by Miasha
“All right,” I said. “I’ll see you later.”
I kissed Tariq on his cheek once more and slipped back into the crowd. I made it my business to go all the way to the other side of the building before I started hollerin’ at dudes. I didn’t want Tariq to see me in action. Shit, I didn’t need to give him any excuses to stop paying my house off. Tina and I walked up on these fly dudes. It was three of them. One had on a throwback, some jeans, and some sneaks and a hat that matched the jersey. The second one had on a baby blue mink, a baby blue and white Sean John sweatshirt, some dark blue jeans, and some baby blue, dark blue, and white sneaks. The third one had on a tan long-sleeve T with a picture of Bob Marley on the front, some jeans, and some Tims. His accessories brought out his outfit-an iced-out Breitling, a platinum chain with an icy L, and a pair of studs that had to be at least two carats each.
Throwback was light brown with big hazel eyes that locked on mine and followed my every move. Tina was on Baby Blue Mink, who was dark-skinned and stocky. Iceman was caramel-colored with dimples. I was on him too. I wouldn’t have minded having him and Throwback.
Tina and me stopped in the flow of traffic and walked over to the side to introduce ourselves.
“You might as well put my number in there while you at it,” Tina told the guy with the blue mink on as he was pressing buttons on his two-way sidekick.
“Oh, I’m two steps ahead of you, shawty. What it is?” Blue Mink asked with a heavy southern accent.
Tina recited her cell number. Meanwhile, I started talking to Throwback. We first exchanged names and numbers. Then we had a brief conversation about my outfit and how good I looked in it. After a couple laughs and flirtatious comments, we parted ways. We couldn’t be standing around with niggas for too long because there were too many more ballers that we wanted to get acquainted with.
From what we saw when we weren’t in the hall, the game was pretty good. We had courtside seats too, so that made it even better. We got to see all those fine-ass athletes up close and personal. Kobe Bryant did his thing, despite the crowd’s boos. And A.I. put on a good show too. But I must say, I was more excited to see Michael Jordan play. In his whole career I had not seen him play. It took for him to come out of retirement and be in an All-Star game for me to see him live. But I’m glad I finally got the chance. After the game ended and the MVPs were announced, people flooded the halls once again. Tina and me took our time getting to the exit because we wanted as many people to see us as possible, especially outside when we stepped into the Hummer. Girls were dressed in tight miniskirts and see-through shirts, freezing their asses off for attention, and were pissed off when niggas looked past them to see who the two pretty bitches were gettin’ into the Hummer. Tina and me were crackin’ up. We had the driver turn the radio up real loud, and we had the windows down. We were sipping on Cristal, nasty and all just to see the look on bitches’ faces. Niggas were walking up to the window tryin’ to holla, some were just staring, and others would just shout compliments to us. Overall, we stole the let-out. As you know, the let-out is just as important if not more than the game. It is when you truly see how people are holdin’. Because they can have on all the jewelry in the world, but if their wheels ain’t right, then they really ain’t doin’ it.
While we were making our way out of the parking lot, my cell phone rang. It was a Georgia number. It wasn’t surprising that I got a call from Throwback so quick, being as though him and his squad were from Atlanta and probably would be headed back home the next day. Like most out-of-towners, they were basically lookin’ to get some before they left.
“What’s crackin’, sexy?” Throwback asked me with his heavy southern accent.
“Who is this?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Damien.”
“Oh, Throwback, Blue Mink, and Iceman from Atlanta. What’s up?”
He chuckled. “Damn, you on ya job, ain’t you?”
“Basically,” I replied.
“Well, don’t worry, shawty, ’cause me and my boys ain’t finnin’ to rape nobody so you won’t be needin’ to give up no descriptions, ya heard.”
“Oh, that’s the least of my worries, trust me. Besides, those descriptions are for my records, not for no cops,” I said.
