if you were okay.”
She hugged him tightly, with a cigarette in her hand. A stump of grey ashes fell into his hair. She wiped it away too roughly. “And if I wasn’t? You gonna kill for me?”
His eyes widened. “No…I…was just…”
“I’m just playing!” She hugged him again. “Oh, Jayden, I was just thinking about you. I ain’t seen you since…well…since them niggas tried to kill me.” She seemed high. Real high.
“Why they wanna do that?”
She released him. “Because they said I stole fifty thousand dollars from them or some shit like that. When I was fucking one of them,” She wiped the corner of her mouth. “But they gotta prove it first. Besides do I look like a girl who would do such a thing?” She spun around so he could see her body. Although she was less flashy with her red off the shoulder jumpsuit, she still looked slutty and pretty.
“How you get away? When I left they were in the parking lot.”
“You ask so many questions,” she opened the door wider, “but since I’m feeling good, come on in and I’ll answer whatever you want to know.”
When his foot crossed the threshold, he wanted to turn around when he saw Joseph sitting on the recliner. But since he didn’t seem to be interested in him, he walked further inside. Joseph was packing a blunt with a pile of weed that lit up the apartment before he even fired it up.
Armanii turned the music off, plopped on the sofa and crossed her legs. “Sit right here.” She massaged a place on the sofa. “Next to me.”
Jayden traipsed into the apartment and sat next to her. He could feel her warm skin against his leg. “Joseph, this is my friend Jayden.” She rubbed his back, “And Jayden, this is Joseph.”
Jayden waved but Joseph didn’t acknowledge him.
Jayden cleared his throat and asked, “So you gonna tell me how you got away, Armanii? From those guys?”
“You don’t forget a thing do you?” She giggled. “That trait will come in handy later.” She exhaled. “Well, as it turns out, the police was doing some kind of sting operation in the building that night. They raided five apartments that were involved in some drug operation. So, the niggas after me thought they were coming for them and rolled out. I haven’t seen ‘em since. I know it ain’t over yet though, I’ll see ‘em again.” She seemed scared.
He frowned and moved away from her. Armanii’s leg was too close to his and crept him out. “Are you worried they might come back?”
“Don’t have time for worrying when I have to live.” She smashed the cigarette into the ashtray.
“And money to make.” Joseph added, never looking at them.
Jayden examined Joseph again from the sidelines. He didn’t seem as smooth as Pimp Fast Tony, his idol from Galveston. He seemed like a junky trying to make a come up, something he was familiar with considering his mother was one.
“So, kid, Armanii tells me you’re interested in ‘The Game’.” He still hadn’t given him eye contact. Even with his blunt completed, he just rolled it around the table. “You shouldn’t ask a whore those types of questions though, she only knows what she’s supposed to. What a pimp teaches her.”
Jayden looked at Armanii thinking she’d be upset but instead she was smiling. He just disrespected her and she was grinning like a clown.
“Well, what should I know about The Game?” Jayden inquired.
“First you gotta know what it is. Some bitches like your friend over there, love dick. So even if she wasn’t whoring and selling her funky pussy, she’d be fucking somebody, probably for free. You see in order for The Game to work, bitches gotta love what they do. They gotta love sex more than they love food. That’s what keeps them out there on the cold and hot nights.”
“But Armanii said you gotta get into they mind first.”
“Didn’t I just finish telling you not to listen to no bitch?” Joseph looked at him angrily and Jayden shivered. “To answer your question, the mind shit is bullshit. You get their mind by helping them do what they want. All whores I know on the stroll, love dick. I don’t care what they say.” He looked at Armanii. “That’s why they so good at it.” He talked mad shit for a man who only had one prostitute.
“I thought it was about the money too.” Jayden combatted.
“It’s about the money to businessmen like myself, but not to whores. Ask that bitch how much money she got to her name.”
In a low whisper he asked, “How much money do you have?”
She smiled although her eyes said she was hurting. “None.”
“Zactly. Bitches don’t see the money. It comes to managers like myself. I had to check her the other night when she tried me by not handing it over. We make sure they have all they need. If you gave them paper anytime they wanted, they’d probably kill themselves.” He shook his head. He was so full of himself. In all other areas of his life he was a loser. “No, the benefit for them to be in the game is the dick, that’s what keeps them coming back for more.” He balled up a fist. “And if they forget who’s boss, you gotta make them remember.”
