by Ashley Cruse
We stayed at Motel 6 for almost a week and a half. The smoker who was letting us use the Expedition let us keep it for another week. Corey was trying to lay low, but the weekend after the eviction, he met the connect in Eastland again. He was determined to make something shake so we could get into a new spot. He returned with more dope and pills.
I was getting the hang of my new job and was beginning to pull a full forty hours a week. I’d been hired part-time, but my current situation called for desperate measures. I had had no choice but to take those hours once I learned they were available.
Plus, I was hitting the block with my soon-to-be husband. When I wasn’t with him, I’d check on my kids. I never stayed long. My grandma was pissed off. Somehow word got back to her about what had really happened. She cussed my ass out black and blue when I stopped by one day to drop food off for the kids.
She even hurled her chanclas at me. They missed my nose by an inch. I was almost afraid she wasn’t going to keep my children anymore. She hurled insults at me, told me I was a bad mom for choosing a man over my kids. Told me I should have stayed with Bobbie. He wouldn’t have put me in a position where I didn’t have a place to lay my head. She had never really liked Corey. Now that she knew what was going on, she loathed him. She felt like this condition we were all in was absolutely his fault.
In the midst of being homeless, Corey was hell-bent on throwing an engagement party. We planned to rent the ballroom at the Royal Inn. After that, he wanted to try to find an apartment.
One day I returned to the motel room after work to find it empty. Bruce, Justine, and Corey were in the neighborhood. They said money was rolling. I jumped in the shower, and after I got out, made me some noodles. Once I was finishing eating up my food, my brother hit my line.
“Hey, Drew,” I answered as I settled into my bed.
“Hey, Ten,” he replied.
Drew was calling to let me know about an apartment that was up for rent. The apartment was at the top of a garage behind somebody’s house. He had overheard Grandma telling Mom about it when he stopped by to check on the kids for me. He’d played it off like he wasn’t listening. He confided that she was going to tell our uncle about it, so he could move out of her house. Not if I could get to it first, though.
“Come get me,” I said.
Straightaway, I phoned Corey and let him in on what I was currently getting prepared to check out. I put on a pair of jeans, a white T-shirt, and some white Nikes. I combed my hair and put it in a ponytail. Drew pulled up twenty minutes later. I grabbed my key and hopped into the green Cadillac he was driving.
“All they want is three hundred a month, with a hundred-dollar deposit,” Drew explained as he drove out of the parking lot.
“Did you go by there first?” I quizzed him.
“Nah. I just heard Grandma telling Mom about it. I knew I had to let you know about it first.”
“Damn. Is she that mad at me that she wouldn’t tell me first? I have kids!”
Drew just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. I understood she was mad at me, but I already felt bad enough that I had lost my kids’ childhood home. I was avoiding being around Grandma and Mom as much as possible. You would think they would want me to hurry up and obtain housing so I could get my daughters and sons back.
Lately, even Bobbie had been blowing up my line. I didn’t even feel like arguing with my kids’ pops. As far as I was concerned, I was trying my hardest to get my shit together. I didn’t need his ass rubbing my recent failures in my face, either. My family had already made me feel like I was a horrible mom, and I didn’t need the father of my children telling me this at the same damn time.
We pulled up to the house twenty minutes later. It was located on the Southside, close to a neighborhood where a bunch of Mexicans lived. It sat directly in front of a school where they used to send bad children. They called it RAC. Today a lot of children were playing football in the open field that was across the street. I didn’t care, as long as I could have a residence of my own to stay in. Not no damn hotel room. A home.
Drew called the lady, and she came out of the house five minutes later. She was a fat Mexican lady with a heavy accent. She wore glasses and appeared to be extremely friendly. She greeted us and shook both of our hands. She motioned for us to follow her.
She led us to the back of the property and then up some sturdy stairs next to the garage. As we walked up, she talked about how all the bills were included in the rent. They didn’t mind parties, but not on weeknights. All she asked was that we give them a heads-up if we were to have a social gathering. That seemed reasonable enough for me. She told us that it was just her and her husband. That they were both retired and owned several homes, though they were all out of this area.
After we walked up the stairs behind her, she opened the door to the apartment. It had one big room in front, which was the living room. It didn’t have central heat and air. Only AC units were in the rooms, and a water heater was against the back wall of the living room. The kitchen was rather small, only big enough for two people at a time.
The bathroom was small as well, and when you turned the water on, the pipes made loud clattering thuds. As I was expecting, the two bedrooms were small. The walls in each room were a dingy brown color. The carpet was an extremely ugly gray color. All I could do was stare. I was not quite sure why they thought it was okay to have the interior of the home decorated in those weird colors like that.
The windows were rather small in the living room and bedrooms. You could tell nobody had cleaned them in a while, as they looked very dusty. They had, at least, put a brand-new stove and refrigerator in the small kitchen. The new whiteness stood out in contrast to the ugly wall color and the yellow tiled floor. The whole place was small and needed lots of help, but you know what? It was better than a hotel. And something my pockets definitely could afford.
“I’ll take it,” I told the lady.