He chuckled again and said, “You cute as you wanna be, you know that? I’m feelin’ ya style, though.”
Then he popped the question. “What are yall gettin’ into tonight?”
“That all depends on what yall are gettin’ into.”
“Hopefully yall,” he said, being honest.
I was horny just talking to Damien, and Atlanta was long ways from Philly, so a one-night stand wouldn’t have hurt.
“If yall can find yall way to my house, then it’s a bet,” I said flirtatiously.
“Give me the address,” he replied.
The Three Moneyketeers, a nickname Tina came up with, found their way to my house. Tina and me had been waiting patiently. If we had pussies they would have been wet as shit when they pulled up in a platinum CLK 430 with twenty inches of chrome spinners. Got damn, I thought. Any plans of getting with Tariq that night just flew out the window.
Tina took Blue Mink and Iceman in one bedroom, and I had Throwback all to myself in my bedroom. Tina was great at what she did. She could easily handle two men without them getting the least bit suspicious about anything. She would say something like, “I like fucking with my skirt on” or “The only way in is through my ass.” Guys would just take her for being kinky and go along with her, and it worked. Me, on the other hand, I had a hard enough time trying to do one dude without him seeing or touching something he would regret.
Throwback was thrilled at my panties with the back cut out. He was even more thrilled that I had been willing to let him ass-fuck me the first time around. He was aggressive too. I had to make him stop a couple times. In bed he was opposite his subtle and sweet looks. He was like a raging bull. I guessed that was how he stayed so skinny. From that night on, the nickname Throwback stuck with Damien for more than one reason.
March
March found me back in business. Tariq was still playing his part, even though our time together was more limited than ever before because I had been traveling a lot more pursuing my various long-distance relationships. O had been keeping tabs on me after he realized he wasn’t the only cute motherfucker with cash. He had started spending more money on me, especially since he came up on a promotion. His opponent, the only other big-time dude in Delaware, had been killed, so O took over the whole state. Shawn was my getaway dude. Whenever I wanted to bounce, I called him and he would invite me on the road with him. He had been busy boxing, making money, and trying to be a champ. In the meantime, though, he sent me a credit card with a nice limit on it, and he made sure I never saw a bill. Throwback was my chat line buddy. We used up a hell of a lot of night and weekend minutes feeling each other out. We had become interested in each other on a different level than physical attraction. We liked each other’s conversation.
Things were looking up for Tina and me. She had the boxer Chris, the Puerto Rican hustler Jahuan, and she never did let go of white Derrek. They were all lacing her up.
I had just got back from New York from visiting Shawn. I hadn’t seen O in a week, and he had been blowing up my phone. I decided to get with him to keep him from trippin’ out on me. He had become so possessive.
He came to my house instead of me taking the trip to Delaware. That was a hell of a day. O looked good as usual. He had on an Enyce sweat suit and a fresh pair of Air Force Ones. I knew he wanted sex off the bat. I could see it in his eyes. Plus, lately that’s all he had been coming around for.
We sat on the couch, and he put in a DVD that he brought from home. It was a porno. At first I wanted to tell him to take it out and go the hell home. I was really losing feelings for him. And even though I knew that getting used was part of the game for both him and me, I was beginning to hate it. I mean, all the other guys I dealt wi
th treated me with a little respect. They didn’t just want sex. Tariq and I actually had romance in our relationship. And O used to be like that, but he been on some other shit for a while then and I had been getting bored with it. The only reason I didn’t cut him off right then and there was because he was still paying the note on that Range Rover I had sitting outside. Needless to say, I watched the porno with him and kept my mouth shut.
“Take off your clothes,” O demanded.
He was taking control again.
“Take off your clothes!”
