by T. Styles
“Wait, why do I have to move?” Foxie says. “What about Hadiya? Me and her share rooms together. Why can’t she leave?”
“Because I got another plan for her.” Foxie’s nose twitches. “Questions?” I continue.
She folds her arms to her chest. “No.”
“Good, because I need this move done today.”
Gucci’s jaw drops. “Why we gotta move in with that white bitch, Jayden? She cool and all but you know blacks and whites don’t get along too well. It’s a biological fact. Making them type of arrangements is just begging something to happen.”
I approach her. “For one thing that white bitch you talking about earns more money than you since she’s been here and I never have to hear her mouth either. She does what I say immediately no questions asked. Don’t play the racist card with me bitch because you can kill yourself. There’s one language in this house and it’s PUSSY! Secondly this is my house, Gucci.” I point to myself. “Mine…so if I tell you to move you take what you can grab and do it quick.”
“But I don’t want to. That’s five people to a room. We gonna be pushed together.”
“Johnna’s room is big enough. Plus I’m having bunk beds brought in tomorrow as well as a full. Since she’s been in there before you guys, she keeps the full.” They sigh. “We already did the measurements so it will work.”
“But, Jayden I wish you would’ve talked to us about that first. You don’t just up and make decisions like that. It ain’t fair.”
Olive shakes her head. “Gucci, you do know Jayden’s your boss right? Because I think you get it fucked up sometimes.”
She rolls her neck and slaps her hands against her hips. “I know who she is. That’s why I’m being real with her. If she makes moves without talking to us, the girls will be unhappy. It’s bad for business.”
“Which girls you talking about?” I ask.
“All of us.”
Olive walks out. I know what she’s thinking before she even opens her mouth. She’s thinking that because I give them too much say-so around here, now they’re trying to run over me. “If you don’t like how I wiggle, pack your shit and go, Gucci. It’s that simple.” I pause to give her another chance to put her titty in her mouth and get tossed out on her ass. “Any more questions?” She doesn’t take the bait.
Since I’ve dealt with them, I’m about to go and find Passion when I hear Hadiya yell, “Jayden, some old lady just pulled up out front of the house. You want me to let her in?”
I can’t see my face but I know I go bright red. I rush to the window and she’s approaching the house with her clipboard in hand and ugly face on her shoulders. I rush downstairs to tell Hadiya to lock the doors but Mrs. Sheers is already in the foyer. “Next time don’t open the door unless I tell you.” Hadiya runs to her room crying. “What’s up, Mrs. Sheers?”
“You don’t seem to happy to see me, Jayden.” I’m not. “How are you today?”
“I’m fine.” I don’t smile. I barely move. “How can I help you?”
She flings her black leather purse over her shoulder, slides on her glasses and says, “I hear your mother hasn’t been to the sobriety appointments I set up for her. Any reason why?”
“First off I’m the child remember?” She doesn’t respond. “And as far as I know, the program is voluntary. So if my mother doesn’t show it shouldn’t be too big of a deal right?” As I’m standing in front of her, I’m hoping that my girls don’t walk out here naked, causing her to be more suspicious about this house. The only time the girls put clothes on was when they were getting dressed for a job. They walk around naked. We all walk around naked.
“It is voluntary…but I hoped your mother would do a little better with her commitments. Like you have. I’m hearing your grades are great and that you are a candidate for a few scholarships for college if you keep this up.”
I already know my status in school. Ever since I decided to stay focused, and keep my promise to my father, I didn’t back down. “I’m not my mother’s keeper, Mrs. Sheers. Your concern was me going to school and I’m doing that, so why are you still bothering us?”
“I’m not bothering you. And you’re right, my main priority is you kids. If it’s any consolation I’m not here for you. I’m here to check on Madjesty and after that, I’ll be leaving.” She looks upstairs.
“Mrs. Sheers, it’s no consolation. And Madjesty is sick with the flu. I told you that.”
“Madjesty isn’t upstairs.” Gucci says walking into the foyer. “At least I didn’t see her.”