She went downstairs to get the papers for me to fill out. I called Corey and asked him to get over here with the money.
“How much is it?” he asked.
I told him the price.
“Is it nice?”
“It’s decent enough for us to live in without wasting money on a fuckin’ hotel room every day.”
He said he was on his way. By the time the lady returned and I had filled the papers out, my man showed up with the money. He gave her the deposit and the first month’s rent. With that, she handed me the keys to my new place.
I decided to let my kids stay with my grandma until after our engagement party. Now that we had our own spot, I felt we had even more of a reason to celebrate. Not only our engagement, but being able to bounce back after a hater tried to fuck us with the law.
In the end Corey decided to go on ahead and rent that ballroom at the Royal Inn for the party. I filled out invitations for everybody we knew. I made sure to invite Tiger and Naomi. Corey and I also changed our rental cars up. We no longer had the Expedition, so we rented a white Avalanche from Enterprise. Actually, the same guy who owned the Expedition agreed to rent this car for us for a couple of weeks. This guy also went on ahead and traded some dope for a vehicle, a red Kia, from one of our clients for the week. Corey kept the Avalanche, and I drove the red Kia.
It was going to be a crazy week, and two cars were a must. My brother, Drew, had moved in with us, since he’d decided to leave Koa’s crazy ass. He was always dipping in and out, so I never knew when he was going to be home. He was close to Bruce, anyhow, and therefore, he often ended up spending a lot of his time at Bruce and Justine’s place.
My new landlord didn’t mind that we were always coming and going. Corey was pushing that white girl extra hard just so we wouldn’t break ourselves. Corey claimed he knew how to throw a party. He told me he’d take care of everything. I hadn’t seen much of him since the day he paid for the ballroom. He would be gone all day, but he always made sure he was in the house and in bed by midnight. I loved the way
he made me feel. He was different from my baby daddy. For a moment, I was worried I had made a bad decision, but now I realized I had not at all.
All Bobbie did was work. Nothing was good enough for him. I was decent enough only to make our little sweethearts for him. That was it. He had never told me he loved me. Bobbie had always played around and had taken his verbal abuse too far at times. Corey was so different. He was the best thing that had ever happened to me. He treated me like a queen, and I deserved that. I deserved him. I was worthy of every little thing he had to offer.
The night before the party, Corey arrived home shortly after I got off of work. He was sitting on the couch when I came out of the bathroom. I had just gotten out of the shower and was surprised to see him home so early.
“Ran out of dope,” he said before I could ask anything. He was flipping aimlessly through the channels on the TV.
I dried my hair off with a towel and let my thick curls fall loosely around my neck. I checked around the house to see if Drew was home. No sign of my brother anywhere. I walked into the kitchen and cooked us both a hamburger real quick.
When I was done, I gave Corey a plate with a burger resting on it, accompanied by a tall glass of iced sweet tea. Without any questions, he took the plate and ate. When he was finished, I took his plate back and put it in the sink. I stood in the kitchen and wolfed the rest of my food down. I washed both plates off. Afterward, I sat down next to him. Corey had a small box sitting on his lap.
I gazed up at him. “What’s that, babe?” I pointed at the box.
He opened it, and without a word, he slipped a single diamond ring on my finger. “I’m going to marry you on Monday.”
I looked down at my ring and back up at him. I felt like a giddy little schoolgirl who had just learned her crush liked her too. I kissed my soon-to-be husband.
“Why so soon?” I asked softly.
“’Cause you’re a good gal. You don’t deserve to be kept from your kids right now. Somebody hated on us. I feel bad because you having to go through this bullshit. At the same time, though, I wouldn’t want to go through this with anybody else but you.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I love you and only you. I love you so much, Corey!”
He kissed me, and when he finally released me, he said to me, “A lot of people might be mad because I’m with you. Fuck them. You are all I want.”
That brought great comfort to my heart. A huge part of me felt like marrying on Monday meant moving rather fast. Not only that, but I was dreaming of a huge wedding. His date for our marriage did not give me enough time to pull a large affair together. As if he had read my mind, he gave me the answer I needed.
“We will have a real wedding later. Bonnie and Clyde style.”
* * *
The next day, Friday, dawned, and I could barely contain my excitement. My engagement party was that night. My boss had allowed me to have that day and Saturday off. Majesta, Justine, and I were going to take the Chevy Avalanche to Dallas to get our outfits. Corey was going to keep the Kia.
We headed to South Dallas to get our outfits from JT’s. The trip didn’t take as long as we had expected it would. When we got back to Abilene, I made it a point to stop by and see my kids at my grandma’s. Of course, she was on one. She was mad I hadn’t come by since Tuesday to see them. I assured her I’d be there tomorrow evening to take them home.
When we arrived at my house, Drew, Bruce, Corey, Meaty, and Kid were there, getting ready. Meaty was the big homie from the neighborhood. He had just got out of prison two days ago. His face resembled a pit bull’s, and he was tall and huge. He was a big ole teddy bear, but when it was time to fight, that nigga was in the middle of everything. He loved fighting and loved knocking people out.