He was a fraud, and Jayden didn’t like him. He recalled the days he would look out of his window when they lived in Galveston Texas. Most of his time was spent observing Pimp Fast Tony. He remembered the women wiping the sweat off of his face, just so perspiration wouldn’t drop on his suit. He never seen him strike them. They loved him. They needed him. And in his opinion, that was power.
“Oh, I see.” Jayden lied. “But if they love the…d-dick so much,” he stuttered, “why you gotta hit them? Shouldn’t they do what you want just cuz you say it? Just cuz they love it?”
Joseph was irate. So mad, that the blunt he just rolled crushed under his fingertips. The young man called his pimp game out and he was insulted.
“Jayden, come with me in the bedroom.” Armanii said, analyzing the hostile vibe in the room. “I got a TV in there.”
To get out of Joseph’s wrath, Jayden gladly followed her. Once inside, Armanii’s room was just as imagined. Pretty red curtains hung from the windows and matched the red comforter on her bed. “Sit on my bed, but you gotta take your pants off first.”
He frowned. “I don’t wanna do nothing with you.” Jayden said seriously. “I just wanna watch TV.”
“Honey, you don’t have to worry about me touching you, I’m always on the clock and anything I do to you is gonna cost.” She laughed at her own joke. “So believe me when I say you can’t afford me. Now take off your pants or get out of my house.” She turned the TV on.
Jayden took off his pants and awkwardly sat on the edge of her bed in his boxers. Armanii eased out of her clothes and slid into a pink nightgown. Then she flipped back two burgundy sheets on her bed, before sliding into the pocket. When she was comfortable she raised an edge and said, “Get in with me.”
Jayden got under the covers, lie sideways and rested his head on the fluffy pillow. He observed the wall, which held a picture of a baby in a gold frame. “That’s your child?” He pointed.
Armanii came behind him and pressed her body against his. When they were close, she placed her face gently on top of his and looked at the picture with him. “You shouldn’t be here, Jayden. I really want you to go.” A tear fell out of her eye and wet his nose.
“But I don’t want to leave.” He pleaded and wiped it away. “I like it here.”
“I know.” She hugged him tighter. “And I like you here with me but it isn’t safe. My home is no place for kids.”
“Why?”
“He was taken from me, by an evil person. An evil person who still lives.
”
“Sweet Licks, why you lock the door?” Joseph banged jiggling the gold knob left and right. “Bitch, you crazy or something?”
Jayden jumped and pulled the sheet under his chin while Armanii got up to answer the door. When Joseph entered he asked, “So you having sex with my woman, Jayden? I invite you into my home, teach you the game and this is how you repay me?”
Jayden shook his head no.
“Then why are you in her bed?” Jayden hopped out of it and tried to leave the room. “No, you don’t. You stay right there because now you owe me. Anybody who sleeps with one of my bitches has to pay.”
“I just want to go home.”
“Too late for that, son. Sit on the edge of the bed.” When Jayden was there, Joseph undid his pants. “Come here.”
“Please, I don’t want to come. I just wanna go home!”
“Do what the fuck I say.”
Jayden looked at Armanii for help but she looked at the floor in shame. Help wasn’t coming any time soon. “You should not have come here, Jayden.” Armanii cried to herself. “Now it’s too late.”
Joseph fished for his penis and when he finally pulled it out, Jayden was confused. If he was a man and he looked like that with no clothes on, why didn’t he look the same when he was a boy? Something wasn’t right.
Since Harmony didn’t bother to teach her sons about the human anatomy they were totally ignorant on the subject. And with Madjesty constantly rambling about how somebody could suck his dick, Jayden figured maybe he hadn’t gotten his yet. After all, he was still a child.
“Open your mouth, boy. I ain’t got all day.”
“Please, I don’t want to do this. I just want to go home.”
The mad man looked down at him. “Don’t make me tell you again.”
In fear for his life, Jayden quickly followed orders. At first he placed the helmet on the tip of Jayden’s tongue before easing the entire thing into his mouth. Jayden squinted from the taste of salt and his jaw tired. To make matters worse, Joseph kept pushing it deeper into his throat and he would smack him every time he gagged. Before long, Jayden knew exactly what he needed to do, to make him happy. Exactly what he needed to do to survive.