My face is numb. This bitch is doing this shit on purpose. “She is upstairs, Gucci. And why don’t you go up there and let me talk to Mrs. Sheers alone.” She smirks and walks away. I can’t wait to handle that bitch. When she’s gone I say, “My mother said she told you that Madjesty was ill.”
“I know and as I explained to your mother, I need to lay eyes on her to be sure. Things happen all the time to children when the social workers turn their backs. I don’t intend on letting that happen with you girls. And if you’ve seen some of the dead children I’ve buried in my day, you’d thank me.” I know she’s being real but something says where we’re concerned it’s just petty bullshit.
Without my okay she treks up the stairs and toward Madjesty’s room. I’m so nervous I forget the code word. I worked so hard for this moment and now it was all in vein. Sweat forms on my forehead and I wipe it quickly. I have to get myself together and quick.
Before she opens the door, I throw myself in front of it and say, “You can’t go in there. She’s been so sick that if you open this door, you may contaminate the whole house.” When Gucci walks out of the room next to Madjesty’s, half naked with Na-Na, Queen and Foxie following her like baby chickens, I want to choke the bitch. They disappear downstairs and Mrs. Sheers doesn’t break her stare until they’re out of sight. “Who are they?”
“My cousins.” She opens her records and look at the sheet. “I don’t remember any cousins.”
I frown. “Just because we’re poor doesn’t mean we don’t have family.” I pause. “If I say they’re my cousins then they’re my cousins. What else you want me to say?”
Mrs. Sheers shoves me out the way and opens the door anyway. This bitch has been calling for Madjesty religiously and every time me or my mother tells her that she’s sick, she never believes us. I guess its cuz we’re lying. When she turns the knob, I know it’s over until I see a body under the blanket. The person’s back is faced our direction with a sheet pulled all the way up to their neck. They’re wearing the red wig I bought months ago and the black baseball cap. If she doesn’t see her face, whoever it is will pass for Madjesty instantly.
I walk in front of Mrs. Sheers, trying to block her view. “See...I told you, she’s in bed.”
“Well I want to talk to her.” She tries to step in front of the body when I snatch her wrist forcing the gray curls on top of her head to whip. She looks at my hand until I squeeze tighter. “You are our social worker, not our owner, Mrs. Sheers. If I said my sister is sick, she’s fucking sick. So unless you have a warrant, you need to get out of her room and leave her alone. I’m not going to tell you again, and I don’t believe I have too.”
She snatches away from me. “Jayden, I know something is going on around here.” She looks at the stand in, Madjesty’s back again. “And when I find out, you and your mother are in for it.”
“Mrs. Sheers, I’m tired of looking at your bush. Please leave.” She stomps down the stairs.
When she exits, I walk into Madjesty’s room, where I haven’t been since we were cool and gaze out of the window. I see Mrs. Sheers crawl back into her car and speed off. When I focus on the body, I see Passion lying in the bed instead of Olive. She’s so stiff she looks like a corpse.
What’s going on?
“She gone yet?” Olive asks coming out of the closet.
I shake my head and smile. “How did you pull this off? I forgot the code word.”
“You know I’ma handle my business regardless, Jayden.” She closes the door. “But I can’t lie, that was a close call.”
“How did you know I needed you?”
“I just left the bedroom when they said the lady was coming. Remember?”
I didn’t. “Girl, I was so scared that I totally forgot to use the code word maroon.” I sigh. “She won’t stop getting in the business.”
“To be honest, I think you’ll always have a problem with her. You better tighten up around here and quick because one false move and she won’t hesitate to throw you in a home.” My head hurts just thinking about the possibility. “I’m not gonna lie though, that plan you had for the wig was genius. You really are covering your tracks.”
“More than you know.” I plop on the edge of Madjesty’s bed. Just being in here makes me miss her more. It makes me sick too because I also hate her.
“Why use, Passion?” I whisper. She hadn’t budged since we’d been in here. “Why didn’t you jump in the bed and pretend to be Madjesty like the plan called for?”
“I don’t know if you looked at your girl lately but she’s been in coma like sleeps. I think she’s taking sleeping pills or something. She may even be on heroin again.”