I started unbuttoning my blouse slowly. O must have been impatient because he ripped my blouse off before I got to the third button. I didn’t know whether to be scared or what, but I stayed cool. He started kissing on my breasts. I had my hands on his arms to keep him from touching the wrong places. He was kissing me so hard and I was trying to keep up. Then he managed to get one of his hands free and he quickly grabbed between my legs. I jumped up.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I can’t,” I said, holding my blouse together. “I have a yeast infection,” I blurted out in embarrassment. I couldn’t think of anything else.
He reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me closer to him.
“Enough is enough,” he began. “Look, Celess, you remember me telling you about that time I spent locked up?” he asked, trying to feel between my legs again.
“Yeah, you made your mistakes, so what?” I said, still trying to keep his hands from roaming, not catching his meaning.
“So, it’s okay. I knew what you was about from the beginning. But I’m into that,” he whispered.
I stood frozen, nervous, and scared for my life. O had my dick in his hand and started stroking.
I couldn’t even get into it because of how shocked I was. O was fucking gay. That was some shit. All I could think about was wait till I tell Tina.
“AAARRRHHH!” Tina screamed in the phone.
“Tina, I could not believe it. I couldn’t even cum I was so appalled,” I said.
“So all this time he was hip to it?”
“That’s what he said.”
“That’s a damn shame. Can you imagine how many girls he’s fuckin’ that don’t have a clue that he likes dick?” Tina said.
“I know,” I said.
I must admit finding out about O did take a load off of me. That meant I was able to be myself around him. We started taking showers together and having more sex than ever before. Our feelings for each other grew stronger. And the money he was giving me doubled. I think subconsciously he was paying me to keep my mouth shut. But that was just fine with me because I needed him to keep his mouth shut too. Our relationship changed dramatically, though. We had gotten to the point where we said “I love you” every time we spoke. I was even considering being exclusive with him, which meant I wouldn’t have had to worry about a nigga finding out about me and killing me, because it was surely getting difficult to keep my secret.
I found myself going to extreme measures to keep Tariq, Shawn, and Throwback from finding out. I actually told Shawn that I thought I was pregnant. I faked him out for a month, telling him that my period was late and shit. Tina said I should have kept him going for a little while longer and got abortion money out of his ass.
Throwback was easy to string along because he was so far away. All of our time together was spent on the phone. But it was Tariq who had become a problem. He kept pressuring me to commit to him. He wanted a more serious relationship. I wasn’t up for one of those with him, because that would have made my secret even more difficult to hide. So I brushed him off. We been on and off for some time because of that. I didn’t mind, though, as long as my mortgage was still being paid.
“What? What do you mean, you haven’t received payment for the month of March yet?”
“Ma’am, it shows here that you paid for the month of February but not yet for the month of March and the due date was March first. It is now March twenty-ninth, so you’re going into the month of April delinquent, which means that you’ll owe two months on April first,” the woman on the other end of the phone explained.
“Well, have I ever been late before, I mean, what is the penalty? Is there a late fee?” I asked, totally confused.
“Ma’am, are you the person responsible for paying this mortgage?”
“No. That’s why I’m confused.”
“Well, maybe you should contact the person who is responsible for making these payments and have them send March’s payment along with April’s.”
“Okay.” I ended the conversation.
I was pissed. I called Tariq.
“What’s up?” he asked nonchalantly.
“I just got a phone call from the mortgage company. Apparently you didn’t pay for March yet.”
“The last time we talked, you told me that you weren’t ready for a commitment,” he said.
“Yeah, and?” I asked, frustrated.
“Yeah, and neither am I,” he responded.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I’m not committing myself to nobody’s mortgage who can’t commit herself to me,” he said.
“You know what, Tariq, that’s low. You could have called me and let me know that you were going to stop paying my fuckin’ mortgage. I mean, you was paying it all this time and I wasn’t committed to you.”
“Well, maybe I was trying to get you to commit,” he said, still sounding calm.