Kid was Meaty’s protégé. Whatever Meaty did, Kid was right there. I knew for sure that when Meaty did his three-year sentence, Kid kept it one hundred and looked after Meaty’s two daughters and kept money on his books. Kid was a dope boy, but he took the big homie’s advice and went legit. He got himself a job at Walmart and worked there the entire time Meaty was locked up. They both wanted to come and give me their blessings before the party.
Drew was making everybody a shot, and Bruce was rolling up two sweets when we walked in.
“Y’all, don’t get too fucked up before the party,” I joked.
Majesta, Justine, and I gathered in my bedroom to get ready. Justine hopped in the shower first. While she was taking her shower, Majesta flatironed my hair for me. When Justine came out, I hopped in the shower, making sure not to get my hair wet. When I was done, Majesta went in. I had gotten a badass True Religion outfit to go with the yellow pumps I had bought a while ago. My outfit was going to go well with Corey’s Gucci outfit, the one he had been talking about wearing for our party. When I came out of the bedroom, I heard a whistle from Kid.
“Look at my baby,” Corey said as he took my hand and spun me around.
We all chilled around the house, smoking and drinking until it was time for us to leave for the Royal Inn. While we were on the road, Naomi called to let us know she was thirty minutes away. She was bringing her new boyfriend along for us to meet.
That night was a blur to me. The ballroom was spectacular. Corey never left my side, and we were both fucked up. All of his homies showed up. My friends and family showed up as well. One of my cousins had gotten us an engagement cake. That was all gone within a matter of minutes. Then everybody crowded around to see my new ring. Corey was proud to show off his soon-to-be wife. That night was incredible.
Toward the end of the night, right when we were slowly getting ready to split, Corey got a call on his phone. I knew it was about money, because I saw Young Soljah hand over some issue to Corey.
“Say, baby, you gonna have to drive,” Corey said to me. “I’m lit up. Plus, we gotta hit this lick real quick. They talkin’ money, baby.”
“Where to?” I asked as we headed outside.
I hopped into the driver’s side of the car. He got in the passenger’s side. I was messed up, but I felt like I could still operate a car.
“They gonna meet us at the cleaners on Dansville.”
I headed in that direction. Corey was separating the dope up and turned up the volume on the stereo. The speakers were blaring out slam jams. I started singing to Alicia Key’s “Doesn’t Mean Anything.”
When I finally got there, Corey motioned for me to get out of the car. We both got out and walked over to a Dodge Challenger. The client was waiting on us. A person I didn’t recognize was sitting on the passenger side, but I didn’t care too much. I was faded. Corey had me take the money from the dope fiend. I took the money and stumbled back to our car. Corey gave him the dope and followed close behind me. After we got into our car, I started to drive off. Not even halfway down the street, I heard sirens.
“Keep going,” Corey ordered.
I rolled my eyes at his drunken request. “Naw, babe. Let me pull over. We too fucked up right now,” I said. I pulled over to let the police go by, but to my surprise, the cops pulled up right behind me.
“Put your seat belt on,” Corey demanded, and before I could even grab mine, my door came flying open.
“Get out the car now!” one of the cops yelled.
I raised my hands up and hopped out of the car. This same cop slammed me up against the car and read me my rights while the other officer handcuffed me. I saw a man in plain clothes drag Corey out of the car. He was lying on the ground facedown.
“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted at the plainclothes officer.
“Have you been drinking?” asked the second cop, the one who had handcuffed me.
“Blow on this!” the first officer barked at me, then shoved a Breathalyzer in my face.
As I half blew on it, I looked over at Corey, and my heart sank. One of the officers had found the drugs. The plainclothes guy began to search our car. When I was done blowing, the first officer told the second officer that I was way ove
r the legal limit.
“What you want, man?” I asked. “I’m confused as hell!”
The plainclothes officer came out of the car, holding my driver’s license. “Well, well, well, Tenosha Rivers,” he said as he stood in my face. “You are under arrest for possession and manufacturing, and for driving while under the influence. . . .”
His voice trailed off, as I had blocked him out. I was in shock. Corey and I had just got busted for selling drugs. Therefore, I was right: they really had been watching us. My heart sank some more. I looked back to find Corey. They had loaded him into the police car. He was looking right at me.
“Ms. Rivers, are you not going to respond to me?” the plainclothes officer asked me.
I looked back at him with so much anger within me. Rage filled my drunken body. I slurred at the man, “Fuck you!”
“Get her in the car!” he ordered.
As they dragged me to the car behind the one Corey was in, my eyes locked with Corey’s for a minute. As they threw me into the car and slammed the door behind me, I realized what was going on.
Those bitches were really taking me to jail.
Chapter 35
When I got to the jail, they took me in a different way than they did my boyfriend. They fingerprinted me, took my mug shot, and then they started my booking process. Since it was already after midnight, they told me they were going to put me in a holding cell until I could see the judge the next morning. I asked for my one phone call. After waiting almost an hour, I was finally permitted to make my call.
“Hello?” I heard a sleepy voice answer.
“Justine!” I cried out. I choked out what had happened to me.
“Where the hell is Corey at?” Her sleepy voice sounded not so sleepy anymore.