“Naw, I think she’s fucked up because Mad came here awhile back and dumped her. She ran in the house crying and everything.”
“I heard.” She shrugs. “Well maybe she’s trying to sleep her problems away.” She scratches her curly bush. “Anyway I didn’t move her because by the time I’d try to get her out of the bed, the old bitty would’ve seen a body on the floor. I had to think on my feet.”
Times like this make me love Olive even more. Wanting to see Passion’s face, I stand up and walk to her front. Her skin is ash gray and it doesn’t have the glow it once did. This bitch is using again. I’m disappointed. I’m about to try and wake her myself, when Hadiya runs in and says, “You have a phone call.” She’s holding the white handset in her hand.
“Who is it?”
“It’s some man. He says he’s from Bank of Maryland and that your mother just took a bunch of money out of the account.”
My heart is heavy. “How much she take?”
“He didn’t want to tell me at first but I recognized his voice. He’s the client you set me up with the other day.” Wow. A small world. “After a little persuading eventually he said she took…” She’s hesitant.
“How much?”
Her voice is low but I have the hearing aids on. “Twenty thousand dollars.”
I can kill my mother. Two days after I open the banking account, she betrays me. It’s not like I wasn’t giving her money. She didn’t have to take shit. I mean how much liquor can you drink? Now I’m going to have to come up with the cash quick for my surgery. Every day my hearing gets worse and without the aids, I wouldn’t hear anything at all.
I don’t know what to do with her right now. I’m trying. Trying to help her and to be the daughter I know she needs, but each day she proves to me that she doesn’t want my love. I’m glad she thinks she has the upper hand on me though, because I have a few tricks up my sleeve she won’t see coming. She’s going to pay greatly.
GUCCI
KICKED OUT
Gucci plops on the lawn chair in the backyard with a funky ass attitude. Queen, Na-Na and Foxie follow hoping she calms down. Nobody is trying to fuck up their sweet deal but they can already see it’s about to happen. Foxie is sitting on a chair alone, while Queen is sitting on Na-Na’s lap and because she doesn’t have any panties on, her pussy rubs against her thigh.
Gucci is fuming so much about having to share a room with Johnna that her underarms are dripping with sweat. The tissue that she uses to wipe them off, crumbles. The truth is she didn’t have anything against the white girl. That was just an excuse to call the situation out. Her real gripe was with Jayden and how she seemed to take the side of everybody who kissed her ass. All of her plans didn’t do enough drama. Telling Tywanda backfired in her face because she was more loyal to Jayden than ever. And every time she told them Jayden didn’t respect them, they didn’t stay mad long like her. She could hold a Grudge longer than the movie.
“Now ya’ll see what the fuck I’m talking about,” Gucci announces, “Jayden don’t give a fuck about nobody but them new chicks. The messed up part is, we the ones who helped her build the original Thirteen Flavors.” The girls weren’t hype enough for her yet. She needed to kick up some more shit in order to get more people on her side.
“Maybe there’s a reason she told us to move in with Johnna. I mean think about it, she never told us to leave our room before.” Foxie says. “And you should see how pretty Johnna keeps her room. She really takes care of the place.”
“Geez, Foxie, you getting in the bed with Johnna or are you gonna sleep on your own bunk?” Gucci fires. “She told us to get out because she don’t fuck with us.” Gucci wants to slap her into submission but she wouldn’t prove her point that way. “How come you still taking this bitch’s side when she made it clear she don’t take yours?”
“Gucci, we making more money than we ever have in our lives. I’m about to buy a car next week and everything. All I want to do is stack paper, get high and stay fresh. Don’t you?”
Gucci squints. “I been knowing you since we were kids. You just met this bitch a little over a year ago at school. Are you that pressed where you will forget our bond just to make some extra cash?”
Silence.
Gucci looks at all of them. “I’m telling you now, at some point this bitch is going to get rid of us. I know you sitting pretty thinking this mansion is yours but it ain’t. Remember she told us that our niggas can’t even come over. We can either get smart and wake up or be dumb and wait till the other bra drops.” She pauses. “If we wait, how we gonna make our paper then?”