“Okay, but when we spoke a thousand times after I told you that I was cool, why didn’t you tell me that you weren’t going to pay my mortgage? If that lady wouldn’t have called me I probably would have wound up owing a chunk of change, and what if they would have put my ass out or something! That was real corny of you! Shit! I can pay my own fucking bills. Just like I had you paying my shit, I’ll have another one of my niggas picking up where you left off! Faggot!” I shouted right before I hung up the phone.
I knew I went too far, but I was upset. He could have had the decency to call me and tell me to start paying my own shit. Now I had to come up with $4,500 in three days.
“Tina, I need a favor,” I said, still sounding pissed.
“What’s the matter?” Tina asked, concerned.
“Fuckin’ Tariq didn’t pay my mortgage for March,” I told her.
“Well, call his ass up and tell him about his self,” she said.
“I did. He’s not fuckin’ with me no more, so…”
“He still trippin’ over that commitment bullshit?”
“Basically, but I need forty-five hundred dollars by the first.”
“Come get it tonight. I’ll be back in Philly by like nine,” she said.
“Thank you, girl,” I said, relieved.
Tina was in New York with Chris the boxer. She had been spending more time with him lately. Jahuan had been put on the back burner. Tina hadn’t even been going out with me much anymore. She was getting money, though. Chris was taking care of her and white Derrek was still sending her an allowance every week. Plus she still lived at home with her grandmom, so she didn’t have any bills like that. Me, on the other hand, I had to spend a lot of the money I was getting from Shawn on my bills and the money from O on myself, so I really didn’t have money to stash. But I knew Tina would have my back if I ever needed anything.
I went to Tina’s row house on Delancey Street that night. Tina had just got back from New York. She led me to her room in the basement of the house. She dug through her pile of pocketbooks and picked up a Dooney and Bourke duffel bag. She scrimmaged through the bag and pulled out a handful of balled-up money. I sat on the edge of her queen-sized bed and watched her unfold the money one bill at a time. She counted $4,000 in fifties and hundreds and then reached back into the duffel and counted out another $500.
“Why do you have your money balled up like that?” I asked.
Tina had a malicious smile on her face and said, “Girl, I stole this.”
“From where?” I ask
ed.
“Chris,” she said, as if I should have known.
“You crazy! Why didn’t you just ask him for it?”
“’Cause he’s overdue already. I been accepting IOUs for the longest. He stingy as hell, always talking about he don’t have no money.”
“He gonna kick your ass when he find out.” I joked.
“Despite his career, Chris is a lover, not a fighter. Plus, I’ll put it back,” she said with confidence.
I was with O when I got an emergency phone call from Tina. It was just two days after she lent me the $4,500. She sounded breathless and it was hard to hear her, but I made out that she was at Methodist’s emergency room.
“O, I gotta bounce,” I said.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I don’t know, my girl is at the hospital and I have to get there,” I said frantically.
“The wrong nigga probably found out what was really under her skirt.” O couldn’t think of anything better to say.
I was heated. “O, you lucky you high ’cause I would fuck you up right now,” I said to him.
“What?” he asked, as if he had no idea what I was pissed for.
“That was some fucked-up shit to say,” I told him.
O dropped me off at the hospital. They had just got Tina settled in a room. I was allowed to go back. When I walked in that room I didn’t know what to do. Tina’s face was three times the normal size. She was bruised badly. I threw my palms over my face and ran over to her.
“Oh, my God, Tina, who did this to you?”
Tina could hardly open her mouth to speak. Her top lip was so big it completely overlapped her bottom one. I held her head in my arms and tried to keep from crying.
“Over a couple dollars,” she mumbled.
I know this may sound crazy, but I was relieved when Tina said that. It would have scared the shit out of me if this had been about one of her dudes finding out about her like O had suggested.
Tina stayed in the hospital for two days until the swelling went down. The police asked her if she wanted to press charges, but she said no. Her exact words were, “And get killed next time? Please.” I took her to my house. She didn’t want to go home. She was scared Chris would be there waiting for her. She stayed with me for about a week.