Queen responds. “I don’t know.”
“I know you don’t know but I do. From here on out when we go on dates, we collect as much information as possible from our clients. If you don’t have any appointments, talk to Olive to see if she can schedule you more. Let her lick your pussy or you suck hers if you have to, just as long as we are in there.” She pauses. “When we get enough numbers, we’ll bounce and take her business with us.”
HARMONY
DAMAGED GOODS
Jayden can suck my ass if she thinks she can keep me sober for two whole days before meetings. I don’t have a man. I don’t have kids who respect me and I don’t have hope. To be honest, I can’t even find a decent piece of dick nowadays. Niggas come too quick. My fuck game is too thorough for my own good. Without liquor, I’d probably be dead by now, so in my opinion it’s the only thing keeping me alive.
Not only that, the place Mrs. Sheers made me go for alcohol rehab was Green Door – Adult Mental Health Clinic and it was an absolute mess. Christina Zahm, the doctor they put in charge of my case, hates me and I hate her. She’s too condescending, with her pale skin and degrees on her wall. Personally I think the more degrees you earn, the more out of touch with reality you are. She needs to spend a day in my world and I bet her a blowjob she’d feel cheated by all of the bullshit she learned in college. All Christina wants is for me to be in an in-house program. And if Jayden saw this nurse pushing me out of the hospital in a wheel chair, after my recent alcohol poison situation, she’d think Christina was right. I wonder if she forgives me for spending twenty thousand dollars that she had in the bank, for hotel fees, drinks and fun.
When we get outside, the cool air brushes my hair back and I smile. Why? Because the night sky catches up with me and all I want is another drink. Between losing Jace and finding out I’m HIV positive, I think my life can’t get any worse. That is until I found out I was pregnant with another child. Can you imagine? Me? Pregnant, with another baby. Any kid dumb enough to enter my drunken womb to come into the world, deserved to die.
I noticed my belly growing a long time ago but I thought it was because of all of the alcohol I drank. I
had no idea that I was pregnant with a stranger’s child. The doctors in the hospital set me straight. Now all I want to do is kill it. Fuck an abortion. Death by drinking is the best idea I have.
When we get outside, the nurse can’t wait to dip the chair, forcing my ass flat on the concrete. After giving her a few choice words and lifting up my blue dress to show her my bare ass, I feel its time for me to get away from the scene before they lock me up.
After waving my thumb back and forth, I finally hail a cab. I have a few crumpled bills in my pocket and I can’t wait to spend them. I couldn’t get more because apparently Jayden walked into the bank, said she was me and closed the account.
When I reach my destination, the neighborhood’s friendly liquor store, I give the cab driver a few bucks and ask him to stay but he doesn’t. Once inside, I spend every dime for a bottle of strawberry 20/20. With my paper bag firmly in the palm of my hand, I walk outside and lean on the side of the store. There are a few regulars outside and all eyes are on me. I feel like Halle Berry as they crowd around for a sip of my shit. No haps though. I’m selfish when it comes to my sauce.
The rain pouring down is bugging the hell out of me, as I tilt the bottle to my lips. Suddenly I can’t help but feel and overwhelming sense of dread. I have HIV. I lost my first love. And I’m an, “alcoholic”. To make things worse, I’m pregnant and I just stole money from my daughter, the only person who ever helped me.
I’m trying to wash my problems away when I hear, “What you over there crying about?” The voice is strong an authoritative. But what is he talking about? I’m not crying. “You too cute to be crying over a nigga who’s probably fucking another bitch right now anyway.”
I touch my face and my eyes are wet. It’s not raining after all. When I look over at the voice, I see a twenty-something man smiling in my direction. He isn’t driving a fancy car and doesn’t appear to be a baller like Jace. He’s wearing blue pants with dried paint all over them. Basically he’s ordinary…plain. And then it dawns on me, I’m a washed up drunk, with two kids who hate each other, a baby in my belly and a fresh case of HIV. Who am I to judge?